Become An Everyday Hero w/ Robin Sharma

Does it feel to you that there aren’t enough HEROES in the world today? At times, it seems like many of us have lost our way. We’ve become so burdened by the size and number of problems in our own lives and in the rest of the world that we’re overwhelmed on how to move forward. We feel victimized and WE WANT HELP. We’re looking for heroes and role models to ENERGIZE us and give us the COURAGE and MENTAL TOUGHNESS we need to fight our best fight. But what if I told you the HERO you need is already INSIDE OF YOU? I’m truly thrilled to share with you one of the more special and remarkable conversations I’ve ever had on the show ,with my guest Robin Sharma Many of you may already know about Robin through his work over the past 25 years. He’s a globally renowned LEADERSHIP EXPERT who has sold 20 MILLION BOOKS in more than 90 COUNTRIES, including his latest effort, THE EVERYDAY HERO MANIFESTO. His client roster reads like a Who’s Who of BLUE CHIP organizations that include Microsoft, Nike, Unilever, General Electric, FedEx, HP, Starbucks, Oracle, Yale, NASA, and many others. Robin is also a deeply passionate HUMANITARIAN, helping children in need live happier, healthier lives through The Robin Sharma Foundation for Children. As Robin points out, the world needs EVERYDAY HEROES, just like you. But before you can transform into the hero you were meant to be, you’ve got to make sure your HEART, MIND, HEALTH, AND SPIRITUALITY are in sync and ready to work on your behalf to complete your PERSONAL HEROISM EQUATION. Once you’ve achieved this, there are victim-to-hero leaps--such as dealing with your SUPPRESSED EMOTIONS--you must make that will help lead you to your own heroism. Robin and I get into how to deal with your EGO and TRAUMA as part of this process and why connecting with your MORTALITY is critical to your heroic journey. It’s one of many obstacles Robin reveals that can rob you of your PEACE if you’re not fully prepared to deal with them. We also talk about the importance of MENTORS and how their INFLUENCE as heroes can make all the difference is other people’s lives. You’ll want to hear what Steve Wozniak, Robin’s 5th grade teacher, and his father have in common and how they made a huge impact on Robin’s life. Robin is also going to give you a big dose of how to think differently about WEALTH. You’re going to reflect long and hard about how you measure wealth after you hear Robin’s thoughts on the EIGHT FORMS OF WEALTH. If you want to become a hero, you must also learn how to overcome your FEARS. Robin calls this HUGGING YOUR MONSTERS, and it’s a fitting way to end a REMARKABLE and REVEALING road map on how you can take steps to become an EVERYDAY HERO. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 P.M. And my third day, 6:00 P.M. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time, too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

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• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:11Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and the Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:36Ed Mylett?

  This is the Ed Mileage Show.

• 1:40Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back to the program, everybody. I'm so excited to have this man here today. I've wanted to do this with him for a long time, but it was the universe's timing that I think that we did it now. He's incredible. He's constantly ranked as one of the top three, four, five leadership experts in the world. But when I watch him speak, I think he's one of the most gifted orators in the world today. He's an author of a whole bunch of different books. We're talking 20 million-plus copies sold of his books. He's also a recovering lawyer, which I didn't know until I started to do my research on him. And you know what? There's a bunch of people that endorse his work. I mean, people like Nobel Prize winners, Desmond Tutu, Jon Bon Jovi, and me. I endorse his work. And so he's got a new book out called The Everyday Hero Manifesto, which is incredible. It's about 10 books in one book.

• 2:25Ed Mylett?

  So, Robin Sharma, welcome to the show.

• 2:26Robin Sharma?

  Real blessing, Ed. Nice to finally meet you.

• 2:29Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, pleasure. It's mine. I gotta tell you, I told you off camera, I'm just a big fan of the work you do and the way that you do it. So, let's get into it. I want to serve a bunch of people here today, and a lot of people have asked for you and I to get together and do this. And so, this book, I said in the intro, it's 101 chapters, but they're easy to read chapters. And it's a lot of different stuff in one book. It almost looked to me like you said, you know what, I'm gonna give you everything I've got in one book. And the premise of it, kind of interesting to me, you said, "Why do you think the world needs more everyday heroes?" Because I think in the world today, most people don't look at themselves as heroic.

• 3:04Robin Sharma?

  That's exactly why I wrote the book. That's exactly what it is. It's when we... Society has seduced us into thinking, Ed, that the heroes are on the mountaintops. The Martin Luther King Juniors, the Mother Terraces, the Hedy Lamarrs, the Desmond Tutus, the JFKs, the MLKs.

• 3:23Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 3:23Robin Sharma?

  And that's true. These people have overcome suffering and transcended tragedy to do amazing things with their lives. And they've served the world, and they've freed nations, and they've showed us what possibility looks like. But what about the ditch digger, who does his work like Beethoven composed music? What about the single father or mother, working hard and seeing the dignity of their labor, putting food on the table and being a good community servant? What about the pizza maker? What about the gardener? What about the firefighter? What about the startup entrepreneur toiling quietly for 20 years of anonymity, until their unicorn takes off?

• 4:07Robin Sharma?

  Like, I think we've just been seduced and hypnotized and brainwashed and heartwashed into believing that heroes are cut from a different cloth. And so, I wrote the Everyday Hero Manifesto, not only to give tools, but to give philosophy, because methodology without philosophy is an empty sport.

• 4:25Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 4:26Robin Sharma?

  And I'd love to dial into that point, but that's why I wrote the book. There are no extra people on the planet today. A lot of people are suffering. A lot of people have resigned themselves to average and given up on their genius, which they were born into, and I want to help them remember that.

• 4:40Ed Mylett?

  And so, let's talk about that philosophy part a little bit, too. What did you mean when you said that?

• 4:43Robin Sharma?

  It's a great question, because I've done a lot of these interviews. And everyone says so many times, it's like, "What are the tactics?"

• 4:49Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 4:50Robin Sharma?

  "What are the habits?"

• 4:51Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 4:51Robin Sharma?

  "So, what do I need to do?"

• 4:53Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 4:55Robin Sharma?

  I think we live in a mathematical world, so it's all about doing, it's all about what do we need to do, give me the five steps, and the book is full of, as you've seen, hundreds and hundreds of tools that I've shared with many of the most successful people in the world as their mentor. But philosophy is your mountaintop. If you don't know your Mount Everest, then what's the point of having great methodology to scale the wrong mountain? That's a recipe for heartbreak.

• 5:19Ed Mylett?

  Well, by the way, I completely agree with you. It's interesting, I'm constantly asked for tactics and strategies, because that's the thing right now.

• 5:25Robin Sharma?

  Sure.

• 5:26Ed Mylett?

  It's really interesting, but if you have an understanding of why you're doing something, and the belief systems behind it, usually those works are empty. And I think a lot of times, it's a very vogue, you know, very in vogue thing right now to be teaching, okay, this is my routine, this is the thing I do, and you and I both do a lot of that. But I think without an understanding of why or how philosophically, it's something that doesn't work for most people. But it's interesting to use the word hero, because, and genius, because I don't think most people view themselves, the ditch digger, for example, the mother who's right now raising three kids that are running around the house, plus trying to write her, you know, her blog that she's doing right now, and just, she doesn't look at herself as heroic. In fact, I think in the book, there's a chapter that you have, I think it's called "From Victim to Hero: The Leaps That One Must Make."

• 6:11Ed Mylett?

  And I think the other thing in our culture right now, more than ever, is there is a little bit of a victim mentality, in that, you know, that maybe the world's conspiring against me, or my conditions, my background, my story, my shame, my mistakes that I've made in my life, disqualify me from doing anything heroic in the future, right? And so, let's talk a little bit about those leaps in that process.

• 6:31Robin Sharma?

  Well, one of the chapters in the book is called "The Chestnut Sellers Doctrine." And I spent a lot of time in Europe, and one night, I love doing these wisdom walks late at night, sometimes two in the morning, or five in the morning, I walk the streets, and I just think, and I look at the stars. And so, it was about midnight, Ed, and the luxury stores were empty, tourists streamed out of these beautiful restaurants.

• 6:59Robin Sharma?

  Not a lot of people were really on the street and there was one square in particular and there was a man hunched over, I still remember it with a blue woolen cap with moonbeam sort of over him. And as I grew nearer, I noticed he was, he was heating chestnuts. And he had this little rickety stove and these chestnuts on it, he was just moving it and there was a gentle smile on his face and I walked over because I think everyone we meet has a story to tell and a lesson to teach if we have the openness to hear it. Agreed. So I walked over and I bought some of his chestnuts and I said, you know, what's your story? And he said, well, I'm an immigrant to this country. I was a very successful business person.

