Pod Insights The School of Greatness Find Your Inner Power, Embrace Your Weirdness & The Skills You Need To Master w/Robert Greene EP 1193 About this episode Today’s guest is Robert Greene! He's the best-selling author who's written a new book called, The Daily Laws: 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature. In this episode we discuss how to find your inner power when you feel you’ve lost it, why you should embrace your inner weirdness, what conversations you should be having with yourself to become successful, the skills you should master and the skills that are wasting your time and so much more! For more go to: www.lewishowes.com/1193Check out our previous episode: www.lewishowes.com/1174Get Robert's book: The Daily LawsMel Robbins: The “Secret” Mindset Habit to Building Confidence and Overcoming Scarcity: https://link.chtbl.com/970-podDr. Joe Dispenza on Healing the Body and Transforming the Mind: https://link.chtbl.com/826-podMaster Your Mind and Defy the Odds with David Goggins: https://link.chtbl.com/715-pod Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX
Transcript 10,624 words · 2 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Lewis Howes? This is episode number 1,193 with New York Times bestselling author, Robert Greene. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome back, my friend. Today's guest is my friend, Robert Greene. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, and Mastery.
0:45 Lewis Howes? And he's also written a new book called The Daily Laws, 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature. And if you haven't already listened to our last episode about relationships and love, it's been a game changer. People are sharing this like crazy online. Make sure to check out that episode as well over at lewishouse.com/1174. But in this episode, we discuss how to find your inner power when you feel you've lost it, why you should embrace your inner weirdness, what conversations you should be having with yourself to become more successful, the skills you should master, and the skills that are wasting your time, and so much more.
1:28 Lewis Howes? And if you're enjoying this at any moment, make sure to spread the message to a friend. Pay it forward. Text a few people, post it on social media, tag me and Robert Greene as well, and get the message out there for someone that you think would be inspired and motivated to keep growing and improving in their life. And I want to give a big shout out to the fan of the week from WeBlanco, who said, "I have recently listened to several episodes, such as with Rachel Rogers, Rob Deereck," Roy Vaden and I also listened to a couple solo with Lewis Howes. And in each of these episodes, I took something away to improve my life. I was inspired and took action after listening. So, big thank you for being the fan of the week. And that's what we're trying to do here. We are committed to creating some of the most powerful, educational and inspiring information
2:13 Lewis Howes? on the internet to help you take practical actions to get incredible results in your life. That's what we're all about here at the School of Greatness. So, if this is your first time here, click the subscribe button right now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Leave us a review on Apple as well when you're done for a chance to be shouted out as a fan of the week as well. Okay, in just a moment, I bring you the one and only Robert Greene.
2:41 Lewis Howes? Welcome back everyone to School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest, Robert Greene, back in the studio, talking about The Daily Laws. I'm super excited about this book. This is the book that you're going to want to get and give to all your friends because every day is going to be a powerful message to support you in optimizing your life. So, make sure you check out the book, The Daily Laws, 366 Meditations on Power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy, and Human Nature, which is all the things we need to know about living a better life, if you ask me. And I think a lot of people feel like they are powerless right now. They don't feel like they have a sense of control over what's happening in the world. They don't feel like they have power within themselves.
3:23 Lewis Howes? They're being manipulated by media or by people in their lives or whatever's happening. So, what can people do to start the process of gaining inner power? If they feel like they're powerless?
3:38 Robert Greene? Yeah. Well, it all starts with something very simple, which is the power over yourself. If you have no power over yourself, then you're at the whim of everything else in this world, right? So, what does that mean to have power over yourself? Well, we can, and this is a lot of what I talk about in The Daily Laws. It begins with something very simple, which is you have to know who you are, right?
4:08 Robert Greene? So you're walking around in this world. You don't know really who you are. You don't know what your needs are, what you really desire in your life. Because you're a product of social media. You're a product of what other people are telling you you should like, what your parents tell you, what your friends tell you. You don't know who you are, what drives you, what really motivates you deep down. And so you're kind of wandering in life. And when you're unmoored from yourself, everything else will affect you in a way that you cannot control, right?
4:40 Lewis Howes? When you're un- what from yourself?
4:41 Robert Greene? Unmoored.
4:42 Lewis Howes? What's that mean?
4:43 Robert Greene? When you don't have an anchor, like a moor is like an anchor.
4:47 Lewis Howes? Okay. You gotta speak in simple terms to me.
4:50 Robert Greene? Oh, sorry. Maybe it's my pronunciation.
4:52 Lewis Howes? No, it's good, no, no. I don't know what the word is, that's what I was saying, unmoored, gotcha.
4:56 Robert Greene? Okay, so it's like a boating term.
4:58 Lewis Howes? Yeah, yeah.
4:59 Robert Greene? So, you know, if, if you don't know like what you were intended to do in life, like what your career was that meshes with you well, right? You're gonna be making all of these wrong decisions. And you're gonna, things, people will do things to you that you won't be able to understand why you're reacting the way you're reacting.
5:22 Lewis Howes? Yes.
5:22 Robert Greene? You'll get lost. You'll end up in blind alleys with your career and you'll go, "Man, I'm so helpless, I have no power, I have no control. The world is against me. It's 2021, it's the pandemic." It's, well, no, it's you. It starts inside of you. The real problem is in you, not in the world, right? You don't know who you are. And it's not easy. I have sympathy for people because we're so distracted. We're so much in our phones. We're so much listening to what other people are telling us is cool on Instagram, on TikTok, on Facebook, et cetera. We're like creatures of media, we've been programmed. We don't know really what drives us anymore. We're so tuned to what other people are telling us
6:07 Robert Greene? is what we should be interested in, right? So it's not easy. It takes, it takes some time, it takes some reflection, right? And that means that you have to be, have to have the ability to step back. Be alone, be alone with your thoughts. And as this book is talking about, meditate and reflect on your childhood, on who you are, on the mistakes you've made, on the wrong career paths you've taken, on the wrong relationships you've taken. And begin to construct an image of that real, secret, inner, the true Lewis Howes that lies buried deep within, all the bullshit that people have added on to it. If you can't control yourself,
6:51 Robert Greene? you can't, if you don't know yourself, you can't control your own emotions. You're gonna be reacting to everything that comes your way without having, understanding why you're doing that. So when you know yourself, you know, "I don't need to get angry about this, because it's not something that touches me personally. It doesn't matter in the end." Whereas if you don't know who you are, everything affects you personally. And you're getting grumpy and insecure and bitter and resentful. You have to start with yourself. It's the, you know, it goes back to the ancient Greeks and the oracle of Delphi, "Know thyself."
