What I Learned About Life After Interviewing 80 Highly Successful People
“You interrupt too much,” people email me. “Let your guests finish talking.” But I can’t help it. I get curious. I want to know! Now!
Over the past year I interviewed about 80 guests for my podcast. My only criteria: I was fascinated by some aspect of each person.
I didn’t limit myself by saying “each one had to be an entrepreneur” or “had to be a success.”
I just wanted to talk to anyone who made me curious about their lives. I spoke to entrepreneurs, comedians, artists, producers, astronauts, writers, rappers, and even this country’s largest beer brewer.
Will I do it for the next year? Maybe. It’s hard.
Sometimes I would pursue a guest for six months with no reply and then they would call and say, “Can you do it right now?” and I’d change all plans with kids, Claudia, business.
I had no favorites. They were all great. I interviewed Peter Thiel, Coolio, Mark Cuban, Arianna Huffington, Amanda Palmer, Tony Robbins, and many more. I’m really grateful they all wanted to talk to me.
Podcasting, to be honest, was just an excuse for me to call up whoever I wanted to call and ask them all sorts of personal questions about their lives. If I wanted to talk about “Star Wars,” I called the author of a dozen Star Wars novels.
If I wanted to talk about Twisted Sister, I called up the founder of the band. If I wanted to talk sex I called the women who ran the “Ask Women” podcast.
I wanted to know at what point were they at their worst. And how they got better. Each person created a unique life. I wanted to know how they did it. I was insanely curious.
As Coolio told me, “You got me to reveal some deep stuff I didn’t want to reveal. Kudos.” Tony Robbins had to literally shake himself at one point and say, “Wait, how did we end up talking about this?” I can’t help it. I want to know.
Here are the most important things I learned. I can’t specify which person I learned what from. It hurts my head when I think about it because many of the 80 said the exact same thing about how they ended up where they were.
Here is some of what they said:
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Measure Your Wealth in Options
I was lamenting the fact that business has been slow over the last handful of weeks (end of the year and first of the year aren’t exactly the roaring seasons for keynote speakers and professional development experts), but a little change of perspective really turned me around. Because there’s a lesson in it that would be useful to an owner like you, I wanted to share it with you.
The last few weeks have been slow, yes. But that means that I can accept the following truths to go along with it:
- Business is going well enough that we can cover the quiet moments.
- This time is great for helping me realign and reposition how we help others succeed.
- I was able to launch a few more webinars to help people grow.
- This gives me some time to work on my next huge project, which requires a lot of thought and planning.
- I’ve been able to spend more time with the kids and my family, which is beautiful.
Look at that perspective. I went from “dang, it’s a bit slow lately” to “wow, I’ve got a wealth of treasure here.”
The truth is, I run a business and I have to have revenue coming in...
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