The Secret Daily Habits For Ultimate Performance & Productivity | Verizon CEO

In this inspiring episode of the School of Greatness, I sit down with Hans Vestberg, the visionary CEO of Verizon. From his humble beginnings in Sweden to leading one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, Hans shares invaluable insights on leadership, innovation, and personal growth. We dive deep into his unique approach to managing large organizations, his strategies for staying ahead in a rapidly evolving industry, and the importance of work-life balance. Hans's journey from a semi-professional handball player to a global business leader is not just inspiring—it's a masterclass in visionary leadership and personal development. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned executive, or someone looking to excel in your field, this conversation is packed with actionable wisdom and motivational insights. IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:How to develop and implement a visionary strategy in large organizationsThe importance of self-awareness and personal growth in leadership rolesStrategies for balancing a high-pressure career with family lifeThe power of curiosity and continuous learning in staying innovativeHow to lead with empathy and create a culture of empowermentThe importance of digital inclusion and its impact on global developmentFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1677For more Greatness text PODCAST to +1 (614) 350-3960More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Eckhart Tolle – https://link.chtbl.com/1463-podRhonda Byrne – https://link.chtbl.com/1525-podJohn Maxwell – https://link.chtbl.com/1501-pod 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  For me, it's all about how do I serve best. We are lazy by nature. You tend to do the easy things, but you have always done. This process forces me to do the things that really is where I can make a difference.

• 0:13Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 0:14Speaker 02

  Joining us right now is none other than Verizon's chairman and CEO, Mr. Hans Vestberg. Hans Vestberg. Hans, great to have you. This guy's a legend in business.

• 0:21Speaker 00

  If you're gonna lead others, I learned over the journey, you need to know yourself really good.

• 0:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 0:27Speaker 00

  Now, I come in every day feeling, wow, time to do something, Hans Vestberg. You need to really step up. I cannot be stagnant. The day I'm stagnant, I'm the wrong guy.

• 0:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 0:36Speaker 00

  I remember I stopped the car and started crying.

• 0:38Lewis Howes?

  I can see you get emotional right now. Yeah. What was that like, that call?

• 0:43Speaker 00

  One of the biggest things you can do, you know, was my dream. So it was big. I knew that it's not gonna be easy, but I really want to do it.

• 0:51Lewis Howes?

  You have a lot of success, a lot of accomplishments that you've created in your life, from sports to business. And what is the thing that you are most proud of, Hans, that most people don't know about?

• 1:01Speaker 00

  First of all, I think.

• 1:05Lewis Howes?

  Welcome, everyone, to the School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring CEO of Verizon, Hans Vestberg, in the house. So good to see you. Thank you for being here.

• 1:13Speaker 00

  Thank you, Louis. It's just great to be here to be together with you. A lot of commonalities between us. I'm looking forward to it.

• 1:20Lewis Howes?

  Gary Vaynerchuk made the introduction, so a big shout out to Gary Vaynerchuk. I want to share a couple of stats before I ask you the first question. This is what I saw online of these statistics. In 2023, Verizon generated revenues of $134 billion and also had over 105,000 employees that worked at Verizon and also top 10 best workplace on LinkedIn to work at. I'm curious, you've had such a unique background from growing up in Sweden, being an elite semi-professional handball player, to then, you know, growing and building from the ground up in a company for 25-plus years until you moved to Verizon as the CEO six years ago, roughly.

• 2:06Lewis Howes?

  And you were the leader at Verizon in bringing 5G to the marketplace and really bringing this new innovative idea. And I'm curious about this. The thing is, I'm most curious about when, when, when big companies usually are risk averse, right? They want to minimize risk and not be too innovative. Some innovation, but not too much that we lose everything. Where did your vision come from? How did you develop the skill of having courageous vision to innovate, to see something that's in the future that no one else sees and bring it to the now? Was that from sports? Was that from your parents? Was that from skill sets you developed over the years at other companies? How did you see the future and

• 2:48Lewis Howes?

  bring it to a massive corporation that usually takes years to take on a new initiative? And say, we're going to go for this. And it could be billions in losses or even more in success. How did you develop that skill of vision?

• 3:03Speaker 00

  I think over the years, I had such a luxury of my life. I've had so many different jobs in my life. I've changed so many times, even though I was in one company almost for 20, over 25 years. But I changed job and I lived in six different countries and moved around and got new challenges all the time. So I got the process where I, where I always, when I get the new task, I sort of write the white paper without talking to people what I want to do.

• 3:33Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 3:33Speaker 00

  And I write, and I started in 1993 in Chile, when I got my first job, I wrote five manager job, I wrote five bullets and I gave it to my boss, what I'm going to do. And he said, I don't care. You do accounting, I do sales. But afterwards, I understood, he talked to all my managers and our managers, they sort of, oh, we are doing this. I understood I was managing my boss. And I called it the boss contract. Since then, even though I probably have changed job 15, 20 times, I always do a boss contract. There was no different when I came into Verizon. I wrote a white paper, what I thought should be done in a company, moral insights, ideas I had. And then, in order to

• 4:16Speaker 00

  To penetrate it in a company, I did 256 meetings with 256 different people. And I had a set of questions that I knew was sort of coming into my white paper. And when I was done, I would know that, okay, 70%, it's not going to be a problem to implement. They themselves would say, I told them to do it. 20% was sort of, wow, they didn't even bring it up. They don't even think about it. I need a strong internal communication. I need to be very clear why I want to do it. And then 10% was probably, I was wrong. I probably need to change it. So I've done that in all my life. All the jobs I've changed. Sometimes my boss contract has been 25 pages. Sometimes it's been one PowerPoint slide.

• 5:00Speaker 00

  But I always decided ahead what I want to do. And then I take all the stakeholders around me to get their input. And then I calibrate it when I implement. But I always want to have my own view before I start. And that's a process I have. And that process I have applied when I moved to Brazil, when I moved to Chile, when I moved to China. Wherever I moved, Mexico, taking on new tasks when I became the CEO of Ericsson, which I think I was, I was still 43 years old when I became the CEO of Ericsson. I did the same. I need to, I need to do it. So that's how I did it this time when I came in the Verizon as well. And my job is comfortable to be three to five years ahead of the people in my organization. So I think about these type of things a lot.

• 5:45Lewis Howes?

  How do you enroll people in the vision? When maybe there's, ah, this is how we've always done things and we're comfortable with the revenue we're getting and how we sell and how the retail is.