7:24 Lewis Howes? Right. What is the, what is the source of our inner power that we, that we maybe aren't even aware of?
7:32 Robert Greene? Very simple. What makes you an individual? What makes you different? Your uniqueness. That's what the first month in, in The Daily Loss is about, the month of January. So if you look at people who are successful, you know, you look at a Lewis Howes, or you look at a Steve Jobs, or Elon Musk, or whomever, you say to yourself, "There's nobody else like them on the planet." You may hate Elon Musk. You think, maybe he's an egotentric maniac. But you can't tell me there's another person with those gut, with that kind of guts.
8:08 Lewis Howes? Right.
8:08 Robert Greene? With that kind of confidence, and with that kind of vision, right? Okay? Because he's one of a kind, right? And you're going around trying to imitate other people, trying to do what you think other people are doing. You're running away from your source of power.
8:26 Robert Greene? What makes you unique, what makes you even weird, what you may even be afraid of because it's so different from other people, is your source of power. It's what makes you a Superman, or woman, or whatever. Yes.
8:40 Robert Greene? So, I don't want to talk about myself too much, because who's interested in that? But, you know, I write books that nobody else has the same kind of structure or the same kind of approach. That is my source of power. And very early on, it was threatened. I wrote The Forty Eight Laws of Power. We finished it in 1998. The publisher had already purchased it, but they came back and they go, "Robert, this book's a little weird."
9:10 Lewis Howes? Yes.
9:10 Robert Greene? You know, the structure, the things on the side. "We want you to change it. We want you to make it more like other books out there." And me and my partner, the guy who packaged it, he backed me up and we said, "No. We'll walk away from the deal. We'll find someone else." Because we knew that being different was the key to making this book a success. It could very easily fail. It could have bombed. But it would have failed in the right way, which is being yourself, doing something different, standing out, and not being afraid of what makes you unique.
9:43 Lewis Howes? And how old were you then, when you launched that book?
9:47 Robert Greene? I was 39 when it came out.
9:49 Lewis Howes? 39. Did you have a lot of success prior that would have shown this would have been a success?
9:56 Robert Greene? Nope.
9:57 Lewis Howes? So you weren't some big shot writer that was getting awards and other things?
10:02 Robert Greene? I was the very opposite of that.
10:03 Lewis Howes? You were the opposite?
10:05 Robert Greene? Yeah. Well, I mean, very simply, quickly. You know, I graduated college. I wandered around Europe, kind of trying to write the great American novel. I lived in Paris. I lived in Spain. I lived in London. Had all kinds of seductions. I had a great life, a lot of fun. Then I come back to New York. It's time to get serious. I get into journalism.
10:29 Robert Greene? Kind of started off successfully. I worked at Esquire. But then I didn't really like journalism. It kind of wasn't working. And then after four years, I go, this isn't right for me. Go back to Europe. I wander around and try to write another novel. Fail again. I come back to L.A. To try and make it in the film business. And it doesn't work well. And I'm a failed screenwriter. I work for various film directors, but I can't sell a single one of my screenplays.
10:55 Lewis Howes? Wow.
10:56 Robert Greene? And here I am, thirty-five, thirty-six. You know, I have a lot of skill. I've learned writing for film. I've learned writing for journalism. I've been writing novels. I have skill. I have discipline. I have research ability. But I have nothing to show for it. Absolutely nothing. I was a nobody. And this man whom I met, who, you know, I've told the story many times. I pitched the idea of the forty-eight laws of power. He thought it was great. But, you know, there's a big difference between pitching something and making it happen. But because I had been so disciplined and I'd been writing all this time, I could actually, you know, meet his expectations and write a proposal that would get him excited.
11:40 Robert Greene? But I had nothing to back up my confidence. To answer your question, nothing to back up my confidence.
11:45 Lewis Howes? Right.
11:45 Robert Greene? That this book would be good. Just simply having a sense it's a book about power. And I understood instinctively that power is about kind of going your own way. You know, enter action with boldness. That's going to be one of my chapters. And then I'm going to be all weak and timid about my book and how it has to be like other books. And I'm a hypocrite. So I was bold. We were bold. And it turned out well.
12:10 Lewis Howes? So you were thirty-nine when the book came out. Pretty much forty years old with nothing to show for your life, except for lots of experience, but not a bunch of success or accomplishments.
12:18 Robert Greene? No, no success, no accomplishments. My parents were starting to give up.
12:22 Lewis Howes? So you turned forty, and the book really didn't take off right away, right? Didn't it take some time for it to kind of?
12:28 Robert Greene? It did. It did well. I mean, it got attention. We got a lot of press for it. It kind of stirred, because it's a weird book, kind of stirred up some interest. And it was selling. But it's selling much more now than it did back then.
12:45 Lewis Howes? Really?
12:45 Robert Greene? Yeah.
12:46 Lewis Howes? Twenty-something years later.
12:47 Robert Greene? Oh, man. Yeah, like during the pandemic, the sales have skyrocketed.
12:51 Lewis Howes? No way.
12:52 Robert Greene? Yeah.
12:53 Lewis Howes? That's crazy.
12:53 Robert Greene? Yeah.
12:55 Lewis Howes? So how did you have confidence to to claim your inner power after years and years of trying things and not working out the way you wanted, kind of trying something else? How did you stay consistent with your inner power and not lose sight of at least trying new things?
13:13 Robert Greene? Well, it's a great question, and it's not an easy answer, but it might even sound a little bit insane, to be honest with you, but deep down inside, I always had kind of a weird faith in myself. I always had a sense that there was a destiny that was that my life was following a certain path, that there was something fated to happen. Maybe it was a little bit grandiose, maybe it was kind of overconfidence, because it would swing up and down. I would go from confidence to the deepest depression, but deep down inside, I never gave up because I knew I had something in me. You know, now if the 48 Loss of Power hadn't worked, I don't know if I would have gotten
13:58 Robert Greene? my act together.
13:59 Lewis Howes? Wow.
14:00 Robert Greene? I might have been crushed by it, to be honest with you, or maybe I would have picked myself up like I had picked myself up 30, 40 other times in the past when people told me, like this one editor, "Robert, you're never going to be a good writer, you should go into business or law school." You know, I've been crushed several times, and I picked myself up. But, you know, I don't know if that might have been the nail in my coffin, literally, at that point, but I had a voice inside of me saying, "You can write. I know you can write. I've seen you write, Robert. I've seen you write great things. You've never put it together, you've never made it consistent, but you have a voice."
