Welcome back to the school of greatness, my friend. I'm Lewis Howes, your host. And today we are thrilled to have back the legendary Robin Sharma, a globally respected leader, expert, and best selling author. In this episode, we dive into the common traps and mistakes that even the wealthiest people in the world fall into and the areas that truly matter beyond material success. We discussed the difference between material wealth and authentic wealth. And Robin breaks down the habit stack of super wealthy people, which I loved, providing us with a roadmap to not just financial abundance, but a rich life in purpose and meaning. Get ready to discover the secrets to authentic wealth and abundance with Robin Sharma.

You've got to believe in your vision when no one believes in your vision until the world believes in your vision.

Today's guest is an international best selling author. He's penned over 20 books, several of which have set sales right across the globe.

And he was ranked as one of.

The top five leadership experts in the world. The best selling author of the 05:00.

A.M.. Club, Robin Sharma. Words are powerful. Words are programmed. We talked about programming. One of the antidotes to limitation, scarcity, fear, is you start to reprogram by using wealth words. Words are very powerful and they plant seeds in the subconscious which determine our behaviors. I'm going to get away from the noise so I can hear the signal, and I'm going to create something so beautiful, so disruptive when you come back and release it. I mean, people sniff quality a mile away and they're aching for magic.

What's the biggest thing you've had to let go of in your life that held you back the most?

You always ask the hardest questions out of anyone, of anyone.

You talk about the habit stack of super wealthy people. Can you walk us through this habit stack that wealthy people have?

Thing I would say is.

Welcome back, everyone, to the school of greatness. Very excited about our guests. We have the inspiring Robin Sharma in the house. You have sold over 25 million copies of your books. You have impacted millions of lives through your workshops, your speaking, your mentorship, your coaching. You've worked with some of the biggest athletes, superstars, billionaires, artists in the world. You've got a number of massive books, but you've got a big one out right now that I think is going to change a lot of lives. The eight hidden habits to live your richest life. It's called the wealth money can't buy. I'm excited about this, but before we dive in, Robin, welcome back. I haven't seen you in a few years, but we've been connected over phone and text and voicemail for a while. But I wanted to first start, before I jump into the first question about the difference between wealth and authentic wealth, which I'm going to get to in a second, there is one thing that you told me in one of the last couple interviews we've done that has really transformed the way I think and feel about myself and life. And I don't know if you remember this, but the first time we met, I was going through a big challenge in my life.

I'd just gone through a breakup, and I was dealing with some chatter and some confusion online and people trying to say nasty things about me. And I remember feeling a lot of emotional uncertainty. And this was happening maybe a week before you came on the show, and I was kind of unloading on you emotionally right before we got on. And you told me a line that I said many times since five, six years ago that I repeat all the time when anyone else is going through a challenge in their life. And the line you said is that a bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul. And I've repeated that over and over again to people when they're going through a difficult time or when I'm going through a challenging time. So I first want to acknowledge you, Robin, for being at the right place at the right time for me, when I was going through a challenge and sharing your wisdom from your experience in life, when you've gone through challenges and just speaking life into me at the right moment for me, because it really gave me perspective that a bad day for the ego is actually a great day for the soul.

So I just wanted to start with that and thank you and acknowledge you for your wisdom and your experience. And we can get back to that. But I want to start with this question around wealth, because I think that also connects to wealth. I think a lot of people want to feel wealthy and they think of financial wealth first. But you talk about these different levels of wealth in life, and I want to get to some of these other levels in a minute. But I want to ask you first about the difference between what is authentic wealth versus normal wealth, if we could start there.

Sure. Well, first of all, we're really happy to be helpful.

Yes.

And thanks for being so generous in what you just said. So. We live in a fascinating world, Louis. We've been hypnotized and mesmerized by society to believe that winning is a large stock portfolio. Get the yacht, get the watch, get the fame, fortune and applause and one day you'll wake up and you'll feel fantastic. And anyone who has achieved those things will tell you. And just to use the Zen proverb, wherever you go, there you are. So I think too many good souls have fallen into a trap of thinking. If I just had the right amount of money and I achieved material wealth, everything will be okay. Well, for 15 plus years, this is year 31, I've been in the personal mastery leadership field. But for 15 plus years, I've worked with many of the world's celebrity billionaires, entertainment legends, and sports superstars. And I can tell you personally that some of those people, if not many of those people, are cash rich but life poor. So the wealth money can't buy is based on the eight forms of wealth. Money is one of the forms of wealth. I'm not going to sit here and say money is not important.

It puts food on the family table, allows us to do amazing things for the people we love, allows to serve those in need. It allows us not to get backed into the corner to make decisions we don't want to make. But there are seven other forms of wealth that when we pursue them, we find authentic wealth, real riches versus financial fortune, where we become worldly, successful, but empty of heart. And I think in this social media age, there are just so many people. I mean, we're tribal. We have a neurobiological instinct to follow the crowd. We have mirror neurons. So we do what the mass of people is doing. But what's the point of climbing a mountain, spending our best years doing it, only to realize at the end of a quarter decade lifetime, we climb the wrong mountain. And so what I'm trying to do is show people a map or framework of real wealth, and it has eight forms, not just money.

What is the, what do you think is the most influential form of wealth outside of money, that people are missing today?

I think many of many of the seven, aside from money, I would say service is incredibly important. Before we went on, I hope you don't mind me saying, but you set an intention to be of service. And I think it's very easy to think, oh, that's some kind of a metaphysical or philosophical idea. But if you want to be a great entrepreneur, for example, be monomaniacally focused on distributing as much value as possible to human beings. Our job as an entrepreneur is to push magic into the marketplace. And when you push magic into the marketplace, in a world that celebrates mediocrity, you stand out, you differentiate, create fanatical followers. But service is also remembering that in this age of Pauly crisis, you know, people need to be seen. Services even listening to someone, services seeing someone in need and helping them in some way. Service is just being as helpful as possible. So I think service is a form of wealth. Mahatma Gandhi said it beautifully. He said, to lose yourself in service of others is to find yourself. So we're all looking to find ourselves, to find fulfillment, happiness. And it's such a paradox, but we find that happiness, we find that wealth when we give ourselves to others.

It's such an amazing paradox. In the book, I talk about a conversation I had in Barcelona. I don't know why I always befriend doormen at hotels or door people. And his name was Alberto. And so we were chatting, and I got the sense Alberto may not have realized what a giant he was. And so I said, alberto, it was a beautiful Barcelona day. I said, alberto, you know, if you uplift 100 people every day by being positive and polite and give them gifts of kindness and positivity, at the end of the year, that's 3000 plus people. At the end of a decade, it's 30,000 people. At the end of a lifetime, it's 300,000 people. I said, you can have a huge impact. So I think service would be one. I think family is one we miss. I think adventure is one we miss. Craft is a form of wealth we can talk about. I think we missed some of those.

Now, you mentioned service as one of the main forms of wealth. What would you say is the percentage of people in today's society in general that are missing service? It seems like a very self centered society, or at least what you see on social media, like you mentioned sometimes. But what do you think is the percentage of people that are missing service and are more focused on self in today's world?

The way I'd answer that, Louis, is if we are stuck in scarcity, then we are not going to stand for generosity. You know this so well. You teach it in your books and in your methodology. But our primary relationship with ourself determines every other relationship. And that's why the first form of wealth in the wealth money can't buy is growth. To develop yourself, to build a strong character, to get to know your heroic elements, to tap into your wisdom, to know how strong you are, to know your gifts and talents, to know how loving you can be is a form of wealth. I mean, intimacy with your mastery is a form of wealth. And the reason I made that the first form of wealth is the relationship with you determines every other relationship. And so if we're stuck in scarcity, and unfortunately, a lot of people are stuck in scarcity, and if you're stuck in scarcity, then you may not be of service, you may not be a few use, you may not, let's say you're building an app or building a business. You might not apply what I call the ten x value obsession.

