889 Nico Rosberg on Becoming a Formula One World Champion

CHAMPIONS AREN’T SUPER-HUMAN, THEY’RE SUPER-INTENTIONAL. I’ve noticed that there are two types of champions. One of them wins and says, “I am the greatest that ever lived.” The other says, “All of the glory goes to God.” Both of these mindsets have good results, but is one better than the other? You need a certain amount of arrogance to be the best. After all, self-doubt is the biggest crusher of dreams. But if you aren’t able to look at what you could be doing better, you’ll eventually decline. People won’t want to be around you. And you might destroy yourself in the process. So how can we lead with confidence and avoid getting a massive ego? On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I talk about self-doubt and self-love with a sensitive, inspiring Formula One Champion: Nico Rosberg. Nico Rosberg followed in his father’s footsteps to win the Formula One World Championship in 2016. He grew up racing against Lewis Hamilton and constantly coming in second only to one day win the championship for himself. Nico shares how even though he was at the top of his field, he struggled with a fear of failure. In a field as macho as car racing, it’s inspiring to hear a man be so vulnerable. So get ready to learn how the tiny details matter when going for big wins on Episode 889. Some Questions I Ask: Why isn’t Formula One as popular in the US? (06:44) Do you feel like your dad pushed you? (11:00) How much does the car have to do with winning? (16:00) What was the biggest lesson your father taught you? (19:00) Where does your lack of self-love come from? (28:00) What do you think about during the races? (42:00) What’s the key to eliminating self-doubt? (46:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: How Nico avoids pushing his children too much (09:00) About Nico’s rivalry with Lewis Hamilton (15:00) The magic ingredient to success (25:00) The one thing Nico did that made him a world champion (38:00) The story of how Nico one the 2016 Formula One Championship (47:00) How coming in second to Lewis Hamilton affected Nico (52:00) Why failure is important (56:00) If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/889 and follow at instagram.com/lewishowes Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 889 with Formula One World Champion Nico Rosberg.

• 0:08Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a 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?

  Dalai Lama said, "With the realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world."

• 0:45Lewis Howes?

  And my friend, it's not until we start to realize our confidence and our ability, that's when we start to overcome the anxiety, the stress, the worry, the doubt, the fears that hold us back. It's because in those actions and in those ways of being that hold us back, we're never able to realize who we can truly become. And I talk about this all the time. How do we build this self-confidence? How do we overcome this self-doubt? It's through doing hard things every single day. It's through mastering new skills. We're at the end of a year, end of a decade, and I'm already thinking about what's the challenging thing that I want to master next year? What's the new skill that I've always wanted to master that I haven't done yet?

• 1:28Lewis Howes?

  When I master something new, it builds this like belt around my waist of confidence. And every time I add a new tool to the belt, I just feel more bulletproof. So whatever it is that you're afraid of right now, go do that thing. Do it consistently until you've overcome it and then mastered it. And I'm so excited about this interview. We've got Nico Rosberg. If you don't know who he is, he's a former professional race driver who won the 2016 Formula One World Championship for the Mercedes team. And Nico started his Formula One career in 2006 and joined the Mercedes team in 2010. Almost a decade ago, and with that team, he won 23 Grand Prix and 30 pole positions.

• 2:12Lewis Howes?

  After finally beating his great rival, Lewis Hamilton in 2016 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. And Nico shocked the sporting world by retiring at age 30, having achieved everything after that world championship. And he's now reinvented himself as a startup investor in some cool companies and a new event that he hosts over in Europe as well. And he's got a new podcast called Beyond Victory. And he sits down with some of the world's most successful individuals to discover their secrets to success, what continues to drive them forward, and to hear a few exclusive stories in the process. And in this episode, we talk about Nico's upbringing and how his father and professional

• 2:54Lewis Howes?

  racing career has influenced how he is raising his own kids. How just having talent is not enough to be successful in sports, and there are many other social skills and intelligences that are required to be the best. How having a little arrogance can give you the competitive edge needed to win. This was fun to talk about. The power of simplifying your life and building barriers from distraction. I love how he creates these barriers in his life and simplifies to one focus. And how Nico manages his fear and self doubt on and off the racetrack because he talks openly about having this fear and insecurity, even in the journey of becoming world champion. So I think that'll be really insightful for you.

• 3:39Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. We've got the legend Nico in the house. Good to see you, man.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  Thank you for having me.

• 3:44Lewis Howes?

  Super pumped. We're in Austin, Texas. We've been emailing back and forth for, what, three, four months now?

• 3:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:50Lewis Howes?

  Probably. And I didn't even know who you were until a few friends said, oh, my gosh, this guy Nico talked about you. He talked about your book on his YouTube channel. And they freaked out and I was like, okay, I gotta learn more about this guy. They're huge fans of Formula One, which is only three people in America, right?

• 4:09Speaker 01

  That sucks. Yeah, our sport is like one of the biggest globally.

• 4:12Lewis Howes?

  Huge everywhere.

• 4:13Speaker 01

  Everywhere except America.

• 4:14Lewis Howes?

  And every time it's on, I'm always like, it's always late night. It's like a rerun or something when it's on here. But you guys are picking up here in the US, right?

• 4:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, they're going for it because for the sport to be successful globally, the US is like such an important market. And we have US owners now, so they're doing everything to try and grow the sport in America. So we've got this race here in Austin, Texas, which is where we are at the moment, sitting in this hotel room, no hotel, whatever, meeting room here. So this is like one of the starts to try and go big in America.

• 4:44Lewis Howes?

  Why is it important for it to be big here in America?

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Because America is the global powerhouse for anything. And if you want to be big, whatever, if it's a company or a sport or whatever, you have to conquer America.

• 4:55Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 4:55Speaker 01

  And we know that and everybody knows that. So that's what I was trying to do. I think one of the most powerful ways would be to have an American driver.

• 5:02Lewis Howes?

  That would be.

• 5:03Speaker 01

  That would be the way to go.

• 5:04Lewis Howes?

  So how do we do that?

• 5:05Speaker 01

  How are your skills?

• 5:06Lewis Howes?

  I'm too big though, right?

• 5:07Speaker 01

  You could, you can jump from one sport to the other easily.

• 5:09Lewis Howes?

  I have jumped to many sports.

• 5:11Speaker 01

  In any sport you go for.

• 5:12Lewis Howes?

  I have jumped in many sports, but I'm a big guy. You're supposed to be smaller, right? You're supposed to be like compact and a certain size.

• 5:17Speaker 01

  They've loosened up the rules now. When I was driving, which is three years ago, every gram of your body weight mattered. But now because drivers went on hunger, like went so extreme on diets and went too light and really it started to become a bit dangerous. They, they kind of set a driver limit, minimum now. So even if you're a small guy, you have to put lead weights to your seat.

• 5:36Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 5:36Speaker 01

  To bring it up to your kind of weight.

• 5:38Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 5:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. So you do have a chance.

• 5:41Lewis Howes?

  Cause I'm 200, I'm 225, 225 pounds.

• 5:43Speaker 01

  That's pushing it a little bit maybe.

• 5:44Lewis Howes?

  So I gotta drop about 40 pounds probably.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  More or less, yeah.

• 5:47Lewis Howes?

  Really? So now is it true that there are half a billion fans worldwide? Is that, is that what I heard?

• 5:55Speaker 01

  Yeah. So globally, Formula One is top three sport together with after, after Olympics and soccer. It's the most huge sport in the world in front of cricket.

• 6:03Lewis Howes?

  In front of cricket.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  So it's absolutely massive.

• 6:06Lewis Howes?

  Why is it not big here? Why is NASCAR massive here, but no one?

• 6:10Speaker 01

  I have no idea. It used to be back in the sixties and seventies. It used to be very, very big. And I think many of the older listeners will remember those days with Ferrari racing back in those days and then all the, all the legends of the time. And then somehow the sport lost, lost the connection to, to the US and now trying to build it up again.

• 6:28Lewis Howes?

  Okay. Is that part of your mission?

• 6:29Speaker 01

  I would like to support, yeah, if I can, yeah. But it's not really part of my my main mission because I have other projects now.

• 6:35Lewis Howes?

  Other visions, yeah.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, but even going back, so my father was a Formula One world champion himself. And he won on the parking lot in Vegas. That's there used to be a Formula One race in the Caesars Hotel parking lot.

• 6:46Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 6:47Speaker 01

  And he won the world championship on that parking lot.

• 6:49Lewis Howes?

  In Vegas?

• 6:49Speaker 01

  Yeah, so back in those days, F1 was massive still.

• 6:52Lewis Howes?

  Okay. Now, did you, did your dad influence you in a big way? Or were you also just a fan of Formula One without your dad being the world champ?

• 7:00Speaker 01

  No, certainly my dad influenced me massively because as I was growing up, he was still racing, not in Formula One anymore, but in some touring cars like NASCARs. And then growing up, watching your father do that, which is the racing, the adrenaline, the crowds going mad, the battles and everything. I mean, there was no other way than be inspired by that. And so from very small, it just became my dream to become a racing driver myself and try and make that hobby into my into my job as well.

• 7:29Lewis Howes?

  But weren't you also like world class in tennis and other into other sports as well?

• 7:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, so my mom was pushing for tennis. My dad was pushing for racing driving because my dad, my mom was dead scared about the racing driving, it was so dangerous. But then when I was 10, I mean, clearly I had a better chance in racing driving and both were equally fun and just went for the racing driving then, I think, which was quite a good choice.

• 7:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, so I'm assuming most of my audience doesn't know who you are. I'm just gonna let you know.

• 7:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's why I know.

• 7:57Lewis Howes?

  In the US.

• 7:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:57Lewis Howes?

  So give them some context about the process. For those who don't know, what's the process of actually becoming a professional Formula One driver? You started racing when you were four or five years old, go karts, right? And how's the actual process go to get to where you were?

