Pod Insights The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett Moment 17 - Russell Kane Reveals The Simple Path To Success About this episode In these ‘Moment’ episodes of my podcast, I’ll be selecting my favourite moments from previous episodes of The Diary Of A CEO. Russell Kane was one of the most surprising guests I’ve ever had on this podcast. Not only is he intelligent and self-aware, but he is also very straight-talking, which is one of the reasons why I believe this ‘moment’ from the podcast is so powerful. Together, Russell and I were discussing success and what it truly takes to become a successful person. In actual fact, the path to success is a pretty simple one, but sometimes the most simple truths can be the most demanding. Episode 79 - https://g2ul0.app.link/5lybE6twDib Russell: https://twitter.com/russell_kane https://www.instagram.com/russell_kane/
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:06 Speaker 00 This is the message I get most often sent to me via my agent or an Instagram and it drives me fucking nuts. I had one the other week. Oh my God, I love what you do. I'm a really funny person. This is how it was phrased the other week. How many gigs would I have to do before I could like open for you on tour? Can you have a look at some stuff I filmed on my phone? And I'm, I give them an answer that I never get a reply to this answer. I say, okay, it's quite simple. Lucky for you, there is a really simple model to follow. You need to work unpaid for three years in the clubs, three times a week. I wouldn't recommend a relationship and just warn your friends, you're not going to see them. I started to earn about two, three hundred pounds a week after five years. At
0:48 Speaker 00 that point, you're ready to give up your day job. On about the eighth or ninth year, you're going to be ready to do a support slot. I never get, yeah. People don't want to hear it. But you, if you went up to the guy in the gym who's 16 stone and 5% body fat and go, can you tell me how I can get like that? He'd say, the machines are over there, dickhead. Just get going. The machines are there. You cannot skip the machine. You cannot skip the tricep station. If you want triceps, you can't just go, it's going to hurt. It's too much work to get a tricep. Then just don't get triceps. But don't moan if you don't have triceps. Head to the dip station and see you in four years.
1:25 Steven Bartlett? I, yeah, I, no, I wrote about this. My book came out last week and I wrote about it in my book. I remember someone turning to me, it was actually the CEO of my company now, company I've just left. And he said to me, Steve, you know, this personal brand stuff and this like speaking you do on stage. He was like, how long did it like, how do I, he was like, how do I, how do I do it? And your brain immediately scrambles around looking for like three tips. Right? Three tips to describe like a deck. I remember my first talk in school at 14 years old, my hands shaking.
1:49 Speaker 00 Absolutely.
1:49 Steven Bartlett? The truth is like someone's seen you with a sharp sword and they've said, how do I get a sword that sharp? So well, start sharpening it now and then 10 years time. But people don't want that.
1:58 Speaker 00 No one wants to hear the answer is boring repetitive practice for most, most people that are absolutely fucking excellent at something have done a lot of boring repetitive practice that would be boring to the person asking the question, not to us. I loved every shit gig I did.
2:13 Steven Bartlett? And that's the difference. That's what kept you doing it for 10 years or two decades or whatever, is that you genuinely intrinsic loved it for its, and people want the rewards, right?
2:21 Speaker 00 But when they, if they started and genuinely wanted, they too would discover that love. If you, if you say, I want to be a dentist, I'd be a dentist. You start dental training and you're finding it boring and a slog. Newsflash, you don't actually want to be a dentist.
2:33 Steven Bartlett? You'll be rich.
2:34 Speaker 00 Yeah. So find something else. Find something where you love the journey. That is a secret. So that's what my dad never found. He did. He didn't find a job. He took pleasure in. It's got nothing to do with coin, although I'm into it. But if you love the outdoors, you're going to love landscaping, whether you're on 17 grand a year or 17 million a year. You're going to love it because that's what you were born to do.
2:54 Steven Bartlett? It's such a counter narrative to the narrative that sells, which is like short investment, big returns. It's like seven days, six pack abs. That's everyone fucking signs up for that. Imagine, imagine that the like 10 years, maybe.
3:08 Speaker 00 Maybe. That's true. And that's, and the problem is a lot of the T, the TV we make, I make, sells that X factor spot, do one song, live the pimp lifestyle. And of course, that is what in the, all of the X factor that's ever been on and all of pop star, the rivals. How many of those people are now platinum selling artists living in mansions? What? Harry Styles? Try and name some.
3:33 Steven Bartlett? One Direction, that's it.
