239 John Maxwell on Leadership, Living Big and Choosing a Life That Matters

"Most people don't lead their life; they accept their life." - John Maxwell If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/239 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 239 with number one New York Times bestselling author, John Maxwell. 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?

  We're going on a book tour. We're going on a book tour. I'm going around the country. What's up, everyone? Welcome to this episode. I'm very excited. Before I introduce our guest, I want to give you a couple of announcements. The book is coming out in 15 days. That's right, 15 days of the day this episode is being released. And I'm doing a book tour around the country. I want you to go to lewishouse.com/events to check it out. And if you are in the Los Angeles area, the New York City area, the Las Vegas area, Indianapolis, Columbus, Ohio, Cleveland, Ohio, Denver, Colorado, Miami, Florida, Chicago,

• 1:16Lewis Howes?

  Illinois, Charlotte, North Carolina, Austin, Texas, San Diego. If you're in any of those cities, then go to lewishouse.com/events and make sure to register ASAP because tickets are selling out, they're filling up, and you must RSVP to these events to make sure you get a ticket to go in because some of them have limited seating, limited books, all these different things. So go to lewishouse.com/events because the book tour is happening very soon and I want to see all of you at the events that I go to. I want to give you all a high five and a hug and just thank you so much for listening to the podcast and for buying copies of the book and all that you do to spread the message

• 2:01Lewis Howes?

  of greatness. So make sure to go to lewishouse.com/events. Also, We are doing some incredible things. There's a big bonus page right now. I'm offering craziness. If you want to have me speak at your event, you can buy a certain amount of books and I'm doing a number of speaking gigs next year for those that want me to speak at their event for books. I'm also doing a dinner with some of the most inspiring, powerful leaders in the industry. And I'm super pumped about this. I'm hosting a mastermind dinner with leaders from the industry. And let me just list off some of these names. This is called the Greatness Influencer Dinner.

• 2:41Lewis Howes?

  People like Jim Quick, Adam Braun, New York Times bestselling author, Ryan Blair, CEO of a multiple hundred million dollar company, Shaleen Johnson, who is a powerhouse, one of the top fitness instructors in the world, Ramit Sethi, Mastin Kip from the Daily Love, Matthew Hussey, Tom Bilyeu, CEO of Quest Nutrition, Stacy London from The View, Drew Cannoli from FitLife TV, Rob Bell, who has been on Oprah a number of times, one of the top spiritual leaders, and many, many more. If you want to have dinner with all of us one night, then make sure to check out greatnessbook.com/bonus with a capital B.

• 3:22Lewis Howes?

  You're going to see all these bonuses of how you can have day-long training sessions with me, how you can get a retreat with me and my team, how you can get speaking gigs from me, all these different things when you buy multiple books. Go to greatnessbook.com/bonus with a capital B and check out all the goodies. The events page and the bonus page. We'll have it all linked up with the show notes as well at lewishouse.com/239. And one more thing. I want to give a quick shout out and thank you to our sponsor, Onnit.com. That's O-N-N-I-T.com. If you guys are busy and you're hustling and you're growing your business and you've got a dream, if you've got a passion and you want to stay focused and

• 4:07Lewis Howes?

  healthy at the same time, then make sure to check out Onnit.com. They've got some of the best fitness foods, supplements to enhance your mental and physical performance. And I'm using some of their stuff on a daily basis. I love the hemp force for my smoothies. I love the immune tech when I'm busy traveling and I want to make sure my immunity is on check and I've got everything under control. Alpha brain when I want to stay focused throughout the day. So make sure to check out on it.com and you can use the checkout code greatness to get 10% off on all supplements. They've been a huge supporter of mine and this podcast from early on and they're an incredible partner of mine. So make sure to check out on it.com.

• 4:49Lewis Howes?

  That's O-N-N-I-T.com and get yourself upgraded. Now, let me introduce you to today's guest. He is an incredible human being. His name is John C. Maxwell. He's a number one New York Times bestselling author, coach, and speaker who has sold more than 25 million books in 50 languages. And in 2014, he was identified as the number one leader in business by the American Management Association and the most influential leadership expert in the world by Business Insider and Inc. Magazine. He's also been voted the top leadership professional in the world on leadershipgurus.net for six consecutive years. He's trained more than 5 million leaders. In 2015, he reached

• 5:34Lewis Howes?

  the milestone of having trained leaders from every country in the world. He is the recipient of the Mother Teresa Prize for Global Peace and Leadership from the Luminary Leadership Network. And he speaks each year to Fortune 500 companies, presidents of nations, and many of the world's top business leaders. Five big things you're going to learn from this episode today. The power of compounded consistency to create greatness in your life. Why you're never good the first time you try something. John's secrets to selling 25 million books. What moment in his adult life he had the most uncertainty for him. And the power of knowing your purpose

• 6:16Lewis Howes?

  to get through adversity. There's a lot covered in this. I feel like John really opened up big time in this interview and I think you're going to really connect and appreciate how he shared and what he shared. So without further ado, let's go ahead and dive in this episode with the one, the only, John Maxwell.

• 6:40Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness Podcast. Very excited about our guest today. He is a legend in the leadership space and the author world and the coaching world and a living a better life world. His name is John Maxwell and thank you so much, John, for being on today.

• 6:56Speaker 01

  Hey, it's my joy. So good to be with you. I'm looking forward to our time together.

• 7:00Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you know, I've heard about you for a while now. Obviously, you're you've got a big name. You speak all over the world. You're helping Fortune 500 companies. You're helping people all over the place. You're in every bookstore, you know, anywhere you go traveling, you're in the airports. So it's it's great to connect because I've always wondered who the man is behind all these books and all the messages. So I'm excited about this.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  I'm delighted. Let's get acquainted. I've been, hey, I've wanted to meet you too. So

• 7:27Lewis Howes?

  Awesome, awesome.

• 7:28Speaker 01

  Let's take advantage of this time and meet each other and know each other a little bit better and help some people. What do you say?

• 7:34Lewis Howes?

  I'm in and I'm curious, John, did you, because I don't know too much about your backstory when you were a kid growing up. I'm curious, did you play a bunch of sports when you grew up by any chance?

• 7:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, I played ball. I sure did. I played mainly basketball. Got injured. I love football probably a bit more, but I got hurt. So I stuck with basketball and played it in high school, played it in college and just loved the game. And, you know, played it until one day, one day the ball came to me and my mind said, take left and dribble right. My body said, who, me? And I realized that was the day I kind of give it up. So I loved it. I loved sports then to play and I love, you know, I enjoy it now. In fact, every once in a while I get to do some fun things. I've done the Indianapolis 500, the Super Bowl, the All-Star game. So I do some things once in a while.

• 8:27Speaker 01

  My time doesn't allow me much, but but I still do enjoy sports a lot.

• 8:31Lewis Howes?

  What's the one physical activity you enjoy doing the most? Do you have a workout routine or running or do you still play something or golf or what's what do you love doing?