• 5:54Speaker 00

  That's why I do the white paper, because I know if I would ask everybody internally, what should we do, where we're going? I will get the, sort of a, just an organic view where we're going. So I want to start with my white paper. That's where I want to go. This is what I want to do. Then I go back and calibrate. And the most important is to understand that how far away are my organization's thinking? And my stakeholders, I have a board, I have a lot of other stuff as well. What do I need to do to get them convinced? More than instead of say, hey, I'm wrong, I'm going to do what they don't.

• 6:26Lewis Howes?

  So how do you do that, though? How do you convince them? Because there's so many people.

• 6:29Speaker 00

  The 256 meetings, I put the projects, there are people. To some of the 20% where they were very distant, I put on project. I made a project spec for them. This is what I want to do to review. And then they they start doing it and they come to the insights themselves. It's never good when a boss tells you this is what you're going to do, go that way. You want to have the insight, you want to have the hunger and the motivation from a team, from an organization that they are driving you where going, rather than you telling them what to do. And that has sort of been my sort of idea all the life. Because if they feel successful, yeah, somehow I might be less unsuccessful, as I usually say.

• 7:10Lewis Howes?

  Wow, so you paint the picture of the vision. This is what I want to create. And then you ask the stakeholders, how can we get there?

• 7:17Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 7:17Lewis Howes?

  Interesting.

• 7:18Speaker 00

  Okay, I don't tell them the answer. I just give them the task. How are we going to organize the company? How are we going to go to market with these products? So I think I have a view what I want to do. But I let them work it through because that gets the power of organization. And I'm probably only good at one thing, that's leading large organization. I mean, it's probably more than 200,000 people or 250,000 people coming to work every day. And they only work for one company, Verizon. Some of them are contractors, some are, of course, employees. But all of them have only one task, they work for Verizon.

• 7:49Lewis Howes?

  Wow, 200,000 plus people?

• 7:51Speaker 00

  Yeah, probably 250,000 full-time executives.

• 7:53Lewis Howes?

  How did you learn to mentally navigate that pressure? 200, a quarter of a million lives at stake every day, who have families, who have hopes, some dreams, who have bills, problems, stresses, loss, grief. How do you navigate the emotional and mental weight of being a CEO of a quarter of a million lives? And the millions of lives that those people impact daily?

• 8:21Speaker 00

  I think first of all, I feel a huge responsibility for the platform that I've been given to manage for a while. That's running Verizon. And all the stakeholders in there, I mean, I have customers I need to take care of. I have shareholders that really want to be to perform well. I have all my employees that is super important. And then I need to show up in the communities and be a good guy in society. So all that for me is how I think every day. And of course, it's a lot of pressure, you know, with all these people getting food on the table, having a workplace. But ultimately, if I do this in the right way, I'm creating a long-term company that's going to be around for decades and decades and decades. And that's what I'm doing.

• 9:02Speaker 00

  And some of the decisions I've taken, you know, I wouldn't take them if I were optimizing my tenure. I wouldn't, I wouldn't take some of the decisions I've taken that because they are probably not playing in my favor. I mean, I bought Spectrum for fifty-two billion dollars. Wow. Two thousand and twenty, twenty, I think. That's going to be lasting for decades and decades and decades. If I would optimize for my own legacy and my own career, I would have bought way less. But I'm here actually to manage in this platform for a, for a time. And I have to see that the stakeholders, whatever I leave off to me should be better than what I took over. That's the most important for me. So how do you learn how to navigate the emotions yourself?

• 9:46Speaker 00

  I have a lot of emotions. I feel pressure, I... How do you, how do you manage it all? How do you like? I don't know. I mean, I've been trained all my life. I mean, I started leading three people. Now I'm leading this, I led Ericsson with one hundred and twenty thousand people. So I've been trained on every level to larger and larger organization. That's one of the toughest things you have if you work in large organization is that you go from three to three hundred people you're managing to three thousand, to thirty thousand, to two hundred thousand. It's that how do you move yourself to work with the right things when you move up? Not bringing how you worked when you were leader of three people or thirty or three hundred to thirty thousand.

• 10:28Speaker 00

  You need certain way of moving up and actually changing your head every time. So every time I got a new job, I actually sat down, started sitting down. It started way earlier, but let's say when I became the CEO of Ericsson 2009. I mean, I had a CEO. I saw him 10% of the time. I don't, nobody knows what a CEO is doing. I mean, there's no job description you can put or what should I do? They have no idea. So I decided, what is things that only I can do in this position? That nobody else in the company can do. There are six things, very easy. There are three internal and three external. The internal thing is, is talent. Nurturing the best new talents for top, that's only me.

• 11:12Speaker 00

  Strategy of the company, that's me. And then governance, meaning board meetings, leading the team. Those are the three things that only I am the one. Externally is meeting the top shareholders, the largest partners and customers. And then being on big stages, because I'm only one being invited to those big stages. So if those are the only thing, I'm the unique person to you because of the position, not of Hans Vesper, but of the position. I need to spend time. So since 2009, I measure every hour I work in these six buckets. Really? I do a forecast in advance in order to see that I spend the time on the right thing. So for example, when I took over Verizon in 2018,

• 11:53Speaker 00

  I spent a lot of time on internal talent, governance and strategy, way more than the external part. When I was done with that, I spent way more time with shareholders, be on big stages, launching 5G and all of that. So for me, it's all about how do I serve best.

• 12:13Speaker 00

  I'm super good at certain things and people are, we are lazy by nature. You tend to do the easy things and what you have always done. This process forces me to do the things that really is what, where I can make a difference.

• 12:28Lewis Howes?

  What was this, what was the thing you had to let go of? And the thing you had to do new? Leaving, leaving a company of a hundred thousand to two hundred plus thousand?

• 12:38Speaker 00

  I think what, what you need to trust people.

• 12:42Lewis Howes?

  That's hard, right?

• 12:43Speaker 00

  That's hard. You need to trust people, you need to spend hours and hours to, uh, to recruit people, to learn, to know them. And, you know, one of the most important for being a leader on this level is to be curious. You need to know the people you're managing because you and I are very different in background. Everyone in my team are so different in me in background, they're born in other countries. They are, uh, studied other things, they have been trained on other things. So they react differently how I coach them. The better I know them, the better I can coach them. And, uh, over time, uh, I usually tell that, so how do I do that? So now I don't have my, on my badge, my Verizon badge, on the flip side on that, I think I have thirty nine, thirty nine names.

