Greatness

Diving into the stories behind the characteristic trait that helped Elon Musk build two of the biggest companies in the world, SpaceX and Tesla.

 Check out Ashley Vance's book, Elon Musk, for more on the life and greatness on the man who is changing the world.

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Book: Chasing Greatness: Timeless Stories on the Pursuit of Excellence 
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Diving into the life and greatness of the legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi from David Maraniss' book: When Pride Still Mattered

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0:00 - Winning is an all the time thing

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

2:30 - Lesson from father

“No one’s ever hurt. Hurt is in your mind.”


4:25 - Playing to coaching 


5:50 - What's the thing that gives you a seven-day weekend?

7:00 - The core of Lombardi's coaching philosophy

“Repetition was at the core of his coaching philosophy. Doing the same thing over and over again, whether it was a play or calisthenics”

9:30- Attention to detail

Vince Lombardi spent eight hours at a coaching clinic talking about one play.

12:30- The cost of ambition


20:30 - New York to Green Bay

“When I am done. It will be on that map.”


21:40 - Being relentless

With every fiber in my body I’ve got to make you the best football player that I can make you. And I’ll try. And I’ll try. And if I don’t succeed on the first day. I’ll try again. And I’ll try again. And you’ve got to give everything that is in you.

23:10- What's your pain tolerance

29:25 - Excellence > Winning

The mistake championship teams often make is to try to repeat their winning formula. But that rarely works because by the time the next season starts, your opponents have studied all the videos and figured out how to counter every move you made. Winning is about moving into the unknown and creating something new. It’s about that scene in the first Indiana Jones movie when someone asks Indy what he’s going to do next, and he replies, “I don’t know, I’m making it up as we go along.” That’s how I view leadership. It’s an act of controlled improvisation.

30:30 - Some coaching philosophies

36:50 - Lessons and takeaways

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Website: https://www.chasegreatness.net
Book: Chasing Greatness: Timeless Stories on the Pursuit of Excellence 
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Diving into the short stories on Urban Meyer, Neil Armstrong, Thomas Edison, Frances Grayson, and more about the curse of ambition.

Check out Wright Thompson's book, The Cost of These Dreams, for more on the dark side of ambition.

1:40 - Urban Meyer

Why do people persist in their self-destructive behavior, ignoring the blatant fact that what they’ve been doing for many years hasn’t solved their problems? They think that they need to do it even more fervently, or frequently, as if they were doing the right thing but had to try even harder.

7:40 - Neil Armstrong

“The one regret was that my work required an enormous amount of my time and a lot of travel,and I didn’t get to spend the time I would have liked with my family as they grew up.”

9:05 - Thomas Edison 

The other thing he said was his superpower was the ability to work more than others on less sleep. He called sleep a waste of time, often working 18-22 hours a day, even putting in a couple days worth of work without a break.

12:40 - Frances Grayson

“I would rather give my life to something big and worthwhile, than to live longer and do less.”


13:40 - Ted Turner

“Work, Racing, Family, in that order.”


Quote

“Your heroes aren't gods, they're just regular people who got good at one thing by neglecting everything." - Jason Pargin  

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Diving into the life, greatness, and his leadership philosophy from Phil Jackson  book: Eleven Rings

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0:00 - Leadership is being a magician

Sometimes when I’m filling out forms, I list my profession as “magician.” I’m not trying to be mischievous. It’s just that when I think about the ego-balancing act NBA coaches have to perform, making magic may be the best way to describe what we do

1:30 - Brother's life advice that changed Phil's career

9:45 - Impact of Zen Buddhism/importance of freedom and latitude

12:45 - John Wooden vs Phil Jackson

18:20 - Two types of "luck"

21:40- How Phil used non-action to solve problems/mastering the art of letting go

When the men are preparing for a flight they are really home hardly at all . They come home on weekends and even they have work to do. We’re lucky if they have a chance to come in and sit down and say hello before they go off again a day later.

24:45- Three leadership practices

26:45 - The importance of a pause/delay in conflict

The best way to handle most flare-ups is to sleep on them. The point is to avoid acting out in anger and creating an even stickier mess. And if you’re lucky, the problem may solve itself.

