The Secret to Success is Not What You Think | Ed Mylett

Summary

THE ED MYLETT SHOW

Episode: “The Secret to Success Is Not What You Think”

Date: September 20, 2025

Host: Ed Mylett | Guests: Master P, Maria Shriver, “Hip Hop Artist” (guest appears to be Ja Rule or another major hip hop figure, not fully specified in transcript)

---

Overview

In this episode, Ed Mylett dives deep into the multifaceted journey to success—challenging mainstream notions and sharing personal insights. Drawing from “Think and Grow Rich,” his own life, and the hard-won wisdom of major guests—including Master P, Maria Shriver, and a prominent hip hop artist—the conversation explores adversity, personal reinvention, self-leadership, emotional intelligence, and practical business strategy. Mylett’s central message: success is less about talent and more about persistence, adaptability, emotional mastery, and living with integrity, intention, and vision.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The “Other Self” and the Role of Adversity

• Theme Origin: “Success requires no apologies. Failure permits no alibis.” (00:29) Quoted from “Think and Grow Rich.”

• Personal Growth Through Challenges

  • Life introduces us to “other selves”—better, more resilient versions of ourselves—through adversity.
  • Ed reflects on milestones (high school, business, relationships) where overcoming difficulties directly produced personal transformation.
  • “The only way I got to those versions of me was to have to go through something difficult that tried me, that pushed me, that caused me to question myself, doubt myself, almost give in…” (03:15)

• Adversity as the Gateway

  • Trials are unavoidable and essential. “Chase that version of you. Embrace adversity as the welcome committee for the new you on the other side.” (04:47)
  • Reference to Napoleon Hill: Failure occurs most often when people cannot persistently adapt their plans (07:00).

---

2. Emotional Home & Intentional Feeling (11:00 - 20:00)

• Concept of Emotional Home
  • Everyone has “default” emotional states they seek—whether joy, anxiety, anger, etc.
  • “You have an emotional home. It’s important to take an inventory of what it is, because you find a way to get it every week…your emotions move toward what’s most familiar.” (12:44)
• Becoming Intentional
  • Key is to recognize which recurring emotions serve or hinder you, and become intentional about creating desirable states (peace, joy, etc.).
  • Ed confesses a past addiction to chaos rooted in childhood and describes shifting intentionally to seek peace instead.
  • “Self is really emotions. What you really don’t want is a jet or cash: you want the feeling you think it will bring.” (15:26)
• Practical Advice
  • Inventory your emotional patterns, identify those you want more of, and ask, “What would I have to think or believe to generate that emotion?” (18:08)
  • It’s not about events, but perceptions: thoughts create feelings, not external situations.

---

3. Overcoming Core Fears (20:00 - 25:00)

• Six Basic Human Fears According to Napoleon Hill:

  1. Poverty
  2. Criticism
  3. Ill Health
  4. Loss of Love
  5. Old Age
  6. Death

• Mylett’s Insights:

  • Most stress and anxiety originate from one or a combination of these fears.
  • “When you’re experiencing stress and anxiety, it’s born out of one of those fears…” (22:26)
  • The antidote is reframing your stories: see your adversity as a future testimony (24:31) and remember your mind moves toward what it’s most familiar with.

---

4. Vision, Depth Perception, and the “Power of One More” (25:30 - 29:00)

• People Lack Vision or Misjudge How Close They Are
  • “Oftentimes people think they’re further away than they are. They pace themselves accordingly and stay in a perpetual state of distance.” (27:56)
  • Mylett: “You’re one decision, one relationship, one thought away from changing it.” (28:45)
  • “If your dreams are bigger than your adversity, you’ll get through it.”
  • Importance of both vision and the realization that achievement is closer than it seems.

---

5. The Four Identities You Might Become (30:00 - 34:00)

• Who Will You Be in 20 Years?

  1. Invisible — Those who go unnoticed, make no impact.
  2. Victim — Those stuck in self-pity, repeating the story of their setbacks.
  3. Hero — The one who breaks family cycles, inspires others, becomes “the one.”
  4. Servant Leader/Aspirational — Individuals who dedicate their lives in service to others, inspiring movements and generational change.
  • “The extent to which you have to overcome is in direct correlation to the greatness of your ‘other self’…” (33:05)
  • Aspiration is a higher level even than inspiration or motivation: “Those are the people that change the world.” (34:18)

---

6. Guest Contributions: Adversity, Authenticity, Keeping Integrity

“Hip Hop Artist” on Overcoming Adversity (28:23 - 41:08)

• “That’s my purpose, to continue to evolve… but to continue to give that information back to my culture and my people and be an example of what it’s like to come out of that.” (28:39)
• Speaks on God sending key people at the right moment and the importance of being in a place to receive help/blessings (31:46).
• Emotional openness, self-work, and the power of conflict resolution and honesty were crucial—in both career and personal growth.
• “I had to come to a place where… I just started to understand what peace was like, to get a little taste of that.” (31:46)
• Describes pivotal moments: leaving street life for music, suffering injury and illness, and recognizing the need for inner work (34:07 - 37:22).

Master P: The Real Secret is the Business & Work Ethic (58:28 - 79:36)

• On talent vs. business:
  “10% is talent, 90% is the business.” (58:28)

• Shares unconventional, guerrilla marketing tactics—t-shirts on homeless people, bus benches, direct CD sales—showing necessity of creativity and drive (59:06 - 62:16).

• “Consistency is the key. That’s where the dedication’s gotta kick in…doing something every day…even if people don’t see it yet.” (63:39)

• On integrity & accountability:
  “Accountability and integrity is about doing what’s right when nobody’s looking.” (66:47)

• The difference between being busy and “moving the needle”—the need to do the real work, not just look busy (76:36).

• Failure and credit: “At first people thought you just need to get money. I learned the importance of credit. That’s your report card. I can get whatever I want with credit.” (72:58)

• On learning from failure:

  • “Don’t be afraid to get back up. Everybody’s gonna fail. Go look at LeBron, Jordan, Brady. Everyone comes from something, they had to overcome.” (73:22)

• Be an eagle, not a turkey: “A turkey and an eagle look alike, but it’s not the same. A turkey’s on the ground, can’t fly. An eagle flies high—and most of the time, eagles fly alone. Don’t be afraid to be alone.” (74:05)

---

Maria Shriver: Earning Confidence and Breaking Cycles (44:12 - 57:00)

• On self-confidence:
  “Self-confidence—you have to earn it. Nobody just bestows it on you and says, ‘Here it is, take it and go.’” (44:16)
• The struggle and value in forging an individual path amid a legacy-heavy family (46:08 - 48:23).
• Raising children with freedom to chart their own course and not be bound by legacy, but also instilling work ethic and contribution (48:23 - 50:42).
• Reframing “being the one” in a family: It’s not always moneymaking—can also mean breaking cycles of silence, shame, or anger (50:42).
• The power of holding “tenderness and toughness, strength and vulnerability” as a form of contemporary feminine power (52:42 - 53:34).
• Growth and changing beliefs:
  “It’s a problem if someone is 50 and exactly the same as at 30; that means nothing made you think. You have to be different.” (56:10)
• On lessons from a lifetime: “I used to think kindness was weakness…that you have to earn your way into your parents’ heart. I was wrong about so many things.” (57:00)

---

7. Practical Business & Life Takeaways

• Faith + Works:
  “Faith without works is dead. You have to put the effort in…then let God do the rest.” (72:11)
• Promote Your Belief:
  “If you’re a real businessman, every chance you get, you should be promoting it. How are you gonna sell me some shoes if you’re not wearing them?” (63:54)
• Consistency Over Talent:
  “Always bet on the dog. I will take a person who will outwork everybody…every single time.” (81:11)
• Beware of “Headache Money”:
  “I don’t want headache money. I want money I can be happy to work for. All money ain’t good money.” (86:38)