• 7:44Robin Sharma?

  I got ill, I lost my home, I lost my fortune, I lost my business. He said, I moved here and now I buy these chestnuts and I warm them and I sell them to tourists and people who are walking by on the street and I work many, many hours a day. But he says, you know, I can still work and so I can still make people happy. Wow. And to me, that's, you know, in a world where you're right, there is a lot of entitlement in this world, but, you know, I've met, mentored so many billionaires, for example, and one thing about the billionaires, they all are intimate with their access of power. What does that mean? Well, it means that, that you can tell a victim, and I'm not judging just reporting, but victims give away their power to external circumstances. They say it's because of the economy, it's because of the pandemic, it's because of my

• 8:29Robin Sharma?

  husband, because of my wife, because of my children, because of my past, that I can't live my genius and change the world. But people, as you know so well, you're one of them, people who do amazing things in the world are very intimate with their inner heroism. Yeah. And they don't depend on the world to give them a living. They're willing to exercise their own discipline to materialize their own gifts and their talents. How does that happen? It comes with practice. Do we all have this potential? Absolutely. Martin Luther King Jr. said, unless you've found something willing, you're willing to die for, you're not fit to live. Yes. I would take a bullet for the idea that any person on the planet today, with the right philosophy, with the right methodology, with enough time.

• 9:18Robin Sharma?

  can do incredible things with their lives. Again, that doesn't mean they need to be a billionaire.

• 9:22Ed Mylett?

  Correct.

• 9:23Robin Sharma?

  You know, that's, that's where I think that the world has fallen apart. It's like,

• 9:26Ed Mylett?

  So do I.

• 9:26Robin Sharma?

  you hear people introducing people, he's really important because he's a billionaire. Yeah, but what about, what about the person who helps kids walk across? It's like, we're all important.

• 9:37Ed Mylett?

  I think we have this addiction now to the big.

• 9:40Robin Sharma?

  Yes, exactly.

• 9:41Ed Mylett?

  It's gotta be big.

• 9:42Robin Sharma?

  That's it.

• 9:42Ed Mylett?

  Or it's not important. And if you actually reflect on your own lives, it's actually typically things in quiet moments and small things that have been gifts given to you by people that aren't well-known or aren't wealthy that have made the biggest difference in your own lives. I think I have a sister, because I think sometimes people think, well, hey, you're, you're pretty well-known now. You're moving and shaking and doing all these things. I've made a couple bucks and influenced people. And my sister is a, she's my middle sister, Andrea. I don't, I don't know why all of a sudden it's getting me because she's been my middle sister for a long time. It makes me emotional. But my sister was basically born with diabetes. And over time, she lost her vision. And I think she's legally blind. She can't drive anymore. I've helped connect her with some doctors. She can see a little

• 10:26Ed Mylett?

  bit now. But she's a school teacher. And in a quiet little Christian school, doesn't make any money. But for the last 20 years of her life, she's been making a difference in these young, beautiful souls' lives over and over, every day. No camera on her, no Instagram, no big money, no big impact. Yet she is an everyday hero. She's the type of person that you write about in her book. I hope she's listening to this so she knows how heroic she is. But you use the word, I want to understand this a little deeper. So I think you can articulate it. You said, become more intimate with it. Intimate with their own understanding of their heroism. How does one begin to do that?

• 11:05Robin Sharma?

  I think the fourth chapter of the Everyday Hero Manifesto was the gold miners paradox.

• 11:12Robin Sharma?

  In ancient Thailand, there was a golden Buddha. It was a towering figure made of pure gold. The people around the country worshipped it. It was this incredibly value, incredible value of this treasure. And then it became clear that invaders were going to come into the country. And the warriors were going to take it. So the inhabitants hatched a plan and they decided to hide the golden Buddha. And so what they decided to do was put layer upon layer upon layer of mud and soil and clay and rocks to hide this magnificent treasure. And sure enough, when the warriors came in, they walked right by it and they missed the golden Buddha.

• 11:54Robin Sharma?

  Well, a few hundred years later, Ed, you know, there was this young boy walking by and he sees this gold peeking out from all this mountain of mud. And he and other people, his neighbors, started chipping away at the layers of mud. And every time they chipped away at a bit more mud, more of the gold shined. There was an immediate payoff and they chipped away more of the layers of the mud and more of the golden Buddha started to shine. And as they did it day after day after day, and after a few weeks, there was this incredible treasure known as the golden Buddha. And you've seen, I actually went and visited it. And there's the picture of me standing in front of it. It's amazing. And I could not think of a better metaphor So good. to describe So good. how we've forgotten who we truly are.

• 12:36Robin Sharma?

  We are born into perfection and then we are seduced into average. So right. And what does that look like? It looks like the programming of our mothers, fathers, teachers, preachers, peers, et cetera. It's the programming of the media. It's the programming of the world around us. We pick up doubt, fear, disbelief. And it's not only mindset, a key part of my work. I talk about it a lot in the Everyday Hero Manifesto, but even in my other work, it's not only the mental programming that we pick up that separates us from who we truly are. It's also what I call, not only mindset, but heart set. We get wounded through macro and micro trauma and we disassociate with our brave and wise

• 13:21Robin Sharma?

  and creative and productive hearts. And so what happens if, as this process continues, the layers get formed over the gold and we forget who we truly are. And then we have a story about our potential. We have a story about our prosperity. We have a story about our health. We have a story about what we can do and be in the world. And if you repeat, and our behaviors are always aligned with our self-identity and the story. That's right. And then we fight for that story, even though it's a lie that we've sold ourselves.

• 13:52Ed Mylett?

  Everybody should go back and listen to that last minute. I want you to hear the whole interview with that last minute is the holy grail of what happens in our lives. It becomes this conditioned pattern that we begin to reinforce our own story over and over and over again. And then unless you, and then one of the most powerful things you could do, and by the way, it's the reason I want money of you to get this book, all of you to get the book, is that just an awareness that you're in this conditioning and this pattern has it lose a little bit of its power over you. And then once you're aware you're doing it or you have it, now you're open to the philosophies and strategies of change. But until you have an awareness that, oh my gosh, I am doing this, I'm living this conditioning and pattern that my, because you were born to do something great. You weren't, you were born special, you were born heroic, you were born wired with your own special form of your genius,

• 14:37Ed Mylett?

  your vision, your humor, your beauty, your nurturing skills, your listening ability. It could be any number of different geniuses that you have. And then you were conditioned to believe over time that those things didn't matter and that they don't make an impact. And so, super powerful. You have this, you just touched on it and I'm so glad you did because, by the way, you can see how special Robin is. This is not like any other interview we've done before. His approach is very different. His, his way of explaining things is different. It's almost like a, it's almost like a philosophical, scientific conversion of genius in one guy, right? And then the way that you deliver it. But this, you said health set, or you said heart set and mindset earlier, I believe. But there's also, you have these kind of different sets that you described.

• 15:20Ed Mylett?

  There's health set, there's heart set, there's this combination. Can you describe those?

• 15:24Robin Sharma?

  Absolutely. So, we hear so much in the personal mastery and leadership field, everything is mindset. No disrespect whatsoever to all the pundits who evangelize it. I believe there are actually three other interior empires that complete the personal heroism equation. Mindset is an important, absolutely, because that's your psychology. Your daily behavior reflects your deepest beliefs. Unless you upgrade your psychology.

• 15:49Robin Sharma?

  Then your behavior will always be limited. And no question, positive thinking is important. But I, there's a chapter in the book called the, the big lie of positive thinking.

• 15:57Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 15:57Robin Sharma?

  Get into that. But so your, your mindset's important. Having said that, there are three other interior empires. The second is your heart set. Now, this, a lot of people, I know so many entrepreneurs and industry titans and professional sports superstars follow your work. This could sound like a little flaky and weak. Actually, it's incredibly powerful to purify your heart set. Because your mindset is your psychology, your heart set is your emotionality.

• 16:24Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 16:25Robin Sharma?

  We are, as human beings, we have emotions. It was a wide open heart that allowed Beethoven to do the moonlight sonata. It was a wide open heart that allowed Shakespeare to do his work or Hedy Lamarr to invent. If you look at the most successful, even industry titans, these people are being driven by a compelling cause. Steve Jobs did what he did, not because he cared about money. Steve Jobs did what he did because he was an artist who wanted to bring great beauty to the world. I heard an interview yesterday, tributes after his death, from people who knew him. And they said, he, he was, yes, he would get angry because he was so invested in his mighty mission. In making the world a better place.