Give your customers ten times the value they have any right to expect, so they beat a path to your door. If you look at most businesses, it's, how can I deliver the least amount of value and receive the most amount of money? And that's not a recipe for a global base of fanatical followers.

If someone feels like they are stuck in scarcity, and I like this idea, I want to be more generous, but I don't have much to give. I feel stuck. I'm in debt, I'm stressed, I'm overwhelmed, I'm burnt out. What would you say would be the first three things they could do to turn their scarce life into an abundant life?

Wow. I would say MVP. So, you know, as an athlete, that means most valuable player. It's also an acronym for meditation, visualization, and prayer. And I do my best. I'm certainly no guru, and I have a lot of work to do myself, but I've come a long way over these 25 years of deeply working on myself. And these days, I spend from 04:00 to 445 in MVP meditation, visualization, and prayer. And it works. An insecurity you want to move through a scarcity that's bothering you, you meditate on it. You visualize yourself being generous and brave and stronger and radiating goodness and strength in a world of emerging darkness. And then you pray. And I believe every prayer is heard. It's powerful. So that would be one tool. Another tool is, remember that gift giving doesn't mean you have to do something material. I just learned this incredible jap we were talking about Japan. I just learned this incredible japanese philosophy called intoku, which is secret gift giving.

Secret gift giving.

Secret gift, gift.

Without someone knowing you gave it.

Well, Louis, I think a gift given with their expectation of a reward isn't a gift, it's a trade. If I give you a gift and I go, hmm, I hope I get this from you, then it's not not a gift. And at some level, you're gonna sense it. So the second you ask for a tactic, the second tactic would be give secret gifts that nobody knows about.

Wow.

And it could be, and it doesn't have to be anything material. It could be I'm staying in a hotel here. I'm visiting you in Los Angeles. It could be simply understanding a room cleaner is going to come into the room after I leave to come on the school of greatness. Let me make sure the room is clean. Let me make, let me make the bed. Let me put the towels in the bathtub. Let me straighten up the room and leave a nice tip because someone's mother, father, son or daughter is going to be cleaning this room. That's a gift. I think that's a gift. So we can give gifts that way. In, in the book I actually talk about, it's full of philosophy and tactics, but I talk about the power of thank you notes. That's not expensive. But writing a thank you note to your mentor in this world of digital, writing a thank you note to someone you meet on an airplane or in a train or in a is, I mean, Louis, a hand writing what I love to do when I'm on the road, I love to write a letter to mom and dad.

My dad is going to be 87 in June. Wow. And just telling him what a force he's been in my life or writing a letter to my partner, Al, or my kids or of course, of course my mom. So I think there's lots of things we can do to be generous. And then it's a practice. The more you practice it, the more generous we automatically become.

MVP, meditation, visualization, prayer, gift giving and gift giving in secret. And thank you notes. Physical thank you notes. I think those are three inspiring and practical things that people could start to do. And if you don't have an hour a day to do the MVP, you could do five minutes a day. You can give a gift once a day, you can write a thank you note once a week. It doesn't have to be all time consuming, but I really love this process of getting outside of self and thinking of others. And I think that's a great step to turning yourself into more selfish or scarce thinking into abundance and opportunities and synchronicities into your life. So I love this, this process. And I don't think a lot of people think about this enough. I don't think they're thinking about how can I be generous and gift giving, how can I be generous in my acknowledgement? You know, something I love to do on this show for eleven years is acknowledge the guest in front of me. And I started with acknowledgement with you. I believe we talked about the power of intention right before we got on.

It's like setting an intention and acknowledging people. You mentioned people love to be seen. And if we can get out of self and think about others in some form or way, that unlocks a door to abundance. So I love this strategy, and I love these steps.

I would even say, louis, with our work, our work. A job is only a job if we see it as a job. And I think many people miss the opportunity for generosity as well as mastery. That's why it's the fourth form of wealth, and the wealth money can't buy. Seeing your work as your craft, seeing your work as noble. You're a coder, you're a yoga teacher, you're an airline pilot, an astronaut, a teacher, a firefighter. And you say, I'm on a mission. I want to be biw, best in world at what I do. And there's a chapter in the book called make your Project X. I think a lot of entrepreneurs, in my observation, I say this respectfully, but they suffer from chasing every shiny toy that shows up. I think one entrepreneur in particular, every time I meet him, he has a new business he's launching every time. It's the once in the lifetime opportunity that's consuming him. And this is going to be his liquidity event.

It's the newest and greatest technology.

It's the newest. And what I'm talking about with the Project X concept is in a world where we push out so much content and we rush to constantly be pushing out many things at mediocrity. I would say be one of those rare, rare souls who takes a year or three years, or, Louis, I talk about it in the book, the Duomo in Milan, 600 years to finish it in mastery.

Wow.

Are you willing, are we willing to spend 600 years on our Taj Mahal, our Eiffel Tower, our moonlight sonata, our catcher in the Rye?

Wow.

And I think, you know, you got me on this topic of generosity. It's. I just think it's so powerful. I spent a year of my life on this book. I can get into my writing process, if you're interested. But I suffered, but it was a beautiful suffering, but I suffered through so many drafts, so many iterations, so many resistances. Like this sentence, can't be done. You can't do this. That. And I think once we push our best out into the world through our project x, I think it's an act of, may I say it? Love.

Wow.

It's certainly an act of generosity, and I think this world needs more astonishment in it, more magic.

You mentioned in the book this concept of becoming a ghost or ghosting, like you just said there, where it's like, spend a year, two years, not being everywhere all at once, not putting out something every day, but actually deepening in your craft. In a world, especially with social media, where people feel like they need to be relevant constantly, they need to put out something every single day to draw an attention. How can someone have the confidence to become a ghost for six months or a year or two years to work on one project and not be anywhere else and know that it's going to succeed? What if they come back a year or two later and the world has changed? People don't remember who they are. They don't have an audience anymore. How do they deal with that? Insecurity, fear, or doubt?

Okay, that is. I love the question. I would say a few things.

So if they don't have 25 million copies sold in books already, if they're new, they're starting out, like, how can they navigate that?

Okay, there's a few things I would say. You can be in the world, or you can do your finest work. You can't do both.

Can you? Say it again.

You can be in the world, or you can do your finest work. You can't do both. Wow.

Okay, so what does that mean specifically?

Well, I would also say it means genius adores isolation. You want to get into flow state and do beautiful work. See, I. I would just rather be a minimalist versus a maximalist. I. JD Salinger is one of my heroes. He just published one book, happened to be catcher in the Rye. Vincent van Gogh. He only sold two paintings, but he's Vincent van Gogh. So I would say it's absolutely essential to leave the world regularly to do your best work, to get in a flow state, to create your mastery, to get this little, you know, a little seaside cottage. I mean, Ian Fleming of James Bond had goldeneye. There's a chapter in the book called find your personal Goldeneye. I would say to everyone, invest in a cottage, even if it's a hotel room or a motel room in your city or stacks in a library, but go ghost there. You don't have to go ghost for a year. I think it's a cool idea. Go to Tokyo, go to Columbia, go to Mexico City, go to Stockholm, go to South Africa for a year and create your masterwork. And be free from social media and meditate, pray, visualize, read the classics, work on your masterwork, chat with the locals, find yourself, and then come back born anew.

I think that's a powerful idea. And then how do you handle it? Well, you can build a team to run your social media, of course. You can check in once a week and go ghost six days a week, of course. Or you can go all in and be a gangster. Let's call it a ghost, a ghost gangster, and just go, I'm gonna get lost for a year. I'm gonna get away from the noise so I can hear the signal, and I'm gonna create something so beautiful, so masterful, so disruptive, so special because I'm not distracted. I'm just writing or doing the screenplay or building the business that when you come back and release it, I mean, people sniff quality a mile away, and they're aching for magic. And so let's say a book, you just get away from the world, then you come back with this masterpiece. People are going to find it.