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Ed Mylett (on growth through adversity):
  • “When you hit these difficult times…remember, on the other side is your other self.” (04:43)
• Maria Shriver (on earning confidence):
  • “You have to earn self-confidence. You have to earn self-esteem… I was going to have to develop my own self-confidence in who I was, separate from being somebody’s niece or daughter or cousin.” (44:16-46:08)
• Hip Hop Artist (on integrity):
  • “You can maintain your integrity and be a solid individual and still survive, without doing anything that would go against who you are as a man and your legacy.” (29:30)
• Master P:
  • “10% is talent, 90% is the business.” (58:28)
  • “Consistency is what’s gonna get you to the next level…” (63:39)
  • “A turkey and an eagle look alike but it’s not the same. Don’t be afraid to be alone… eagles fly alone.” (74:05)
  • “Headache money is the worst kind of money…all money ain’t good money.” (86:38)

---

Selected Timestamps

• 00:29 — “Success requires no apologies. Failure permits no alibis.” (main theme introduction)
• 12:44 — Emotional home: how our lives are shaped by the emotions we habitually choose
• 22:26 — The six basic human fears
• 27:56 — Vision, depth perception, and “the power of one more” philosophy
• 34:18 — The difference between motivational, inspirational, and aspirational people
• 58:28 — Master P: “10% is talent, 90% is the business.”
• 63:39 — Master P on consistency
• 74:05 — Master P’s Eagle vs. Turkey analogy on success
• 86:38 — “Headache money is the worst kind of money…”
• 44:16 — Maria Shriver on earning confidence and forging identity
• 52:42 — Maria Shriver on new models of feminine power

---

Tone & Style

Faith-driven, uplifting, practical, candid, and deeply personal. Ed Mylett and guests blend motivational storytelling, tough love, transparent confession, and nuts-and-bolts strategy.

---

Conclusion

This episode powerfully reframes success as an ongoing journey of adaptation, emotional mastery, and authentic living. Through the candid stories and practical wisdom of Ed Mylett and his influential guests, listeners are urged to confront adversity as the forge for a stronger self, pursue success with integrity and persistence, and invest in the inner work that sustains genuine achievement and fulfillment.

Transcript

[Master P]

The Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University helps you go from I know the way to I've arrived with our top 10 ranked online MBA. Gain skills you can learn today and apply tomorrow. Get ready to go from make it happen to made it happen and keep striving. Visit strayer.edu Jack WelchMBA to learn more.

[Lewis Howes]

Strayer University is certified to operate in.

[Master P]

Virginia by Chev and has many campuses, including at 2121 15th Street north in Arlington, Virginia.

[Lewis Howes]