• 8:43Speaker 01

  Well, I love the most golf. I, I, I love to play golf. And, uh, you know, it's just a, a game you never can, you can never conquer. And if you think you have got it down, the next time you go out, you get humbled. And, uh, I guess I love it because I love the game of golf because it's a management thing. You've got to learn how to manage your game. You've got to manage the course. It's a mental game. And it really, if you make a bad shot, you can't say, you know, because somebody say, boy, you threw me a bad pass. I mean, you know, it's the, the club's in your hands and, uh, and it, it takes a lot of concentration and focus, which is good for me. I like to, it gets me away from, you know, the stuff I've got to handle. But, so I love golf the most. I mean, I, I, I, you know, I don't get to play a lot,

• 9:25Speaker 01

  but, but I get to play at some wonderful places. I've got to play at Augusta several times and I play, I play the, uh, play the AT&T Pro-Am every year out in Pebbles. So that's, that's really, in fact, two years ago, I made the cut on that one. So,

• 9:37Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  That's all the fun. Then I, I, um, but every day I try to swim and, and, uh, and, and work out a little bit with weights. So, you know, I do, I do that in a moderate way, but I love golf.

• 9:47Lewis Howes?

  That's great. And I'm curious, you know, from your, your basketball playing days and football playing days and now golf, what would you say are the top two or three biggest things you've learned about yourself over the years from playing these sports? The biggest lessons you've learned that really opened you up to something new?

• 10:06Speaker 01

  Well, in team sports, uh, what I learned very quickly was that, uh, the more I add value to the other players on the team, uh, the more valuable I became. And so it was, it was a lot about, uh, you know, just, you know, if you're on a team, you're, you're there to make everybody else better too. And, uh, and then I, we, I had a coach. It was a great coach. And in basketball and, and he basically would put the starting five, the first scrimmage of the year, he would take we who are us that were on the starting five and he would, he would give us a different position than what we regularly played. And then he'd take the second team and let them play in their position. And I, he'd always put me at, he'd always put me under the basket with a six, I'd be like a six nine.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  So the center's just loving it. He didn't have to jump to score me. So and and and so we played a twenty and we'd lose like twenty to twelve and then he'd sit us down and he'd say, no matter how good you are, if you're out of position, people that are less than you will always win.

• 11:07Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  And it was a phenomenal lesson on just knowing your place and finding your your niche in life and that whole deal. So you know, team sports were were great in in that way. When you get to an individual for like like golf, it's just the fact that um you have to constantly uh work on the game. I mean, and and that's my big challenge today is I don't have that kind of time. So I've tried a couple of times to get down in the eight or nine single adventures and it just it takes too much of my time.

• 11:40Lewis Howes?

  It's a lot, yeah.

• 11:41Speaker 01

  Here's what's interesting. Here's what's interesting in golf, what I've learned is in golf, if you want to be a twelve handicapper and you have some talent, you play the game a little bit, you really don't have to practice much and you can just go out and do that. But if you want to become a you want to drop that three strokes, four strokes max, you've got to give twenty hours a week to do that.

• 12:01Lewis Howes?

  At least.

• 12:02Speaker 01

  And and it just shows you that the the effort you have to put in between good and excellent.

• 12:09Lewis Howes?

  It's it's another level.

• 12:10Speaker 01

  And I think a lot of I think a lot of people really lose themselves for good because there's just too much of a price to pay for excellent.

• 12:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, you and I both know that.

• 12:21Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  If you can get in the top ten percent of anything in life, uh if life gets good for you. I mean, almost everybody that excels excels because they do something they do really well and they do it uh in in the top ninety percent tile. So so so they get the return out of it. So anyway, I think I think sports just has a lot to teach anybody about life. Hey, you win. In fact, I just did a book, you know, a year ago called Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn, and that's that was basically the whole issue. You know, you don't, you don't win all the time, but when you lose, the question is not, did you lose? The only question you have to ask yourself is what did I learn from that loss? And if you learn from the loss, you, you have less losses. And if you don't learn from the loss, you just keep losing.

• 13:05Speaker 01

  And I know some people that they just, you know, it's kind of like a spiritual gift in their life. They just keep losing all the time. And, and, and you can tell, you can just tell they haven't, you know, haven't set back and, and not, not only learned, but haven't changed the, what they need to change to.

• 13:19Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 13:19Speaker 01

  Improve themselves.

• 13:20Lewis Howes?

  But in golf, can you actually, is it just constant learning then? Cause you could never win.

• 13:25Speaker 01

  Well, you know, it's, it's, it's, it, what makes golf difficult is even when you mentally understand the game, physically to repeat the, the same rhythm and, uh, and under different conditions. It's, it's just, it's a very difficult thing. That's why, that's why if you even look on the best of golfers, the pro golf, to very seldom will you ever see a pro golfer win three matches in a row. But, you know, and, and why? It's because it's just impossible. In fact, when I played the pro end the last time, this, uh, was very interesting. Uh, the, the pros were, I was playing with pros and, and they said, the reason they have a four day tournament is if, if you only have a one day tournament, every pro that enters can win.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  But if they have, if the, if the tournament goes two days, half of them are eliminated. If you go three days, uh, uh, three, four start to eliminate.

• 14:16Lewis Howes?

  Why is that?

• 14:18Speaker 01

  Well, it's because they can't consistently for four rounds. Not every golfer can, you know, it takes just a, a very, very good golfer to put four great rounds together.

• 14:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:26Speaker 01

  And, uh, and so they play four rounds to eliminate the guy that would get lucky one day. And I thought, I thought, isn't that the way life is? You know, everybody wants to have one day where they get lucky and hope that lasts the rest of their life. And, and yet life's not that way. Life won't allow that. And life doesn't let you get lucky and build off of lucky. Uh, they say, no, no, you gotta go out and do it again tomorrow. And, uh, I'm 68 now. It was one of the things I, I just come, I just, I just realized, you know, in the last couple of years that, that if you are consistent. Uh, continually consistent, just good, just, you know, every day you, you get up and you hit the ball and you're, you just do it consistent. Um, that, that there's a, there's an amazing

• 15:11Speaker 01

  compounding of with consistency. And, uh, you know, when people talk about, you know, well, they're consistent, sometimes that's not even like a, like a, you know, compliment. You say, well, can't you say something better than, than I'm consistent? But what I, what I've learned at sixty eight is consistent really is good. It's very good. And, and, uh, if you, if every day you make every day a masterpiece and you do that, you know, week in, week out, month in, month out, year in, year out, there comes a day when all of a sudden there is, and I'm, I'm there, I'm there in my life. There's a compounding of consistency that will blow you away.

• 15:46Lewis Howes?

  I imagine.

• 15:47Speaker 01

  And, uh, you know, too, too many times we want magic and we want instant and, you know, we want microwave, we want all that stuff.