I love this concept of becoming a ghost. For a period of time. I had a christian pastor on named Michael Todd that has a couple of New York Times best selling books and a big congregation, a big social media following, all these things. And he said, before he became a pastor, early on, he had a mentor that was a wiser pastor than him that was kind of teaching him how to come up and lead a congregation and be a good husband and a father and all these different things. And he said, every year, take a month off. Take a month off where you're not in the church, you're not working on a book, you're not creating something like you're going to be pouring your soul into service. Every week, take a month to recover, rejuvenate, relax, reflect. And he had a book a couple of years ago that was a, I think it was the number one New York time bestseller or top on the New York Times bestseller list for like, six weeks in a row. And his. He planned his month every year in advance, right? So he has. He knows it's going to be July or whatever it is.

And this was the six month week mark. Every week he was on the list, he was out promoting, he was marketing, and every week it hit the list. And then his time to stop promoting was up because his month of ghosting was coming up that next week. And when he came on, he said, the week I stopped promoting was the week it came off the New York Times bestseller list. And I said, couldn't you just push it a little farther? Like that ghosting month? Couldn't you just extend it and just keep going and bride the momentum? And he goes, I could, but then that could lead to burnout also. I scheduled this in specifically because I know greater things are to come on the other side, and I'm okay if it's not on the list that week or that month. And he said the reason this book was such a big success was because I got the idea from two years ago of that month off. That's when this idea came. And so he's like, I am sacred with this time. Even if amazing things are happening, I say no during that time. And I think that takes a lot of strength or power to say no in your season of ghosting, when you're recovering, reflecting, working on your masterpiece, or just allowing ideas, the signal, as you mentioned, to come to you.

So I just thought, that's interesting. And I like that you have this in the book. How can someone approach becoming a ghost when they have a lot going on or they're maybe living in scarcity, or they're month to month right now and they don't have the resources to extend for a year another country? How can they start to think of a ghosting season of their life?

Well, first of all, I think that's the key. It's seeing work and life in a series of seasons, almost like an athlete. You're on season and you have your off season. But I think that's the power of the eight forms of wealth model that the book is based around. We were talking about work and masterwork, but that's only one of the eight forms of wealth. The third form of wealth is family. So we don't want. That's why I don't subscribe to the hustle and grind culture. I talk about it in the book. You know, I was asked to mentor a multi billionaire. My team and I thought about it for a few weeks, decided I was going to do it. Show up at his house, never seen anything like it. Walked by his art collection, walked by his indoor car collection, walked by his library. Eventually went to this, down these stairs into this subterranean passageway. I could smell cigars, smoke from a mile away. I walk in, and there he is, the icon. So we talk for a few hours. He tells me, he shares his story and how he built the businesses, the empire.

The empire.

He's the emperor.

Emperor. And he goes, yeah, you know, and I said, like, you know, tell me about your family, who you share it with. Long silence. And he said, no, I, you know, I'm all alone. So I share that because the third form of wealth is family. If you have a rich family life. We've talked about relationships in our past conversations, you know, if you have a rich partnership with your life partner, that's a wealth money can't buy. If you have a rich relationship with. In my case, you know, also my children and Colby and Bianca and my parents. I saw them in Toronto the other night. Like I said, dad's gonna be 87 in June. Mom is still a titan. There's a chapter in the book that time my mother took on a motorcycle gang. And having good friends who you enjoy being with, I mean, that is a form of wealth money can't buy. So, yes, put out masterwork and, yes, do great work, but also remember the other forms of wealth, because what's the point of having a lot of money and ending up there alone? I quote Bob Marley and he said, possessions is rich.

I don't have that kind of rich. My rich is life.

Family, I think, is the thing that a lot of people miss out on. I think a lot of people are preaching about family first, but where they put their time and attention is not their first priority of family. It seems like certain people I know you mentioned in the book about choosing your partner wisely, and I think you even have the 10,000 meal rule. Can you explain what the 10,000 meal rule is when picking an intimate partner for life?

So I was reading the Financial Times and I read about. They do this feature every week and it's called lunch with so and so. And they interviewed Ayesha Vardags, or Vardag, I believe. And she's one of the UK's top divorce lawyers. She works with the footballers, she works with the movie stars, she works with the moguls.

Musicians.

Musicians, exactly. And so she's seen a lot of bad situations and breakups. So she was asked for, you know, how would you explain, or what would you say makes a great relationship? Her first answer was separate bedrooms. Huh? And her second answer was 10,000 dinners. And she was asked, well, what do you mean by 10,000 dinners? And she said, well, looks will fade, lust might diminish, but if you can see yourself having 10,000 dinners with this person, hold them tight, because great love is hard to find.

Wow.

And I just think. I just think. I mean, I know you have someone super special, and I'm so happy for you.

Thank you.

And you sure do deserve it. And I've watched your podcast fly over these years and your books and the influence you have and. Couldn't happen to a better person.

Thank you.

Couldn't happen to a better person.

Thank you.

And I'm blessed to have an amazing life. Partner. And I really do believe that it's easy as a content creator or movement maker or entrepreneur to get so stuck in the hustle of grind. And I'm not saying it's ambitions, not important, it's a fuel. We all want to win. We all want to do beautiful things. I think it's actually spiritual to materialize your talents and hot pursuit of serving as many people as possible. That's amazing. Having said that, when our family life is stable, when our home life is peaceful, when we have someone to share our wins with and maybe our losses, we're so much better at work. So that family foundation, that third form of wealth, is incredibly incredible, incredibly important. And as I get older, I'm starting to put a few years behind me now, but I just, you know, I am. Elle has a grandmother, we call her Nona, and she'll be 90, she'll be 96 this month. And when she was 90, we had a big party for her. And I said, nona, you know what's most important? Tell me. I think if you can sit on an airplane next to an elder or on a train or have conversations with elders, that's the people you want to be talking with a lot of the time.

And I said, what's most important? And she said, family.

Wow.

So these other forms of, well, family, wellness, growth, we don't think about it. Wow. I'm growing, I'm learning, I'm reading, I'm listening to podcasts, I'm doing sweat lodges, I'm doing Reiki, I'm doing journaling, I'm growing every day, increment by increment. We often don't see that as a rich person, but that is what real riches, I believe, look like.

It's beautiful. It's beautiful. You know, these habits are things that we can all start to implement, to feel wealthier in our life. But I feel like people get trapped on, you know, one of the habits, which is the financial aspect. Why do you think people get trapped on that aspect alone and think, well, I gotta get this figured out first, and then I can start to have the family, and then I can start to get in shape, and then I, I can grow and work on my craft and travel and have these adventures. Once I get safe and secure financially, then the rest, then I can start doing some of those things. What do you think is the biggest trap of material success first?

Well, I think. I think the reason we do it is we've been hypnotized by society from a very young age. There's an acronym in my methodology called Pennam Penim, and it stands for the five forces that program us into the way we see the world. Pennam p. Parents. When we're little kids, we have social cues, and a lot of us have parents who say, you're successful, look at that person. They're successful because, Louis, they have a new car. Oh, they're successful. Look at the golf membership or the. Oh, they. That person right there made it, just made a lot of money. Wow, they're successful. So as little kids, we look to our early caregivers to give us social cues on the way the world works that installs a series of beliefs and programs that we run through the rest of our lives unless we reprogram Penham parents e our environment. We live in an environment where who gets celebrated? It's the billionaire with the jet, not the gardener or the teacher, that elevates 20 lives you don't often see on the COVID of magazine. We're going to put him or her on a pedestal because this is a teacher that works like Picasso painted and is nation.

