Why 10x Goals Are Easier Than 10% | Price Pritchett

Price Pritchett reveals that 10x growth can be just as difficult as 10% improvement, challenging everything you believe about achievement. You've been taught that success requires grinding harder, following the same path with more intensity, but that's exactly what keeps you stuck. The real breakthrough comes when you stop being the fly pounding against the window and turn around to see the open door ten feet away. You'll learn why your doubts aren't based on accurate thinking but habitual thinking, and how managing your remembering is more powerful than managing your future. By the end, you'll understand that quantum leaps aren't about working harder but about changing your entire approach. The Quantum Leap StrategyYou2Hard OptimismIn this episode you will:Discover why less negative thinking matters more than positive thinking for creating breakthrough resultsTransform your relationship with failure by adopting the fearless approach children use to master walking and swimmingBreak through the planning trap where big dreams go to die waiting for the perfect momentUncover the five sneaky ways negativity sabotages your success without you even noticingMaster the art of selective persistence so you stop being the fly hitting the window and find the open doorFor more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1862For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Dr. Joe Dispenza Dr. Daniel AmenBob Proctor Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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

• 0:03Lewis Howes?

  What is a quantum leap in the first place? Can you explain that and define what a quantum leap is? And then we'll talk about how people can create that in their life.

• 0:12Price Pritchett?

  In 1974, I moved from Chicago, the firm I was with there, to Dallas and started my own company. And then at the end of the 1970s, I decided to change our game and make a quantum leap.

• 0:28Lewis Howes?

  In your own business?

• 0:29Price Pritchett?

  In my own business.

• 0:30Lewis Howes?

  So what were you doing then? You were working with corporate clients at a certain rate, and you had a certain amount of clients, making a certain amount every year, maybe incremental gains.

• 0:38Price Pritchett?

  Exactly.

• 0:38Lewis Howes?

  Year after year, 5%, 10%.

• 0:40Price Pritchett?

  And it was nice. You know, business was going well, but I realized that, well, what I was seeing on an individual executive level in terms of the quantum leaps, you know, there's vast differences in terms of people's achievement levels, companies would do the same things. Because let's say you've got company A, $500 million company, 7% annual growth, okay? And it's doing good. Company B, about the same size, might be a competitor, and it's half a billion dollar company, and it's growing nicely.

• 1:20Price Pritchett?

  But then, one day, company A goes out and acquires company C, and it doubles just like that. And I was just fascinated by this because it met all of the things I wanted to do. You know, merger integrations, mergers and acquisitions are the big table. That's the big game. It's the biggest game in business, and that's where I wanted us to play. And so I had set this quantum leap goal for us, which was absurd, which I think really good quantum leap goals are.

• 1:52Lewis Howes?

  They're crazy.

• 1:53Price Pritchett?

  They're kind of crazy.

• 1:54Lewis Howes?

  They seem like unrealistic.

• 1:56Price Pritchett?

  Yes.

• 1:57Lewis Howes?

  We shouldn't be going after this.

• 1:58Price Pritchett?

  Right. Who are you to think you can do this? But I said, "We're going to be number one merger integration experts in the country."

• 2:05Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 2:08Price Pritchett?

  We were in six years.

• 2:13Price Pritchett?

  I had no business setting out that kind of a goal. And people think, "Well, I don't know how to do this, so I can't do it."

• 2:24Lewis Howes?

  They focus on the means, not the end.

• 2:26Price Pritchett?

  Right. And so it's like, "Well, I don't know how to do that, so that, obviously, I can't do it." But anything of significance that a person has achieved over their life, they didn't know how to do it when they started.

• 2:41Lewis Howes?

  That's true.

• 2:42Price Pritchett?

  A quantum leap is one of those things that's

• 2:48Price Pritchett?

  dead solid, perfect, within the realm of possibility for you. You just haven't done it yet.

• 2:58Price Pritchett?

  But it's

• 3:02Price Pritchett?

  it's a real stretch goal. And the thing about it is, if you set your goal right, it forces you out of your current modus operandi.

• 3:15Lewis Howes?

  If you set your goal correctly, how do you know how to set your goal the right way in order to create a quantum leap in your life?

• 3:23Price Pritchett?

  There are several things about goal setting that I think are real key points.

• 3:30Price Pritchett?

  If you're shooting

• 3:33Price Pritchett?

  to make this kind of an exponential leap in performance, so then first, it needs to be a serious stretch goal. You need to scare the horses, you know?

• 3:43Lewis Howes?

  It needs to scare you?

• 3:44Price Pritchett?

  Yeah. There needs to be some, there needs to be, but secondly, it needs to be a goal that, that it needs to be a love story around that goal, I think.

• 3:55Price Pritchett?

  Because

• 3:58Price Pritchett?

  when you go for a big goal, any goal

• 4:02Price Pritchett?

  of much significance, you're going to have some setbacks, you're going to have some obstacles that come along, you're going to get kind of banged up and bruised up, maybe. And you need to care enough.

• 4:17Price Pritchett?

  You know, the heart is what sustains you through that. And so there, you know, people talk about a passion for this, for this goal. And I think, well, that's a, a fine word and it fits. But some people say, well, I just don't have that passion. Well, you just need to care for it or at least be committed enough to it. That you say, I'm going to stay the course. I will, I will put myself out there. And I think that, um,

• 4:49Price Pritchett?

  it needs to be your goal, not somebody else's goal for you. Not a should or ought to goal. I think a fundamental mistake that a lot of people make is they don't believe in themselves enough. And they don't reach high enough. Who is it? Astro Teller, who is the head of Google X, you know, their innovative arm that said, 10% can be as hard as 10x. You know, a 10% improvement, not necessarily any improver. Small acquisitions were every bit as difficult to make work as the big ones. Which is kind of a counterintuitive thought.

• 5:30Price Pritchett?

  I mean, normally people don't go out with their mind drifting down that path. But we've, you squared, the handbook is, it's kind of based on counterintuitive ideals. Kind of things that stop you and kind of, you know, make yourself uncomfortable. You know, that's one of the points. Well, why would I want to do that? You're an athlete. If you're not willing to make yourself uncomfortable, you got to get off the field.

• 6:01Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. Yeah. So it's almost like 10x is just as easy or just as challenging as 2x. And it's about how you frame it and about going after it the right way. It's what it sounds like. They're both going to be challenging. So you might as well go for the bigger leap than the one that's like just a little bit more uncomfortable. So, so if people are looking to make more money, make a bigger impact and work with more influential people in their life, or people that are more disciplined and up to a bigger game, which is what it sounds like that you wanted to do early in your career. You wanted to make more money. You wanted to make a bigger impact, a bigger difference. And you wanted to work with leaders. What was it inside of you that said, okay, I'm gonna make this quantum leap? Was there, was it a moment?

• 6:46Lewis Howes?

  Did you feel like you put in all the work that you needed to? Was it an awakening? Was there a breakdown you were facing in your life where you said, okay, I'm, I'm not happy with incremental growth year after year in my personal or professional life? What was that deciding moment that said, I'm gonna try something unconventional? And completely change the course of my life?

• 7:09Price Pritchett?

  Boredom.

• 7:10Lewis Howes?

  Boredom.

• 7:10Price Pritchett?

  Boredom and, and just

• 7:12Lewis Howes?

  Lack of purpose?

• 7:14Price Pritchett?

  And hungry. I was hungry for, for scaling up. I mean, really, a major scaling up. I thought that we were, we weren't making any mistakes.

• 7:27Lewis Howes?

  You weren't failing enough.

• 7:28Price Pritchett?

  We weren't, I mean, we were on autopilot. I mean, the place it ran too smoothly. And it began to just bore me and I got disgusted.

• 7:37Lewis Howes?

  Why do people get so comfortable?

• 7:40Price Pritchett?

  Why did they get so comfortable?

• 7:42Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, when they used to have quantum leaps, you know, from not, from crawling to walking to running to, and then it's just kind of sitting.

• 7:51Price Pritchett?