• 15:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Yeah. You, you sold, you've sold twenty five million books. I'm assuming that's the stat I have. And I would bet that you didn't do that in your first book in the first week of launch. It's taken probably thirty years or more to make that happen, right?

• 16:08Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh, yes. My first book is, you know, you know, my mother bought ten copies and that was, that was good. Yeah. In fact, I, I have another teaching though, that is that you're never good the first time.

• 16:20Lewis Howes?

  Oh, that's true.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  And, uh, you know, when people say, you know, well, I, I've never spoken before, so I really wanna work hard on this speech. And so I do a good job. And I always smile and say, well, don't work so hard, because you're not gonna do any good. You, you, you, you, you, you'd, no, nobody's good first time. We, we, you know, we didn't start talking fluently, we didn't start walking. You know, we'd get up one day and say, I'll walk a mile and have taken a step. The whole process of starting, the first time you do anything isn't to do it well, it's to, to do it so that you could try it again, to do it a little bit better than you did the last time, to constantly improve. And so, yeah, no, no, my, my first book is still in print. I can't even believe that.

• 16:58Lewis Howes?

  When, well, how old are you?

• 16:59Speaker 01

  In fact, the lady brought it the other day and she, and, and she had to me, she said, I love this book. I looked at it, I said, oh, my gosh, this is my first book. And I said, you love it? Yeah, this is kind of a shocker. She said, yes. I said, what do you love about it? She said, oh, I love the, she said, I love the short chapters.

• 17:15Speaker 01

  And I have, it's only, it's only a hundred pages and it has like thirty chapters. So it's like, you know, it's three pages of, you know, chapter. And she said, what, you know, I have such a neat idea. What, what did you ever think of a, you know, three-page chapters? I said, lady, it's my first book. I ran out of gas after three pages. You know, I, shoot, some of them are two pages too long, you know, but I, but, you know, so, so, but no, you know, twenty-five million, and, and that's what people, they'll all say, well, what's the secret of selling twenty-five books? And the secret is that you, you, you gotta do two things. You gotta keep writing and, and, and, you know, write something people wanna buy. But secondly, you gotta live long enough.

• 17:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  You know, you, you know, it takes a while to sell twenty-five books.

• 17:58Lewis Howes?

  It's a lot of people.

• 17:59Speaker 01

  You know, so, you know, that means I'm an old man.

• 18:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, well, you've got a lot of, a lot of great lessons to still share. So, uh, I'm curious, how old were you for that first book when it came out?

• 18:12Speaker 01

  Well, I wrote it in, see, see, seventy-nine, I have forty-seven, I was, uh, I was thirty-two.

• 18:17Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's how old I am, and my book is coming out in a couple of weeks as well. So that's pretty cool. Uh, that, that, that's a, that's an over.

• 18:25Speaker 01

  I am betting, I am betting a hundred dollars right now that your first book is better than my first book. I just guarantee it. And since I know how bad my first book is, just send me the hundred dollars.

• 18:36Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, well.

• 18:38Speaker 01

  Congratulations. You're gonna love it when you're, when it, when you hold it the first time, when, when somebody gives you your book that you wrote and you hold it. You know, I've written eighty-some books now.

• 18:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  Eighty plus, but, but here's what I know. Every time I get a, whenever somebody hands me my book that I see it for the first time, I've never lost the thrill of it. I, I really haven't. I just, I, I say, oh, my gosh, I worked hard for this. And and now it's going to help people and yeah, I I'm still I'm still uh kind of like a I'm kind of like a teenager. I'm still a kid when it comes to, you know, you got your got your book out and it doesn't get it's never gotten old to me. So like eighty three doesn't isn't like a lot less than the first one. It's just like when I when I got my, you know, my new book intentional, it just came out yesterday, but I mean, when when I held it, you know, about ten days ago, my hands for the first time, I just I just looked at it and

• 19:29Speaker 01

  you know, felt it and opened up the pages and read a little bit and and, you know, and it's just it's very special to me. So anyway, I think that's the way it'll be with the book right now.

• 19:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah. I'm curious. You know, you've had a lot of experience and you've had a lot of lessons. You've met a ton of people. You've probably had to reinvent yourself from teenage years to college and beyond and everything you've done. Um, I'm curious, what was the moment in your life? Let's say after sixteen, what had that had the most uncertainty for you, where you didn't understand what was happening? Uh, maybe there was an extreme adversity where you were confused about and you really had no clue what was in store or why it was happening. I'm curious, what was that uncertainty? Point for you and what did you learn about that?

• 20:20Speaker 01

  Well, it would be it would have been in my early twenties. Um, I started off my career as a pastor, okay?

• 20:26Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 20:27Speaker 01

  And and and so I was in in my first church and I was kind of finishing up my first year and I just fell out of place. I guess I said, I guess I missed my calling. It's just you know, because I, you know, I really didn't want to just go visit people all the time. I wanted to grow something. I wanted to build something. I wanted to develop something and and they kind of wanted me to be a shepherd and I felt more like a rancher, you know, and and and and I read a book, I read a book called Spiritual Leadership by Oswald Sanders. Basically, that book said that you could be a person of faith and yet be a great leader.

• 21:06Speaker 01

  And that just lit my fire. I just said, oh, my gosh, I'm going to continue pastoring, but I would be a pastor who leads. And so I've always been a leader from that point on. Whatever occupation I've been in, I'm a leader. And it was kind of like permission. And I grew up in an organization that didn't have good leaders and had a kind of a scarcity mindset. So I was really kind of lost in kind of just saying, wow, I don't think this is where I should be. And kind of second guessing myself. Read that book, never second guessed myself again. I'm a leader at first. What I do is, so people say, what do you do? I lead. Now, I had to, you know, for 25 years, I had to be a pastor.

• 21:48Speaker 01

  You know, now I have five companies, I'm a business person, but I'm a leader. I'm still a leader. That's what I do. I lead. And it just kind of, it gave me my purpose or my why, why I'm here. And so as I got that then, you know, you still go through adversity, but the difference is when you go through adversity and you don't know your purpose, then you get tossed around a lot. When you go through adversity, you know your purpose, you feel the winds and you can feel the heat, the whole process, but you don't get tossed. You know who you are. You know what you're supposed to do.

• 22:19Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. I'm curious, Nate, 25 million books, you speak to hundreds of thousands of people all the time, all over the world. You've been doing it for decades. How do you stay humble and grounded to your mission and your vision without letting things, you know, get too big in your head or

• 22:42Lewis Howes?

  abuse things with, you know, the people that really love and support you and feel this deep impact from your message and your work? How do you stay grounded?

• 22:52Speaker 01

  Well, first of all, I know me. And I'm not that good. And, uh, you know, I, so, you know, I have a saying, you know, you might as well laugh yourself because everyone else is.