So our nation has a collective program. There are some nations where they say, here's the trophy of material things that influences us. Penham A. Our associations, we become our social circle. And a lot of us have social circles where people say, look, I just got the car. I just got the yacht, I just sold my company. I just got past 1 million followers on social media, you know, and so, and then m Media, all the messaging from the influencers we follow and the ads that are sent to us. Again, what does a lot of it show? It shows cash out, get the sailboat, get the big house, fly in the jet, get nice things, and then you are rich. You know, I think the richest person I've ever met, or one of them, was my ski instructor. And Lewis, he said, I'm not rich, but I have a rich life. And he had a family who adored him. He'd ski in the mountains. He loved his crafty. So we get programmed, and then we follow what the crowd does. And often we're so busy being busy, we don't know why we're busy. And we're spending the finest years of our life climbing mountains, only to realize they might be the wrong ones.

And so I want to be clear. The fifth form of wealth is money. There's 25 chapters on what I've learned mentoring the billionaires on how they do it. I'm not going to sit here and say money is not a form of wealth, but there are seven other ones that I think are essential to focus on if we really want our richest life. And as you said, authentic wealth.

You talk about in the book, again, we're talking about the wealth money can't buy. The eight hidden habits to live your richest life. You talk about the habit stack of super wealthy people. Can you walk us through this habit stack that wealthy people have?

First thing I would say is you've got to believe in your vision when no one believes in your vision until the world believes in your vision. So the first part of the habit stack of the super wealthy people I've worked with is they are careless of the opinions of others.

Careless of the opinions.

Careless of the opinions of others. Most of them couldn't care less what we think about their habits, their beliefs, the way they live. They're pirates. They're pirates. They're gangsters. And I think most of us, we're so polite, we're so plugged into the majority consciousness. If someone says, that's a silly idea for your help, or you want to find that person to spend your life with, or you want to go live in Tokyo and go ghost for a year, are you crazy? We say we want to leave our jobs and launch a new venture. First time our parents or our best friends or significant other or stranger in the street says, well, that's not possible, we believe them. George Bernard Shaw said it beautifully said the reasonable man, and obviously woman. But his words were, the reasonable man adopts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in adapting the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man. Interesting. So we must not listen to the trolls. We must not feed the trolls. And the billionaires, the financial tycoons, they have a vision. They understand. The nature of a disruptive vision is it terrifies the status quo.

The status quo doesn't celebrate disruptors. It throws rocks at them. So our job is to take the stones the critics throw at us and build them into monuments that inspire the world. Second thing is these people are incredibly disciplined. We know from science discipline is like a muscle. So do difficult things. Take the cold baths. Join the 05:00 a.m.. Club. The project that most frightens you is the one you need to do. The conversation you're most resisting is the one you need to be having. And I would actually go out on a limb for you and say, hard is easy, and easy is hard. So I think you want to build a financial fortune. It comes from the consistent doing of difficult things, but it gives you an easier life.

Yes.

And you try to do easy things and hang out with the easy crowd in easy habits and easy books and easy conversations and easy work projects, you have a hard life. So the second thing is, are strong willpower thirdly, and you've heard this a million times, but I think of the japanese proverb, get knocked down seven times, get up eight. They just, they just like that boxer who just gets down and you just go, stay down. Please stay. Don't, don't. Just please, please. And they're just like, they, and they just get back up, and they just get back up. And I'm reading Nobu's memoir right now, and I don't know if you know his story, but he was a japanese apprentice sushi chef, comes from very humble beginnings. Went to Argentina. His restaurant ultimately failed. Went back to Japan, went to Alaska for another opportunity. His restaurant burned down. This is. Nobu thought about killing himself, I guess. I guess this the japanese honor and.

Yeah, the shame.

The shame, right? The shame. People saying he's failing. Yeah. So thought about that. His wife pulled him out of it. Started a hole in the wall in not far from where we are, I believe, in west Hollywood or Beverly Hills, and I believe it's called mat su, you probably know.

Yeah, yeah. Well, there's Nobu here. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So he started that one, and one day it started to get some traction, and one day, Robert De Niro was brought in by a producer, and Robert de Niro fell in love with the food and said, you know, come to New York. Let's start a restaurant. No boot went, but who wasn't ready? So Robert De Niro kept on coming back for four years. Different meals every time he was in LA, loving the food. And eventually he called Nobu, and he said, come on. Nobu said, you know, it's time. And I realized Robert De Niro was waiting four years for me to say yes. But my point is absolutely relentless. 40 years in the game, and now he's Nobu. So that would be the third thing I could go on about, the habit stack of the billionaires, but those would be three things that immediately come to mind.

You talk about wealthy words that we can use, and I think this is really interesting because a lot of my audience is into how to use language, words, thoughts and emotions to manifest, to attract, to draw in, to create opportunities and synchronicities to enroll people in their vision and their dreams. So I'm curious, what are the wealth words that we can apply that will create more magic in our life?

Well, I'm trying to find. Here we go. So, words are incredibly powerful, and I think we live in a culture that dismisses the value of words. We say, oh, man, your shirt is sick, man.

That's probably me. Most of my childhood.

How often do we actually say, oh, yeah, he crushed that workout. She was amazing in the presentation. Whoa. That book is crazy. It's crazy. No, it's not crazy. It's not crazy. It's hard work. It's mastery. Often we say to someone, hey, Louis, you got lucky. You're very lucky. You're not lucky. I've seen you working with focus, dedication for years. So we're very loose. We say, sick. Oh, I hate this. Oh, a lot of people say, that's impossible. There's actually some cultures I travel to, and they go, yes, I'd like to do this, but it's impossible. Everything is impossible. It's unreasonable. Words are powerful. Words are programmed if you want. We talked about programming. One of the antidotes to limitation, scarcity, fear, selfishness, insecurity is you start to reprogram by using wealth words. So the chapter has some of the words I've written down to start adding to your vocabulary.

What page is this?

This is 228. So it's sensational. Excellence. Grateful. Heroic. Grow. Generous. Willpower. Love. Genius. Beautiful. Consistency.

Powerful.

Brave. Like, we can either engage in victim speak or leader talk. And you can tell a victim a mile away. You can tell them a mile away. And I'm not judging, I'm just reporting. But they're. Yeah, you know, I'd like to find love, but there's not a lot of good people out there. I'd like to launch a business because I don't really like my work. But, you know, the economy is bad, inflation is high, and there's lots of competition. Even when they talk to people, I mean, there are people who, when you leave them, I'd love to know your thoughts, but you leave them, you just feel that. I would trust that. And then there's people who are very conscious about their words, and they use words that uplift people. They use words that encourage people. If you look at the greatest of the great, the Nelson Mandelas, the Mother Teresa's, the Martin Luther King Junior. S, these people freed countries and launched movements through their words. Truth are words, words have a powerful.

Impact, either in a scarcity way or an abundance way, it sounds like.

Yeah, I agree, and I think it's communication is, to state the obvious, communication is so powerful, you can transform someone in a conversation through communication, through writing, through storytelling. I think it's so powerful, too. Words are powerful. So that chapter is in the fifth form of wealth, which is money. And once we start deploying words, the wealth words in our writing, in our speaking, in our pitches, in our conversations, then we start to redefine our self identity. And our income and impact always reflects our self identity. I better say that again, because I think it's really important. Our income and impact always reflects our self identity.

And what makes up our self identity?

Well, Penham, the five forces of Pennam, our parental programming, our environment or ecosystem, the nation we live in, our associations. That's why the 6th form of wealth is community. Our associations. You're with drama mamas, crisis papas, energy vampires, dream stealers. You're not going to be a possibilitarian. You want to live, be with people whose lives you want to be living. You want to be a masterful, whatever athlete, be around the best athletes, like your social circle is so powerful. And if you're the smartest person, fastest person in your neighborhood, move to a new neighborhood. So. So what makes up our self identity? The five forces of Penham that I mentioned, what makes up our self identity are the books we read. What makes up our self identity is the behaviors. If we do difficult things, if we are someone who moves towards the things that frighten us. If we are, look for every opportunity to be helpful enough, service and make the world a brighter place. If we are authentic and live our values, all those kinds of things shape our self identity and allow us to rewire ourselves if we are not the people we want to be.

