117 Scott Harrison: From Nightclub Promoter to Well Digger and the Power of Serving Others

"There's a real freedom that comes through service." - Scott Harrison If you enjoyed this episode, find links to donate and show notes at www.lewishowes.com/podcast/scott-harrison. Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 117 with Charity Water founder Scott Harrison.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  In 2004, I left the streets of New York City for the shores of West Africa. I'd made my living for years in the Big Apple promoting top nightclubs and fashion events, for the most part, living selfishly and arrogantly. Desperately unhappy, I needed to change. Faced with spiritual bankruptcy, I wanted desperately to revive a lost Christian faith with action and asked the question, what would the opposite of my life look like? Today's guest, everyone, is Scott Harrison, who is an incredible human being, went on about a decade of a dark path in his life, and then decided to turn it around to figure out what was really important to him and what would bring him true happiness.

• 1:18Lewis Howes?

  We dive into his story, his background, his experiences, what he's up to with Charity Water, how he's trying to make a change in the world, and how you can step up in your life if you're not feeling fulfilled, if you're not feeling called forth to already be doing what you're meant to do in this life. I'm very excited to introduce you to the one and only Scott Harrison.

• 1:45Lewis Howes?

  Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. I'm very excited about today's guest, Mr. Scott Harrison. How you doing, man?

• 1:53Speaker 01

  I'm good, man. Thanks so much for having me.

• 1:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'm very excited to dive in and connect with you. I've been hearing about you for a number of years. I supported building a well, I think, four years ago with Yannick Silver in one of his events. And I'm all about your mission of built a well with generosity water as well with Jordan. And very excited to learn more about why you're doing it all, how it all got started, and you know, what you're up to now. So let's go ahead and get into why you got started. And I think it all started with your 31st birthday. Is that correct?

• 2:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I guess it started a little before there, but that was day one of Charity Water, my 31st birthday, and I had just come back from volunteering in West Africa for about two years on a humanitarian mission. And through my birthday party, and instead of keeping the money, you know, from that we made on the night, I charged all my friends 20 bucks at the door. I gave them open bar, and we raised about $15,000 for our first few water projects. And then we were off to the races.

• 2:59Lewis Howes?

  Very cool. Now, why did you decide to, I mean, you were in nightclubs, and you were a manager of nightclubs, or you were, excuse me, a promoter of nightclubs. So why

• 3:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, don't give me that much credit.

• 3:10Lewis Howes?

  You weren't managing it, you were promoting them. But-

• 3:13Speaker 01

  I said the other day, someone's like, "Oh, yes, Scott was in the hospitality business."

• 3:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right.

• 3:18Speaker 01

  There's far too much credit.

• 3:20Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, but you were in a lot. You were into drugs, you were into, you know, drinking constantly. And what made everything change from you deciding to make this your mission as opposed to being a successful promoter, I should say?

• 3:30Speaker 01

  Sure. I mean, it's a bit of a prodigal son story. You know, I was raised in a conservative Christian family. My mom became an invalid when I was four years old. There was this terrible carbon monoxide gas leak into a new house we moved into, and it almost killed her and just completely destroyed her health. It irreparably damaged her immune system. So I really grew up kind of as a good kid in a caregiver role, you know, helping to take care of mom, only child, active in my church, and then just at 18 crashed and burned. I mean, it's like, you know, my life was a cliche. I mean, it's kind of sad to just think about, you know, move to the city, grow my hair down to my shoulders, start

• 4:12Speaker 01

  drinking, start smoking, you know, start, you know, trying all the drugs that I could. And it just led to a kind of decadent, dark 10-year period of my life. I mean, it was it was a decade, I'm sad to say.

• 4:27Lewis Howes?

  Why did it, why did it crash if you had this good foundation and these good values and morals and, you know, habits that you were creating and a support group that sounded like, why did it all crash?

• 4:37Speaker 01

  Man, Louis, I don't know. The rebellious spirit, I mean, my, my parents were amazing. You know, it's funny, I was doing an interview recently about being a dad and just had my first kid and, you know, they were reflecting on, you know, what my dad could have done differently to not raise a prodigal. I'm like, I don't know, he did everything right, you know, he was amazing and stood by my mom through her sickness and just was a man of honor and integrity and, you know, something in me, I don't know, you know, there's that story in the Bible where the, the prodigal son kind of, you know, gives his dad the middle finger for no reason and says, "I'm gonna take my birthright and I'm gonna go hang out with hookers." Wow.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  And, uh, you know, he winds up in the pigpen, comes back and, you know, the father in that story is portrayed just as this, you know, after all of that, after all his son put him through, he goes running to him, he throws him a party, he puts him in the best clothes and, and welcomes him back, so. Crazy. My, my dad was, was kind of the dad in that story and I was, I was the prodigal that kind of gave everybody the middle finger. So it was, it was 10 years of just, I think part of it was just, uh, you know, being told you're not allowed to do stuff. And, you know, I was being told through kind of the rules of the church not to have fun. So I wanted to go and, and do that stuff I wasn't allowed to do and, and, and, you know, on the outside,

• 5:56Speaker 01

  you know, I looked like a successful, uh, club promoter and we were jumping into, you know, town cars with models and flying around to Milan and Paris and chasing Fashion Week and really chasing the party around the world. But it's, it's a pretty lonely, sad existence, you know, I mean, I was going to dinner at 10, the club at 12, after hours at 5 and, you know, other people would be on their lunch break when, uh, you know, normal people. When, when I'm trying to get to sleep, you know, to then wake up and do it all over again. So, you know, it, it was, you know, when the lights come on, um, it was, it was kind of sad. So I, I realized, uh, how, I basically realized that the legacy I was leaving after 10 years,

• 6:41Speaker 01

  you know, I, I came to my senses, uh, at 28 years old after a decade. You know, on my tombstone was gonna read, you know, "Here lies a man who got people wasted." His entire life and you know I was gonna be a fifty year old club owner that looked like I was a hundred and fifty.