30:45 - Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. 

36:20 - How to sustain excellence

The mistake championship teams often make is to try to repeat their winning formula. But that rarely works because by the time the next season starts, your opponents have studied all the videos and figured out how to counter every move you made. Winning is about moving into the unknown and creating something new. It’s about that scene in the first Indiana Jones movie when someone asks Indy what he’s going to do next, and he replies, “I don’t know, I’m making it up as we go along.” That’s how I view leadership. It’s an act of controlled improvisation. 

40:20 - Humiliation is motivation

43:55 - Lessons and takeaways

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Diving into the life and greatness of Neil Armstrong from James Hansen's book: First Man

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1:40 - What reading did for Neil

4:20 - Napoleon: are you lucky?

10:15 - The low point of Neil's life  + Theodore Roosevelt and how to honor lost loved ones

13:15 - Pursue excitement 

15:00 - Early days at NASA

20:30- The lifestyle and sacrifices 

When the men are preparing for a flight they are really home hardly at all . They come home on weekends and even they have work to do. We’re lucky if they have a chance to come in and sit down and say hello before they go off again a day later.

23:00- What's your capacity to move on? 

26:45 - The purpose of Apollo 11

I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of human beings to face challenges. It is by the nature of his deep inner soul. We’re required to do these things just as salmon swim up river.

27:40 - How the moon landing almost didn't happen

32:45 - The need for a team

34:15 - Lessons and takeaways

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Diving into the life and greatness of Matthew McConaughey from his book, Greenlights

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0:00 - A roof is a man made thing

3:30 - The forbidden word 

5:30- Don't half-ass it/How to make the right decisions

14:30 - Preparation = Freedom

We have to prepare to have freedom. We have to do the work to then do the job. We have to prepare for the job so we can be free to do the work.

20:10 - Reverse engineer the person you want to become/things you want to accomplish

22:30- The power of less

I had five things on my proverbial desk to tend to daily: family, foundation, acting, a production company, and a music label. I felt like I was making Bs in all five. By shutting down the production company and the music label, I eliminated two of my five commitments with plans to make As in the other three.

25:10:- Turning down $15 million

31:25 - Takeaways

Any success takes one in a row. Do one thing well, then another. Once, then once more. Over and ove until the end, then it’s oneinarow again

I’ve never care much for destinations. The idea of landing is too finite for my imagination and sense of song. Give me a direction and a sixteen lane highway with room to swerve and explore along the way. Like jazz, I prefer to see life as a river.

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Website: https://www.chasegreatness.net
Book: https://www.chasegreatness.net/book
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Diving into the life and greatness of the greatest Olympian, Michael Phelps, from his book, Beneath The Surface


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4:30 - To find what you love, you have to suck at first

7:40 - How Bob Bowman, Michael Phelps' coach, helped  him prepare for competitions

“Champions produce normal and predictable results in abnormal and unpredictable circumstances

9:30 - First efforts aren't meant to work

12:20 - Michael's goal at 15, "“I want to change the sport of swimming… I want to change the sport of swimming. I want people to talk about it, think about it, and look forward to seeing it. I want them to want to jump in and do it. That’s my goal.”

14:00 - Volume wins. Michael trained every single day. Christmas. Holidays. Birthdays. Every single day.

16:45 - “When we practice long hours, we’re depositing money into the bank. We need to deposit enough so that when we make a large withdrawal, we have enough funds to withdraw.”

17:30 - Find different sources of motivation. "I use whatever I can to motivate myself."

22:30 - Bet on yourself . "If i were to win seven gold at either of the next two olympics, Speedo would pay me a $1 millions bonus for equaling Mark Spitz’ record for gold medals at one Olympic set in 1972. And unlike most contractual provisions, which remain confidential, we decided to talk about his one publicly."