• 23:04Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 23:04Speaker 01

  And, uh, so I, I, I've never taken myself seriously. Um, I take my calling very serious, but I'm human and I mess up and I know that. And, uh, I don't think anybody wants a perfect leader. I think they want an authentic one though. And, uh, so I came to grips very early that, um, that I was gonna have a lot of misses because I'm gonna take a lot of risk. And, and I had to be able to get back up quick and had to be able to say I was sorry and had to be able to look at myself or look at others and say, missed that one.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:37Speaker 01

  And, uh, I keep people around me that are that way. Uh, we don't, we're not position conscious, title conscious, money conscious. My mentor that really got me writing books, I, I asked, his name was Les Carr, I asked him one day before I ever wrote, I said, why do you write books? And he said, I wanna, I wanna influence and add value to people that I'll never see or know.

• 23:58Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  And that lit a fire within me and I, I, I became a writer not because I had a desire to write. I, I became a writer because I had a desire to influence people I'd never see or know. And, and then the other word of advice he says is, you know, don't write books to make money. He said, you won't. And, and, and so I never did. And I don't today. I, I've made a lot of money. Obviously you can't sell twenty five million books or not, but that, you know, just do the math.

• 24:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 24:23Speaker 01

  But that isn't the point. The, the, the point is I'm still writing books because I just love adding value to people. And, uh, you know, and I've written eighty plus books, but, uh, this book, Intentional Living, that is coming out right now, is the most important book I've ever written. And I, I've known that for the last three years as I've been kinda working off of the book, uh, that this is, uh, you know, to, to a certain extent, this is kinda like a legacy.

• 24:48Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 24:49Speaker 01

  Uh, because it's, it, it, I, I love this book for a lot of reasons. I love this book because, um, it's within reach of every person. It's a book on significance. And and how do you, how do you make your life count? How, how do, how do you get to the place where your life really matters? And I think everybody wants that. I think every person that is following you, Lewis, they, they wanna, they wanna make their life count. Yeah. And yet I, I think most people are not sure how to do that. And when they think of significance, I think they're intimidated because they think, oh, my gosh, that's, that's way out there. You know, I'm not old enough, smart enough, wise enough, don't have enough money, don't have enough influence. But someday I hope to do something that'd be major significant. And the whole book is about the fact that you can be significant today.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  And when the reader reads this book, that's what they're gonna see. Yeah, I mean, I, I, if, if they're thirty-six or if they're sixteen, doesn't matter, if they're eighty-six. Uh, I, I have a whole chapter in the book on, on start small, believe big. And, and it's just all about the fact that you have to be intentional. It's impossible to be significant consistently without, first of all, being intentional. So, you know, most people I know, they have good intentions. I mean, they really do, they're good people, they have good intentions. They want, they want their life to matter, but they don't understand that good intentions has never done anything for anybody. I mean, there, there's never a person that's ever been successful. And you ask them, why were they successful? And they say, well, you know, I've just had a life full of good intentions. Hmm. Uh, you know, good intentions are nothing.

• 26:16Speaker 01

  It, it's gotta become good actions. And the bridge between good intentions, you know, and, and, and the good actions is, is intentional. You gotta be intentional. You gotta, you gotta say, okay, I, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this on purpose. Hmm. And I love the book because, um, it's, it's a book for people who really wanna, uh, just, uh, add value to others because that's, that's who I am. And when people just say, you know, John, who are you? I, I'm a person that every day lives to add value to people. I'm, I'm loving being on your show for one reason, Melissa, is I hope I'm adding value to you. I hope that I'm adding value to the people that, you know, and, and so I got up today and I thought about you. I'm in New York, I'm doing a media tour and I thought about everybody I was doing media with today.

• 26:58Speaker 01

  And I just asked myself, how, you know, how could I help them? And, uh, you know, intentional living, this, this book, you know, most, most people don't live in, most, most people don't lead their life, they accept their life. Hmm.

• 27:11Lewis Howes?

  Will you say that again?

• 27:11Speaker 01

  And because they, most people don't lead their life, they accept their life. And, and, and if you lead your life, you're intentional. If you accept your life, you're letting someone else determine your life for you. And yet ninety-nine percent of people get up every day and they say, well, I hope something good happens to me. I hope something wonderful is good, you know, and, but, but they're, they're not intentional. And so, so I wrote the book to say, okay, here's what's beautiful. Every person can be intentional. And here's what I mean by that. If somebody said, John, I want to be, I really want to be successful. I want to be significant in my life and I really want to, I really want to make my life matter. What do I need? What, what's the quickest, easiest way to do that? I would just look at and say, you have to become intentional.

• 27:52Lewis Howes?

  And what does it, what does it mean for you to become intentional?

• 27:55Speaker 01

  But it means that I do this on purpose. I, I, I choose to take action on what I already feel and know. You see, the, the greatest gap in life is the gap between knowing and doing.

• 28:06Speaker 01

  Most people don't lack knowledge of success that keeps them from success. They just don't do it. And intentional living means I take my good intentions and I act them out, you know, and, and, and the, the word intentional means, it means, um, it means deliberate. It means consistent. It means willful. I mean, deliberate means I do this on purpose. Consistent means I do it on purpose all the time. Willful means it's a choice I have made for myself. I've willed this. And in the book I talk about, this is how, this is how you live an intentional life and this is how you begin to add value to people. But, but, you know, let me tell you a story.

• 28:46Speaker 01

  And this is probably the most important thing I want to share because this is what happened to me is why I wrote the book and what I want to happen to the readers of this book. I, I was in my twenties and my assistant, she was my secretary, but she, for Christmas, she gave me a book and I unwrapped the book and, and the title was The Greatest Story Ever Told. And I love to read and I said, boy, thank you. This is gonna be a great book. I mean, my gosh, the greatest story ever told. Are you kidding me? And I, I mean, before I even opened the book up, I'm already thinking, what story is there told? And, and, you know, here we go. And, and I opened the book, and much to my surprise, the pages are blank.

• 29:26Speaker 01

  And Eileen Beavers, up in the, up in the corner of that, of that first blank page, wrote these words, "Ji, and your life is before you. Fill these pages with kind deeds, matters of your heart, things that matter. Live a life of significance." And I'm telling you, Lewis,

• 29:46Speaker 01

  I said, okay, I got this. I, I, I'm not gonna read my life. I'm gonna write my life. I'm, I'm not gonna be passive about this. I'm not gonna, well, I'm not gonna let somebody else write a story. I'm gonna write my own story. And I literally took that book with the blank pages, and I started writing, just thoughts that I had. And, and, and it wasn't my first book, but it was really my, it was, it was when I began to say, I'm gonna become the author of my life. That totally changed me. It, it, that day I woke up and I, I, I said to myself, my life is gonna be recorded. That is the question. The question is, am I gonna control that life? Am I gonna be intentional with that life so that it really matters? Am I gonna make every day my masterpiece? So when I wrote this book, Intentional Living, I started off,

• 30:31Speaker 01

  in the first chapter, I talk about, everybody has a story. You have a story, Lewis, I have a story. Everybody has a story. That's not the question. Do you have a story? The question is, is it the story that you really want for your life? If it's, it, it, it, the only way it's gonna be the story you really want for your life, you don't, you don't have to write it. You can't let somebody else write this story. And so I challenged people throughout the book, go begin doing acts of significance, and significance is about others. So be intentional. Do something intentionally every day for others. And, and then tell me what happened. And so this book is the, is like a, a, the beginning of a movement for me, I believe. I believe, I believe I'm gonna start a significance movement. And, uh, you know, mass movements don't begin with a mass. They begin with a few people. And, and, and the people

• 31:16Speaker 01

  that read this book, they're, they're gonna begin to be the part of the, the few people to begin, I think, of significance movement, which basically says, I, I'm saying, read the book, and then tell me your story. And, and I'm, I'm, I'm believing and hoping and planning that in two years, within two years, I'll have a million stories.

