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Gary Keller Quantum Leap Transcript Excerpts

Revealing the Possibilities Within

A RESOURCE FOR QL INSTRUCTORSNOT FOR DISTRIBUTION PURPOSES

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Table of Contents

INTRO ............................................................................................................................................................ 2

Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 2

This Is All Self-Talk ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Whose life are you leading? .......................................................................................................................... 7

Life Productivity ........................................................................................................................................ 7

Put Your Safety Belt On First ..................................................................................................................... 8

Self-Leadership .......................................................................................................................................... 9

IT’S ALL ABOUT SMALL MOVEMENTS ......................................................................................................... 11

How Quantum Leap Came About ........................................................................................................... 11

Three Obstacles to Successful Counterbalancing ................................................................................... 11

THOUGHTS ALWAYS COME FIRST ............................................................................................................... 15

The Incredible Magic Formula of Life ..................................................................................................... 15

STORY: Tiger Woods................................................................................................................................ 16

STORY: To Be Human Mean You Have Choice ........................................................................................ 17

TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE ........................................................................................................................... 20

Traditional Three-Phase View of Life ...................................................................................................... 20

STORY: You Don’t Get Back What You Missed ....................................................................................... 21

STORY: Putting Off Play Until Later In Life .............................................................................................. 21

Postponement Principle .......................................................................................................................... 22

BALANCE IS BUNK ....................................................................................................................................... 23

Lie: A Balanced Life ................................................................................................................................. 23

THE DILEMMA ............................................................................................................................................. 25

The Dilemma of Desire and Success ....................................................................................................... 25

Making Choices ....................................................................................................................................... 25

A Life With No Regret ............................................................................................................................. 26

Recap: The Dilemma of Desire and Success ........................................................................................... 28

YOUR MIND MAP ........................................................................................................................................ 32

An Operating Model ............................................................................................................................... 32

The 4 Areas of Productivity ..................................................................................................................... 33

STORY: Put The Man Together and The World Falls Into Place .............................................................. 36


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INTRO

INTRODUCTION

So I thought I was going to be a rock musician. I played in a band. Never thought about

college. Didn’t apply to college. Got out of high school and the first month of summer I came

home after a party that our band played at and I told my parents, I don’t think this is going to

work out. I said, “One, I’m not talented enough to make it; two, I’m not motivated enough to

overcome the talent. So I’m in trouble.”

My mother and dad, in one of those great parental moments, said, “Well believe it or

not, we’ve actually applied to a university and you’ve been accepted. Would you like to go to

college?” And I said cool, where? And they said, Baylor. So I went.

My older sister was at Baylor. I’d been there once. I went to orientation. Thought it was

awesome. Signed on.

At the end of my sophomore year my father again, in another great parental moment…

we only had two by the way and this is the second one… my father says, “you need a major.”

I’m only telling you this so that when I start talking in a section and I sound like I have my act

together, I want you to understand I probably don’t have it together. But I clearly was out to

lunch at that point in my life to be honest with you. Not saying I was stupid. I just didn’t

understand what we’re going to talk about today at all.

And so he says you need a major. I said okay, what are we going to do about that? And

so that summer he signed me up. I spent a day with an attorney, a day with a banker, a day

with an accountant, and a day with a realtor. And I liked the real estate guy. And the reason I

liked the real estate guy was he was entrepreneurial. I couldn’t spell that word back then, but

that’s what he was. I didn’t know that’s what he was. He operated out of a small house. He

didn’t wear a suit. And it looked very freeing to me and interesting. And so I went back to

Baylor and sure enough, they actually started a degree in the marketing department that


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specialized in real estate so I signed on. During my junior and senior year I took all the real

estate insurance courses that they had and got a degree in real estate.

Now my senior year, I applied for a job with New York Life and was rejected. They sent

me a form letter, a very disheartening form letter. I still remember where I was when I read it. It

said, “you don’t have the profile of our top sales people so we’re not going to offer you a job.” I

was so mad. I went straight to real estate. I said, “I’m going to real estate then.” It turned out

they’ll hire anybody. But now here’s the interesting thing. They were correct. Their assessment

of my behavior was correct.

I moved to Austin. I had only been here once in my life. I sold six houses my first month

in the business; got my picture in the paper. Five of them closed. I went on to be the runner up

to rookie of the year in the largest real estate company in Austin, Texas when I was 22 years

old. The only reason I wasn’t the rookie of the year is I took the last month off. I had met all my

goals, made all the money I wanted to make, and that last month I just didn’t work. I just

disappeared.

My manager comes in and goes you’re going to be the top rookie of the year in the

largest real estate company. I said no I’m not because I’m not going to be here. I hit all my goals

and winning the award wasn’t there. By the way, I didn’t attend graduation. I’ve won pretty

much all the awards you can win from being recognized as being the most influential person in

my industry to being the entrepreneur of the year in Austin, Texas. By the way, I never

attended any of those events when they gave me the awards because none of that ever

mattered to me. It still doesn’t matter to me.

So I started selling real estate. I discovered that I was a closet trainer. I enjoyed helping

people in a long-term achievement relationship versus simply selling a home. I enjoyed selling

homes. I didn’t know I would. Actually I didn’t like it the first six months. I hated it. In fact, after

those six months that first month where I sold six houses, I didn’t sell anything that closed for

five straight months and went broke. I actually showed up at Christmas broke driving my yellow

Volkswagen with no air conditioning. And my dad said, well how do I even know you’ve been

working, right? Because real estate doesn’t pay a salary, right?


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When I interviewed for my first real estate job, the guy that ran the firm said well how

much money would you like to make your first year? The marketing department in 1979 said

$18,000 to $22,000 is what you would be paid coming out of college. So I said well, I’d like to

make $18,000 to $22,000 and he stood up and he said, well I hope you make it. I said what are

you talking about? He said well it’s a 100% commission job. We don’t pay salaries, and oh by

the way, do you have a thousand dollars?

I drove all the way back to Baylor, walked right to my telephone at the end of the street

where I lived and I walked right to the phone, picked it up and called my dad. He answered the

phone and the first thing out of my mouth was do you realize this does not pay any money? I

have a degree. And my dad hadn’t thought about it either. Anyway. So I’m now broke, it’s

December. I have worked for six months and my dad says, well how do I know you’ve been

working? And I said, well actually I’ll show you. And I went to my calendar and I went to my

database, which in 1979 was a shoebox, by the way. We’ll talk about that later, but I actually

had a database. It’s so funny today; the Internet acts like it’s invented customer relationship,

customer relationship management, tracking data and operating off of data, which is the

biggest joke on the planet. You have no background prior to the Internet; so you don’t realize

that’s a lie. Databases existed. However, we did use Xeroxes, faxes and three by five index cards

in order to have a database and to keep in contact with people. But the Internet didn’t invent

any of that.

The cool thing about the Internet, just as a sidebar, is that the data’s already there,

right? So you don’t have to ask for it. You automatically get it and then you can data mine. So it

definitely has made business a lot smarter, tracking the data, following the data. So just so you

know, since I was 21 years old, I’ve been tracking the data and tracking people. It’s one of the

reasons why I became successful.

