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[Music] Uh, so I have the absolute honor of introducing the author of the number one best-selling book, The Leader Who Had No Title. He is internationally respected as a leadership expert and has advised many of the best known companies in the world including Coca-Cola, Starbucks, GE, Nike, FedEx, Microsoft. Ladies and gentlemen, strap in and please welcome Mr. Robin Sharma. [Applause] [Music] [Applause]
I know that he's a man who believes deeply in the power of every human being and the potential and the capability inside of every human being. As an author of the number one bestseller, The Leader Who Had No Title, as well as an internationally respected leadership expert who has advised many companies including Starbucks, Coca-Cola, GE, Nike, FedEx, and Microsoft. His books have been embraced by people from all walks of life. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Robin Sharma. [Applause]
What will you do to become legendary in your work? How many people want to be legendary in their work? How many people want to become iconic in your field? The number one reason we don't play at world class in business is we are too frightened to think differently from the crowd. To have the results only 5% of people in business have, we must have the guts to do what only 5% of the population does. That is leadership. It's a belief. It's a mindset. It's a way of working. It's a way of living. Your job is a chance for you to look at that other human being in front of you called a customer or teammate and say, "My job is to create value and to inspire and to build more leaders." Your job is a chance for you to express your values. Your job is a chance for you to change the world. [Applause]
When I was growing up, my uh my father took out a Sanskrit poem and he translated it into English and he put it on our refrigerator door so my brother and I could read it every morning before we went off to school. And ladies and gentlemen, I've never forgotten what it said on that piece of paper. It said, "Spring has passed, summer has gone, and winter is here, and the song I meant to sing remains unsung. For I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument." As I got older, I asked my dad, I said, "Dad, what was that?" My dad's 77, still goes to the office every single day. So I, as I got older, I said, "Dad, you know what did it mean on that piece of paper?" And he said, "Son, that was a poem written by a man whose heart was filled with regret over a life half-lived. He was always getting ready to express his gifts and his talents. He was always getting ready to do genius level work. He was always getting ready to transcend the fears that limited him. He was always getting ready to create rich streams of value for the human beings he was blessed to serve. But he got busy being busy. So the great song that he was meant to live died within him."
I think it's never been so easy to spend the best hours of your best days chasing shiny toys that on the last hour of your last day amount to zero. According to the science I'm going to share, I encourage you to take lots of notes. You're going to get at least 50 to 100 ideas that will change the game for your productivity, your mindset, your impact, your influence, your leadership, your personal life, your health. [Music]
According to latest science, on an average day, the average person is spending 2.1 hours addicted to distraction, checking your notifications, checking your iPhone. You see, victims are victims love being busy. Leaders love producing results. Victims love entertainment. Leaders love education. Victims are scared of change. Leaders are inspired by change. Victims ask, "What's in it for me?" The great leader asks, "What's in it for my world?"
So, what I want to do in the three hours that I'm blessed to have with you here today, we've got so many great speakers, you know, you're here for a number of days, but I'd like to remind you, if I may, about what's most important when it comes to business, what's most important when it comes to leadership, what does it mean to live a high functioning life? Why are we here? And the first thing I wanted to do is I want everyone to stand up. If I could have my monitors up a bit more, that'd be great, please. I want everyone to stand up and I want you to first of all just to loosen you up and Lisa did an amazing job of that of course. I want you to find someone on either side if you walk up to them and look at them deeply in their eyes and say you know you look even better in person than you do on your Facebook profile. Just do that one for me, please. And give you and give yourself and and give your and give yourself a nice give yourself a nice round of applause. Great job. I want you to I want you to find someone else on the other side of you. Keep standing. I want you to find someone else on the other side of you and I want you to say, you know, you're uh you're looking good. You look like you're feeling good. You ought to be in Hollywood. Just go ahead and do that one for me. [Applause] Give yourselves a nice round of applause.
And the uh the real the real reason the re The real reason the real reason I want you to stand up is because I believe that world class becomes belongs to the learners. You see I believe that education is inoculation against disruption. I believe that as you know more you can achieve more. And so the very fact that you you know most people spend the best hours of their days watching television in a subdivision, you know, it's a it's a fact. I believe you know the the victim loves big TVs. The leaders have huge libraries and and I wouldn't say this unless it's true, but how many people do you know do you know would invest what you've paid and the hours that you're giving to be here in this event to disrupt yourself to learn about leadership to learn how you can shift your game? You you know you know we live in a world where people are spend the best hours of their best days watching dancing cats on YouTube and you're here in this and you're here in this room to ask yourself right and and so give yourselves a heartfelt passionate thunderous amplified living standing ovation for being here. Wow. All right. Have a seat. Have a seat.