• 17:08Ed Mylett?

  He was almost evangelical.

• 17:09Robin Sharma?

  He was almost evangelical. There was, there was one thing, I found this so fascinating. He called one of his designers, two in the morning, when they were working on the iPhone. Designer wakes up, yes, Steve. He says, um, Steve Jobs says, well, you know, in the back of the iPhone, there's three screws. Designer says, but that's inside. No one's ever going to see those. Don't worry, Steve. Steve Jobs says, yes, but we know those three screws are there. And two screws are going to be much better. Fix it. So, so heart set is our, our higher level emotions like gratitude, awe and wonder. And yet here is the key point. Our heart set also is all the suppressed emotions that we pick up as we go through life.

• 17:54Robin Sharma?

  Carl Jung called it the shadow side. Sigmund Freud said, all of the suppressed emotions that we do not feel, like guilt, anger, shame, disappointment, frustration. That we pick up as we go through life. If those are not dealt with. They come back in ugly ways. And so

• 18:14Ed Mylett?

  And they're suppressants to your genius, aren't they?

• 18:15Robin Sharma?

  Well, that's, that is the absolute key because if you, our society doesn't welcome us to work through those. So what it creates is, in the book, I call it a field of hurt. And so you can do, go to all the productivity courses, you can read all the business books, you can learn exactly what to do about mindset. But you're never going to get to world class or greatness because there will always be a block between who you are and who you truly are because of all of those suppressed emotions. Once you learn how to release them, you get intimate with your inner heroism. You, your creativity soars, your productivity soars, you actually open your heart to love. Great products are made of love, great teams are built of love, great movements are launched from love. Then there's, so there's mindset, there's heart set, there's health set, and then there's soul set.

• 19:00Robin Sharma?

  Soul set is your spirituality. I'm not necessarily talking about religion. But once you turn down the loud voices of your ego.

• 19:10Robin Sharma?

  We can talk about the tools to do it, but, and you start to hear the silent whispers of your inner hero. You start living the truth. And when you do that consistently, you become the most powerful person in every room that you're in. And you don't need to worry about branding because your character and your energy and your love is the messenger for every single thing you do. So those are the four interior empires and all the external habits and rituals, pre-sleep routines, morning routines. Those work brilliantly once you've upgraded the four interior empires.

• 19:48Ed Mylett?

  Some of the best stuff I've ever heard.

• 19:50Robin Sharma?

  Thank you.

• 19:50Ed Mylett?

  Right there. And, and by the way, you know, if you go back and look at a lot of Robin's previous work and mine, we talk a lot about routines, 5AM Club, all these other things that we, you know, we both, you know, talk a great deal about. This idea of the, the heart set and I just have to tell you that that was a big, I just want to share with everybody that you articulated in a way. But I think that was one of the shifts that happened in the middle of my life. That I did begin to work through some of those negative emotions that were installed in me. And I have found that all of the creative geniuses, you know, y'all have those talks or conversations you've had in your life, you're like, well, just all the words came to me. These thoughts came to me that I didn't even think were my own. And maybe because you've worked on your heart set, the spiritual part of you has opened

• 20:30Ed Mylett?

  up to getting divine inspiration and divine messages and things that are beyond what you thought were your normal capacity before. And so, I love it. Now, the ego thing is an issue for everybody. Ego isn't always, by the way, that I think I'm great. Ego sometimes is that you're just so obsessed with you and you're obsessed with your own problems. A lot of people that think, well, ego is only for really people that are successful that brag about themselves. No, ego often is just being self-centered, not getting out of yourself to serve other people. You could be making no money right now and not had any success that you think in your life that you've had, and you still could be struggling from an ego issue. And I think ego is the lack of getting out of oneself and into the lives of other people, other humans, into the spiritual realms of your life.

• 21:14Ed Mylett?

  So ego could be your issue as you're listening to this, unbeknownst to you. Because it was to me. I thought, I didn't have an ego issue when I was broke. And yeah, I did. Actually, one of the reasons I was broke is I had an ego issue. I was so self-centered and worried so much about myself and my life and woe is me. And then I just started the journey of getting into serving other people.

• 21:33Robin Sharma?

  Yes.

• 21:34Ed Mylett?

  A lot of that change would have happened. So what are some of those strategies that you were referencing earlier about removing ego or minimizing ego?

• 21:42Robin Sharma?

  Well, first, on that point of ego, I believe ego is the voice of fear. I believe ego is the construct that gets formed after we leave the innocence of childhood as we experience micro and macro trauma. Trauma is not a dangerous word. Trauma is actually what makes the great heroes in many ways. I'm not saying I'm a great hero in any way. I'm just saying what cracked my ego open has been tragedy. The more I've suffered in my life, the more I've woken up. One of my favorite books is The Prophet by Khalil Jaran, and he said, "The selfsame cup that holds your wine was burned in the potter's oven."

• 22:26Robin Sharma?

  And so I think it's important, especially in this world that we're going through right now. You know, pain is an incredible purifier.

• 22:34Ed Mylett?

  Pain is a purifier.

• 22:35Robin Sharma?

  Oh, it's the greatest purifier. A bad day for the ego is a great day for the soul. When we're going through it, we're kicking and screaming, waiting to get out of the heartbreak or the illness or the bankruptcy or the loss of a loved one. My humble encouragement is stay in the pain.

• 22:55Robin Sharma?

  Because it is when you deal with tragedy and navigate it that you learn how strong you are. Helen Keller said it more elegantly than I ever could when she said, "We would not learn to be brave or patient if there was only joy in the world."

• 23:11Robin Sharma?

  And I do believe there is a magical or brilliant orchestration of our lives that sends us the difficult times at the perfect moment to help us evolve into the human beings we're meant to be.

• 23:24Ed Mylett?

  Do you think someone can simultaneously stay in that pain and still be? I always have this philosophy that when I'm feeling the most helpless is to become helpful.

• 23:32Robin Sharma?

  Yes.

• 23:33Ed Mylett?

  And so do you think there's a nuance there between staying in the pain and understanding it and living with it and at the same time attempting to get out of yourself to some extent and serving others?

• 23:43Robin Sharma?

  Well, I think serving others is a great way to move ahead. There's a line in the book which is, "Allow your past to be an academy."

• 23:54Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 23:54Robin Sharma?

  You can learn from, not a jail you get imprisoned within. So I think, yes, by serving you can move out of it. But I think, I think pain is, pain is an incredible teacher. There's one of the chapters in the Everyday Hero Manifesto where I, it's a very vulnerable book for me.

• 24:12Ed Mylett?

  It is. I was gonna just say that to everybody. You share things about yourself in this book that you've not done in any of the other work you've had.

• 24:17Robin Sharma?

  Yes. And one of the chapters is that it's that time, 10 years of my personal journals vanished. And I don't know if you journal, you probably do.

• 24:26Ed Mylett?

  I do.

• 24:27Robin Sharma?

  I journal every day.

• 24:28Ed Mylett?

  I can't imagine that happening.

• 24:29Robin Sharma?

  I can imagine not journaling. And so I write about my hopes, my dreams, my vision, my difficulties, my struggles, my chaos, so I can move into clarity. And 10 years of them just vanished. I'm not, I don't think it's the right thing for me to explain the dynamics of it. But it was during a very difficult time of my life. But it was that very time of my life, and I've gone through different tragedies as I've advanced along my path. But it was, it was that difficulty, it's when you're down on your knees, you're closest to your destiny. And it's when I was going through that difficulty that I was introduced to the great virtues. It's when you are suffering that you learn,

• 25:14Robin Sharma?

  I think, the greatest of all spiritual lessons, which is to let go.

• 25:18Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 25:18Robin Sharma?

  You know, it's like, everyone always says, Robin, I want a journal, but what if someone sees my journal? So, well, this is 10 years of my most intimate ruminations and thoughts and struggles, and they were all gone. So what life taught me through that gorgeous loss is let go. Well, at the end of the day, what will people see? They will see a man on the path with flaws and hopes, strengths and weaknesses, trying to figure it out. That just makes me human. One of my favorite movies, it's with Jeremy Renner, it's called Kill the Messenger, and he says, if you look inside anyone's life, what do you see? A three-ring circus.

• 26:00Ed Mylett?

  So true. And by the way, I think that's what makes us, I mean, I connect with you and I hope people connect with me because we are men, we are human, we do have frailties, we do have doubts and fears and worries and anxieties, and I don't want my journals taken or to disappear.

• 26:15Robin Sharma?

  I don't want your journals taken.