• 13:27Speaker 00

  Those thirty nine names are the ones that makes a difference for the success for Verizon every day on my level.

• 13:33Lewis Howes?

  The leaders of that company.

• 13:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, there's some internal and some external. Every week I need to call or talk to these thirty nine people, one on one. And I, sometimes I just call, how are you doing? I have no task, I have nothing. I just want to learn what they're working, how can be helpful. One day I can be even better to get hundred and ten percent out of them.

• 13:53Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 13:53Speaker 00

  So usually on Thursday, I, I usually tell my team, oh, I have a lot of people to call on Friday. But it's just that interaction because I learned when I was a young, uh, uh, employee, my boss only called me when I had a problem. You have to fix this, you're late with this, this isn't good quality. Only called, it was he as well. He only called when I was bad and I remember.

• 14:15Lewis Howes?

  It doesn't feel good if you're gonna call.

• 14:17Speaker 00

  My motivation went down. Then I got the boss that called me all the time, checked up on me. And every time I was, wow, he calls me, there was nothing special, he just want to be friendly with me. And I realized that's how you want to be treated with respect regardless if it's something good, bad. And of course it makes it easier when you have a tough conversation with someone, hey, maybe I need to tell somebody. It's time for you to do something else. But if you know them, you know also how they're gonna react and how you're gonna, you're gonna do it.

• 14:46Lewis Howes?

  You started at Ericsson, is that right?

• 14:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:49Lewis Howes?

  And you were, you know, at the bottom of the.

• 14:51Speaker 00

  I checked travel expenses.

• 14:53Lewis Howes?

  Right, yeah, you were at the start.

• 14:54Speaker 00

  And I wasn't even good at it.

• 14:56Lewis Howes?

  Right, exactly. And how many employees did it have at that time roughly?

• 14:58Speaker 00

  Ericsson in total, that time probably had over a hundred thousand or a hundred fifty thousand.

• 15:03Lewis Howes?

  When you started?

• 15:04Speaker 00

  When I started.

• 15:05Lewis Howes?

  Beginning of your career?

• 15:06Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:06Lewis Howes?

  And you're what, twenty something years?

• 15:07Speaker 00

  I think I'm twenty five.

• 15:09Lewis Howes?

  Twenty five.

• 15:10Speaker 00

  And I'm moving to back to my hometown because my hometown team in team Hamburg is trying to go up to the first division. So I studied two years at the university.

• 15:21Lewis Howes?

  In Sweden?

• 15:22Speaker 00

  In Sweden and I had and I so take a year off and go for Hamburg. But when they asked me, can you come back to our hometown and try to take us up to the first division? I say, I need to work.

• 15:32Lewis Howes?

  You're a man.

• 15:33Speaker 00

  Work. Uh, no, no, I want to work. So where do you want to work? The only company in my home city was Ericsson. So they said, okay, we're going to talk to them and see if they want to have you. So I never applied for a job. My Hamburg team called them up and say, and they said, hey, you can work for us. Uh, you can work four hours in the mornings. You can check travel expenses and that's how it started.

• 15:53Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What would you say is the greatest three lessons you learned in twenty plus years at that career? Starting from the bottom of a big company to becoming the CEO. Not many people do that. They start at the bottom and then become the CEO. Three big lessons you learned on how to get there? But also what you learned about yourself, what was possible in you?

• 16:16Speaker 00

  First of all, uh, I think most of always do more than expected for you. I learned that. I always did more. If I checked travel expenses, I also took over the coffee machine to serve coffee. Uh, and I, I saw that people were feeling good. I probably did the internal communication. So always do more than expected if you want to do what I did. And I was competitive. I wanted really to be better and try all the time. The other is curious. I talked to everyone.

• 16:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 16:45Speaker 00

  I asked everyone, can I get ten minutes? Tell me what you're doing. Uh, and people love to talk about what they do.

• 16:50Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course.

• 16:50Speaker 00

  And I learned a lot from that. Uh, and then finally, uh, if you're going to lead others, I learned over the journey. You need to, uh, uh, know yourself really good. Start by knowing yourself.

• 17:03Speaker 00

  Before you start leading others, how you're gonna recruit? What type of people do I need around me that is very different than me? Those three are the learnings that I learned five years ago, I still apply it today.

• 17:16Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What would you say is the skill that you need to learn in the next few years to take Verizon from where it is to 10x in the next five plus years?

• 17:25Speaker 00

  I think that the main things I need to do is create a vision for my team so they get excited and motivated and then have the right type of diversity around me to deliver on that, so they can give that back to their teams and it goes on. That's what I need to do and that's why I'm constantly thinking how I can innovate on products, how I delight customers, how I move the technology forward, work with the partners and then paint that for my team and my team is extraordinarily good on execution.

• 17:57Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 17:57Speaker 00

  But you know, you don't want to be told something, you want to be part of something and that's what I'm trying to create and that's how I work.

• 18:05Lewis Howes?

  Wow. What's it gonna take from you in order to create that ability to, you know, become that new person? Because you've become new-

• 18:14Speaker 00

  What it takes from me is that I need to improve every day. I mean, I come into the office every day and I feel that, wow, today is finally the time to do something great. The day I lose that drive that I have every day-

• 18:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:27Speaker 00

  Now, I come in every day, I feel that, wow, time to do something, Hans Vesper. There's much more you need to do, you need to really step up and that's what is needed for me and I need to continuously improve myself as a leader. I need to be a better leader every day, I need to lead better, give even more empowerment, support, understanding for the people around me and for the stakeholders I have. I need to, I cannot be stagnant, the day I'm stagnant, I'm the wrong guy.

• 18:53Lewis Howes?

  Where did that, where did that come from, that drive, that motivation? Because you're 35-ish years in your career, you've been at the top of the world in multiple industries and companies, you've got board seats in some of the most powerful companies and industries in the world as well, you're connected to the most influential people. Why be so driven at this season of your life to wanna serve and give more? Why not just chill, relax, you know, play a little old time handball, run, travel, you know, and just take it easy? Why so motivated to create greatness at this season of life?

