Transcription
[Music] Anyone interested in the primary human fears? Okay, let's go. F. Everyone say that. F. Fear of self-betrayal. Oh, it's a deep one. Everyone in this room has a deep, deep fear of self-betrayal. James Flynn, the American psychologist, has a term you really want to understand. It's called capitalization. What he has found is the best athletes, the best performers, are not the most gifted. They're not the most talented. They're not the most physically privileged. The best entrepreneurs are not the smartest. I, I know, I've met a lot of them. They're not that deep. They're not that smart. Some of them, we just go, "Have like, what, what, what? Like, how did that happen?" As a matter of fact, too smart is dumb. I'll explain that tomorrow. Sometimes you're too smart for your own good. And it's the people who are obviously they're intelligent, but they don't overthink it. They just get out there, get busy, they get the job done. Sometimes too many degrees, not good for success, depending on how you define success. And sometimes it's the people who just go, "You know, get the job done. I need to get this business going, and we need to, you know, hustle, hustle, get it done, work hard." And you ask them, you know, "What are your winning formula?" "Good team, hustle this." And they're owning the domain because they're not overthinking it.
So, fear of, of self-betrayal. James Flynn, the American psychologist, has a term called capitalization. And what he says, it's not the most smartest in the room who wins. It's not the most physically gifted athlete. You know, one of my favorite documentaries, I hope you're taking lots of notes on these books and documentaries, it's called The Good Son. And The Good Son is about Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini. He was the, he was the champion of the world as a boxer. And you know what happened to him? He fought this Korean boxer and he killed them. He killed them in the ring. And it's a really interesting documentary to watch because with, when you watch more documentaries about people who have had interesting lives, you'll build better with better awareness. You'll make better. You see how this works? With better choices, you're going to see better. But if you're playing angry with your Angry Birds and phone and Candy Crush and, you know, multiple seasons of a show on Netflix, they're so smart. Like, it starts again all of a sudden. And, and, you know, all of that stuff is fine. But, you know, you don't want to be spending your whole days on it.
So the point is simply this: As you learn, as you invest in yourself, as you watch documentaries, as you be in a room like Personal Mastery Academy, as you start to get a mentor, all of those things, you build these freakish levels of awareness. With better awareness, you'll make better, better choices, better results. Does it, is it easy? No. You got to walk the thing. Got to build the muscle. Eventually, you'll get to automaticity. Brain cells that come on. Are you guys been listening? Brain cells that fire together, wire together. Your gift. The, remember I said this this morning? The gift of genius is not genius. It's neuroplasticity. Can you do this? Absolutely. It's about grit. Angela, Angela Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania, did the re, did a lot of research. Grit. Staying with it. So James Flynn said the great athletes, like Boom Boom Mancini, they weren't the most talented. He even said his brother was taller. His brother had a longer armspan. But Ray Boom Boom Mancini had more heart. Boxers talk about heart. Muhammad Ali said, "I hated every one of those training sessions, but I said to myself, don't give." Uh, he said, "I didn't want to do those, but I wanted to be heavyweight champion of the world." Athletics, the great athletes were not the most gifted. The great creatives, the great creative geniuses were not the most talented. This world is littered with geniuses who did nothing. The most successful entrepreneurs, creatives, humanitarians are people who important idea, capitalized on the potential they had. Capitalization. Important point. Capitalization. You have what it takes. I'm going to tell you right now, you have what it takes. Please do not put "gen," quote unquote, "geniuses," and anytime you use the word genius, use air quotes. You know, "Hey, yeah, he's a genius." We know the research of Anders Ericsson. Now it's very popular. Other writers have made it even more famous. 10,000 hours. It comes from Anders Ericsson, Florida State University. And he realized that the most successful performers, I'm going to say it again, those of you who've been with me for years have heard me say it years ago, the most successful people on the planet are not born into their genius. Genius is less about genetics. It's more about your practice and your habits. Your practice and your habits and your commitment. And Anders Ericsson has realized through his research years ago that all the great pianists, and all the great chefs, and all the great entrepreneurs, and all the great mathematicians, all the great scientists, they had one thing in common: 3.44 hours of practice every day on one skill to the point where they built up a neural architecture and an emotional patterning system where the world called them genius. 3.44 hours a day practicing one skill for 10,000 hours, which is the equivalent of 10 years. You can achieve genius-level performance. Are you willing to stay with whatever it is you do and not dilute yourself and not give up and keep practicing? And then we know it's not just regular practice. It's deliberate practice. It's a certain type of practice. The neurosurgeon who just shows up doesn't get any better, even though she's doing more surgeries. It's deliberate practice, conscious practice, where, where you actually go in and say, "Because with better awareness, you'll make better, and with better choices, you'll make better results." So the neurosurgeon says, "What did I do yesterday?" And she does a decode or deconstruction in her journal. And she says, "This well, I was, I had the right lunch, and or I fasted, and this and that, and I'm reading, and I learned this." And so each day she's deliberately engaging in deliberate practice that makes her better over time. Is that helpful? Deliberate practice. Is that helpful? 3.44 hours. Is that helpful? 10 years. 10,000 hours. The gift of genius is not genius. It's neuroplasticity. Is that helpful? How about the idea of capitalization? It's not the most gifted who wins. It's the one who does the right things and capitalizes on whatever talent they have.