The name of today's show, what I want you to write down, I think this will just potentially really serve you, is that this. Write this down. Success requires no apologies, Failure permits no alibis. Success requires no apologies, failure permits no alibis. Where'd I get that from? It's not mine. It's actually out of the book Think and Grow Rich that I've just referenced earlier. One of the original versions I'm holding up my dear friend Robin Sharma sent to me. And so that is not my quote. I can't stand when people use my content and quotes and don't give me credit. That's not my quote. That's out of Think and Grow Rich. But the theme of today is that, listen, success requires no apologies and failure permits no alibis. We can't be making alibis. And so how do we create change in our life? How do we make moves through this difficult times? Because no matter what time you're listening to this, it'll be trying. There's always things to overcome. That's what life's about. One of the things in Think and Grow Rich that I love is in the book. This is so profound and I hope this gives you hope that in the book he talks about going through adversity, going through trials and tribulations, and he ends up saying in the book that if you can get to the other side of these trials, if you don't quit that you get introduced to your other self. Your other self. And so what if it is that all of the tragedies, trials, tribulations, difficulties in our lives are all set up there so that on the other side of it, there's another version of it. So the other side of it, we get introduced to our other self. I'm 51 years old when this comes out, and I must tell you that I've been introduced to many different versions of me. And the only way I got to those versions of me was to have to go through something difficult that tried me, that pushed me, that caused me to question myself, doubt myself, almost give in, almost resist if you think about it, for you, the things you have achieved in your life, where you are today, this version of you and has been put together, has been developed, has been created because of the things you learned, the things you went through, the lessons you gained through difficult times. So when you're hitting these difficult times, just remember on the other side of this time, whatever it is for you is your other self. How beautiful is that? And when you step back and look at one's entire life, even if you have children and you all were a child at one point, think about the difficult things and you got introduced to that other version of you. I remember going to high school so scared. There was this whole thing when I was going to high school, they would put the freshmen in trash cans, you know, And I didn't know anybody and you know, is anybody going to like me? But the person who walked in my freshman year of high school, I think you'll agree, a totally different person walked out. My senior year, I got introduced to my other self. And then when I started my business journey, you know, there's one guy that started, and then after the first trial and tribulation, I pushed through. I got introduced to another self of me, and then another self and then another self and then another self. In relationships, you've been introduced to other selves of you once you've gotten through them or learned from them. And so what you're going through right now, the beauty of it is, it's preparing this other self, this better version of you. And you got to remind yourself of this because it's so easy not to want to outlast the temporary. I did a big long coaching call with Arete Syndicate on this. I'm not going to get into what I covered there. I'm going to cover different things today. But I just want you to think about this for a second. Without it, it's just you all the way through life, there's no change, there's no growth. So this trial, this thing that you're going through, or maybe just this thing you're trying to accomplish, maybe it doesn't even feel trying, maybe just trying to accomplish something that's difficult, right? The other self is on the other side of that. And I just want to tell you, chase that version of you, chase that person, embrace it. And when you see this adversity coming at you, right? See it for what it really is. It's this introduction to the new you waiting for you on the other side of it. I love one of the things I'm going to read to you out of Napoleon Hill's book a little bit right here. But he says, and again, a lot of this stuff was written for, you know, back in the day where he would say men instead of people. But he says if the first plan which you adopt does not work successfully replace it with a new plan. If this plan fails to work, replace it and in turn with it another, and so on until you find a plan which does work. Right here is at the point at which the majority of men people meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of the old ones which fail. The most intelligent man living cannot succeed in accumulating money nor any other undertaking without plans which are practical and workable. And his point in the chapter was this is where most people quit. This is where most people give in. They surrender at the sign of adversity. Rather than pivot, rather than innovate, rather than create a new plan, they give in. And what costs you when you give in is you rob the world and you of this other self. Those are my words, not him in this case. But that's what gets robbed. And quitting becomes a habit. It's habitual. When you quit on one thing, you'll quit on other things. And so finish, adopt, adapt all the time in your life. I want to share something with you. Why do we get so worked up? Why do we let me share something with you. You have emotions that you're familiar with, okay? And some of these emotions serve you and some of them don't serve you. It's called your emotional home is what I call it. And oftentimes in our lives we will find a way to get that emotion. We're addicted to our heart and our emotions move towards what we are most familiar with. I'm going to cover this in two places today for you and I hope that this is one of these life changing shows. You're like, yeah, I'm glad he didn't interview somebody today. This is better. So I have to say this to you. You have an emotional home. And it's important to take an inventory of what is that home because you find a way to get it every week. Whatever those emotions are, they could be peace, joy, ecstasy, passion, right? All those great emotions that you could have. And by the way, there aren't good and bad, just some service and some don't. Then there's other ones. Pain, fear, anxiety, worry, depression, frustration, anger. You all know people, as I described those emotions, you thought of different people, didn't you? When I said anger, you thought of someone, you know, who's regularly angry. When I said fearful or depressed, you thought of somebody. Maybe you thought of you. And so if you have this primary emotion that you're getting on a regular basis, you find a way to get it, don't you? You do. No matter what's going on, you find a way at some point during your week to get your fear. Why? Because it's familiar. And we move towards what's familiar. This is how human beings are. So the reason we want to go through difficulties is because if at the other end of that we can get another self, maybe we can get another emotion. Because self is really emotions. What you really don't want is a jet or cash. You want how you think that will make you feel. What you really don't want is just a relationship. It's how you think the relationship will make you feel. You don't just want to win that contest you're in right now. It's how you think it'll make you feel. So what you're chasing is, is the emotions. See, I know people with absolutely no money who feel rich. I know a bunch of people with a lot of money who feel broke, right? So what we're really chasing is our emotions. So for me, how do you do that? You become very intentional about what they are. You become intentional. My primary emotion I'm chasing right now that I can experience anytime I want, but I don't have to chase it. That word's probably not well said. I can experience anytime I want because it exists within me is peace. And when I'm not getting peace, I get intentional about seeking it. I'm not going to do things in my life anymore that on the other end of it can't acquire me more peace. I may lack some as I do it, but I'm going to get more of it on the other side of it. Starting to become intentional. And I'll share with you. We all have emotions that don't serve us. We all do. One of mine is chaos. I love chaos. Isn't that interesting? I love chaos. I just realized this is an adult. Like, I always create chaos in my why I thrive. I always say I thrive in chaos because I do. I'm familiar with it. Why do I always create chaos even when things are great? It's like, nope, I got to do this, I got to do that. I create a chaotic state. I create chaos around me. I've become aware of this. Why? Because chaos is familiar to me. Why Is chaos familiar to me? Because to some extent in my childhood, it was chaotic. Most of you know that my dad was an alcoholic, greatest guy in the world, sober for 35 years after that. But in my early upbringing, it was chaotic. It was unstable. I didn't know, is he coming home? Is he not coming home? What mood's he going to be in? A mom and dad going to stay married, you know, all those kinds of things. And it was chaotic, and I became familiar with chaos. And so I find a way in my given week or my month or my day to find chaos, don't I? And I do. Anybody that knows me knows that's true, and I thrive in it. Chaos, by the way, can be used positively. Chaos has caused me to become wealthy. Chaos has caused me to not want to be overweight and to be f. Sometimes that chaos, I learned to thrive in it. But you have to ask yourself. And I had to ask myself, do I want to live all my life in chaos? No. And then I got intentional. If chaos doesn't serve me that way, what emotions do I want? I want more joy, I want more laughter, I want more peace. And so I'm intentional about getting it. And I'm aware when I'm starting to generate chaos unintentionally. And that awareness, for me, that awareness causes it to lose its power over me. So in your case, I would ask you, what emotion is your emotional home that you get the most regularly? Is it really joy? Is it really peace? Is it really ecstasy, passion? Right? Or do you get a little bit familiar with worry, anger, frustration, melancholy, whatever you want to call it. Fear, Right? And once you know that, ask yourself, what are the emotions I would want to experience on a regular basis and get intentional about them and become aware when you're doing the ones you don't think serve you all right? And then ask yourself this. What would I have to think or believe in order to generate that emotion? Right? Because a lot of times we have thoughts that don't serve us. Thoughts generate emotions, right? It's not an event that generates the quality of our life. There's an event, then there is our perception of the event, our thought about it, which creates the emotion. So it's not the events of our lives. You can be going through a very difficult time and have peace. You can go through a very difficult time and feel strong. It's being intentional about it. And so I would challenge you to begin to think about what would I need to think? What do I normally think that causes me? And I'm going to tell you in a minute. What do I normally think that causes me to get this emotion that create stress for me? And what would I need to think in order to get the ones I want when the same stimulus happens? So in Think and Grow Rich he says there are six basic fears. By the way, in the Power of One More, I show you how to overcome these fears with daily strategies. So it's not just the thought, it's the action you would take. I mirror the thought in congruency with the action. And that's why the Power of One More is such a really unique book. Having said that, these are the six basic fears according Napoleon Hill. And they're really interesting. He says there are six basic fears with some combination of which every human suffers at one time or another. Most people are fortunate if they do not suffer from the entire six named in the order of their most common appearance. They are, this is interesting in sequence, the number one fear is the fear of poverty. And just process that. Do you have the fear of poverty? Do you have the fear that whatever you're going through right now, you're going to be broke, you're going to fear that you're going to run out of money, that you're not going to eat or whatever it might be? The fear of poverty. Number two, the fear of criticism. Right. By the way, these are the bottom, not the top, excuse me, the fear of criticism. Do you have any of that? The fear of ill health. Okay, so those are the bottom three, not the top three, bottom three. Fourth fear, the fear of loss of love of someone. In other words, someone you love will no longer love you. Ok, five, the fear of old age. Getting old and missing your prime, missing your moment, missing your life. And then lastly, the fear of death. And so those are the six fears. Poverty, criticism, bad health, loss of the love of someone, old age and death. And usually I think you'll find that when you're experiencing stress and anxiety, it' born out of one of those fears. And I know you're sitting there going, ed, this is damn good. Thank you for doing the show today. I hope you are. And if you do feel that, share it. Fastest growing show in the world. Share it. So I'm aware of the fears that I have and that's why success requires no apologies. I'm not worried about criticism. And failure permits no alibis. There are no alibis. There are no excuses. There just aren't any. And you go, but Ed, you don't understand. I do have this excuse. I do have this issue I do have this situation that isn't fair for me. By the way, you're probably right. And if you think it, you're definitely right. What you have to ask yourself is, does it serve you to believe that? Or what would you need to believe in spite of that? If you say, well, hey, I started too late, I don't have enough money, what if you started to think, man, what a story this is going to be that I started with no money, or you know what, I'm a particular group of people that's marginalized and it's more difficult for me. I would just submit to you that. Isn't the story going to be sweeter when you do win? Isn't it going to even be more inspiring when you do win? Isn't it going to move more people? Isn't your test going to be your testimony? Whatever this thing is, that is the alibi that you have in your life, whatever it is, someone hurt me, this overcame, I'm in this situation, you don't understand my health situation. Listen, if it serves you to believe that, keep believing it. But as your friend and your coach and a mentor to you and someone who loves you and cares about you, I would say this does not serve you. Even if it's true, even if it's true, what would you need to believe about it that now gives you power instead of kryptonite. And you begin to ask yourself these questions so you know you're going to show up. So that's one thing. You're going to show up 20 years from now somewhere. The question is where? And what I would submit to you is that one of the ways out of difficult times is huge, bold, God sized dreams. Like what is your