• 26:16Ed Mylett?

  Trust me, you really don't. But, but I have to tell you that that's one of the things that I love about this book is because I think there's just a personal side. I want to say one thing about the book, and everyone knows, you know, I have someone on the show. If I don't love the book, you won't hear me talk about loving the book. I just got to tell you that I don't, no matter what your outcome is, this particular book is so vast and so deep that I think you could come from different reasons and want the book, and you're going to get something profoundly life-changing from it. Speaking of life, you and I share something in common that I don't know any other two guys talking about. I think and talk about death a lot.

• 26:52Robin Sharma?

  Amazing.

• 26:53Ed Mylett?

  I, I, I think there's a beauty in contemplating one's death because I think it makes us feel so much more precious to be alive. And I think this avoidance of that topic robs people from beautiful things in their lives. And so in the book, you discuss this too. So I just want to let you go on this a little bit, but death, the concept of it, the, the shortness of life is all in this book and it's stuff. I think about, I would say, not just daily, but I think I probably contemplate it multiple times a day. And I'm not so sure it's not some unconscious conversation happening in my mind all the time that causes me to want to live now, to want to be present, to want to do something great with my life. I, I, I'm comfortable in that conversation. So, and I know you are too. So I'm unleashing you here on that.

• 27:38Robin Sharma?

  I, I would say, Ed, that one of the greatest tragedies is not connecting to your mortality on a regular basis. I think every single human being, it's almost hardwired into us neurobiologically. There's an ambient fear of death. And I think that limits us dramatically. And I think not knowing that your days are numbered, like I, I believe, like I biohack and I eat very well and I do all the right things. And Ray Kurzweil, for example, says, if you live for another 30 years, you might live for another hundred years or forever. And there's amazing things happening that we're all very excited about. Having said that, I'll be very grateful and lucky if I live another 25 Christmases. And that's how I actually

• 28:23Robin Sharma?

  say it to my family. I say 20, 25 Christmases. If there's a trip I want to take, I'll go, should I do it? 25 Christmases. If there's another thing I want to do, 25 Christmases. If there's someone I don't know, do you know how, how much of our life we miss because of a fear of rejection? So if there's someone I want to meet, oh, egg my let, I get, you know, as I was driving over here, I, I feel what a blessing to meet you.

• 28:46Ed Mylett?

  So did I, brother.

• 28:47Robin Sharma?

  You know, it's like a blessing.

• 28:48Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 28:49Robin Sharma?

  So the shortness of life and building intimacy with your mortality is incredibly, incredibly important. In the book, There's a number of things I say about death. It's a very inspirational book, but at the end I talk a little bit about it. One of the things I say is, I say, forget about legacy. Everyone's talking about legacy right now. 20 years ago, I wrote a book called, Who Will Cry When You Die? I really was believing in legacy. You know, Joseph Campbell's idea to live in the hearts of those we leave behind is not to die. Now I don't care about legacy because when we die, we end up as a pile of dust in someone's urn

• 29:32Robin Sharma?

  over their mantle next to their little league trophies. It does not matter how we are remembered when we are no longer alive because we're dead. All that matters is how we conduct ourselves, how big we dream, how decent we are, how brave, how we overcome our trials and troubles while we are alive. So that's one thing I would say about death. Like, forget about getting your, your name on a hospital wing. I think that's an ego play. Live beautifully, dangerously, fully creatively, wide open right now because our days are numbered. Second thing I'd say about death, there's a chapter in the Everyday Manifesto called, "Death is just a hotel room upgrade." So it's almost like, and I ruminate in that chapter, it's almost like, you know,

• 30:17Robin Sharma?

  we're living in a three or four star hotel, we're going through life. But when you die, you get upgraded.

• 30:25Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 30:26Robin Sharma?

  And you go to this place where there is exponential creativity, really cool people, lots of light and a whole new universe. Why would you fear a hotel room upgrade? Those would be, and then I think the third thing I'd say is just, one of the traps human beings fall into is we believe we are not going to be one of those people who will be caught in the violent attack. We will not be one of those people who die from the plague. We will not be one of those people who walk out and get into a car accident. But people die every single day and I think it really is wise, you know, not to postpone living.

• 31:09Ed Mylett?

  Oh, brother.

• 31:13Ed Mylett?

  I think some people, I think a lot of people actually consciously don't think they're gonna die. I think they think everybody else is gonna die. I think they think everyone's gonna, gonna die and that somehow is buying them time to getting around. You know, one of the gifts of thinking about death and what it means and what, what will happen then, I think is it actually is a really quick shortcut to confidence and lack of fear. Because you understand, if I get rejected here, I'm, I have a 25 more, this goes away in 25 more Christmases anyways. And if there's people that you love, the contemplation of them not being here will cause you to be so much more present with them. I, I didn't need my dad to die last year. I just needed to realize he was going to when he was living and I would have taken more phone calls. I would have put my phone down more often when I was talking with them.

• 31:56Ed Mylett?

  The thought of that concept, even for the people you love, will cause you to be so much more present and appreciative. Because the truth is, I only really saw my dad four or five times a year. So even if my dad had six more years to live, that was only 24, 25 more times with my dad. They should have been precious. And so I love, love, love that you talk about this. There's a depth to you and your work that just goes beyond the, okay, here's a strategy. Here's a tactic. Here's a thought. Here's a hack, even though you have a lot of them. I have them as well. I love the depth to what you talk about. Being in your presence, it's obvious to me as well. You've also had the blessing of some heavyweight mentors. I think it's chapter eight, but it's kind of like the advice from heavyweight mentors, right?

• 32:41Ed Mylett?

  What, give us a little bit of that juice there.

• 32:43Robin Sharma?

  Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, was on my stage, stage when I used to do an event called the Titan Summit. Richard Branson was there, Shaquille O'Neal, many of the world's, you know, A, A players and history makers. He was a great mentor to me. I think he has such a great heart.

• 33:00Ed Mylett?

  Steve?

• 33:01Robin Sharma?

  Steve.

• 33:01Ed Mylett?

  Oh, purest heart. He's such a beautiful man.

• 33:04Robin Sharma?

  Showed up like, you know, alone in the taxi, you know?

• 33:07Ed Mylett?

  He's giving out guys in the crowd his phone number from the stage. He's just such a great guy.

• 33:11Robin Sharma?

  He's just, he was just so humble, you know, and, and it was like, what was your dream? Oh, I just wanted to do the most amazing coding. I just wanted to do the most amazing coding that other engineers would look at. And just go, this guy's incredible. I didn't care about money.

• 33:25Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 33:25Robin Sharma?

  And I don't, he was just, he's just a beaut-

• 33:28Ed Mylett?

  Can I say one thing about it? Just cause I so, by the way, it's a very good impression of him. Is that he's one of these stories that most people don't really know. Steve should be one of the five, six wealthiest men in the world.

• 33:37Robin Sharma?

  Yeah.

• 33:38Ed Mylett?

  But what he did to give away early on in Apple, and even after Apple, um, you know, became a public company is, is one of the most amazing stories that most people don't know on the planet is he helped so many other people become wealthy at his own financial expense.

• 33:51Robin Sharma?

  He did. You know, it, it moves me to mention the words Cora Greenaway. Cora Greenaway was one of the greatest mentors of my life. She's my grade five history teacher. And there's a picture of her in the book when she was a hundred and one. And when I was growing up, I, I marched to a different drummer. I didn't really fit in with the stylish crowd.

• 34:16Robin Sharma?

  I trusted my own voice. I lived in my head in many ways. I loved to read. I was minimized, laughed at, put down, disbelieved.

• 34:30Robin Sharma?

  Teacher said, oh, he's, he'll be a drifter. He'll be a vagrant. He won't amount to anything. And one thing I would say to all your many millions of viewers from around the world is, you know, you can listen to the opinions of your critics or you can change the world, but you don't get to do both.

• 34:44Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 34:46Robin Sharma?

  Um, in the book, there's J K Rowling. She actually had a, she had a, she had a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith. She wrote a book after like the Harry Potter success. She wrote a book under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. She sent it out to people in the publishing industry and they said, sent back letters that said, you know, you would do well to join a writing group and to, and to take writing lessons to J K Rowling. So- I was minimized and but this teacher, you know, in grade five, Cora Greenaway, she saw something in me that very few people saw in me. And she took it upon herself to save me in many ways and to build me up versus tear me down. And she said, Robin,

• 35:30Robin Sharma?

  there is something special in you and I see it. And I think the job of an everyday hero is to shine a light on people's talents and help them become bigger in your presence. I think that's what the world needs right more right now.