• 8:14Speaker 01

  So everybody starts in go karting and I started, yeah, everybody.

• 8:17Lewis Howes?

  What if I was a 20 year old man and I was like, I want to get started in the sport?

• 8:21Speaker 01

  It's very, very rare. There's maybe one guy and nowadays, no one anymore.

• 8:24Lewis Howes?

  But you're not go karting at 20, you're starting with.

• 8:28Speaker 01

  You're starting with the smaller Formula One cars. You are, okay, okay, gotcha. Yeah, so you're starting go-karting, and I started when I was four, because as with tennis and golf, you have to start young, I think, to really take the most time to practice the skill. And then you start racing go-karts at the age of ten, and you start going for world championships at the age of twelve. Really, go-karting world championships all around the world. For like juniors, right? Yeah, twelve-year-olds, yeah. And at the time, that feels like the world championship of the universe, like the most important thing in the world. And of course, you've got all the ice skating dads, I don't know if they're called like that in the US as well. But there's big fights, I mean, huge fights. Yeah, cheating, fighting, even at such a young age. Because there's so much at stake, you know, so...

• 9:12Speaker 01

  And it's the same in every sport. It's just a bit of a crazy world, you know, how then the parents are kind of living their passion through their child and are forcing their child and pushing their child and things. So, I saw a lot of that, which is horrible, which gave me a lot of life lessons as well for how I want to bring up my kids. I'm very, very sensitive to making sure that I don't impose things just because I desire them on my kids. You're right. How do you do that as a parent? It's so difficult, because the simplest things. Why am I pushing my child to walk at the age of eight months? Because I want to get people's recognition that my child is wow, a superhuman, and is the first child in the world to walk. And I catch myself doing that. Wow.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  And that's the same for every parent. And it's just crazy. It's crazy, it's completely crazy. And it's all because of our own need for recognition. Wow. And so that's just one example. And I'm, because of these life lessons and also all the psychology and philosophy studies that I've been through, I kind of learned that awareness, to be aware of all these things and understand. And then I can react differently and more appropriately. So when I catch myself doing that, I put the handbrake on now. Really? Because I'm like, Nico, that's just wrong, that's just not good.

• 10:26Lewis Howes?

  Well, there's, I think there's a way of wanting to accelerate your kid's growth and give them the best tools to be successful. But also like, remove your ego from being like, look at me, I'm the super dad, right?

• 10:37Speaker 01

  You're very right. It's a very difficult balance to find. You don't have kids yet, huh?

• 10:41Lewis Howes?

  I don't know.

• 10:42Speaker 01

  So this is all in front of you.

• 10:43Lewis Howes?

  I know, I'm always learning from like new parents of what to do.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  You thought any of your um self-development things were challenging?

• 10:49Lewis Howes?

  This is the biggest. This is the biggest school.

• 10:52Speaker 01

  This is the biggest challenge and school in the whole world. The hardest thing to get through, the most wonderful thing to get through.

• 10:57Lewis Howes?

  I can imagine.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  But it's uh, it's incredible. And I mean, it's, it's just, it's almost impossible to be, to do it well.

• 11:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 11:04Speaker 01

  It's so difficult.

• 11:05Lewis Howes?

  Now, do you feel like your dad gave you the tools, but also distancing his ego and his desires away from you of like, you need to do this? Or was he supportive in whatever dreams you had?

• 11:17Speaker 01

  Um, I'll just, I'll just cover first, well, maybe I'll go to that. So um, my dad, I think, found very good balance. Because he got exactly what you said. So he always showed that he expected me to do well in life and perform. He's a workaholic himself, like completely, like a madman in terms of, in terms of work, yeah? I mean, flat out. And so that's kind of his baseline.

• 11:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:38Speaker 01

  And so therefore, he expected a lot of me as well as a kid, whether it's school or go-karting or everywhere. Um, which was not always easy to live up to that kind of expectation. Because for him to be proud, um, it felt like I needed to do all those things to extreme

• 11:53Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 11:54Speaker 01

  levels of professionalism and dedication, you know, so not always easy. Um, but it really helped me, you know, um, push forward and, and grow my own like ambitions and determination. So it was a huge help. And then he was very, very smart, because once I got to F1, we had a conversation. Uh, and I told him as well that it just added a lot of pressure, his, his expectation on me. So open conversation.

• 12:16Lewis Howes?

  How old were you?

• 12:17Speaker 01

  Twenty.

• 12:18Lewis Howes?

  When you got there, got you, became a professional.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  Yeah, professional at twenty. And um, and then he was very smart. He completely pulled back. Because he's done it all before in F1, so he has, he knows everything. It would be so easy for him to just tell me how to do it. So of course he had the urge, you know, to teach me everything, show me everything and help me all the way, but it just doesn't work like that, you know?

• 12:38Lewis Howes?

  He didn't help you that much.

• 12:38Speaker 01

  Well, because it's, I can't even accept his help. It's just too hard to, to accept the opinion of the dad and, and as maybe, maybe many of the listeners will know how it is to, to follow the guidance from the parents. It's not always easy.

• 12:52Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 12:53Speaker 01

  And I was a bit allergic to that as well. So he pulled back completely.

• 12:56Lewis Howes?

  You were almost becoming rebellious, but then he said, oh, I'm witnessing this. Let me pull back.

• 13:00Speaker 01

  Not rebellious. It was just difficult because of the extra pressure really that it added. Just, I created myself because of wanting recognition as well from my parents and in this case from my dad.

• 13:10Lewis Howes?

  Did he win the world championship once or?

• 13:12Speaker 01

  So I won the world championship. He did. Yeah, he won once.

• 13:15Lewis Howes?

  Once. So you had this pressure of like always being compared to your father, I'm assuming?

• 13:19Speaker 01

  Also that, yes. Growing up, when the dad has achieved something big, of course, and especially if you go the same route, everybody from the early age of like eight years old, all the time, every lap, every stopwatch taken is like, okay, is he now as good as his dad?

• 13:37Lewis Howes?

  Oh my god.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  Or is he, is he useless?

• 13:39Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh, man. That's a lot of pressure.

• 13:41Speaker 01

  All the, all the way.

• 13:42Lewis Howes?

  How do you overcome that mentally?

• 13:45Speaker 01

  There's no magic ingredient. There's no magic ingredient. I mean, you would say, don't focus on results, focus on doing the best that you can be.

• 13:54Lewis Howes?

  Process. Yeah, of course.

• 13:55Speaker 01

  Damn, I mean, I know that, but it's just so difficult to implement, even knowing that.

• 13:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, with all the press and the media, everyone, everyone interviewing you constantly.

• 14:02Speaker 01

  They all care about results. They don't care at all about how well you did for yourself and reaching your best potential. They don't care at all, or you know, society doesn't care at all either. So that's, that makes it so hard. At the same time though, it was also a huge benefit to be the son of a successful dad in the sport because of course then more sponsors are interested and will help you and even F1 teams are more interested because you have a name. And then coming back to the process. So you're starting go-karting until the age of 15 and then you do Formula Four, Formula Three, Formula Two, Formula One.

• 14:34Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  So that's the, the ladder and you have to win everything to get to Formula One. So Formula One is then the winners of all the age. Groups, they all end up there together then.

• 14:44Lewis Howes?

  Wow. So a lot of these guys you were teenagers with.

• 14:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot of them. A lot of them I raced along the way, yeah. And the biggest competitor for all the years of my life in racing was a certain Lewis Hamilton.

• 14:58Lewis Howes?

  So I think more of your listeners will probably know him. Yeah, of course.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  In this, in this moment now, although maybe some of you still don't because.

• 15:05Lewis Howes?

  They probably just know maybe because of social media, but not because of the sport.

• 15:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, possibly, yeah. So Lewis Hamilton now is, has just won his sixth title here in Austin. Actually, I'm a bit fast forwarding here because it's gonna happen on Sunday.

• 15:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  But this podcast is gonna come out afterwards. So he'll have won his sixth title. And the greatest of all time has seven titles, which is Michael Schumacher in the Ferrari. And so next year, he's very likely to beat all those and become the greatest of all time that our sport has ever seen in 70 years of our sport.

• 15:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Now, you used to be Ferrari, right?

• 15:39Speaker 01

  Me?

• 15:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:40Speaker 01

  No, you see, that's where you didn't do your preparation well.

• 15:42Lewis Howes?

  But originally, I thought you originally with Ferrari.

• 15:44Speaker 01

  Williams, which is also a legendary Formula One team.

• 15:46Lewis Howes?

  Okay. I thought you were riding Ferrari. Someone told you you rode Ferrari back in the day and then you switched.

• 15:51Speaker 01

  Williams, which is just as Ferrari, one of the legendary teams.

• 15:54Lewis Howes?

  Got you.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  That's where I started out with, which is the team with which my dad also became world champion.

• 15:58Lewis Howes?

  Okay, okay, okay.

• 15:58Speaker 01

  And then from then.

• 15:59Lewis Howes?

  You switched.

• 16:00Speaker 01

  From then, switched to Mercedes.

• 16:02Lewis Howes?

  Now, is it, is the car, how much does the car have to do with it? How much does the driver have to do with it?

• 16:07Speaker 01

  This is a very common question and it's just difficult to answer, but the best example is one of the greatest of our sport who retired two years ago was Fernando Alonso, a Spanish guy, also two-time world champion. And he was racing for McLaren in the last three years of his career. And he was always finishing 12th, 15th, 16th, although he was the best driver out there.

• 16:27Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 16:28Speaker 01

  So the car has a huge part in it. Because from the best car to the worst car, at the moment, there's four seconds per lap. But then from the best driver to the worst driver, there's about five tenths per lap. And so the car has the big chunk, but then as a driver, you can still make a big difference because it's up to five cents.

• 16:44Lewis Howes?

  Why would you stay with McLaren? If you're the best driver, why don't you go the best car?

• 16:48Speaker 01

  Um, there was, I think, about forty million dollars that paid for some of the miseries per year.