huge bold, the one you're embarrassed to tell people. The huge, bold, God sized dream in your life. And the more of it you can to project into that dream state of what you want in your life, the more it gives you the inspiration. If your dreams are bigger than the adversity, you'll get through it. But the minute that adversity, those emotions are bigger than where you're going, bigger than your dreams, you're toast. You got to reevaluate that. You got to look at it. You got to say, wait a minute, what's my big dream? What's my big goal? What's that big emotion? What? What's that thing? What's that place? What's that person? What's that contribution, whatever it might be? And you got to begin to obsess about It. Because what I said earlier is true. Your mind moves towards what it's most familiar with. So if you're most familiar with your fears, those six fears, or these emotions you don't want, or your problems, or your setbacks, or the things that are not in your favor, then you're going to move towards them. Let me say that to you again. You may be right about this adversity, you may be right about your circumstance, you may be right about all that. But does it serve you to believe it? Because the way the mind works is it moves towards what it's most familiar with. And the reason some people are successful and most aren't is the successful people have the ability to begin to program into their mind the things they want, the dreams they have over and over and over. Because they know this to be true. They belong in their dreams. Their dreams are not some hallucination. They're not a joke. God gave you those dreams as a glimpse, as a preview of. Of what's possible in your life. And the more you understand, these dreams don't just come from me. How do I have these dreams? Where'd they come from? They come from God in your life or whatever you believe about that. I'm a Christian. I believe they come straight from Jesus. Straight from God. But whatever your faith is, the universe, whatever you believe, they come from outside of you. And they're not a joke. They're a preview of what's possible. And the more you move towards those thoughts, those dreams, in faith, boldly strong, not towards the six fears you have or this circumstance. And I'm not talking about. Don't deal with reality. I'm not saying. I already said you need to pivot. You need to course correct. You need a better plan. Clearly you need a better plan. But what you don't need is to be moving towards the thoughts that don't serve you. Because you keep getting them, don't you? You keep drawing the circumstances into your life that don't serve you because your mind moves you towards what you're familiar with. Please, sister, I love you. Please, brother, listen to what I'm saying. Begin to feed these thoughts to you regularly and begin to take the actions in congruency with them. And when you begin to think and act in congruency, you become a force in the world that is unstoppable. Eventually, if you can outlast the temporary, not right away. See, there's two things people lack. The Bible says, where there is no vision, the people perish. People lack vision, but oftentimes when they get a vision, the other thing that they suffer from is depth perception issues. They think it's further than it is. They think they're further away than they really are. And so they pace themselves and they act like it. And they don't let their mind go there regularly. And so they constantly stay in a perpetual state of being far from it. The premise of my book, the Power of One More, is very simple. When you get it, and it's this, you're a lot closer to your dreams than you think. You're a lot closer to these emotions, these feelings, that life, that other self than you think you are. Let me tell you what you are. You're one decision away, one possible meeting, one relationship, one thought, one emotion, one strategy. In my new book, away from changing it, you're a lot closer than you think. So stop thinking it's so far away. And stop thinking about all the things all the time that don't serve you right. By the way, what is thinking, Ed? How do I think better? What's a thought? A thought is the process of asking yourself a question and answering it. So ask yourself better questions and you will have better thoughts and better answers. So if you do have this detriment, that's just this thing that's just. It's a hindrance and you know it's a hindrance and it's a challenge or you're going through something, right? That's okay. The question is, ask yourself a better question about it. Instead of saying, that's why I'm going to lose, it's how can I overcome this? What are the answer to this? Who are people like me that have won? Who's over? What is my story going to look like when I win? How's it going to feel when I get there? What's the tactic or strategy that I need to implement to overcome this that other people don't? But I'm going to because I deserve to get there. Because these dreams are a preview of who I'm supposed to be. So get these familiar thoughts, get these familiar emotions. Know that all pain is temporary. Outlast the temporary, right? And remember this. You're going to arrive to this place in 20 years. You're going to arrive there. The question is, who are you going to be when you get there? What's your life going to look like? What are you going to look like? Who have you have helped? What will you have achieved? What will the memories be you had? And most importantly, what will the emotions be that you get to Possess at that time. And by the time you get there, who is that other self? I'll submit to you. There's four characters for the most part. You could show up as in four years, or, excuse me, in 20 years. There's four characters. Most people show up in their lives as. I'll give you who they think they are. Number one person they show up as in 20 years is invisible. They're invisible. No one knows them. No one knows anything they've achieved. No one's kept a record of their life. And I'm not talking about big things. I'm talking about small things. It's that kind phone call that you make in the morning to a friend you haven't talked to in a long time. You're no longer invisible to them. It's that helping somebody in need when no one will see you doing it, when it's an invisible gesture. You're no longer invisible because you're making deposits in this other self. You're making deposits in this dream version of you. You are reaping what you sow. But many people show up in their lives. Their entire life is invisible. That's one person you could show up as. Ask yourself, am I willing to let whatever I'm going through right now, or whatever going on in the world, what's ever going on in the economy, what's ever going on in my. What's ever going on in my family, caused me to show up 20 years from now invisibly? No one knows me. I've made no difference in other people's lives. Is that what you were born to do? Is that that glimpse of the dream in your life? Absolutely not. Remind you of something you were born to do, Something great with your life? I am no different than you. No man or woman is different than you. We're the child of the same God. We were all born to do something great with our lives in big ways and in what most people think are small ways. These quiet gestures you do every day for other people that the rest of the world doesn't see on Instagram and it doesn't get you on YouTube and it doesn't get a million views. But you're not invisible to them. You were not born to be invisible. Second person you could show up as in 20 years is a victim. You could have this story in 20 years. I was a victim. Victim of people. A victim of my life, a victim of my circumstances. A victim, a victim, a victim. And if you believe that about yourself and you keep moving towards those thoughts, you will Surely repeat them. And you will show up 20 years in your life and as an example to your family, people who believed in you, your children, your grandchildren, your parents, your grandparents, your ancestors. And you will show up in 20 years as a victim. Something tells me that's not what you were born to be. Something tells me you were born to do something great. And you are not a victim. And you're going to rise above. And the fact that you rose above whatever you have to rise above, that divorce, that setback, that lack of education, that whatever, that marginalized group, that setback, that bankruptcy, that bad decision you've made, you're going to have one heck of a story. And you are not going to be a victim. And you're going to inspire a bunch of people who are invisible, who feel like victims, aren't you? That's the power of what you're going through. What if you were given this because there's an other self of you that's even greater than most people could imagine? Remember, the extent to what you have to overcome is the degree of who that other self is. The extent to what you have to overcome is in direct correlation to the degree of that other self. So the more you overcome, the greater that other self is. Third person you could show up as is a hero, and that's a pretty good thing. You show up people, you're not invisible, you're not a victim. People know you. You got whatever it is. You got the great body, you got the great relationship, you got the big jet, you got the money. You show up as a hero. Many people in life aspire to be the hero of their story. So you're always telling ourselves a story about our lives, aren't we? We're the lead character in the story of our lives. And so many people keep telling the story from the past and they repeat that story because they move towards it, or they tell the story of the victim or the story of the invisible, and they repeat this character over and over again. But then a lot of people start to tell the story of the hero. I'm going to be a hero. I'm going to win. I'm going to make something great with my life. And that's a powerful time in our lives. And a lot of people can get there. You see them on social media, you see them on television, you see them at your church, you see them in your community. You see them as the coach, you see them as the teacher. Become a hero in their life, you could show up as a hero, and that's A darn good life. And it's an option you could pursue. See, a lot of times in families, when you look at families that have won in your life, you go, man, that family's rich. You see this house living on, these people living on the beach, or they're traveling here. So then you go, man, who are these people? I think, who are these people? You just remember this. Happy and successful families. Eventually rich families, eventually they came from someone who wasn't rich, who wasn't happy. All people that you see that are rich, happy or successful, eventually there's someone way back in their family who wasn't. And then the one showed up. Then the one. I've talked about this before. The one person shows up in a family says, nope, I'm the hero. I'm the one. I change our family tree forever. I make my family proud of me. I change our generational wealth. I change our emotions. I change the example. People in our family are going to want to be like me. I'm the one. And guys, I'll tell you, in my family, I'm the damn one. And you know what? Not only about getting rich, not only about making a difference, but people in my family now think differently than they used to think. They don't think the same like they used to. They think bigger thoughts. They think about serving people. They think about making a difference. They believe their life can be great. Because I refuse to be invisible. I refuse to be a victim. Yeah, I'm the son of an alcoholic. Yeah, I had a difficult upbringing. Yeah, nobody knew my family. Yeah, we weren't rich. Yeah, not a lot of education in my family. Yeah, well, I'm not invisible. And well, I'm not a victim. And I became a hero in my family. And so can you. You could be the one. You can be the one. When you start hitting that wall, you start thinking, no, I'm the one. I'm the one who doesn't quit. I'm the one who doesn't give in. I'm the one who keeps growing. I'm the one who keeps dreaming. When everyone thinks I'm crazy, I'm the one. And you hold on to that being the one. You become the hero. That's an amazing life. You change your family tree forever. It's not the wealth, although it is. It's not the options and the choices. It's the memories. It's the moments. It's the contribution. Most importantly, it's the identity of your family. They don't think the same anymore. They got different thoughts. They Operate differently, their view of the world is different. Who they think they can become is different. Because of your example. See, I'll give you the fourth one in a minute. But let me tell you, there's really. There's four stages of people in life. There's the people that are just kind of, you know, they're just going through life unaware, not concerned. Then there's people who become motivational. Motivational people achieve things. They play to motives, motives, like get a car. You know, if you do this, you get a car, you get a house, you get money, you get a body. Motivational people are awesome. The level beyond that, though, is inspirational. Inspirational people move people like I hope I'm doing with you today. The root of inspiration is to be in spirit, to move people spiritually, to touch their heart, to move their emotions, to lend yourself, to move them with their higher other self. Not just their motives of stuff, but things in spirit, making a difference in people's lives. Inspirational people are very, very rare. See, most people are that dead stage. They just drift through life. Then there's a very small percentage that are motivated people and they achieve things and they have a good life. Much smaller group is inspirational, where they inspire, they move people. You can't feel it. It's an energy you feel. You can't describe it, but you feel it. It's inspirational. And then there's a really small group that's reserved for the highest level, which is aspirational people. Aspirational people aren't just motivational or inspirational. They're aspirational, meaning that you want to be and aspire to be like them. Those are the people that change the world. The people that change the world aren't motivational. They're not quite inspirational anymore. They've moved past that. They do motivate, they do inspire, but they aspire. People aspire to be like them. That's who I want to be like. That's who I want to act like. That's the kind of person I want to be. And I would challenge you to move through these stages. If you're not motivated, become motivational and inspirational and eventually aspirational. And when you become the one for your family, when you become the hero, which is level three, you've moved into an aspirational space in your life. And then the fourth level is awesome. And that's called servant leader. And that's when you get to a point in your life where you're no longer invisible. You've moved all kinds of people in their dreams. You've become the hero for your family. And then you determine you want to dedicate your life in the service of other people exclusively. You want to aspire, inspire and aspire people to be like you. And this is where I would challenge you to want to move, become an aspirational person, and eventually become a servant leader in your life. That's the highest level of the other self. You wrote one about adversity.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