• 6:58Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 6:59Speaker 01

  Uh, and you know if I even made it that far. So it was, it was interesting, you know, my parents had laid such a good foundation that I was able to come back very quickly and kind of rediscover, you know, the values and the morality and some of the spirituality that, you know, I'd, I, I, I had just kind of walked away from, but it hadn't been lost. And I, I really wanted to reclaim that through service. You know, I, I wasn't interested in, in becoming a preacher or kind of getting involved in the church again, but I, I was really interested in, in serving the poor and I was interested in justice and compassion and

• 7:37Speaker 01

  you know, for ten years I had lived just selfishly. I mean, it's, it was all about me and I thought, you know, what would the exact one eighty, what would the opposite picture of my life look like? Uh, and, and I thought that would be serving, uh, serving the poor, um, and, and using whatever skills I could bring to, to them, uh, for good. So that led me on a humanitarian mission for a couple of years and on that mission, uh, where I had volunteered as a, uh, photojournalist. Um, cause I was always a decent writer and a decent photographer and I had this massive nightclub list of people that I could communicate to. I learned that the reason people were getting sick is because they were drinking nasty water. They were drinking from swamps and ponds and rivers and

• 8:21Speaker 01

  here I was with doctors who were treating the symptoms, but the root cause of so much of the sickness was, was a lack of access to clean water. So that's kind of how I discovered the cause and at the time there were a billion people on the planet that didn't have clean water. And I just, I couldn't believe that. I mean, the water crisis for me and my friends was the fact that, you know, Voss Water cost ten bucks in our clubs.

• 8:45Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 8:45Speaker 01

  You know, uh, I mean, we, we had never gone thirsty in our lives. Uh, we had never had to drink from you know, swamps or ponds or rivers. We didn't know of anyone that died of diarrhea, but yet this was, this was a daily reality for, for a billion people and I kind of found, uh, found my what, I guess you could say that the mission that I would go after.

• 9:06Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. Wow. This is fascinating. And you were there for two years on this kind of, uh, humanitarian. Service?

• 9:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, it was two eight-month tours and then in between. So I was living on a hospital ship. It was a fascinating organization that sailed a 522-foot converted yacht up and down the African coast. And, and we lived in, we lived in Liberia. So we rolled into Liberia right after the 14-year civil war had ended. And, you know, again, I, I knew the VIP rooms in Paris and Milan, not a war-torn country with no electricity, no running water, no sewage, no mail.

• 9:49Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 9:49Speaker 01

  And 14,000, you know, United Nations troops, barbed wire, you know, choppers, tanks. I mean, it was a military state. So I was really kind of thrown into the fire very quickly. And I, I loved it. I mean, I loved the people. I loved Africa. I loved the doctors who had given up their vacation time. And instead of taking their families to, to the Bahamas, they had taken their families to Liberia to use their gifts in the service of others. So it was, it was such an amazing place and an amazing two years.

• 10:25Lewis Howes?

  Well, what was the most surprising thing or most heart-lifting thing that you've learned about humanity during those two eight-month stints?

• 10:35Speaker 01

  So there was a man there who was the chief medical officer, and his name was Dr. Gary Parker. And he was the closest thing I've ever had to, to a mentor. He had joined for three months, and that was 30 years ago. He just never left. He was a plastic surgeon from California. And, you know, this man had, you know, it was, he'd been in 23 years when I joined. So this was seven, eight years ago. And just the selflessness of the doctors who could be out there, you know, making tons of money, just using their talents for good, was really humbling.

• 11:17Speaker 01

  On the patient's side, you know, it's, it's hard to explain what it was like. We, we would rent soccer stadiums.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  To screen patients. You know, so I remember my third day on the mission. We'd first started in a country called Benin, West Africa, that a lot of people haven't even heard of. I certainly hadn't at the time. But we had about 1,500 surgery slots over a four-month period. And I remember turning up to the football stadium, you know, curious to see who would come up. Like, how many sick people would turn up? And there were over 5,000 people.

• 11:53Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  Outside the stadium. And I remember just weeping.

• 11:57Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 11:58Speaker 01

  I broke down, just sobbing, you know, realizing that, you know, over 3,500 people were going to be sent home. And these were people who had come with hope. They had come, you know, hoping that our doctors would help them and just... We didn't have enough doctors. We didn't have enough surgery slots. We didn't have enough ships. The need was so far greater than we were able to meet.

• 12:21Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, wow. That's crazy. I mean, just to think of how many people were waiting.

• 12:27Speaker 01

  I mean, it was a sea of people. And, you know, to give you a picture of Liberia at the time, after this 14-year civil war. You know, now the story has been Ebola, but at the time, it was Charles Taylor. You know, he'd just fled the country and they're trying to put the pieces back together. But there was one doctor for every 50,000 citizens.

• 12:47Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 12:48Speaker 01

  Here in America, we have a doctor for 180 of us.

• 12:51Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 12:52Speaker 01

  So if you got sick, you were SLO. You know, there was no... I think there were two surgeons in the country and nowhere to operate.

• 12:59Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 13:01Speaker 01

  So, you know, the need was just so, so great. But, you know, I'm kind of forever an optimist. And I was able to really focus on the 1,500 people that we were able to help. And it was amazing. There was, I mean, you know, blind people... I remember this one woman named Marguerite. And she... So, you know, Liberia's right on the equatorial band. And she was, you know, could see her entire life. And in her early twenties, if I remember correctly, she goes blind, just with cataracts. And, you know, there's no Ray-Bans, there's no UV protection.