• 19:31Speaker 00

  First of all, I think it comes with any job you have, if you love the job. Everything around it with bank accounts is totally irrelevant. Yeah. I do this because this is best I can do and I love to do it and I love to be with people. I probably would be disaster at a venture company, you know, I would go bananas of them. So this is sort of the, what I really try for and that giving me energy. And it comes from, it comes from my father. My father was just a unique guy. I mean, he was my coach from I was five, six years old, I was twenty-one, twenty-two. Followed my whole career. He was there every day. Every time I start to be too egoistic, he showed me out.

• 20:15Speaker 00

  And he showed the respect for the team. He also showed me that, hey, everybody has their profile in a team in order to succeed. And all of that and the respect and then I come from a country where equality is sort of super high on the agenda. Everybody is equal. You can be called CEO, but actually everybody is equal and we should treat one equally. I come from that environment and you do right. Then my elevator has been going up almost all the time and I met a lot of people. You treat them with respect and support. The elevator will go down and people will treat me well. They want to remember that was a good guy.

• 20:55Speaker 00

  And in my case, I meet so many people. I meet them maybe one, once in ten years or something, they're going to have a meeting with me. I'm the biggest brand Verizon had. And the encounter with me is so important for people, my employees, big customers, partners, even shareholders, that I need to be my A-game every day. And that's why your question comes, why is it drive? The drive is if I'm not on the A-game every day. I'm not doing right for the company.

• 21:26Lewis Howes?

  What are the habits that support you to stay on your A-game consistently? Because I know you, I've seen in the interview, you rate yourself from 1 to 10 for the last, I don't know, 15, 20 years.

• 21:35Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 21:36Lewis Howes?

  On your mood, your energy.

• 21:39Lewis Howes?

  Kind of a nightly reflection, how did I show up today, all that stuff. But what are the three habits that support you in being on your A-game as consistently as possible, that you do every day?

• 21:49Speaker 00

  I think what I do every day, I of course try to do some well-being every day.

• 21:54Lewis Howes?

  You run a lot?

• 21:55Speaker 00

  I run a lot.

• 21:57Lewis Howes?

  Hashtag run with Hans.

• 21:58Speaker 00

  Yeah, hashtag run with Hans. For me, that is, and I don't impose it on others, is just find your way to get your peace. And that's a habit I have all the time. The other habit I have is also that, I usually say I have two piles of paper on my desk. One which is yes, no, should I go to that meeting, should I not go to that meeting? Super simple thing that usually people go to. And then I have a pile here, you know, solve an enormous of complex things in technology, product, something. The habit I have, I always go to the left on the desk to the complicated things. I give a about the ones to the right, because somebody else can do that for me. So I force my, that's a habit I learned in order to make progress.

• 22:43Speaker 00

  I always go to the things that I, it's hard. You cannot solve them in one meeting, you cannot solve them right now.

• 22:48Lewis Howes?

  Takes time, yeah.

• 22:49Speaker 00

  It takes time, I need meetings, I need to talk to different stakeholders. And then I said, I learned also that one of the strengths I have is to give energy to people. The mood I have, I'm the ambassador for the company. I cannot be a grumpy, screaming guy, that's not me. So that's why I started in 2009 to measure every day between 0 to 10.

• 23:16Speaker 00

  If I'm zero to two, I'm really grumpy, bad, I shouldn't meet people. If I'm nine to ten, I have too much energy, so people get tired of me. So usually I said, my sweet spot is three to seven in order to see that I get the best out of myself. And that's the self-awareness when you go to lead other people. Uh, if you want to have, I usually double down on my strengths in, in order. There are, I have so many weaknesses, we all have. And I, I can try to be better on them, but I will never fix them and be great on it. But I can be greater on what I'm really great at. And that's what I'm trying to do with my mood indicator. And I have it since I've, I have done it every day since, I think, twentieth of June, two thousand nine.

• 23:57Lewis Howes?

  Wow. And when's your birthday?

• 23:59Speaker 00

  Uh, twenty-third of June.

• 24:00Lewis Howes?

  Uh, why a couple of days before?

• 24:02Speaker 00

  Because that's the only day when I got the call on the highway, uh, in Stockholm to be the CEO of Ericsson.

• 24:08Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Twentieth of June, two thousand nine?

• 24:12Speaker 00

  Uh, yeah, I think it was, yeah.

• 24:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow, on the highway?

• 24:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, I was going home from the job, from work and the chairman of Ericsson called me and said that they want the job and. I, I remember I stopped the car and stopped driving.

• 24:24Lewis Howes?

  I could see you get emotional right now, yeah. What was that like, that call?

• 24:30Speaker 00

  Uh, one of the biggest thing you can do, you know, was my dream. So it was big. Uh, I remember I called my wife.

• 24:40Speaker 00

  And, uh, and I told her, you know, I need to talk to my family if I was going to take a job. And she told me, why do you even ask me? This is what you dream of your life? So, uh, so, uh, it's a big moment, but I realized also that. Running this company with the pressure, things go good, they go bad, the pressure gonna be under. Uh, I knew that it's not gonna be easy, but I really want to do it. And I decided to do it and I was CEO of Ericsson from two thousand nine to sixteen.

• 25:10Lewis Howes?

  Speaking about your wife, I mean, you've been married for twenty-five, thirty years.

• 25:13Speaker 00

  Since ninety-eight.

• 25:15Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, so whatever that is.

• 25:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly.

• 25:16Lewis Howes?

  Twenty-something years.

• 25:17Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly.

• 25:19Lewis Howes?

  She sounds like an incredible woman. And you've moved your, you have two, two kids. And you've, you've moved your family, I don't know, seven, ten times. Your wife has been, um, you know, a lot of people see you as the leader and the figure and the, the one driving the businesses you've been a part of. But your wife has moved, I don't know, five or ten times to multiple countries.

• 25:42Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:42Lewis Howes?

  Taking your kids with you.

• 25:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:44Lewis Howes?

  You're probably on the road, I'm assuming, half the days of the year. What is the thing you love about your wife the most? Since being with her on this incredible journey that you've had with all the, the moving, the travel, the commitments, the, the big highs, I'm sure massive losses.

• 26:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:01Lewis Howes?

  Challenges that you guys have faced as well economically or people attacking you personally, whatever it might be. What is the thing you love about her the most and the thing she's taught you?

• 26:10Speaker 00

  I think what, first of all, the good thing was that I met her at work. She worked at Ericsson. She left when I became the CEO. So she always understood what I was going through and how it works and what meaningful that. So the understanding for it has been just amazing and coping with me is probably the, the biggest thing you can do for so long. So I, I couldn't, I, I would never be here if I didn't have a stable family that have supported me through this. It's just impossible because with everything I'm doing all the time, to have a stability and a support from home and feeling that I can come home, I can be in a bad mood.