• 31:35Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 31:36Speaker 01

  And, uh, I, I, I, I want, I want, I would like to start a chicken soup of the soul for significant.

• 31:41Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 31:42Speaker 01

  And, and, and so I'm, I'm saying to the reader, tell me your story, come on, and, and tell me the story now, just, what, what did you, what did you do intentionally for people? And, and so a lot of times people say, okay, I'm not sure how to do this. So, for all, for all those that follow you, Lewis, I, I want them to go online to startsevenday.com.

• 32:00Lewis Howes?

  Startsevenday.com?

• 32:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, startsevenday.com. I want them to start right there. And, and, and seven days, I do a video every day for about three minutes, of which I give them an idea, I give them a suggestion of how to get started and, and, and make that day significant. I, I just had a mother who had two children, she said, John, we started day one, and I sat down with my children, I think one was like sixteen, one was maybe twelve. And, and she said, we, we watched this three minute video, and then we stopped, and we said, okay, what are we going to do, the three of us, what are we going to do as a family today that's significant, that we can do, that's simple, that can add value to people? And she said, we did that, and the next day we did, did another. And so it's, and the reason seven days is I want to get people practicing intentional acts of significance.

• 32:45Speaker 01

  And, and, and, and I don't, I'm not asking for all twenty-four hours, I'm just asking, can you give me, can you give me four or five minutes a day to, I give you the idea, and then can you maybe take ten or fifteen minutes and go do this, this act? And, and the, the startsevenday.com is just a, a way to get people started, and it's, and it gets a free resource, and I, I, I'm believing in the next, in the next couple of months, there'll be literally hundreds and, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people get going on this. Now, once they start this, and they get in this routine with me, obviously, I, you know, behind that is a, is a thirty day journey, and, and it, it, that includes a book, and then it, it becomes pretty awesome, because thirty days it takes to get a habit. But, but here's what I want, when, when they start reading the book, and they go with

• 33:28Speaker 01

  me through the thirty day journey, I, I want them to start, I say, okay, now give me your story, get that story out for me, I, I want, I'll, you know, hey. To me, I'm going to gauge the success of this book on one thing. How many stories of significance did I get? Because think about it. If I can get, and I think I can, I think in two or three months by Christmas time, if I can get a couple hundred thousand people doing something intentionally every day to add value to other people, this is going to be a good.

• 33:57Lewis Howes?

  It's gonna be a great thing to do.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, it really is. So I'm very excited. And so the book is just kind of like my catalytic thing that I put out there to teach people how to live intentionally so that they'll become intentional and they'll go out and practice it off of, sorry, it was, you know, startsevenday.com. And then, and then they'll tell me their story. And, and, and so when I get the story, it's kind of like touchdown. So I told my companies and my teams, everybody, I mean, I've got a, I mean, I've got a coaching company with eight thousand coaches in a hundred and twenty countries of the world. I've, I've told all my coaches, I mean, they're, they're ready. I mean, they're, they're, they're literally getting the word out right now as I talk. And, and I, I've told them all, we gotta have stories of significance.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  So I want everyone that gets the book intentional living, start reading it, go practice it, and then send me a story.

• 34:46Lewis Howes?

  I love that. And where should they send the story?

• 34:48Speaker 01

  Well, I'm sending the story as far as where to go, even as far as once they get the story written.

• 34:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, where, do they send it online?

• 34:54Speaker 01

  Okay, what happens is once they get, yeah, once they start a seven day, when they go to startsevenday.com, right on that link, it'll tell them where to send the story.

• 35:01Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha, okay, cool. Awesome, yeah, we'll make sure.

• 35:04Speaker 01

  That's where, so, you know, we're, we're guided. Hey, we're not gonna miss that one because we want the story.

• 35:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'll make sure to have all that linked up here as well in the show notes.

• 35:12Speaker 01

  Thank you, my friend. I think that's good.

• 35:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, of course. I want to make sure we get a lot of people doing that. And, you know, it's interesting, you know, my book, this, we're talking about your book, but my book has eight principles of greatness from all the individuals I've interviewed like yourself on all walks of life, from Olympic gold medalists to doctors and scientists to spiritual leaders to, you know, number one New York Times bestselling authors to billionaires. I've had them all on. I'm sure you've met many, many more of these people than I have. But the final chapter that I talk about in my book, the final principle of greatness, is to live a life of service. Because for me, everything that I've done from playing, you know, sports at a high level to building businesses and the people I've interviewed, they.

• 35:57Lewis Howes?

  The ones who really make it to the top and sustain it, they come from such a deep place of service and giving back. And they all say that's the reason why they've been able to sustain their momentum. And I think it really speaks into what you're talking about, is this intentional living where you're living a life of significance. If we're not living a life of significance for others, and it's only for ourselves, I feel like that's gonna burn out very quickly. Wouldn't you agree?

• 36:24Speaker 01

  Oh, I totally, in fact, I'm, you're a skit, so excited about your book. Lewis, would you do me a favor? When it comes, I know it doesn't come out yet for like a couple of weeks or whatever, but when it comes out, will you sign one and send it to me?

• 36:35Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely. Yeah, I'll get your information after this.

• 36:38Speaker 01

  I'm telling you, I love that because here's what I found about your last chapter on service. Let me tell you something. Success, I was, I, I seen Tony George, who owned the Indianapolis 500, and he'd had me come up and I'd talk to the drivers on race days, the owners. We, we went to a sweet one race day, you know, to have lunch before the, the race. He said, John, what's the difference between success and significance? And I said, well, I said, Tony, success is usually about me. You know, I'm, I'm trying to get a career going, I'm trying to make some money, trying to get a name and establish. Success is about me, but significance is always about others. And see, that's exactly what you're saying in the last chapter of your book.

• 37:18Speaker 01

  And, and, and what I learned a long time ago is selfishness and significance are incompatible. They just aren't, you, you, you, you can't show me a selfish person that does significant acts on a consistent basis. But, but, but once we understand that when we add value to people, once you have tasted significance, success will never satisfy you again. I trust me on this, trust me. And, and, and that's what the intentional living is all about. I've said, just taste this, you know, get on the startsevenday.com with me and just taste significance for a few days, and, and you'll never be satisfied with success. And that's exactly what you're saying, Lewis, on, on, on your book. And I, I could not agree more. So I'm really excited.