So my dad looked at everything I did. He says you know what? You have been working.

I’ll bet $500 on that box. And anyway, I went back and the rest was history because I had been

working and everything came about.


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When I was 25 I was the vice president of a large real estate company in Austin, okay?

And I quit. I walked in and I quit. And basically told the guy, you think everybody works for you

and I think the company works for the people so I’m going to leave. So I left and I started Keller

Williams with a partner.

I hadn’t really saved a lot of money at that time; so I didn’t have much. I invested $1,000

in Keller Williams in 1983. We borrowed $44,000 from the bank on a stock portfolio that my

partner Williams had and we paid the bank back in one year and I never borrowed money to

operate again. So when you hear in business school that you need to go raise capital and they

talk about raising funds and all this, I will submit that you can build the largest business in any

industry in the world without ever borrowing money.

By the time I was 29 I was a millionaire and the most successful realtor in the city of

Austin. I’ve been number one in my city. I’m 57. I was 29. So I’ve been number one, right? In

the United States today, you can literally count it. You can go one, two, three, four, five, six,

seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. You bought a home from me

anywhere in the United States. My name is on your contract. I can get on a plane and stand up

and say who has done business with Keller Williams and I will guarantee you a handful of

people will raise their hands. It’s funny; many times it’s the pilot. He’ll walk off. He’ll see my bag

or something and say oh, we bought our home from Keller Williams. Oh, well I’m Keller, nice to

meet you. Actually I haven’t held a job since 1994.

THIS IS ALL SELF-TALK

So I want you just to sit back and breathe a little bit today. I’m going to talk with my self-

talk. I’m going to go from being conversational pretty quick to being dictatorial and preaching.

You just need to lean back and breathe and realize that you’ve been invited into a room for

someone to tell you how they’ve lived their life. I’m not going to tell you how to live yours, but

it’s going to sound like I’m going to tell you how to live yours. So you just need to breathe,

okay? But the only way I know how to be authentic is to tell you the way I lived my life because

I can’t tell you how to live yours, okay? So you just need to sit back, breathe deeply a lot today,


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and just take it in and recognize that I’m not telling you what to do but I’m challenging you to

listen to this. And based upon that, go home, or right now if you want, and make your own

decisions. And the sooner you can do that, the better off you’re going to be. Fair enough? Okay.


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Whose life are you leading?

LIFE PRODUCTIVITY

So let’s talk about life productivity. The first question I’m going to ask you is this, and it’s

a very simple question. Whose life are you leading and how do you know? Because whenever I

ask this question to people, “Whose life are you leading?” They automatically say, “Well my life,

you fool. Why would you even ask that question?” I say really? Prove it to me.

And I’ll give you an example of why I ask the question. When I was in college like you, I

looked down one day and I was biting my fingernails. Now that’s a bad habit. I had this out of

body experience where I went, I’m biting my fingernails. Why am I doing that? That’s

disgusting. That was mine. If you’re biting your fingernails, God bless you. But I looked and I

went, why am I doing that? And I went oh what the heck.

A month later I’m back at home around the kitchen table with my family and I looked

over and it was the weirdest experience. I saw my dad and he had his fingers crammed in his

mouth and he was biting his fingernails. And for the first time I saw my father’s hands, right?

And they were just nubs. And I thought, “oh my gosh, I bite my fingernails because I grew up

with a fingernail biter.” I’m not leading my life. Not in the way that we think. I’m actually a

byproduct of my environment.

That was a mind blower for me. That was the beginning of awakening for me where I

looked up and I went, hold it. I need to be a little more intentional and purposeful. Do I want to

bite my fingernails?

I don’t bite my fingernails. I stopped and I’ve never bitten them since. And I am in

control. It wasn’t easy to stop, by the way. But it kind of became a symbol for me. They’re not

that pretty by the way. But that became a symbol for me that I am leading my life dang gone it.

I’m leading it.


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PUT YOUR SAFETY BELT ON FIRST

That’s our theme today. The theme is is put your safety belt on first, before you put on

someone else’s. Pull down your oxygen mask and put it on yourself first before you help

someone else. It sounds a little self-serving but there’s a fundamental truth that I’ve learned

that I want you to really think about. And that is take care of you first. If you want to help the

world, then start with yourself and become the best you can be. In the process you will change

the world.

It’s that old parable that says, I tried to change the world and I discovered it was too big

and couldn’t do it. So then I decided to change my country and had the same problem. It was

too big and complicated and I couldn’t do it. So then I backed down, I tried to change my state.

Had the same problem. I tried to change my city and I still had the same issues. Then I tried to

change my neighborhood and I couldn’t do it. And finally out of frustration, I decided to simply

focus on myself. And lo and behold, as I changed myself, I changed my neighborhood. And

together, my neighborhood changed the town. And together our city changed our state and

together our state changed the country and together the country changed the world.

So all of the material we’re going to cover today is really going to be about you.

I’ve been working with people helping them in their careers since I was 22 years old. I

have a lot of experience at this. I’ve helped a lot of people become phenomenally successful

and they’ve helped me. I’ve also observed a lot of people fall short. So I have some

understanding about how this works. Again, breathe. This is me sharing my observations. You

take it for what you want, okay? But the biggest ah-ha that I didn’t have when I was your age

that I want you to have is start with yourself. Just start with you. Work on you. When I teach

business classes and I start this way, people are confused. They say well, I thought you were

going to teach us how to be masters of commerce and enterprise. And I say, well we’ll get

there. We’ll get there. But trust me, you weren’t put on this planet in order to do that. You are

on this planet to become the best you you can be. And as we put you together, everything else

you dreamed can come true. It can. Okay?


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When I sit down with business people and we start trying to understand why they’re

struggling, why their business isn’t profitable, I will promise you nine out of ten times…This is

my experience and I’m just telling you this anecdotally…but nine one of ten times, it has to do

with who they are, not the business. The business is simply the aftershock if you will, the results

of who they are. Make sense? It will hopefully make sense by the end of today.

SELF-LEADERSHIP

Let’s take a sidebar for a second. What’s the definition of leadership?

MALE: Unlocking the potential of others.

Unlocking the potential of others. Thank you. That’s a great answer. I mean that’s a

brilliant answer. One curious thing about that answer, you’d be happy to know…everybody

gives essentially that same kind of answer about leadership. But isn’t it curious that you said

unlocking the potential in others. Why did you say other?

MALE: That’s assuming you have it figured out first.

Good answer. He said it’s assuming I figured it out first. That is absolutely the way

people think about it. They think about other-leadership instead of self-leadership. But I’m

going to make an argument that leadership comes with self first and with others second. So if

someone asks you what the definition of leadership is, you would simply say it’s unlocking

potential.

And by the way there’s two forms of it. Unlocking my potential…leading myself to my

potential, and then leading others to unlock theirs. So leadership has two different individuals

it’s going to point at. It’s going to point at you first and then others second. If you haven’t led

yourself, how can you lead others?

I think you’re going to find out something in life whether you’ve already discovered

something or not. Those individuals who have brought leadership to their life first are more

likely to lead others. The clearer their definition of who they are and where they’re going, the


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more appealing that’s going to be for others to follow them. Doesn’t that kind of resonate a

little bit?