• 16:54Lewis Howes?

  Okay, so an extra forty million dollars.

• 16:56Speaker 01

  Forty million, forty million reasons, I guess, maybe.

• 16:59Lewis Howes?

  Why, I mean.

• 16:59Speaker 01

  That's a bit mean to say.

• 17:00Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, no.

• 17:01Speaker 01

  It's also.

• 17:02Lewis Howes?

  The money.

• 17:02Speaker 01

  It's also, of course, that you don't, you, sometimes you just can't choose because there's very limited availability. And in his case, now, the top teams didn't want him anymore. And so there wasn't much choice, and McLaren is an awesome team, and it just was a bit of bad luck as well, that it just didn't get it, get it together and had such a bad car.

• 17:21Lewis Howes?

  So if I'm the best driver in the world, I can't choose the best car?

• 17:25Speaker 01

  No, because that's another point about sports in general, or life in general, that just being the best or having the greatest talent isn't enough. Um, you need to, you need to have social skills, you need to be emotionally intelligent, you need to work your way into the right places, you need to play the media game, you need to know how to be dedicated yourself and prepare the best possible way. So just, just talent is not enough. Everything else counts. And also then to have success in our sport, it's important that you maneuver yourself into the best car in the right moment.

• 17:56Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 17:56Speaker 01

  Because there's some drivers who were seen as one of the greatest of all time, who never even became world champion, just because they never sat in the right car. But it's a part of it. So you can't really call them the best drivers of all time, because part of it is to know how to get yourself into the right car, um, get the right deals done, manage yourself.

• 18:15Lewis Howes?

  So there are people that are considered the best in the world but never won a world championship because of the car.

• 18:20Speaker 01

  Yeah. Even never won a race. There's one guy called Chris Amon, he's a, he's a New Zealand Kiwi, and never won a single race.

• 18:29Lewis Howes?

  But he was considered one of the greatest.

• 18:30Speaker 01

  And he's considered one of the fastest.

• 18:32Lewis Howes?

  How is he considered one of the fastest?

• 18:34Speaker 01

  Well, because you know. You, you know from outside, you can see what they can do in inferior cars.

• 18:39Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 18:39Speaker 01

  Compared to the teammates that they have. So those are always kind of references.

• 18:43Lewis Howes?

  Based on the other cars within the team.

• 18:45Speaker 01

  Exactly. So you can always kind of judge what kind of level they're at. And so there's a lot of people who say.

• 18:50Lewis Howes?

  Imagine if he was in this car.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 18:52Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  Yeah. So that's different to you playing handball.

• 18:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 18:57Speaker 01

  Where for your own performance, it just comes down to your own.

• 19:00Lewis Howes?

  Skill set, you have balls, same net, yeah.

• 19:03Speaker 01

  More simple, but in our case, we really depend on the technology that we're racing with, which is built by 1,500 employees per team. So my team had 1,500 people to build two racing cars.

• 19:14Lewis Howes?

  It's expensive.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, 400 million budget.

• 19:18Lewis Howes?

  For the cars?

• 19:19Speaker 01

  No, no, so 90% of that was driver salaries.

• 19:21Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 19:22Speaker 01

  And then there's 10% left for building the cars.

• 19:23Lewis Howes?

  Wrong business.

• 19:28Speaker 01

  That was just a joke.

• 19:29Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 19:30Speaker 01

  But the 400 million is accurate, just the driver salary.

• 19:32Lewis Howes?

  400 million.

• 19:33Speaker 01

  400 million per year per team is accurate.

• 19:35Lewis Howes?

  For two cars.

• 19:35Speaker 01

  For two racing cars.

• 19:36Lewis Howes?

  And 1,000 employees.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  1,500 employees.

• 19:38Lewis Howes?

  And traveling with it all and whatever it takes.

• 19:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah. Of course, the 1,000 employees don't, the 1,500 don't travel.

• 19:43Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 19:44Speaker 01

  It's only about 90, I think.

• 19:45Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh, man.

• 19:46Speaker 01

  But it's, it's huge. It's completely out of control, yeah, massive.

• 19:51Lewis Howes?

  Now, what was the biggest lesson that your dad taught you growing up?

• 19:54Speaker 01

  He always said, you always meet twice in life. So when you do part ways because of an argument or whatever, remember you'll always meet that person again, so part ways, try to make it on good terms.

• 20:08Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 20:09Speaker 01

  And that has given, that has given me so much.

• 20:11Lewis Howes?

  So don't burn bridges.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  No, and it's really, I think at least five times where it's fundamentally impacted the course of my life, that I've listened to him and parted ways on good terms, because then a few years later, having that relationship not destroyed meant I could get back at something and, and it gave me a huge step in, in my life.

• 20:32Lewis Howes?

  Did you ever destroy a relationship that you, that actually came back to hurt you?

• 20:36Speaker 01

  So I'm, I'm much more on the sensitive, not impulsive side. I always very rational thinking, so I will very rare, I almost never do I like, um, go out of control or.

• 20:49Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 20:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:50Lewis Howes?

  That's good. It must be like a.

• 20:52Speaker 01

  You're a bit more.

• 20:52Lewis Howes?

  You're a pain way.

• 20:53Speaker 01

  You're a bit more on the other side, no?

• 20:54Lewis Howes?

  I'm more passionate.

• 20:55Speaker 01

  A bit more on the other side, yeah.

• 20:55Lewis Howes?

  You have to learn, I have to learn over the years of like making mistakes, like, okay.

• 20:59Speaker 01

  So one of your biggest.

• 20:59Lewis Howes?

  Don't text this thing back to this person, you know? I wish I could delete that text.

• 21:04Speaker 01

  Or don't knock this guy out because he pushed you in basketball.

• 21:08Lewis Howes?

  Exactly, exactly. Don't get in fights anymore on the streets, yeah. Uh, but you learn through mistakes, I think, for sure. So that was a great lesson from your dad. What did your mom teach you? What was the greatest lesson?

• 21:18Speaker 01

  My mom, to be humble, stay humble, yeah, and keep your feet on the ground and always treat other people with respect.

• 21:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 21:25Speaker 01

  I think that's the biggest lesson from her because she does that very well. Not exactly her teaching me, but me seeing her do it. And I think that's um, that's a big one. And character wise, I'm much more like my mom than than my dad. Uh, so.

• 21:37Lewis Howes?

  Sensitive, humble.

• 21:38Speaker 01

  That was a big lesson from her, which also just gave gave me a lot uh in life.

• 21:43Lewis Howes?

  Mm hmm.

• 21:43Speaker 01

  Because uh going arrogant is is um not good. And it's a big, big problem. Especially for people who have success, they'll always just start to believe they're a god, you know?

• 21:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and you treat people poorly and it's not good.

• 21:56Speaker 01

  And it just backfires. It will eventually, even though it can be successful for many, many years, one day it will backfire in a big way.

• 22:02Lewis Howes?

  There's also no joy in that experience.

• 22:04Speaker 01

  That's probably the biggest backfire.

• 22:05Lewis Howes?

  You have this inner demon or battle that you're constantly facing where you think you're better than everyone. And that's, that's challenging because it's very lonely. If you live in that way.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  Do you speak of experience?

• 22:17Lewis Howes?

  I mean, I would think the like, I don't think I ever got to that place, but there's probably maybe moments where like a few days, maybe I felt like that. And after you win a bunch of games or make a bunch of money, I thought like, okay, whatever. But then I was quickly remembered like, no, just be grounded, be humble, be grateful. And so I don't think I've ever really gotten there. I think there's moments of reaction in situations where I've gotten there, but not consistently. Does that make sense?

• 22:44Speaker 01

  So I struggle to, I struggle to understand those kind of feelings because I'm on the other side. I'm the lack of self-confidence. I'm more on that end. Um, which again has its strengths and weaknesses. It has its weaknesses in that you're just very sensitive. And uh, and and a lot of fear comes in and and fear of failure and all these kind of things. But at the same time, fear is like a huge driver and to become a better person, to prepare better. And um, and sensitivity also helps you learn, you know, and improve yourself because you're always questioning yourself. How can I do a little bit better? And and the arrogant guy will always think it's the other guy's fault because I'm the best in the world.

• 23:23Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Or the car broke down, or it's this person's fault, yeah.

• 23:26Speaker 01

  And so there's really, it's a trade off. It's a trade off.

• 23:29Lewis Howes?

  It's funny because. Whenever you watch someone do an interview after they win a game, right? Like a big football game or basketball, there's usually two different responses from when the interviewer goes, "How did you do it? Congrats on the win." You see the "I'm the greatest in the world, I knew it was gonna happen," the Muhammad Ali, the Mayweather, the McGregor type of response, like "I'm the greatest, I knew I was gonna win." Of course, this is simple. These guys are either Zlatan, I don't know if you watch soccer, but Zlatan's hilarious.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Have you had him on your podcast?

• 24:00Lewis Howes?

  I haven't, no, but I watched him lose like last week in a playoff game against LAFC. And his response in the interview was just like, "I made everyone here famous, I'm the greatest in the world." He was like, "They lost." And he goes, "These guys wouldn't even be famous without me," you know? It's hilarious. And then there's the other response, which is, you know, "All the praise goes to God," or "My team," or "To my coaches," or, you know, "We've just been so humble and working very hard, we're just following the process." It's a more grounded response.

• 24:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:33Lewis Howes?

  And I think either way can work.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, but if I look at the vast majority, it tends towards that arrogant side.

• 24:41Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:41Speaker 01

  Because it also, being in the public space and having so many people judging you every second of the way, is such a burden. And I think having that little bit of arrogance and self-confidence just really gives you that a little bit more necessary strength, I think, in the long run, to deal with such a crazy environment.

• 24:59Lewis Howes?

  It does.

• 25:00Speaker 01

  I think. And so if we look at the F1 drivers, most of the most successful ones will tend to be a little bit towards that, towards that like very self-confident, a touch of arrogance, love for themselves, you know, that direction.