I am just thinking about someone who might be watching or listening, saying, what is Robin talking about? About words. Wealth, words. This seems like.

Come on.

It's about actions. It's about taking action. That's how you get wealthy. Just saying words is not going to make me wealthy or have a better life. But I'm hearing you say that words help build your identity. And it's either victim speak or leadership talk. And our income and our impact is made of our self identity that you mentioned and the words we use, it sounds like impact our self identity as well.

Yeah, I would say so. The first thing I want to say is, I'm not saying that execution is not essential. I'm offering a tool to build us into our strongest selves. I'll be the first to say that ideation without execution is a hallucination. I'll be the first to say that a vision without implementation is fool's gold. You know, there's a lot in the book about working hard, I think, I believe that rest is not a luxury, it's a necessity. I've talked a lot about recovery in my work, the twin cycles of elite performance. I talked about it in the 05:00 a.m.. Club. Sleep is a secret weapon, no question. Having said that, I think almost hard work has a bad reputation these days. And I don't know of any titan in business or athletics or life who doesn't put in the time.

Yeah, you can't get mastery without hard work.

You cannot get mastery without hard work. And if I may, I want to just, I know you met Kobe in one of my favorite Kobe stories. He said, on the point about hard work, because we see him in action, or we saw him in action and we saw, wow, what a master. And that's the seduction. We see them in at the height of their glory, and we think they were born like that, and we don't see the backstory. And he said, you know, when I got into the NBA, I realized a lot of people got in the NBA and they didn't want to be best in the world. They just got in the NBA, and they go, I'm here. And they started to party and have fun. And he said, I realized that if I got up at, I got up at 04:00 a.m. Did a workout from 05:00 went home, had some breakfast, hung out with the family, went back, did another workout later in the morning, one more in the afternoon, went home, had dinner, one more in the evening. As compared to the people who did one workout or two. He said, after four to five years, to use his words, after four to five years, I would have an advantage so great that no one would ever be able to catch up with me.

So hard work's important. But on the wealth words point, it's just a tool to be careful about your words, because words are very powerful and they plant seeds in the subconscious which determine our behaviors.

And I think words have a vibration, also an energetic vibration. And like you said before, you can feel what it's like being around someone who uses words that make them sound like a victim. It kind of lowers the energy, lowers the vibration. It doesn't make you uplifted. Versus someone who has more empowering words, leadership words that you talk about that empower the moment, that take responsibility for the moment or their lives and find solutions, as opposed to find the reason why, you know, someone to blame for their challenges, their problems, and takes responsibility. You feel empowered, inspired, uplifted. You feel like, oh, let's take this on. Yeah, let's go after this. So I think words do matter in a big way, and we should definitely be intentional about the words we use. Speaking of words and communication, you know, you mentioned how a lot of the great leaders and the ones that we think about or talk about who have long passed, they led with their communication style in an empowering way. You know, when I think about that, I think about this idea of enrollment, the ability to enroll people in a vision bigger than yourself.

What's your thoughts on enrollment? Or the secret to enrolling one person or millions of people in a cause, a mission, a vision bigger than you that sounds crazy or out of the norm? How do we enroll people in our dream?

Love it. First of all, I would say, dream big, start small, begin now. Secondly, I would say, how do you build a global movement? One conversation at a time. So one handshake at a time, one conversation at a time. If you're trying to build a movement online, every DM matters. Leave the voice. Note if you can never forget who puts food on the family table. So one relationship at a time. One thank you at a time is how you. I believe how you build a global movement. And I actually believe that as your movement grows, you look at up your movement. Many people who follow you and trust you and respect you have their movements, whether it's a massive movement or a micro movement. And I would simply say that when you're most successful, you're most vulnerable. I think this is one of the greatest traps.

Say it again.

When you're most successful, you're most vulnerable.

Why?

Nothing fails like success. When you are winning, you are closest to losing.

Wow.

And what I mean by that is there's a human seduction when we start to be successful, to believe our own promotional material. And that's why anyone who's making traction around their ambitions is in a very dangerous position. And there's a methodology I teach called cheerful paranoia.

Okay, what is this?

So, Andy Grove is the co founder of intel, and he said, only the paranoid survive. Now, no one's suggesting we should be paranoid. It's unhealthy, of course, but it's cheerful. Paranoia is just. It's a metaphor to remind us, be happy, be healthy, be cheerful, be decent, have a good character, be loving, be excellent, but be paranoid that you could so easily be knocked off your perch by someone in their underwear, coding in their basement, who comes up with a new tech business, for example, that knocks you out of the game. So I actually have a model called the mastery humility proportionality. And I don't know if this is going to make sense, but if you could imagine, I wish I could draw it for you. But imagine this is the axis. And imagine this is the mastery axis right here, Louis. And this is the humility access axis. And so, as your mastery grows, and that's influence of your movement, quality of your craft, success in the world, income, impact, all those currencies. So, as your mastery grows, be one of those rare air people. Your humility grows, become more humble. Strange, right? So that's why it's the mastery humility proportionality.

As the mastery grows, increase your humility. Now, if you do that, then you're going to be. Because I think the key to legendary is longevity.

Yes.

So anyone can be a champion, or it's hard, but you get to a chance. But the real legends want the dynasty, and you only get a dynasty if you think about longevity and what I believe in, there's a chapter in the book on this that explains all of this. But I would say it's the humblest wins.

The humblest wins, yes.

And I don't just mean good manners. Humility means you don't lose your white belt mentality as you rise. Humility means you don't forget to have a humble and grateful heart for the people who keep you in business. Humility means you never lose your white belt mentality. Humility means you go to a conference and you've been in the game 25 years, and you sit in the first row and you take more notes than anyone in the room.

Wow, that's big.

And then I think of the titans of humanity, the real servant leaders. They were globally revered, and they had humble hearts. I stood in Nelson Mandela's prison cell. How was that changed? Changed my life. I don't know if you'd be interested in doing it. Maybe with.

I would love to. What was that like, stepping into that physical space in my life.

People say, oh, I had a life changing moment. I mostly, in my life go, I've never had a life changing moment. People go, I read that book, my life changed. Or, I went to that event and my life did. Never really happened to me. Mostly it's been incremental growth. But one day, I got on the ferry from Cape Town. It was July, cold winter's day under the equator. I saw the limestone quarry where Nelson Mandela cut stone for seven years, damaged his eyes. Because of the glare on his eyes, the limestone dust damaged his lungs. I went to the propaganda office, where they would redact letters from Winnie. And they wouldn't let him leave the prison to attend the funeral and the death of his son. He said that was his greatest regret. My son died in a car accident. They wouldn't let me out to attend his funeral.

That's sad.

I saw the showers where he, as an elderly man, would shower and the guards would laugh at him. All forms of torture. I saw the courtyard where he would tend to his tomato plant, but secretly hide his autobiography, long walk to freedom. And then I was led up three steps to, I believe, the second room. And I saw his room. And Louis, it was, I would say, from here to where you are to right there.

Tiny.

Yeah, tiny. For the first few years, because of the color of his skin, they wouldn't let him wear trousers in the cold of the winter, sick all the time and no bed. And yet when he was released from prison, 27 years, 18 years on Robben island, he invited the jailer to his inauguration. He invited the prosecutor who asked for the death penalty to dinner. And he said, you know, I did that because otherwise I'd still be in prison. Wow. So there are these people who we were talking about humility from every person I met. I go to South Africa a lot. It's a country I love. You love it because I gotta check it out. You love it. He was just, oh, I asked the guide who took me around that day, what was he like? It was, oh, I served with him for seven years. So what was he like? And the first thing he said, he.

Was an inmate with him.

He was a political prisoner. Wow. And served with Nelson Mandela. He served with Nelson Mandela. And he said, the first thing he said, and I'll never forget it, and he said, oh, that man was a humble servant. Oh, man. So if we could only. Now, for entrepreneurs, athletes or whatever, humility is still incredibly important.