If you have a favorite football or basketball or baseball team, doesn’t it frustrate you

when you see no leadership on the field or on the court? Do you get frustrated with that? I get

frustrated with it. But I’ll tell you something. The reason why you’re not seeing it is because

whoever’s playing doesn’t know who they are. And because they don’t know who they are,

they don’t know why they’re there. And if they don’t know why they’re there, they don’t know

what they’re supposed to do now that they’re there. When they’re real clear about who they

are and why they’re there, they’ll know what they’re supposed to do in that moment.

Now at certain levels that analogy breaks down just a little bit because sometimes we

have freaks of nature, who are just gifted athletically. And so they go out and their big thing is

simply to pummel the other team or the other individual in tennis or whatever and it has

nothing to do with who they are. It has to do with the gifts they’ve developed physically.


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IT’S ALL ABOUT SMALL MOVEMENTS

HOW QUANTUM LEAP CAME ABOUT

The way this course came about was when I hired my manager to run my Austin

operation. I literally walked away and never came back to it. And after a year or so, one of our

top people came to our manager and said, who is Keller? His name is on everything. We’ve

never met him. We’d like to meet him. I said, okay cool.

So I went and rented a room and took about a half a day every month for a year. I came

in just like this with flip charts and a stool and I said ask me any question you want. Let’s talk.

They would ask me questions. This was before computers. We had overheads and we had flip

charts. So I had to go to the flip chart and I would just write. I would try to explain my thoughts

about decisions I had made. And at the end of the class I would take the paper, fold it up, put it

in a folder, and file it away. About a year or so later, I was asked to give a presentation at our

convention and I pulled out all those flip chart papers and opened it up and realized that I

literally had everything right there. It wasn’t autobiographical, but it was kind of my explanation

for the way I viewed the world. So I filled in the blanks, had it all type set up, and went and gave

a presentation. And since then it’s probably been one of the most popular courses that our

company teaches.

THREE OBSTACLES TO SUCCESSFUL COUNTERBALANCING

So when we look at how we counterbalance our life, there are going to be three major

obstacles, which is the premise of our first half of our time today together. Number one, no

clear mission vision values or beliefs to guide our life is a filter for the decisions we’re going to

make. We don’t really know who we are and we don’t use that as a filter. We haven’t decided

who we are and where we’re going. Number two, no self-mastery at any significant level in the

sixth key areas in our life. And number three, no clear focus on the relationships that surround

and shape our life.


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So three things: Who are we? How do we deal with the key areas in our life? And have

we surrounded ourselves with the right relationships? These are the three things. They really

aren’t that complicated.

So here’s the way I look at it. The goal of Quantum Leap… And by the way, the name

Quantum Leap was my joke on my audience, right? Quantum leap sounds like this big thing

when actually what’s quantum mean? Little, real little. Yeah because my ah-ha was that life

occurs one step at a time and it’s baby steps all the way. It’s not big steps. Quantum was just

my joke on the audience. They always think quantum sounds big when actually it’s small.

So the goal with Quantum Leap is to lead the wealthiest life we possibly can. Go to the

dictionary. It’s interesting again; the financial world has high-jacked the world wealth. If you go

to the dictionary, what does the word wealth mean? It doesn’t have anything to do with

money. Wealth is a great word. Wealth means abundance. So when we have a wealthy life, we

have an abundant life. We have a life of great plenty.

Now a truly wealthy life is an abundant life, so a life marked with great plenty in our

relationships, the areas of discipline that matter, and in the accomplishment of a mission in our

life. So again, the model that I’m giving you to follow is to figure out who you are, look at the

key areas of your life, and build some models around how to be effective in those areas and

then be purposeful about your relationships.

So I want you to realize there’s an incredible formula in life. And the way I see it is inside

to the outside. In other words, you live two lives. I don’t know if you’re aware of that or not.

Some of you may be to some level, but we lead two lives. In other words, there are very few

things if any that you actually do physically that you didn’t think of first. Yes or no? Do you

actually do something, whoa, how’d that happen? Does that actually happen to you? If it does,

it’s just a moment, right? The rest of your 23 hours and 59 minutes were purposeful minutes.

You know how you got there. You know how that happened because you thought about it and

then you did it.

Okay. So there’s the magic formula of life. Nothing that you ever do that would actually

matter occurs in the physical world before it occurs where in your mind. Someone asked Alfred


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Hitchcock once, “How do you make such great movies? Why are you so successful in making

these incredible movies?” He said, “It’s real simple. I visualize the movie frame by frame in my

mind and then when I film, filming is an afterthought.” Your whole life’s an afterthought. Your

whole life is an afterthought, isn’t it? Say yes. Yeah, it is. Your whole entire life will be an

afterthought.

So what does that tell you? What comes first, action or thought? Thought. So how do

we start in building the incredible you? By impacting what you think. There you go. It matters

by the way. So listen to the language. These are all just words over history, right? Hundreds of

years. Thoughts become deeds. Spirit manifests in the flesh. Think and growth rich. As a man

thinketh so shall he be. Ideas before results. Belief becomes reality. When you believe it, you’ll

see it. What you see is what you get. It’s mind over matter. What you conceive you can achieve.

Those are just language over hundreds of years. But people knew it. And that is they

understood that who you are in the inside is manifest on the outside. So if we put the man

together, the world falls into place. If you take care of who you are, that’s all you have to take

care of.

So how does this kind of look? Well it looks like this. You wake up in the morning and

you say, “How am I going to spend my time today?” And you’re going to do two things. You’re

going to think and you’re going to act. You’re going to think and act. Now since thought always

comes first, we call that first creation. In other words, your entire life is after thought. Your

physical world is a second creation of what you created inside. It’s a manifestation of that.

Now because it’s the inside to the outside, we call that the spiritual and the physical.

The inside is the spiritual; the outside is physical. Spiritual is not religion, by the way. Religion is

a separate concept than spiritual. Spiritual is the inside you. It’s knowing who I am. Knowing

what I want to have happen. And doing something about it. It’s being intentional with my

actions by first being intentional in my thought.

That’s why Napoleon Hill wrote one of the great self-help books of all time called Think

and Grow Rich. And he says the secret you’ll discover. Well the secret was in the title. If you just

put the book up in front of you all day and all you said was think and grow rich, think and grow


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rich. He didn’t say do and grow rich. He said think and grow rich. It was his observation that

financial wealth, abundance in any category, but financial wealth particular, had to do with

intentional thought, not lucky action. So an abundant life is an intentional life. If you want the

most out of life, it will be intentional. You may see a great life but if it’s unintentional, it’s less

than it could have been.


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THOUGHTS ALWAYS COME FIRST

THE INCREDIBLE MAGIC FORMULA OF LIFE

In the book Think and Grow Rich they say the ultimate predecessor to success is the

inception of the thought “I’m going to do this”. I’d love to say this was what happened when we

started Keller Williams. Bu it wasn’t. That epiphany happened later. In other words, what I

realized was, I had been thinking low and behaving low. Now I’m not stupid. I’m pretty good at

strategy and I put forth a focused effort. But honestly it wasn’t until my late 20s that I had the

epiphany that you should think big. That at the end of the day, your goals shouldn’t be about

achievement, they should be about the actions you take.