So, I want you to look at the person next to you and deeply in their eyes and say, you know, Robin Robin better share some amazing content because because he's standing between me and lunch. Just do that for me, please. So, if I could go to my next Ah, perfect. How about a round of applause for the unsung heroes, the AV team back there, right? That's so a little while ago I was in uh Northern Ireland and I came across an interesting story of a man named Joey Dunlop. Joey Dunlop was a five-time world motorcycle racing champion. Joey. So, you know Joey Dunlop? Like, so I'm going through Northern Ireland and everyone's saying, you know, you got to know about this man, Joey Dunlop. And it's amazing. It's amazing that you know who he is. Because I said, why is he so special? They said, well, you know, he is a man who is revered by the people of his nation. He was a man who people admired. Sadly, Joey Donlop was killed when the motorcycle he was driving hit a tree under wet conditions in Talin, Estonia.
But you know, ladies and gentlemen, I believe that leadership is about what you do when no one is watching. You see, anyone can be ethical when you have an audience. Anyone can be an A player when you're in front of your customers. Anyone can radiate positive energy when all eyes are on you. Anyone can look brave, loving, decent, fast, productive when there's ego payoffs. My question to every single one of you here in this room is how graceful under pressure, how ethical are you? How fast are you? How brave are you? How excellent are you when you are the only person in the room? And when no one was watching, Joey Dunlop would take the trailers that would carry his motorcycles and with his bare hands, he'd fill the trailers with food and he'd drive to Romania and he'd feed hungry orphans and you know, I mean, I know you're learning a lot about how to increase your income and I I I can share some ideas on how to live a world-class lifestyle. I'm happy to do that. But I believe one of the most one of the biggest reasons to make your fortune, and I don't usually use that those words a lot, but I'll use it here. One of the biggest reasons to make as much money as you can is to help as many people as possible. You know, you know, and if if you if you if you want to make millions, then help millions. If you want to make 10 million, then help 10 million. If you want to be a billionaire, then solve the problem a billion people are struggling with. You know, how much how much do we need, right? So, to me, what's cool is you make as much as you can and then you make a serious commitment to giving and philanthropy. You know, I I hadn't planned to share this, but last week I was in Los Angeles speaking for an organization you might know about called Tom's. And they're well known for, you know, one for one. You buy a pair of their shoes and they give a pair of shoes to a child in Africa or a child in Argentina, etc., etc. I mean, that's a really smart way to think about business, I believe.
So, the reason I'm sharing Jory Dunlop with you is he quietly showed leadership. He quietly showed excellence. He quietly showed humanity. And what I love about his story is when Joey Dunlob died, 50,000 people left what they were doing, left their work. left their homes and showed up his funeral to sing testimony to the man that he was. 50,000 people left what they were doing to celebrate the way that he lived. And what I want to propose to you is what of the things that you now think are so important like having the right pair of shoes, wearing the right watch, having the right number of Facebook followers, looking cool on Instagram. What a world we're living in. What if the things that society has sold you as the true measures of success, when you get to the last hour of your last day and you connect to your mortality, you realize that you were chasing the wrong things? And what if the things that you now don't think are important, like seeing your work as your craft, like building viscerally real relationships with the people that you serve, like really focusing on productivity, like really developing your mindset, like developing your bravery. What if the things you no long you you might not think are important like seeing yourself as an instrument of service to create value for as many people as possible when you get to the last hour of your last day you say those were the things that were most important.
I think this moment that we're sharing right here is an incredible opportunity because it could be the first moment of a completely new way of leading and for you to live. Even the longest life is a really short ride. I know we don't think about this, but the before you know it, all 1,000 people of us will be dust. And the CEO gets buried next to the street sweeper. And I propose to you that on the last hour of your last day, only two things are going to matter. It won't be all the material things. It won't be whether people thought you were cool. It won't be all those ego things that so many people are pursuing because the world says this is how you should define success. I propose to you if you strip away all the accessories only two things are going to matter. Number one, what did you become? What did you become? Did you use your work? Did you use your life as fuel? Did you use your pain? Did you use your heartbreak? Did you use the t your time at the top of the mountain? Did you use your victories? Did you use your devastations to fuel you to become stronger, braver, more heroic, more excellent, more masterful, faster, more loving, more humble, more decent? Who did you become? And number two, how many people did you help? How many people did you help? How many lives did you touch? Did you make a difference in the world because you were here?