14:41 Robert Greene? And that the inner voice of mine might have gotten smaller and smaller and smaller, so I could barely hear it, but it never left me.
14:49 Lewis Howes? How does someone give themselves more power when they feel defeated?
14:57 Robert Greene? Well, we're coming back to the, circling back to the original thing, you know? So if you know that you were destined for something, that you were fated for something, that you have a sense that your life had a meaning, a purpose, then you can withstand the traumas, the setbacks, the difficulties, the bullshitting, criticism and all the other things, right? So in mastery, I talk about a very simple fact. When you were born, you have this DNA that will never be replicated in the history of the universe. There will be another, there will never be another person with your exact makeup, Lewis Howes.
15:35 Robert Greene? And on top of that, no one will ever have your exact parents and your upbringing and your early life. So there's only one of you that's ever existed, right? And that, there's a reason for that, there's a purpose behind it. And the purpose behind it is, our culture, the same thing as in nature, thrives by the diversity, the people coming at, into it with different angles, different perceptions, different ideas. That's what makes a culture creative, et cetera. It's why the Renaissance was so great, alright? So it's a purpose for you being who you are, right? Yes. And it may not be that you were destined to be Napoleon or a president or whatever,
16:20 Robert Greene? but there is some kind of greatness in you waiting to come out. And it could be just on the level of working with your hands. Working with your hands is a great skill, to be a master carpenter, to be a master builder with wood or whatever, that is a form of greatness. Absolutely. You were destined to do something like that, and it was in, like a seed was planted at your birth. But if you don't know what that is, then you can't find your way back to it. And if you're 24, and you're in my position, and that man who's having his third martini says, "Robert, you're never gonna be a great writer, go to business school." I would've gone to business school, I wouldn't be here talking to you.
17:03 Robert Greene? But I kind of sensed deep down inside that I was destined for something else, right? I talked to a lot of people, particularly in the podcast world. People who began other careers. They went into law, they went into something else. They weren't happy, right? And then they found their way to like creating a podcast. And it's taken off, right? It's made their lives. They found their way slowly to something else. It wasn't just any old podcast. It was something that reflected their own strangeness, their own weirdness. But they have discovered something that they were destined to do that makes them different, right?
17:43 Lewis Howes? Yes.
17:43 Robert Greene? Cause there are a million other people who can do the same thing out there in this world. But there's never, there's only one person like you born with your own strangeness, your own inclinations, you know?
17:56 Lewis Howes? Absolutely.
17:57 Robert Greene? There's that Jimi Hendrix song. I don't quote him often, but he says, "I'm gonna wave my freak flag high," right? You wanna wave your freak flag high. You're a freak, you're weird, you're different, but embrace it. That's your source of power. And when people criticize you and you have setbacks, you'll land back on your feet if you know that. You'll have moments of doubt and depression like I did, but you'll eventually land back on your feet.
18:22 Lewis Howes? You think it's possible to accomplish your goals and achieve great things and be a success and whatever the definition is for you without going through multiple failures? Do you think it's possible to just be, um, just finish school? And now the first thing I do, it's just gonna work out and everything just works? Is that possible?
18:41 Robert Greene? I'd say no.
18:42 Lewis Howes? No.
18:43 Robert Greene? Yeah? Because it's just not how life goes, you know? I mean, I could, I mean, think of like the greatest athletes in the world. People who are at the, the top 00000.1% of, of the top of their profession. They're failing all of the time. They're not winning championships every year, right? Their, their careers go up and down. Everybody who's successful, you will see ups and downs. We venerate Steve. Jobs is perhaps the greatest tech entrepreneur. He went through an incredibly dark period. After he founded the company, he got fired from Macintosh. He founded Next, which was a failure.
19:25 Robert Greene? He was as depressed as I was in the mid 90s. He didn't know what was going on, then he got his career resurrected with Apple on a second go. He had a career that went like that, you know. I mean, you can take any name and you can just find the same kind of trajectory.
19:41 Lewis Howes? Right.
19:42 Robert Greene? And it's because through failure, you develop some toughness, some inner toughness, right? You develop a thick skin, you're able to take it, right? Life involves adversity. And if you've only had everything good, the first time something happens that you don't expect, you're just gonna wilt. So I don't care who you are, there's always somebody, you've always. People who are successful have always had some kind of failure or adversity. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to stay on.
20:14 Lewis Howes? Right.
20:14 Robert Greene? To rebound.
20:17 Lewis Howes? A lot of people are afraid to create something because they don't want to fail. They're afraid to start, launch, create, whatever it might be, post, because they don't want to fail. What do you think is worse than failure? If failure is actually a good thing for a lot of people to help them learn and grow, what is worse than failing?
20:35 Robert Greene? Not trying. So, you know, if you fail and, you know, people are laughing at you, etc., and you feel kind of, you know, vulnerable to criticism, etc.
20:53 Robert Greene? You take that moment and you learn from it. You learn what you did wrong, right? You learn what didn't work. And then you grow from that, and then the second thing that you create is gonna be powerful and it's gonna be successful. I'm sorry, I forgot your question.
21:08 Lewis Howes? What is worse than not failing?
21:11 Robert Greene? If you never try, you're never gonna learn, right? And a lot of people don't try because they're afraid of that very thing of actually failing. They'll disguise it as, "I'm not ready. I didn't go to the right school. I don't have funding. My daddy isn't rich. You know, people aren't helping me. There's a pandemic. It's bad out there, etc." No. So you're just blaming the fact that you're afraid of failure, right? You're finding excuses. Actually, the pandemic is a terrible, terrible thing. Don't get me wrong. 650,000 people have died. It's insane. But business-wise, it's an incredible opportunity for you.
21:54 Robert Greene? There is so much change going on that if you're young and you're smart and you've got some skill, you will create something incredibly brilliant and find your own niche. So stop whining and stop blaming other forces and try. Even before you're ready, start that business. Try something and learn from it, you know? I tried many things and I failed many, many, many, many times before I wrote The 48 Laws of Power, you know? And it taught me a lot about myself. And then I did The 50th Law with 50 Cent. And the first version of the book that we turned in, the publishers didn't really like it. It was my first real failure as a successful writer.
22:39 Robert Greene? And maybe, "Well, Robert, maybe you're losing a little bit." And then I kind of heard why they didn't like it. It hurt, but I understood. It was a failure, but no one ever will see it. And then I go, "Okay, I need to make this book more kind of, you know, a certain style that I've done before. All right, I'm gonna not complain and I'm gonna produce this book in the eight months that they gave me to redo the whole thing." And I learned from it, something that I will never forget about why that book failed. And I've never repeated that mistake again. So you have to, you have to learn from your mistakes and you have to be willing to fail. Otherwise, you're never gonna develop that kind of thick skin that the world requires.