• 26:54Speaker 00

  I can have so much bad things going on in my life, but always good support and they don't really care, you know? And well, okay, that's a joke, but we are here with your family. And we have moved so many times, as I said, and every time we come to a new country, if it was Chile, Brazil, Mexico, US, or back to the US right now. We have to restart every time with friends, family.

• 27:17Lewis Howes?

  School, routine.

• 27:18Speaker 00

  Everything. So that has of course made our team extremely tight.

• 27:24Speaker 00

  So I, I'm, I'm grateful every day and, and probably I don't say it enough, but it's been a unique journey. And I'm very grateful for it.

• 27:33Lewis Howes?

  How do you? I mean. How do you guys create a relationship that that is effective long term that is happy still, knowing that you may not be around much some days and some weeks? You may get she she and the kids may get five, 10 minutes at best, you know, for a lot of those years, some of those days. How did you create the harmony in the relationship in the family where you still were able to show up as a present husband and father, but also be able to lead a company with that much pressure?

• 28:06Speaker 00

  I think I usually say this, and I also at least during my Arizona time, I actually did a boss contract with my wife. Because the problem was that I could work seven days a week, 24 hours per day. It was very easy. So the agreement we had was I have to be home on Friday evenings, and I cannot travel out until Sunday evenings again. Because you remember, if I go to Asia and Singapore and I fly home, I miss Saturday, and then I need to go to to somewhere else on Sunday. I can go Sunday morning, so I'm home 24 hours. So the deal was so during my time as CEO, when I traveled a lot at Arizona, I I I I I'm gonna be home Friday, Sunday, and my children know. So it's at least doing some rules. Then the

• 28:51Speaker 00

  rules was very strange for anyone that wouldn't be in that family. Wow, it's not home in the weeks. And I was actually my coach for my son's humble team. I was the coach for my daughter's humble team. I had friends doing it during the weeks. I took care of everything during the weekends. Of course, I worked as well. But I knew that I had to be present there during the week. I couldn't have yet like when I came home from Asia on the Friday afternoon. No, no way. I had to be 100%. So it's also a commitment to the family, equally much a commitment to work. And that's the only way to do it. But of course, I've sacrificed a lot, man. I mean, I have friends, but you know, I moved around. It was not that I can prioritize, I go out with my friends on a Saturday or doing something like that.

• 29:35Speaker 00

  So, uh, but I don't regret a second and I hope my family don't regret a second neither. But it's been, no, I've been since 2009, basically a CEO of a large cap company. I had, I had six months or nine months where I didn't have, I was chairman of the Swedish Olympic Committee.

• 29:53Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 29:53Speaker 00

  Uh, but no, I have been working hard all my life, but I, I really like it. But you need to find, with your constituency, you have to set rules as well.

• 30:02Lewis Howes?

  Agreements.

• 30:03Speaker 00

  Yeah, agreements. And that's where, then if I violate a agreement and I work a weekend, they would know why and it has to be something important.

• 30:11Lewis Howes?

  Communicated in advance. Yeah, yeah.

• 30:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's, yeah. They don't like that I had a boss contract. I felt I have one, but, but it was a way during that time. Nowadays, a little bit easier. My, my, my children are adults and they're actually working. They, they actually is.

• 30:26Lewis Howes?

  They understand what it's like.

• 30:27Speaker 00

  Yeah, they, they, they understand better. Of course, when they were smaller, they couldn't understand.

• 30:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course. What was the, uh, it sounds like your father had a massive impact on your life, being your handball coach, but also just a great mentor and leader for you. What was the greatest lesson that he taught you?

• 30:44Speaker 00

  I think that, uh, he, he, he, the greatest lesson, he, he took care of all the children in the team. I mean, that was created level. He, he took care of everyone. It was not only me. He, he cared about everyone in the team, how they had it. And I think that was the greatest lesson, you know, uh, he, he, of course, he cared about me, but I felt that he cared way less about me.

• 31:07Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 31:08Speaker 00

  Yeah, of course, because, you know, I mean, I was his son, you know, he felt that he should shop for all others, uh, and see that he was a good leader. And so I think that was a lesson I learned, you know, the humbleness of, and the respect for each and every individual in the team. And even if they didn't play or they were on the bench, just take care of them. And that's what his role and he needed, uh, he was tough. Wow. He was a police officer. He was super tough, especially on me. But that created what I am today with how competitive I became. But also, I think, fairly, fair, respectful guy. And, and he, he taught me all of that. So it was a great.

• 31:48Speaker 00

  Great journey with him. He was, and I had the luxury, you know, in, in his last season, when he was forty, I think, and I was thirteen, fourteen, we played together once.

• 31:58Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 32:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:00Lewis Howes?

  Come on.

• 32:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:01Lewis Howes?

  In Sweden.

• 32:02Speaker 00

  In Sweden, and he, I remember he, one of the games at the end, he made thirteen goals, and I made one, and he always reminded me, uh, who was the best team handball player in the family. Uh, so, yeah, and, and then he continued as my coach after that, so, yeah, no, we spent enormous lot of time together, basically every day during my, on my childhood.

• 32:23Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's, that's beautiful. Now, you also have a foundation for him, right, or an academy?

• 32:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, so, yeah, I try to give back to my hometown that created me and my father, so I, I, I try to invest, I've invested in the gym for them, I also invested so they can have a handball academy on every Friday afternoon, open house, two hours with coaches coming and taking care of all the children, and it's just great to see the name, uh, that we take care of them, and, uh, a place to go after school, uh, and that, that's, that's giving back to the, the people that gave everything, yeah.

• 32:58Lewis Howes?

  The first time I saw team handball was on TV, the Beijing Olympics.

• 33:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:04Lewis Howes?

  I'm sleeping on my sister's couch, I'm broke, I have no money, have no direction because I just got injured playing football, and was trying to figure out what do I do with the rest of my life. And I see handball at three AM, because they're showing it at all times, right? And I go, what is this sport? And I go, this is a sport I was made to play. This is, I was born to play this sport.

• 33:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:26Lewis Howes?

  But I have no money, and I start emailing and trying to find access to USA handball.

• 33:31Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:32Lewis Howes?