• 38:02Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate it.

• 38:03Speaker 01

  This is your, you're a kid, you're a kid. And you already have big thoughts. I didn't have those. You're having these kind of thoughts at thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two. I was like sixty before I had those kinds of thoughts. That's good.

• 38:16Lewis Howes?

  Well, I've gone through a lot of adversity and a lot of pain. That's helped me learn a lot of lessons. And I've been interviewing people like yourself for many years where I learned those lessons. So it's, it's all from taking an action, getting results. And, you know, I talk about failure not as failure, but as feedback. You know, when I didn't achieve what I wanted to in sports or in my business and I felt like I failed. I was really just started looking at it as like, well, this is just information telling me what's working and what's not working. And when I started shifting that, I didn't feel like a failure. I just said, cool, this is just part of the process. I think you talk about, you talk about that as well, right?

• 38:52Speaker 01

  No, when you, when you fail, you do one of two things. Everybody knows you either learn from the failure, which is your feedback stuff.

• 38:58Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:59Speaker 01

  Or you leave your failure, not what you try to get away from. Actually, you deny it. And if, if you leave your failure, your failure finds you and comes again to you.

• 39:08Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, yeah.

• 39:09Speaker 01

  And so you gotta learn, you gotta learn. And when you learn, then you build off of it.

• 39:13Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 39:14Speaker 01

  You're right off, totally right off.

• 39:16Lewis Howes?

  I want to ask you a couple of questions. One about relationships. Because you're, you've got a big platform. You've got big dreams, you're, you're still going hard and strong. And it's, it sounds like you're just scratching the surface with what you're creating in your life, even after the decades you've been impacting the world. I'm curious, how does someone, a man with a big vision to change the world, to inspire millions and millions of people? How does someone like that also have a very intimate, loving relationship, a marriage? That, that person feels like they're getting what they need as well and where it works for both of them to move forward, to achieve both their goals?

• 40:01Speaker 01

  Well, it's a constant challenge, first of all, you know, and I love it when people ask me how to balance their life, I say it's impossible. You can't balance life. I mean, life, life is not balanced, why should you get balanced? I mean, life hits you right up, it slaps you, you know what I mean? I mean, you say, oh, I didn't see that one coming. Well, there's nothing balanced about life. How can, how can you expect to be balanced in a life that, in a, in a world that's not balanced itself? And so I, I don't talk about balance, I talk about seasons of life. Yeah. And the fact that you gotta know what season you're in. But when it comes to relationships, I, you know, when I was, see, at eight, it would've been eighty-five, eighty-six, eighty-seven, so when I was in my late thirties, maybe forty, I did, I, I came up with this definition of success, and that is, success is, is the

• 40:44Speaker 01

  fact that people that are closest to you, know you the best, love and respect you the most. Hmm. And that will really work for you, my friend. You know, if, if, if the people that are the closest to me don't respect me, don't love me, uh, and I don't respect and love them, and, you know, you know, I'm in a world as you're in a world where you, you have to be very superficial, you're speaking to crowds, and you go to the green room, and you get on the jet, and you go home. And, and so, when, when the masses love you, but the people that are around you don't love you or don't respect you, then there's a huge character flaw there. So I, I, I said, I'm gonna, I'm gonna treat people well, and, uh, you know, one of the

• 41:25Speaker 01

  challenges with, with, uh, with success and growth is that you grow past people. You, I mean, you, you, one of the hardest things for me was the fact that I've had people I really cared for, but I grew past them. I, I just did, they didn't, I did, and one day, our worlds were totally different, and so I just determined that, uh, that even though I might grow past some people, I would always treat them with great love and respect, and, and not forget my, uh, old days, and, uh, I still, we have a little summer place up in the islands, and... So the guy was building a lower dish down our cottage up there in the mountains. Wanted me to speak for the little Rotary Club of Highlands, which could have about eighty-five people.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  And I surprised him, stayed for a while. I said, yeah, Ronnie, I'll do that for him. I gave him a date. And they pulled the town was excited and so I spoke to him and I had a very successful friend. Who was up there at that time and he said, John, why did you do that? My gosh, you know. And I looked at him and I said, because I always want to remember where it came from.

• 42:29Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 42:29Speaker 01

  And I just, I never, I never want to, I never want to, I never want to get so high that my feet aren't still on the ground.

• 42:35Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 42:36Speaker 01

  And so I have, I have also committed to growing the people with me. And so in all of our companies, I mean, Mark Cole, who was, who got me on this call is, is, I have five companies. He, and he's the CEO of all five companies. And he, he, he continually nurtures that culture of mentoring and growth and so our people keep growing. But all my key people, truly, uh, my assistant, that has been with me for twenty-three years, Charlie Love, he writes, been with me twenty years. You have Mark's been with me sixteen years, seventeen years for a day. Most of my key people have been with me a long time. But you've got to, to keep them with you, you've got to have people that have capacity to grow.

• 43:16Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 43:17Speaker 01

  Because what you can't do is you can't have people that you love in key positions in your companies. Uh, if they can't grow, because you'll outgrow them and then, and then you're starting to carry them and that's.

• 43:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What about, you know, it sounds like, you know, you talk about in the book, abundance mindset versus scarcity mindset. And is it trying, is it making sure that you find people who have that abundance mindset already, whether it be your partner in an intimate relationship?

• 43:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 43:45Lewis Howes?

  Um, and people on your team, do they need to have that? And how do you know that they have it?

• 43:52Speaker 01

  Well, yeah, my whole thing is that you don't have to have the same vision that I have, but you do have to have the same values.

• 43:57Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 43:58Speaker 01

  And, uh, I can always, I can always form divisions so that you and I can both buy into it. But values, that's, that's who you are. That's your DNA. And so, you know, when, when we, I don't do it high end at all, but I've done it for years, but, but I, again, for my, for Mark and the presence of my organizations and stuff, they just understand that, you know, we got about, we have a, what we call a John Maxwell DNA.

• 44:24Lewis Howes?

  What are your core values, would you say?

• 44:26Speaker 01

  Well, you know, we're, you know, adding value to people, exceeding expectations, finishing well. You know, we have a, you know, probably eight or nine of them that we really press. In fact, when I, in our coaching company, every six months I, we bring in new coaches. We have, my gosh, what, fifteen hundred, I think, in Orlando. And we took those fifteen hundred and I do a thing called the DNA. I do usually a two and a half, three hour teaching to the coaches. I say, now this is who we are, this is, this is us. And you've got different personalities, I love diversity, but this is who we are.

• 45:11Speaker 01

  And when I get done teaching this, if this isn't either who you are or who you're very quickly wanting to become, then hey, we'll give you your money back. You need to, you know, go find somebody that you're more compatible with because we, we don't, we don't budge on values. This is, this is us. And I think, I think that's very essential because then if you're, if you are with like valued people, ninety percent of the battles you have to do in building a company will be taken care of. It's almost always a values issue when you have, when you have problems in a company.