• 35:42Ed Mylett?

  Oh, Robin.

• 35:43Robin Sharma?

  I think that's what the great leaders do. Their ego is so turned down and they're such servants that they make people feel bigger in their presence and they leave people better than they found them. And so Cora Greenaway really saved me and inspired me and my life moved into an all new trajectory after that. And I think that's the power of a mentor. A few years ago, I started searching for Cora Greenaway. And I didn't know this, Ed, but I learned that when she was a young woman, she actually was a part of the Dutch Resistance and she would go under enemy lines in Nazi territory and she would save children who were going to Nazi DAP camps. And just, this was my grade five history teacher.

• 36:25Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 36:25Robin Sharma?

  And then the third mentor, I've had so many, but would be my father. And you talked about your father and you talked about your sister. And my father is 84. He was 54 years, he was a family doctor. And he used to say things like this to me when I was growing up. He'd say, Robin, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced. He said, live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice.

• 36:53Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 36:53Robin Sharma?

  He was a Rotarian.

• 36:55Ed Mylett?

  Your father said this to you?

• 36:56Robin Sharma?

  My father said it to me. My father was a Rotarian. He would quote Paul Harris, the founder, and he'd say, the one who serves the best profits the most. And my dad has been just like a terrific philosopher to me. So those would be three of the big heroes in my life. Obviously, my mom, my mom will say like, why didn't you mention me? But she's magnificent, of course.

• 37:15Ed Mylett?

  I make that same mistake when I talk about my dad, by the way. I have to share something with you. I think this little exchange right here is going to be the reason that your book is so profound. So I've had, you and I have been blessed to have access to about every brilliant mind or successful, whatever on the planet, they either want our advice or we get theirs, which is a pretty cool thing. I have to be careful that I can get through this sentence, too. Yours is your fifth grade teacher.

• 37:39Ed Mylett?

  I have these little tiny moments, I'm emotional, but I have these little tiny moments in my life where people that don't think they were everyday heroes completely changed the complete direction of my life. I had a fourth grade teacher. I was small. My dad was an alcoholic. I was, I had just switched schools. I was just thought I was nothing. I had no self-esteem. And I was struggling in school and it was obvious that the other kids didn't like me. And I had a Mrs. Smith, Susan Smith was my fourth grade teacher. And I remember I used to tell this story even on my show five, six years ago, that this, this is everyday heroes, guys. These are two of us sitting here. We ended up doing a fourth and a fifth grade teacher, both of our dads and basically one other person, right? And so the, someone walked in the back of the room and

• 38:24Ed Mylett?

  said, Mrs. Smith, we need one of your smart, she kind of whispered it, but we go, we need your smartest student because we're going to take the state exams in the other room, right? And I watched Mrs. Smith, she was sitting at her desk, we were doing work and she goes, that would be little Eddie. I'm getting goosebumps right now. And she points at me. And she thought I was the smart one. And I got up and I walked to the back and I went back and took this state test. It was the first person that ever told me I was smart. It was the first person that ever called me out in a room and said that I was special in my life in the fourth grade. And it stood out to me so much to the point that I talked about it on different shows I've been interviewed in. I sought her out about four years ago. She remembered me.

• 39:06Robin Sharma?

  Wow.

• 39:07Ed Mylett?

  She did that on purpose because she knew I was struggling. There was no test that I needed to take. She knew days before she was going to do that. She asked somebody to come to the back of the room. She asked them to say that so that we could all hear it, so that she could say my name, so that I could stand up in front of the class and walk out. What a beautiful woman. What a heroic woman. And that difference, if that doesn't happen that day, I'm pretty sure you and I aren't sitting here right now having this conversation. So if you're wondering in small ways whether what you do is heroic, what was your fifth grade teacher's name again?

• 39:39Robin Sharma?

  Cora Greenway.

• 39:40Ed Mylett?

  Cora Greenway and Susan Smith have changed the course of both of our lives.

• 39:44Robin Sharma?

  Is she still?

• 39:46Ed Mylett?

  She's not teaching anymore, but she's still with us. She did that on purpose. Is that not incredible? For a little boy in your class.

• 39:53Robin Sharma?

  You know, there, there's a model towards the end of the everyday hero manifesto called the eight forms of wealth. And I think what we're sharing really speaks to it. Our society has brainwashed us and heart washed us into believing that the ultimate metric of success is money, position, what I call FFA, fame, fortune, and applause, versus the truth, JPF, joy, peace, and freedom. And I think, you know, there are eight forms of wealth. Money is only one of them. Now, for all of the business builders who follow you and who follow me, is money important? Absolutely.

• 40:32Robin Sharma?

  It gives you freedom, philanthropy, magical times, you can help, it's just, it helps tremendously. You gotta go through your life with it or without it, take with it. No question. I'd rather stay in a nice hotel room than in, you know, flea bag, et cetera. I'd like great food versus, having said that, there are seven other forms of wealth, and we can go through them, and I still haven't answered your question about the tactics for heart set healing, we can talk about the Aphra tool that's in the book. Let's do both. And, you know, my experiences with healers and acupuncture and all that kind of thing. But I think, I think it's really central for us to appreciate, I believe, that there are seven other forms of wealth. And one of those is family.

• 41:15Robin Sharma?

  I've mentored so many billionaires, and they've got the jets, and they've got the yachts, and they've got massive fortunes, and they are heartbroken because they have lost the connection, especially with their children. With children, you have a little window of opportunity, and once it closes, it's really, really, really hard to open it up again. Another form of wealth that is incredibly important is, and I know it's so essential to you, is health. Yeah. I mean, right, someone once said to me, "Health is the crown on the well person's head that only the ill person can see." Right? So it's like, you have all the money in the world, I've had clients, they have all the money in the world, and they've lost their health in the process. One had an autoimmune disorder, and he showed up at my office, and he looked very ill, and

• 41:58Robin Sharma?

  he'd lost a lot of weight, and I said, "What happened to you?" And he said, "Well, as I built my business, I lost my health. Now I've turned the business over to my executive, my leadership team, and my wife and I travel the world, look for healers to try to get me back to health." Another form of wealth So good. Is self-mastery.

• 42:17Robin Sharma?

  I mean, I think the ultimate mission of life is self-knowledge. If you go to the Temple of Delphi over the archway, it's know thyself. All the great saints, sages in Syria say the ultimate goal of life is to make the journey to understand your gifts and your talents, to build your character, to build intimacy and fluency with your bravery, creativity, and productivity. That's why I love work. You know, it makes me a stronger, better person. So that is a form of wealth. If you have work you are loving, if you are reading books, if you are listening to Ed Mylett, if you are going to the courses, if you are doing the healing, that is a form of wealth to cherish and celebrate and honor. And then the last form of wealth is, I used to call it legacy. I don't believe in legacy anymore,

• 43:01Robin Sharma?

  like I mentioned, but it's helpfulness, it's usefulness, it's impact. And if you get to help one person in one day, I would invite all your millions of listeners from around the world. If you, if you get to do one thing in a day, or we all can, that upgrades someone's life, that puts a smile on their face, that has been a very, very special day. Pau Gasol, the center of the L.A. Lakers, came to one of my events. We had dinner afterwards. I dropped him off at the airport. Everyone was looking at him. He signed every single autograph, took every single photograph. As I left him at the gate, I said, Pau, you know, you stopped for everyone. And he said something to me I've never forgotten, and it's so valuable.

• 43:42Robin Sharma?

  He said, Robin, it takes so little to make someone happy. Great form of wealth.

• 43:52Ed Mylett?

  Such a great, such a great conversation we're having.

• 43:56Robin Sharma?

  Right, thank you.

• 43:57Ed Mylett?

  I was just sitting here thinking, I'm so blessed to be sitting here talking about this with you. I knew it would be great, but I'm really blessed. I'm really grateful that we're doing this. And by the way, he's legendary for that in this area in Los Angeles, for his being kind and... And he was Kobe's favorite guy.

• 44:12Robin Sharma?

  Oh, I didn't know that.

• 44:13Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, Kobe's favorite guy. And all the guys I played with, I don't know that I should say that, but you know, from what I do know, and I do know, that was Kobe's dude. So, we were gonna make sure we went back and just so that we've covered it, because this has been so good, but you wanted to touch on this health set idea too, a little bit, so I'm gonna let you go on that. I wanna hear about it.

• 44:29Robin Sharma?

