When I was 9 years old, I drew up a 20-year plan. I had a dream so I drew up a 20-year plan, and that plan was to be the best safety in the whole world. I had 20 years to do it. So I achieved that. In 1984 I became the best safety in the world and I made up a new plan.
So I started that at 9 and now I am 29. So at 29 the new plan is that I am going to be the best stage performer of my time. So I studied and I trained for the next 15 years and guess what happens? The New York Times names my play (the play that I wrote and the play that I am the only one in) called “Runt of the Litter” the most powerful play of the last decade. So that one happened. Then I made up another one at 49.
So at 9, best safety; at 29, best stage performer, best playwright; at 49, best speaker in the world; so I am working on that one–that one is in the works.
This is what I want you to get from this: I was talking to some kids the other day and I showed them my 20-year plan, the one I drew up when I was 9 years old. It’s written on school paper. I'll show it to you one day.
Anyway, so I am showing it to these kids, these high school kids. I am showing them the plan so they start making it for themselves. These kids inform me that that piece of paper is 44 years old. My 20-year plan is now 44 years old. I am 53, so that piece of paper is 44 years old. It is like the Declaration of Independence.
So I started thinking about that. I have spent 44 years out of my 53 years dedicated to this space of being the best, turning myself into the best at three or four different disciplines–completely different disciplines. Playing in the NFL and being a playwright on Broadway, I mean those two just don’t go together, right?
So I have spent 44 years of my life dedicated to this space I call, what it takes to be the best.
I started retracing my steps because people would say to me, “I want those kind of results for me. I want those kind of results for my kids. I want those kind of results for my company.” So I retraced my steps, and what happened over these 44 years was that patterns started to develop and reveal themselves. Methods and systems started to reveal themselves. What I realized is that I did the same exact things for all of those disciplines.
Can you imagine being the best safety in the world? There are certain things you have to do to achieve that. Then to create the greatest play of the last 10 years? How are you going to do that? You take that same discipline and you just put it right over there and it all translates pretty well. I mean, there are certain skills that are specific to certain environments that you have to take into account.
What always came back were these systems and patterns. This is the reason I am talking about this with you. This is the reason I’m going to continue to teach you and to train you and to show you those patterns and systems so that you can apply them to your own life. Because it is very simple. It is not like it is hard. All it is, for one, you got to show up. You got to show up. I mean that’s the biggest problem. People just won’t do it. They will quit.
My son, his name is Axel, has this dream and he drew up a 20-year plan. His dream is to play in the NFL and to play in the NBA at the same time, so pro athlete in two different sports. Now that sounds impossible, doesn’t it? But that’s not impossible for him; he doesn’t see it as impossible. I don’t really see it as impossible either. I see it is going to be very hard. But he has drawn up the plan, he is dreaming of it every day and he is showing up and doing the work every single day.
He has got the discipline. I have trained him to have the discipline.
Now the day is going to arrive where they are going to say, “Okay, Axel. Now it is your turn.” And he is going to have to come through for himself on that day. So the patterns that I followed, he follows the same ones. I know how to best in the world at pretty much anything because it is all the same thing. I teach him the same thing that I teach you.
One thing I want to introduce at the tail end of this video is this: Every one of those disciplines that I committed to being the best in the world at, guess what? Guess what was constant in every one of those disciplines, every one of those environments? Guess the one thing that was constant throughout it all and it is constant with my son Axel right now?
It’s story. His personal story, my personal story, your personal story, is a gigantic piece of you being the best in the world at what you want, of you achieving the highest level at whatever discipline you chose. Your story has got to lead the way. You have got to know what it is. You have got to know your story from the past. You’ve got to know your vision of the future, like where you are going to take us, where you are going to lead us. You have to know that story and how you see the world.
You have to know the story of the defining moment, which got you here. What is the defining moment that got you to this place, right? You have to know those things and you have to express that story. That’s how people know to help you with your dream, to help you with your story.
So over the course of this video series we are going to be talking about your story. We are going to talk about how to develop it, how to use it, so that you can be just like every other great leader of all time, dating all the way back to Julius Cesar. You are going to have to have the ability to tell your own story. It’s the number one thing leaders have to have.
So for the last 44 years, I have been haunted by one thought and that thought was, how can I be the best at a thing? How can I be the best at a thing? I will tell you what happens when you are the best at a thing, everybody around you, the people that are closest to you, they get to be the best too because they go with you.
Some people will eliminate themselves from you. They will go away from you. But the people who are closest to you, who really help you with your dream, help you protect it and facilitate it, they will go with you. They will go straight to the top, so you will find that you committing to being the best actually helps other people to realize that they are the best too, and they can go with you. That’s the environment I want to create and that is done through your story.
You are going to have to tell them your story. You are going to have to tell them the dreams that you have so they know how to make your dreams come true, and then in turn their dreams get to come true– that is our job. That is our job as human beings on this earth–to make our dreams and the dreams of everyone around us come true.
The best way to do that is to have the ability to share yourself. The ability to share your vision, where you are going to take them, and they will either follow or they will not that is their choice.
So I’m going to sign off right now. I want you to start thinking about your story. If we all follow you, are you going to be happy with where you lead us? Are you going to be satisfied with where you are going to take us? Because I am going to give you the ability to make people follow you. People are going to be attracted to you, and they are going to listen to you, and they are going to follow you.
Are you going to be content with where you are going to take them? So you better start thinking about it now. You better start asking yourself, “Where am I taking them?”
My whole life I have been dedicated to this. I have the scars and the heartache to prove it, okay, and our leaders going forward in our lifetime are going to be people with scars; not these fake leaders we have today. They are fake leaders, not real. They are unscathed, they are perfect, they are polished. I wouldn’t follow them anywhere and neither would you. That’s why you don’t listen to them. That’s why you don’t pay attention to them.
I like my leaders with a little mud on their face, a little scar under their eye, a little blood on their knees. Those are the people who have run the miles. For the last 44 years, I have stuck my nose into what it takes to be the best. Now when you stick your nose into trying to be the best, you get a lot of heartache. You get beat up. You get a lot of surgeries, right? But that’s who is going to lead.
So are you with me? You want to lead? We got to find out what your story is. We are going to be able to share that thing. Get out there and lead, and you lead with your story right off the bat, okay. We’ll see you next time.