  People are so different. I mean, they're so alike too, but they're so different. And some people just have a much higher need for achievement. Uh, some people have a much higher energy level. And some, you know, on and on and on.

• 8:07Lewis Howes?

  The human needs might be different.

• 8:08Price Pritchett?

  They're just different.

• 8:10Lewis Howes?

  Some people want to grow, some people want achievement, some people want contribution.

• 8:14Price Pritchett?

  Some people want to, a job that, they want to nurture other people. I, I got a patient in psychology. I did a year-long clinical internship. I worked on a psychiatric ward. That is not, and I knew from the word go that that was not where I would end up. It just, uh, but you got people, they're drawn to that. And that's a wonderful thing about the world, the difference. Uh, but the truth is, I don't care where, I don't care what direction a person is drawn. They could make quantum leaps in that, in that zone. Whatever their strike zone is. But.

• 8:59Price Pritchett?

  I don't really spend a lot of time, I guess, trying to talk people into making a quantum leap unless they have something inside.

• 9:11Lewis Howes?

  Just they've got to want it.

• 9:13Price Pritchett?

  Knowing it.

• 9:14Lewis Howes?

  They've got to be hungry. They've got to be, you know, anxious about something changing. They're going to want to change.

• 9:21Price Pritchett?

  They do.

• 9:21Lewis Howes?

  Because some people know they want something more, but they don't know exactly what it is.

• 9:25Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 9:26Lewis Howes?

  And so they're in the uncertainty of, well, I'm not sure which direction I should go in. And here's another problem I see is people have too many passions. I've got this idea and this idea and this idea, which one do I choose? And when someone has 10 different passions or different roads that they could go down, how do they know which one they should go down?

• 9:49Price Pritchett?

  That want to factor, that's the X factor.

• 9:53Price Pritchett?

  And, um, you know, people talk about willpower. Well, I want to talk about want power.

• 10:00Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 10:01Price Pritchett?

  Um, I.

• 10:02Lewis Howes?

  What does that mean?

• 10:03Price Pritchett?

  Oh, it's want power is how much do you want this thing? Again, you know, how much are you in love with this idea?

• 10:14Price Pritchett?

  I do think

• 10:17Price Pritchett?

  that there are times when we're kind of directionless or a person certainly can be. And so for that poor soul, although they might be happy, content, doing fine, really, but they kind of like something to change and be bigger and better and more dramatic or whatever. And so sometimes I think we can maybe find that magical era just by playing with a curiosity or saying yes to random opportunity that just comes smack in front of us.

• 11:00Price Pritchett?

  Um, or maybe deciding, well, I'm going to muscle up one of my superpowers. I'm just sort of really get into that because I have fun with that and I'm good at it. So those are things I think that one can, can play with when they're, they're, they're not.

• 11:19Lewis Howes?

  Just. But I'll show the direction.

• 11:21Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 11:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. And it sounds like once we.

• 11:27Lewis Howes?

  Can figure out which direction we want to go in to make a quantum leap. It's hard to make a decision of which direction to go for some people where other people just know. This is the thing I love. I'm excited about this. I have some skills or talent around this idea or this thing, and I'm going to go all in on it. But once you can figure out the path you're going and the direction you're going to take. How do you know it's time to take a quantum leap in that path? Versus, all right, I got to figure out my bearings and figure out where I'm heading in this direction and just kind of create some goals and get it going. But how do I know when my time is ready for a unconventional growth spurt, for a leap so big and grand that other people think I'm crazy and laugh at me when I talk about it?

• 12:14Price Pritchett?

  I don't think you will necessarily know. I

• 12:22Price Pritchett?

  think you make a decision. One of the chapters in the U squared handbook is make your move before you're ready.

• 12:32Price Pritchett?

  I'll tell you where

• 12:35Price Pritchett?

  big dreams go to die.

• 12:37Lewis Howes?

  Tell me.

• 12:39Price Pritchett?

  They go

• 12:41Price Pritchett?

  to the planning place. Getting ready place.

• 12:46Price Pritchett?

  Preparing myself. And it's the biggest con job we work on ourselves. There are so many bones of big dreams in that graveyard where people.

• 12:58Price Pritchett?

  It's always something that there's always going to be a set of reasons to wait.

• 13:06Price Pritchett?

  And

• 13:09Price Pritchett?

  it's like Gilda Radner, that line of hers on Saturday Night Live, you know? It's always something. Well, it is.

• 13:19Price Pritchett?

  And so.

• 13:23Price Pritchett?

  When are you going to take the risk?

• 13:26Price Pritchett?

  You pick 10 people at random and I'll bet $100 that we can find quantum leaps in every one of them.

• 13:33Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 13:34Price Pritchett?

  Oh, yeah. And if you stop and think about it, everybody's made quantum leaps before they reach school age because you come into this world naked.

• 13:47Price Pritchett?

  You can't speak. You can't feed yourself. You can't get around.

• 13:54Price Pritchett?

  And by the age of three, you're doing all three of those things.

• 13:57Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, that's true. It's pretty incredible.

• 13:59Price Pritchett?

  Now, go and look at what that child did. They were willing to fail.

• 14:08Lewis Howes?

  Over and over and over again.

• 14:09Price Pritchett?

  Over and over and over again. They had no methodology. They just knew what they wanted. And they were willing to make mistakes to show them the way there.

• 14:21Price Pritchett?

  And it's the same thing when they learn to ride a bicycle. When they learn to swim. When they learn to run as opposed to walk. And so those are all... That's not an incremental thing. You can't crawl fast enough to become a walker. You know, you gotta change the game. It's a totally different game. Waiting is W A D I N G. And the water is... You can't wait fast enough to swim. And so it's that... It's that process of being willing to take new risks. Change your modus operandi. Fail your way to success.

• 15:04Lewis Howes?

  You talk about seeking failure in one of the chapters of U squared. And in another chapter about suspend disbelief. I loved a few quotes in this because I believe self doubt is the biggest killer of dreams. It's what holds us back from taking the steps necessary to fail often, frequently, in order to make those big leaps. And in your, your chapter on suspend disbelief. You started with saying, act as if your success is for certain. Most people have so much doubt. Is this possible? What happens if I fail? What happens if I do succeed? The pressure? What about all the judgment I'm going to get from the actions and the failures?

• 15:46Lewis Howes?

  And you say, if you must doubt something, doubt your limits. I love that line. And one other line that really stood out to me is, your doubts are not the product of accurate thinking, but habitual thinking. When I read that, I was like, wow, this is so true. It's not a product of accurate thinking. It's of habitual thinking. We've been thinking limited consistently. And this habit of thinking limited keeps us in a limited state of being, a state of mind, as opposed to accurate thinking what is possible. We don't step into that enough. And this whole chapter really opened up for me because I, my thesis in life is self doubt is the killer of dreams.

• 16:31Lewis Howes?

  And when we can learn to believe in self, which is something you talked about here as well, needing to believe in yourself. Uh, it needs to be your goal and you need to have a love story around this pursuit. But if we can't learn to believe in self, it's going to be hard. You can love the idea of your goal. You can have clear goals, but if you doubt you, your dreams are going to die. And I think that's a challenging thing for people to say, well, how do I learn to believe in self? How do I learn to have accurate thinking, not habitual thinking? How do I, uh, you know, learn to doubt my limits as opposed to doubting myself? And how do I learn to act as if my success is for certain? When I've always doubted me?

• 17:14Lewis Howes?

  What do you say to, to that statement?

• 17:17Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, it's a,

• 17:19Price Pritchett?

  it's a killer question.

• 17:24Price Pritchett?

  Well, you get to choose how you behave.

• 17:28Price Pritchett?

  To heck with your thinking. And let's say your thinking is what it is and it's riddled with doubt. It, you're ravaged with doubt.

• 17:38Price Pritchett?

  You still get to choose how you behave.

• 17:43Price Pritchett?

  And you can.

• 17:47Price Pritchett?

  You can act like you've got what it takes. You can't.

• 17:51Lewis Howes?

  You can do it.

• 17:52Price Pritchett?

  Yeah. It's not easy and you can feel like a, I'm faking this. Oh, am I ever faking this? But.