So, one of our greatest of all fears is the fear of self-betrayal. That is what destroys the human spirit, consciously or unconsciously, knowing that you are not capitalizing on your potential. You are hardwired. I believe you're happiest not when you're watching TV. You're not happiest when you're playing with your apps. You're not happiest when you're looking for likes. You're not happiest when you're fooling around. You're happiest when you're growing. I think we're hardwired. It's a survival mechanism. We're happiest when we're making progress. So we have a deep fear of self-betrayal. And when we, when we don't capitalize on our talents, what starts to happen is that, what starts to happen is that we start to lose energy. We lose creativity. We lose productivity. I believe that many of us, the reason we don't have energy, the reason why we're not as creative as we want, the reason why we're not as productive as we want, is because we have betrayed our talent. And the deep, wise, primal hero within knows of that self-betrayal. And we start to hate ourselves. Is that an interesting point? The place of knowing within you knows that you've betrayed your talents. And we start to hate ourselves. And so we have a deep well of self-loathing inside of us that actually minimizes the four interior empires. And the four interior empires are the gateway into the exterior empires of creativity, productivity, performance, prosperity, lifestyle, style, and impact. How do you get to creativity, productivity, prosperity, performance, lifestyle, and impact? Through the four interior umpires: mindset, heart set, health set, and soul set. So that first fear is important.
Second fear: fear of standing out. Well, how are you going to innovate if you haven't worked through through your fear? This is why personal mastery is the gateway into. It's the gateway. It's the gateway drug into world class. Because how are you going to dominate your domain, release work that is magical, that stands the test of time, that is so different from your market peers that you leave your customers breathless? Well, how are you going to create that piece of magic if you have a fear of standing out? The marketplace rewards originality. Lady Gaga did what she now, you could say she copied Madonna, but she was just so different. And the meat dress. And this. The marketplace rewards originality. The iPhone has sold over a billion units because it was so original. The great art, Jean-Michel Basquiat. It's probably someone else probably did more, but a few years ago, highest money ever made for Jean-Michel Basquiat, $100 million plus. The great magic, the great artistry comes from originality. I encourage you and suggest you, you absolutely must take your industry where no one has ever gone. If all you're doing is benchmarking your competition, then you're not bringing fresh value to the marketplace that is going to dazzle the marketplace and that people will pay for. And yes, everyone starts off copying. A few summers ago, I was in Mauritius and I read Miles Davis's autobiography. And Miles Davis, I think he played with, was it Dizzy? Dizzy Gillespie, I think he played with. And then, and I think he played with Charlie Parker. And what he did was he had these heroes, and he would copy the musicianship and the composition and the style of the dominant famous heroes at the time. Everyone with me so far? But as Miles Davis practiced his craft, as he got to know the domain, as he built higher levels of awareness, he started to find his own rhythm and his own voice. See, that's what marks a virtuoso from a copy, a copyist. Most people in business, most people in life, copy what, what the herd is doing. They just copy what everyone else does. The true innovator, the true artist, the true visionary understands the domain to the point where then they can say, "I don't think this is right," or "Here's my voice. Here's what I want to do." And Miles Davis, once he started his own unique cadence, his own unique style, he brought something fresh. You've got to bring something fresh to the marketplace. But how can you do that if you have a fear of standing out? F. O. Fear of standing out.
Another primary human fear: fear of failing. Extremely. And just remember, failure is the price of ambition. Get good at failing and embrace failure and rejection. I know that sounds really simple, but just understand that the more you fail, the more you're growing. Understand that failure, the most successful people, no matter how you define failure, they are failing far more than most people. They're rejected far more than most people. They're laughed at far more than most people. They're confused and they suffer far more than most people. Why are we labeling or judging failure as bad? Failure is great.
The next fear is fear of succeeding. I mean, a lot of people, people don't think about that. We know about fear of success, but of failure. But Robin, fear of success. But we're tribal. And so we have a neurobiological urge not to stray from the herd. It served us well thousands of years ago. If we would stray from the herd, we would be eaten. We would be killed by warring tribes, sabertooth tigers, or whatever it was, would kill us. And so now, here it is in the modern age, and we still are running this neurological survival mechanism of staying close to the herd. The people who do amazing things are eccentrics. They are not. They are freaks. How many people in this world, in this class, or in this room, your family calls you a freak? Show hands. See, that's, that's why you're in this room because you're a freak. How many people in this room, the people around you don't understand you? Right? And I call it values clash. The higher you rise, write that down. Values clash. It's something new I'm sharing. The higher you rise in your craft, in your health, in your mindset, heart set, health set, and soul set, the higher you rise in your income, the higher you rise in your spirituality, the less you're going to fit in with a world addicted to toxicity. And so you're going to feel you don't fit in on the planet. You're going to be misunderstood by people. They're going to say, "Why do you work so hard? Why do you give so much value? Why is nothing ever enough? Why do you biohack your health? Why do you have these freaky beliefs? Why are you so loving? Why do you have such sparkle in your eye? Why are you so enthusiastic? Why are you so alive?" I believe a lot of people on the planet today are artificial intelligence. They're AI. They're a, they're AI. It's like, "Hello? Anyone home?" Isn't it true? How many people do you know are alive? Alive? They're alive. They laugh, and they're energetic, and they're positive, and they love.
