MBA2218 Must Read: Monsters and How to Tame Them by Kevin Hart

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Today's must read is Monsters and How to Tame Them by Kevin Hart. If you're a longtime listener of the show, you know that I'm actually a big fan of Kevin Hart's books. Yeah, I'm talking about Kevin Hart the comedian. He's actually a darn good personal development writer and his latest book, Monsters and How to Tame Them is an Audible exclusive and he does all the voiceover work for his books so you know it's entertaining. But this book is not a must read because it's fun to listen to or that it's a good time. It's a must read because it's actually really useful and can help you and your journey. As a Professional, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, if you don't know. Kevin Hart recently had a major car accident, one that only almost took his life. He was in hospital for weeks, recovering from a major back injury. Somehow he made a full recovery, but in the process, he gained some insights about life and the internal monsters that bully us around every single day. Practically on his deathbed, he takes notes on the wisdom he's gained from that experience and shares it with us. But of course you might be thinking this is kind of depressing. No, of course it's Kevin Hart. So he keeps it light, he keeps it informative, but he keeps it real. So in today's must read, I'm going to share with you my favorite takeaways, my favorite insights from this book and why you should read it too. You'll be pretty surprised by some of the things I share today. I sure was surprised when I consumed this book. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Most people know Kevin Hart as the blockbuster movie star and standup comedian. What many people don't know is he's actually a pretty big business person. He has multiple businesses, a production company, he's a producer, he's an entrepreneur, he's a philanthropist. So many things. And many of the insights he shares in this book helped him along the way, become a better entrepreneur. Because at the end of the day, a better self aware leader makes a better business. Now if you're wondering why is the title all about monsters and how to tame them? Well, he's talking about internal monsters, monsters that we battle every single day. In part one of the book, he goes through every single monster. He explains what their powers are, how they control you, and how you kind of sometimes forget they even exist. There's seven monsters in total and I'm going to list them quickly to you right now to give you some context. The Not Me monster. The Control monster. The Approval monster. The Me first monster. The Can't Go Backwards monster. The Comparison monster. The Do it all monster. When I was listening to this book, I was actually quite struck by the fact that I would know the title of the next monster and be like, you know, I don't know if this applies to me. I don't think I have this problem. And then he goes through the traits of this monster, examples of how it affected his life, and I start to realize maybe that monster actually is a part of my life. And to some degree, some monsters are more pervasive than others. But I'd be hard pressed to believe that everybody that listens to this book is not visited by one of these monsters at some point in their life. And of course, we're talking about things that live within us, deep within us. And some of these things will be cultivated through childhood, through experiences in life, maybe through a challenge you're going through right now. But the first thing I really appreciate about this book is that you become aware of. Of these monsters or really challenges of the self. For example, the control monster. Feeling like you need to do everything, you need to do it, because then it won't be perfect otherwise. As an entrepreneur, many of us are like this. We're leaders for a reason. We go first, but it bleeds into our personal life. We don't trust people to drive for us. We don't trust our partner in life to book the restaurant properly for our anniversary. We don't trust our teammates to do their job. Therefore, we're stressing out about everything in life. We don't know how to delegate. We don't know how to relax. And this often comes from some period in life. At some point, things were chaotic. It could be your childhood, maybe a parent was erratic or maybe a bit emotional, and you felt out of control. So therefore, as an adult, you want to be in control. And he breaks down all the possible reasons why this monster rears its head in your life all the time. And not just the control monster. Every single monster he goes through. One of my favorite chapters is the one where he explains the can't go backwards monster. And this is all about the sunk cost fallacy. A lot of us will dig our heels in business, particularly in an idea, in a direction, in a product or service or a complete business, because we just can't go backwards. We feel like I've spent so much time and money and effort on this idea and that it has to work, even though we have all the signs that it's time to move on. And this has a lot to do with the fact that we don't fully appreciate that not everything is in our control. Now, I'm not trying to be fatalistic here, but I'm saying that this is the truth of business. The market could dictate things. Your customers can dictate things. The economy, your suppliers, your vendors. There's so many things that require your business to run perfectly and to serve the market the way you want it to. It's only natural. There'll be some ebbs and flows and sometimes major change in direction. For example, if it was the 80s and you had a business selling fax machines if you didn't evolve and start selling something else and you just dug your heels. Because fax machines is what you spent all your life selling. And that's what you know you're asking for trouble. No one wants to buy fax machines now. Sometimes it's scary as an entrepreneur to shift gears, to change direction, to pivot, because we know a certain thing, we know a certain way of doing business, a certain way to make money, and you just want to stick to it. We worked so hard to get to that point where it's like, hey, can I just do this forever? And you feel like changing direction is like going backwards, like starting over. But guess what? Where you got today is because you started over, because you tried something new. It's because you took a risk. And that's what business is all about. It's about taking one step in front of the other, taking one leap, just like a frog does on a lily pad to a new lily pad, or swinging from vine to vine like Tarzan, letting go of the vine as you grab the next one. And sometimes in business and in life, you don't have a choice. You have to swing and jump and grab that next vine even while not holding on to any vines right now, hoping that you can grab that next vine and swing to safety. Business is risky. That's just how it is. Don't fight it. Use it to your advantage. And don't see it as going backwards. See it as a reinvention. See it as the next level in your entrepreneurial journey.