When I was growing up, my father, he shared a poem by Renderad Tagore. And I want you to just think about it. And my dad used to say to me all the time. He used to say, "Son, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced." He said, "Son, live your life in such a way." And I know you know this. You're sophisticated. You're educated. You're smart. You're fast. But this poem said, my dad recited the poem and said, "Son, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced." He said, "Robin, I encourage you to live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice." And just imagine if you connected to that today and you live the rest of your life focused on that.
Now there's a lot of distraction in the world right now. There's a lot of stress. There's a lot of complexity. Show of hands. How many people agree there's a lot of stress in the world? Complexity. My favorite Can I share my favorite story on stress? Yeah. A little while ago I was in a grocery store. I saw a mother pushing her baby. Baby was screaming, crying like you can't imagine. I overheard the mother saying, "Don't scream, Jennifer. Don't yell, Jennifer. Be calm, Jennifer." Couldn't help myself. I walked over to the woman. I said, "Madam, I can't tell you how impressed I am by the way you're speaking to your baby." She goes, "No, I'm Jennifer." [Applause]
So, so Jay-Z, what an awesome audience. Everyone said it. Uh, I'd rather die enormous than live dormant. Which brings me to probably my favorite story. I mean, David asked me to come here to talk about leadership. And that's really what I've devoted the past 18 years of my life to, teaching people around the world how to lead without a title. What I'm going to suggest to you is that the old model of leadership is obsolete. What I'm going to suggest to you with deep respect is we are now in what I call leadership 2.0. What I'm going to suggest to you is the old model of leadership came from the military. So it said the person who is at the top is the leader who evangelizes the orders from the mountaintop. And that's important in the military because if you don't follow the positional leader, people die. I'm going to suggest to you that we now live in the world and I know the field that you're in and where you're from. I'm going to suggest to you that every day when you're in front of your customers, when you're out on the street, when you're with your family, you have a fundamental choice. You can show victimhood or you can be leader show leadership. I want you to just create a brain tattoo. Victimhood, leadership. And I suggest to you that every single one of us thousand people in this room would change the world, change our industry, change the game. If you make a commitment starting today to remove any form of victimhood from your life.
You see, the victim is frightened of change. The leader is inspired by change. The victim is addicted to distraction. The leader is devoted to production. Victims. You see them all over the world right now. Victims tear people down. Leaders build people up. One of my friends is a CEO of a big publisher. Yeah, clap if you want. I don't want to prevent you from [Applause] One of my friends is the CEO of a a bigname publisher. And he said, "Robin, my job is to walk around this organization and shine a light on people. Your job is to develop people. Your job is to grow leaders. Your job is to help your team do things they never thought they could do. That's leading. And if you're not doing that, then you're not leading. You're following. I can tell what kind of a leader you are with your team by the trail of leaders behind you."
And so David said, you know, talk about leading without a title. And the woman on the screen, her name is Ozola McCarti. And Oola, she could have been a victim. She was poor. How many people are born into poverty and they spend their life in poverty? She could have been a victim because she experienced tragedy. Well, when you experience tragedy, do you stay stuck in the tragedy? Do you go bitter? Do you cling to the past? Do you contract? Or do you feel the pain? A lot of these books don't talk about it. They shift into positive thinking. I believe you have to grieve. You have to feel the pain. That's called being human. But there also comes a time when you're experiencing a problem and a tragedy and a heartbreak where you say enough. And how can I use this as fuel? How can I use the pain to open my heart? How can I use the devastation to help me grow in my humanity? And when we look at the Martin Luther King Jr.'s and the Mother Teresas and the Mandelas and the Mahhatma Gandhis, they became who they became because of their suffering. They didn't stay stuck in the suffering. They said, "How can I use what happened to me to open me and to help me shift from being a victim to being a better leader?"
I met someone who knows Nelson Mandela very very well in Johannesburg a couple of summers ago and I said you know he's one of the great heroes of my life. I said tell me about Nelson Mandela. She said Robin you know Nelson Mandela only became Nelson Mandela in prison. I said why? She said, "Well, you know, he went into prison, a very angry man, but it was his 27 years being tortured. It was his 27 years being in isolation. It was tw, you know, he said his biggest regret was he never got to honor the death of his son and attend his funeral because they wouldn't let him out of prison." And yet because of his inner work, because of his use of what happened to him as fuel, because of his introspection, because of his contemplation, because of the man that he decided to become in 27 years in confinement when he came out of prison, he invited his jailers and torturers to his inauguration as president of South Africa. And he was asked, "Why did you do that?" And yeah, sure. If you want to applaud, that's And he he was asked, "Why did you do that?" And he said, ' Because if I didn't invite them, I would still be in prison.