So if you have a low goal, you’re going set forth with low action. And if you take low

action, what are the odds that your results will ever succeed your actions. They just don’t. So at

the end of the day, you want a big goal. You always want a very big goal. Set it as big as possible

and it sets your actions accordingly. Whatever results you get, you’re going to be happy with.

You will be. Trust me, whether you achieve the goal or not.

I don’t know that I’ve ever actually achieved any of my goals, to be honest. Once I

understood. I was achieving my goal in my 20s. By my late 20s I started setting goals I haven’t

achieved yet. I haven’t achieved any of them. Because the goal, the actual concept of achieving

the goal itself, isn’t the issue. The issue is what actions you’re going to take. So when you set a

big goal, go ahead and just set it.

By the end, by my 20s I was answering the phone Keller Williams National. And I

thought this was really big. I only had one office but I was answering it Keller Williams National.

And they said, “Wow, I didn’t know you were national!” Well we’re not but we’re going

national, right? That’s the way I said it. And that happened. I never thought about the world.

That just happened in the last six or seven years, where all of a sudden we looked up and

realized man, this is bigger than borders. Yeah. Crazy.


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So yeah, now at 57 I would say think the world. Actually think Mars, you know, think the

universe. Don’t imagine that the entire umpteen zillion planets all consume it or use your

product. Just think that way. Can’t go wrong by doing it.

STORY: TIGER WOODS

Oh by the way, one of the tragic stories in sports of all time will be the story of Tiger

Woods. Now there’s an individual who probably still doesn’t know who he is. We thought he

was destined to be the next great golfer of all time. Absolutely, without a doubt. It was fun to

watch that guy if you enjoy golf. It was fun to read or study. It was unfreaking believable! Then

all of a sudden we find out who his father is. Who was his father? Can you spell the word cad?

His father was a horse’s butt and that all got revealed later.

His father wrote a book, Raising a Tiger. Did you read that book? What a bunch of horse

huckey. Because later, what got revealed about his father, were his morals? Can you say

amoral? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah it all got revealed who he was. Who did he raise? Someone

who’s got issues, big issues. Isn’t it interesting? From the day that he had a golf club thrown

through his windshield by his wife, how has his golf game been? How’s he doing since then,

folks? Good or bad?

One of one of the absolute tragic stories of all time. I’m rooting for him. I do not root

against that guy. I hope he comes back. But until he puts the man together, his golf game will

never be the same. He has no chance. That’s just the way it is. And you’ve watched one of the

tragic stories of who should have been destined to be one of the great leaders and definitely

great golf leaders of all time. Still is. I mean come on. We can’t take that away from him, right?

How’s Lance Armstrong doing? How do you feel about that guy today? Can you imagine

a bigger liar? They will absolutely put for the rest of his history under the word liar, example,

Lance Armstrong. How tragic is that? How tragic is that? That’s not my opinion. That’s just what

it is. Okay? And he said he’d do it again. You got to put the man together, and when you don’t,

what happens to your world? It’s going to catch you.


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By the way, Hitler was an amazing leader. He was just amoral, right? How’d his life end?

He killed himself. He took his own life rather than be caught in what was going to happen to

him if he got caught? He’d be the most miserable existence a human being ever had for the rest

of his sorry life.

You can’t escape who you are. Your physical life will be a direct reflection of who you

decided you will be. And remember, what’s the word history? If you make it into two words,

what is it? His story. Study words. Study them. What do you want your story to be? You’ll write

it here first and it will play out in the real world, but it’s all written in here. It’s all written in

here.

STORY: TO BE HUMAN MEAN YOU HAVE CHOICE

Let’s look at building a life with great purpose. So the question is, are you an intentional

individual or are you an accidental tourist? Are you a determined determiner or a drifting

drifter? Are you a meaningful specific or a wandering generality? Are you making a life or just

making a living? Are you following your own plan or somebody else’s? Is the song in your head

my way or is it dust in the wind? Are you using your time to make your mark or are you just

marking time? Are you making time count or are you just counting time? Is the theme of your

life no time to kill or is it just killing time? Are you living a life of purpose or are you just living?

See to be human means you have a choice. Animals really don’t have a choice, do they?

First dog I had, Mary and I got when we got married. We had a Doberman named Sadie.

Long story how we ended up with Sadie, but a precious dog. What’s interesting is what Sadie

did during the day when we weren’t home. She had her own area and it was a big area. It was

almost a thousand square feet of of play area, just for her. What’s interesting is, that when she

passed away and I went back to her gated area where she was during the day when we weren’t

home. She hadn’t built any doggie condos; she hadn’t subdivided it; she hadn’t cleaned it up;

she hadn’t made it look nicer. It was a mess. It was a dog’s pen. And every dog pen I’ve ever

been in looked just like that. Hadn’t done anything. Why? Because dogs don’t have choice like

that.


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You’re different. You have a choice. You get to make decisions. And when you realize

that, you realize that the first purpose in life is to seek the highest relationship possible with the

omnipresent. You did not invent yourself. To me, the religious quest is asking the question what

did, right? Now we can bring an atheist in here and they would say no, the quest is to figure out

science. And you would say, whatever dude. At the end of the day, to me the religious quest,

and it’s just my opinion, is to answer the question where did I come from?

Does science disprove God? Well Bill Meyers is going to say yes. He’s going to say it,

right? Bill Meyers is going to say, absolutely. Watch his show on Saturday night HBO. He’s a

confirmed atheist and thinks religious people are idiots, right? I watch and I think he’s

hysterical. I also think he’s really, really brilliant. And when he makes those statements I just sit

back and think, “you’re an idiot”. That’s what I think of him when he makes that statement.

Now he would say I’m an idiot and I would say no. My definition of religion is simply asking the

question where’d I come from? Science will never disprove religion. My bigger point to him is

I’ll guarantee you’ll never know the answer by the time you die. So in essence you’re arguing

for answers you don’t even know and you’ll never know. Now that’s my view of it. Then he calls

me an idiot, so I just call him one back. And we’ll both die without knowing.

Remember I said words are purposeful. Why are you called a human being, not a human

doing? Isn’t that a weird choice of words? No, it’s very insightful. And that means that your

ancestry, the people that lived before you, had an inner sense that it’s about being, not doing.

It’s being and doing but it’s being first and then doing. You’re a human being, not a human

doing. Just an interesting observation about words. If you want to call yourself a human doing

from now on, go for it. But your ancestors called you a being.

So I think you have a spiritual destiny and I think you have a physical destiny.

Remember, it’s first creation, second creation. Remember, I’m building a model for you. You

can change it anyway you want. I’m going to make an argument that it’s first creation, second

creation. It’s inside to the outside. It’s spiritual and it’s physical. The spiritual destiny of a

human being by the way is to answer the question where’d I come from? And to build a

relationship with whatever that is. Number two, is to bring additional meaning of purpose to

our lives and by doing so take our spirituality to a higher level. To take whatever purpose or


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understanding we have about where we come from, and giving additional meaning to that, and

that is the physical journey. That’s all it is. It’s a physical destiny. And you combine your physical

and your spiritual journeys to create the best journey you possibly can. So let’s look at this

formula: mission, vision, values, beliefs, and perspective.


