MBA938 Must Read: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

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Today's Must Read is Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. Yes, the Boss. If you ever thought the odds were against you, if you don't have any advantages in life or in business, or you feel like things are just so hard for you, Bruce Springsteen's autobiography is going to make you feel a whole lot better about your situation. Yes, he's a musician and a performer, but boy does he know how to handle his business. In today's Must Read, I'm going to show you how Bruce Springsteen made the most with the very little that he had to be successful. His advice to those who are starting out in any field of creativity or business and how reading this book is going to change your perspective on how you feel about adversity in your business. There's so much to cover. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. If you've noticed from the past must read episodes, I've been reading a lot of autobiographies and not necessarily from big time business people. Comedians, performers, musicians, and for good reason. Because they are business people. They are building their own brand, they're building own product. They have to market themselves. They have to go through the same struggles we do. And I love reading people's stories that are successful despite adversity. And success leaves clues. So if you see somebody who's successful, find out their story, find out how they became successful. It's going to save you a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of headaches. Now, I am a fan of Bruce Springsteen. I like his music. I think that his lyrics are really meaningful. But I had a whole newfound respect for Bruce Springsteen after reading his autobiography, Born to Run. If I told you that Bruce Springsteen came from nothing, that would be a huge understatement. He came from a very, very poor family in South New Jersey, very blue collar neighborhood, didn't have any advantages, didn't have any money growing up. In fact, everything he's known for, he taught himself. He taught himself how to play the guitar, he taught himself how to sing, he taught himself how to write lyrics. No lessons, no nothing, Just pure will. And the interesting thing about this book is that you learn throughout his career, from doing small gigs in his neighboring town to selling out stadiums, Bruce Springsteen is aware of these disadvantages. And that's why he works so hard. He's fully aware that he's not the best singer in the world or the best talent in the world. He's not blessed with amazing vocal cords and that's why he works so hard to make the best out of what he has. This is somebody that knows how to really grind, really knows how to hustle. So I want to share with you the major takeaways from this book. Born to Run is not a short book. It's one of the longer autobiographies I've ever read. I highly recommend you pick it up on Audible because he does the narration of the audiobook. It's fantastic. And it's a good autobiography to listen to on Audible because you can get through it a lot quicker. You can get it for free. With our free trial, you get two free books. Just go to 100mba.net audible all right, takeaway number one. You can't change what you're given you gotta make the most of it. So Bruce Springsteen came from a very poor family. His father was abusive. He didn't have the most encouraging family in the world. They had their own issues, their own problems. They're trying to put food on the table. They thought he was wasting his time with this music stuff. Why don't you just get a job? But from a very young age, Bruce realized, I can't change my family, I can't change my neighborhood. I can't change the people around me. Not for the moment, at least. You know, I'm too young to move out of my house. I need to make the most of it. He used it as a motivation. He used it as fuel. The disadvantage in his life was his fuel to do better. He'd lock himself in the bedroom and practice his guitar over and over and over. He'd practice his dance moves in his bedroom, his knees practically knocking because he was so cold. Some winters, they couldn't afford the heat in the house. But it's that mindset that he had. He's like, listen, I'm not going to change the things around me. I'm not going to change the condition I'm in. All I can do is change the way I react to it. And he saw music and performing as an outlet, as an escape of his own situation. When he was younger, he really didn't fit in with other kids in school. But again, he used it as motivation to get better at what he does so he can become something that they would envy one day. And, boy, I'm pretty sure they're envious of Bruce Springsteen now. So takeaway number one is that Bruce knew from the start, I have some challenges. I have some things I can't change. It's not in my hands to change right now, but I gotta make the most of it. I gotta use it as fuel. I gotta use it as motivation. So if you're in your life right now, in your business, where you're in a rut, where you're in a situation where you just don't have an easy out, you just have to ride it through for the moment. You gotta use that pain as motivation. One of my favorite quotes or teachings from Jim Rohn is that often people are not successful because they don't have enough reasons. You have to have reasons to be successful, reasons, the whys, why you want to be successful. It could be something as simple as, I want to have