And so and so the woman on the screen could have been a victim just like you could be a victim. Let me challenge you right now in this room with deep respect. Where are you still clinging to victimhood? Are you saying I'm not in the right industry? Are you saying I'm not with the right company? Are you saying I don't have the right people? Are you saying I'm not smart enough? Are you saying the people that you your organization pedestals are different from you? Tons of research. Read the work of Anders Ericson. Genius is less about genetics and more about practice. It's more about who you're around. It's more about training. It's more about your talent hub. We can get into the work of Anders Ericson who popularized and and now the 10,000 hour rule is popular. It came from the research of Anders Ericson. Where are you playing victim? Where are you making excuses? Where are you playing small with your lives? Where are you playing small with your health? Where are you playing small with your focus? Where are you playing small with your days? Where are you playing small with your family? I'll put it to you this way. I don't think you should only be successful for yourself. That's fine. We're all human. Survival instinct. I believe you have a duty not only to your family. I believe you have a duty to your customers. And I believe you have a duty to the world to be a leader to play to bring your agame because the world would be less of a place if you do not bring your best to it. [Applause]
So the woman on the screen, that's not the woman on the screen. Let's have a look at Oiola, please. Thank you. Um, she was poor. Tragedy. You know what she did for a living? She washed other people's dirty laundry. And yet, by the time she passed away at the age of 91, ladies and gentlemen, she'd been honored by world leaders. She'd met with prime ministers and presidents. She'd even received an honorary doctorate from Harvard University. So, who was this woman? Why did she receive so much acclaim? Well, here's her story. Ever since she was a young woman, she would take the coins that she would make washing other people's dirty laundry and she'd go down to her local bank and she'd make these daily seemingly insignificant contributions. Just like every single one of you, every single day, this is a I believe a a powerful idea. You have every day the opportunity to make these small daily seemingly insignificant contributions. These 1% wins. These small acts of excellence, these small acts of relationship building, these small acts of developing your bravery over fearlessness. Every single day is a platform for you to make these small acts of optimization and iteration. And small daily improvements when done consistently over time lead to stunning results. Look at the person next to you and say, "Hm, Robin just might be smarter than he looks." Just do that for me, please.
Small, daily, seemingly insignificant acts of optimization and improvement when done consistently over time lead to stunning results. What makes mastery? How did Beckham bend the ball? Like Beckham bent the ball. How did Mozart compose music? Mozart was not a genius. What a lie. The world sells to us. If you look at the science and research of genius, if you look at the people who've studied Mozart, they will tell you that the first 10 years of Mozart composing music, his musical compositions were mere curiosities. It was 10 years of focus, 10 years of coaching. His father was a music teacher. 10 years of practice, 10 years of sacrifice. Until after 10 years of devotion to his skill, 10 years, the first signs of genius began to present themselves. Small, daily, seemingly insignificant improvements when done consistently over time will get you to mastery. And so with great consistency, she would take the coins that she would make washing other people's dirty laundry and she would go down to her local bank and make these small daily seemingly insignificant contributions. And the days slipped into weeks, and the weeks slipped into months, and the months slipped into years, and before she knew it, she was 87. Someone once said to me, "Robin, life goes by in a blink." She walks into her local bank man behind the counter, looks at her and he smiles. He says, "Oola, how are you?" She says, "Fine." He says, "Oola, do you have any idea how much money you've accumulated as a result of these small daily seemingly insignificant contributions that you've been making over the course of your lifetime?" She said, "No, why don't you tell me?" He said, "Oz, you've accumulated one quarter of a million dollars. What do you want me to do with that?" She was a simple woman. She didn't know how much money that was. Man behind the counter got an idea. He said, "Oi, look at this." He put 10 coins on the counter across from where she was standing. He said, "Oz, these 10 coins represent your money. What do you want me to do with it? She points to the first coin and she says, "I want you to give that to the church." She points to the next three coins and says, "I want you to give these to my nieces and my nephews and my cousins because I love them so much." Then a smile came to her face and she says, "As for the remaining six coins, I have something very special in mind."