23:25 Lewis Howes? What's the conversations we should be having with ourself more? To set ourselves up on the path of accomplishing, achieving, and feeling better about who we are and our uniqueness in the world?
23:38 Robert Greene? Well, one conversation you should be having is very simple. Life is shorter than you think. Okay, you're 25 and you're thinking, wow, I've got 10 years to figure it all out. I've got all these vistas of time. I'm young, I'm healthy, etc. You don't have nearly as much time as you think you do. It goes very fast.
24:00 Lewis Howes? Really?
24:01 Robert Greene? So you need a sense of urgency and energy. Like, by the time I'm 30, I'm gonna have to try and start that business. I'm gonna have to do something. I don't have as much time as I think I have, right? And you have to develop some fire inside of you. You have to say, you know, a lot of times, people don't give you deadlines in this world, right? So you could spend your whole twenties and thirties never producing the thing that you dreamed of because no one's pushed you, no one's said, you better do this by the time you're 35 or we're throwing you out of the house or, you know, whatever. There are no consequences for procrastinating. You have to create those consequences. You have to live on what I call death ground.
24:46 Lewis Howes? Ooh.
24:47 Robert Greene? Death ground means your back is up against the wall, the enemy is coming at you, and it's either defeat them or die, right? And you have to tell yourself, I don't only have so much time, right? The peak creative years for anybody is in their early thirties.
25:05 Lewis Howes? Really?
25:06 Robert Greene? I think so, I believe so. And people have borne that out, various studies. Yeah, there's a different kind of creativity that one can have when you reach my advanced age.
25:15 Lewis Howes? But you're really...
25:16 Robert Greene? Fluid, creative times, and I know it personally, are in your thirties. And they creep up really quickly. And if by the time you're in your mid-thirties and you haven't started creating something, man, you're gonna be in your forties and it's almost gonna be too late. So you don't have as much time as you think you have. That should be the number one conversation that you have with yourself.
25:38 Lewis Howes? Any other conversations? Besides a sense of urgency?
25:42 Robert Greene? Well, the worst thing in life is to be fifty-five or sixty and to go, "I had potential, I had dreams, when I was a kid, I was gonna think I was do this." And you've realized none of that, right? So, you want to have accomplished something in life, something that you're proud of. It doesn't have to be a book or anything, it could be something that lasts, that you're proud of, that gives you a sense of accomplishment, right? Because that carries off into every aspect of your life. It carries off into your relationships, it carries off into how well you sleep at night, etc. So, you don't, you want to have that in life, you want to accomplish something.
26:27 Robert Greene? What is it, what is it that I want to accomplish? What was I meant to accomplish? And how can I start on the process tomorrow? Not next week or next year, tomorrow, right? Maybe you can't start because you don't have the money, but you can start planning. You can start maybe taking classes or learning skills that you, you know, you can do that tomorrow, etc. So...
26:52 Lewis Howes? What are a couple of skills you wish you would have mastered earlier in life? That maybe you've mastered now, but, or maybe you haven't yet, that you wish you would have?
27:01 Robert Greene? I wish I mastered three-point jump shot.
27:04 Lewis Howes? Okay, three-point jump shot. You're a two-hand shooter, yeah?
27:10 Robert Greene? No. I don't know. Because when it came time to write that book, I had learned a lot about researching. You know, maybe about like marketing. Because I'm not very good at that, to be honest with you. That's why I rely on people like Ryan Holiday, who know their shit, as opposed to me, who knows nothing. So, I wish I had been a little smarter about things like that. Because I was so much in my head into my books and my research writing, that I never really paid attention. Wish I'd been a little... More hard-edged that way.
27:51 Lewis Howes? Learning about promotion and marketing.
27:53 Robert Greene? Yeah.
27:53 Lewis Howes? It's true, because my brother, who's one of the best jazz violinists in the world.
27:58 Robert Greene? Really?
27:58 Lewis Howes? Yeah, he's arguably number one in the world at jazz violin. And he said, there's so many talented artists that think they're going to be discovered, like in their basement or something. But you have to learn how to master your art, and then how to master the art of selling yourself.
28:13 Robert Greene? Definitely.
28:14 Lewis Howes? Because if no one knows who you are, then you're not going to have opportunities. You're not going to be able to monetize your craft, your arts, or have, you know, provide a lifestyle for yourself. So, and if no one is aware of your art, then you're doing a disservice to the world by just hiding it for yourself or for a couple of friends.
28:32 Robert Greene? A lot of artists have that problem, because they think that that kind of sullies the, you know, what they're producing. And, you know, they're afraid of that part of the game. But that's why a lot of artists fail. The ones who are successful know how to play that game of power to some degree. They're not so naive, right?
28:52 Lewis Howes? The game of power, what do you mean by that?
28:54 Robert Greene? Well, take the art world, for instance, something I know fairly well from people who I've known personally. It's a cutthroat industry, right? The number of kids who go to art school is like hundreds of thousands in the United States. The number of artists who can make a living, you can count them on two hands, right? Okay, so what's going on here? Well, it's that it's really, really difficult to make it. And who are these people who make it? They've learned, they've gotten tough, and they've learned how to market themselves. They've learned how to promote. They've learned what sells right now, and they've mastered that aspect of the game, you know?
29:34 Robert Greene? Here in Los Angeles, every other person is an actor or a screenwriter wannabe, right? And they think they've got all the talent in the world, but they're not disciplined. They don't take a day-to-day approach, and they don't know how to sell themselves. I mean, I deal with that all the time. I've dealt consulting with actors who, who don't know, like, in just the audition aspect, they don't know how to present themselves and sell their skills. They think just their natural ability is enough, but it's not.
30:08 Lewis Howes? So what a skill is that? The art of selling yourself, marketing? Is that just communication skills? Is that understanding human nature and how people think? And building them up? Like, what would you say that would be?
30:21 Robert Greene? It's the whole sandwich there. It's like...
30:24 Lewis Howes? It's all of your books combined.
30:26 Robert Greene? Yes, it is.
30:27 Lewis Howes? Seduction, power, mastery, all these things.