• 18:01Lewis Howes?

  The best actors in Hollywood make a lot of money.

• 18:03Price Pritchett?

  Exactly.

• 18:04Lewis Howes?

  And they're playing a role.

• 18:05Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 18:05Lewis Howes?

  They aren't that role.

• 18:07Price Pritchett?

  That's right.

• 18:07Lewis Howes?

  That's not who they are in their normal life, but they're playing a role. And the better you can act, the more money you can make in Hollywood.

• 18:14Price Pritchett?

  Well, if was it George Burns or someone that said something about, I won't get this precise, but it's something like authenticity is the key. If you can fake that, you got it made.

• 18:24Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right.

• 18:27Price Pritchett?

  But so that's one thing and just go against everything that's going on inside you because most people are not going to know.

• 18:36Price Pritchett?

  And, but there's another thing.

• 18:41Price Pritchett?

  Manage your remembering.

• 18:44Lewis Howes?

  What does that mean? Your memory of painful moments?

• 18:46Price Pritchett?

  What you go back and what you, what you dwell on.

• 18:53Price Pritchett?

  When you go back over the years, I mean, I can go back and just like that, I can think something and I can, I can pull up again and again and again. All these times that I've been embarrassed, I've been humiliated, I've failed, dropped the ball, you know, I dwell on that if I want to, but I can also go back and the times that I pulled it off.

• 19:22Price Pritchett?

  The times I, I did it right. I surprised myself how good it felt when I was good to somebody else, you know, on and on and on. So you get to, you get to dwell on whatever you want to dwell on and we're too indiscriminate. It's kind of like these two voices we've got in our head. We've got a hero voice and we've got a villain voice. You know? And who are you going to give airtime to?

• 19:50Price Pritchett?

  People talk about having a coach. Well, the coach that is closest to you is the voices inside your head. You're coaching yourself all the time and you get to decide which voice you want to hand the mic to and.

• 20:11Price Pritchett?

  The villain voice is very compelling. And he's, he's a con artist. Because so much of the time, he's like that, "I'm here to protect you, buddy. I'm on your side. I'm gonna keep you from screwing up. I don't want you to fail. I don't want you to embarrass yourself." You know, "Just listen to me." Now, and so, he focuses on mistakes, on your wicker points, and all the why nots. Your heural voice focuses on your strengths, your accomplishments, and so on and so on. They say we have some 50,000 thoughts a day.

• 20:55Price Pritchett?

  I don't know if that's right. But, you know, that, let's just say it's, that's the realm, that we have some 50,000 thoughts a day. Um, this kind of takes us into this whole conversation, which I think is an interesting thing to kick around, which is this whole thing about optimism versus pessimism. That's kind of what, if we want to give big labels to what we're talking about here. Um, if you ask people, and I've asked this of crowds, keynote after keynote after keynote, training sessions and so on, how many of you in the room would say you're an optimist? And you wanna, I know you would say. Absolutely. Your hand would be up.

• 21:34Price Pritchett?

  Well, 78% of the people in America label themselves optimist. 17% say, "Yeah, I'm pessimist." And maybe they're kind of even proud of it. But then you, well, there's, there's a few percentages missing. And invariably, you'll have someone, particularly if it's a small enough group, and they'll speak up. And it's like, "Well, you know, I consider myself objective." Right. You know, "I, I'm, I'm not really optimistic." Well, they're pessimistic. And they're the pessimists in wolf's clothing typically. But the split, really, in the United States is 50/50.

• 22:16Price Pritchett?

  And so you've got 50 to 78%, you've got 18% of the people that are being a little generous with themselves. And so...

• 22:29Price Pritchett?

  We kind of grow up, I guess, in general, you just kind of pick up this message, this idea that you're supposed to think positive, you know, think more positive thoughts. And you may have read about this, but if I, and I will ask crowds this, which do you think is more important? More positive thinking or less negative thinking? And I say, this is not a trick question. And I'll let them wrestle with that for a little bit. And for the group that we're talking to today, it's a very provocative question. Which is more important? Where do you get the most mileage? More positive thinking or less negative thinking? And the studies are unequivocal. It's less negative thinking.

• 23:14Price Pritchett?

  Now, you, the, the thing that gets us tangled up is that, I guess, pretty much all of us think of it as, okay, you've got this linear scale here, you know? And we'll say at the high end, the good end is optimism and the low end is pessimism, negative thinking. Well, studies show that they're actually two different scales. Really? And this is just fascinating to me. You should, positive thinking is important. You keep it up, keep it high. But if you want to get your real knowledge, just cut down on the negative thinking. Cut it down, cut it down, cut it down. That's the villain voice. That's the critic in your head.

• 23:58Price Pritchett?

  That's the demotivator. That's the discounter. That's the one that raises the doubts. And you can shut it up. It takes practice. It takes some discipline. But people say, well, I think I'm aware of my negative thinking, but they're not. About 70% of our negative thinking goes unperceived by us. It is so embedded in our day-to-day behavior.

• 24:29Lewis Howes?

  We're not even aware of it.

• 24:30Price Pritchett?

  We're not even aware of it. About 70%. It is so much just ingrained in the way we go about living.

• 24:39Lewis Howes?

  It's habitual thinking.

• 24:40Price Pritchett?

  Yes. And so let me show you how, tell you how it shows up. I'll talk about the five Cs.

• 24:44Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 24:45Price Pritchett?

  Okay? The sneak attack of the five Cs. Okay, the first one is complaining.

• 24:55Price Pritchett?

  Grapping, grapping, grapping, you know. It's too hot in Dallas. It is, but that's not going to change if I gripe about it. Okay, so the first one is complaining, the next one's criticizing.

• 25:11Price Pritchett?

  Well, the grid went down today in Texas. We had brownouts, my air conditioners, you know, and like, there's always someone to criticize. So we've got complaining, we've got criticizing. Next one is concern, and I'm not talking about being empathic here and having concern for some other person. I'm talking about garden variety worrying. I'm concerned about this. Well, I'm concerned about inflation. Well, I'm concerned about, you know, the news. All right. The next one is commiserating.

• 25:43Lewis Howes?

  Commiserating.

• 25:44Price Pritchett?

  We come in and I sat down with this person and they start their C's, their C talk.

• 25:53Lewis Howes?

  They're complaining.

• 25:53Price Pritchett?

  And I say, I get it, man. Yeah, I understand. I'm not doing anybody any good. When I start commiserating,

• 26:04Price Pritchett?

  I'm not doing anyone any good. It's, it's, um,

• 26:09Price Pritchett?

  it's destructive to both of us. And then the last one is catastrophizing, which is just when you're really down, you just blow things all out of proportion. You know, but those things sneak in. If you start watching people, watching ourselves, how much we do this. And of course, we're, we're surrounded by so much negativity. You know, you, you go, you listen to the news, you get on social media and on and on and on.

• 26:38Lewis Howes?

  So we got to learn how to cut out the negative thinking versus adding more positive thinking. Cause you can keep adding positive thinking, but if you've got dirty water in the water, it's still going to be dirty. So you got to remove the, the, the dirty, the challenging thoughts to have more pure energy, cleaner energy. That can make you more effective, more efficient.

• 26:59Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, yeah. Now, here's what's interesting. So we're talking about making a quantum leap. We're talking about change. And really, if you said,

• 27:11Price Pritchett?

  What, what are you all about Price? What, you know, your life, what, where did you point yourself? Well, I just got caught up in positioning people to do more with themselves. There's so much out there and people have so much potential to do things with themselves.

• 27:33Price Pritchett?

  Let's arm them, let's, let's position them to do what they can do with themselves.

• 27:38Lewis Howes?

  You said there was two different scales. One is about optimism and pessimism essentially, right? Is that the two different sides of the spectrum? And you're saying that if we want to increase our confidence, if we want to increase our belief in self, one of the things that we can do is start removing pessimism, negative thoughts, negative thinking from our life. But a lot of people might say, well, Price, that's great and all, but that just sounds a little too woo woo-y. That sounds a little too fluffy for me. Just be more positive, think more positively. Is that really going to help me create more quantum leaps?