Yes.

[Lewis Howes]

And I'm like. Because there's a ton of topics you could have done about, you know, overcoming limiting beliefs, overcoming your environment, because you had. You transcended an environment which is very rare in life. Why is adversity the topic of the book? And why did you think this is the thing I want to talk about?

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

Oh, wow, that's a great question. That's what I pride myself in. You know what I'm saying? Like, I would be that adversity specialist, if you will.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

That's what keeps me going. That's my purpose. My purpose is to continue to evolve, no matter what, but to continue to give that information back to my culture and to my people and to be an example of what it's like to come out of that. Because every situation that I've been in, and it's funny that we was talking about God. I don't care how crazy it got. He always put somebody in my life around the time that I needed some information or a ear or a connection or just the process. It never fails.

[Master P]

Right.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

And I truly believe that he does that for me. To show people that you can maintain your integrity and be a solid individual and still survive, you know, without doing anything that would go against who you are as a man and then your legacy. Because, you know, when you think about some of the great leaders, they did great things. Right? But their integrity is what kept you locked into them.

[Lewis Howes]

Right.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

Because you got people that are successful, but they did a lot of foul things. And when you hear people talk about them, you're like, wow, I never knew that. And adversity, to me is that small glare of hope. Because if I tell you what I went through in this book, your life might be totally different, but you might be up against the same odds.

[Lewis Howes]

I can tell you that. That's the truth. My life is totally different than yours, but I see great storytellers tell me stories with a U meaning. So as I read your work, I didn't grow up like that, but I have my version of it in my life. And so the lessons in the book, the lessons in this conversation, I don't care what someone's life story is. These are facts. Like, you said something so important that God has sent you that person when you needed him. The information, the insight, whatever it might be, I want everybody to hear this man said this. And the reason that I want you to hear it is he does that for you, too. The difference is you need to be in expectation that he's going to and aware that he's going to, because he has probably sent those people to you previously in your life. And if you're not aware he's doing it or open to the possibility he's doing it, you will miss them. Yeah, you will miss them. It's like that analogy of the people that are sitting on the roof during the flood. Someone comes by and says, hey, jump on the boat. Nope, I'm waiting for God to save me. Somebody else comes by in a boat. I'm waiting for God to save me. Third guy comes by in a boat. I'm waiting for God to save me. Then they drowned and they get to heaven and they go, God, I thought you were going to save me. He goes, I sent three damn people in a boat.

[Master P]

Three boats.

[Lewis Howes]

Get in the damn boat. Right? And so there's a. There's some. There's. You have to be an expectation that God is going to send you a blessing at some point. But if you're not looking for it and expecting it, you don't hear them or see them or feel them, and then you miss them.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

You have to be in a good place, too, though. You have to be in a good place with yourself. I really realized that because it was times that I wasn't in a good place for myself and it was just a bunch of noise. I let things on the outside of me control my emotions, how I felt, you know what I'm saying? I just had to come to a place where. And I'm not there yet, of course, but I just started to understand what peace was like, to get a little taste of that. And I started to understand what going inward was about. Because the minute I started going inward, everything changed, Right? Because now I can't fault anyone in my life for what they've done to me. I have to look inside and see how I reacted or what I've done to contribute to that. Right. And I can't blame anyone else. Right? And for me, when I started to understand that is when things started to slow down. Right. Cause I wasn't present. I go have conversations with people. It's all on the surface.

[Master P]

Yeah.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

It's all good. Whatever. I'm gone. But then I started taking time, like, to look people in their eyes and be like, are you all right, man? How you feeling? Like, what's going on? And started to have conversations where I wasn't, you know, leading all of the conversation. Like, you know, just tell me, you know, how you feeling? What's going on? And when people came to me, I, you know. You know, and I pride myself on having a lot of advice. That's just like, my thing, you know, I think I'm like, you know, the therapist among the crew. You know what I'm saying? But I ask him. I ask him now, though. I say, you know, one is, you know, do you want me to just listen? You know what I'm saying? Two is, do you want me to tell you what I think? Or three is, do you want me to side with you? Cause I could do that too, you know what I'm saying? So I could be like, oh, that's crazy. That should have never happened. And I started to understand, because where we come from, it's hard for somebody to tell you how they really feel. It took me until I was 40 to tell somebody I was sad or I was depressed. You know what I'm saying? Think about that. Or I don't feel confident about this, you know what I'm saying? Or that I might be, you know, concerned. Yeah, because when you're that guy, you have to.

[Lewis Howes]

Can't show weakness.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

Yeah, you can't show anything.

[Lewis Howes]

You said earlier, I'm depressed. I'm drinking. I'm drinking a bottle of champagne in the morning, moving at tequila in the afternoon. You're eating. You're heavy.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

Yeah, right.

[Lewis Howes]

You're stressed. You're worried. You're running. You're running, you're running. Is there any one thing you did or was there any one moment, or was it just an accumulation of things? You're like, that's enough. I can't do this anymore.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

I would say this. I didn't have a purpose before then. I was just chasing money and trying to get out of my situation. And he did that. God did that for me. Took me out of my situation. And I'm four albums in, about 8 million records sold. Crazy, like. But what am I doing for him? How am I continuing his message? What am I doing? He took me out of a situation where I could have had a life sentence. It was there. I still don't know how I massage.