I saw this. I'm, I'm really fascinated by Philippe Petit. Philippe Petit did something amazing. When he was, when Philippe Petit was 16 years old, he was in a dentist's office. And when he was 16, he was somehow fascinated by high-wire walking. Everyone know what high-wire walking is? Philippe Petit. The great high-wire walker once said, "Life is lived out on the wire. The rest is just waiting." And so Petit, Philippe, or um, Philippe Petit, when he was 16, was practicing high-wire walking. Was like becoming his. And he was juggling, and he was doing mime, and he was really into performance. And one day he had a very sore tooth. So he went into his dentist's office. And while he was waiting for the dentist, he was flipping through pages of a magazine and he saw the Twin Towers. And the Twin Towers had not been constructed yet, but it was a vision of the way they were going to look. And he said, "This is my life." And what he started doing at 16 was understanding the engineering and the dynamics and the craft of high-wire walking. And it became his obsession. He said, "I am going to put a high-wire between the two towers and walk the high-wire." Oh, he did. Really? No, I know. I'm just kidding. And so in 19, that's why I'm telling the story. Otherwise, the story wouldn't work. It would be, you know, he did it. Yeah. That's why she's in the front row. So here's what he did. It was 1974. He tried it once. It didn't work. But you know, failure is the price of ambition. Went back to France, came back again, got these band of misfits. And it's one of my favorite documentaries. I've shared it before at a previous event. It's called Man on Wire. And I figured out, you know, why it's called Man on Wire? Because on the police report after he was arrested, it said, "What are the descriptions of the offense?" And police said, "Man on wire." And the story is just, it's a testimony to everything I've been talking about, you know, doing the impossible. And he went there in 1974, and he got these people together. And I believe that the universe smiles on the brave. And I think synchronicity accelerates when you enter the pocket. It is incredible. And all I can tell you is, synchronicity accelerates in direct proportion to your bravery. And love. Synchronicity, in other words, favorable experiences accelerate in direct proportion to your bravery and your love and your willingness to bring magic to the world in service of the world. And guess what happened? He shows up at one of the towers. And for whatever reason, they didn't ask for his ID and stuff, and they sent him right up to the top. So he got right up to the top. And then all night, him and his buddies figured out how to shoot the bow and arrow across one tower to the other tower. And it didn't quite work. And they continued. And his friends actually, if you watch the documentary, his friend said, "You know, it's not going to work because we can't get the wire to the other tower." And this, and he literally, and then the wire finally started falling down. And he single-handedly spent four hours or three hours pulling up this metal cable, pulling it, pulling it. And eventually he got it. They shot it across. Eventually the wire went between the two towers. One of the people on the said, "It was the messiest wire we've ever set up." And at about, I think it was about 4:00 in the morning, Philippe, I mean, just imagine what he did. No safety wire. Put his first foot, and then this second foot, and then the next foot. And after only a few minutes, he reports, "Something happened. I realized how easy this was going to be." And he, he said, "All of my practicing took over." You know, the Raptors, or Steph Curry, whoever it is, the caliber of your performance is a function of the quality of your practice. Champions on the court have practiced that winning shot so many times, they simply cannot not make the shot. And Philippe, as you'll see if you watch the video and you watch the documentary, guess what he did? He entered flow state. What we now call flow state. And what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, what was it, 25 years ago, in his awesome book, Flow, called flow state. I'd love to get him. I was thinking for Titan this year, I would love to get, what he would be awesome. The, the father of flow. Because how many people have heard about flow now? Yeah. Read 25 years ago. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, University of Chicago, was talking about flow. Anyway, Philippe Petit starts laughing. And guess what he starts doing? He starts dancing. And he lays down. And it was just the most, he just put on this whole show. And I think it was eight times he walked across the two towers. And he was eight times 45 minutes, he was up there. And the police officers were just going, "This is incredible." You know, and one of the police officers, you'll see it in the documentary, he just says, "You know, it was just incredible. It was something I, I knew. Only one person in the world has ever done this, and I saw it. I saw it. And it'll, I know it'll never happen to be." It was just, you know, and they arrested him. But then, you know, the crown prosecutor said, "Look, just do a high-wire performance for kids in Central Park. We'll drop all the charges." And yeah, it's, I think it's an amazing story. It's an amazing story about possibility and what we're all made of. And so the point is simply this: We're not only afraid of failing, we're afraid of succeeding. And you, you absolutely, I encourage you, make a commitment to leave the crowd.
F. O. N. A. Fear of no applause. That's another of the primary human fears. Fear of not getting any applause.