How do we have confidence but stay a humble servant? How do we lead with confidence and go for it and not dim our light in the pursuit of our craft and creation and communication and execution, and live with poise and power and passion, but also be a humble servant? How do we hold both of those in two hands? It's hard enough to get confidence.

For a lot of people, confidence is not easy.

It's hard enough. Yeah.

I don't know. I would say, well, let's go to some tactics. There's a tool I talk about in the book called the pre performance paragraph. It's simply one paragraph you write in your journal every morning about your ideal day. Related to that, there's four questions I journal about almost every morning. This could be tactical and hopefully valuable to your global base of viewers followers. Number one, what am I grateful for? Common one. Number two, where am I winning? So if we focus on micro winning, it builds momentum and it builds confidence. We, our brain has a built in negativity bias. We look at the threats versus focus on our wins. So by deliberately focusing, asking yourself that question, where am I winning? You train your brain to focus on the progress that mostly we neglect, which builds confidence, creates energy, keeps us hopeful. Third question I ask myself, I have a sense you might like this one. What will I let go of today? If you haven't forgiven someone, you're carrying them on your back. It's a lot of energy, affects your creativity, productivity, prosperity, and performance. So what will I let go of today?

It could be someone who hurts you. It could be a loss. It could be a business struggle. It could be an insecurity that's bothering you. You're just frustrated about something, so let it go. And the final question I ask myself is, what would make today an ideal day? So, in that morning protocol in my journaling sessions, you could write about humility, and that would help you stay focused during the day. But one of my best things, I'm going to go back to MVP. Like, I just, when I meditate, when I visualize, and when I pray, I do my best to pray, to be a servant, to be useful, not to forget the mission. When, when I write, I don't write to get on a bestseller list. I don't write to sell books. I think people would feel the energy and the emotions. So I write. I spent a year of my life. I rewrote this book maybe 20 times, 10,000 changes plus in every version. And it was really a hard book to write. But the way I look at it is, I said, I want the wealth money can't buy to be the most valuable book I've ever done because I'm only as good as my last book.

But even more important, I'm only as good as my last book. Mail it in versus bring it on. But even more importantly, the way I look at it is I have a sacred bond with each of my readers. And so if they pick up the book, they trust me, and I don't want to dishonor that. So MVP journaling, et cetera, et cetera, can keep you humble.

Speaking of question three, what's the biggest thing you've had to let go of in your life that held you back the most?

You always ask the hardest questions out of anyone, anyone, I would say.

You'Ve gone through. You've gone through a lot. You've been, you know, businesses, relationships. People have burned you. People have taken advantage of you. You know, physical things you've had to let go of, emotional things, mental. What would you say is the. The thing that was holding you back the most at some stage in your life, that when you let it go, you created a level of freedom that you never had before?

I would say two things. I would say, number one, there have been people who have hurt me who I've had to do a lot of work to. It's not easy to get to a place where I love them from afar, so it doesn't mean you have to have them in your life. It's that old idea. People come back into your life to see if you're still stupid. Right? And that other idea, which I think is very good. Reason season, lifetime. Some people come in for a reason. Some people come in for a season. Some people come in for a lifetime. There's a chapter in the wealth money can't buy that explains my philosophy on it. Calls your hurters are your helpers. And the people who have hurt me most were actually the people who taught me forgiveness, introduced me to any wisdom. I have introduced me to strength, etcetera, etcetera. So that would be something I've had to let go of. People who have hurt me to get to a place of peace and forgiveness, where I realized, you know what? They were just doing their best. They were stuck in scarcity and fear, and they were just doing their best.

And it's the way they behaved seemed like a great idea to them in that moment. And then the second thing I've had to let go of is just, I would say, you know, you know, I sometimes see these people who. You look at them and you get that sense they, they just have super confidence. And I almost go, like, how do they do that? And, you know, I come from immigrant parents, wonderful parents, but simple beginnings, and, you know, I'm. I'm just a very ordinary, very ordinary person. So, you know, maybe to let go of some of that, like, yeah, just, I don't know if I'm. I'm being clear, but I just. I'm. I'm very ordinary. And sometimes I. Yeah, sometimes I still.

Struggle with that feeling ordinary or feeling from an immigrant background or feeling like you didn't belong or fit in or what's the.

I would say that's part of it, you know, feeling. I didn't fit in, really? Yeah. I think I often, I will often feel that still today.

Or is this more of like, the growing up stages, the memories of the past where you felt neglected or picked on or pushed away or.

I wasn't picked on.

Just not welcomed in.

Well, I was sort of welcomed in. I just don't know if I wanted to be in.

I gotcha.

You know, like, I I just. I just. I hang out with the oddballs, the misfits, the eccentrics. Those are the people. Like, you know, those are the people I love the most. I love the artists. I love the people who see the world differently, the people who I resonate with. And some of my closest friends are just quirky. They're real. They're quirky. And so, yes, that's what I would say.

That's cool. In the wealthy, money. In the wealth money can't buy. You have this concept of putting your last day first. Can you explain what that means and how someone could use this philosophy in their life today?

Anytime I talk about mortality, people start to shift in their chairs and they often say, I don't mean to get dark. I don't mean to talk about death. I think that mortality, and maybe I'm channeling Marcus Aurelius here, the great roman emperor. Yeah, but he talked a lot about how we just end up as dust. He talked a lot about all the noise and all of our lives chasing these things for a year on the calendar because a lot of the emperors had a year named after them. And so the last part of the books, the 8th form of wealth, is about service. So I talk about helpfulness and how we can serve to find that form of inner riches and happiness. But there's a lot in the last section about the shortness of life. There's one chapter, Alexander the Great's three last wishes, he told his lieutenants, he said, you know, when I die, I want three things to happen. Number one, I want the world's best doctors to walk behind my casket on the funeral possession. Number two, I want my emeralds, diamonds and gold and money to be strewn along the road going to the graveyard.

And number three, I want my hands to be left open so all the world could see. And one very boldly said, you know, alexander, why? He said, number one, I want people to see that. All the great medicine I get, biohacking, I love all of that. I love it. But he said, I want the whole world to see that. Even the best doctors in the world can't help one cheat death.

Wow.

Number two, he said, I want people to see the money made in the world remains in the world. And number three, I want all the crowd to witness my open hands, to realize we are born with nothing and we die empty handed. Oh, my gosh. And again, this is perspective. This is perspective. Imagine, in our mvp, in our journaling, every morning while the rest of the world is asleep, we think about these things, and then we're in the world. We build the business, we build the family, we build the love, we build the mastery. We do all the worldly things, but we're. And this is one of the greatest proverbs of all time. It's certainly not my proverb, but it's we're in the world, but not of it. That's when you play with the masters. You're in the world. You're doing amazing things. You're finding wealth, worldly wealth, but you found the wealth money can't buy because you're in the world, but not of it. So why do I say, put your last day first? Because intimacy with mortality is an incredible source of focus. Like, I hope I live 30 more years. There's one concept I talk about called my.

What do I call it? My 25 summers philosophy. If I'm lucky, I have 25 summers left on the planet.

Wow. That's crazy to think about.

It's a great thought exercise. 25 Christmases, 25 more birthdays. And so the more you can connect with the shortness of life and remember, I'm going to be dust. We're all going to be dust. No one's going to remember me. Like, I used to talk about legacy in my books 15 years ago, I don't believe in legacy now. Who cares about legacy? It's all about ego, and you're not.

Gonna be around to experience and enjoy it.

I'm gonna be a pile of ashes on a fireplace mantle next to someone's little league trophies.

Wow.

Who cares? My family. My family. My family will miss me, and maybe a few readers will think about me, but who cares? Look at all the kings and queens. We felt sad for them for a month, but we don't think about them now.

Wow. So what should we be thinking about in terms of legacy? Is it a distraction? Or what is legacy for you today, exactly?