[Lewis Howes]

That, by the way.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

I think about that all the time. But it was there, right? And I've lost, you know, so many people. And I sat there and I'm just like, yo, like, you know, right now I'm the issue. I need to work on myself because the things that I have going on inside of me is no way to lead anyone, right? And I'm making music. So I got millions of people listening to me and listening to what I'm saying. I'm not a saint, but I do got common sense, right? And it's just like, I'm saying things that might affect people in different ways, but I'm like. And my thing is the audio gotta match the video, right? So I'm saying, you know what I'm saying? I'm saying this stuff, but I'm doing something else, right? And I gotta get online with what I'm saying, right? So now I'm walking into. And it was the scariest thing in my life. And by the way, just so we clear, like, I was met with a moment where I knew it was a moment, meaning I was. I was. My first album came out, I was selling. And this is statute of limitations, by the way. Anybody listen, I'm good. I talked to my lawyers about it, and I had to make. I had to make a decision, which was one of the biggest decisions. I had to make a decision.

[Master P]

What.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

I was going to do because I was trying to balance the streets and music and I had some small piece of success and I had to walk away cold turkey from the streets. Now, mind you, that means depend on music, right? And when I did that, I had three of those next tail chirp phones. That's what we used to talk on. And all those phones had a lot of money on them. Like, people owed me money. And I woke up and I just said, I'm not doing this no more. I put the phones in the bag, threw them in the trash bin in my building, and I walked away, right? And that was like my first, like, okay, I'm gonna do this music stuff. Now, mind you, about eight months later, I'm performing at a show and tear my vocal cords. Now I can't talk.

[Lewis Howes]

Oh, my God.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

I got a record deal with a major label. Oh, my God, I can't talk. I got shows booked up from here to 2000. Whatever. I can't go on the stage. And that was the first time he humbled me. He humbled me. He humbled me. He humbled me. And I had to really look at this and go, I'm so close. This could happen. What do I need to do? And that was Just a lot of praying, a lot of confusion. And then he let me live. I got a throat surgery that I didn't have insurance at the time. Imagine I had Lamborghinis, all this stuff, and no health insurance. Imagine that. So I had to pay for my surgery with cash. And then I got back out there and I started the same. Same thing. And then that's when he hit me again with Bell's palsy.

[Lewis Howes]

Oh, my God.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

He hit me with Bell's palsy. And my face.

[Lewis Howes]

For real?

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

Yeah. My face got crooked and my mouth was. And it was like my eye was shut.

[Lewis Howes]

Was that from stress?

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

That was God. Cause he let me live again. And I went back out and started doing the same thing and was going about it the same way. And after that, I was just like, you know what, man? I gotta change something because I've been too blessed. You know what I'm saying? And now I'm looking at it and I'm going, like, the next thing might not even be something I can recover from. And that's what started me to just start to understand that I gotta start fixing some of my ways. And it first started with, like, a lot of my personal stuff I would do, like, you know, just, you know, I came from a situation where if you sit down with somebody, it's like sitting down and you're being interrogated. I'm not gonna tell you the truth.

[Lewis Howes]

You know what I'm saying?

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

I can't, you know what I'm saying?

[Lewis Howes]

It's like, it's against the cold, and.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

It might get me in a lot of trouble. But then I started to notice that a grown man should never lie, even if it's gonna get him out of trouble, you know what I'm saying? So now I gotta change this, you know? And that wasn't easy to do because I was taught to say whatever I had to say to get out of any situation. And now I'm having to work through this. And that was like, the first step. And then it started going on different steps, different steps. And when I got to a place where I started to answer your question, when I started to realize that I gotta do some work, right, I didn't know where. I didn't know where to start. I just started YouTube and stuff, talking to older people, telling I had my business partner. Now he's been my business partner for, like, 20 years. I would just go sit with him and tell him what's really going on. I'm like, man, I got about five people trying to kill me. I got beef with these guys over here and that. And then this has happened. And that was. I was in the shootout last week, and now this is that and I gotta go to California and this is happening. And he just like, okay, okay, just calm down.

[Master P]

Okay.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

What are you concerned about most? And then we started to, like, work through proms. And he's like, okay, have you ever thought about reaching out to them? And, you know, just having a conversation? But my thing was, you know, they're the opposition, so I gotta press. Cause I can't let my guys think that I'm trying to sort all these things out. And I just started to understand that there is a such thing called conflict resolution. So that started to help me out a little bit as far as my life. And now I got in a space where I started having a little peace and I was able to start, like, working on myself, like my health and reading books and just all these different things. And that thirst for knowledge kicked back in. Cause I hate learning in school. When I was in school, like, I dropped out of school in the sixth grade. I got my GED when I was in boot camp. That's crazy, right? And then around that time, it just hit me again. I just had this thirst for, like, knowledge. And I just started going around asking people questions. And think about this now. It went from me asking, you know, somebody that I knew that worked at a restaurant, that I just felt like was. Had some type of prestige from that point to me calling John Maxwell and going, hey, I got seven questions I need to ask you. You know, John, he like, shoot him at me. To that, to Robert Green, you know, to Robin Sherma, to all these different Tony. Tony Robbins and all these. And not to like, name drop. But it's just like, I'm getting this information now to give back to the culture because I'm able to go outside of my comfort zone and get it. But this stuff helps me with my life as well. Like, we was talking about Lewis earlier, like, but I've always been that type of person. So to answer your question, I got the information from the people that I respected at the time that I was able to mingle with. And I don't come as a. You know, my reputation exceeds me. Meaning, like, I don't come. And by the way, the most gangsters guys where I'm from are the coolest guys you ever see.

[Lewis Howes]

They're not loud, they're not boisterous.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

They're like Denzel and American Gangster. They're real smooth. But they will reach out and touch you.

[Lewis Howes]

I gotta tell you, this is like an all time great conversation. It's all time great conversation. A lot of things about you that I noticed. One is like how self aware you are just driving out here. It's like, I think you're here today, like there's millions of people and be like, oh my God, this is unbelievable. But at the same time, lately on this show, God sends me the right person in that seat for me. Like I was. I've got some stuff going on in my life right now that's not great. And some of it's betrayal stuff with other people like we're talking about. However, I was just talking to somebody, actually someone that's producing a TV show I'm doing right now. Literally before you got here, I was driving out here and I said, I want to figure out what God's trying to teach me with this lesson. And that's one of the things you said earlier is like, what am I supposed to be learning from this? What am I supposed to be? I'm not going to get nothing for Eric Thomas says all the time you better get something for your pain. And the other thing you do very well is a lot of times when you begin to teach things you're learning, you begin to own them more. So a lot of you that are learning things, listening to the show, you don't teach it enough to other people. And the more you begin to teach it, the more you actually begin to live it. People think, I can't teach any of this until I'm living it. No, you could say, look, I'm not good at this yet, but this is what I'm learning. And the more you begin to teach something I found in my own life, like not everything I've taught all the time I was doing at the time, but I was honest enough to say I wasn't. This isn't me yet, let me tell you. This is what so and so gave me advice on, or what I know I need to change about me. And the more I taught things, the more I own them. The other thing I've always wanted to know about you because. And I know the answer because it's in the book and in interviews you've done. But of all the people you collaborated with, one of the other things that holds people back in addition to. And by the way, I want to step back. You play such an important role in culture right now because of what you just said. There are not enough people reaching people in the communities you come from or young people with this knowledge and information, the world's different. This isn't 30 years ago where you could just get a Tony Robbins tape. There are dudes like me, guys like you, people like John, that this information's there, but it's not what most people from these communities are consuming on their feed every single day. And, and the fact that you're saying, hey, listen, I come from this, let me teach you this. And this could be someone from a particular culture, particular age group, particular part of the world. That's why I do this. This isn't. Podcasting is not a big source of revenue. Like I got business.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

That's real.