• 45:50Lewis Howes?

  Sure. I'm curious, with all the amazing things you and your company and your team has done, what's something you're really proud of over your life that most people don't know about you?

• 46:03Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. I think I'm, I, well, I'm proud that, you know, I'm proud that I haven't, I haven't lived off of my reputation.

• 46:17Speaker 01

  Um, because I could.

• 46:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 46:20Speaker 01

  Uh, I, yeah, I, when, when I, in, in the first six months of pasturing, I realized that I was, I was a good communicator. And I also realized that I could wing it and, and people wouldn't really think I was good.

• 46:31Lewis Howes?

  Yep.

• 46:32Speaker 01

  And so I had this kind of this dilemma for a few months. Am I gonna wing it or am I gonna work on every message? I mean, I got, you know, am I gonna get two thoughts and get up and just thrilled by everybody? Or am I gonna truly build something? And, and I determined to work on every message I preached and, and not take shortcuts. And I've never taken shortcuts. I said, I don't take shortcuts today.

• 46:54Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 46:55Speaker 01

  And, uh, I, I, you know, I, I've been blessed and had a lot of wonderful honors. But, uh, to be honest with you, you know, I, I thank the people giving the land of the stick in some warehouse somewhere. I go right back to doing what's made me, you know, people who get successful fall out quickly when they stop doing what got them there.

• 47:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 47:18Speaker 01

  You know, and so I, I'm, I'm in love with the journey, um, much more than I am with the rewards or the honors or the.

• 47:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 47:25Speaker 01

  You know, the, that whole process that has never done a lot for me. It's, you know, it's nice, but it's not, I've never lived for that.

• 47:32Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 47:32Speaker 01

  I'm growth oriented. I'm growth oriented, not goal oriented.

• 47:36Lewis Howes?

  Hmm, that's great.

• 47:37Speaker 01

  And, uh, if you're goal oriented, you hit the goal and then you celebrate and you get useless for three months. But if you're growth oriented, you hit the goals, but you keep on growing for us because, you know, you know, your growth, if your goal wasn't to go, the, the goal was to grow. And that's, that's a little different. That's a whole different mindset.

• 47:54Lewis Howes?

  I love that. What is the, what's the non-negotiables for you every single day? The habits or the rituals or the routines that you follow in the morning to set you up for success for the day? Or at night before you go to bed, is there a specific routine that you need to follow? Or when you follow, you see that you get better results?

• 48:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I, I basically, uh. Every morning, uh, do three things. I declare my love to God. I, uh, every day, uh, ask him to, uh, help me to add value to people. And then, uh, every day, I, I, I try to give everybody my best. Um, because I, I think that what I do may not be great, but it has to be my best.

• 48:41Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 48:41Speaker 01

  If, if it's not great, it's because I'm not gifted or I'm not talented enough. And so I can't, can't always be great.

• 48:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 48:50Speaker 01

  But I really, and I, I can't, I can't give a person a hundred percent. And look them in the eyes and say, I gave you my best shot.

• 48:55Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 48:56Speaker 01

  So at the evening, I just go back out and check in my relationship with God and, uh, you know, look and say, did I add value to people today and check that one off and that whole process? And, you know, did I make this statement masterpiece or did I, did I kinda take some shortcuts here?

• 49:14Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 49:14Speaker 01

  If I go yes, yes, yes, even today, I go to bed.

• 49:18Lewis Howes?

  Right. That's great. Uh, couple of final questions for you. If, um, first on, first one is, what are you most grateful for in your life recently?

• 49:28Speaker 01

  Uh, one I'm most grateful for is, is recently is, um, the people I have around me. Uh, uh, it is, it is called continental living. I mean, the technology that has gone in to get the, you get it up so that people can, um, you know, go online and do all this and stuff. It's way beyond my gifts and my talents. And I, I just have dozens and dozens, truthfully, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that every day work hard to help me.

• 49:58Speaker 01

  And, uh, that's very humbling. And, and, uh, I don't deserve that, but I'm grateful for that. So, uh, you know, my greatest joy today isn't what I accomplish. It's really my greatest joy is what the people around me that that mentored and poured into what they accomplish. And what I've found is that what they accomplish is they make me better. I mean, it's kinda like, as I'm making them better, it just comes back to me tenfold.

• 50:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 50:24Speaker 01

  It's so, so I, I'm, I'm, I'm in a great time. I'm in a great time because, uh, you know, I've got all these people that literally live, literally live to make my life a great life.

• 50:36Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 50:37Speaker 01

  And the least I could do to them, the least I can do for them is to give them everything I got.

• 50:43Lewis Howes?

  I love that. And how do you, I'm assuming there are days where you might have some off moments or some breakdowns, or you just may not be at your best. And because like you said earlier, you're a human being, and sometimes you're not at your best. What, how do you handle a breakdown? Or if there's a moment of, you know, uncertainty or waveringness, how do you handle that? And how do you suggest other people listening handle their breakdowns?

• 51:08Speaker 01

  What I'm about to tell you, you've never read, but it's true. A person that wants to be a hundred percent all day, every day will break down. Because humanly, we're not geared to that. We can't do that. We don't have that kind of capacity. And so, we're a little delusional when I say, okay, I'm gonna, every, every, every hour, every, every minute, we're gonna make it all count.

• 51:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, alright, cool.

• 51:32Speaker 01

  I've got hours, times when nothing's counting much. So, so first of all, it's, it's a mindset of, of how do I approach my day? So, when I look at my day, I ask myself, okay, where do I have to be at a hundred percent? I gotta be a hundred percent right now. You don't want me on, if I'm on, you give you fifty percent. You don't, you don't wanna hang out with me and say, boy, John's got an off day today. So, I don't have a choice. I gotta be a hundred percent. Every time I've been with me today, I gotta be a hundred percent. Nobody understands what you have to perform and excel for. Nobody understands. So, so, but guess what? I had lunch with three of my team members today, and I, I didn't have to be a hundred percent at lunch. Isn't that beautiful?

• 52:12Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:13Speaker 01

  I, I could lay back and, you know, let them carry conversation and laugh with them and, you know, spill my food on my lap. I don't, I don't have to be a hundred percent at lunch.

• 52:21Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 52:22Speaker 01

  And, and so, I pick my spots. And, and I think the successful people, you look at sports, you know, the clutch players, they, they made the baskets, they hit the ball right when it really counted. And, and, but they didn't hit the ball all the time, and they didn't make their basket. And so I think that what we do is we don't try to live a hundred percent. We just try to figure out where we do that hundred percent.

• 52:47Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:48Speaker 01

  And then if we then we give ourselves permission to be a little bit of a screw up or you know what I mean? And whatever and and we and when we just kind of laughing well, I'm sure glad that wasn't my hundred percent time because I was about twenty-two percent there.