One month later, the local university knows Yola McCarti's hometown received a check from her for $150,000 with a handwritten note attached with it said, "I would like you to set up a scholarship for poor African-American students who still know how to dream, who dream of being business leaders, entrepreneurs, poets, firefighters, police officers, teachers in a world that has forgotten how to dream." And that act of humanity touched people around the world. Ted Turner said, "If an elderly washer woman could give away all of her money, I can certainly give away $1 billion," which is exactly what he did. It's it's an awesome world we're living in. Buffett and Ellison, you know, the giving pledge, you know, Bill Gates and Melinda, you know, philanthropy, the things that are there's there's never been more disruption, there's never been more hate, there's never been more chaos, there's never been more change, there's never been more complexity, there's never been more light, there's never been more humanity, there's never been more leadership. Margaret me, the social anthropologist, said it so much more elegantly than I ever could. She said, 'N never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. That's the only group that ever has. That's your job today. That's your job today. [Applause]
A reporter tracked down Ozola said, "This is incredible." She said, "You know, you've spent your whole life making this money and you're giving it all away. What's your dream?" And Oiola said, "You know, I'm an elderly woman. I've tried to show simple leadership and live by simple values. But I so dearly wish that before I die, I could see the first student who gets my scholarship walk across the graduation stage. But I know because of my age, that's probably not going to happen." And yet a month before she died, the first student walked across the graduation stage. And after she died, another reporter tracked down the student and said, "Did you hear the news? Your benefactor has gone. Oola has died. Do you have any comment?" And I've never forgotten what the student said. Heaven, thanks on the mic, by the way. Heaven couldn't have gotten a better angel. She was a blessing. She was a treasure. She was an inspiration to the entire world. You can lead without a title. Leadership is not a position. It's not the size of your office. It's not having all this money in the bank. It's not having an Ivy League degree. To lead is to serve. To lead is to say, "My job is not just a job. My job is my craft." Even if I'm a janitor. You want to see a picture of a janitor who janitors like Picasso? I just made up a word. Who cleans bathrooms like Picasso painted? Anyone want to see see see someone who really shows you what leadership is all about? Let me see if I can get this video. I was in Johannesburg and I walked into the men's room and I hear this booming voice. Welcome to my office. And I got to I I pulled out my my flip cam and let me see if I can show you this because it's just an amazing example of leading without a title.
Well, of all places, I'm in a washroom in the Joberg airport. But this is a very special video clip because I have someone I want you to meet right here. What's your name, please? >> Arona. >> And what do you do? >> I I'm cleaning here. >> You you're you're cleaning. >> This is my office. Yeah. >> This is your This is your what? >> My office. >> Now, as soon as I walked in, uh you had a smile on your face and you welcomed me to your office and you told me that your office is flawless. Tell me your philosophy here. No my you see you can see for yourself my office is nice and clean. I keep it like this for you people when you come to South Africa to work back you will find me in my office here. >> Do you love what you do? I love what I do. Everything each and every day when I wake up in the morning, I'll be excited to come and see you people and welcome you in my office and keep it clean like this each and every day. >> You seem to be very proud of your work. >> Yeah, I'm very I'm very proud of my work. >> And you know, I I teach a philosophy which is no matter what you do in work or in the world, you can make a difference and lead without a title. Do you think you can make a difference even if you don't have a title? >> Yeah, I do. I do think I know it. I don't think I will I know that I will make a >> And what's the what's the most important thing every day? >> The most important thing is the the people I meet here. I meet hundreds of people each and every day in my office here. Some of them they are like you. Some of them they are nice, you know. Some of them they come here angry. But if they come and say welcome to my office and that guy will be stressless. He will laugh and laugh and laugh take news with me and we talk about some stuff and he will walk out here very happy and say so nice to meet people like you in South Africa. So the guys they come through immigration some of them they know me even they write about me in the books. >> Wow. If there was one piece of advice what would you have for people watching this video? for for people watching this video, I'm I'm saying to them, you guys, you must be proud of what you do. No matter what you do, if you are you you >> Yeah, that's good. >> Yeah. I I say no matter what you do, you must do it with all your heart. There's nothing that will stop you. Each and every day when I come to work, I be very happy. I know that I'm going to meet people thousands of people from all over the world. So I love my job as nothing will stop me and I will keep on working here no matter how hard. >> You are absolutely awesome. Thank you so much. >> I thank you very much sir. You can lead without you can lead without a title. It's not only your opportunity when you walk out of here after this amazing event. It's your opp it's your responsibility. [Music]