• 13:37Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  So she can't see her kids. And, you know, five years later, she comes to the screening, we bring her on the ship. And I was there, I would scrub up all the time to document these surgeries. And I watched her surgery, it took like 10 minutes. You know, a guy just cut a little slit in her eye, you know, tweezers, pop the cataract out, put in the new lens, sewed her up. And I remember the next day I was there with my camera when they took off the patch and she was able to see.

• 14:06Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  10 or 15 minute surgery. And she just went ballistic. She started screaming, dancing. Her sister was there, she tackled her sister, she tackled the nurse. You know, grabs me around the waist. And, I mean, it just, I mean, for, for the price of a bottle of absolute vodka in a nightclub, you know, a woman could get her sight back and see her children. So it was that kind of place, it was just filled with stories and, and you really focused on the people that you were able to help.

• 14:38Lewis Howes?

  How long was she blind for?

• 14:40Speaker 01

  I think she was blind for five years.

• 14:42Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 14:43Speaker 01

  And it's crazy, I mean, you know, these cataracts were just, um, I mean, you could just see these things, they were so visible, it's such a simple surgery.

• 14:52Lewis Howes?

  That's crazy. Now, I've got so many questions I want to ask you just about this last few things you talked about. First, I want to talk about your parents. Were your parents supportive for the 10 years that you were basically off being the most selfish man that you could be?

• 15:05Speaker 01

  I would call them patient.

• 15:07Lewis Howes?

  Wow. That's incredible, that's a decade of patience, that's a long time.

• 15:11Speaker 01

  You know, they just, they would just say that they prayed for me for 10 years to, to come back. Um, to come back to the values and the, you know, the morality that, that they had, um, you know, they'd known me to be one thing. And, you know, I hadn't, I mean, I wasn't terrible to them. I would kind of brag about my, um, my escapades, but, you know, I would go and see them at holidays and, you know, I wasn't kind of estranged, they just didn't approve of my lifestyle.

• 15:38Lewis Howes?

  Sure, gotcha. So what do they think of you now that you live a life of full service in giving back?

• 15:45Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, they're pretty happy, I think. My dad, I got to see me give a speech on Monday night to, you know, a thousand people and, um, he's, he got to see me speak to 14,000 people once at a stadium, you know, about charity water and just, you know, was kind of beaming afterwards. Uh, so I think they're, I think they're proud.

• 16:04Lewis Howes?

  The patience paid off.

• 16:06Speaker 01

  The patience paid off. And I think the cool thing for them, you know, and even for me is that, you know, I was able to redeem a lot of the things that I learned in that decade. You know, and I say sometimes that I was telling the wrong story for 10 years. You know, I was telling the story with my life that if you got past my velvet rope, if you got in the door with a one-way glass, if you were with the pretty girls, if you spent three grand on champagne, then Louis, your life had meaning.

• 16:34Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 16:34Speaker 01

  And for the last, you know, 10 years, since I started the volunteer service and then Charity Water eight years ago, you know, it's a story of if you live a life of generosity, if you live a life of compassion and empathy, then, you know, you'll find freedom in service, you'll find freedom in giving. So I'm still a storyteller. Charity Water has made 400 videos over the last eight years. We're just telling a much more redemptive story, I think, than the, you know, come get drunk with us story.

• 17:05Lewis Howes?

  Right. Why is service such an important key to fulfillment and happiness and living a great life?

• 17:14Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 17:17Speaker 01

  You know, I think the best way I ever heard it put is that there's a real freedom that comes through service, through others, you know, that we're sometimes in shackles trying to serve ourselves. Like, there is, yeah, there was a point in the nightclub business, there was just never enough. There would never be enough money, there would never be enough girls, there would never be enough parties, there would never be enough fame or status, or, you know, you would never have the most famous people at the club. And, you know, this kind of endless pursuit, this insatiable pursuit of self. You know, when that's turned around, you can celebrate.

• 17:57Speaker 01

  You know, I guess there's always the Oscar Schindler moment, right? Where, you know, at the end of his whole life, he's like, well, if I could have saved more people. But it's just, it's such a different way of living in service of others. You know, there's a joy, there's a release, there's a freedom. And just something beautiful about being able to use your gifts. And I'm not saying that everyone listening to this show needs to go full on and become a humanitarian. But if that's helping out at your local homeless shelter, if it's cooking meals, if it's going to read

• 18:28Speaker 01

  to people in an elderly home, if it's mentoring a kid and just being a friend. It's time, it's talent, it's money, it's a combination of all those things.

• 18:42Lewis Howes?

  What if no one has ever been of service really in the past? And they think that giving up their time or their money is going to take them away from achieving what they want for themselves. What do you say to someone like that who's maybe never experienced it or has never really understood about giving and being of service? Do you feel like they'll ever be fully happy? Or is it you have to be, basically, your foundation has to come from a place of service and giving as part of your daily life in order to be fully happy?

• 19:11Speaker 01

  I think so, yeah. I just don't think you can be. I mean, I know some of the most miserable people in the world that are some of the most successful and rich people that I've ever met. So I have kind of seen that play out. And they could be worth billions of dollars and not feel like they're rich enough. They don't even have the time to spend the money that they've made. But it's that endless pursuit of more. No, I think service and caring for others is foundational to being happy and to living a life and leaving a legacy that you could actually be proud of that your kids or your grandkids could be proud of.

• 19:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, I do really believe that. I think that one of the challenges, so my wife had tried, so she actually volunteered. She's now my wife. At the time, she had volunteered at Charity Water. And I wound up hiring her and then we wound up getting married and she became our creative director. And we really kind of built the organization together over the last eight years. But I remember something she said to me. She hit a similar point to mine, you know, minus all the devauchery. And she went to try and, you know, volunteer somewhere and it just fell flat. And she was even disenchanted with that process because I think she was just kind of standing in a soup line. And it just didn't feel like she was adding any value. Now, my wife is one of the most genius creatives.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  She can animate, she can draw, she can take pictures, she can shoot video, she can edit video. She's a graphic designer. And, and I think, you know, when she volunteered with us and she was using those skills, the things she was uniquely qualified to do, she found the happiness. So I think as, as I was, I would try to, you know, give people advice, you know.