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TIME WAITS FOR NO ONE

TRADITIONAL THREE-PHASE VIEW OF LIFE

So what we’re going to talk about is how we’re going to lead our life. And to do that,

we’re going to have to be intentional. In life most people traditionally view life in three phases.

I don’t know where that came from but we do it. And if you think about it, you you might be

there as well… the education phase, the work phase and the retirement phase. You with me?

What phase are you in right now?

Well here’s an interesting ah-ha. So if you turn the page and look at it, you see how that

turns into boxes, right? Where if you say, well I’m in the education, learning phase. Well how

much time are you devoting to work? Not much. And how much time are you devoting to play?

Not much.

So then you turn around and you say okay, I’m going to sacrifice. And I get that by the

way. If you haven’t read the book The Defining Decade by Meg Jay, get that book and read that

book. If there were any book I could get you to read right now, it would be The Defining

Decade, because you’re in it. The statistics and the research behind what this lady’s going to tell

you will blow your mind. It will wake you to realize that when you’re in your late teens, 20s, and

all the way to your early 30s, you are in a period in your life that defines everything beyond that

more than you realize. And it is it is factual research.

You’re in a key moment. So there is going to be some sacrifice. Make no mistake about

that. But then you look up and then you say okay, now it’s time to work and I’ll guarantee you,

what most people do is they quit learning. They quit learning and they’re still not giving much

time to play. And then hopefully they’re going to get to retirement or they’re going to get to an

age where they feel like they’ve earned the right. It’s now time for me to play. Well let me tell

you a story about that.


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STORY: YOU DON’T GET BACK WHAT YOU MISSED

I remember interviewing a guy for a business position and I caught him on vacation on

his cell phone. He had just come in off a new sailboat he had bought for his family. He was a

very rich man, very successful. And we were talking about a business deal. I’m thinking to

myself, you’re on vacation and you’re on the phone talking to me. That’s foolish. What are you

doing that for, right? I’m thinking, you got to be kidding me, right? But what was interesting is

the statement he made to me. He says, well you know, I spent the last ten years working and I

missed everything. Now I’m making up for lost time. And I’m thinking to myself he’s got these

teenage kids, right? And I’m thinking to myself, I don’t know how you make up missing a five

year old’s birthday party. How do you make that up? You don’t get that back. You’re either in

the photograph or you’re not. You don’t get it back. You weren’t there; you weren’t there. You

don’t get it back. If you miss the little league game, you missed it. You don’t make up for it later.

Trust me. You don’t make up for it. We didn’t do business together. I don’t buy into that.

STORY: PUTTING OFF PLAY UNTIL LATER IN LIFE

My wife’s mother, who I’ve never met, is a good example of this. She was a school

teacher and the last year of her teaching career, which my wife says was the most stressful year

of her life, she got cancer. She retired and then she passed away. Now what’s interesting about

that, two things I’ll tell you. Number one is, growing up, my wife says that she would go to the

fabric story and they would buy fabric and patterns. Then her mother would go to her closet

and she would put the fabric and the patterns in the closet. This was her “someday closet”.

“When I retire, I’m going to pull all this out. I’m going to make the clothes. We’ve saved our

money and we’re going to travel and see the world.”

So they never did any of that. She died. When my wife went to help her father clean out

the home, what did she discover? The closet. Yeah she opened it up and it was an emotional

experience when she opened the closet up and there were all the patterns and all the fabric

untouched. Now her father, whom I did know, passed away a few years ago. He couldn’t spend

the money because he didn’t feel like it was his. He felt guilty the rest of his life over the fact


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that he lived and had the money and she died and never got to spend it. He didn’t spend it. He

wouldn’t spend it. He would not spend it on himself. It wasn’t an amazing amount of money,

but he would not spend it. He died having not spent it.

POSTPONEMENT PRINCIPLE

If you think there are promises on this planet and that you’ll be alive tomorrow, that’s

foolish. You have no guarantee. One day you will wake up and it will be your last day. One day I

will wake up. It will be my last day. I may see it coming. I may not. There are no promises.

You’re not playing a game that makes you promises. And to live your life in such a way that you

that you you feel like you’ve cut a deal with God or your maker or science or whatever it is you

think you cut a deal with, be very careful about that. There are no deals. There are no deals.

Okay? There are no promises.

If I can bring my wife in there and you interview her, she would definitely tell you that in

my 20s this was slightly eschewed towards work but not much. In other words, I wasn’t at the

office at six in the morning and I wasn’t at the office at six o’clock at night. And I didn’t work

weekends. I never traveled away from home for more than two days, ever. I never missed one

birthday party. I never missed one celebration or anniversary or holiday. I missed nothing.

You do not have to do that to be successful. Now I will say that it probably took me

longer to build my organization than it should have taken, or could have taken had I wanted to

miss things. But there was no deal or guarantee that I would be there for it, right?


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BALANCE IS BUNK

LIE: A BALANCED LIFE

There’s this idea that I need to live a balanced life and I want to tell you that a balanced

life is a lie. There’s no such thing as a balanced life. Let me demonstrate it for you. If I stand like

this, you would say that I’m balancing on one foot, right? But am I balancing. Look at my right

foot. Look at it. What’s it doing? Is it balanced? It’s not still is it? What is it doing? It’s constantly

adjusting. It’s counter balancing. Right? It’s counterbalancing.

Balance is an illusion. It’s not real. When you hear people say, I want a balanced life; I

want more balance in my life. Tell them to wake up. I’m kidding. But understand that they just

repeated something that isn’t real. If you go look at science, is there any such thing? Is there

anything that isn’t moving in life? No.

That’s a fact, by the way. There is nothing that doesn’t move. Everything moves. So this

idea of balance is an illusion. If you wake up in the morning and you think that it’s all going to

be balanced, you’re nuts and you’re going to go psycho over time because you’re going to be

chasing something that isn’t even real. It’s not real.

So what is real? We call it counterbalancing. Counterbalancing is a better way to look at

it. You could come with your own language. I call it counterbalancing. It’s this idea again of

recognizing that you’re going to get out of balance and the question isn’t do you get out of

balance? It’s how long you stay out of balance. Okay? So don’t pursue balance you guys. Pursue

counterbalance.

How many days would go without exercising before you need to counterbalance back?

Well if you went two weeks, that’s too long. Okay? So then you recognize, you can go three

days and not exercise and it doesn’t disrupt my routine. I might even be able to go a week or

whatever, but past that I have to pull it back in. You’re going to travel. How far away are you

going to be from your family before you counterbalance back? By counterbalance back, I mean

you go the other way and if you were gone three days, you give them three days. Did you hear

that? Okay there you go.