3:34 Speaker 00 That's out of every single little mix doing well. That's out of every single one in a show that's designed to push people to the front in an artificial way. So if you think that's going to happen, if you're Russell from Essex, you're deluded. It's, but any business, if you're passionate, mixed with a little bit of luck, people, this is the other thing people like us don't like putting out there, but I'm afraid there is a bit of luck involved. And it sort of calls into like, we always sat here going, I've worked so hard. Oh, look at me with my, my work hard badge. But at some point we had some luck as well. Well, just we're in the right place, right time, mixed with the hard work. So some people are more lucky than others. Luck is a thing.
4:14 Speaker 00 And what lucky is not luck as in lottery number luck, but luck as in, oh my God, you've met the, you've met the perfect partner. You're the, you've been the business. Oh, you, you were looking for a friend, a French Bulldog breed and you found exactly the right one at the right time when you were looking for a puppy. Why are you so lucky? Why is my life so shit? So they tested this. They got a bunch of people together, half people who say, my life's shit. I'm so unlucky. And half people like me who like, I've got to admit, I'm a bit, I'm blessed. I do have a lot of luck. And they run tests on them. And the test they run was very simple. The, the psychologist, I can't remember, he's the British Jewish guy, really funny, brings loads of books out, Richard something or other. He's written a book about it, about luck. Look it up.
4:53 Speaker 00 They gave them a newspaper each and they went in there, go into your separate rooms and on a page is a picture you're looking for. Whoever finds that picture. Comes in first, gets a hundred pounds cash. That was the game. So everyone went in like that. On page two. The massive headlines was it's a trick. Stop turning. If you've read this headline, go and collect the money. That was on page two. All the unlucky people missed that. All the lucky people found it. Do you know why? Cause lucky people are, eyes are open, the hustlers. So it turns out you can make luck. You can practise that. You can hone it. That's something you can hone. Next time you walk into a meeting. Just think, right, what's, what's that guy do for it for a living? Who's that? Is that a contact? That's not luck. If I sit down next to someone and he happens to be doing a comedy streaming.
5:39 Speaker 00 Service startup and he signs me up. That's me being a bit bold and striking up a conversation and looking at what he's wearing and having a think. You can learn these skills.
5:48 Steven Bartlett? People don't like that because that shot puts the mirror on me and creates personal responsibility where I, you know what I mean? And, and I feel like in our society at the moment, this is just an observation I've had. Personal responsibility is people fucking hate that.
6:00 Speaker 00 Yeah.
6:01 Steven Bartlett? The fortunate position I'm in, which is what I talked about in my last podcast was because I came from like a very broke family where my mum can't read or write and I, I was born in Africa and. I, we didn't have anything, no Christmas birthdays or holidays. My journey in life, people don't discredit it. They don't point at me and say, oh, you know, silver spoon, you can't fucking talk.
6:18 Speaker 00 Yep.
6:19 Steven Bartlett? So I feel like I can have the conversation a little bit more about personal responsibility. Of course, I'm fucking incredibly lucky. Like, I didn't choose to be me, you know what I mean? I didn't choose my parents or the, the good and bad things that shaped me.
6:32 Speaker 00 Yeah.
6:32 Steven Bartlett? But I, but I wanna, I wanna have a conversation about personal responsibility as it relates to career success. And let's, let's start with hard work. Cause in our society right now, there's two counter narratives. One is that don't work like incredibly hard, you're gonna burn out and you're gonna have mental health problems. And the other is I've never met someone that sat here in front of me that doesn't work really fucking hard. And I, I did, I don't know how I would have sat here without hard work and tremendous sacrifice.
6:58 Speaker 00 Well, first of all, we sort of already made the point, a lot of people are working hard at things they hate.
7:03 Steven Bartlett? Yeah.
7:04 Speaker 00 So working hard at things you dislike, hate or find stressful will bring success and money, but at a cost. Working hard at things you love, I'm, I, I finished filming at midnight last night in Maitland. I got in at half one, I had my dinner at two and I fell asleep at three. And I bounced out of bed this morning to come here to do a podcast for the price of a car. Why? Because I love what I do. Now, if I was, had got in at three from working as a hospital porter, uh, and had to get up to do another job, which was quite well paid this morning, but I hated it, I wouldn't be buzzing. And that's what releases the cortisol and the stress hormone into your body. So you can't compare, and you're not comparing like and like, even though both people are working hard.
7:48 Speaker 00 You've even got people that might be barristers or, or doctors, really well paid professions, but find it stressful and they're burnt out and stuff. It's unlikely you and I will burn out because I'm like, what's next?
8:01 Steven Bartlett? And you're infusically motivated by, you've got a sense of control.
8:04 Speaker 00 Exactly.
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