• 21:03Lewis Howes?

  Like figure out your gifts and then apply those to what you want to give back with.

• 21:06Speaker 01

  Exactly. And, and, you know, and there's nothing against standing in a line or a soup kitchen. We've actually done that together and it's been kind of, you know, a rewarding experience as well. But, you know, if you're, yeah, I would, I would try and find those things that give you life and, and, and find a way to contribute. And maybe you're a photographer and you can go on a humanitarian mission and help a small organization tell their stories better. Or create better content for them. Or maybe you're a writer or, I, I think there's, there's something about using your gifts in the service of others in a, in a non-genereic way. In a really, in a way that brings you to life. I mean, e- even myself, sometimes, you know, I try and give a percentage of my time to mentor others.

• 21:50Speaker 01

  And, you know, I get approached by a lot of charities that are starting up now. And there's nothing worse than spending an hour of my time just feeling like I haven't helped anyone. You know, because they didn't ask the right questions or, you know, but, but when I'm, when I really do feel like I'm able to help something, you want to do three more hours.

• 22:08Lewis Howes?

  Right. You make an impact, yeah, of course.

• 22:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I think it's just trying to find that, that sweet spot of, you know, here are my strengths. Here's what I can uniquely offer to a local organization, to an international organization. For some people, it really is money. I mean, we have donors who are, are, are out crushing it, working 60-hour weeks, building their business. And they're like, Scott, I can't come with you to Africa. I can't go help you consult on any of this, but I can write you a big check. And maybe at some point in my life that'll change, but right now what I have to offer is I can be really generous with money. Of other people that say, I have no money. I can't even afford to to come to your gala, but what I could offer is to run a fundraising campaign or give up my birthday, or I could volunteer.

• 22:52Speaker 01

  And, you know, and and help um help you guys stuff envelopes uh for tax receipts. So.

• 22:59Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. Yeah. And I would also, you know, probably want to include that. Find something that you have a deep emotional connection with as well. You know, you had this connection where you saw people dying because they didn't have clean water and dealing with lots of medical issues that they didn't need to be dealing with that we don't have to deal with here in the US, in the States. And, you know, that's the reason I joined the advisory board for pencil promise because I felt this connection to education for kids because I didn't feel like it was really challenging for me to learn growing up and I had a hard time all through school and I wanted to be a support for kids to have great education. And I think that's something to, you know, take notice of as well as really find something you connect with emotionally that you can

• 23:40Lewis Howes?

  really put some energy behind, not just show up at a soup kitchen unless you're really passionate about it.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 23:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. So can you talk about the whole birthday movement that you created?

• 23:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. So the, you know, the idea there was giving, you know, when when we were building Charity Water, we didn't want to build Charity Water for the rich or for the elites. Um, and and, you know, I think you hinted earlier, um, at kind of the why and and some some of the viewers might have seen Simon Sinek's uh very popular TED Talk about just the importance of knowing why you do what you do. And that the great brands, the great organizations, the great companies are so clear about their why, and they attract people who believe the same thing as them. Um, so for us, you know, the why was actually about giving and generosity and compassion. It was about reinventing charity. Uh, so when I started, you know, I realized that a lot of my friends were disenchanted with charities.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  They didn't know where their money was going. They, you know, they they weren't into the poverty porn. They, you know, they were being made to feel guilty and. Kind of being shame marketed into giving. And I really wanted to change the way people thought about giving, the way they related to charity. Charity means love. If you go back to the root, it's caritas in the Latin. It just simply means to love your neighbor. And, you know, that's not what it had been to a lot of my friends. So as we were thinking and building it, you know, we weren't going to kind of go after, you know, government money, you know, we weren't really going to have a huge foundation approach.

• 25:16Speaker 01

  We wanted everyday people to be able to engage and contribute and make a difference in serving others, you know, with something so basic. So our what was really water, right? Every single person surely can believe in a world where everyone has clean water. You know, no kid should be drinking dirty water. No woman should be walking eight hours a day, you know, in the hot sun with 40 pounds of nasty water on her back that she knows is going to kill her kids of diarrhea. Like, everybody could stand for clean water. So the birthday movement, we just kind of, we stumbled into so many things at Charity Water, you know, we kind of just got lucky by trying a lot of stuff and enough stuck. And it really started because the only thing I knew how to do to start the organization was to throw a party in a nightclub.

• 26:01Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  I mean, you know, I knew how to get a bunch of people together and throw a party. So day one, I tried to kind of redeem that experience. And the best party nightclub promoters have every year is their birthday because you get to call in all the favors.

• 26:15Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 26:15Speaker 01

  So, you know, you kind of, like, if we're friends, you kind of have to stop by my

• 26:19Lewis Howes?

  You gotta show up, yeah, yeah.

• 26:20Speaker 01

  You gotta show up at the birthday party. So that came together, so day one of Charity Water was my birthday party with open bar. And then I just said, all right, guys, and by the way, everyone has to throw in 20 bucks for clean water, which wound up being $15,000 and enough for a few projects.

• 26:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 26:37Speaker 01

  So on the one-year anniversary, you know, I wanted to kind of mature past the event and really the event didn't scale. I guess I could have gotten a venue that held 1,000 people and maybe I could have charged 30 or 40 at the door, but it wasn't real impact. And I thought, you know, I'm too old. For this. What if, what if I asked for my age in dollars? And I, I thought that might be the sticky kind of, um, you know, the marketing message, right? Give me thirty two bucks for my thirty second birthday. And a hundred percent of the money will go directly to help people get clean water. And in fact, if I reach my goal, I will fly to Kenya and I will drill the well via satellite. So you can all see exactly where your money is going into the ground.