  There's no information. In two thousand eight specifically, there's like, I'm emailing the Olympic Committee, I'm like, is there a USA handball team? Is there a handball team in Ohio, which is where I was living in Columbus? Nothing. I see, uh, one website that is like the New York Handball Club.

• 33:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:48Lewis Howes?

  I don't know if you know those guys.

• 33:48Speaker 00

  I know those guys.

• 33:49Lewis Howes?

  Beanie, right?

• 33:50Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, Beanie, the, the Croatian guy, whatever it is, crazy.

• 33:53Lewis Howes?

  So, crazy guy, great guy, and so, I try to email and text people there, no one's replying to me. So I say, I'm gonna figure out how to be an entrepreneur. I'm broke, I have no money. I'm gonna figure out how to be an entrepreneur to make enough money to move to New York City, to go play handball in New York City.

• 34:11Speaker 00

  Oh, that's a good idea.

• 34:12Lewis Howes?

  Because they're the national champions in the club teams.

• 34:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:14Lewis Howes?

  At the time, it said national champs.

• 34:16Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 34:17Lewis Howes?

  So I, in two years, I make enough money, I get off my sister's couch, I moved to New York City, and I show, I still can't get a hold of them. I show up because they have an address of where they practice. On a Tuesday night in Brooklyn somewhere, at a middle school gym. I show up and I say, hi, my name's Lewis Howes.

• 34:36Lewis Howes?

  My dream is to make the USA team and go to the Olympics. They all laugh at me. There's like 20 guys, I'm the only American, they all speak every different language. Yeah, there are a lot of. And I say, and they say, we just won the national championship last weekend, this is our last practice of the season. Come back in three months if you're. If you're interested. I come back three months later, I show up, I say, I want to make the USA team, I want to learn handball, and I want to go to the Olympics. They laugh at me again, but they let me practice with them. Nine months later, I get an email that I got selected on the USA national team. So I played the whole year with them, all of the tournaments. Make the USA team, go to the Pan Am Championships in Buenos Aires.

• 35:19Lewis Howes?

  And it was like, whoa, this is a whole nother level. Played for eight years until COVID, until 2020. And then I'm just running my business. I'm playing while I'm building my business. But I never played full time. I only played two, three weeks a year, maybe. But I was athletic enough to just be a good defender and just be a good enough athlete, right? I still didn't have the technical. But I was a good enough athlete that every time I would make the USA camp for the team, I was always the last guy selected because I wasn't playing in Europe. But I would go because they knew I was good enough. And I was like the last man on the team, but I'd always start on defense. And then we'd play for a week and then go back for six months.

• 36:05Lewis Howes?

  And I would just train, but I wasn't on the court because there's no teams here. There's no teams here. The Olympics happened.

• 36:12Lewis Howes?

  And the dream reawakens in me. It reawakens. I message a coach friend of mine from the top Spanish league. Who's a coach of the team there and I say, hey, I'm thinking of getting back into the game and playing professionally full time. To go to Los Angeles Olympics. Twenty eight. Because it's an automatic qualify. Yeah, you're automatically qualified. So for years. That's why I'm hanging in there. Exactly. So for years, I was always like, hopefully, Chicago. Hopefully, you know, it was like New York, maybe, maybe LA, twenty sixteen, twenty twenty. And then, no, twenty twenty eight. So I'm like, man, when they got the announcement, I was like, it's ten years away. That's a long time. It's a long time. But it was not enough for me to go play professional full time.

• 36:56Lewis Howes?

  Because the business was too big and too important. It wasn't enough to like, uh, make a thousand dollars a month or whatever in Spain, you know? And, um, and we were making a big impact here, you know.

• 37:09Lewis Howes?

  So I was like, ah, it's not worth it. But it's reactivated. I feel stronger than ever and the Spanish. I emailed the contact, got on the phone with him. He said, listen. Uh, I said, can you connect me to Barcelona? Because I want to be in a big city. I want to play with Barcelona FC. I'm a friend. Yeah. So I met with the coach, the head coach. Yeah. Uh, Carlos. Yeah. Or Tegay. So I met him at the Olympics because he was training, coaching the Japanese team. Japanese team. So I was with him in the Olympics village right outside in the hotel. I said, this is my dream. Can I come play with FC for the next four years? But I want a flexible contract. Yeah. Maybe two months on, one month off. He said, I don't know about the first team unless you're all in.

• 37:54Lewis Howes?

  But the second team for sure, I can get you to practice with them, which is still a big club. Fantastic. Oh, it's a great team. Best, best in the world. Yeah. Second team is still good, but they're young guys. They run constantly. I wouldn't be able to train like that. He said, listen, it's gonna be tough unless you're full time, like with the second team, like you can't come and go. But my other friend, who's a coach in Leon, Spain, who's Ademar. Ademar de Leon, yeah. He's, I went out to fly out to Madrid a couple of days later. I left the Olympics and I went to Madrid and took a train to Leon. And I did a workout with the team. And they're gonna offer me a flexible contract for four years to be the home club to train and see if I'm good enough to be on the USA team. So and I talked to your buddy, Robert. I don't know if you know Robert well.

• 38:38Lewis Howes?

  I know. I know Robert. These are my people I work with 24 by 7. So I talked to Robert. I said, Robert, who I played with in 2018, 2019. Yeah. I said, Robert, this is my dream still. It'll be 20 years since the dream first started in 2008 to 2028. This is my home city now. I've lived here for 12 years. And you guys made history two years ago by winning two games. Two games and one championship. And no one knew about it in the USA. Exactly. No one. No, I knew about it. But no one else. No coverage, no media, no attention. Because most of the guys on the team are European. They don't care about promoting in USA. The two guys that I know on the USA team who are US Americans, they have no following. I said, I'm gonna be the

• 39:22Lewis Howes?

  biggest champion of USA handball. I'm gonna bring this to the biggest country that needs to know about it over the next four years. But you gotta tell me that there's a chance I can be on the team. There's a chance. If I'm training professionally, six months a year with this team, you gotta bring me to the, I'm gonna bring the media, the marketing, the attention, and this country's gonna know about it. And hopefully, we can actually do something about this in the future. Because no one at the USOC has helped to build the fundamental, the programs. Everyone's disjointed, Beanie and someone in LA and people in Detroit, they're all doing their own thing. We need a bit of movement. So anyways, I wanted to share that story. So when I met Gary, so I flew back from Madrid. This is bringing it full circle. I flew back

• 40:05Lewis Howes?

  from Madrid. The next day, I spoke at Gary Vaynerchuk's conference. Yeah. It was the closing keynote here in LA. We hang out afterwards. He's like, what have you been up to? I was like, I just got back from the Olympics and I've got a dream again. And he said, handball? Because he knows my story. He said, handball. And on the TV, the championships is playing, right? And I go, that's handball. He goes, I know what handball is. I've seen your content. And he goes, that'd be amazing. He's like, you gotta meet a guy, Hans. And I go, I know who he is. He's the only sponsor of USA Handball.