I think for thinking about legacy and how the generations who will follow will know that we were here. Our focus, our hearts, our attention, our work, our lives are off of building each day beautifully. And the interesting thing is our days are our life in miniature. And as we live each day, we craft a lifetime. So forget about legacy. Do amazing things or good things today. And the paradox is you'll leave a legacy.

Wow. It's interesting. I just turned 41 a couple of days ago. And the day after I've thought about and meditated on death for maybe, I don't know, 1015 years in some aspect. But it hit me. I don't know, after 41, it just hit me. I was like, man, I don't have the rest of my life ahead of me as when I was 15 or 20 or 25. When you think about it, it's like, sure, I've got, hopefully have a long, healthy life, but it's not the rest of my life of like 80 years. You know, when you think about it, it's like maybe, who knows? Like if there's some modern science or whatever, but you really gotta value these eight hidden habits to live your richest life. You've gotta get a value these wealthy things in life beyond money. And I still think about money in terms of, you know, we've got a team, we've got expenses, we've got office, we've got employees, we've got agencies. We gotta pay things to make sure that things thrive and grow and develop. But I've put more attention in the last year on my health and my relationships than ever before.

And I feel the most peaceful and abundant I've ever felt because I put my attention on health, relationships and visualizing building a family. I don't have kids yet, right? But visualizing planning, talking about it, creating the idea around it. And someone asked me this morning, they're like, how are you feeling? I like, to tell the truth, how I'm feeling. Where most people say I'm good or I'm having a great day or things are fine, I like to say exactly how I'm feeling. Maybe I don't know if that's good or bad, but I'm like, I'm not a good place right now. Or when I met you, the first time I met you, within ten minutes, I said, I'm really struggling. When you said, how's your day? Five, six years ago, I was like, I'm actually really in a struggling place. And I feel like people have abandoned me and betrayed me and I don't really know. And you gave me a great piece of advice. If I hadn't said how I felt, I wouldn't have had that wisdom shared by you that I've been able to apply for the last five or six years. I wouldn't have that memory and that moment that gave me insights that said, oh, this is tough now, but let me have hindsight now, as opposed to wait to have hindsight and know that every bad thing or challenge that's happened to me is actually one of the biggest blessings in the future of my life.

When I look back, being injured or hurt playing football or going through bad breakups or feeling like I failed on my face, something good came from that. It might have taken six months or years, but riches came from the pain. And so if I wouldn't have shared how I felt in that moment, I wouldn't have that wisdom that you gave me. And so I think about investing in these eight things that you talk about, about building wealth and the health and the relationships are definitely two of the things that I put more time and attention in. And so someone asked me today, how are you feeling? I was like, I am blessed, I am grateful, I am healthy. I feel loved, and I feel abundant. And they were like, wow, those are all great words. And I go, well, when you have the wealth words and you use them correctly, you start to create and manifest those things as well. And so this is all coming together. I'm just mixing it all together now. But I'm so grateful that we're having this conversation. I'm not sure where I was going with that, but I think it's powerful to be speaking what is on your mind and figuring out, how can I use this for my benefit and get beyond it if it's not a positive state?

What I hear you saying, Louis, is, first of all, you're in a very good place, which is beautiful. Second, what I hear you saying is you used your triumphs as well as your tragedies as grist for the mill. See, the ego would judge the darkness as difficulty. But pain purifies in those hard times. Right? Pain is an amazing purifier. And it's in those difficult times that we really get to know all we truly are. It's in those difficult times where we ask ourselves the big questions and we ask ourselves, who am I? What are my most important values? We learn wisdom. We learn forgiveness. We learn how strong we are when we are on our knees. And so. And I find it interesting. I mentioned Mandela. But when I study the lives I love, memoirs and biographies and autobiographies, and when I read the best of the best, they've suffered the most. Hmm. Rumi said it well. He said, keep breaking your heart over and over until it opens.

Wow.

And so, if you look at the people I think I mentioned, I was interviewed yesterday by a gentleman, John O'clery. And he. I want to get his story right, but he was. I think as a kid, he was in a fire, and he suffered amputations, and he suffered a real tragedy. But when I. When I spoke to him, you could just. It was a digital call, but you could just feel the humanity. And so I think when you go through really hard times, I guess what I'm trying to say is, we all have an ambient fear of death, and it really limits us. But when you experience tragedy and you get through it, you realize very few things can kill you. Very few things can break you. I've been in my life in a situation where I came close to losing everything. Was it fun going through it? No, it was miserable. But now I'm at peace losing everything.

So you mentioned something about, like, I think it was great leaders or legendary individuals. They care less of opinions of others. And I think when you go through some type of trauma or trial or pain or suffering, you realize, okay, I've been through some of the worst. So someone judging me or comparing me or trying to say mean things about me doesn't matter. I'm gonna go after what I want. I'm gonna live the best life that I can because I almost lost it all, or I dealt with something way worse than this. And I think that you mentioned some of the happiest people, the people that have been through the most pain or suffering and learned how to overcome it. I was reading a quote recently from Don Miller, who talked about just the idea of storytelling, that every great story has a problem and a hero to solve it. Otherwise, there is no story. You know, I'm not saying we should welcome horrible pains and life threatening moments in our lives, but challenge is gonna show up the more we live life and go after the things we want. And that's kind of what makes us heroic, is the problems that we face and how we overcome or solve them.

And I just love that approach that you have to taking on this. And I'm curious, this season of your life, you've got a lot more wisdom than me and more experience. How do you approach death now, seeing, I'm assuming you have friends who have died that are close to you or people you've known, more people you've known that have probably passed away or had maybe less healthy or things like that. How do you approach life and death now? At this season?

I would say I walk the earth more gently, and I think what's most important comes into sharper focus when I see my parents, for example, I, you know, always make sure I celebrate them. And when we part, like the other night in Toronto, I gave my mama an incredible hug. My dad, an incredible hug. Yeah. I think as you get older, you just. I still want to write so many more books and I'm traveling and I'm up early and I still have a huge fire in my belly to do what I love to do so much in terms of my career. And I still am an adventurer and I want to see the world and experience new things. There's also, I would just say, just a gentleness that comes with getting a few years behind you. Things that might have bothered me in the past, they don't bother me as much. You just start to realize every human being in front of you has a story to tell, a lesson to teach, a dream to share. I just have a lot more time to hang out with the taxi driver, have a conversation with a stranger.

So, yeah, if you could go back.

To your thirties or early forties and you could tell yourself three things to take on or let go of to set yourself up for better success now at this stage of life, what would those three things be that you would tell your 30 or 40 year old self or anyone in their thirties and forties today?

The first thing I would say is be a minimalist versus a maximalist. If you look at any genius, and I've worked with a lot of business geniuses, athletic geniuses, sports geniuses, these people all have one thing in common. They do one thing and only one thing at biw best in the world. So I would say build your life around just a few things. That's the power of the framework. In the wealth, money, camp, buy. I think there's eight. These are like eight Mount Everest. Build your life around these eight Mount Everest, you're guaranteed to live an amazing life. Not 50 things. Even in business, I think the people who get the most traction, they come up with one idea. And here's a bonus point. They are approached with a once in a lifetime other idea and they say no to it, even though it's a once in a lifetime idea because they have their mountaintop they're chasing. So the first thing I would say is be a minimalist versus a maximalist mast even personally have a few friends. There's a chapter in the book, the three great friends rule. Have three great friends versus 10,000 digital friends.

Master three wonderful books versus reading 60 books. Just do a few things really, really well. Everyone's saying, I'm so busy. What I would say strip away complexity, have a few friends, focus on your family, focus on the forms of wealth, wellness, adventure, and just do a few of those things, and then you're going to free up so much time. And the paradox is you're going to be better at the few things that you do. Second thing I would say to my 30 year old self, I would just remind myself that your primary relationship determines every relationship.

What does that mean?