• 28:17Lewis Howes?

  And shouldn't I have some, you know, critical thinking and really, you know, question and doubt things? Or is that just being, you know, am I being too negative if I do that?

• 28:27Price Pritchett?

  Okay. When we, when someone decides they want to make a quantum leap, they're talking about major change.

• 28:37Price Pritchett?

  And let's talk about what happens when change hits. In this case, self-imposed change. Now, I've seen this for decades in organizations where it's major change. You're being acquired, you're being merged, you're being downsized, you're being restructured. Okay? And so it's self-imposed when we're making quantum leap. But the same dynamics come into play as when the world, our world, the company we work for, or whatever, the organization that we're stuck in, all of a sudden goes, takes a hard right turn. So here's what happens when change hits.

• 29:19Price Pritchett?

  The first scan is for danger.

• 29:22Price Pritchett?

  That's how we're wired.

• 29:25Lewis Howes?

  Danger. Whenever there's change, it feels like there's danger.

• 29:27Price Pritchett?

  Yeah. What could go wrong here? How could I get hurt in this deal?

• 29:33Price Pritchett?

  What's going to happen to me? And all of these me issues come into mind. So.

• 29:42Price Pritchett?

  Who was it? John Dryden said, self-defense is nature's oldest law. And so our defense mechanisms come into play. But when change hits, whether it's imposed on us or self-imposed, the first thing that happens is, okay, things are changing and the future gets a little blurry.

• 30:04Price Pritchett?

  So we got a new dose of ambiguity and uncertainty. Okay? And people vary greatly in their tolerance for ambiguity.

• 30:15Price Pritchett?

  The second thing that happens is the trust level drops in an organization. You're going to change yourself, make quantum leap. The trust level in yourself drops too. The villain voice goes crazy with that.

• 30:33Price Pritchett?

  So we've got the ambiguity and uncertainty, the drop in self-trust. And then self-preservation takes over as a driver of behavior. It does in an organization and it does in you as an individual when you start to make a quantum leap. Okay, and so we're in the negative zone now.

• 30:53Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, it's all negative. It's all negative energy.

• 30:55Price Pritchett?

  It's concern. It's that concern, concern, concern. And we may be grapping, we may be criticizing, complaining, all of this kind of commiserating with the people around us.

• 31:07Price Pritchett?

  And so.

• 31:07Lewis Howes?

  It's hard to create a quantum leap in that space.

• 31:09Price Pritchett?

  It is, but what is so important is for people to know what's coming. People don't tell them.

• 31:16Price Pritchett?

  I think this is one of the things that

• 31:19Price Pritchett?

  is a little bit of a problem with a lot of the self-improvement books. Go do this, do magnificent things. But by the way, in route.

• 31:29Price Pritchett?

  Let's not talk about that, but you should because if you will tell people what's coming, it does so much to re- to equip them to to deal with it. They know what's happening. I always knew if I was doing a keynote, it might be just the top deck of officers in a company, or it might be hundred middle managers that you're talking to, but I say, I want to tell you what's coming.

• 31:59Price Pritchett?

  It's like, day one can be very exciting, but there's always day two. Renee Brown talks about day two. You can't escape day two. There's, and it goes back to that old saying,

• 32:14Price Pritchett?

  about the messy middle.

• 32:16Lewis Howes?

  It's messy.

• 32:16Price Pritchett?

  Yeah. And it's kind of like, if I want to redo my house, my kitchen,

• 32:25Price Pritchett?

  I've got this glorious idea of what the kitchen is going to look like once we redo it and everything.

• 32:28Lewis Howes?

  And the middle of it, you're like, this is chaos.

• 32:30Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, it's chaos. You've got dirt everywhere. You've got holes in the wall. You've got wires hanging. It's just.

• 32:36Lewis Howes?

  Is this ever going to look nice? Yeah.

• 32:38Price Pritchett?

  It's a passage, and people need to understand it's a journey. But if you don't tell them that, they get lost in the desert.

• 32:46Lewis Howes?

  You see a lot of big companies right now, you know, in the news, talking about the changes they're making. You know, the Amazons of the world, the Googles, the Teslas, the Facebooks, all these bigger companies talking about the transitions, the changes, you know, after the last few years of what happened, and now trying to regroup and re-envision a brighter future for the company. Mass layoffs that happen, restructuring, acquiring companies, changing the names of companies, branding, you know, from work at home to now getting everyone to work back in in a community together, in person. And you see this friction in the world because all this change is is trying to happen with the bigger companies.

• 33:31Lewis Howes?

  You see pushback. You see friction. You see negativity. You see all the five Cs you're talking about, the complaining, the frustration. What do companies need to do in order to, and maybe you can't escape some of this stuff.

• 33:45Price Pritchett?

  You can't, you can't escape all of it.

• 33:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's the messy middle. You're just like, all right, we're gonna make change. There's gonna be mess.

• 33:50Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, it'll get worse before it gets better.

• 33:52Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 33:52Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 33:54Lewis Howes?

  So how do, how do companies stay confident in their decision of we are making this quantum leap? Whether they're communicating to the thousands of employees or to their customers globally or just internally. How do they stay confident when the mess is like, this is chaos? And people are unhappy and people are complaining of quitting and, you know, talking to the public and the news and how do they stay committed to the vision? Without being rattled too much and stay positive and have and eliminate the negative thinking. How do we do that when it seems like people are against you?

• 34:31Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 34:34Lewis Howes?

  And this could be for big companies or for an individual.

• 34:37Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, absolutely. You can play this out on an individual level as well.

• 34:42Price Pritchett?

  What you're talking about is resistance.

• 34:49Price Pritchett?

  People. Daniel Kahneman is a world renowned psychologist. One of the most respected psychologists in the world today. He won the Nobel Prize in economics, not psychology. But he, and he's written several books. But one of the things that is, I mean, again, just one of these killer insights or things that the research that he conducted found was that

• 35:22Price Pritchett?

  as humans, we weigh losses twice as heavily as we do gains. We weigh potential losses, imagined losses, twice as heavily as we do gains. So for example, if I said to somebody,

• 35:41Price Pritchett?

  flip a coin.

• 35:44Price Pritchett?

  Got a hundred dollar bill here.

• 35:47Price Pritchett?

  If you get it right, you get the hundred. If you get it wrong, you pay me a hundred.

• 35:55Price Pritchett?

  And usually people won't take you up on that deal. Certainly if you, if the stakes are higher. Okay, so let's go back and talk about you changing you in some big, major way, or an organization changing, seeking to change, it's in some big, major way.

• 36:14Price Pritchett?

  People immediately, they're focusing on the negative, remember. Got self-defense working overtime, self-preservation going like crazy. And people are sizing up all the ways they can lose in this proposition. You need to have, in neon lights, a picture of the promised land.

• 36:39Lewis Howes?

  For one thing.

• 36:40Price Pritchett?

  Yeah. Secondly, you need to get the message across that this is the valley of tears. This is a passage. It's not, it doesn't stay like this. Let me give you an example that. You stay very fit. You were an amazing athlete. When, let's say, if you, or I, or anybody goes to the gym, and we're going to do a new workout routine. Okay, this week, I'm up in the iron. And it's not just that, I'm going to do three sets of squats instead of two. And so on and so on. Well, you come out of that sore.

• 37:25Price Pritchett?

  Okay? But you don't think, well, if I keep lifting like this, I will live sore forever. But you don't. You develop the muscles. You work through it. Well, in change, or as an organization, or as an individual, you go through psychological soreness. And people need to know that this is a passage. That this, these are the rites of passage.

• 37:55Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 37:56Price Pritchett?

  That you go through to something greater. If you're a good executive, you will get before your people and you level with them. It's going to be, it's going to be painful, it's going to be messy, we're going to make some mistakes.

• 38:13Price Pritchett?

  But look, we've got to do this. We need to do this. And look what it's going to be like. And you have to sell the milk and honey, you know? And as an individual, you've got to keep your eye on that magnificent obsession that represents your quantum leap goal. You've got to live with that thing. You've got to make love to that thing. You've got to...