• 40:36Speaker 00

  Yes, I am.

• 40:37Lewis Howes?

  So that's

• 40:38Speaker 00

  The sheep, the sponsorship I have.

• 40:39Lewis Howes?

  I know. So I said, that's why this synchronicity of this meeting is around this. You have a lot of accolades, a lot of success, a lot of accomplishments that you've created in your life from sports to business and a lot of charities that you support as well, things that you guys do at Verizon also. What is the thing that you are most proud of, Hans, that most people don't know about? That's not out there publicly, that's not in the headlines, you know, I see you guys in the paper almost daily about all the things you guys are doing at Verizon. What's something you personally are proud of, whether it be at the company or in your own personal life, that you're really proud of?

• 41:18Speaker 00

  I'm proud of that. I have a great time. I think that I'm very proud of, but if it's not like if, I think one needs to understand that at least in my life, I feel like a professional in sports or a professional CEO.

• 41:36Speaker 00

  I don't think that anybody, if you're great like LeBron or Tom Brady, you sit there, I'm proud in the middle of the season. I'm proud I got my Super Bowl, so I want to, they would never think about that. They're thinking, what am I supposed to do in the future? And I'm the same. I'm not thinking about, I'm proud, I've been doing great. When you are in the middle of what you're doing, you always think about, what can I do better? How can I be better? How can I be a greater leader? How can I support my people around me? I think that's how I think every day. Then of course, if I would bring out something that I'm proud of is that when I came out, when we came out from COVID, I worked with digital inclusion all my life.

• 42:17Lewis Howes?

  Digital inclusion?

• 42:18Speaker 00

  Digital inclusion. And I've seen where people are connected, they become part of the society. And they have an equal chance. It doesn't really matter where you're born or who you are, where you come from, but if you have connection to the internet, you can study, you can get healthcare information, probably digital healthcare, you can start doing banking. You can apply for a job. So when, I worked with that since 2008 and when COVID hit, I think that everyone understood, I cannot work if I have not brought that home. I cannot study.

• 42:52Speaker 00

  I decided I want to take on a task, which is of course part of what Verizon doing, but way larger. I took on a task where I called a couple of multi-platforms, but I ultimately ended up calling Klaus Schwab at World Economic Forum and I told him, I want to run the project. If I can have your platform, I can rally a lot of countries, companies to help to connect more people in the world. And after a half year of work, we decided in 2021, I think, we wanted to go from 1 billion people connected, either digital healthcare, digital education, or financially included through mobile payment and things like that.

• 43:33Speaker 00

  I rallied some 350 different partners from countries to companies, the largest companies in the world, to make targets that I'm auditing. The 1 billion is so close right now.

• 43:46Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 43:47Speaker 00

  We're probably going to pass it in weeks to come.

• 43:49Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 43:50Speaker 00

  And that's one and a half year before we put out the commitment. And again, I put out the wild vision of 1 billion connected people, not only that they have broadband, they should have education digitally, healthcare digitally, or financial inclusion digitally. So, work with all these stakeholders and so I'm proud of that, that I... But that's also what we are doing. Verizon is doing it in healthcare or in the education. So it's part of our strategy, but it was beyond and above is in the whole world, it's not in Africa and Asia. So for me, that is to do the right thing for the company, but also using the platform that I have to do better.

• 44:31Lewis Howes?

  And how do you make that happen? How do you set this vision, I want to connect...

• 44:36Speaker 00

  I have great people around me. I know a lot of people. I call the big companies like Google, the mastercard of the world, Apollo, which is the biggest hospital in India, which is one of the biggest in the world, private equity people, saying, "Hey, what are you doing in these areas? What can you help to accelerate that?" So we add 1 billion people connected. And that's why we got the 350 champions, we have a board and all, we have structure, we're auditing everything.

• 45:06Speaker 00

  So that was something that you can say that I feel good that I took the decision and we have said we're going to pass the billion very, very soon.

• 45:14Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Again, you were a visionary in seeing, you know, 5G and bringing that to Verizon and being the leaders in that space.

• 45:25Lewis Howes?

  At Ericsson, I saw, you know, you took from hardware to software and services, you kind of switched the whole business model in a company that had been a long time in one thing. You said, "Oh, let's actually go away from this and start doing services and software." What do you see as the future for the next three to five years with Verizon? What is the innovation? What is the thing that most people aren't seeing that you see in the next three to five years? That is possible to connect the world even more, to serve humanity at a greater level, to obviously make your customers even happier and healthier? What is that vision you see possible?

• 45:59Speaker 00

  So the vision I see is that the importance of broadband and mobility and cloud services in today's societies is a necessity to work. So I have a product that is so important. But what you need to create with the product is of course, seeing that it's flexible enough, you get value enough, and you get loyal to it. It has to work, the network has to be the best. So that's why I started building sort of a vertical stack of offerings. You have the networks, different type of network configuration on broadband and wireless. And then you add, okay, what is needed on this network? I do the streaming services. So I'm partnered with Disney, with Apple, with Max, all of them, I can distribute for

• 46:43Speaker 00

  a cheaper price than they can do because I have the cost of acquisition. And then I add fintech on that, insurance, banking. And then on top of that, I have something called My Access. I have more tickets to NFL, NBA, and NHL than anybody else. I have the live concerts. So I'm building sort of a... A sort of a resilient offering that, hey, if I go with Verizon, I'm gonna get a really good wireless plan that I can choose from, but I can also continue with getting other services from them that suits me, that I pick, because historically.

• 47:16Lewis Howes?

  Personalized to me.