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In Kevin Hart's book Monsters and how to Tame Them, Part two and part three is all about how to deal with these monsters, how to hunt them down and train them to work in your favor. Kevin kind of equates us to a game like a challenge and concludes that this is life. This is the challenge of life, is being self aware, to know there are things that are part of our nature, part of who we are as human beings that we need to control, that we need to tame that, we need to be aware of and don't let it affect and influence us in a negative way. The alternative is just ignoring it and letting the monsters run wild. And you really don't get anywhere in life this way. One of my favorite things about this book is, is that it's talking about some pretty heavy stuff. We're talking about things that most people would go to therapy for. But it approaches it in a very pragmatic and very action oriented way. Meaning that Kevin's saying, hey, you have power over this. You can do this. I'll be honest with you, when I listened to this book, when I went through this book, it wasn't an easy experience. But as I continued to listen, I started to feel better and better about the problems that were presented to me and the solutions that are there at my disposal. Of course, Kevin, with his style, kept it light, kept it fun, kept it funny, really. And I laughed out loud more times than I can count. And I listen to most of my books while I'm at the gym, so it looks kind of silly. I'm like cracking up while I'm lifting weights. But hey, I enjoyed it. I really loved it. I found it very challenging too, because when you go through the book, when you go through all the monsters and the things that they do to you and affect your business, affect your life, affect who you are, it almost feels like a burden of, okay, I got to take care of this now. Another thing on my to do list, another thing I got to think about and work on. But Kevin reassures you and says, hey, just being aware of these monsters is a huge leap that most people don't even make. So just by the mere fact of listening to this book, you are going to be miles ahead of most people that struggle with these monsters. Because the thing about these monsters is that you are pretty much unaware that they're doing their work. They hide in plain sight. What Kevin's doing in this book is shining a light on them so that you can be aware, so you can be like, hey, is this the me first monster rearing its head right now in this situation? Am I dealing with a comparison monster right now? As I'm scrolling through social media? What about the Do it all monster? Am I trying to cram everything in one day and then I get disappointed when I don't get everything done? The biggest takeaway of all for me was that all of these things are in our head. These things are psychological ideas that control our mood, control how we feel, control our happiness. But we can have control over them. It's us. At the end of the day, these monsters are us. This means your quality of life can greatly improve because you're in control. These are not things that are happening to you. This is not an outside force. This is something that's happening within you. And that is the most empowering thing about this book, is that, hey, you can control this. You can change things around. You can tame the monsters. Thanks so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. Hope you enjoyed today's must read Monsters and How to Tame Them by Kevin Hart. I highly recommend you grab this one on Audible. It's only available on Audible. Again, Kevin does all the narration. It's fun, it's easy, it's enlightening. And I guarantee all these monsters he talks about and the things that you learn are things that are super applicable to you and your business every single, single day. If you love today's episode, if you love this show, the best way you can give back and support us is to leave us a rating and review. Whether you're on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, make sure you follow us and you give us a star rating. If you're on Apple Podcasts, leave us a national written review. Let us know what you think and you enter our weekly random draw we call Free Ride Friday to win a free ride to one of our programs. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. A lot of the must read books that I recommend on this podcast has to do with improving you. Improving yourself. Being the best version of yourself as possible. Why? Because if you're better, your business will be better. Because you are the leader. You're steering the ship. You'll make better decisions. You will make better choices, make better hires. Just be better. And that's going to be infectious on your team. Plus, you'll be better, meaning you'll enjoy the journey along the way. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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