[Lewis Howes]

Right. But what it is for me is, and by the way, serious. No, I'm just kidding. We're in the middle of a negotiation right now. That's a whole other story. But having said that. But, but I want to make sure that acknowledge you and the role that you're playing. And again, this combination. Yeah, receive that. It's a fact. And the combination of your humility with your confidence is crazy. Having said that, on the confidence thing, always wanted to know this. You mentioned self confidence twice pretty early on. And it's interesting. I would think that when people look at you, you come from a successful family. You're my dear friends, I'm allowed to say this, you're a beautiful, articulate, successful person. I would think self confidence was really something you had. Is that something you've struggled with or had to work on yourself in your life?

[Maria Shriver]

Yeah, I think anybody I try to say to my kids, self confidence, you have to earn self confidence. You have to earn self esteem. Nobody just bestows it on you and says, here it is, you know, take it and go. I think particularly if you are in a family where people are excelling at the level they were excelling. In my family, it's pretty big know, excelling. So I was pretty much everybody in my house and in my cousin's era, they were. Everybody was running for president. So, you know, that's how people were excelling. So I think you, you have to. And I would adjust that to maybe everybody in your family is a doctor or preacher or, you know, a pastor, whatever it is, a real estate person. Everybody, I think, has to find their own self confidence and earn it. I was an only girl, four brothers, and I was raised in a very testosterone dominated arena. I knew that if I wanted to get my parents attention, if I wanted to single myself out in this larger clan that I was in, I was going to have to find my own thing. I was going to have to work my ass off and I was going to have to develop my own self confidence in who I was separate from being somebody's niece or daughter or cousin. And that was a really driving force in my life and has been, you know, for pretty much all my life. You know, that I would be my own person, my own name, my own journey. And that took a lot for me to craft that out. But with it came self confidence.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah, thank God you did that, because I don't. I don't know that if you don't. I think you can't give somebody something that you're not experiencing. It's pretty difficult to give. You give the gift of that. And thank God you developed that because you ended up creating a family that was very similar in the sense of achievement and public achievement and those things. And I've met your children. One of them, Patrick, I know far better than all the other ones. But they all seem to have that same sense of contribution, making their own way. They've sort of modeled. Your Maria has this very beautiful nuance of very strong, but a kindness that comes with it simultaneously. And I think that's reflected in your children too. But they've all made their own way and are making their own way, even though they come from a family that's achieving. True. You probably had to instill that in them.

[Maria Shriver]

Well, I tried to talk to them about that. I tried to acknowledge that that was going to be challenging for them, that they had a very famous last name, they had famous parents, they came from kind of a long lineage and people would assume certain things about them and that I understood that, that I had come from the same place. That might be something their dad hadn't understood. Because I think it's very different when you're the one that making the legacy, this is the one inheriting it and having to uphold it and then trying to carve out your own version. And so I grew up in a legacy. I grew up with a family that said, here, look what we've done. Match it, deal with it, honor it, take care of it, uphold it. What are you going to do with it? And then I think Arnold built his. His own legacy, Right. And so our kids have had to deal with like, okay, here it is. Do you want to honor it? Do you want to uphold it? Do you want to have anything to do with it? Do you want to be free from it? And so I've tried to have that conversation with them. You don't have to have anything to do with this, if you don't want to, you can go off and do whatever you want to do. I think we were both very united in saying to them, you don't have to do what we're doing. You don't have to do what your grandmother, your grandfather did, but you have to do something.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

Yeah.

[Maria Shriver]

You have to find some way to give back to the world. You have to work, you have to develop a work ethic. You have to craft your own life, design your own life. But you don't have to carry what your dad's done, what your mom has done, what your grandmother, your grandfather have done. If you don't want to. If you do. Great.

[Lewis Howes]

Let me interrupt you, Maria, but I really think this is so important because the people that listen to the show, by and large, are people that are breaking. They're becoming the one in their family for the most part. I call it the one where you do sort of change your family tree forever. Right. You're an achiever. And so most of you, maybe you're not going to be the president or the governor, but you're the breakaway person in your family. And then if you're going to be raising children in that environment, this lesson's huge that these conversations have to happen. I noticed even with my son Max, when he was younger, I started to sense this pressure that I wasn't putting on him, but our conditions put on him, that he had to live up to what dad did, or if I have an average life, it's going to be miserable because of what I came from. And I remember having these conversations with him very similar to what you've had. So you parents that are listening to this, that are the achiever in your family, this is a really, really big deal. And if some of you don't know, I mean, you know, Marie was first lady of California when Arnold was the governor. And then she's also a Kennedy and a Shriver. And so there's a lot going on in that family. And, you know, when you have uncles that are the President of the United States, it's kind of a big version of what we're describing in our lives. But I just wanted to ask you that. And on that, it's like, I'm gonna go to your books, because I just recommend everybody. You should read these books, many of them. And by the way, you should read her Sunday paper every Sunday that comes out. It's awesome.

[Maria Shriver]

Thank you.

[Lewis Howes]

If you're a personal development person, there's so much richness in this experience. And Marie approaches it she said testosterone earlier. She even reminds me sometimes dial that down a little bit. You know, there's not a lot of, I think often in self help, personal development. I don't know what I would call it. I don't even really believe in these things, but sort of a feminine energy to the same topics that brings a nuance in a perspective. Don't you agree? That's different from someone else and you bring that.

[Maria Shriver]

Well, thank you. And I think I just wanted to pick up on your thing about your speaking. To quote, the one people who are the one in the family who are breaking away, the achievers. I think there's so many ways that we don't talk about to, quote, break away or break a cycle. And it doesn't always have to be in being the, quote, successful one. There are so many different ways to break cycle of silence that might exist in a family, a cycle of shame that might exist in a family, a cycle of, you know, shame, anger, all of these things that exist in families. There's a way to break those cycles as well and be the one in that respect. So the one isn't necessarily the one making all the money. It's the one who is following their path, I think, who has the courage and the bravery to chart their own course. And I think that's really. When we talk about feminine strength. I think I grew up in a time. My mother was certainly an incredibly strong woman. Started Special Olympics, was tough, but she dressed like a man. She only had male friends. She went to work with a briefcase like a guy. She was fighting all the time to be at that table. She smoked cigars. She only just kind of, you know, she was a force, right? And I came into journalism when there were no women in it, right? And women were coming in and you had to wear a power suit and you had to work twice as hard. And if you had a baby, you had to come back in a week and you had to do a lot of things that perhaps this generation doesn't have to do. So I think what is the model of feminine, all encompassing feminine strength? And I try to speak a lot to the ideal of holding these qualities of tenderness and toughness, strength and sexiness, feminine beauty and vulnerability. But also being aware that anger is in there, strength is in there, intelligence is in there, as is these other kind of more traditionally feminine qualities. And I think that's the conversation when we think about feminine power that I'd like to be having this generation and others to have. So it's kind of being able to take care of yourself, but also need someone else and lean on someone else and be able to celebrate your femininity and your sexuality, but also hold your ground and have boundaries. And these are things you learn through life. But that was not part of the conversation when I was in my 20s.

[Lewis Howes]

Or 30s, by the way, I don't think. First off, everybody listen to this. You need to go rewind that part back and send that to your favorite woman. Not listening to the show right now, by the way. I want to just say, I don't think it's being said right now very much what you just said, which is why you're so, so important. I think people know you. I know the multiple sides of you. I think a lot of people are getting exposed to this side of you. Maybe on my show, for the first time, this. This. This person who really reflects on life, really cares about human beings. And I think there's. I don't know. I think one thing we share comm. Is like, we. We. We take our life seriously. I don't take myself. Maybe sometimes I take myself too seriously. But I do take this gift of being here pretty darn seriously. Like, I want to. I always call it maxing out. But I. I want to contribute as much as I can. I want to grow as much as I can. I want to. I want to pause as much as I can at this stage of my life, too. That's become much more important. But one thing I did do, because my dad was good at this. My father could care less about material things, achievement. It was not even really discussed. It was, who are you going to be? Not what are you going to be? And that's something that my dad said over and over. So I'm researching more about my friend here, and I read this quote you said. I've learned that asking ourselves not just what we want to be. I'm like, this is. My father said this to me. But who do we want to be is important at every stage also of our lives. And she has this book called Just who Will youl Be? Right. But would you talk about that? And this changes Maria, wouldn't you agree? At different stages of our lives. But not enough people ask the question.