30:30 Robert Greene? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you have to understand the power game to some degree. You have to understand that there are people who control your business, your industries. They have more power than others. They have egos. They're insecure. If you don't know how to appeal to them, if you don't know how to appeal to their self-interest, they're not going to finance you, they're not going to help you. You have to understand the political game. You have to be able to play to what's going to please them. You have to be able to get rid of your ego sometimes and do things that maybe aren't exactly what you want to do. But is the right career move. You also have to know how to package things.
31:13 Robert Greene? And I talk a lot about that in my books, in The Forty Eight Laws of Power. You have to understand human psychology. People want drama. They want something that stands out. They want something that's strong, that's forceful, that's impactful, right? And you're sitting here writing something that kind of meanders, that sells it kind of in this half-baked way, etc. You've got to hit directly. You have to hit people's emotions, we're emotional animals. And that's sort of the key to marketing, is hitting people's emotions, not their intellect, not their ideas, right? I mean, it's the whole thing. You have to understand human nature, you have to understand psychology, you have to understand politics and egos.
31:54 Lewis Howes? You've got to learn a lot in life, just to get, you know, anything that's inside of you out in being semi-successful. It's not the craft itself, it's everything else around the craft.
32:05 Robert Greene? Unfortunately, because, you know, Steve Jobs and Wozniak, I forget his first name.
32:11 Lewis Howes? Yeah, Steve Wozniak.
32:12 Robert Greene? Wozniak was by far the more brilliant person. He was the most brilliant person with computers of his time, in the late 70s, early 80s. Steve Jobs was really very weak when it came to computing and things like that. But look who made it? The person who understood marketing. Right, he understood.
32:32 Lewis Howes? Human psychology, marketing, persuasion, the political game, the theatrics of communication.
32:37 Robert Greene? Theatrics, definitely, right?
32:39 Lewis Howes? Yes.
32:39 Robert Greene? So, talent is important, but it will only get you so far. You know, there are so many talented basketball players just in the United States. But the ones who make it are not always the most talented, but they're the most disciplined of all.
32:56 Lewis Howes? Absolutely. I, I played with so many athletes better than me on teams. That weren't disciplined enough or committed enough to just to do the extra effort and work to get to the next level.
33:09 Robert Greene? Right.
33:09 Lewis Howes? To be on the field, to stay on the field, to get thrown the ball to, to get the tryouts or whatever was the next level. And I would just say that I had more commitment than a lot of people that were better than me. And I just remember being like, man, there's guys in the pickup games in basketball who were freaks that could have played, but they just didn't lack the discipline and the consistency or the, the attitude. And so they get kicked off the team because they just had a bad attitude.
33:35 Robert Greene? Right.
33:35 Lewis Howes? So you've got to learn all these other things for sure. What do you think is the, the skill that a lot of people master that's actually wasting their time?
33:49 Robert Greene? Never really thought of that.
33:53 Robert Greene? I mean, you, you can try too many things in life. You can try to learn too many things, right? And never master one of them, right? So the temptation in our culture is with all the access to information, all the things going on in the media, to think that I'm going to start like picking up the guitar now. And then I'm also going to learn this and I'm going to learn that. So people are kind of trying too many different things. And they're not like learning one thing really, really, really well.
34:28 Lewis Howes? Yes.
34:29 Robert Greene? And so that's, that's, that's kind of like the, the main fault I see in a lot of people, particularly when they're young. Because it's, it's very difficult when you're, there's so many things out there and there's so many temptations.
34:42 Lewis Howes? I think it's a balance of it because there's a book, I think his name's David Epstein. Do you know David Epstein? Wrote a book called Sports Gene, I think it was called, but he also wrote a book called Range. Which talks about all these successful people who actually were had a range of skills that later in life, I think I mentioned this before with you. You had a range of all these skills that maybe you did okay at, but didn't really optimize fully and succeed at, but the range of skills you had created these weird books.
35:12 Robert Greene? Yeah.
35:13 Lewis Howes? I mean, these weird, powerful books that were different at the time, that were unique. That, and if you didn't have that range of trying all these things, maybe you wouldn't have created this unique product at the end.
35:27 Robert Greene? I agree with it, but I, there's a little element that I would twist there. So, for instance, I had learned researching skills when I worked in Hollywood and in journalism. And that's actually a skill.
35:40 Lewis Howes? Yes.
35:41 Robert Greene? You know, I learned how to work libraries, like you had no idea how to work a library, right? And I had done it for years.
35:47 Lewis Howes? Oh, man, that's a lot of time and energy.
35:49 Robert Greene? Yeah. Well, that wasn't like just kind of a semi-skill that I possessed. That was a real skill.
35:56 Lewis Howes? Yes.
35:57 Robert Greene? Right? And the journalism that I had learned was, you know, four or five years of writing under a deadline, making things concise and dramatic. I wasn't wildly successful, but I, I could say it was a skill. So, when I combined everything and then my knowledge of history, et cetera, there was definitely a range, and that range, I totally agree with that writer.
36:20 Lewis Howes? Yes.
36:21 Robert Greene? But if they were kind of mediocre skills, I don't know how it would have all fallen into place, you know?
36:28 Lewis Howes? So it was all within the ability of writing and researching. It wasn't like I'm gonna do all these other things that aren't associated with writing.
36:35 Robert Greene? Exactly.
36:36 Lewis Howes? Gotcha.
36:37 Robert Greene? Yeah, and for mastery, I interviewed Paul Graham, because I agree with that idea, and I advocated learning four or five skills and then combining them in a unique way. But he was like, he's one of the most successful tech entrepreneurs of our time. He started, he went to college and learned hack computer skills. He was gonna go into AI early on. Didn't like it, didn't like the politics. He dropped out and he went to Italy to study painting, right? And he studied painting for several years and became really good at it and very much really good at design, etc. Then he came back to New York and he heard an ad on the radio for Netscape
37:19 Robert Greene? and how the future of the internet was selling products on the internet, which no one had ever done before. He goes, hmm, maybe I could take my design skills and my knowledge of computers and create something that would be very aesthetically pleasing and very easy to navigate. Would be like me, and it ended up being the first kind of online store that Yahoo bought and on and on. But he was really good at those two things, you know? Steve Jobs was really great at the design element of technology and so forth. So I'd be a little wary of telling people that you can kind of learn four or five things kind of middling.
38:01 Lewis Howes? Right.
38:03 Robert Greene? Because the main thing you want, the main thing that'll get you ahead in life is your level of enthusiasm and excitement.
38:09 Lewis Howes? Over anything else?
38:10 Robert Greene? Yeah, your love of something. So you have to kind of learn and be energized and really excited by it. And if you're just kind of piddling around trying different things, you won't bring that kind of...