• 47:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, basically, I want every person to have there my plan, my plan on wireless and my home on broadband, so they feel this is what I choose, because historically, our industry was clunky, you know, hey, if you take my wireless, you get Disney Plus, and they say, I don't want Disney Plus, so I get the value, and so I need to personalize everything, but you still need to have the best network, but you need the optionality on the network, on broadband and wireless, and that's what I'm building right now, together with my team, with a vision to building out this and seeing that we are delighting our customers with different offerings, and they're saying, hey, Verizon is not only a great wireless network and broadband network, hey, I get my Netflix at a cheaper price with Verizon,

• 48:02Speaker 00

  I get my insurance on my devices, I get my credit card with Verizon, all that I'm trying to build in order to delight my customers and see that I continue to be the number one in everything I do, because that's really what we are, and I want to continue to be.

• 48:16Lewis Howes?

  What is the main obstacle in your way of achieving greatness in this dream, in this vision of Verizon? What's the challenge in your way? And how can anyone listening or watching be of service to help you overcome those obstacles faster?

• 48:32Speaker 00

  I think that when you're running large-sized companies like this, you inevitably need bureaucracy, which sometimes is slowing you down. The other thing you really need and you need to listen constantly is feedback from customers. I think anyone that's listening to here, and with the market shares we have on wireless and broadband, we're touching probably more than 50% of all the households every month with a bill, so there are multiple people can give us feedback, and they do.

• 49:05Speaker 00

  I have a public mail address, which I read all my mail myself. I get probably fifty to a hundred mails every day from customers. I read them all, I have no one else reading my mails, and I distribute them to my team members, which I think should answer. That's for me, if I get ten mails that are complaining about the complexity of switching my Netflix with Netflix to Netflix to Verizon, then I know we have a problem. So that type of things is important for me. I dedicate my mornings, I don't know, an hour every morning just to read them through. And then I distribute them to my team, and I know my team is taking very seriously on them. They read them, they see that we are actually addressing them. So I think that that's what everybody can do to help me internally.

• 49:49Speaker 00

  It's more about painting the vision and giving the freedom how to get there for my team, because they know better than me how to get there. But I need to be good enough to articulate where I want to go, so they dare to do it, because they have the carte blanche.

• 50:05Lewis Howes?

  What's the public place for people to message you? Is there an email somewhere?

• 50:09Speaker 00

  No, they can find it, they just go out and ask for my email address. It's super easy.

• 50:15Lewis Howes?

  Okay, perfect. So people have feedback, but give the good feedback too. Send it to Hans.

• 50:20Speaker 00

  It's one to ten on good. It's nine complaint.

• 50:23Lewis Howes?

  Send them some good stuff. Couple of final questions for you, Hans. If you could go back and

• 50:32Lewis Howes?

  have a conversation with yourself right before you started the first day at Ericsson. You're playing handball, you're at your home club, you're still playing plus working, part-time, half and half. If you could, at this moment, go and speak to your twenty-five-year-old self and look back and think of how far you've come. Everything you've had to overcome, the challenges, the beauty, the joys, you know, getting married, to having kids, and everything in between. The greatness, the losses, everything. What would you say to yourself at twenty-five, right now, if he was standing right in front of you, just getting ready, "I'm gonna start this new job and play handball, and I have no idea of the future," what would you say to him? And what advice would you give him as well?

• 51:15Speaker 00

  I don't know if I could give him any advice. I think the advice I would have given that probably had helped me a little bit more was to... Be a little bit less centric on yourself. Because even though I was a team player, I was really focused on myself and my career, which might be a little bit un-Swedish. And I remember, I'm gonna tell you a story. So I had a great CEO, Eriksson. I came in very early on to Run the One Division. We had our yearly performance review. And it was really, I think it went really good for me. I was young, I was, wow. And we sit down, he's, oh, you're doing great here. We had a very systematic way, you're doing great here.

• 52:00Speaker 00

  And then when everything is over, wow, it's great feedback. And then he said, do you want to be the CEO of Eriksson? He asked me, I said, wow, of course, easy. And he tells me, that will never happen.

• 52:13Speaker 00

  All these performers and all of this, they said, yeah, but Hans, you need to understand one thing. All your team or your colleagues that you have horizontally, I mean, you're not supporting them. You're delivering your unit, exceeding what you're doing. And then you sometimes even tell the others what they're gonna do instead of helping them. If you one day, if somebody would ask, who's gonna be the CEO? They're gonna, all your colleagues are gonna say, I don't wanna work for that guy. So you need to think how you deal with them. And I think that was a learning for me, how to be equally important to work with my boss, with my boss contract,

• 52:56Speaker 00

  how I lead my people around, below me, but also the people around me. That was a learning. And I think that moment, wow, okay. And I think a couple of years later, I became the CEO.

• 53:08Lewis Howes?

  Wow, that's incredible. I've got one final question for you, because my time is just about up, Hans. But before I ask the question, I want to acknowledge you for your authenticity, for your realness, for your generosity, for coming down here just to have this interview and to share your wisdom. I think there's very few people in your position who have come from where you are. To get to where you're at right now, to lead one of the biggest companies in the world,

• 53:34Lewis Howes?

  with all the benefits and the challenges that come with that, to be able to share the lessons that you've shared today. So if everyone watching and listening, I want you guys to really take it in and, you know, share about this, post about it, tag Hans on Instagram, let me know what you thought about this, the biggest thing that stood out for you, the biggest piece of feedback as well. And I acknowledge you, Hans, for constantly being of service. I think what your CEO at that time said, you started to implement that and started to serve everyone around you. You started to become more Swedish, it sounds like.

• 54:06Speaker 00

  Yeah, equality, everybody's equal. See that you're handling the ecosystem around you, yeah, definitely.

• 54:12Lewis Howes?

  And I acknowledge you for having a big passion and heart to give. You know, your energy, this is the first time I was connecting, but your energy, you just seem full of love. And I really acknowledge you for having that servant leadership quality at such a big company. And I'm excited to see what you continue to create. But I have one final question, Hans. What's your definition of greatness?

• 54:39Speaker 00

  My definition of greatness is actually a person that see that others are shining. That's greatness. Greatness is to see that people around you are happy, motivated, empowered. If that's your workplace or if it's at home, that's greatness. That you realize that others feeling good, feeling great, that's the greatest greatness I can give to someone. I think that's greatness for me. Seeing the great leaders, I've seen it in sports people that really thinks about their team more than themselves. That's greatness for me. And hopefully, I'm living up to half of that greatness, how I am. But that's really what I strive for. That's great people.

• 55:24Speaker 00

  And greatness for me is how you deal with other people, how you respect them in good and bad and see that you listen to people and try to see how you can motivate them.

• 55:35Lewis Howes?

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

• 56:18Lewis Howes?

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