  Sure, so, that's the Trinity of Radiant Vitality. I talk about epigenetics, I talk about the pharmacy of mastery that gets set up through morning exercise, talk about supplementation, I talk about sleep. Sleep is not a luxury, it's a necessity. And the new mechanism that's being discovered where the brain is washed while you sleep. I talk about the importance of massage. I call it the two massage protocol. I don't know if you get two massages every week, but that changed my life.

• 44:58Ed Mylett?

  I don't, okay.

• 44:59Robin Sharma?

  Oh, massage has been an absolute game changer for me.

• 45:02Ed Mylett?

  Go to the sleep wash thing too, for me. Massage sleep wash. It's in the book, but I don't recall that part of it.

• 45:07Robin Sharma?

  When you're sleeping, if you get proper amounts of sleep, the brain washes itself. So, that's important. I talk about fasting, which is one of my secret weapons. And that throws the body into autophagy, which is like a cleaning mechanism that cleans out the cells. And I also, and in terms of tactics, because we were talking about tactics, I believe very much in meditation. I don't, I don't think I've ever done this before, but last night I did a five hour meditation.

• 45:34Ed Mylett?

  Five hours?

• 45:35Robin Sharma?

  Yeah, I started at, I started at seven and I ended at midnight. So, is that, I think that's five hours. And I just opened the room, the wind, the door of my hotel room, and I just laid on the bed and I felt the sensations. And I just went into this really deep place, but meditation has been incredibly valuable to me, journaling. I've worked with spiritual healers for 21 years, because when you put a voice to your shadow side, it sees the light, it sees the light of day. And so, to feel a wound, you need to, to heal a wound, you need to feel a wound. And then, there's a tool in the book called the Aphra Tool, which has been incredibly powerful to move that hidden suppressed shame, anger, fear, guilt, disappointment that we

• 46:20Robin Sharma?

  all pick up, and move it out so that you become much more intimate with your highest and best self.

• 46:26Ed Mylett?

  Wow, you guys need to get the Everyday Hero Manifesto. You need to get this book. Um, I've read it, now I'm gonna read it again. I'm actually picking up things as we're talking now that I didn't even get when I was reading it. So let's talk about it for a few minutes here. There's all these things we can be doing to get to that everyday hero. First off, it's just embracing that you are one. I think is fundamental to the whole philosophy of the book. Then there's some things though that are obstructions or obstacles to doing it, right? They can be tools or they can be obstacles. This may seem like a small thing to everybody, but the more I'm even reflecting, last night, I wasn't doing a five-hour meditation. I was with my family, but I have to tell you, I was on my phone too much last night. And it's sort of one of these things that I've really improved at in my life, but to the point, I'm being

• 47:09Ed Mylett?

  transparent, that my wife said, "Put your phone down. Your daughter just said something to you." My daughter actually came in, said something to me. I heard none of it, and walked out of the room. And then there was a few minutes went by, and she said, "Do you realize what I..." So, there's these things, even at where you and I are, where we give away this, you know, we've got this advice, and we've made these breakthroughs, there's parts of us, we can go back to old patterns again. And last night, I fell back into one of those patterns. So there are these obstacles to our peace. There's these obstructions almost. They can be tools, they can be obstructions. You do talk a lot about the phone thing.

• 47:44Robin Sharma?

  Yes.

• 47:45Ed Mylett?

  You do. And you've talked about it in the past, you talk about it here. So, what about, what do you know about the most blissful and successful people as it relates to these, these obstacles, these smartphones, or anything else like that?

• 47:57Robin Sharma?

  Well, I mean, you're so honest to share what you share, and I would say the same thing. I make mistakes constantly.

• 48:05Ed Mylett?

  That's good to know. Let me share that.

• 48:10Robin Sharma?

  I think it was, uh...

• 48:11Ed Mylett?

  Don't you ever do an interview, you're like, "Man, I made it sound like I'm a lot better at this than I am."

• 48:14Robin Sharma?

  I know. I know. I walk away, I'm like, oh. I think it was Nelson Mandela said, um...

• 48:23Robin Sharma?

  If a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying, I guess I'm okay.

• 48:27Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome.

• 48:29Robin Sharma?

  That was Nelson Mandela here.

• 48:32Ed Mylett?

  It gives us hope, exactly.

• 48:36Robin Sharma?

  There's still hope for us. I would say an addiction to distraction is the death of your creative production. When it comes to productivity. In the Everyday Manifesto, there is a revolutionary rule called the five great hours rule. So you don't need to work for seven hours a day. I do not subscribe to hustle and grind. I don't work for more than a few hours a day. I take, I work four hours every week. I take four months plus off every single year. How I do it is in the book, including the weekly design system. When I work, I'm away from distraction. There's a difference between real work and fake. There's a difference between real work and fake work. Let us not confuse busy with productivity.

• 49:20Robin Sharma?

  Let us not confuse movement with impact. So I think that's really important. We can get into the Menlo Park and the type of total focus structures. But you talked about family. And I believe the greatest gift we can give another human being is the gift of our presence. And if you look at the greatest heroes and the greatest leaders, they had an ability to be there. And the very fact you said it means you do practice it. And I can tell everyone watching right now, you have so much presence. And I'm not talking about charisma, which you have. I'm talking about you are here in a world where a lot of people are cyber zombies and,

• 50:04Robin Sharma?

  you know, just not present. So I think you can change the world and live a world-class life. Or you can play with your phone all day. You can't do both. And we could get into the science of emotional residue. Every single time you check a notification, every single time you like something.

• 50:20Ed Mylett?

  Let's do both of those for a minute. Because by the way, I only have four or five, you know, I think everybody's got four or five significant gifts. Ironically, I consider one of mine, my ability to be present. And so when I almost violate that treaty with myself, that agreement with myself, it deeply hurts me when I do it. Because I don't do it very often. But when I do do it, it's pretty obvious, I think, because the contrast of the two.

• 50:43Robin Sharma?

  Can I ask you a question?

• 50:44Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 50:45Robin Sharma?

  Please. How about this? What if you don't, what if you build as part of your family culture, no devices at the dinner table?

• 50:54Ed Mylett?

  Yes, great point.

• 50:55Robin Sharma?

  What if you have certain rooms, like the family room, which is really a family room?

• 50:58Ed Mylett?

  Hmm. Now, that's good. Now, that's unique. That one I've not heard. So what I do, what I, it was so bad that what I did start doing is I left my phone in the car the first hour before I came home. So I was at least engaged in presence immediately. But this idea that there are rooms where there are no smartphones is one of the most brilliant things anyone's ever said on the show. I mean, seriously, I'm gonna do that. One thing I am, when I get a great idea, I'm very coachable. And I'll implement it like a right immediate, like I tell you that this evening, when I get back, I'm like, this space right here, there's no phones in here.

• 51:29Robin Sharma?

  Here's another idea.

• 51:30Ed Mylett?

  Sure.

• 51:31Robin Sharma?

  Another idea, zero device day, once a week.

• 51:33Ed Mylett?

  Hmm. Do you do that?

• 51:34Robin Sharma?

  I do. I do. I do a number of days. And how do you do it? Your schedule.

• 51:39Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 51:39Robin Sharma?

  You, your, your schedule doesn't lie. You can, people can say, this is important, that's important. You look at someone's schedule, that shows their, their truest priorities. So when you schedule it, you make what habit researchers call a pre-commitment strategy. And by scheduling what I call a blueprint for a beautiful week, you can actually schedule. Saturday is my no, is my zero device day. You can do it two days a week. I would also, what I do when I mentor, you know, the CEOs and the titans of industries and the celebrity billionaires, I encourage them every two months to take a complete week off. I say, go ghost, go dark.

• 52:21Ed Mylett?

  So do I.

• 52:21Robin Sharma?

  If you look at the greatest, Winston Churchill, how did he survive the pressures of World War II? He had checkers and Chartwell. He had a retreat. I think we must leave our usual place and get away from the world. Andrew Wyatt, the great American artist, he had Chad's Ford, a farm in Pennsylvania, and he had Cushing, Maine, a little retreat where he would go to to get away from the noise of the world. If you look at J.D. Salinger, one of my favorite books, Catcher in the Rye, after he was 37, checked out from the world, he worked in a little cottage, every day in Cornish, New Hampshire. I think we must find time on a daily, if not weekly, basis to get away from the noise, so we can begin to hear the signal again.

• 53:06Ed Mylett?