• 53:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 53:01Speaker 01

  And, you know, and and that's so I I live so I really don't have and I got to be very careful because this would not this may not sound right unless I put it in the context I've tried to put it in. I really don't have meltdowns right now.

• 53:15Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 53:16Speaker 01

  But but it's because every day I allow myself to do stupid things and and every day I and every day I forgive myself. I say, okay, John, you know, you're human and you didn't do very well there. Learn from it, grow from it, you know, and and I'm I'm I'm I'm my best friend and and I I think if you're your best friend, you do, you give yourself some slack. So.

• 53:39Lewis Howes?

  That's great.

• 53:40Speaker 01

  I I think this idea of I think choosing your when you got to be good and making sure you're good then and then allowing yourself to not be a hundred percent is really vital.

• 53:49Lewis Howes?

  That's great. I love that answer. Okay, two final questions, John. Uh, the first one is, you know, you've written, I think you said eighty-three books you've written with twenty-five million sold and spoken all over the world.

• 54:03Lewis Howes?

  If you had one final piece of paper to write down something and everything else you've ever written has been deleted, erased, uh, for some reason it was just gone from the world, but you had one piece of paper that you could write down three simple truths about everything you've learned in life and relationships and business about the world. And this was the only thing you got to leave behind to give to to the world was these three simple truths. What would you say they would be for you?

• 54:34Speaker 01

  Oh, I I well, the first truth that would be because our person of faith, I tell people God loves you, so does love him.

• 54:42Speaker 01

  And just experience his unconditional love because he's got a lot of it for you.

• 54:47Speaker 01

  Second thing I'd I'd I'd write down is every day I'd die to people. Just at at at people you you will always be loved and you will always be valued. If every day you just at at at die to people.

• 55:03Speaker 02

  And the third thing I would say is, is live intentionally every day because that's the way you maximize your life. And maybe that's why the book is so important to me because I'm, I'm, I want to get that message out to you. You, you don't need to be brilliant, you don't need to be smarter than anyone else, but you do have to be intentional. And, and if you're intentional, you're gonna win. You just, you just are. Because most people are not intentional. So, you know, you'll just win, you'll just win because, you know, front and thinking is ten to one more important than back and thinking. And, and front and thinking is intentional, back and thinking is reaction.

• 55:40Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 55:41Speaker 02

  And just, just be intentional every day, advise people every day and love God because he loves you.

• 55:47Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. I love those truths. Thank you. Well, before I ask you the final question, John, I want to acknowledge you for a moment. I want to acknowledge you for the incredible consistency of giving and adding value to the world over the decades. It's, it's such an inspiration to see an example of consistent love and intentional living. And I want to acknowledge you for not having to be perfect all the time and, and setting an example as a leader who isn't perfect, but is constantly giving their best to serve people, to live big and to, to have a big heart. So I acknowledge you for everything you've created and, and everything this book is about to do for even more people. So thanks for all you do.

• 56:30Lewis Howes?

  And my final question is, what's your definition of greatness?

• 56:34Speaker 02

  That was very, your, your words of acknowledgement were very humbling.

• 56:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 56:39Speaker 02

  I, I mean, thank you, Fred. I, I know this, the more you and I get together, the more we're going to be great friends.

• 56:45Lewis Howes?

  Yes, sir.

• 56:46Speaker 02

  You, you're, you're, you're a beautiful person. It's very obvious that, and very gifted, very gifted.

• 56:51Lewis Howes?

  Thank you.

• 56:52Speaker 02

  So when you ask, when you ask what my definition of greatness is, um, for me, I, I want to be bigger on the inside than I am on the outside.

• 57:01Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 57:02Speaker 02

  And, uh, bigger on the inside means I, I want to, I want to be a person of character. I want to be a, a person that has good values. I want to, I want to be a person that has made, uh, uh, good decisions, a person of courage, person of resolve, all that. That's all inside stuff. And, uh, you know, uh,

• 57:25Speaker 02

  I think, again, the danger, the real danger of people like me is to start not only living off of their reputation, but believing it. And here's what I believe. I believe if I'm growing, and greater on the inside means I'm continually growing. If I'm greater on the inside, over time, I'll become greater on the outside. But if I'm greater on the outside than I am on the inside, I'll sabotage myself and blow it up before it's all over.

• 57:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:54Speaker 02

  And so, you know, you know, as a person thinks in their heart, so are they. So I just, I just think that we need to work more on the inside. I think, I think I need to lead myself before I lead others.

• 58:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 58:06Speaker 02

  And I should, that's what I, I think greatness starts on the inside.

• 58:10Lewis Howes?

  I love it. Well, John, we'll make sure everyone goes and picks up a new, a copy of your new book, Intentional Living: Choosing a Life That Matters. I firmly believe in this book. I want you guys all to go pick up a copy. And also, the website link, again, if you want to say it one more time, for the storytelling is?

• 58:29Speaker 02

  Go to startssevenday.com. And once they start the seven day dot com with me, they will have the link on how to send their story. And, and I want, I want a million stories, but I want your story. I want your story. So you send me yours. And, and after a million people do that, I'll have my million stories.

• 58:46Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. John, thank you so much for being here and sharing your years of wisdom and leadership. Thank you.

• 58:52Speaker 02

  Yes, my Joe. Thanks very much.

• 58:58Lewis Howes?

  There you have it, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in. Had a blast connecting with John. Make sure to go to the show notes, lewishouse.com/239. Please share this with your friends. Please pick up a copy of John's new book. It's incredible. You want to make sure you check this out. Continue to learn and grow and educate yourself. While you're at it, pick up a copy of my book. Go to lewishouse.com/book and pick up a copy right there. It'll take you right to the Amazon page. Pick up both of our books at the same time. And then tweet me at Lewis Howes with a A little note or receipt image that you take from a screenshot from your computer and let me know that you bought both of our books.

• 59:42Lewis Howes?

  Also, make sure to share this episode with your friends at lewishouse.com/239. Post it over all over online and let your friends be inspired by John as well. Big shout out to our sponsor and partner over at onnit.com. Again, if you're looking to take your health, your mindset to the next level, to be optimized and upgraded in life, then make sure to check out onnit.com. That's O-N-N-I-T.com. They've got some of the best foods, supplements, workout training gear, educational programs around to really enhance your performance mentally and physically and upgrade your life for total human optimization. You get 10% off when you use the checkout code GREATNESS.

• 1:00:27Lewis Howes?

  So make sure to head over there to onnit.com right now and get some awesome goods for your body and your mind. I appreciate you guys so much. If you are curious about any other links, go back to the show notes, lewishouse.com/239 to learn more about the bonus page, to learn more about the events, and I want to see you and high five you and hug you. So make sure to come out and RSVP, bring a few friends, tell your friends to come as well to the events I'm going to because I'm going to be traveling a lot over the next couple of months and I want to see you all come out and say hi. So thank you all so much. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.