• 25:12Lewis Howes?

  Do you feel like you need to have that in order to deal with the pressure? In order to be, in order to feel like, "I am the greatest, I'm gonna take those risks and do those things to make me win?"

• 25:20Speaker 01

  I think, as you said, there's not just one way, but I think in terms of the majority, it's a little bit towards that direction, which is probably the more successful, more potential

• 25:32Lewis Howes?

  Sure.

• 25:32Speaker 01

  character trait, I think. And also, those guys usually have the glass half... Full rather than half empty.

• 25:38Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 25:38Speaker 01

  Which also it just it just gives this little bit more stability and strength, I think. And if those guys then still question themselves, in some way, they still manage to understand that they need to improve themselves all the time, which is Michael Schumacher, for example. He had this incredible self-confidence and self-love, but still worked his butt off and questioned himself and wanted to improve himself all the time. So that's the magic ingredient then, which is very rare, I think.

• 26:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I think when you're arrogant, you think you're the best in the world, you have blind spots where you're like, you don't think about the little minor things you maybe need to improve. And therefore, when you start to hit your decline, because at some point you will decline, whether it's physically, emotionally, mentally, like at some point, age will get the best of you.

• 26:24Speaker 01

  At what at what point in sports?

• 26:26Lewis Howes?

  At some point, right?

• 26:27Speaker 01

  Is there is there some is there some guideline from from doctors or what?

• 26:32Lewis Howes?

  No, I just think like you said, you know, thirty seven, thirty eight is kind of like the older spectrum of the sport because it's just so physically demanding. So you're not gonna be sixty probably and playing at a high performance.

• 26:43Speaker 01

  How does Tom Brady do it? How the hell is that possible? That at the age of you still have that hand-eye coordination? Is it experience that just overcomes?

• 26:52Lewis Howes?

  I mean, he's so disciplined with his body, where he's extending the quality of his health with everything that he does. I've met Tom a few times, I know a lot of people on his team, and he's not superhuman. He just is super intentional in what he does every single day. I mean, if you watch his college football.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  He sucked.

• 27:15Lewis Howes?

  Well, I mean, he was like, he wasn't.

• 27:17Speaker 01

  Average.

• 27:18Lewis Howes?

  He wasn't average. I mean, he was an elite quarterback in a in a big ten in a conference for division one, right? So he's an elite quarterback, but based on the standards of like freaks of nature athletes, he wasn't like this incredible looking athlete, wasn't fast, didn't have this amazing arm, but he has consistently been focused on his health. And his mind is so strong that I think his mind carries him through any challenge and adversity. And I think the mindset is the thing a lot of people lose first. It's like when you start to doubt, like you were smart, you went out on top. You didn't say like, I'm gonna go try to like three-peat, you know, go back to back because the mind, when the mind is gone, I think it's hard, doesn't matter with the body, if you're healthy or not.

• 28:01Lewis Howes?

  And you talk about insecurity and you, did you feel like you lacked self-love?

• 28:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I still do. Generally do. Where does that come from? If you lack self-love. Where does it come from? A lot is linked to the need for recognition from others around, whether it's friend or the public or whatever. I think a little bit above average need for that I have. Why is it? Cause you're a psychologist, you study psychology. Yeah, as long as I can think, really. Even as a young kid, so shy, could never even speak in front of other people in any way. Extreme shyness. So it's as long as I can think, really, that I have that.

• 28:37Speaker 01

  Then, I don't know. Then I think about my parents and things possibly because my father was traveling a lot. Maybe that adds a little bit, a little bit to it. Cause as I said, you know, workaholic, so possibly. You didn't see him much. But as much as I think of it, I cannot find a real evidence of it in my mind. It's just a possibility because as we always say, the youth has such an impact in our early days. So, and I don't blame him or anything in any way. Sure, sure. How do you think we develop self-belief and eliminate that insecurity? Is that possible?

• 29:12Speaker 01

  I've tried so much. Really? It's so hard. So I did it, I helped myself with, first of all, I grow as, like, for example, I could never speak in front of my class. I couldn't either. And now I can speak in front of a thousand people. Yeah, yeah. And it's okay. Like, sometimes I can even almost enjoy it. You're like, oh, I could breathe a little bit, yeah. And so, and this is, this is the most incredible transformation because literally even in front of six people, I could not speak. That was me, that was me. I wouldn't sleep the whole night before, would be shaking, my whole mouth would be shaking, standing in front of them. Wouldn't blackout, wouldn't be able to think anymore. Like, the greatest horror. And here is one of the biggest life lessons for me, which you know exactly about. It's you grow most when you push yourself into the discomfort.

• 29:57Speaker 01

  That's where you do the biggest growth. You know, it's push yourself into the discomfort, push yourself into the suffering, push yourself into your fear. And that's where you grow most as a human being. And this, I've learned so much from my life and I've become really good at that now. Now I have the courage, I almost love pushing into that. Because I just know the results that it will bring for me. And not only growth, but growth also equals proud and happiness. That brings long-term happiness. When you know that you're growing as a human being, you're learning, you're making progress, you keep pushing into discomfort. And so, yeah, so this is something I learned. A lot for my life, which you did too.

• 30:36Lewis Howes?

  That's my whole life. I feel like we're very similar. Where, where is the biggest insecurity now? I mean, you're a world champion. You're the best in the world at what you did with a half a billion people watching, who all support you, love you, think you're amazing. How is there still an insecurity? Or a lack of belief or a lack of self-love in certain areas of your life? How is that even possible now?

• 31:02Speaker 01

  It's still a bit of that glass half-empty, I guess. And me wanting to be a different human being than I am. I would love to be more of a macho kind of person.

• 31:11Lewis Howes?

  Why?

• 31:12Speaker 01

  Why? Because, uh, becau- why, why? Because that's kind of seen as cooler from society. Those guys are kind of, those guys are seen as cool.

• 31:21Lewis Howes?

  Says who?

• 31:21Speaker 01

  Says society.

• 31:22Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 31:23Speaker 01

  But I'm saying this and I just know it's so dumb. So dumb, but it's the instinct, you know? Can't change it. I mean, I can, but it's the way it is. For example, that I would like to be in, in many respects, different person than I am.

• 31:34Lewis Howes?

  Mm-hmm. What's the, what's the, what's the discomfort that you need to lean into? In order to overcome that?

• 31:41Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 31:43Lewis Howes?

  Like, what would it take if you said, I have a one-year challenge? 2020 is a new decade coming. And I need to rid myself of insecurity and a lack of disbelief in myself for anything in my life. What would that challenge be for you? Where you need to go all in? And, and help yourself overcome it? From, from again, being scared and trembling in front of six people like myself to being able to speak in front of a thousand? What would that experience be for you?

• 32:14Speaker 01

  Oh, man, that's a diff- this is now, now you got me on the back foot there.

• 32:17Lewis Howes?

  Let's go, baby. Let's go.

• 32:19Speaker 01

  No, no, no, but that's a, yeah, no, but that's a very, very difficult one. How do you, the more, I think one powerful way would be to much better understand the suffering of the kind of person that I would actually prefer being in some way. So the suffering that is someone like, uh, we, we spoke about Lance Armstrong just earlier. He is one of those guys who has this incredible like kind of self-confidence, arrogance and things like that. Always believing he's the best and greater than everybody else. And I think very powerful for me would be to better understand the suffering of those kind of people. Because they have just as much or even more suffering than than others.

• 32:56Lewis Howes?

  Yes. You mean the suffering of of people that believe they're the best?

• 33:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 33:02Lewis Howes?

  What's the suffering that they face?

• 33:04Speaker 01

  Well, you can tell me because you're a bit on that direction.

• 33:06Lewis Howes?

  The lack of.

• 33:06Speaker 01

  You need to say that.

• 33:07Lewis Howes?

  Well, for me, it would be the desire to always prove people wrong. I think there's a defense mechanism when you're saying, I'm the best. This person can't touch me. I'm gonna prove them wrong. There's like this protectiveness around your heart and your ego to need love, to need to have that.

• 33:26Speaker 01

  Need for recognition.

• 33:27Lewis Howes?

  Recognition, love, acceptance. And it's just more extreme for some people. So my entire life, I was focused on proving everyone wrong because I was picked on and bullied and I was laughed at when I would speak in front of my class. Because I had a stutter, all these different things. So it was a need to, and so I would, so I wouldn't stand in front of my class and read aloud anymore because I was so terrified of being made fun of. And isn't it funny like?

• 33:52Speaker 01

  You pussied out.

• 33:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, exactly. And these memories shape our life, right? These moments, whether it be one or many moments, shape our life, and it did for me, multiple moments. And my whole goal of being a great athlete was to prove everyone wrong about me.

• 34:10Lewis Howes?

  Yes, to get self-love, but it was like, I wanted to hurt those people. To say like their words were not validated. I'm gonna go spend a decade, two decades to prove them wrong. I wasn't even thinking about it really like every day, but it was subconscious. And that was a driving force for me. But it left you, it left me feeling very lonely. Very, even more insecure because if I didn't win, then I was nothing. So you always had to win or you're a loser. And that's scary because you you will do whatever it takes to win. And I hurt myself a bunch. I got a lot of injuries. And it just wasn't smart. And again, I'm more, I was more reactive because it was like. No one wanted to be around me if I ever lost because I was just so angry.

• 34:56Lewis Howes?

  So I think there's a level of discomfort inside. There was no peace ever. I think there's not much peace for people like that. And so that's why I feel like since the last six years, I've been doing so much work on myself. I said, what if I could live a life where I didn't have to win and be the best at everything? But I could have this sustainable energy, this more pure loving energy, that I could achieve all my dreams and feel 100% fulfilled. And really enjoy the process like we talked about, like the moments every single day. And it's been a complete game changer for me to flip that. And I'm still working out. I still get triggered and react in times, but that's, I think, the key.