• 27:21Speaker 01

  You can see the community getting clean water. So I wasn't sure if that would work, but I knew that everybody had thirty two bucks that could give the charity water. You know, even if you came to the club in a taxi and you tipped the bartender, it was gonna spend, it was gonna cost you thirty bucks. On the evening. So I just emailed everyone I knew and to my surprise, I raised about sixty thousand dollars. Just online with no cost. Flew out, drilled the well, um, people got to see where their money went. So that was really exciting, drilled a couple. And then, uh, this seven year old kid in Austin, Texas hears about the idea. And he starts knocking on doors, asking for seven dollars for his seventh birthday. So Max Schmidhauser raises twenty two thousand dollars.

• 28:04Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 28:05Speaker 01

  And then we had an eighty nine year old start asking for eighty nine dollars. Uh, Nona Ween, and she writes this beautiful mission statement saying, you know, I'd like people in Africa to be able to have more birthdays. You know, realizing that she's double the life expectancy, simply because of where she was born, you know, than, than the people in some of these countries where we were, were working and serving. So we realized, this is just kind of a, it's a, it's a beautiful idea. It kind of fights the materialism of the day. You know, Louis, you don't need a tie or a belt or an iTunes gift card.

• 28:38Lewis Howes?

  I've got enough gifts.

• 28:39Speaker 01

  You got enough stuff, man. You don't, you, you don't need anything else. And there, you know, there are a billion people without access to clean water. So if you could turn your birthday into a redemptive generous act, a generous moment, and you could involve the people that love you, your friends and family. And everybody could see where a hundred percent of the money went. Like, who wouldn't want to give up their birthday?

• 29:02Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 29:02Speaker 01

  Who would want to donate a birthday to help others? So, I mean, this birthday movement just sort of started to organically grow in sixteen year olds and nine year olds and eleven year olds and fifty three year olds. And, um, people all over the world started giving up their birthdays in pounds and euros and, um, and dollars. And, you know, helped a lot of people through that.

• 29:21Lewis Howes?

  And how much, how much builds a well right now?

• 29:24Speaker 01

  So it's about $10,000 to drill a well. You know, Charity Water now works in 22 different countries. So we're solution agnostic. So we fund about seven different water technologies. From a $65 bio sand filter to a quarter of a million dollar pipe system that would serve seven villages.

• 29:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 29:46Speaker 01

  You know, through a network of pipes and tap stands. We've done rainwater harvesting systems, carbon filters, pond filters, shallow wells, deep wells, tap stands. So it's a little hard. You know, there are $65 solutions, there are quarter of a million dollar solution, there are $18,000 wells, there are $6,000 wells.

• 30:05Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  But 10 grand is kind of that average.

• 30:08Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha.

• 30:08Speaker 01

  Community.

• 30:09Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. And how much have you guys raised since the very first party?

• 30:13Speaker 01

  You know, we have raised about 165 million.

• 30:15Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh. That's incredible. Congrats.

• 30:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, and by the end of this year, we'll have helped, we'll funded enough water projects for 5 million people.

• 30:24Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 30:24Speaker 01

  So this year, this year has been a big year. We'll do a million people this year, which is about 2,700 people every day of the year that got clean water.

• 30:32Lewis Howes?

  So how many birthdays do you think you've created by providing clean water from the beginning?

• 30:38Speaker 01

  I think about 35,000 people have given up their birthday, which.

• 30:41Lewis Howes?

  I mean, how many, sorry, let me reframe it. How many birthdays have you created because of clean water?

• 30:46Speaker 01

  Oh, I didn't get it. I don't know. You know, that's a wonderful thing to think about. You know, dirty water is one of the leading causes of death under five, which is just crazy. It's diarrhea. Kids simply die of diarrhea. They drink bad water, they get dehydrated, they drink more bad water, and they die of dehydration from the diarrhea. So yeah, I think we've certainly saved, you know, tens of thousands of lives and improved, you know, dramatically the lives of, you know, 5 million people.

• 31:18Lewis Howes?

  Was Schindler's List a big impact on your life, that movie?

• 31:25Speaker 01

  You know, that that last moment, I think, was kind of profound. I don't, I don't want to feel like that. I don't want to go out like that.

• 31:32Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 31:32Speaker 01

  You know, and that was just so sad, you know, to see someone that had done so much and had fought so hard. Kind of look back on, you know, from what I remember of it, look back on the life and legacy and say, I didn't do enough. Um, so I think that that warning or that that picture of Oscar at the end is, is, yeah, it's like a warning to me. Like, I don't want to, you know, I want to end and look back and celebrate the wins and celebrate the people we were able to help. And celebrate the generous people here who, you know, gave of their time and their talent and their money to serve others. Um, and if it's, you know, 10 million people with clean water or 100 million people or, you know, or 350 million people

• 32:12Speaker 01

  that that we've been able to get clean water, you know, I want to be, I want to feel really proud about the way that we did it, about the process and the integrity that we had, you know, in the way we went about.

• 32:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, because 100% of people's donations goes towards the funding of well, is that right?

• 32:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, let me tell you, it's not easy.

• 32:30Lewis Howes?

  Well, you told me a story yesterday when we were talking about how you almost had to shut down, uh, the whole charity. Because you didn't have funding to support the staff, right?