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Here’s what I discovered on my cholesterol. I checked it regularly and I realized I could

cheat one day a week and not affect it. Meaning, I can go out of balance only one day. If I go

out of balance two days and go have my blood checked, guess what we discover? My bad

cholesterol goes up and I’m at a higher risk for heart issues. So how many days you want to go

out of balance on your diet if you have high cholesterol? One day. You don’t get to go eat

brisket every day for four days. Does that make sense? Okay.

So everything is about counterbalancing. In other words, perfection is overrated. You’re

never going to be in balance. What you’re going to be doing is constantly adjusting and it’s

going to look like this where you’re balancing back and forth like that. Does that make sense?

Okay. That’s all this is saying is just it’s a counterbalancing issue.


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THE DILEMMA

THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE AND SUCCESS

Here’s the dilemma you have. You wake up every morning and you say man, the world is

amazing. I want to know it all, have it all and do it all. Man, I can’t wait to hit it. What’s the

problem here? You’re not going to do it. You’re not going to know it all? There’s too much to

know. How many books can you read a year. You’re not going to know it all? You can’t know it

all. Okay. And you say oh, I’m going to have it all. You can’t have it all. The richest guy on the

planet can’t even buy a state. You can’t have it all. You can’t have it all, okay. And you say ah,

but I’m going to do it all and wake up and chase everything. Good luck with that. You can’t do it

all. There’s not enough time to do it all. You will not see every inch of ground on this planet

before you leave it. You’re not. Most likely you’ll never see every country. You may not even

see every state in the United States. You definitely will not visit every city. Nobody has. You

won’t know it all, have it all or do it all.

Then what do I do? See the circle represents knowing it all. The pie shape represents

what you will know. The circle represents everything. If you had everything, you’d have the

circle. Your life is represented by the pie shape. That’s what you will have. And oh by the way,

the circle represents everything that you could ever do on the planet. If you did the entire

circle, you’ve done it all. Your life will be that slice of pie. It’s your slice of life by the way. Now

how does that happen? What will you know, have and do? You get to decide for the most part,

okay? And that’s the challenge, making peace with that.

MAKING CHOICES

You have to make decisions and you have to have a better criteria than ever before.

Why? Because you have more choices. If you just go back 50 years, folks only had three soft

drinks. You didn’t have a lot of choice. You either take that flavor, that flavor or that flavor.

Today, how many choices do you have? You have 400 hot sauce choices alone, right? You go to

the chip aisle at the grocery store, how big is it now? It used to be, it was either Lay’s or Fritos,


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right? Here are your choices. Potato chip or a Frito. What do you have now? You have 15

different flavors of a potato chip. And then do you want salted or unsalted? Do you want it

roasted or baked, right? Do you want it fried? You got all these choices. How are you going to

decide?

This is my whole point about building models and having mentors. If you don’t build a

model around how you think the world works, what’s your filter for making a decision? When

you walk out tomorrow morning and you decide to do something, watch something, read

something, eat something, enjoy something, whatever. How are you going to decide? Good

Lord. How many songs are on iTunes that you can buy? Every day how many new songs are

being pushed? How do you filter that? You can’t win the race. You can’t listen to all of it. Oh

dude, let me listen to that. Dude, let me listen to that one. I mean how many songs can you

listen to a day?

So the question is, don’t average your life. You have to have an extraordinarily good way

to make good decisions or you’re going to make average decisions. And what you’ll notice from

most people here guys is they don’t have a way of making extraordinary decisions. They make

average choices because they use an average approach to making a choice. Does that make

sense?

It’s like Forrest Gump. Average is as average does. When you use an average approach

to making decisions, what results do you get? Is that a big ah-ha? And research validates this.

Where I had huge success, I narrowed my concentration to one thing and where my success

varied, so did my focus.

A LIFE WITH NO REGRET

See I’m convinced at the end of the day, that when you and I are on our death bed, if

we’re cognizant, if we’re aware, what’s going to matter most is having no regret. I know it

sounds like kind of a negative way to look at life, but I would highly encourage you to look at life

as at the end of my day I want to be able to say I’m glad I did, not I wish I had. What you did is

not going to haunt you. What’s going to haunt you? When you’re 102 years old and you’re lying


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on your death bed surrounded by everyone you love, if you’re haunted by anything, you’ll be

haunted by regret.

How do I know this? Well because people have lived before you. You aren’t the first

people on this planet and the people that have lived before you, the men and women that have

lived lives before you’ve lived yours have told us this. They have said the number one problem

or challenge that people have as they get older is regret. And what’s the number one regret?

What do you think it is? You’re 105 years old. If you have any regret at all, what would it be?

What research says is on top of the list by all people. Not doing something. They’re all not doing

something.

Now what is the number one? There’s a book called The Six Regrets of the Dying People.

And the research is real clear. What do you think it is? The number one regret was I didn’t live

my life.

So we begin our life understanding that the end of our life, the number one regret that

we’re most likely to have is, I didn’t lead my life. I lived other people’s lives. I chewed my

fingernails without knowing why. I have an unexamined life. So how do we give ourselves

purpose?

Well there’s an interesting formula for that and it’s called mission, vision, values, beliefs

and perspectives. We’ll get to that in a second. But there’s a simple little formula that you can

follow. And then when we look at how we spend our time, our second creation, our physical

world, the world of doing, we take action. Our actions are determined by two things, habits and

relationships.

Most of what you are is habit. Do you think you’re spontaneous 24 hours a day? Yes or

no? No. You wish you were maybe, but you’re not. You’re not. In fact, the only way you could

actually live a functional life is to have habit. If in fact you had to think of everything every day

all over again, it wouldn’t work. So we build habit.

When you wake up in the morning most likely the first set of things you do for the first

hour or what? All habit. What side of the bed you sleep on? I mean do you actually crawl into a

bed and go what side do I think I’ll sleep on tonight? I mean do you say, “I wonder what pillow I


28

will use tonight?” No pillow tonight. I mean is it an adventure every day? When you get up and

go into the shower or get into the bathtub, is it an adventure? Do you go in there to shower and

say what body part will I soap up first? Are you thinking about it, yes or no? No you go to shave.

If you shave, do you think about it? No, of course not. No, you routinely do the same dag gone

thing just like that.

If you’ve gotten into a habit and it’s a bad habit, you’ll call it a rut. You have worn that

route out. Man, you just drive right down that road every day just like that. Habit’s a good

thing. Habit’s not a bad thing. Habit’s a really good thing. But you got to understand something.

What habits do you have? Have you decided which habits drive your life?

Well I’m going to present an argument with you today, there’s not many habits that you

have to have. In other words, you can be spontaneous and you can have all these other things

you do, but I’m going to argue there’s a handful of habits you need to have and you need to be

purposeful if you want an abundant life, if you want the best life possible. Okay? That’s the

argument I’m going to make.

So look at it this way. It’s kind of the ying and the yang, right? It’s the spiritual and the

physical. It’s the psychology determines your biology. Your biology determines your psychology.

Your psychology creates biology. Your biology then in turn creates your psychology and

together they add together to write your biography. You with me? It’s the inside. It’s the spirit.

It’s your soul. It’s love, thoughts, emotions, and feelings, right?