25:50 - Daily routine."I’d wake up at 7a.m. and swim until 8:30 or 9. After that, it was a nap and at 3:45, we’d start up again. I’d get there at 3:15 to stretch. After swimming, we’d do between half an hour of dryland training. "

29:45 - Motivation leading up to 2008 Olympics,

"Leave it to Bob to grab the article that would set me off like a rocket. The article quotes Ian Thorpe, who was asked about my prospects for winning seven or eight gold medals in Beijing. 'I don’t think he’ll do it, but I’d love to see it. There’s a thing called competition. There won’t be one athlete competing and in a lot of events he has strong competition.'"

I then took the article and taped it to my locker. Whenever I look inside the locker each morning after arriving at the pool, the underlined story is the very first thing I see. If I'm dragging trying to accomplish what I need to do, I think about Ian’s words. Then I train a little harder. 

33:00 - How/why he set records at Beijing

39:50 - Key takeaways

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Diving into the life and greatness of Woody Allen from Eric Lax's biography, Woody Allen

Woody Allen was once asked in an interview how he makes one film a year, quite a great feat. Woody simply responded, “It’s not all that big a deal when you think of it because what I do is make films. It’s not that I’m torn between other activities.”

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3:30 - Find the thing that makes you feel alive

8:00 - Increase your volume to do great work. Woody Allen wrote 50 jokes a day. Not all were great. But when you write and everyday and write a lot, you create a bulk of volume that will lead to success eventually

9:40 - How much do you want it, "“You have to want it more than anything else in the world. It’s a tough scramble and you just have to want it.”

11:10 - Enthusiasm is the ultimate projection of success

16:00 - “Every writer has trouble with beginnings, that the beginning is the hardest part, and once you get going it does get a little easier.”

18:10 - Becoming a comedian and overcoming fear,  “The scariest moment is always before you start.”

27:10 - Greatness doesn't dabble. Woody Allen makes a film a year because he is just always working on material.

30:20 - "I’m obeying nobody but my artistic muse. The experience is doing the project; the critical and commercial responses are not terribly relevant…If I don’t like something, it doesn't matter how many awards it’s own. It’s important to keep your own criteria and not defer to the trends of the marketplace.” 

34:20 - "Writing doesn’t come easy. I learned to get at it early in the morning nand work at it and rewrite and rethink and tear up my stuff and write it again. I was brought up in a hard-line approach–you never wait for inspiration, you have to do it and force it until you get it right."

37:00 - “Thank god the public only sees the final product.”

41:30 - "I love work. I’d work seven days a week. I don’t care about hours. When we solve this problem, whether it’s five or ten at night, then we move on to something else. Hours or days mean nothing,"

43:00 - If you're meeting your standards and expectations, that's a bad thing

45:00 - Make the process as easy as possible

47:00 Key takeaways

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Website: https://www.chasegreatness.net
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Diving into routines and rituals of the world's greatest artist from Mason Currey's book: Daily Rituals

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4:45 - Gertrude Stein and  Haruki Murakami - Short vs long routines

6:50 - Ernest Hemingway - Leave some juice in the tank

9:30 - Marcel Proust - Is it sustainable

12:40 - Beethoven  and Soren Kierkegaard - Walks as an aid to creativity

17:30 - Woody Allen and Nicholas Baker - The importance of novelty

21:15 - David Lynch - Meditation

23:50 - N.C. Wyeth - Limit Distractions

25:40 - Creativity Reminders

30:00- Do's and Don'ts

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Check out my new book Chasing Greatness: Timeless Stories on the Pursuit of Excellence

You can get some Chasing Greatness Apparel here

Diving into lessons and stories from Oksana Masters autobiography: The Hard Parts

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0:00 - Upbringing/rough beginnings

15:30 - Finding happiness/understanding the importance of hardship

20:30 - The power of a purpose

23:15 - Rowing an an antidote to living

24:30 - Use your enemies

28:15 - Taking the risk/filter for making life's biggest decisions

32:00 - Doubts will always be present

35:10 - Oksana on beauty

36:55 - Make it visible

44:30 - Heaven to hell

46:35 - Happiness vs anger

49:20 - 2018 Olympic Games and perseverance

52:50 - Capacity for pain/create a bigger hurt

57:40 - Advice to younger self

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Check out my new book Chasing Greatness: Timeless Stories on the Pursuit of Excellence

You can get some Chasing Greatness Apparel here