a better quality of life, or I don't want to have, you know, pennies in my pocket like Jim Rohn says, or something more significant like I want to make a difference in the world, whatever it is, you have to have reasons to be successful. And those pain points that Bruce Springsteen went through are his reasons. I don't want to feel like this anymore. I want to feel powerful. And he felt powerful when, when he was performing on stage. All right, takeaway number two. Bruce Springsteen was a savant, really, when it comes to music, dance, really. He was a great dancer. Still is, actually. We see him perform live and songwriting. So he was a student of all types of music. And even though he lived in a segregated town where the Italians hung out with the Italians and the African Americans hung out with the African Americans, he crossed lines because he wanted to learn how other cultures, other types of people really see music and see songwriting and see dancing. He wasn't too proud to learn from other people. He tried to mix as much as possible so he can really grab the best of everybody's talents. So even though he was in rock and roll, he really studied a lot of people that were in Motown, blues, jazz, pop, soul. He really was a student of music. And I believe it's one of the reasons why his songs are so timeless. He borrows from all these different genres to try to create his own kind of flavor, his own kind of brand. So he wasn't arrogant and said, no, I'm just gonna do it my way. He learned from the best to try to be the best. And you should do the same in your business, in your genre, in your marketplace. Who's marketing in a way that you find interesting? Who's creating innovative products? Who's really pushing the envelope in innovation in your area? Take a look, learn from them, See what you can do, take away and adopt in your own business. I really believe that Apple does a great job advertising their new products in a short video in a short amount of time. In less than 15 seconds, you learn so much about the new AirPods or the new iPhone, and it's exciting and it's motivating. How do they do that? I try to reverse engineer, dissect it. And that's just one example. What can you do in your business? What can you find out in your genre that can really add more value to your products, your service, your marketing? The next takeaway. Bruce Springsteen realized early on that he's different. He's not like other people. He came from very humble beginnings and not a lot of the big time, award winning, record breaking musicians came from the same place he came from. So he didn't try to be something he wasn't. He just really doubled down on being authentic, on being himself. Many of the songs that he has or has written are all about his life. Growing up in a small town, in a blue collar town with working class people. And even though that's not bling bling and very attractive, it's real and people resonate with it because, hey, a lot of people live like that and they felt like, this guy gets me by just being himself. He resonated with people that are a lot like him. On top of that, he said, it was a lot less effort to be something than I am versus something that I'm not. Being yourself is a lot easier in the long run. Maybe at the start there's a little bit of butterflies, a little bit of, you know, self consciousness, but in the long run, it's a whole lot easier just to be yourself rather than trying to be something that you're not. Trying to appease people, trying to figure out what they want to hear and, you know, try to become that. So I was really astonished how wise he was from a young age to recognize, hey, I just got to be myself. I'm just going to do what I know. This is what I'm good at. This is where I'm from. I'm not going to be ashamed of the fact that I came from this other side of the tracks kind of town. Super huge takeaway for me in that book. The next takeaway is that Bruce Springsteen is really good with money. Bruce saw a lot of his friends in the industry being rock and roll artists, you know, getting mixed up with drugs and alcohol and really losing a lot of money along the way, spending it in a way that's just not smart. Now, like I said at the top of the episode, Bruce recognized the fact that, hey, I'm not the most talented person out here. There's so many people that are producing albums that are so much more gifted than I am. He felt so lucky to have any kind of success and make any kind of money doing what he loved. And he was terrified to lose it all. He was terrified. That's why he never got mixed up in drugs. And he mentions he rarely drinks because he just doesn't want to risk it. He's just so terrified of being poor and going back to how he grew up. But at the same time, he's also a very, very smart spender. He doesn't spend his money on things that he just feels has no value. The house he lives in is a very modest house. It's A nice house, but it's not a mansion. He doesn't have tons of fancy cars. He doesn't dress in designer clothing. He's just really, really conservative when it comes to his money, even though he's obviously a millionaire and he's had so much success with his career that he should not worry for the rest of his life. But he's on guard. He's like, no, I don't want to be poor. He realizes that money can burn really quickly, sees a lot of his friends just kind of burn through money for him. He's like, no, that's not going to be me. Even though he doesn't spend lots of money on drugs and alcohol, he also is very cautious