• 38:37Price Pritchett?

  So

• 38:40Price Pritchett?

  when I am doing keynote with a group of executives, I will tell them, "Look, consider yourself a doctor. And let's say you're doing heart surgery on somebody tomorrow." Okay? So they check into the hospital today. Let's say they're in at four. They check in about four o'clock or something like that, and you stop by about 5:30. You're the doctor. You're the surgeon. You're the guy that's going to make this magic happen and make them well again. You're going to keep them from dying. So you go in and you sit down with the family. And you say, "How you doing? Look, we got this."

• 39:26Price Pritchett?

  Now, I want to tell you how tomorrow's going to go.

• 39:30Price Pritchett?

  About 7:00 a.m.,

• 39:35Price Pritchett?

  that anesthesiologist is going to come in. And they're going to... They'll probably give you something so that you're not nauseous when you wake up. And then they're going to give you... You know, they put in the IV and they're going to do this, and you will get to 30 before you're asleep. And so you'll go into the operating room and you'll be in there X period of time. When you're... You're through, you'll go into recovery. And I will go and tell you folks how it went. Okay? This is... This should be a lay down. Okay? And then after, well, I'd say by 10 o'clock, 10:30, we'll have him back in the room and you'll be able to talk to him. Now, I want to tell you,

• 40:19Price Pritchett?

  we're going to have you out of the bed and on your feet tomorrow afternoon.

• 40:24Price Pritchett?

  Okay?

• 40:27Price Pritchett?

  You won't feel as bad tomorrow afternoon as you're going to feel the second or third day. But you're going to be back home with so and so, and this is where it's going. They tell you what to expect, and it is amazing because here's what happens.

• 40:43Price Pritchett?

  The doctor's credibility goes through the roof. The patient, that diminishes so much raw terror. What could have happened? Yeah. And the next morning, when it just goes just like clockwork, just like you said. Okay.

• 40:57Lewis Howes?

  Felt better, then I felt worse, and then, yeah.

• 41:00Price Pritchett?

  And we need to tell ourselves that kind of thing.

• 41:05Lewis Howes?

  It's so hard, like you said, because we remember a past that is painful. And we, if we can learn to manage your remembering, like you said, and, and not focus on those painful moments that stick out in our minds as these crippling moments from childhood. But think about all the growth and all the opportunity and all the goodness that came when we did put ourselves out there instead, and we focus on those, when we manage your remembering, like you talked about. It gives us more faith and hope for a greater future in these challenging times. And I think that's a hard thing to do if people have never trained how to do it. So I love that you're talking about this because it is all in the managing of our mind,

• 41:50Lewis Howes?

  of our memory, of our remembering. And, you know, as Dr. Joe Dispenza talks about, he says, remember the future.

• 41:57Price Pritchett?

  You know, the Ain't that a great line?

• 41:58Lewis Howes?

  It's a great line. You talk about manage your remembering. He talks about remember your future of like, imagine this quantum leap that's going to happen and focus on that. Sure, there might be some bumps and challenges and adversity and friction, but focus on the end and fall in love with it. You talk about falling in love. And the first line of this Chapter on falling in love, you said quantum leaps won't happen if you're living life with a lukewarm heart. It's hard to really get exponential growth if you just don't care about it that much. If you're like, well, I want to work hard because this person wants me to do it, you're probably not going to enjoy the process as much as

• 42:42Lewis Howes?

  if you fall in love with it, fall in love with the pain, the problems, the friction, all of it. And, and that love story at the end that your dream is connected to. And that's what I love about this. You, you bring in the emotion of love and that feeling behind the pursuit of what we're going after to it, not just let's set goals and make money and accomplish things. It's love your life, manage your remembering, and really pursue it all in. And I love that about this book. It was a, that, that line, "The world is changed by people who sort of care." Who sort of care. Sort of care. Yeah, I sort of care about it.

• 43:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. It's not gonna change. It does it. Yeah. You gotta really care. You gotta, and, and here's one thing, people say, well, you know, what if I don't have the support? What if I don't have the, the team? What if I don't have good mentors or I didn't go to the good education or, you know, my partner doesn't support me in going after this quantum leap? How can someone navigate that all the, the, the things are stacked against them? How can they overcome that to creating a quantum leap? And how can they tap into or rely on the unseen forces when it seems like they've been dealt a bad hand? They don't have many options and everyone

• 44:10Lewis Howes?

  is against them. How can they create that abundance factor, that quantum leap?

• 44:16Price Pritchett?

  With all this. Have you run across this book by Maria Konikova called The Biggest Bluff? Yeah, I had her on the show. She's great. She is great. And the thing I love is that story she tells in the book about this study that she did. Well, actually, I guess this guy named Ingo Fielder, I think he was an economist or something again. But he does this study of, he studies poker hands online, hundreds of thousands of them over a six month period. And what he found is that the best hand, having the best hand won only 12% of the time. Isn't that crazy? It is absolutely crazy. So the vast percentage of the time, it was the best player.

• 44:59Price Pritchett?

  And so I think what we're talking about here is, and what I'm trying to do in U squared is, here's how you play. There are always going to be constraints, always going to be limitations. And

• 45:16Price Pritchett?

  if we can hack that and use them to our advantage, because so much of the time, well, we need constraints. Sometimes I'm going to try to write a blog and I can't figure out what in the heck to write because well, there are too many things. But if, if Kim, you know, who's over our publishing wing, if she comes in and says, I would like for you to write a blog about X. Oh, and it's funny. All of a sudden I've got some constraints. It's boxed. And she says, and we need it by day after tomorrow. And, you know. It can't always be this many words. Yeah. And, yeah.

• 45:59Price Pritchett?

  Yeah. And it can't be like anything you've written before, you know, I don't know, but the constraints.

• 46:08Price Pritchett?

  We're pretty helpless without constraints.

• 46:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, having structure actually allows you to be more creative and more artistic in my mind.

• 46:14Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 46:15Lewis Howes?

  And if you're just like, okay, paint me a painting. Here's a canvas, like, go. It's like, you don't know, you can do anything you want. But when it's like, I want you to paint with oil or acrylic or pencil, and I want you to paint this specific thing in your own style. Then you have some direction, you have some, some borders, some guideline where you can be extremely artistic.

• 46:37Price Pritchett?

  It's kind of funny, and really, that's what goal setting does for us as an individual. It gives us, it gives us direction, it gives us some framework.

• 46:46Price Pritchett?

  Here's the sandbox.

• 46:47Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 46:48Price Pritchett?

  You know, there's this glorious sandbox.

• 46:51Lewis Howes?

  Go play in it, yeah. But most people are trying too hard. People are trying really hard, they say, and I learned this in sports growing up. So there's, there's kind of a paradox to this because there needs to be consistent effort. There needs to be effort over time. You have to be consistent in showing up. You can't just show up once in a while and, and put in zero effort. Um, you know, and definitely working hard consistently over time made me a better athlete, made me better in business. You know, all these different things. But here's a story from your book that I love that I'm going to read. Um, it's a true story. It says, I'm sitting in a quiet room at the Microsoft Inn, a peaceful little place hidden back among the pine trees about an hour out of Toronto.

• 47:33Lewis Howes?

  It's just past noon, late July, and I'm listening to a desperate sound, to the desperate sounds of a life or death struggle going on a few feet away. There's a small fly burning out the last of its short life's energies in a futile attempt to fly through the glass of the window pane. The, the, the whining wings tell the poignant story of the fly's strategy. Try harder, I'm just gonna push through this window. And then we've all seen this story. We've all seen and witnessed flies pounding against a window, but it's not working.

• 48:10Lewis Howes?

  The frenzied effort offers no hope for survival. Ironically, the struggle is part of the trap. It is impossible for the fly to try hard enough to succeed at breaking through the glass. No fly will ever be able to break through that glass. Nevertheless, this little insect has staked its life on reaching its goal through raw effort and determination. The fly is doomed. It will die there on the windowsill. And across the room, 10 steps away, the door is open. 10 seconds of flying time and this small creature could reach the outside world it seeks. With only a fraction of the effort now being wasted, it could be free of this self-imposed trap. The breakthrough possibility is right there.