38:22 Lewis Howes? A friend of mine years ago, probably 18 years ago, told me that the world makes room for passionate people. And there's a quote by the coach of the Green Bay Packers.
38:34 Robert Greene? Vince Lombardi?
38:35 Lewis Howes? Yes, that if you're not, if you're not fired up with enthusiasm, you'll be fired with enthusiasm. Something like that, right? I'm paraphrasing, but if you're not fired up with enthusiasm, then you'll be kicked off the team. Because we need people here who are excited and passionate about what they're doing. Otherwise, what are we doing here? And we're gonna lose if you're not fired up with enthusiasm. So I think that's, that's probably one of the greatest skills, is having the energy to have enthusiasm about what you're doing. To get yourself the opportunities over then the mastery of itself with a negative attitude, I would say. It's no fun having someone on your team who's really good at something,
39:19 Lewis Howes? but just mean and nasty and dragging and not on time. And what are you just like? It doesn't matter how talented you are. It's the other skills that come along with it. What if someone's struggling to accomplish their goals? We've talked about fear a little bit, you know, it's been holding people back from trying and getting out there. But what if they've got their their goals, they've got the stuff, they're willing to go after it, but they're struggling accomplishing goals? Do you have any strategies or tactics to setting up your life in a way to accomplish goals more?
39:52 Robert Greene? Yeah, I mean, um, so I call it kind of a ladder of descending goals. I think that's one of the entries in that book.
40:01 Lewis Howes? Okay.
40:02 Robert Greene? So what you want is a mix of things, because a lot of success in life is creating this kind of balance. So you want an overall goal for yourself. Let's say you want to accomplish this business that you want to start, right? But you're not able to get there, you're not able to make the bridge to it, okay? So you you say, this is my long term goal. And then you build a ladder of descending goals of small things to get there. And and within it, so let's say your goal is five years, you're going to start the business. Then within that, you've got months and you've got weeks and you've got days. And you're building small goals that you can reach and are reachable. So, um, I want to start my business.
40:46 Robert Greene? Um, it's really hard out there. There's one thing that I don't think I'm good at. All right, well, tomorrow, I'm going to start learning this new skill. I'm going to go to school, I'm going to read this book, right? Give yourself a goal that you can reach in a week, right? Or or in two weeks.
41:04 Lewis Howes? Yes.
41:04 Robert Greene? Not in, so that was killing you is you're thinking too long term and you can't get there. And and it's kind of making it seem like it's impossible, it's killing your spirit, right? You're too ambitious, you're thinking too far ahead, you need smaller reachable goals, right? So your great business, your great book, your great podcast has other little steps you have to take to get there. Create a step you can reach in a month, a week, or whatever, and reach it. Don't make it too difficult, but don't make it too easy. I always tell people to make it a little bit above what you think you can do and you'll get there.
41:44 Robert Greene? But if you give yourself a goal in a month, that is a step towards creating this larger thing, and you reach it, you'll have a sense of pride and accomplishment. You did something, right?
41:55 Lewis Howes? Yes.
41:55 Robert Greene? You got part of the way there. And now you know, like, with determination, you're on your way, and you can do that again, and you can make another smaller goal. And you're not paying attention to five years from now, you're paying attention to tomorrow's goal. Your eyes are focused on these small steps. You don't lose sight of the larger goal, because then you'll get mired in details. It's driving you, but your main focus is on reaching what you've set yourself up for month by month by week by week by week. Baby steps.
42:26 Lewis Howes? Yes.
42:27 Robert Greene? If you do something every day and you reach these things, the sense of you've never done anything is what's killing you. You need to have a sense that you actually have something to show for it. You actually have reached part of the way there.
42:42 Lewis Howes? Yes.
42:43 Robert Greene? And believe me, when I start a book, it's like, ah, my God, I can't, how am I gonna make it? Well, I start off simply, and I go from simple goals, and I have a process I go through. And I don't worry about three years down the road, I worry about what I'm gonna do tomorrow.
43:00 Lewis Howes? Yeah, it's not worrying about the finished product. It's kind of like when you're climbing a mountain. If you're looking up the whole time, you'd be like, this is so far away. And you'd be so tired, you'd be like, ah, I can't do this. But if you're just focusing on one step at a time, and then you pause, and you look up and you see you've gone farther, then it's more rewarding that way.
43:20 Lewis Howes? What should we know about the daily laws? A new book, 366 Meditations on Power Seduction Mastery Strategy and Human Nature.
43:29 Lewis Howes? Why is this gonna be helpful for people? To chunk on a daily basis, something that they can take action on for yourself? What do you think?
43:35 Robert Greene? Well, okay, so I've been at this Lewis for 25, 26 years now, which is a very good chunk of time. And I've learned a lot. And if I could boil down what I think makes a person successful in one sense or one word, I would say it's your attitude in life is the cutting edge, right? It isn't your skill, it isn't all these other things. It's how you look at the world, right? If you look at the world through the lens that's negative, like nobody likes me, the world is against me, I'm not really good enough, I don't deserve things. That's what you're gonna get in life, right?
44:18 Robert Greene? If you look at the world like this opportunity for me, I'm good, I'm aggressive, I know how to get there, I'm gonna get it. That's what you're gonna get. So how you look at the world is what you're going to get. And the attitude to me that is the most powerful and the most forceful, particularly nowadays, is a realistic attitude, right? You're able to look at the world. First of all, you're able to look at yourself and assess who you are and not be filled with all these illusions or these insecurities. This is who I am realistically. This is my problems, my weaknesses, my strengths. This is what I'm good at, this is what I'm destined to create. Your ability to look at other people realistically and see through their appearances, see through their masks.
45:03 Robert Greene? They pretend to be this, but they're actually that, and I'm not gonna be fooled. I'm not gonna be naive and I'm not gonna be fooled, I'm gonna see into that. This is what the world is like right now. These are the trends. I'm not deceived by all the things in social media. I know what's going on and where the world is headed in three years. You've got this laser focus, you're seeing through yourself, you're seeing through other people, you're seeing through all the bullshit in the world. You understand what's happening.
45:30 Robert Greene? You can't fail when you have an attitude like that, right? And you also understand the power of being fearless and taking risks, which is also a part of a realistic attitude. All right, how do you get there, right? Well, it's not easy because we're born with a certain attitude. We're born with things, with burdens and baggage from our childhood, etc. It's like a daily process. Yes. Right? You have to see, you have to see first your negative attitude, where it comes from, the problems with it, what is holding you back? And now you have the power to begin to fashion it to a degree that's going to actually be something strong and powerful.