of his health. And this is something really that resonated with me, somebody who's really aware of the fact that, hey, I'm a performer. I need to make sure that my body is in great shape, that I exercise, that I eat right, that I don't treat my body horribly. He had a little bit of a scare when it came to his health that he recovered from very quickly. But in that period, he was like, what am I going to do? This is how I make my money. This is how I feed my family. I have to be in good health. So he makes health a priority, which is very, very important for all of us. As entrepreneurs, you have to remember that if you are not healthy, if you cannot perform, your business is going to suffer. You need to make sure that you are healthy. You are the leader of the company. And when I say healthy, I'm talking about not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually feeling good about what you do in life. I saw Bruce Springsteen perform live last year. He was 67 years old at the time, and he was in incredible shape. I mean, I think he's probably in better shape than I am, and I'm half his age. But it's very apparent when you see him live that he really takes care of himself. Crowd surfed, for crying out loud, at 67. That all goes back to the fact that I think the summary or the biggest takeaway of all from the book was he doesn't take anything for granted. He doesn't just say, hey, of course I have a body. Of course I'm able. You know, everybody's like that. No, he doesn't take it for granted. He. He doesn't take his opportunities for granted. He doesn't take for granted that he lives in America. He says, hey, I live in America. I came from nothing, and I was able to become one of the most successful recording artists. And when he says America, he's talking about any kind of, you know, first world country or country that is safe. And even if you're not living in a first world country, the opportunities are endless. And there's so many examples of people coming from difficult situations in difficult countries and becoming successful. But the point is not to take anything for granted. Everything you have, every breath you have, is, is an opportunity. This book really touched me emotionally in so many ways that really surprised me.

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To wrap up today's must read episode, I was super surprised how emotionally intelligent Bruce Springsteen is. This book really shaped my perspective on how to deal with adversity and how to be successful despite all that adversity. Again, I listened to this book as an audiobook and every time I listened to it, it kind of gave me this emotional energy. You feel like throughout his life, he just looks forward, he keeps pushing forward. He doesn't dwell on, oh, this is so hard, or why me? This is not fair. He doesn't do that at all. He just focuses on what he can control and he just keeps trying his best. And, and that's all you can do. And that's a great motivator. And this is a great reminder, when you start your day as an entrepreneur, you just gotta get up in the morning and tell yourself, I just gotta try my best. That's all that's up to me. That's all I can do, is just try my best, do my best, and I just gotta leave the chips on the table. I can't really worry about anything else. You don't have control over anything else. And he stayed consistent, he stayed hardworking, and at the end, obviously, he was hugely successful. And still is. Well, there you have it. There's my must read. Highly recommend you pick up this book, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen. Great, great book on how to deal with adversity. And speaking of adversity, sometimes you're gonna have adversity in your business when it comes to your customers. Or sometimes you're gonna get customers that are not the best people in the world. They can get under your skin. They can really drive you up the wall if you let them. And this is what tomorrow's episode's all about. How to deal with. With evil customers. I know. I said it. Evil customers, yes. There are people out there that are not really looking to make you feel good. Right. They're out to make you feel bad. There's haters out there. There's people out there that are just going to be downright nasty. How do you deal with them? It's a little bit of a tough situation because they're a customer of yours. That's what we talk about in tomorrow's episode. So make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss that. It gets downloaded automatically to your device. That's it for me today, guys. But before I go, I. I want to leave you with this. One of the joys of going through an autobiography or a biography of any kind is realizing how short life really is. When you see somebody's life kind of displayed in front of you or most of their life displayed in front of you, you realize, wow, time is precious. Time rolls by very quickly. What have I done for myself if I wrote my own biography? How would this biography look? Would it be a short biography because I haven't accomplished much or I really haven't added much meaning to the world? Would it be a positive book? Would it be a negative book? It really makes me reflect on my own life. What am I doing and what am I leaving behind? One of my favorite things about reading biographies. So try to pick up this book or any of the biographies that I cover in our must read episodes. All right, I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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