• 48:55Lewis Howes?

  It could be so easy. You go on to finish the story, but can you talk about why doesn't the fly just turn around and see a different possibility 10 feet away and just fly into freedom? And, and he doesn't, or she doesn't. This fly doesn't do this. Most of the time, it never happens. Why is that reflective to human beings? Where we try to just, we see a wall, we just try to push through it. We just hurt ourselves. We just grind it out. We hustle harder, but all we need to do is turn around or do a 360 and see a different

• 49:32Lewis Howes?

  possibility and walk more effortlessly towards our desired future and our desired vision. But at the same hand, there is effort and consistent hard work that creates results as well. So how do we think of that paradox? And, and move towards something in an unconventional way rather than a conventional hard way?

• 49:59Price Pritchett?

  Well, you, you highlight a real important thing here in the book. Selective persistence is very important.

• 50:13Price Pritchett?

  And so how do we know that we're being smartly selectively persisting as opposed to just being dumb, you know, and, and at best, shooting for incremental improvement of some kind or other. I think this is the, this is the crux of a quantum leap. It's so hard for people. I think it's harder than the doubt thing. Wow. They're kind of married, I guess, in a way. Really? It is so hard for people to change their approach. It's easier for somebody to start something brand spanking new, like, we're gonna start a rock and roll band. Well, that was outrageous. That's unconventional. Yeah, yeah.

• 50:54Price Pritchett?

  I mean, that was a rabid dream of some kind, but it wasn't like changing from something else in that same genre, so to speak. Um, I find it's hard even for me and our company to really change the game. Um, that's why your goal needs to be really, really a stretch goal. Because if It requires you. It requires it. There's no way on, on earth I could do it with this, this same approach. And so it forces innovation, it forces creativity, it forces you toward the

• 51:39Price Pritchett?

  fast lane. Um, and then people fall into that thing of, yeah, I don't have this, and I don't have this, and I don't have this, and, yeah, that's okay. We're teaching you how to play the hand. Your cards suck, but man, you've got good enough cards if you will play the hands right. Right. Um, but I think that really is a tough one for people. Uh, really what you're asking them to do is take a new set of risks. And immediately what happens, just like Daniel Kahneman says, we start weighing the losses heavier than the potential gains. Well, if I did that, God, the downside, what if I did this? What if I lose it all? What if I lose it all? Or what if I make an absolute idiot out of myself? What

• 52:23Price Pritchett?

  if, what if my mate leaves me? You know, I don't know. And we, and we go into that catastrophizing stuff usually, and, and we lose sight of the goal. We quit romancing that stone. Okay. You know, and, um,

• 52:40Price Pritchett?

  So it's a tricky thing and it goes back to that core issue you talked about Lewis self-belief. And we're asking people to become childlike again.

• 52:58Lewis Howes?

  Oh, man, I love this. People, why are people afraid to become childlike when they're adults?

• 53:04Price Pritchett?

  I guess part of it is this thing, they've gotten to the point where they don't bruise and scrape themselves as much. And they've become more self-conscious. Kid doesn't give a damn that he's got food all over his face. It's learning to feed itself, you know? And the kid, let's say it's, it can wade, but it can't swim. It wants to swim. My big brother can swim. All my friends, they can swim already. This sucks, you know? And so they strangle themselves. I mean, they get strangled, they choke and all this kind of stuff and they're flashing water everywhere, but there is this fierce determination to pull it off. There's another thing that I love.

• 53:48Price Pritchett?

  I wrote a blog some time ago called Naive Ambition. I love it. And that's what we see in younger people is that, I don't.

• 53:59Lewis Howes?

  That was you with the rock band.

• 54:01Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 54:02Lewis Howes?

  I'm gonna go be a top 100 billboard in a couple of years.

• 54:05Price Pritchett?

  Yeah. And a willingness to take new risks. And if, the thing is, we don't study the downside of the way we're doing it. We don't, we don't identify the risks that we're taking now. Because they're just part of our lifestyle and our everyday habits. But we're taking some real stupid risks because we hadn't started the rock band, I was risking, well, I wouldn't have been as popular. I would have never had a record that made the top 100. You know, and on and on, the joy that we got out of that. If we could have kept on doing in my company, the same things that we were doing when I started the company. We took some risks.

• 54:50Price Pritchett?

  outrageous goals, but anyway, it's it's hard for people.

• 54:55Lewis Howes?

  It's challenging.

• 54:56Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 54:57Lewis Howes?

  Vince Lombardi has a quote, I think this is it, where he says, if you're not fired up with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm.

• 55:05Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 55:06Lewis Howes?

  Another quote is, the world makes room for passionate people. And I love the meme that I've seen online of a baby, you know, in diapers, trying to walk. It's a photo of a baby and the meme says, you know, a child falls a thousand plus times while it learns to walk. And it never says, hmm, when I'm falling over and over, maybe this walking thing isn't for me. The baby never thinks that baby just keeps trying to get up and walk, even though it smashes its face and scrapes its elbows. And, you know, falls over and over in front of others, it doesn't stop trying to walk. And it doesn't think this isn't for me.

• 55:44Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, and it doesn't, it doesn't stop to think, I don't know how to do this, obviously, so. I can't do it.

• 55:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 55:51Price Pritchett?

  That's ridiculous. There are so many things that you're capable of doing, but you don't know how to do. I think I said this earlier, the, the, anything of significance that any of us have pulled off in our life. We didn't know how to do it initially. I didn't know how to drive.

• 56:13Price Pritchett?

  Before I started driving and you learn how to drive and we could go on and on and on. And it's, it's bizarre how we reached the point of we won't put ourself into that cockpit again. You know? It's just.

• 56:33Lewis Howes?

  We get scared. Were you comfortable or were you scared?

• 56:35Price Pritchett?

  Psychologist R D Lang that said, if I don't know, I know, I think I don't know.

• 56:41Lewis Howes?

  Say it again.

• 56:42Price Pritchett?

  If I don't know, I know, I think I don't know.

• 56:45Lewis Howes?

  How interesting.

• 56:47Price Pritchett?

  And it's this kind of stuff that goes on in our heads. And, you know, well, that's a wrong assumption.

• 56:56Price Pritchett?

  But it's kind of how people go around living.

• 57:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. How do you keep that childlike energy inside of you at this stage of your life? After, you know, decades of being in the work and researching and psychology and writing books and having a lot of success and transforming your business into different things and, uh, you know, just continually evolving as a human and a business leader? How do you stay a childlike? And not get too comfortable with just, I'm just gonna go incremental now?

• 57:27Price Pritchett?

  Well, first of all, I'm guilty. I'm not as good at that as you might think, probably. I think it's kind of interesting because if you think this is the way our life starts, we accumulate, we grow, we get better, and we're accumulators, we're accumulators, and we're muscling up and we build our social network and our net worth and our information base and on and on. There's a, there's a wretched thing that happens. I'm gonna say if you want a pivot point about in the late 50s. And there's an inversion and we start this way.

• 58:10Price Pritchett?

  And we take fewer risks. There are several things that drive this. Um, one, we may be comfortable enough financially. Our energy level goes down.

• 58:26Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm. You're not as hungry anymore.

• 58:27Price Pritchett?

  We're not as hungry.

• 58:28Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 58:29Price Pritchett?

  And so there's some complacency that sneaks in and so on and so forth. How do you keep yourself energetic, wired up and keep the fire? I think.

• 58:39Lewis Howes?

  And maybe you don't need to. Maybe it's not, you know, maybe it's not a priority.

• 58:43Price Pritchett?

  I think we need to kind of though. I think we need, we need to be doing something that we want to do. Um, I love to write and I can still write. That's beautiful. It doesn't take a lot of energy to write. Um, I, I don't fight the road like I used to.

• 59:03Lewis Howes?

  You're not traveling as much, yeah.