• 32:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, so, you know, the idea at the beginning was, uh, the public doesn't trust charities and they don't, uh, you know, they they feel often like charities are black holes and they don't know how much of their money actually reaches the people and and the impact it has. So I thought one way to get people who may be disenchanted around giving, around charity, to to get engaged would be to promise them that we would never step on their money. That every single penny would go directly to build water projects. And then because we didn't step on the money, we could show them their water projects. We could say, you know, this is your well that you built and here are the photos and the GPS of it. So to do that, we had to go find other people to pay for overhead, which is a lot less attractive than than paying for a well.

• 33:21Speaker 01

  Um, you know, who wants to pay for insurance and office and electricity and phone bills and flights and staff salaries? And, you know, I was just trying to scrap together two, or, you know, basically trying to build two organizations in perfect balance, you know, from a friend's couch with absolutely no money at the beginning. Um, one of the hardest things, you know, I've ever done in my life. And about a year and a half in, we had raised a couple million dollars for water projects. So the hundred percent model was really working, but we were about to run out of funding and about to be unable to make payroll. And, you know, it's interesting, the advice I got at that moment, some friends were saying, dude, you've got tons of money, just borrow from it, pay your staff, and, you know, pay

• 34:05Speaker 01

  it back later, nobody will know. You know, money's fungible. You know, you can't let something as beautiful as Charity Water, you know, go bankrupt just because of your principles. And I remember being so offended by that and saying, you know, I will shut this thing down, grant out all the public's money for the water projects, and then do a reboot and be like every other charity in the world. But I wouldn't touch a, you know, a penny from that bank account. And at that moment, a stranger walked into the office, spent about two hours with, with him, and he wound up wiring a million dollars in staff bank account, which was over a year's worth of funding and runway. And, you know, as I've had time to reflect on that, and I should say that couple has

• 34:48Speaker 01

  actually donated ten million dollars towards the overhead since, over the last seven years. So they, they continue to stay with the organization as huge patrons. But I think at that moment, it was the belief in the motto, it was the belief in me as much as the money, and just the runway. And he basically said with that, look, I, I like this model, I like the clarity of it, I don't trust charities either, you just need more time, you know? Here's one person who believes in overhead, go find a hundred more of me. And that's the model today. There are a hundred and four individuals who cover the entire overhead of Charity Water, seventy staff, you know, flights around to twenty-two countries, you know, the office, you name it.

• 35:32Speaker 01

  And that's made it possible for five hundred thousand people to give where a hundred percent of their money goes to the field.

• 35:38Lewis Howes?

  Amazing, amazing. And I'm curious, what was your way of being in that meeting? That was so inspiring and enrolling that, um, you know, they would want to support you. Obviously, you're doing something positive and, you know, doing a great cause, but you had to have been so confident and powerful in your way of being that was unshakable. What, what was that like?

• 35:59Speaker 01

  Louis, it might have been the opposite. From what I remember about it, I think I was just very transparent. I think I was passionate about the idea, but also not trying to pretend, you know, that, that, that, you know, we weren't in trouble.

• 36:13Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 36:14Speaker 01

  Um, I don't think I put the face on and it's like, we're crushing it, we're crushing it, you know? But really, we're about to run out of money.

• 36:19Lewis Howes?

  But you're really, you're actually became vulnerable is what you were doing.

• 36:22Speaker 01

  I think so, from what I remember of that was, yeah, we're crushing it, this idea is working. It is, you know, people are responding and giving money to clean water, but I can't seem to figure out this other thing. You know, we're, we're not crushing it at all on the other bank account. And I really need, I need some help, I have not discovered it. So I think it was probably a mix of vision and vulnerability or just honesty. Um, what was funny too about that was, uh, I thought he didn't like me at all. He turned out just to be British. I joke about later, you know, and, um, you know, this is, um, an amazing family that's become to your friends and has now, you know, they've traveled to me to five different countries, six different countries around the world. But I, I didn't think the meeting had gone well.

• 37:06Lewis Howes?

  Interesting. And then they just came back the next day or later that day and give you a note?

• 37:10Speaker 01

  No, he wired it a couple of days later. He sent me an email, said he'd gotten the, the instructions of our bank account from someone at the office and said.

• 37:17Lewis Howes?

  Shut up, so he didn't even know he was doing it.

• 37:19Speaker 01

  No, no, I mean, dude, I had been praying to God, I'm like, please, please, you know? I don't want to shut this down. Um, and I remember praying with very little faith. I mean, I really, I thought it was over and I got his email at 12:30 a.m. in the morning. I was sitting in bed on the laptop and it was like a short email. Uh, Scott, great meeting you, uh, I hope it's okay. I wired a million dollars.

• 37:44Lewis Howes?

  I hope it's okay.

• 37:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, keep, keep on rocking. I remember he said.

• 37:48Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 37:49Speaker 01

  I, I remember logging on to the bank account and there it was. One comma zero zero zero, comma zero zero. I just, dude, I lost it. I started sobbing.

• 37:57Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 37:59Speaker 01

  I woke up my nine staff, you know, the, the calls started going out until 2:30 in the morning. And it was, it was such a game changer.

• 38:06Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 38:07Speaker 01

  You know, I, I have a, I'm, I'm on a charity salary, but I do have a dream at some point of being able to make a million dollar gift, you know, to another organization somehow, um, that, that would be as transformative.

• 38:19Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 38:20Speaker 01

  You know, and it's funny, I just, I just saw him yesterday or he, he was in town a couple of days ago. And, uh, you know, I was, I was saying, um, I mean, we're now one of the, we're kind of in the top 300 charities of America, just from size out of 1.2 million charities. And I'm like, man, you, you did this, like you invested in us and we were, you know, we were nine kids, um, with an idea and, you know, you've really helped kind of build, you know, build something that, that a lot of people have, have, have been involved in and is really making a difference. So, yeah, I hope to, I hope to be able to return the favor at some point. Uh, not just with my time or mentorship, but, you know, by, by making a substantial gift at some point.