• 35:37Lewis Howes?

  But for you, where's the validation? Like, where do you still feel like you need to feel validated?

• 35:45Speaker 01

  It's just that general, all of us humans, we have it. It's a need for recognition. It's the whole tribal thing. That's why I'm...

• 35:53Lewis Howes?

  How much validation do we need? You have a half a billion people that are like, "You're a god. You're a legend. You're amazing." Do you need the whole world?

• 36:01Speaker 01

  I don't know. It's addictive, huh? This pain is like, it's a drug. It's a proper addictive drug.

• 36:07Lewis Howes?

  And it starts to go down. It was big and now it's less.

• 36:10Speaker 01

  That's tough.

• 36:11Lewis Howes?

  You're like, "Uh, am I not good enough anymore?"

• 36:12Speaker 01

  Exactly. So this, I mean, for all the sportsmen out there, and everybody has it because the career ends and there's only one way after that. It's down. Doesn't matter how successful you are afterwards.

• 36:22Lewis Howes?

  You're just living in the past. I used to be good 10 years ago, right?

• 36:25Speaker 01

  Exactly. And the problem is that for the people listening, it's just, it's so, for those who have never experienced being in such a, such a public position where so many people are judging you, it's so difficult to understand, I think. To understand, because for all of us, we watch the Kardashians on TV and we want to be like them, many of us. We want to be like them. We want to be famous. I must be just glitz and glam and money and just happiness. And everybody looks up to you.

• 36:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right?

• 36:54Speaker 01

  So it's a bit difficult to understand that, no, in that position, money and fame might actually bring sometimes more suffering.

• 37:02Speaker 01

  And when you don't have it, as long as you're above a certain threshold of of income, where you don't have to worry about paying your rent in three months and things like that. Of course, that's that's a big, big suffering, which many people have, which is more extreme than anything else, surely. But as once you get beyond that.

• 37:17Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, your basic needs.

• 37:18Speaker 01

  If you cover your basic needs, I think you better you have a good chance of being happier than the people who are actually having millions and billions and and are famous.

• 37:26Lewis Howes?

  Where where do you feel the most fulfilled in your life? When you're doing, thinking, being what?

• 37:32Speaker 01

  The most fulfilled is when I um, one, one example is when I progress as a human being. So, for example, reading your book. Reading your book is fulfilling because you just always you can always pick out a few things, which are just, in the end, it's all the same, because I've studied it for ten years. But it's a little bit of a different angle again. And then you think, and for ten years, I've thought, I know that. And then you give that small, different angle. I'm like, shit, I didn't know anything.

• 37:57Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 37:58Speaker 01

  I didn't know a single thing. This is the way to go.

• 38:00Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 38:01Speaker 01

  So that's very fulfilling. And then fulfilling is doing good for other people.

• 38:06Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:07Speaker 01

  The problem is, you have an awesome quote in your book, which is, rewards for good habits is growth, but poor habits have instant gratification.

• 38:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, they do.

• 38:19Speaker 01

  And so I'm always fighting against these instant gratification poor habits.

• 38:23Lewis Howes?

  I want a cupcake right now. I want some like, you know, sugary drink.

• 38:27Speaker 01

  It's a disaster. It's an absolute fight every day of my life. Because the short term instant gratification just always pulls you in.

• 38:33Lewis Howes?

  Feels so good.

• 38:34Speaker 01

  And the more difficult, good habits for long term growth and happiness.

• 38:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:40Speaker 01

  I just, it's, damn it, it just takes a lot of discipline.

• 38:43Lewis Howes?

  You know, the more we can delay gratification, the happier we become, I think. It's like the small results every single day, even sometimes you can't even see them, but just knowing you did something you said you were to do. Like being your word, being consistent to who you say you want to become, is the most powerful long term. It's just the hardest to do. But I think it's, that's where the real, like, you learn more about yourself doing that than taking the easy way out.

• 39:10Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 39:11Lewis Howes?

  And that's what it's all about.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  So my latest has been to to try and get rid of the.

• 39:15Lewis Howes?

  The phone?

• 39:15Speaker 01

  The smartphone and switch to.

• 39:17Lewis Howes?

  Brilliant.

• 39:18Speaker 01

  Switch to a old school Nokia.

• 39:20Lewis Howes?

  All in, for how long?

• 39:21Speaker 01

  Completely. No, no, no, I'm doing this. My problem here is why I have the smartphone on the table again now is. Because my old Nokia doesn't work anymore. I don't know what's going on there, but it can't cope with the with the latest 5G or whatever.

• 39:35Lewis Howes?

  So you won't be able to do tech, you won't be able to do emails, you won't be able to scroll.

• 39:38Speaker 01

  I'm a bit, I'm a bit messed up now for these two days here, but then when I get back, it's back to Nokia.

• 39:43Lewis Howes?

  But you won't have like uh.

• 39:44Speaker 01

  It just does SMS and phone. And a new potential addiction, which is a snake game. Remember that?

• 39:50Lewis Howes?

  Yes. Oh, my gosh. That's your only game.

• 39:52Speaker 01

  So first thing I did was go back on snake game until my wife said, listen, you didn't switch to Nokia just to be on snake game all day long.

• 39:58Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 39:59Speaker 01

  So stop that as well.

• 40:00Lewis Howes?

  So how are you going to be managing social media or responding to people? Is it just going to be phone calls?

• 40:07Speaker 01

  So, well, I still have my computer, for example. It's just giving, it's just, it's just building a bit of a barrier to entry.

• 40:12Lewis Howes?

  That's smart.

• 40:13Speaker 01

  So I still have my laptop, but it's more difficult. It's more difficult to pull out the laptop all the time. So it's just creating this little bit of a distance.

• 40:21Lewis Howes?

  That's smart.

• 40:21Speaker 01

  So that's the, that's the way to do it. And again, from learnings, so one of the greatest learnings and for why I then eventually became world champion was because I learned to simplify life. So even on my way to being a world champion, I never read a single piece of news, especially not the ones about me, never read a single piece of news, never read a single email for the last uh um four or five months on my way to becoming a world champion. Just I I chopped off everything, all the unnecessary rubbish that we all get into, all the, what did I call them? Instant gratification. Um, I chopped everything off in my life and there was just racing, the preparation for that. Um, making myself like well being as much as I could and the family.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  And that was it. There was nothing else. And and that was just so powerful to give me the 2% more clarity of mind and potential when it mattered.

• 41:13Lewis Howes?

  Do you think if you would have done that five years prior, that you would have been able to win a world championship if you would have eliminated distractions and instant gratifications?

• 41:21Speaker 01

  Hmm, I'm not sure. It's a difficult question. It's a difficult question. It was, everything is perfect the way it is, you know?

• 41:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  And it was the right timing to continuously grow and become a better human being whilst also becoming a better driver.

• 41:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  And then that year was perfect to to take the title in that year and and dominate the sport in that year was was the right, the right moment. Also, it's, it's, it's not easy to go so it's because it's a bit extreme.

• 41:45Lewis Howes?

  Very.

• 41:46Speaker 01

  So it's always, I think, it having everything in balance is the most important in life as well. Never just try and be the perfect simplified life and become a monk. That's not the way either.

• 41:56Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 41:57Speaker 01

  It's the middle way. So little gratifications and addictions here and there and watching Netflix or whatever is fine and it's in the balance then you need to you need to find the right place and I went extreme so I chopped everything off.

• 42:12Lewis Howes?

  But that's what made you world champ.

• 42:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I know, but in the long term, it's not really a healthy, I don't think, a healthy way to go. I did a lot of meditating as well, so I'll do like forty five minutes in the morning, forty five minutes in the evening and short ones throughout the day because the highest form of meditation is the is doing it all through the day. It's this awareness that you get and constant, quick bringing yourself back all the time. That's the ultimate form of meditation. You don't need to sit there for hours and hours, doing a lot of that as well.

• 42:42Lewis Howes?

  Now, we were talking last night and I said, what would you think about during the races? And tell me your response of what you would actually think about.

• 42:50Speaker 01

  I knew this was gonna come up today. Yeah, because also, one of my weaknesses, probably as a result of being this more on the sensitive side, is this lack of presence and always in my worries and in my doubts and in my fears. And so then in the racing as well, you'd think that driving a car at two hundred and thirty miles an hour in a city, you wouldn't have time to think of much else. But still, nevertheless, sometimes on the straights, there is time, especially to think about fears, fears of losing and fears of mainly fear of losing, really, and everything that comes with that. Sometimes also fear of getting hurt, of course, in this sport, but mainly the fear of losing. And so, yeah, lack of presence, which is something I tried to work on a lot, but it's so difficult, so difficult to improve.

• 43:35Lewis Howes?

  So how much of how much percentage of time on the actual racetrack in a competition, would you say you weren't focused on winning, but you were focused on worry, doubt, fear of losing, insecurities?

• 43:49Speaker 01

  Oh, man, it's quite a big one.

• 43:49Lewis Howes?

  What's the percentage?

• 43:50Speaker 01

  It's quite a big percentage.

• 43:51Lewis Howes?

  Like eighty percent?

• 43:52Speaker 01

  Maybe seventy, seventy?

• 43:55Lewis Howes?

  So seventy percent of your time?

• 43:57Speaker 01

  Sixteen? Shit, that doesn't sound good.

• 43:58Lewis Howes?

  So hundred percent of your time?

• 44:00Speaker 01

  Let me give hope to all the listeners, please.

• 44:01Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 44:02Speaker 01

  Even with that kind of doubt and not believing that I could do it, I conquered the world and became world champion.

• 44:08Lewis Howes?

  Seventy percent of the time, you're doubting yourself?