• 59:04Price Pritchett?

  You know, I'm not out there driving projects, flying all over the planet and all that kind of stuff, but I, I need.

• 59:17Price Pritchett?

  I need to be on the move. I get disgusted with myself sometimes falling the same route to work, same route to work, same route to work, spend the same hours a day, go back home, you know. And so I need variety, but I think some people don't need as much. Some people don't have, don't need adventure in their life like I do. But I think if you're playing to your strengths and you're giving your, letting yourself do things that you love to do, that's one thing. Another thing is, this is a score to this core ideal of

• 59:56Price Pritchett?

  energy, because you brought it up. It's a very important word to me. When I was with the firm in Chicago, this firm called Management Psychologists, I'd just, I'd gotten my PhD, I'd finished up my time in the Army, I was an officer, I was in the Pentagon, and I can make that sound really cool. But anyway, I was, starting with this firm in Chicago, and we were doing management and executive assessments, like I said. And early on, when I was doing this, you know, the head guy would come in, he'd say, okay, let's talk about this candidate, you know. And I'd be saying, okay, here's how he stacks up here, and here's how he stacks up here, and I think he's a good candidate, bad candidate, whatever.

• 1:00:40Price Pritchett?

  And he would say, well, Price, what do you think about his energy level? And I'm like, what? You know, I'd never, I'd never even thought of the term or anything. He says, energy level. And time and time again, I've heard this guy say, he was a very astute psychologist, a very smart man, and he said, in my professional opinion, the single most important factor for success in the business world is a high-energy level. He ranked it above everything.

• 1:01:08Price Pritchett?

  Looks. Brainpower. Intelligence, yeah. Um, social skills. He, it wasn't that he discounted some of these other things. There are a lot of things that come into play. We know that. But he said the number one thing. And so I was intrigued by that. And I, but I started watching it because I've evaluated hundreds of execs over the years. And then when we started doing merger integration work, I was studying companies more. And I began to look, I think that the corporate energy level is the most overlooked

• 1:01:44Price Pritchett?

  asset or factor. When, when people talk about corporate culture. People don't pay a bit of attention to it. It seems like, when I think about this, if you go to the dictionary and you look up the definition of energy, get this. The formal definition, the physics definition is the capacity to do work. I think that is a beautiful line. Well, why do we hire people? Why do we promote people to, for their capacity to do work? Right. If they don't have the capacity to do work, we fire them. We demote them. We pay them less or whatever. The capacity to do work. Okay. So

• 1:02:27Price Pritchett?

  how do we maintain that energy? Well, if you stop and think about it.

• 1:02:33Price Pritchett?

  When there's no energy. Everything stops. It dies. It dies. The machinery stops. The human being stops. Everything stops. And the people with lower energy, I saw them. They just weren't as big an achievers. They might have killer brain power. But the energy level wasn't there. The motor, you know, they just, their metabolic rate, whatever you want to call it, it wasn't there.

• 1:03:01Price Pritchett?

  I think some people just come more gifted

• 1:03:07Price Pritchett?

  than others. I'm convinced of that. First of all, some people come with a four cylinder. Some people come with a 12 cylinder. Okay. Some people, they come with a good, strong engine, but they, they put low octane watery gas. They don't eat right. Uh, some don't keep their motor tuned. They don't, they don't, they don't work out. You know, they just don't stay fit and the energy level goes down. So I think that.

• 1:03:38Price Pritchett?

  You used the word friction earlier, and there is a good side to friction, as we know. We need friction in life. I mean, that's what's going on when you're pumping the iron or you're, you're doing those workouts on, you know, on the gridiron or whatever. And you have to use muscle to build muscle. And it's kind of like you've got to spend money to make money. And so that some friction is good. Uh, you need something to be responsible for. They found, studies have found that in nursing homes, give this elderly person a plant that they've got to take care of. They live longer, really.

• 1:04:21Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, and talking about living longer, there was a study, and we were talking about optimism, pessimism, and there was a 50, famous 50 year study of nuns. One of the best longitudinal studies ever. And they tested them at the beginning of this period. And the optimists live 10 years longer. 10 years longer than the pessimists. And so what this says to us is that pessimistic thinking is more dangerous than smoking.

• 1:04:52Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 1:04:52Price Pritchett?

  Because smoking, if you don't smoke, well, if you do smoke, it takes, if you're a man, it takes five and a half years off your life, so they say. That's the last statistics I saw. If you're a woman, it takes seven years off your life. I don't know why, but that's, those are statistics. So, I mean, if you don't think it's important to manage your mind, you know, to manage that mental traffic that's cruising through your brain. It's a longevity game that we're talking about here.

• 1:05:25Lewis Howes?

  That's huge. I want to, I want to check out that nun study. That seems interesting.

• 1:05:28Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:29Lewis Howes?

  10 years, people lived longer by having more optimism than pessimism. In the 50 year study, that's incredible. I believe it though. You know, I, when I see people that are, I was talking about this this morning. There are some people that I know who are more rigid in their thinking. They are more guarded, closed off, less forgiving in their way of being and in their energy. And they seem to have more pain physically, more chronic illnesses, more, they get sick more frequently, catch a cold more frequently, things like that. And when you see someone that just can learn to let go of the past is more forgiving. Maybe they don't like something and they express it, but then they move on.

• 1:06:13Lewis Howes?

  They're not suppressing emotions, but they're not being the emotion. They're not saying, I am an angry person. They're saying, I'm experiencing anger and sadness. It's different than I am versus I am experiencing. And when they can move through the emotions and let these things go, the pain, the problems, the stress, the anxiety, the the betrayal, the hurt, all these things. They feel more free.

• 1:06:39Price Pritchett?

  What's that line about that? That's like drinking poison and want another person to suffer or something like that.

• 1:06:45Lewis Howes?

  Exactly. Forgiveness is about that.

• 1:06:48Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:06:49Lewis Howes?

  It's a, it's a huge thing. I see people that suffer physically because in their mind, they're holding on to more negative quality of thought.

• 1:06:57Price Pritchett?

  My dad,

• 1:07:00Price Pritchett?

  he lived to be a hundred and two.

• 1:07:03Price Pritchett?

  And he, he was, he was an optimist. He was a positive thinker, but it wasn't like he was Pollyannaish or anything like that. But the thing about it was he wouldn't dwell on miseries. I mean, he was so good at, I guess you just call it displacement. I'm not going to wallow in that. It's not fun. There's this bumper sticker, I think it's favorite bumper sticker I ever saw. It says, and there was a picture of a bumper on an old rusted, dirty car. The bumper sticker was worn and everything, but it said, no use being pessimistic. Wouldn't work anyway.

• 1:07:44Price Pritchett?

  And, and that was kind of my dad's thinking. He just wasn't going to put himself through that. And it was just.

• 1:07:53Price Pritchett?

  Kind of who he was, or he developed it. And I need to tell you this, he had, as a very small child, he had had a leg injury with his left leg. And for all the rest of his life, that left leg was stiff. And my dad, I never saw him contemplate the idea of even parking in a handicap place. I never heard him gripe about that, really. It was just like, how he chose to deal with that, that trauma.

• 1:08:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:26Price Pritchett?

  That again is a choice.

• 1:08:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you, he had a, you know, a handful of cards, and that was part of his cards. One of his legs doesn't work as well, or is stiff, or he had a limp, or whatever it was. He could have held on to that and been frustrated about why it happened, or his parents didn't set him up for success, or whatever reason. But he made the most of it. And he said, well, at least I've got another good leg and I can walk on. At least I've got my thinking skills. At least I'm healthy in other ways. And I think that's a lot of it, is the perspective and gratitude around life. There's a lot of things we could be sad and frustrated about that, that happened to us, or that didn't happen to us, that we wish would have. And we can hold on to these things, or we can say, you know what, man, you know, 150,000 people didn't wake up this morning in the world.

• 1:09:11Price Pritchett?

  Exactly.

• 1:09:12Lewis Howes?