• 39:01Lewis Howes?

  Sure. Wow. Now with all of the, let's say, uh, issues here in the States locally, and in, you know, New York City, which is where I believe you live right now. Do you ever get flack for saying, well, why are you going outside of the country when there's so much that we could still be doing to work here? For, you know, all the, all the issues that we currently have?

• 39:23Speaker 01

  Only from people who aren't doing anything.

• 39:26Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 39:27Speaker 01

  Hey, you know, I mean, uh, every once in a while I get the, you know, the person who comes up, you know, after conferences says, well, what about the people, you know, in Appalachia that don't have clean water? I'm like, great. What are you doing about it?

• 39:38Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 39:39Speaker 01

  Um, you know, there. I think specifically to water, you know, officially, the United States of America has 100% water coverage. The countries we're working in might have 34% coverage. And there are some pockets of people here where there's water scarcity. But it looks more like you jump into your Toyota Camry, you drive down to the 7-Eleven, you fill up clean water in your buckets, and you take it home. Because, you know, some mining company has, you know, contaminated. You're not walking five hours to a swamp and drinking dirty water that's killing you and your family. So it's just, there's such a kind of, there's such a chasm between the severity of those issues here.

• 40:22Speaker 01

  And not to say they're not important for those people at all. We've just chosen to work at the very bottom of the pyramid. So we're after the 100 million poorest people, you know, if you look at the water crisis. And it's just so hard to compare. I mean, I was living in a village earlier this year in Ethiopia. I spent a week hiking nine hours into a village. And, you know, the community had to walk very far for water. And there was a 13-year-old girl in the village who was walking eight hours a day. After one walk one day, she breaks her clay pot. She falls and she breaks her clay pot and all of the water that she has just fetched

• 41:07Speaker 01

  after an entire day's walk spills out. And instead of going back to the water hole, she hangs herself from a tree.

• 41:16Speaker 01

  You know, throws a noose around her neck. 13-year-old girl in a village called Mehta. So, you know, it's hard to, we don't get many objectors, you know, to trying to help people, you know, living in those, such extreme environments. You know, I encourage people, if they're interested in conservation, go and find a great conservation charity and support them. I mean, not everyone needs to support charity water. The typical critic is doing nothing. They're giving to nothing. They're volunteering to nothing. And even my wife and I, you know, we give significantly. You know, even on our nonprofit salaries to Charity Water, we're big supporters of our own cause, but you know, we'll give to thirty other things this year.

• 42:00Speaker 01

  Small amounts, but we love living vicariously through other people doing great work. You know, I give to Pencils of Promise as well. We give to, you know, people working on orphanages. We give to a local homeless shelter in Tribeca, New York. So, a bunch of different things with your time and with your money. It's typically the main objectives, you know, aren't doing much.

• 42:22Lewis Howes?

  Right, exactly. Couple of questions left for you, Scott. I think you mentioned that when you started, there was a billion people that didn't have clean water, or somewhere around a billion, is that right?

• 42:33Speaker 01

  Yep, and the problem is getting better. The latest data, if you'd asked me a year ago, I would have said seven hundred and eighty million. The latest data is seven hundred and forty-eight million. So, it's kind of beautiful to be a part of a problem that is being solved around the world. So, you know, Charity Water is kind of almost five million now of that. And we're going after a hundred million people. And I think that would be amazing to make that our legacy. A hundred million of the world's kind of, you know, the poorest rural. What we're seeing is the governments are tackling the urban areas and the peri-urban areas. And the last mile, you know, the farmers who are walking eight hours a day are kind of the last to get served.

• 43:17Speaker 01

  So, we're starting at the bottom. We're seeing, you know, governments kind of come at the top, and hopefully, we meet closer towards the middle. So, it is good news when it comes to, you know, the problem being solved. And honestly, there's a lot of good news. I mean, there's great news in the world of HIV/AIDS, there's great news in the world of malaria. You know, I think sometimes there's this sense that, you know, "Oh, my gosh, Africa's just a black hole and it just keeps getting worse." "Oh, you know, people have been doing this." No, it's actually getting a lot better. You know, Bill Gates has written some really well-thought-out and well-researched, you know, data to try and debunk some of those myths. I think, you know, if people can spread that story that, you know, that it's a black

• 43:59Speaker 01

  hole and the poor are getting poorer, that relieves them of their excuse to give, and it's just not true. It's actually getting better. You know, the money is helping, the organizations getting smarter about the way that they provide services and implement, you know, the glass is really half-full.

• 44:18Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. When do you want to achieve this this vision by of 100 million people?

• 44:22Speaker 01

  Well, I'd love to do it over 10 years, over the next 10 years. So, you know, we're 5% of the way there. So we would definitely need a lot more birthdays.

• 44:29Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 44:30Speaker 01

  You know, here's here's a crazy thing. The average birthday campaign for Charity Water raises $1,000. So think about a million people donating their birthdays. You know, that would be a billion dollars for for clean water. So, you know, just an idea like that, if we could actually get that out there into the masses. And you know, we're hampered with, you know, an ad budget of zero as a nonprofit. But, you know, that's why we, you know, we turn up and we do this kind of stuff. And I speak 100 times a year and we're just really trying to put these ideas out there and let people take a hold of them and make them their own.

• 45:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Well, how can someone sign up to do donate their birthday, you know, next birthday? What can they do?

• 45:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I know you've you've, you know, helped helped build a well. There's, you go to charitywater.org/birthdays. And we just have a little simple pledge form. And if your birthday is a year from now, we remind you a few weeks before the birthday and it's it's pretty simple. I've done five or six birthdays now. We just did our baby's birthday. It just works. People love it.

• 45:33Lewis Howes?

  That's cool. Yeah.

