786 Keep Your Standards High with Phil Rosenthal

ALWAYS QUIT. That doesn’t mean you should bail when things are hard. It means that you are not a victim to your circumstances. If the level of the project that you’re taking part in is not up to your standards, you have to leave. You can’t let other people ruin you. Your name is all you have. For this Five Minute Friday, I revisited a conversation I had with writer and producer Phil Rosenthal where he shared the secret to doing work that you’re proud of. Philip Rosenthal is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. He is also the creator and star of Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix, Exporting Raymond, and I'll Have What Phil's Having. Phil tries to keep his shows at a level that he is happy with. If they’re not working, he is willing to leave and try something else. It’s not easy, but ultimately it’s for the best. Learn how to have high standards and be in control of your narrative in Episode 786. In This Episode You Will Learn: The secret behind the success of Everybody Loves Raymond (2:00) Why you should quit when things aren’t up to your level (3:00) The importance of keeping your name intact (4:00) How to learn from the things you love and emulate them (4:40) Follow me on: instagram @lewishowes twitter @lewishowes Facebook @lewishowes Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:10Lewis Howes?

  I had the pleasure of sitting down with an incredible human being. His name is Phil Rosenthal and he's an American television writer and producer who is best known as the creator, writer, and executive producer for the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. He has had 70 Emmy nominations for his show and won two Emmys. Also, an author and currently producing a new show, I'll Have What Phil's Having.

• 0:39Lewis Howes?

  Did you feel like your identity was tied up in the show for that long?

• 0:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:43Lewis Howes?

  Or did you feel like?

• 0:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's what I do. That's who I am. I make that show. And I'm proud of it and I'm gonna work my butt off to make sure it's good every week. There's some shows are better than others. How could they not be? But there's a level you should never go below. I learned that in school too. We had a professor who said, "There's a level of quality you can't go below." And if we keep that line in our heads, maybe our work is better. Right?

• 1:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  Otherwise, we have no standards.

• 1:13Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:14Speaker 01

  So, it's good to have standards.

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. What was a show that you did that you felt like it went below there? That...

• 1:20Speaker 01

  Everything else.

• 1:23Speaker 01

  Everything else.

• 1:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Because, look, I had, I had, as my friend used to say, "You got the horses on that show." You know, you got the horses, meaning the great actors.

• 1:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:34Speaker 01

  And the great writers too. I had everything working right.

• 1:39Lewis Howes?

  And you were at the right time and...

• 1:41Speaker 01

  Yes, I tried my work not to go below a certain level that I can live with. And I quit. I quit if it's not good. And when I go and speak to kids at schools, I go to colleges and talk to people sometimes. I tell them, and I'm only half joking, "If you take one thing away from this meeting today, always quit."

• 2:01Speaker 01

  What does that mean? Quit if the iced tea isn't cold enough? No. If the level is unsatisfactory to you, if you feel like you're getting so many notes that it's now diminished what you had in mind, you have no recourse but to leave. All we come with is ourselves and all we can go with is with ourselves, right?

• 2:20Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure.

• 2:21Speaker 01

  So, no, you cannot ruin me. I won't allow it. I have standards if you don't. Now, am I being political when I do that? Am I playing them? Am I trying for something? No, I really mean it. When I quit, and it's agonizing, it's not something I do lightly. But sometimes you have to go because it's not going to be right. And if it's not right and you've tried everything, I'm not saying quit on the first day. I'm saying you've tried everything, you see the train is going to hit that wall, jump off that train.

• 2:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right, right.

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Jump off that train. We try to... If the train is going to hit the wall, we try to take the wheel. We try to steer it so it doesn't. But if you see it the last minute, oh my God,

• 3:07Speaker 01

  you gotta get out of there. You gotta, you gotta... Because your name is all you have.

• 3:11Lewis Howes?

  That's it. And when did you realize that it was like, now's the time? Was it the, you know, the seventh season? Were you like, okay, maybe I've got a couple of seasons left? Or was it like during the last season? You're like, oh, this is it?

• 3:23Speaker 01

  No, I planned it.

• 3:25Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 3:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. Because I learned from the shows that I loved, that I... that went before us. You know?

• 3:32Lewis Howes?

  Smart.

• 3:32Speaker 01

  Well, that... Why not learn from the best?

• 3:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  So you see there's things that, that you love and you try to emulate them. You try to, try to use them, use the good examples then.

• 3:43Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.