  I did. I'm here. Even if I have a hand that I don't love, and I got this challenge, and this thing happening, and this betrayal, and this sadness, I'm still here. I can enjoy this moment. I can manage my remembering. I can remember the future of the leaps that I'm going to step into when I make a decision and a choice that I love my life, and I'm going to step into a love story about me, in spite of all the pain. And I think when people can start to do that, their life starts to transition in a big way. And I'm just such a big fan of this book. I love that it's, you know, You're looking at dyslexic here. So someone with a 36 page book, this is like

• 1:09:55Lewis Howes?

  gold to me. 36 pages of pure wisdom and practical insights, I guess impractical, but really practical insights that will support you in in creating more abundance, creating more opportunities and really feeling empowered to take act in your life. I I've got tons of these copies. I give them out, U squared. I want people to get a copy of this. A high velocity formula for multiplying your personal effectiveness in quantum leaps, not incremental or gradual leaps, but in quantum leaps. If you want to really optimize life, you can quit trying harder. You can think beyond what common sense would allow. You can make your move before you're ready and look inside for the opportunity of any challenge in your life.

• 1:10:41Lewis Howes?

  Make sure to get this book. You've got a lot of different books. Um, we'll have to have you come back on and we'll talk more about some of the other ones. But I think this is what a lot of people could use, at least. You don't have to obsess over this, but at least have the information around how you can stop trying harder. Stop being the fly that is hitting a windowsill over and over, trying to get free. And look at things differently and turn your life around a little bit and see where the open door might lead you. Uh, so I want people to get a copy of this book. You've also got a masterclass that I want people to check out as well. They go to pritchit, you, the number two, dot com. Uh, they can get access to that. Or if you go to pritchit, uh, net, dot com.

• 1:11:23Lewis Howes?

  You'll have information around your masterclass and how they can get access to that. You have all your books up there as well and so many other things. Uh, my goal is to do a workshop with you one day and hopefully do a one day or two day with you at some point. Um, I'll convince you at some point and make sure we can do that in the future. But, uh, you've got a lot of stuff over there and you don't have as much interviews or videos of you, um, but you've got a lot of writing and materials. And you've got this masterclass. So if people want more of you in video format, they can check out this masterclass for sure. Um, before I ask you the final couple of questions, how else can we be of service to you?

• 1:12:05Price Pritchett?

  I don't know. This is a gift. It's not only just delightful, just fun kicking ideas around. It's really gratifying. And so I appreciate that. And as I said earlier, you have the most charming way of interfacing with people, your guests.

• 1:12:26Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate that.

• 1:12:30Price Pritchett?

  I don't know. I would not ask anything more. I feel hugely gifted with this.

• 1:12:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, we're grateful for you. We appreciate you. And I acknowledge you, Price, for, you know, the consistency you've had in your life to try new things, to pursue a path that was more meaningful for you. And one thing didn't work out the way you wanted it to. For really assessing all the different people you worked with, you know, performers and corporations and different people to give you the insights to be able to write this book, which has helped a lot of people over the last 24 years now, I think it is, when you wrote this book 24 years ago?

• 1:13:11Price Pritchett?

  Actually, it was written in 1989.

• 1:13:14Lewis Howes?

  Eighty-nine. I thought it was ninety-nine or something. So thirty-four years ago, right? No, what is this?

• 1:13:19Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, about thirty-three years, thirty-three years, something like that.

• 1:13:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow, so it's over three decades.

• 1:13:23Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:23Lewis Howes?

  This book is old, but it's got timeless wisdom. It's still relevant today more than ever.

• 1:13:28Price Pritchett?

  Yeah, it sells more today than it ever has. It just kind of, it's a nice incline. I like the line.

• 1:13:37Lewis Howes?

  It keeps going exponential.

• 1:13:38Price Pritchett?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:38Lewis Howes?

  I love that. And it's amazing. Isn't it amazing that, you know, I don't know where you were at in your life when you wrote this thirty-four years ago, essentially, but you wrote a book. You said, here's the information that I'm gathering in my mind from all my experience. I'm going to put it out on paper. And, you know, you didn't do the traditional way of doing a book. You didn't go with 300 pages. You went 35 pages. You, I think you self-published this originally. So you didn't go traditional. You did all the unconventional ways of doing it. You followed your program.

• 1:14:11Price Pritchett?

  Right.

• 1:14:12Lewis Howes?

  And it continues to serve you thirty-four years later, which is cool to see that one piece of content continues to serve you, but also impact. Hundreds of thousands of people, thirty plus years later, that's, that's amazing.

• 1:14:26Price Pritchett?

  That's fun.

• 1:14:27Lewis Howes?

  That's incredible. Well, I would again acknowledge you for your wisdom and for being on the show and for sharing so much of the insights that you have. It's, it's really making a difference on my life, my business and on so many people's lives. So I'm very grateful for you. This is a question that I ask everyone towards the end. It's called the three truths. It's a hypothetical question and scenario. Imagine you get to live as long as you want to live, but it is the last day on earth for you. You get to continue to create or actualize things as you want.

• 1:14:59Lewis Howes?

  But for whatever reason, on this hypothetical scenario, you have to take all of your work with you on your last day on this earth. So the lights go out. You gotta take this book with you, all your master classes, all the content, this interview, it's all gone from this world, hypothetical. And you can only share three lessons with the world, three truths that you would leave behind. And we don't have access to any else of your content. What would you say are those three lessons or truths for you?

• 1:15:29Price Pritchett?

  I

• 1:15:31Price Pritchett?

  maybe should stick with this. I've said it many times to a group of people when I would start

• 1:15:40Price Pritchett?

  to present to them.

• 1:15:44Price Pritchett?

  I'd say

• 1:15:47Price Pritchett?

  I want to share with you three great truths. That's how I'll start.

• 1:15:52Price Pritchett?

  First of all, you're, you are the most powerful person in your life.

• 1:15:59Price Pritchett?

  I would say, and someone say, no, no, no, I'm looking thirteen years old. I'm, you know, whatever. I've got a dominating this or that. I'm sorry. You look at a, at a three-year-old, go into a fit and you realize, I mean, so that would be truth number one. You are the most powerful person in your life. You have the power of choice and so on and so forth. Point two, you have an amazing capacity for change.

• 1:16:32Price Pritchett?

  And three, you are the solution to your future.

• 1:16:41Price Pritchett?

  It's not your daddy. It's not your boyfriend. It's not your boss.

• 1:16:49Price Pritchett?

  You are the solution to your future. And I want you to remember the first two points. No, no, no. You are the most powerful person in your life.

• 1:16:59Lewis Howes?

  Those are great truths. I love it. Again, my final question. Before I ask it, I want people to get the book U Squared, 36 pages. It'll take you 30 minutes to read this. Uh, but you'll be devouring it for years and going over and over again. The content inside, but it'll be an amazing investment for you. So make sure to get a copy of this, get a few copies. I like to give them out to friends. U Squared. High Velocity Formula for Multiplying Your Personal Effectiveness in Quantum Leaps. Not Incremental Leaps. Um, final question, question, price. What is your definition of greatness?

• 1:17:33Price Pritchett?

  I guess it would be. How much good you've brought to the world?

• 1:17:38Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 1:17:40Price Pritchett?

  How many people you've touched? That's, and that kind of gets behind why U Squared is the kind of. Piece it is. I wanted to put the cookies on the bottom shelf.

• 1:17:54Price Pritchett?

  I, I know the world. I know that most people are not going to read a book that thick. Um. I love books. I'm a crazy reader. I wanted to be. Short. I wanted it to be inexpensive. I wanted to touch as many people as I possibly could. And so that's why it's shaped the way it is. That plus. As I mentioned, when we were talking before the session here. I just naturally write really tight, but I know that. The more you can compress the message. The more powerful it becomes. And, um.

• 1:18:34Price Pritchett?

  I didn't, I didn't want to lose anybody.

• 1:18:38Lewis Howes?

  I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on Apple podcast. If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend, leave us a review over on Apple podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes. I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better. And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the greatness newsletter

• 1:19:21Lewis Howes?

  and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com/newsletter. And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.