• 45:34Speaker 01

  The average, like, again, the average person raises $1,000 from 15 of their friends and family. And it's just, it's kind of a unique idea. And, you know, nobody wants to get you a tie or a belt or an Amazon gift card anyway.

• 45:46Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 45:47Speaker 01

  You know, they would much rather.

• 45:48Lewis Howes?

  And they feel good about giving as well.

• 45:51Speaker 01

  They do. They do. And it's and it's fun also to be able to see actually that impact and see where the money went.

• 45:56Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 45:56Speaker 01

  So, yeah, charitywater.org/birthdays and it's a it's a great experience. You know, I've eaten my own dog food five or six years in a row now.

• 46:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. And if you don't want to necessarily donate your whole birthday, if you still want your gifts, you can go to charitywater.org and just make a donation, right? And 100% of it goes to something.

• 46:12Speaker 01

  That's right, Lewis. Or just learn, you know, you could go and and and learn about the water crisis and watch some of the videos and and just just share the story with someone else.

• 46:22Lewis Howes?

  I like that. Couple of questions left for you, Scott. I want to know what you're most grateful for recently.

• 46:28Speaker 01

  Well, I just became a dad, so I am incredibly grateful for this little drooling bundle of joy in my life now, who will not sleep more than a couple hours at a time. But my wife and I just had our first child, little boy, his name is Jackson. And it's, it's just amazing.

• 46:50Speaker 01

  It's, it's, yeah, so, so grateful for the opportunity to be a father.

• 46:54Lewis Howes?

  It's a game changer. Yeah, I was looking at your Instagram photos earlier and I see you in bed with the little guy, just like rubbing your nose with his fist or something. It's really cute.

• 47:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's the best. He's the best. I might have, I might have, you know, given him a little, rolled his, rolled his fingers into a ball.

• 47:12Lewis Howes?

  Of course. That's funny. So what is it you want your epitaph to say now, when it's all said and done?

• 47:21Speaker 01

  You know, one of my favorite verses in the Bible is, is in the New Testament, a book called James. And it says, "True religion is to look after widows and orphans and to keep yourself from being polluted." So something around that, you know, like lived a life of integrity and was a great husband and was a great dad and a great friend and, you know, made decisions, you know, that were grounded in integrity and honesty and, you know, lived a generous life. And then, you know, helped a lot of people. So I think, yeah, it's, it's something along those lines, you know, and, and from, from such a contrast to what I was, you know, I was kind of, I did nothing for others and I was, you know, I was a polluter.

• 48:05Speaker 01

  I was kind of an active polluter.

• 48:07Lewis Howes?

  Sure, sure. That's cool. I like that.

• 48:10Speaker 01

  I'll need to make that a little briefer.

• 48:14Lewis Howes?

  Well, before I ask you the final question, I want to acknowledge you, Scott, for your awareness. You created such awareness, inner awareness with yourself to recognize that, hey, this actually isn't what is serving me or serving anyone else, what you were doing for the decade that you were doing it. And I want to acknowledge you for your commitment over the last decade to stay in the fire and Keep going under extreme, you know, adversity and many challenges and having to come up with a whole new model for charities and not have any money on your own to make it happen. And for all the people's lives that you're making a difference in, it's inspiring, it's incredible.

• 48:56Lewis Howes?

  And I'm so blessed and honored to know that you are living in our world during this time and making an impact. So I want to acknowledge you for your effort and your commitment and dedication to service.

• 49:07Speaker 01

  Thank you so much, man. That's so kind.

• 49:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. And hopefully we can meet up one day soon and I'll give you a big hug. But in the meantime, I want to ask you the final question, which is what I ask everyone. And it is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 49:21Speaker 01

  Oh, man, I think it's a life lived with integrity and generosity.

• 49:26Lewis Howes?

  I love it. Scott Harrison, you are a gift to the world. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your message.

• 49:32Speaker 01

  Dude, thanks so much for having me and thanks for all you have done for water and education. And I know a bunch of other stuff you've supported.

• 49:39Lewis Howes?

  My pleasure, man. Thank you.

• 49:40Speaker 01

  See ya.

• 49:49Lewis Howes?

  I hope you guys enjoyed this episode with Scott. Again, very inspiring individual and story for me to connect with. And hopefully you gained a lot of wisdom and insights from his storytelling. And you can tap into what these stories mean for you. And I want you to take a look at your life. You know, we're going into the new year. I want you to take a look at your life and ask yourself the question, am I living the life that I really want to live?

• 50:17Lewis Howes?

  Is what I'm doing meaningful and does it have purpose? Am I living to make money and have fun? Or am I living to have it all and leave an impact? I just want you guys to think about it. There's no right or wrong answer. I just want you to think about it and see how this feels to you when you answer the question. And start writing down some goals for yourself for this year. Really start writing down, you know, how do I want my life to look like? Just write it out and think about what do I want my days to feel like? Who do I want to be spending time with? How do I want to make an impact? What are the things I want to be doing? Just write it out and see what comes up for you. There's no right or wrong answer here either.

• 50:59Lewis Howes?

  It's just see what comes up for you and see if your life is on purpose right now. And if you're doing things that you want to be doing and what feels inspiring to you. Thank you guys so much for being on this episode with me. Please share it with your friends over on Facebook and Twitter and leave Scott a comment over on Twitter as well. And let him know what you thought about this episode. We'll have all the information in the show notes back at lewishouse.com/117. That's lewishouse.com/117 to get all the information about Scott, Charity Water. Find him online on social media. You can get all those links back there at lewishouse.com/117.

• 51:42Lewis Howes?

  You guys are incredible and I can't wait to talk to you guys soon. We've got some big episodes coming up next, so get ready. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Great.

• 53:05Speaker 02

  The