  The signal. I love this. I have to tell you that. I think one of the things that surprised me most when I started to coach some of the more successful people, myself, was the time they take away. The ones that had the right amount of bliss. It's where their creativity comes from. It's where they, what you're calling here, the signal, when they're reconnecting with themselves or they're reconnecting with their spiritual lives. And I just bought an island in Maine. And people go, why the heck'd you buy an island in Maine? It wasn't that expensive. But the one of the reasons I did it is that's almost like a territory of disconnection for me. And it's one of the reasons I did it. There's not great cell reception there, even if I wanted it. And it's an isolated place and it's where I go to hear the signal, the way that you phrase it. This emotional residue thing, I'll just touch on that really quickly because I've not heard this before.

• 53:47Ed Mylett?

  I feel like, we all have these friends who aren't on social media. Or we even have some older friends of ours who aren't even in the text game at all. There is a joy and a bliss that reminds you of a prior time in our culture that they have when I'm around them. Of a couple of my really, really great friends, there's a joy about them. I'm not suggesting that they shouldn't be on social media or shouldn't have a phone. In fact, I'm suggesting you do both of those things. Having said that, there is some emotional deterioration, so to speak, that I agree with you on, that happens when you're too engaged in them. So what were you gonna say about that? That sounded like such an interesting point.

• 54:26Robin Sharma?

  Well, I'd say a few things. I think we're happiest when we're in flow state. And as you know so well, that is a term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of University of Chicago. And it's based on a neurobiological mechanism called transient hypofrontality. The prefrontal cortex, this is the seat of our reasoning. It's also the seat of the monkey mind. It's the seat of our inner critic. It's when we start to slow down or close off the prefrontal cortex, transient, temporary, prefrontal hypofrontality, transient hypofrontality. Our prefrontal cortex begins to slow down and our brainwaves can go from beta to alpha, maybe even down to theta and delta.

• 55:08Robin Sharma?

  And when we get away from our phones, when we practice what I call the three S's, stillness, silence, and solitude, our brain drops into flow. We not only feel bliss, there's not only a pharmacy of mastery that makes us feel good, but Ed, we begin to inhabit the secret universe known to the saints, sayers, greatest artists of all time. What I'm suggesting to you is Eddie Lamar, Albert Einstein, Shakespeare, J.D. Salinger. The great business builders, not all of them, but many of them have one thing in common. They spent long periods of time alone, in quiet, often taking nature walks,

• 55:51Robin Sharma?

  working on their biggest problem, on finding the biggest, the solutions to their biggest problems. So I think you can play with your phone all day, or you can change the world, you can't do, get to do both. So transient hypofrontality gets you in a flow state, doesn't happen if you're checking your phone 50 times a day. So those people you talk about, they are, they are present because they're away from the distractions. I'd say the second thing, emotional residue, it's simply the phenomenon that every time you check your phone, you take some of your focus and you drop it on the notification you just looked at. And that's why at the end of the day, a lot of people can't focus, it's because they have dropped their focus on their phone, they've dropped their focus on the TV in the background, they've dropped their focus on chasing these shiny toys and

• 56:36Robin Sharma?

  these trivialities at the end of the quarter, at the end of the year, at the end of the career, at the end of the lifetime, amounted to nothing. And then the third thing to think about is cognitive bandwidth. Every morning you wake up with a full well of cognition. So I think it's really important where you give your attention to.

• 56:53Ed Mylett?

  Cognitive bandwidth is almost how I would describe you. You have a tremendous amount of it. I want to ask you about that. We're having too much more time. I'm just really fascinated with you. So all of our friends sort of told us both, we should get together and do this today. And now that I'm with you, I'm really, I want to do this again. Like I'm in the middle of going, I want like three or four hours of you and I just talking, because I just think it's great for both of us and everyone gets to listen to it, right?

• 57:13Robin Sharma?

  I feel the same way too. I feel there's, I feel it's real, you know?

• 57:17Ed Mylett?

  It is real. And, but this cognitive bandwidth idea, I want to understand you a little bit. Let's just talk about you for a second. You're fascinating to me because you were an attorney. And don't be humble when you answer this question, please. You have a high IQ. You know, dad's a doctor, there's some good DNA in there, for sure. But you have this amazing ability, Robin, for recall of quotes, of information, of facts, and a Very diverse set of skills. That's what I love about the book, by the way, I want to say this about the book again, too. I don't want to say kitchen sink, because that almost makes it seem unorganized. That's not what I mean, but there's a lot in here that is not just what you would think about. Oh, be a hero. There's a ton in here, from even all the cognitive stuff, the neuroplasticity stuff,

• 58:01Ed Mylett?

  the stuff on how the mind works is so, so good. But having said that, what about you? Have you always been this way? Or is it because you are practicing in so many of these strategies that you're sharing that you've increased your capacity for recall, for memorization of even information and actually owning it? This isn't just stuff you're quoting, you own this stuff.

• 58:20Robin Sharma?

  So I want to hear about, I want to hear about you. And I'm fascinated about you.

• 58:25Ed Mylett?

  Well, when you have your show, I'll come on. I told you that before. But tell us about you, no humility, I want to know.

• 58:32Robin Sharma?

  Well, you know, I would say.

• 58:35Ed Mylett?

  Don't filter it.

• 58:35Robin Sharma?

  I would say, I would say honestly, I would say I'm a very simple person. I come from a town of about 2,000 people on the east coast of Canada. I didn't have a silver spoon in my mouth, and I don't think I have any real natural gifts. I've been at this field for 26 years. I live a very minimalist, minimalist life. I have very few friends, I do very few things, I am not a maximalist, I don't chase every shiny toy that comes my way. We get major opportunities every day, 99% of which I say no to, because I'm monomaniacally focused on the few things I want to build the rest of my life around.

• 59:18Robin Sharma?

  And I think if you build your life around just a few things, I think it was Confucius, it was Confucius who said, "Person who chases two rabbits catches neither." And Peter Drucker said it really well, he said, "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." And so I'm just, if there's one talent I have is I'm really clear on what I want my life to stand for, but I don't think I have any special gifts, but I call them the SOPs of AWC, the Standard Operating Procedures of Absolute World Class. And I share them in the book. The book is really a love letter to people's highest mastery and promise.

• 59:58Robin Sharma?

  And these rituals, like the 5 a.m. club and the 202020 formula, the two massage protocol, the second wind workout, the weekly design system, how I visualize, how I meditate, how I lean into fear each day, all of those things, they really, they really do work. And so over the years, I used to be terrifically scared of public speaking, like terrifically scared of public speaking.

• 1:00:27Ed Mylett?

  Incredible.

• 1:00:27Robin Sharma?

  But, thank you. But we have neuroplasticity. You know, our human gift is the gift of growth.

• 1:00:33Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 1:00:33Robin Sharma?

  The whole idea of heroism is ordinary people thrust into difficult circumstances and using the difficulty to triumph over tragedy. That's what makes us human. That's why I wrote the book. There are so many people saying, well, I can't have more money. I can't have more love. I can't have more health. I can't change the world. And here's the litany of reasons why. Well, if you, if you recite your excuses long enough, you actually hypnotize yourself to believing them to be true.

• 1:01:02Ed Mylett?

  It's a fact. And then you reinforce it with the way that the world is revealing itself to you. Just so true. I, we got two more questions. And by the way, I told you I want to go three more hours. You strike me, it's interesting, you have the most, you have such modern information you give, yet you are sort of counterculture to the modern world. In the sense that you, you do live, I do sense this about you, that you do live a simple life, that you do take time for yourself, that you aren't chasing every shiny thing that comes your way. I think that makes you very, very unique. So you actually lean, you actually hit on one of the questions I had to ask you before we leave, because I think it holds so many people back from becoming this hero, from revealing their genius, which is fear. And so just talk a little bit about how you do lean into fear every single day.

• 1:01:45Robin Sharma?

  So there's a chapter in the Everyday Hero Manifesto called "Hug the Monster."

• 1:01:51Robin Sharma?

  And it starts with a story and there's a Grand Master walking up a Himalayan mountain, leading a crowd of people, and they're going to this great temple, looking for great answers. And as they go higher and higher, more people start to follow the Grand Master, and they go higher and higher, and more people start to follow this little movement up the mountain. Once they get to the temple, Ed, they notice there's a courtyard. And before they can get into the entryway to meet the Super Master, they see there's three violent dogs on leashes. So, the group starts to move into the courtyard, but all of a sudden, the dogs break free of their leashes, and they start running towards the group. They start to run faster, and all the other people start running down the mountain terrified. The Grand Master, who was leading them, does something very interesting.

• 1:02:35Robin Sharma?

  He starts to smile, and then he yawns, and then he starts running towards the dogs. Dogs start running even faster. Grand Master picks up his pace, his pace, looks at them, starts running even more quickly, yawns again for good measure. Dogs run even faster, he runs even faster. Now he starts to dance, a little dance, a little TikTok dance along the way. Eventually, these dogs get frightened, because they feel his power, and they run away.