• 44:11Speaker 01

  Let's say fifty, I don't know, does not make it too extreme. Half the time, you're thinking, there's a, there might be a moment of worry. It depends on the situation as well. If, if there's a, a, a time in the race where I'm dominating and, which of course happened a lot, then, then that will sort of, you can feel good and then it goes away. It's more in the, in the times where you're not dominating, then all that, then immediately the, the self doubt will crop in. Everybody has it to some extent, of course, it's completely natural. Unless they're egomaniacs. Yeah, but that, no, that, the egomaniacs don't have, um, don't have ultimate success, because that's too extreme again. Right. So I think self doubt is, is very, very healthy. It's a great, um, it's a great driver, it's a great motivator as well. So everybody has it, all of us humans.

• 44:54Speaker 01

  Um, even the guys who seem so self-confident, sometimes they're the ones who have it most. Yeah. So, uh, dear listener, also remember that, that when you have someone in front of you who seems really self-confident, you can look behind the eyes and, behind the eyes and often it's just covering the, the greater insecurity. But yeah, so this is a, um, hope that even with self doubt, you can, uh, win big. What do you think, uh, is the key to eliminating self doubt? For yourself or for anyone? What are some simple things, maybe it's not simple. I tried so much, I tried visualization and meditation. I tried it so much and difficult, uh, for me to find progress there. My biggest ones were preparation, that, that helped the most. To help you feel more confident. Yeah, preparation, preparation equals confidence.

• 45:39Speaker 01

  So prepare the hell out of it, like to the gr, I mean, it's so extreme. Um, also the attention to details, because ten details add up to a big step. And many people will be lazy to work on those details. So if you can do ten big details, you'll, you'll get, and I have a nice example, which I'll, if you don't mind, I'll just throw it in quickly. Um, so weight in our sport is crucial, just as it is with ski jumpers or cyclists. Every gram counts. And there was a simulation measurement that three, three hundredths per second, per lap. So a, a lap time which, uh, three hundredths per second difference, which is often the difference between first place and second place, because it's very close in our sport. So three hundredths of a second was equal to one kilo of my body weight. Oh my god.

• 46:20Speaker 01

  So even though, even though the car with me weighs seven hundred kilograms, which is one thousand four hundred pounds, because we have such high G forces, two pounds more. Is three hundredths of a second per lap slower. Slower, wow. So it's very, very like, very fine line. And therefore, every gram counted. And I really focus on the details. So I chopped my socks. I chopped my socks. I took the helmet paint off because it was sixty grams. Shut up. So I went from a colored helmet to a black helmet because then it was just the carbon, the bare carbon. Because I think it was even eighty grams. So the socks were five grams each. The helmet was eighty grams. And it adds up. And it added up to five hundred grams, everything I did. I also chopped my seat because the seat is a carbon mold. So if you chop it in the places where you don't necessarily need the seat,

• 47:05Speaker 01

  you have again, ten grams here, ten grams there, and you get another eighty grams. Okay, so I had five hundred grams. So then I get to the summer, summer break. And I'm behind in the championship. This is my last year. And so I'm thinking, what the hell can I do? This guy's a machine. My competitor, my opponent, Lewis Hamilton. Yes. Is an absolute machine. What the hell can I do to beat him? I need to find that little bit more. I was just a couple of points behind. And I'd lost against him the previous two years as well, or three years even. And so I'm thinking, thinking, thinking. And then I come to the conclusion, okay, I do a lot of cycling. So I've got these leg muscles. And leg muscles are some of the heaviest muscles in the body. So I'm like, okay, summer break, four weeks. Stop cycling. And I go on the treadmill and walk instead, uphill on treadmill. So that I keep my fitness, but I stopped cycling.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  And I lost five hundred grams. From, I measure myself all the time and of course it's not perfectly accurate. Sure, sure. But I'm pretty sure it was more or less exactly five hundred grams that I lost. So by now, it's totaled one kilo that all the details have done. Now, we get to qualifying right after summer break. The second race back is in Japan, or second or third race. Japan. My teammate is on pole. And the checkered flag is already out. I'm still out there finishing my lap. I cross the line and I'm ahead by two hundredths of a second. No. To snatch pole position away from him. Shut up. And that gets into his head. He freaks out, does some crazy shit, whatever. Messes up the start the next day. So he's like eighth after the start. I take an easy win.

• 48:34Speaker 01

  He manages to come back only to third place. And that gives me the biggest championship lead then, on that day. And then I just had to carry it home in the next couple of races. So this is one example of just details that can. Result in such a massive difference at the end of the day for the whole life, actually.

• 48:50Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 48:51Speaker 01

  It all hinges on tiny details sometimes, yeah. So this is preparation, preparation to give you more confidence. We could speak another hour, couldn't we?

• 48:59Lewis Howes?

  Okay, I've got a... So you pretty much grew up with Lewis, right?

• 49:03Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 49:04Lewis Howes?

  Racing all the time.

• 49:05Speaker 01

  We were racing when we were 13 years old. We were both taken by Mercedes-Benz McLaren. And they paid for our racing because we were the biggest talents in that age class, yeah. So they paid for our racing and it was just the two of us and racing the world, world championships and everything. And in the in the greatest championship, we finished first and second. The only problem was that most of the time it was him.

• 49:28Lewis Howes?

  He was first.

• 49:28Speaker 01

  It was him finishing first and I was finishing second because especially in go-karting more than anywhere else, the natural talent counts. Because there you can't do so much with technology, with the engineering skills and technology. As a driver, it's more about pure driving because the car is so simple. So there and the guy just has so much natural talent, off the charts. So always difficult.

• 49:50Lewis Howes?

  What makes him naturally talented?

• 49:52Speaker 01

  Oh, it's just the genes. It's the genes and for driving, what you need is mainly hand-eye coordination is a big one.

• 49:58Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 49:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. Hand-eye coordination and to and the speed of processing of your brain is a big one for us in our sport. Because things happen so fast and you have to you have to process things like every hundredths of a second. You have new inputs, a new bump, a new feel, a new vision thing that you can see your car going. So it's really the speed of processing, which is so crucial. And for example, when we we arrive at the end of the straight with 230 mile an hour and then we break down, we break down to 50 mile an hour in the space of 80 meters. So in the space of, what the hell is that for a distance? 80 meters? How many yards? 180 yards? No, I don't know. Meters, yards?

• 50:39Lewis Howes?

  It's almost it's almost same, like 100 meters, 100 yards.

• 50:42Speaker 01

  Oh, it's pretty similar.

• 50:43Lewis Howes?

  It's like 110 yards.

• 50:44Speaker 01

  Let's say it's 100 yards. So in 100 yards, we break from 220 mile, 230 mile an hour to 50 mile an hour.

• 50:51Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 50:51Speaker 01

  So it's like hitting a wall.

• 50:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 50:52Speaker 01

  And in that and it takes maybe half a second. It takes maybe half a second or...

• 50:56Lewis Howes?

  It's your speed and stop.

• 50:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's just you hit a wall. So if you would, you're a strong guy, but if you would jump in the car tomorrow, it would take your head off, I think.

• 51:05Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 51:05Speaker 01

  Your head would smack into the steering wheel because you'd not be able to hold it up. So we're very strong, we're very strong on the next than the guys.

• 51:11Lewis Howes?

  I went on a... A Navy jet in the G-force.

• 51:16Speaker 01

  So they do seven G and we do six.

• 51:18Lewis Howes?

  Holy cow.

• 51:18Speaker 01

  But theirs is vertical, ours is longitudinal. So it's very different. Because vertical just compresses you as a body, which is still like extreme. But having it laterally, I think, is even tougher for the body. Because it's like pushing you is trying to roll your head off.

• 51:35Lewis Howes?

  It's going side to side. Yeah, I went five G and I was like out. I was so exhausted. It was like, I was exhausted.

• 51:43Speaker 01

  So we're doing five, six G all the time.

• 51:44Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 51:45Speaker 01

  Every corner is, in the faster corners.

• 51:47Lewis Howes?

  You're a machine, dude.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  Is five, six G. So it's very, very extreme. And there, in that braking of like half a second and such an extreme deceleration, to still process all the time, the little, you need to be on the limit. If you break one yard too late, you're going to lock up and you're going to end up outside the track.

• 52:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 52:04Speaker 01

  And if you break three yards too early, you lose easily one tenth of a second, which can be two positions on the grid. So it's that precision and the processing speed of the brain, which really makes the difference.

• 52:16Lewis Howes?

  What did that do for you mentally to get, to have this guy you grew up with and always get second? You know, behind him, you're always like so close, but he's just a little bit ahead like every year after year. How did that, how do you overcome that mentally?

• 52:30Speaker 01

  Well, that's the, that's one of the biggest ones that just kills self-confidence. Even if you, even if I may have had it when I was young, thinking, okay, I'm a great racing driver. But then if you just constantly finish second, and also when I got to F1, because you depend a lot on your technology as well and on your car, it took me six years to even win my first race. So for six years, for six years, I didn't win not a single race. So six years of no winning at all, nothing. Finishing 10th, 12th, 15th.

• 52:56Lewis Howes?

  Not even podium.

• 52:56Speaker 01

  Seventh, not even, well, I had two podiums.

• 52:58Lewis Howes?

  In six years.

• 52:59Speaker 01

  In six years.

• 53:00Lewis Howes?

  So how do you stay confident?

• 53:01Speaker 01

  So that's the thing, it's difficult, it's really difficult. Because everything is telling you and all the people around are telling you that you're just not good enough. Because they just care, they just care about results. They don't care about how or why or whatever. They just care about results. And so they just see the guys who are first. So they're all telling you that. You're probably not good enough to be winning one day or world champion.

• 53:20Lewis Howes?

  How did you stay in it for that long to go six, seven years until you started to see some results at the highest level?

• 53:27Speaker 01

  You can still, you can still, exactly as you always say, focus on doing the best that you can be. And you know yourself when you've done a really good job, even in an inferior car. So that's where you pull your strength from. And the team will usually also know that, that they know where their car is compared to others. So if you do a great job, that they know, okay, with a good car, you probably would have won today.

