The Hidden Pattern of History They Don't Want You to Know...

You want the history of the world in four sentences? Let me give it to you. Easy times make weak people. Weak people create bad times. Bad times create strong people. And strong people create what? Easy times. I'm telling you this because there's a book I'd encourage all of you to pick up. It's called the Fourth Turning. If you read this book, you will see there are patterns to history that have been going on. A thousand years of Roman history. Every 1800 years, every 20 years or so, we go through a pattern, and it's driven by the way we are raised generationally and where we are in history. Springtime is when everything's easy. Businesses grow, the economy's growing, everybody's happy, everybody's optimistic. Have there been times like that in your lifetime? Sure there were. Summertime is. It's hot, it's difficult, it's not working, and people are frustrated. Fall, it's all just happening. Stock markets go through the roof. Money's cheap, it's available anywhere. They'll loan it to you for nothing. And the winter is like now. We're like, what the hell? Inflation and contraction in the economy, and people are mad at each other and they can't talk about things. How many think we're in winter right now? How many think there's way more fear and frustration and anger than you'd probably like to have around you out there in yourself or other people? Yes, but your season doesn't have to be the same as everybody in your culture because. Because listen to me. Followers follow the culture. Leaders create their own culture. Here's the good news. No winter lasts forever. No pandemic lasts forever. No war lasts forever. Remind yourself that it might last longer than you want, but it lasts forever. What always follows winter, my friends? What? What spring? What always follows? The dark night of the soul. The sunshine of a brand new day. Each season brings opportunity. Each has different challenges. And if you can anticipate them, you don't have to react. You'll master it quicker. So I'll give you an example. I'll use my own country because I don't know all your individual histories, but I think American history on a general level, we've shared one thing. The last big winter. Imagine you were born in 1910, and remember, the first 20 years, or 21 years, is your springtime. So you were born in 1910. You'd be coming of age. And what happened during the time you were growing up? Well, we went through World War I, and most of the countries in the world got a chance to grow after that and won in America, they celebrated like crazy. New technology came out. Airplanes, radios, televisions, Mass change in technology, all at one time. And there seemed to be a great deal of abundance. It was fall. Stock markets were going crazy. Money was easy. The Roaring Twenties, some of you can remember, people were excited and young people were not respected because they had no responsibility. They'd been given everything. Seemingly, compared to the group that went through World War I, they were known as flappers. Those people grew up in all this abundance. And then what happened right when they're turning 21? If you were born in 1910, think about it. 1929, the entire world went upside down. The Depression. They were gonna have a car, they were gonna party. They were soft, their life was easy. And overnight, it became hard as could possibly be. People jumping out of buildings. If you lived in the Midwest of the United States, we had a dust bowl that killed all the crops and dirt and horrific. Now these people who are really weak, what do they have to become to survive? Tell me what strong. And just as they made it through 10 years of depression, right at the age they thought they were going to celebrate and have a good time, 21. Now we add another 10 years. It's 1939. And all of a sudden, none of you in this room are old enough to remember this, but we know our history. And certainly you remember here in the UK being bombed started with Hitler blitzkrieging all these countries. It literally looked like he was taking over the world. The Nazis and everybody was freaking out. It was the end times. It felt like people thought it was forever. The stock market went through the floor. We entered a total wintertime. And guess what? If the Depression was not bad enough, it got stacked with war. By the way, this is what happens in winter times. Historically, every time for 1000 years of Roman history and 500 years of Anglo American history, we will have some significant war before this winter ends that we're in now. And out of that, the world gets reshaped just like it did after World War II. They fought the war, they came back and won. And guess what? These people in the second stage of life, the soldier time of life, became incredibly strong. And they came home as heroes. And those heroes were celebrated in most countries of the world. They were honored in my country, gave them free houses with no money down, vet programs. And we had the 50s, which, depending if you remember them or not, seem to be a lot more optimistic and high because after winter, people are tired of it and they want a different life. And the mood changes. They want to be at war. They don't want to fight. They don't want to fight over social media, they don't want to fight over everything. They're sick of all the conflict and. And they shift to optimism and things grow again for another 15 or 20 years. Until in my country, right around the time John F. Kennedy was shot and the optimism disappeared from the culture and we entered the next season. Spring was over. We were in summer and summer. There's fights within the culture. Old and young people fight and you make it through that and it changes again. In fact, college students were asked this question for the last 50 years. They were asked this in the 60s and 70s, the 80s and 90s and today, which would be more important to experience either mastering the skills to be financially free or to master the internal skills that will make you happy. In the 60s and 70s, which were different than the 40s and 50s, how many think? Get a feel of what I mean in terms of the mindset where people were right, what do you think college students said? What's more important? The skills to make money or the philosophy of life to be happy? What do you think they said in the 60s and 70s? Which one philosophy to be happy? 82% in the 80s and 90s, were they anything like 2000s? Were there anything like the 60s and 70s? No. Everything was flash. It was Wall street. It's material girl. The whole world changes once again because it's fall again. And what happens in fall? Everything flows. The economics go through the roof. And when they ask the same students, guess what? 81% of them said the pragmatic skills to make money. If I own a business in winter, here's what you can know. The biggest companies on earth are called the Fortune 1000. There are four seasons. Financially, they could be born in. They could be born in an optimistic time where things just go. They could be born meaning get started in a tough summer. They could be born in a fall where things flowing or they could be born in winter where it seems impossible. Of the Fortune 1000, 62% were born in a winter means a recession or depression. There's no balance to it because when you do well in the tough times, you'll do well for the rest of your life. CNN was born in a recession. FedEx in a recession. Disney in a depression. Chevron in a depression. Netflix in a recession. IBM in a depression. Mobile in a depression. You do well during this time, you're set for life. Can we do well at this time, yes or no? I don't just mean, well in business. I mean fulfilled, happy, alive. Yes. But you got to master this world and this world before you try and just do that one. Otherwise, it's going to be very frustrating. So guess what? You don't have to wait for the season. You can take your season now if you make this happen. So how do we do this? Shake your body out. Here's how we do it. We've got to master, the number one skill of leadership. What is that skill? Influence. If you want to earn more, you need influence. If you want to be physically strong, you got to influence what you put in your mouth, your hands. If you want to have great kids, you got to have more influence than the person on the street corner. How many buy this? Say, I.