• 1:03:03Robin Sharma?

  And I think, as human beings, we construct a reality of these straw monsters that have been taught to us. If you love too deeply, you will be hurt. If you build a great business, you will be attacked. If you try to change the world, cynics will laugh at you. I mean, our job is to take the stones that people throw at us and build monuments to mastery that stand the test of time. I mean, that's what the troll deconstruction is about. I mean, you know you're doing very well when you're being laughed a lot. Every visionary was initially ridiculed before they were revered. So the point is, you know, someone said to me the other day, "But this all sounds so hard." And you know what? I went back to my hotel room, you know what I thought about?

• 1:03:45Robin Sharma?

  Misery and unfulfilled promise is a lot harder. And I think the discomfort of growth is always to be preferred to the illusion of safety. So what I would say is, the things that all of us are scared about...

• 1:04:01Robin Sharma?

  That's where your growth lives and your freedom lies.

• 1:04:04Ed Mylett?

  Very good.

• 1:04:04Robin Sharma?

  And I think, you know, it starts with awareness and then it begins with daily bravery practice. Let's call it micro bravery practice, but consistently doing difficult things. Getting good at consistently leaning into the things that make our palms sweat and our hands shake. And that becomes a practice. And if you practice it long enough, you get brilliant like it, just like being a chess master. So it's almost like every day you go down the steps to the cellar, you turn on the light and you hug the monster. And if you hug your monsters, guaranteed you'll realize they were much smaller than you thought they were.

• 1:04:38Ed Mylett?

  So damn good. That is absolutely a billion percent right. Oh my gosh. The price you'll pay for not becoming the hero you're capable of becoming is far smaller than the one that you will pay if you never become that person. It's worth hugging that monster every single day.

• 1:04:52Robin Sharma?

  How do you do it?

• 1:04:54Ed Mylett?

  I lean into it. I actually do what I call feared things first, and it is a habit that I do. I like to get something done early in my day habitually that I'm a little bit afraid of, that I'm a little bit uncomfortable with, that I have some anxiety with. I find that once I hug that monster, it was usually smaller than I thought, and it creates unbelievable momentum for the rest of my day, oftentimes for the rest of my month. And so I do do that. I also have become familiar with these monsters. And the more you're familiar, I think you become with hugging them on a regular basis, the more they sort of lose their power over you.

• 1:05:21Robin Sharma?

  Exactly.

• 1:05:21Ed Mylett?

  I've seen this guy before. He's not so bad.

• 1:05:23Robin Sharma?

  Exactly.

• 1:05:23Ed Mylett?

  I've seen this one before. So the more you face them and you do these difficult things, the more you become familiar with them. It's just like, I think it's someone in the NBA who's got to hit a shot with two seconds left. The first time you do it, there's a lot of work. Kobe Bryant hit a whole bunch of them. By the end of it, he was pretty comfortable hitting that shot under that pressure. And I think the more you put yourself under pressure or duress, you become comfortable in it. And you find what I call equanimity in those moments, which is the ability to be calm and to function at a high level in it. So I love it. That's one of my favorite conversations ever. I was gonna be honest with you. I've loved today, and I know everybody else has. I think you're remarkable, man. I really enjoy your company as well. You have this thing that I just, I love about most of my good friends, which is that I think they have this nuance between real confidence and presence about themselves, but yet combined

• 1:06:08Ed Mylett?

  with a huge dose of humility at the same time. I think people that have a ton of confidence, well, that humility, sometimes it's off-putting and they're not curious enough to keep growing and learning because they think they know everything. And then our friends that have this tremendous humility, but they just never step forward with some confidence and build that hug the monster mentality in their life. Sometimes they're tough to be around too, but that combination is what you really, you nuance that so well.

• 1:06:32Robin Sharma?

  I sense you're, I sense you're a good person.

• 1:06:35Ed Mylett?

  Thank you. Thank you.

• 1:06:37Robin Sharma?

  You know, and that, that really comes through in the conversation.

• 1:06:39Ed Mylett?

  Thank you.

• 1:06:40Robin Sharma?

  And that doesn't come easily. It's like hard, hard one, hard one effort to get to a place where you're living your values, the way it's, it feels like you're living your values.

• 1:06:49Ed Mylett?

  I appreciate that, brother. And that's mutual. Thank you. Um, last question. I mean, I really appreciate that coming from you. So we've covered a lot. So, all right, I'm listening to you today and I'm inspired. I've learned a whole bunch. And, um, I'd like to step into being this hero that I'm capable of becoming in the small ways and the big ways and the loud ways and the quiet ways. I think it's probably better because I don't know if one is bigger than the other or smaller than the other, but maybe it's louder and quieter. Sometimes it's not done with a camera on in front of millions of people. Of anything we haven't covered today, and I met you, you're drinking, I think that's a Starbucks, but we, I met you at a Starbucks. I ran into you and I get a minute with you. I said, hey, I heard you on the Ed Mylett show. I'm just really curious. Where do I begin? Of everything

• 1:07:32Ed Mylett?

  we've covered today, I just need to, I need to know what to, where to begin. Would there be a thought or a tactic that you would share with me that we've not covered today so far? Anything?

• 1:07:42Robin Sharma?

  Begin. Begin. You know, I hear that a lot. Like where do I start? I would say there is huge power in beginning and there's huge power in starting. It's almost like the universe begins to support you when you take, take that first step.

• 1:08:00Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 1:08:00Robin Sharma?

  I would say believe in you when no one else believes in you until the whole world believes in you. I think the reason why we even have the question of where do I begin? It's from fear. We're paralyzed. So it's start to believe in yourself and start to read books and realize all the great heroes were anonymous for 25 or 30 years before the world celebrated them. Um, I would also say,

• 1:08:26Robin Sharma?

  Genius is less about genetics and more about your habits. So, you know, start with the philosophy of beginning and starting. Start to believe in yourself. Understand that you're going to be laughed at. You're going to be misunderstood and every great hero is misunderstood at the beginning. But then install the right habits. And this is where the, this is where the methodology does follow the philosophy. Once you get the philosophy, which is just the truth. What do you want your life to stand for? What's most important to you? What are your big five for the rest of your life? What are the key values and beliefs you want to live by? Once you get the philosophy calibrated and you don't follow the world's philosophy, you have the bravery and wisdom to trust what feels right to you.

• 1:09:07Robin Sharma?

  Then start installing the habits that science have proven to work. And for me, it's been the five AM club is very powerful. The five great hours rule, the second wind workout, which is basically if you believe exercise is valuable, why would you only do it once a day? The micro bravery, a great pre-sleep workout, the weekly design system, et cetera. And then finally, I would say, in my last two minutes in the Starbucks, I would say, make sure you make the time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. We live in a world that celebrates the doers and discourages the beers. But John Lennon said, time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

• 1:09:51Robin Sharma?

  And Ed, I have spent a lot of my life getting to a place and I still have a lot of work left to do, but you know what? Now I'm okay doing nothing. And the great irony is when you're doing nothing, that's when your greatest ideas are incubating. What's the point of living life if you don't get to have six hour meals with your family where you're laughing your faces off? Or where you have a conversation with someone on the street about life? Or you, you know, look at the way the moonbeams fall over a cathedral. I mean, that's wealth versus money in the bank.

• 1:10:25Ed Mylett?

  Brother, I feel richer for the conversation today. What a beautiful conversation. And by the way, what beautiful advice that you've given. I have to tell you, you guys gotta get the Everyday Manifesto, the Everyday Hero Manifesto. You have to get the book.

• 1:10:40Ed Mylett?

  There's a lot in there and it is, I read the whole thing in one setting, which was one of those five hour meditation sessions you're referring to, except I was reading. That's the other thing, by the way, everybody, I think the most blissful and successful people also read a lot. They're readers. I can tell, obviously you can tell that Robin is. Thank you for doing this today.

• 1:11:00Robin Sharma?

  Been a sheer joy, Ed.

• 1:11:01Ed Mylett?

  Really has, man. I've enjoyed it so much. So guys, go get the book, follow Robin everywhere. And you know what? If this show brought you value, we're the fastest growing show on the planet right now. You guys all know this, we doubled again in the last 90 days. It's because you all share the show with people that you love, that you care about, whose lives you want to be improved in any area. And so I recommend and encourage you and ask you to please share the show with people that you care about, that you believe in. In the meantime, everybody, God bless you and max out your life. This is the Ed Mileage Show.