46:14 Robert Greene? Well, this is what the book is designed for. So I've been covering this for 25 years. It's scattered across six books, right? In Mastery, I talk to you how to be realistic about your career. In Power, I tell you how to be realistic about the power games going on. In War, how to be strategic, you know, human nature, how to see into people. But it's all scattered and it's hard to like find the cohesive thread through all these different books. This book is going to bring it all together. It's going to help you, it's very laser focused. And I talked about it in the introduction, on crafting that hardcore realistic attitude about you, where you're headed in your career, the mistakes you're making,
46:56 Robert Greene? about people and their weaknesses and the power games they play, about what it takes to influence and persuade people, on and on and on. And you're going to be doing it every day. Now, I know because I meditate every morning. I've been doing it for 11 years now. It saved my life, I can honestly say. Every morning, I sit on the pillows for 40 minutes now. I just focus on getting outside of myself. And I learned through this process that day by day by day by day, change occurs. It doesn't occur in a dramatic way. It doesn't occur like, wow. I'm different now. It almost occurs unconsciously. Things seep into you that you're not even aware of.
47:41 Robert Greene? This book is designed to get under your skin day by day by day by day. You're gonna read it. It's gonna make you think. You're gonna go on to the next day. It's gonna kind of strengthen that idea, come at it from another angle. And slowly, it's gonna get under your skin. And it's gonna alter how you look at the world and alter your attitude. And then maybe you'll reread it in a year. That's what it's designed for.
48:05 Lewis Howes? For me, this is the exact type of book that is perfect for me. Because it's hard for me to get through a full book, any type of book. But when I can go to one page every day and read something that's gonna be powerful to help me improve and give me a tip, a strategy, an idea to improve something in my life. It's the perfect type of book. So make sure you guys get a few copies. The day of the laws, because your friends are gonna enjoy this. Especially in a world where it's where for most people, it's hard to stay focused long periods of time. And keep their attention on something for a week or weeks through a tire book sometimes. You know, I don't wanna generalize, but the millennials of the world, this might be a good, this might be a good book for them to get as a gift.
48:50 Lewis Howes? So get this. And every day, you'll get a page that'll give you some meditations on power, seduction, mastery, strategy, and human nature. It's gonna help you improve your life. So make sure you guys check this out. Where are you spending the most time on social media right now?
49:11 Robert Greene? I probably have become I have somebody managing my TikTok account.
49:16 Lewis Howes? Yes, some good TikToks on there.
49:18 Robert Greene? Yeah, I don't really spend a lot of time on it. But I have looked at it, and that's kind of a new frontier, and it's kind of exciting.
49:26 Lewis Howes? It's very exciting.
49:27 Robert Greene? Yeah. And it's not natural to me, but I'm learning it.
49:31 Lewis Howes? Yes.
49:32 Robert Greene? Because you know, I'm of that age where it's like TikTok. I don't know, but I'm enthusiastic. I probably spend more time on Instagram, I have to admit.
49:41 Lewis Howes? And you're Robert Greene official on Instagram, is that right?
49:43 Robert Greene? Yeah.
49:43 Lewis Howes? Okay, cool.
49:44 Robert Greene? I've kind of gone off Facebook like a lot of people. And I've never really been a big Twitterer. Although I do have a Twitter account.
49:53 Lewis Howes? Robert Greene there, but Robert Greene official, you're posting more on Instagram.
49:56 Robert Greene? Yeah.
49:57 Lewis Howes? Okay.
49:57 Robert Greene? But I have posts on Twitter as well. And then I have the TikTok stuff that's going on.
50:01 Lewis Howes? Is that just Robert Greene? If they search your name, we'll find it there. We'll link it up all in the show notes as well, so people can see it there. I want to ask you
50:13 Lewis Howes? a question that I've asked you before a few times. This is your fourth or fifth time on now. It's called the three truths, and I have your previous ones here, so I'm curious if it's evolved or changed as you have maybe a different perspective on life now. So, the question goes like this. Imagine it's your last day on earth, many years away from now, and you continue to accomplish all of your goals and dreams. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your work with you, and it's your last day, and you have three final things you get to share with the world. These three lessons you would leave behind, or three truths you would share with people. And they wouldn't have access to your books, your work, or this interview, or any of your content. What would be those three truths that you would leave behind?
50:58 Robert Greene? Whoa.
51:01 Robert Greene? Well, you know, so recently, I suffered a stroke like three years ago. Came out of the blue. I was totally healthy, swimming, biking, doing everything, you know? And now it's all taken away from me. So the truth is, the first truth is, don't take anything for granted. Don't assume that what you have now is going to go on forever. It could be taken away from you tomorrow. And appreciate and love deeply what you have right now. It is an insane gift to be young. I wish I could go back to being young again, because that was the most fun time in my life, right?
51:44 Robert Greene? You're in your twenties, you're healthy, you're exciting, you're seducing, you're just having lots of fun. Well, it doesn't last. Well, appreciate it and soak up every second of it, because something like this could happen to you tomorrow, particularly with this COVID that we're all living through. So, do not take the smallest thing for granted, because it could be taken away from you.
52:06 Lewis Howes? That's one.
52:12 Robert Greene? Well.
52:14 Robert Greene? Do not be afraid to face your own kind of weaknesses, right? And I'm speaking from experience because you're asking me like what's happened recently, you know? And I've had to come to terms with my own limitations. Because I thought that I could do anything, right? And it's not just the physical limitation, it's the mental limitations. It's the frustrations that I have. It's the anger with myself. It's like, why can't I? Is there something wrong with me that in my physical therapy, I'm not able to strengthen my left arm, et cetera?
52:56 Robert Greene? And I've been afraid, I think, to confront that and to see that I am my own enemy. I've probably gotten in the way of my own recovery. Really? By my attitude, by being impatient, by being too much of in a hurry, right? So I've had to step back and I've had to see, I had to have some humility. So that's sort of the lesson is. Yes. I'm not as great as I thought I was, but I can work on that. Now that I know that my impatience is getting in my way, I'm gonna work on that every day. So if at night I stumble or I drop something, I'm not, I'm gonna calm down.
53:40 Robert Greene? And I'm going through this kind of physical therapy now, which is actually trying to alter my attitude towards my own body. But I'm confronting my own limitations. And it can be at any age and it's actually, you know, helping me get through this kind of ordeal that I'm going through. Wow. You know? Okay. Three. Three? I guess it's, I hope it doesn't sound too soft, like Robert Greene is not like the 48 Laws of Power anymore. Because I am still that hardcore person, don't worry about me. Or I haven't lost my edge, maybe a little bit. Yeah. Is the ability to kind of forgive people. Ooh. You know?