• 53:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 53:46Speaker 01

  So that helps. That's really important. In the, in the team community, you get your, your rewards and recognition or whatever.

• 53:55Lewis Howes?

  Like you, you did better than you should have done with this car.

• 53:58Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly. So that's, that's okay. That's nice. And that, that really helps you keep confidence and keep pushing, keep being determined. And then, and I also really believe strongly that the people who really push hard will be rewarded one day. Eventually, someday.

• 54:14Lewis Howes?

  Believe that, yeah.

• 54:15Speaker 01

  This is a belief that I really have.

• 54:16Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 54:17Speaker 01

  That if you keep pushing like hell, then one day, even if it's a long time, you will be rewarded, which happened to me. I pushed like hell for 11 years and got the massive, incredible reward at the end, after 11 years. And every year along the way, I was always one step better in the championship as well. There was only two years where I was a small step back and then up again, up again. So 11th, 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, 2nd, 2nd, 1st.

• 54:44Lewis Howes?

  That's great, man. And what was the biggest thought running through your mind within 10 minutes before the starting line of a big race?

• 54:51Speaker 01

  Man, it's just, it's, it's a lot of, what is it? I mean, there's a lot of adrenaline, apprehension to what's ahead, concentration, and, and as well this, this usual fear of failure crap.

• 55:05Lewis Howes?

  Gosh, man. Where do you think you'd be if you didn't fear failure?

• 55:10Speaker 01

  Well, as I said, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Yeah. If you learn to appreciate it. Sure. Which is one of the biggest powers. Learn to understand that failure is your greatest gift to grow. It's a driver, yeah. Yeah. So, learn to appreciate it. Learn, learn to, even, you'll never like it, but learn to understand that it's not that bad. It's actually, this is your chance. Yeah. And, and that's, this is also something that I visualize a lot and try to, and repeat to myself. That failure is the opportunity to become even better, even stronger, even, uh. Yeah. To grow. So that's an important, uh, an important one. Yeah. As well. And because without failure, you just become, you just stay the same. That's it. You never grow. Yeah. So you're stuck. So you. You've gotta fail to learn. Exactly. You've gotta fail. Yeah.

• 55:54Speaker 01

  So why were you afraid of it? If you need, if you needed. Because it sucks. The feeling sucks. It's horrible. How, how did it feel when you were losing in, uh, in, in, uh, football? It sucks. It's the worst. Handball. Well, USA is not that good in handball, so it's like, it's always a challenge. Yeah, but less than losing as a team when you do a [BLEEP] job yourself. Oh, that's the worst. And all your teammates have lost because of you. It's the worst. You had the shot, were in the last moment, and you miss it, which you, and you usually make that shot. And you miss it. So it's you who's caused the whole team the loss. And we're a team as well, and it's funny because we have one thousand five hundred people in the team. And all of them, they, their bonuses depend on my result on the track. So possibly even like the kind of gifts that they're gonna be able to give their, their kids for Christmas. Depends on how I do.

• 56:39Speaker 01

  No pressure, right? How I do on the track. So when we then as teammates take each other out from first and second place. Cause, uh, uh, it was always us two battling for all the wins in the last years. And, um, in Team Mercedes in, in Formula One. So if we would then crash out and then end up in the, in the wall or in the gravel trap with half a car left, causing damages of millions of dollars and, uh, and, and, um, losing the result for the team. Man, that was. That's not good. That was tough. That's not good. And then internally as well to manage that, phew. That happen? That's so hard. Did that happen? Yeah, it happened, uh, often. Were both you guys crashed a lot? Yeah, yeah, we crashed together. No way. Yeah. And that was tough.

• 57:18Lewis Howes?

  That's why you don't talk to his friends today. No, I'm just kidding.

• 57:21Speaker 01

  No, we're okay. We're neutral. It's fine.

• 57:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 57:23Speaker 01

  It's fine.

• 57:24Lewis Howes?

  Couple of final questions. This one's called the three truths. So imagine it's your last day on earth, many years from now, and you've achieved everything you want to achieve. But for whatever reason, you've got to take your accomplishments with you. You've got to take your content, videos of you.

• 57:39Speaker 01

  Very easy. I've got this one.

• 57:41Lewis Howes?

  What would be your, what would be your three lessons you leave behind?

• 57:43Speaker 01

  I've got this one. No, no, no. Take an achievement with me.

• 57:46Lewis Howes?

  No, no, no.

• 57:47Speaker 01

  No, I wouldn't have taken an achievement with me.

• 57:48Lewis Howes?

  You can't take it anywhere. You can take it all with you, but you, you have to leave three lessons behind, three truths that you would share with the world. They have no, and the world wouldn't have access to any content of yours anymore. So there's no more, there's no more information. This interview isn't here anymore. But you get to leave behind three truths or three lessons to share with the world.

• 58:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:10Lewis Howes?

  And that's all they would have to remember you by. What would be yours?

• 58:14Speaker 01

  Um, oh, man, this is, Jesus, you with your, you with your three truths. I would say all of us are searching for more happiness in life. And so I, and I think some of the most, some of the greatest ingredients are, first of all, living a life of, of doing it for others. And which I still have miles to go in my life to find my direction there, which also sucks, but it's, it's not an easy process. But I know it's the right way, so I'm working on it. Um, so that's one, is that what you're asking or is it different?

• 58:46Lewis Howes?

  Three lessons that you would share behind. So doing good for others.

• 58:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, doing good for others.

• 58:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 58:49Speaker 01

  Never stop growing yourself. So learning for yourself and then growing for yourself. Um, and then, man, well, I like the one that my dad said. You always meet twice in life. It's not really the best one that I could come up with, but it's one, one that I remember.

• 59:04Lewis Howes?

  You always meet people twice.

• 59:05Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I'd like to go into achievements. That would be much, that would be even nicer enough for me. So achievements, I would like to have achieved, to have inspired my kids to live a life of giving. Because this is something that I missed out on as a young kid.

• 59:20Lewis Howes?

  I grew up in, I grew up in Monaco, which is one of the richest places in the world.

• 59:26Speaker 01

  And it's like it's like a kind of rich cocoon, you know, so so uh and I never I never experienced or got inspired by giving to others or helping others or doing something good for others.

• 59:37Lewis Howes?

  It was all about just how much can we make and accumulate?

• 59:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, not not so extreme, but it no, let's say neutral in that sense, but but no, no, because my my upbringing was still like very respectful for money and very respectful of other people and all that. So that's all fine. It was still very good. But I missed the inspiration to help others. Um, and that's a bit of a regret I have from my from my childhood, and I would really want to be remembered for inspiring my kids to live a life of of giving. And it's so important for us parents to to deliver these inspirations to our kids. You're gonna have all that to look forward to. Because um I've learned from them as well now. I always thought that nurture, no, nature, so the genes, I thought that was the biggest part. But I've learned more and more now

• 1:00:23Speaker 01

  that as well nurture plays more of a role than I thought. I have an example that I've I go a lot, I do cycling a lot. And so to do more quality time with my with my daughters, I've started to put them on the backseat on my bike, on my racing bike.

• 1:00:36Lewis Howes?

  Nice.

• 1:00:37Speaker 01

  And then we just go off and and stop in the villages, visit the church.

• 1:00:42Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing.

• 1:00:42Speaker 01

  And go for a prayer and just spend some quality time like that. And on the on the road, there's always a lot of plastic lying around. This is an Ibiza, um, a lot of garbage. And I'm always telling her, explaining to her how bad that is for the environment, for our future and everything, and not thinking much of it. And she is now so gripped by this plastic being bad. So it's unbelievable. It's like become, she's four, huh? But it's become a passion of hers.

• 1:01:05Lewis Howes?

  She's picking it up.

• 1:01:06Speaker 01

  It's become a passion of hers, like that she's saying, when when we get a a plate and and cutlery when we're somewhere and it's in plastic, wrapped in plastic or something, she's like, no, no, Daddy, this is really not good.

• 1:01:15Lewis Howes?

  That's great.

• 1:01:17Speaker 01

  We shouldn't be, you know, she's four years old. And so here I've seen the power of inspiration and then bringing them these inspirational stories and and acquainting them to to that. And I want to do that as well for in terms of helping others, which I'm trying to explore how to how to do it now. But I think that's gonna be really, really fundamental. I hope I can do a good job with that.

• 1:01:36Lewis Howes?

  That's good, man. That's powerful. That's a great legacy to leave behind.

• 1:01:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:01:40Lewis Howes?

  What's uh what's something you're excited about right now? You've got your own show that you're doing. You've got your YouTube channel.

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  Yep. I'm excited about

• 1:01:47Lewis Howes?

  You've got your annual event.

• 1:01:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm excited about the freedom that I have after sport. Because sport is, it takes over your life, which is good at the time, but it's fine as well when it's over. It dominates the life completely, you know, everything. So I'm really loving this, this new freedom. And, and going for these projects where I know that I can do good and have impact. So I wish to do it. You're an inspiration for me as well with the way you've gone with your podcast.

• 1:02:12Lewis Howes?

  Thanks.

• 1:02:13Speaker 01

  Because it just gives so much value to people listening. And I hope we manage to extract some today as well. And that's, I think, so cool, so cool. Then receiving emails, you know, and I get, I had a mom writing me the other day. And from listening to a podcast.

• 1:02:27Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:28Speaker 01

  And she said, oh, you've inspired me so much in, in how I'm gonna handle my son who's six. Because I happen to speak about parenting as well in another podcast of mine. And so that's just, that's wonderful. So it's, it's these projects where, where I do good, which I love trying to do. And I have a huge, I'm very much into green technology to preserve our planet.

• 1:02:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:48Speaker 01

  So I'm really focusing on that. And I've built a whole festival around that. It's like a consumer electronics show like we have in Vegas.