It means that working on four interior empires, that's the term I call for your inner life. So many people talk about mindset. Mindset is incredibly important. It's your psychology. But I believe as human beings, we have three other interior empires that need to be optimized and calibrated bit by bit every day. Mindset is your psychology. Heart set is your emotionality. You can have a great mindset, toxic heartset. You're never going to win in business. You're never going to win in relationships. It's going to affect your health with inflammation, cortisol, etcetera, etcetera. Third interior empire, your health set. You know this so well. Your health set is your physique, your physicality. So I think it's incredibly important to be fit. Your fitness determines income impact. Fitness determines ideation. Fitness determines longevity. Fitness determines your, your positivity, your moods, etc. Etc. And then the fourth interior empire is your, your soul set. That's your spirituality. And people might I wish that the world celebrated spirituality even more? Because I'm not talking about religion or mysticism at all, Louis, when I say we use the term soul set in the four interior empire model, I'm talking about your relationship with your heroic self versus your egoic self.

Your egoic self is the part of you that is developed through the micro and macro trauma that we've experienced as we've journeyed through life. So it's the fearful, scared, limited, selfish, insecure part of us that affects everything. Our heroic self is there. It's there. It is who we truly are. It is the silent whispers of wisdom that come to us when we're quiet. It's our bravery, it's our instinct. It's our loving hearts. It's our strong character in hard times. So I would remind my 30 year old self that that relationship, the more time you can spend alone in building those four interior empires, well, then you go out in the world and you get to know, you keep on going. You get to go out in the world. You want to start a business, everyone laughs. You keep on going. You're in a relationship with a customer, a supplier, a lover, your partner, and that quiet time and that inner character you've built determines how you show up. So we. I would say that would be the second thing. And then third thing I would say to my 30 year old self is the one who serves the most wins.

Oh, amen. In every aspect of it. Winning, not just, like, in the business or in this, but you win in all areas of these four kind of interior mind, uh, what do you call them? Like, four keys. The mindset of four interior emperors.

Four interior empires.

Empires. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. I love this.

Yeah. I mean, it's such a paradox, but as I love to share, Mahatma Gandhi said, it's so well, to lose yourself in service of others is to find yourself. And that sounds like a philosophical idea, and yet it is so true to, as we work on ourselves to be more helpful to people, be more valuable to others, to be more useful to other people, we actually find ourselves and we find happiness. And that's one of the paradoxes. Money is important. It's one of the eight forms of wealth that I talk about in the book. But I don't know anyone who said, I finally made enough money and I'm happy. See, it's a hamster wheel.

It's a drag up to never enough. Right? Yeah.

Do you know, solon, I mean, I.

Feel very happy with the business and the money I've made and saved because it allows me to have flexibility. And I feel like I've been smart over the last 18 years of working hard and saving money and investing money and reinvesting it in myself and relationships. But I don't want to stop making money, I guess. So I want to keep earning and creating more to be able to serve more. But I feel at peace and harmonious with where I'm at, so if that makes sense. So I still want to earn more, make more. I'm not like, okay, I'm done. But, yeah, I feel at peace with what I've created up to here.

I get you. And I'm not saying. I'm not saying to anyone, but I.

Still want to make more.

Don't, quote, make more money. I'm simply say, suggesting it's one of the eight forms.

Well, exactly. Yes.

Form of wealth. Don't make it your main God, make it your servant.

I love that.

And I just think too many people, I think it's something. It's not everything.

Yes.

And what's the point of being cash rich and life poor? What's the point of having all of the money in the world and you have an empty heart and you don't like yourself very much and a home.

Full of stuff but not full of love.

And let's go to the science. Hedonic adaptation any good positive psychologist will tell you hedonic adaptation is the human beings, the human phenomenon, psychologically, of getting what we always wanted and we feel good about it for about a week and then the baseline happiness kicks back in.

Yeah, we need more.

More.

Those are great lessons for someone in their thirties and forties. I've got, I don't know, 20 more questions on my list here that we, that we didn't even get to tap into. But I'm assuming a lot of those answers that you would have shared would be in this book. The wealth money can't buy, the eight hidden habits to live your richest life. I want people to get a copy of this and get a couple copies for their friends. I feel like this will be a book that you could read over and over and digest a few chapters at a time and go over them multiple times to really take in everything that you need in your life, to feel more peaceful, abundant, happy, healthy and in service to your mission and the people around you. So I want people to get a copy of this book. For me. This was extremely powerful and I want to acknowledge you again, Robin, for the energy you bring, the wisdom you bring, the insights and the dedication to your craft. Ghosting for a year of your life to dive in deep into this. You've created a masterpiece for so many of us to have knowledge broken down into things that we can understand and start to apply in our lives if we have the courage to take the actions again, knowledge is only as good as the action you take to implement it and learn it yourself.

So don't just read this, but start applying these things little by little and you'll start to feel wealthier and your richest life ever. So again, I acknowledge you, Robin, for being here, for taking the time, for sharing so many stories openly and vulnerably. It's beautiful, it's powerful. I know this, this is going to impact a lot of lives. The four interior emperors, is that what it is? The four interiors empires? Why I keep saying emperors? The four interior empires, I believe, was from the 05:00 a.m., club, which I loved. And I know a lot of people have read that book and bought that book, if you're a listener on this show and if you've been watching this show. So I want you guys to check out that book as well. But if they follow you at Robinsharma anywhere on social media, they can find you. What's your main site? Where they can connect with you as well? To see all your books and anything else.

Robinsharma.com and Instagram and YouTube.

Obinsharma okay, perfect. The monk who sold his Ferrari was obviously one of your biggest books. The 05:00 a.m., club, which was one of your newest books, and the wealth money can't buy. Make sure you guys pick this up, get it for a friend, follow you on social media even though you might be ghosted for times here and there, so you may not be posting if you're ghosting on the next book. Two final questions for you, and I've asked you these before, but I'm curious if it's different from the last times. The first one is the three truths question I asked everyone at the end. If you could imagine. Hypothetical scenario, it's your last day on earth, many years away, which sounds like you've visualized and meditated on many times. And from this moment on until that last day, you get to create and live however you want to live. But for whatever reason, all of your work has to go with you or has to go somewhere else. We don't have access to any book, any conversation, any piece of content you've ever shared. Hypothetical scenario, but you could leave behind on the last day, three lessons, three final truths, kind of like you are, you know, Alexander the great.

Leaving behind these three lessons. What would be those three truths you would leave behind if we had no access to anything else of your information?

I would say every human being, to use your words, has greatness within them. But every human being matters, and every human being has specialness and gifts and wonder within them. The second truth, I would say, is life is too short to postpone living on your own terms. And the third truth is as simple as it sounds. Louis. I would say personal development, personal growth, it really works. Whether it's the MVP, whether it's the morning routine, whether it's the journaling, whether it's the reading. All the modalities we know about. But small, daily, seemingly insignificant improvements, when done consistently over time, lead to stunning results. I just. What I'm trying to say is there are a lot of people out there who want to feel stronger and want to achieve their ethical ambitions and want to do amazing things and have this vision for a beautiful life. And it's, how can you get there? And how do you get there is you start. You start today. And as simple as it sounds each and every day, little by little, you make progress. And it's amazing how far you can get in a series of weeks, months and years.

Those will be beautiful. Three simple truths final question what is.

Your definition of greatness?

I would say having the wisdom, courage and persistency to make yourself into who you're truly meant to become. Yeah. And it's a process. And just being in the process each day of becoming more of who you're truly meant to become, your gifts, your talents, your bravery, your loving heart, your vision and executing on it, being in the process is winning. Robert Louis Stevens and the scottish novelist said, judge your success not by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. Mmm. So I think the real trophy is being in the process of becoming who you want to be versus getting the gold medal. At the end of the day, I.

Hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me, as well as ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on Apple Podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend. Leave us a review over on Apple Podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewishows. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over@greatness.com. Newsletter and if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.