54:23 Robert Greene? So, and I'm not the most forgiving person, so I had a... A thing in mastery that's called suffer fools gladly. It's an expression from the Bible. And it means the world is always filled with foolish people, fools, who are stupid, who don't know what they're doing, etc. And your tendency is to get angry and irritated and upset. And instead, you need to suffer them. You need to be tolerant towards them. Because there are too many of them in this world, right? Sure. And I've never been good at that, you know? Like, and I've learned, like, when I'm judging people, etc. To sort of, it kind of goes to that other one. They're all interrelated.
55:06 Robert Greene? But, you know, maybe I'm too quick to judge. Maybe I can understand their problem. Maybe if I've hired this researcher and they're not working out, maybe it's because I'm not explaining myself very well, or they've got other issues. And I'm not gonna maybe try and repair the relationship or keep them on as a researcher. But I'm gonna forgive them. I'm not gonna carry the weight. I'm not gonna carry them around with me. There's this old Buddhist kind of parapope where these two monks come up to a river. And there's this old woman who can't cross the river.
55:48 Robert Greene? And one of the monks, because they can kind of walk across. She's too old. One of the monks puts her on his shoulders and carries her across and lets her go when she's so grateful. As they walk on, the other monk says, "You know, we're never supposed to do that. As Buddhists, you're not supposed to touch people. You're not supposed to handle them. You violated one of the most important laws of Buddhism." On and on and on he went criticizing him and about it. Finally, the guy said, "Well, look, I left that woman on the other side of the river. You're still carrying her right now, right? You're still carrying her mentally with you. Let go." Right, so that's the, I've created for myself a mantra in my daily meditation. It's called let go.
56:31 Robert Greene? Just let go of the rank or let go of the hurts, let go of the past and kind of forgive and and kind of be in the moment.
56:38 Lewis Howes? Yeah.
56:39 Robert Greene? I don't know, I'm kind of all over the place. I wish I had.
56:41 Lewis Howes? I like it. It's good. It's powerful. If you, if you want more succinct answers, you can get the book. Cause every day.
56:48 Robert Greene? Thank you.
56:48 Lewis Howes? There's powerful succinct answers on the day of the law.
56:51 Robert Greene? Yeah.
56:52 Lewis Howes? Make sure you guys get this.
56:53 Robert Greene? You rescued me.
56:53 Lewis Howes? Yes, make sure you get this. Because it's all of his philosophical ideas and concise moments on a daily basis. Robert, uh, like always, I've got one final question for you.
57:03 Robert Greene? Oh, yeah.
57:03 Lewis Howes? But like always, I want to acknowledge you for being my first ever guest on the School of Greatness, for always showing up and uh, being consistent in your life since I've known you in serving people. You're using your uniqueness, your talent, your gifts, your energy to create beautiful pieces of art that serve and help people. And I think it's incredible that you continue to show up and do this. You don't have to anymore, but you keep doing it. Even when you have your own personal challenges that you're facing, you continue to show up to serve. So I acknowledge you for, for always being the example, even during challenging times for yourself. It's a beautiful thing to see and I appreciate your friendship.
57:46 Robert Greene? Thank you, Lewis.
57:47 Lewis Howes? Of course.
57:47 Robert Greene? Likewise.
57:48 Lewis Howes? Of course.
57:48 Robert Greene? I have very fond memories of that first time you came.
57:50 Lewis Howes? First time in your house.
57:51 Robert Greene? Your little recording device.
57:53 Lewis Howes? [laughing]
57:54 Robert Greene? And you didn't know really what you were doing so much.
57:56 Lewis Howes? Zero idea. You gave me an opportunity. You, you said, hey, I'll interview you.
58:00 Robert Greene? I liked you. I liked your energy.
58:01 Lewis Howes? Exactly.
58:02 Robert Greene? And I could see that you were good, something was gonna have, come from this.
58:06 Lewis Howes? Yeah, yeah. And sometimes when you don't know what's gonna happen sometimes, but you have an enthusiasm and an appreciation and a gratitude and you're having an energy.
58:15 Robert Greene? Yeah.
58:16 Lewis Howes? Hopefully, good things can happen.
58:17 Robert Greene? Yeah.
58:18 Lewis Howes? So, I appreciate you being the first one. But I think I also was like, hey, listen, I want to sell a bunch of books of yours and we're gonna do this thing. And I was excited about selling books for you. And um, you know, I think it's always important to create a win-win.
58:30 Robert Greene? Sure.
58:30 Lewis Howes? You know, experience, so, but I appreciate you taking the chance on me launching the podcast with you as the first.
58:36 Robert Greene? Oh, no, no, no. I enjoy, it's very memorable.
58:38 Lewis Howes? Yes, yes. Um, my final question is what's your definition of greatness?
58:44 Robert Greene? My definition of greatness is kind of what I've talked about before.
58:52 Robert Greene? It's realizing your potential to some degree. So, we may not realize 100% of our potential. I certainly haven't realized 100% of my potential. There are things I probably could have done more of. But if your potential is to raise a great family and to raise really great kids, and you've done it, that's greatness. If your potential is to just build something, however small it is, and you realized it, and you realized 50, 60% of your potential, that is greatness. And then you can go to bed at night feeling good and proud of yourself, right?
59:35 Robert Greene? So, a lot of it is, it's not the money that matters. It's not the attention that matters. It's the inner feeling you have that you have accomplished something, that you have fulfilled your potential, that you have accomplished some of the dreams that you had as a child for yourself, right? And to have that sense that I have done that, that I have wrote this book, that I created this business, that I started this podcast, that's greatness to me. Of course, there are levels of greatness, right? But that's enough for me as well. Just the sense that I was born with this potential,
1:00:18 Robert Greene? and I worked, and I realized some of my gifts. I think that's an amazing thing. That's greatness for me.
1:00:24 Lewis Howes? Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode, and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's show with all the important links. And also, make sure to share this with a friend and subscribe over on Apple Podcasts as well. I really love hearing feedback from you guys, so share a review over on Apple, and let me know what part of this episode resonated with you the most. And if no one's told you lately, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now, it's time to go out there and do something great.
Previous Dwyane Wade On The Power of Visualization, Developing A Strong Work Ethic & Healing From Your Past EP 1192 Next 7 SECRETS To Start Building Long-Term WEALTH! EP 1194 Page updated September 29, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