RECAP: THE DILEMMA OF DESIRE AND SUCCESS

You can’t know it all, have it all or do it all. Maybe one of the most important things we

can say to ourselves is, we can’t know it all, have it all or do it all. See, if you could know it all,

have it all, and do it all, you wouldn’t have to make any choices, would you? You would just

know it all, do it all and have it all. But since you can’t know it all, you have to decide what

you’re going to know and what you’re not going to know. You can’t do it all, so you have to

decide what you are going to do and not do. And you can’t have it all, so you get to decide what

it is what you are going to try to have and what you’re going to not have.


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So all of a sudden you wake up one day and you go, holy cow, life is about choice. The

most important thing that I can do from childhood to adulthood is accepting that my life is

about choice. Now how do you make good choices? See that becomes the question, right? Did

you take a choice class? Is that college 101 or 102? Or is that high school? They didn’t let you

make good choices until you’re a senior, so as a senior in high school they said, now we got to

teach you how to make good choices. You ever take a class on it called good choices? Crazy isn’t

it?

It’s crazy because I’m telling you this and you’re thinking about whether I’m right or

wrong, but the older you get, you’re going to reflect back on what I said to you, what the man

in black, with the gray moustache said. And you’re going to say, crud, he was right. Now the

sooner you can accept that without having to think it through, the better off you’re going to be.

Just accept this as a truth. It’s true.

So if no one ever taught how to do it, when did you expect to learn how to make good

choices? Did you expect to learn through experience? Yeah, well that could kill you, couldn’t it?

I’m not going to jump off that building again. Yeah. There’s an interesting thing, right? Yeah.

You can shorten the learning curve. Yes, experience is typically how we do it. You can learn

from others. You can learn from yourself, right? Learning from others is probably the faster way

because you don’t have to experience it. You can just say, you know what, I saw that guy jump

and die. I’m not doing that. Okay.

You can learn from others, but here’s the trick. You’d better go purposefully learn

though. Otherwise you’re just a rolling stone down the hill, learning based upon the

experiences you have instead of the experiences you choose. See, we said in our last class,

remember, you get to choose your role models. You get to choose your profits in your life. You

get to choose your mentors. You get to choose your friends. You get to choose your teachers. In

the end, you get to choose all of that. In the absence of choice, experience will be your teacher,

but on what speed? What speed?

And if you don’t know to go experience that or you don’t hang out with people who can

teach you that, when are you going to experience it? That’s right. You might never experience it


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or you might wake up at age 57 and say, I could have had a V8. Wow! I wish I had known to try

to experience that earlier in life.

I was very blessed, and this is pure luck, but for every job that I ever had that I had a

boss from the time I was 14, they were all millionaires. I never actually reported to anybody

except when I was a wing director at Baylor, right? Short of that, everyone in my entire life that

I reported to either was a millionaire or became a multi-millionaire. I didn’t choose that by the

way. That was one of those lucky or unlucky situations, however you look at it. It was one of

those chance situations that that every time I walked up to someone and said what do I do

now, it was someone who was either financially wealthy or on their way to being financially

wealthy.

The guy that I worked for in high school in my summer out of college turned out

ultimately to become the wealthiest man in my town and I was his gopher for a couple years. I

literally reported to Mr. Speed. Now what happens to your life when the people you report to

from the age of 14 until the age of 26 are all rich, financially rich? What do you think happens to

your mindset about money and how you get it and how you behave?

Like if you were Sean Lennon, right? It’d be like if you were Stella McCartney. It’d be

like, if you were Charlie Sheen. That you woke up every day and we were exposed to what?

Phenomenal acting and phenomenal music, right? Or if you’re Bob Dylan’s son. What do you

wake up and experience every day? Do you see my point?

Now they didn’t choose that, did they? He didn’t say somewhere in the cosmos I want

to be born to Bob Dylan, you know. But as a result of those experiences, how does that lead

your life? Right. So you get to sit here today and you no longer get to be a rolling stone. You get

to actually decide and start making choices based upon what you see in the world and then go

for that. So I’m taking a little of your innocence away today, okay? You no longer have the right

to be a victim, because you’ve been told now. Go make better choices.

And choose relationships that can enhance your life, right? Remember, no one succeeds

alone, but no one fails alone either. So at the end of the day, the relationships that you have

will actually determine the level of achievement that you have in most areas of your life. We’re


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not just talking about money here. We’re talking spiritually, we’re talking physically, and we’re

talking about relationships. We’re talking all categories of your life. Who you choose to

associate with will define you more than any other choice you make. Again, I didn’t fully

understand that and I probably didn’t fully appreciate that until my 30s, okay? Prior to that I, I

gathered relationships out of caring and friendship and there’s nothing wrong with that, right?

But all of a sudden I woke up one day and I went wow, I can actually be purposeful and choose

relationships that can have a huge impact on my experience at life. And the better the

relationship or the better the choice, what happens? The better my health and the better my

religious or spiritual experience will be. The better my financial wealth will be. The better my

relationships will be. Make sense?


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YOUR MIND MAP

AN OPERATING MODEL

So you have some material in front of you. Let’s take a look at this. This sheet of paper

right here is kind of your guide. Now I’m hoping that you won’t write on each of these pages,

that you’ll write on the white page. The reason is because everything that I’m giving you, every

page in here I consider a map. Some of these pages I want you to go back and Xerox and I want

you to tape them up or tack them somewhere in your life until you have them memorized, until

you literally see this map in your head. I’ll point them out as I go.

Now again, these are my maps. You’re more than welcome, and I would highly

encourage you, to go on a journey for the rest of your life, continuing to update this map. Over

time it becomes your language; it’s the way you see it; it’s how you feel about it; it’s your map.

So one of the cool things that I learned, and this was later in life, is that we get to pick

our models, our truths, and our profits. You get to decide what you think is the truth. You get to

decide which models you follow. You get to decide who you’re going to listen to.

At the end of the day, what we want to do, what I want you to do, is to reduce your

assumptions and your thoughts to an operating model. Some people would say that’s over

thinking a little bit. I don’t think so. I don’t think so. If you’re trying to have the best way

possible, you’re going to need to operate from a fundamental truth and a fundamental model,

whether it be about your religion, whether it be about your health, whether it be about your

personal relationships, whether it be how you raise your dog.

If you want the best dog possible, then decide what you believe about how dogs behave

and how you help dogs behave the way they should behave or you need them to behave to

have the best relationship with them. And then get a model for that and then follow the dang

gone model.

Each of you I’m sure has a cell phone of some kind. That little piece of hardware exists

because someone developed some fundamental truths about how science works. Then they

created models on how to research it to figure it out and then they created models on how to


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build it. They don’t walk into the manufacturing plant every day and say well, need to make

some more cell phones today. How will we do it? That sounds stupid, doesn’t it? They come up

with a fundamental way to do it. And how do they know that it’s going to work almost every

time? Because they followed the process, right? And they followed the same process.

I’m simply calling those truths and models. Now a lot of people again, immediately turn

me off. Some of you are turning me off right now and that’s okay because it’s your life, okay.