• 1:02:54Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:54Speaker 01

  And it's called the Green Tech Festival. It's in Berlin. And we had, we had thirty five thousand visitors last year already, the first year.

• 1:03:00Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy.

• 1:03:00Speaker 01

  Um, so it was a big, big success. And so this is also something that I'm really passionate about. Because really doing good for our future, such a topic, such an important topic at the moment. The environment, as we know. Although some of you will have that disagreement in some ways. But anyways, for, for me, it's an important topic. So those are the kind of projects I love at the moment.

• 1:03:21Lewis Howes?

  Where can we find all this information? Where's the best website for you and social media? Where do you hang out the most?

• 1:03:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, so this is not good either, because it's a work in progress, this whole setting up, as you know, it's very, it's very difficult. So I would probably say, uh, check out Beyond Victory, which is my podcast.

• 1:03:37Lewis Howes?

  It's a great name.

• 1:03:38Speaker 01

  So Beyond Victory or Nico Rosberg. You say great name. Yeah, I don't know. I wish to to give the name more depth somehow. So I'm about to change it.

• 1:03:47Lewis Howes?

  You can always change it.

• 1:03:48Speaker 01

  Because it doesn't say enough.

• 1:03:49Lewis Howes?

  What do you want it to say?

• 1:03:51Speaker 01

  You've absolutely nailed it. Like, your name is is the best in the world.

• 1:03:54Lewis Howes?

  I appreciate it. Thank you.

• 1:03:55Speaker 01

  So.

• 1:03:56Lewis Howes?

  What do you want it to say?

• 1:03:57Speaker 01

  I want to say that my podcast is not about blah, blah, blah. It's about trying to extract life lessons and valuable lessons from the guests. And hopefully being able to add some of mine as well along the way. And that's what I want the title to say as well. So inspiration, for example, or things like that.

• 1:04:14Lewis Howes?

  Beyond Victory is cool. I think it's cool.

• 1:04:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I want it to be more clear. Because the problem is also me being an ex-driver. People don't necessarily immediately associate me with producing value for them. They think I'm just gonna talk about racing or whatever, blah, blah, blah, like a journalist or whatever.

• 1:04:29Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 1:04:30Speaker 01

  But I would like to express already in the title that it's really about personal development, self-help, that whole direction, because that's what I'm passionate about.

• 1:04:37Lewis Howes?

  Driven for growth, something like that, yeah.

• 1:04:39Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 1:04:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Driven for success, yeah.

• 1:04:42Speaker 01

  No, it's not easy. It's not easy. You've stolen the one word that makes sense.

• 1:04:45Lewis Howes?

  Greatness?

• 1:04:46Speaker 01

  There's no other word. There's excellence, which doesn't really, doesn't really work.

• 1:04:50Lewis Howes?

  Inspiration, there's success, there's greatness.

• 1:04:52Speaker 01

  It's greatness.

• 1:04:53Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. I bought greatness.com also. I'm looking to develop, looking to develop it out, yeah.

• 1:04:57Speaker 01

  Amazing. So there's, so Beyond Victory is the podcast. And then where you're also gonna have your episode the other way around.

• 1:05:03Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:05:04Speaker 01

  Me interviewing you. So you can go check that out.

• 1:05:07Lewis Howes?

  It's on Apple, it's on Spotify.

• 1:05:08Speaker 01

  All the platforms, yeah, all the platforms.

• 1:05:10Lewis Howes?

  YouTube also, right?

• 1:05:10Speaker 01

  Yes, yes. So YouTube, it's, for me, podcast is working best on YouTube at the moment.

• 1:05:15Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 1:05:15Speaker 01

  More than, even more than audio.

• 1:05:16Lewis Howes?

  That's good.

• 1:05:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:17Lewis Howes?

  It's good.

• 1:05:18Speaker 01

  Which is fun. And then greentechfestival.com is my festival in Berlin. And we're planning to go to the States as well in the future, possibly even as of next year.

• 1:05:28Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 1:05:28Speaker 01

  Maybe New York.

• 1:05:29Lewis Howes?

  Let's do it, man. I want to come visit. I'm coming to Monaco. Are you in Ibiza or Monaco? Where's?

• 1:05:33Speaker 01

  Monaco most of the time.

• 1:05:34Lewis Howes?

  Okay, I gotta come sometime. And I'll come to the event someday. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you, Nico, for, for your vulnerability with talking about this, because I don't know very many world champions who talk about their fears and insecurities like you do so openly. And I don't know if you've been like this your whole life.

• 1:05:51Speaker 01

  No, no, no, no. No, because it's scary. To talk about, to talk about those kind of perceived possible weaknesses.

• 1:05:59Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 1:05:59Speaker 01

  And especially in our sports, it's a sport of machos. If you have a psychologist working with you, he's called brain doctor, you know, like you're a loser. If you have, if you work, if you work with a sports psychologist, you're an absolute loser. Um, in, in our sport, as in the world, it's a topic which people don't really understand the power of it.

• 1:06:19Lewis Howes?

  Well, I think you got an amazing heart, man, and I really acknowledge you for, for your ability to open up and talk about these things. Because I think if younger people can see that, hey, a world champion, he's insecure. He goes through his doubts and, and fears of failure too, even 70% of the time while he's racing.

• 1:06:36Speaker 01

  I changed it.

• 1:06:36Lewis Howes?

  50%. Uh, I just think it's, it gives a lot of people inspiration, hope, and knowing that, hey, it's okay if I feel this, I can still do something great in my life. I don't need to rid myself of everything. I think it's really great that you, that you shared that. So thank you, man. Uh, final question is what's your definition of greatness?

• 1:06:56Speaker 01

  Definitely, yeah, this is, oh man, that's a hard one again. Definition of greatness, it's definitely not, um, like the, the kind of, it's not success. It's, um, on a personal level, how much happiness you've found and fulfillment. And then that goes hand in hand with how much happiness you've given the people close around you. So your family, your friends, and how much good you've done for them. And then even beyond that, if you have the chance to do good for even more people on a larger scale. I think that's, uh, that's very, very obviously greatness and, and nothing, not more than that. It's not a, a result, or it's not a championship that you win. It's really much more there, which is difficult because we all think it's the championship.

• 1:07:39Lewis Howes?

  The results, yeah. I love it. That's my answer too. Love it. Thank you, brother. Appreciate it, man.

• 1:07:43Speaker 01

  Thank you very much for having me. Thank you to all you listeners for tuning in. I hope you enjoy all the remaining episodes that you're gonna go, go live with.

• 1:07:51Lewis Howes?

  Yes. Thanks, brother.

• 1:07:59Lewis Howes?

  Oh, what a good episode. I love this. I love having champions on. Champions who dedicate their life to becoming number one in the world and overcoming all the adversity, the challenges, the odds, the competitors, the rivals, everything. It's just something special about champions. They have a way of being, they have a way of thinking that is different. And it's like an obsession to be a champion. I just love meeting and hanging out with champions and I loved hanging out with Nico, got to spend some quality time with him. And just a talented, smart, kind, caring and human being who wants to learn, who wants to continue to grow after becoming the champ. And I thought that was really cool. Hey, listen up real quick. If you want to connect with me more,

• 1:08:44Lewis Howes?

  I'm doing something special. Every week I send out weekly inspirational messages through my texting community. And so if you want to connect with me on a more personal level, I try to get back to as many texts as possible. There's thousands that come through, so I don't get back to everyone, but I try my best. But I'm sending out these audio notes, these messages, little videos, things that I don't post anywhere online. So shoot me a text right now, 614-350-3960. Just text me the word greatness and I'll know you came from this. So the number you can text is 614-350-3960 and text the word greatness, so I know you came from the podcast.

• 1:09:28Lewis Howes?

  Again, big thank you to everyone who showed up and listened today. I appreciate you for being here. If this is your first time, click the subscribe button on the Apple Podcast and leave me a review. I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode. And become a fan of the podcast. We've got a massive movement, over 150 million downloads of the podcast and I feel like we're just getting started. So subscribe and share this with a friend. If you have a friend who loves Formula One, who loves Nico, who loves champions, who loves sports and just wants to learn more about this, then share with a friend on social media, tag me, tag Nico. I'm sure he'd love to hear from you. Send a text message to a friend, whatever you got to do. Get the message of greatness out there.

• 1:10:11Lewis Howes?

  You can really inspire someone else in your life today by sending them this link over on Apple Podcast. And a big thank you again. Text me, connect with me on social media, subscribe to the podcast. We are just getting started. The year is almost over, but we are gonna start a new decade. Dalai Lama said, "With the realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world." You don't make this place better by being insecure. You don't inspire other people by having self-doubt. You don't help humanity by being scared and afraid.

• 1:10:51Lewis Howes?

  It's your duty and your responsibility to overcome the challenges, the insecurities and fears of your life, not to resist them or back down from them. Your life will become better when you start to overcome and chip away at those fears one day at a time, just by diving in, doing the thing that scares you. I know it's scary. Trust me, I lived for a couple decades of my life, living in fear, crippled by a few different things, until I said, "Enough is enough. No more am I gonna allow this silly little insecurity, this silly self-doubt to hold me back from being a confident human being.

• 1:11:35Lewis Howes?

  No more. This is the end. Tell yourself, "I'm done. I'm sick and tired of this crap. I don't wanna live in fear anymore. I don't want the opinions and judgments of other people to hold me back anymore. I'm not gonna care what people think if I mess up and I screw up and I make mistakes and I look silly. Stop worrying about these things." This is a new year and a new decade coming to you. It's time to step up into your greatness because that's what you were born to do. I love you so very much. I hope you know that. I hope you feel that. We are just getting started together.

• 1:12:16Lewis Howes?

  We're about to hit seven-year journey on the School of Greatness podcast in the next month. And I wanna go even bigger over the next seven years with you, but I need your support. Make sure to share this with friends. Continue to connect with me online and let me know how I can serve you the best. I love you Phil very much. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.