But I’m telling you right now, if you want the most out of it, leave your mind open and

recognize that there are a handful of things that you can do, just a few things that can radically

change your life and separate you from everybody else. Now take it from somebody who’s

done that in a highly competitive industry, and has done it in the world. Okay? All right.

THE 4 AREAS OF PRODUCTIVITY

Putting in the time doesn’t equate to productivity. Time is not money. People say all the

time that time is money. How you use the time is money. It’s the concept of productivity. You

can be busy or you can be productive. They’re not the same thing. Most of the adults that I

hang out with are mildly productive. They’re not that productive. What I mean by that is they

have not established clear goals for what they want to do and then working and making it a

priority to get those things done, because that would be the definition of productivity. Having a

goal and achieving it is productive.

I use the word productivity. I don’t use achievement. I don’t use success. You’ll discover

today I choose my words carefully. I don’t say things idly. Okay. So when I say it, I’m being

purposeful. When I choose the word productivity, I chose it for a reason. Why did I choose it?

You have the word success and you have the word productive. I’ll guarantee you that

Coach Briles doesn’t go to the team right before they go on the field and say let’s be

productive. But it would be a better word. It would be the correct word. Now why? Why is

Productivity a better word than calling it Life Success, Personal Success, Business Success, and

Financial Success? Why is it a better word?


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Study words. What’s really cool is that words were invented to explain something.

They’re not idle. No word was created idly. Trust me. So why would we need a word like

productive and success if they were the same thing? Why would someone invent that word? It

has to do with intent.

Success is about getting what you want. You can be successful and not be productive.

You can’t be productive and not be successful. When we talk about productivity, we’re talking

about intent. We’re talking about you having an intentional life; that your health is intentional;

that your spiritual and religious life is intentional; that your relationships are intentional; that

your business achievements are intentional.

It’s so easier than you can imagine. That’s the cool thing. It’s not complicated. Now

we’re going to spend a lot of time today talking and your head’s going to spin, trust me. It will.

I’m going to fill it up. I don’t expect you to get it all. I expect you to revisit this material the rest

of your life. But it’s actually simpler than you think. But we have to go to the complicated in

order for me to work backwards to get you to buy into how simple it’s going to be. That’s the

cool thing.

I’m out of college and I got to tell you, I chuckled like a kid who’s been locked inside the

candy store when I discovered to my surprise that success and achievement was a lot easier

than I had imagined. Then I really chuckled when I realized that most people fight it. They fight

it. They are their own worst enemy. People walk around and think they are successful because

of what they do. I will guarantee you most people are where they are in spite of what they do.

In other words, we are all born enabled to greatness and to not achieve that means you’ve

done something to get in the way of yourself. Does that make sense? Now again, at your age I’d

have no idea what I’d be talking about, so if you don’t, I get that too.

I use the word productivity and I divide it into four categories. And again this is just a

model. Again, you can sit there and say man, this dude thinks too much. Now you got to

understand, this is autobiographical. You’re getting this presented as a model. I was asked to

just talk randomly about how I built my life. My aha was that I was actually following models.

My other aha was that I had fully thought through. My real power came as a gift when I was


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asked to talk about my life and I found all the holes that I hadn’t filled in. Then I filled them in

and real power started to happen in my life.

So I’d put it into four categories. Life, personal, business and financial. So when we talk

about life productivity, what I’m talking about is maximizing your life meaning potential. I’m

talking about your life. I’m talking about your career. I’m not talking about a business you might

work in or own. I’m not talking about your money. I’m talking about you, uniquely you. If we

can get clear on that then we can jump over and we can talk about maximizing your career,

your job.

So personal productivity is how you’re going to go out and do something worthwhile in

the world. Now remember we’ve already figured out who we are and that has a direct impact

on what you want to go do in the world. Now what are you going to do? Get after it.

Business productivity. So we draw the line right there because we’ve already figured out

who we are and what we want to do to make a difference in the world and receive economic

remuneration for it. What are these two things? Well businesses, do you want to start a

business? I didn’t necessarily want to start one. Many people said I was destined to. I got into

the top very fast. I was in the number two position in the largest firm in my city and I

discovered something. I discovered he could fire me at any moment and he had a history of

taking back all the equity and opportunities he’d given people. And I went holy cow. And I

watched a guy in his 40s who was devastated when he had his equity taken back from him. And

the guy was furious and resigned. And I looked up and I went, I’m not going to give this guy 20

years and then let him do that to me. I’m not going to work under those terms.

Now it wasn’t meant I was destined to leave by the way. He was just unwilling to give

me terms that were acceptable for me to build his wealth. Does that make sense? Do you hear

what I said? Yeah. So I left. Right? I left. And I left because I’m going to create the rules now.

When you have a career, you will be working in a business. It may be a self-employed

business. It may be a business owned by someone else. It may be a private business. It may be a

publicly held business. But it will be someone else’s business. Okay? And we’re going to talk

about how in our in our next session together, we’ll talk about how businesses succeed and fail.


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The simplicity of it. It’s a lot simpler than you might imagine by the way. And then the last thing

we’re going to talk about is your money.

STORY: PUT THE MAN TOGETHER AND THE WORLD FALLS INTO PLACE

So a young man goes to his father one afternoon and he says dad, we never spend

enough time together. And the father, who loved his son very much, knew that this was

basically true as of late. He had been very busy. He says, you know what, you’re right. I love you

and I’m sorry. Tomorrow is Saturday. We will spend the entire day together. The little boy goes

to bed that night excited because tomorrow is Dad day.

Dad goes to bed knowing he needs to get up a little earlier because he still wants to

have his morning routine before he spends the day with his son. So he gets up a little earlier.

He’s downstairs. He’s got his paper open. He’s drinking his favorite beverage, coffee out of his

favorite mug, and enjoying the Saturday morning.

All of a sudden, the paper gets pulled down. The little boy’s behind it and he says dad,

I’m up. The dad of course loves his son and he’s totally delighted that he’s awake. At the same

time he’s thinking, I just need a few more minutes to finish the coffee and the paper.

So he starts racking his brain real quick. What can I do? What can I do? How can I keep

my word and buy a little time? You’ll discover this later as a parent. All parents do this, lovingly,

of course.

And so he remembered a few pages over in the paper he had seen a map of the world, a

picture of the globe. And so he says, all right, first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to play

a game. He went to that map of the world and he tore it into pieces and he dropped it on the

table and he said okay, we’re going to put a puzzle together. I’m going to let you start and see

how far you can go and then when you get stuck, I’ll step in to help you. But I want you to try

really hard, give it all you got.

And the little boy, not knowing what’s going on, says okay. And so he sets to playing

with the puzzle and his dad pops his paper back up you know, going all right, this is easy. This is


37

an easy ten to fifteen minutes. Not a few minutes later, the little boy pulls the paper back

down. He says dad I’m done. And the dad looks over, and with surprise and parental pride,

realizes the puzzle’s done.

How did you do that? The little boy says well, it was tough for a second. But I played

with the pieces and then I dropped one on the floor. When I went to pick it up, because it’s a

glass table, I looked up and it looked like there was a face of a man. So I went and grabbed he

scotch tape dad, and I flipped everything over and I put the man together. And when I did, the

world just fell into place.


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