[Maria Shriver]

I think, absolutely. I think, you know, it's a good time to ask it. Coming out of this pandemic, we're all very different people than we were before this pandemic. How are we coming out? How are we taking the gift of coming out and going out into the world? What have we learned? How have we Changed. What did we notice during that time? Who checked in on us? Who did we check in on? Who turned out to be important? What turned out to be important? I think it's. I used to always say that I noticed growing up in a political family, it was the only profession that penalized you if you changed your mind and still does, by the way. It doesn't allow for you to have been affected by life to change your mind. You're always, oh, you're a flip flopper, you're a changer. And I don't want to, you know, to me what's really Troublesome, somebody at 50 who's exactly the same as they were at 30.

[Lewis Howes]

Me too.

[Maria Shriver]

That's a problem because that means that for 20 years nothing made you think, nothing made you reevaluate, nothing impacted you. How could that be? How could that be right? And so, like in that last book I wrote, I've been thinking, I write a lot about all the things that I was wrong about that I've changed my ideas about because life has happened to me, right? My parents are both dead. I got separated after being with one person for 34 years. My kids are grown up, they've left their house. I've achieved certain things in my journalism career that, you know, propelled me. So I've got to be different at this age than I was in my 20s.

[Lewis Howes]

That was one of my questions. Maria, what is one thing you used to really believe about life that you no longer believe just one thing?

[Maria Shriver]

Oh my God. I mean, I used to think that, you know, weakness was kindness. I used to think that, you know, being gentle was a sign of weakness. I used to believe, oh my God, I have so many things I used to believe. I used to believe you had to earn your way into your parents heart. I really believe that. I really believed that if I did well in my professional career that my parents would love me and if I didn't do well, they wouldn't. I was wrong about so many things. I believed that divorce was a huge sin. I believed that I grew up as a Catholic, you know, I believed that, you know, priests were infallible. I believed that women should be secondary citizens in the church. So today I'm angry at my church. I believed that the Democratic Party was the only way. I resigned from the Democratic Party. I believed, you know, I never believed I'd be sitting here single at my age. I would have thought that that was like, what's up with that girl, that she's single at that age. Does she not have Anybody who loves her, what's wrong with her. So there's a lot of stuff that I thought if I were that 30 something year old, 35, 40 year old girl looking at me, that I would have made a judgment about, wow.

[Lewis Howes]

How much of it is talent and is it something else? How much would you say?

[Master P]

10%. 10% is talent, 90% is the business. Wow.

[Lewis Howes]

And what's the business to you? Is that the hustle, persistency.

[Master P]

So it's not just the hustles, but think about this, right? So at that time, I couldn't afford billboards, Okay. I made it with T shirts. I print up all these T shirts, put them on homeless people, gave them away to people. They was my walking billboards. I did not. I couldn't afford the big, big billboards. And I say, what can I do? Since I got to sell to the students, I created this thing called bus benches. You just see all the stuff with the lawyer's information say, no, I'm about to put my music stuff on there.

[Hip Hop Artist (Guest)]

You did.

[Master P]

And that's what I did. So those things back then was like 15, $25 a bus bench. And that's how I flooded up the market. Wow. And so the business part of what I said, why it's 90%, then you got to go to the retail stores to sell your product. So back then it was the best buys, the Walmarts, the targets, all those type of things, Right? So then you got to go to the radio side. So now you got to have a sales team to go do all that. So you could have one of the best. My record could be one of the best records in the world, but without people hearing it, getting this on the radio, building those relationships and having people go into that and actually bringing this and saying why you should play this. So if you look at some of the biggest artists in the world, why they sell out? Because they don't understand the business part of it is.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Master P]

And so by me being independently say, you know what? Then I have to have a strong team. And so that's when the sports thing kick in. So I gotta have my team members just as strong as me that's gonna go out and represent this. So the 10% is on the artist. I could find a great artist, but it don't mean nothing if I don't have a machine to go and, and, and, and, and bring this play all the way to where it's a touchdown or it's a don't.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Master P]

You know, you see what I'm saying? That's the thing.

[Lewis Howes]

Take a guy like that. Like, God rest his dmx.

[Master P]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

Take a guy like him, with all due respect, is that one of the separators was your ability to have a team around you and a business.

[Master P]

Well, also too, if you're gonna run a business, you can't have too many bad habits. And so. Cause now you got all this stuff. So DMX was one of the greatest in the world, but he got all this other stuff that he carrying with him, like. Cause everybody go through something, but now you got it because the people looking for you to think. So imagine, man, this. I. That's probably one of the. When When I think about DMX is almost like with the things that he say and how he believed in God and all this stuff, man, it's like. It's like a terrible loss for us.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Master P]

So imagine if he had the mindset, Right. To not dibble and dabble into the negativity. He would have been dangerous.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Master P]

And so he. He had to use their system to be successful. So they just used him as an artist.

[Lewis Howes]

Yeah.

[Master P]

So it's a difference. That's why I keep telling people, you know, do and everybody ain't meant to be a boss or entrepreneur.

[Lewis Howes]

Right.

[Master P]

So some people are meant to be workers. They might be better workers. And I think when you understand that how you program. So I was programmed from a kid. So even at 5, 6 years old, I was carrying the elderly groceries, I was cutting grass. I was thinking like an entrepreneur. And so what I. What I found out in the music business. Right. So I started watching the. The Avon lady. The Avon lady selling her stuff out the trunk of her car.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Master P]

That made me want to sell my CDs and cassettes out the trunk of the car. Just watching the Avon lady. The Avon lady, she watch like. What do you keep watching me for? You the police? I said, no, I was just trying to see what you do. She said, I'm legit. I sell my. I said, oh, legit, she legit. I said, my stuff by the trunk of my car.

[Lewis Howes]

Come on.

[Master P]

And that's incredible. That's what I started doing.

[Lewis Howes]

You know, I've done. I don't know, I don't know how many shows. Hundreds of shows.

[Master P]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

And when I ask somebody about success, you know, no one's ever said what you just said. And you're so right. Sometimes it's not what you need to do more of. It's eliminating the one or two or three things you do that keep setting you back.

[Master P]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

Maybe it's it could be that you, you drink too much, you party too much.

[Master P]

It could be.

[Lewis Howes]

It could be subtle, though. It could be like, you don't consistently make your contacts. You don't consistently make phone calls. You can't.

[Maria Shriver]

You.

[Master P]

But there's so. I love what you just said. See that word, Consistency, I tell people all the time, right? So consistency is the key. That's where the dedication got to kick in. Sacrifice. But consistency is what gonna get you to the next level, is doing something every day and people might not even see the results. But, you know, I'm doing this every day. Yeah, I'm gonna get there no matter what, no matter who. Tell me. No, like, you talked about Stephen A. Smith. When I talked to Stephen A. Smith about my sons, you're like, oh, yeah, they could play. But how many people really believe? And then, you know when you start capturing the moment and seeing that my kids get up at 5:00 in the morning, I know the ball family did it. Why we can't do it. We've seen this happen. And so now people are starting to believe. This our message to the world, to make the non believers believe. That's what we do. My kids, me, we are going to make the non believers believe they don't have to do it right now. It might be 10 years from now, we're going to put in that much work till you be like, man, I remember those kids. I remember this man. I remember him coming. Oh, everywhere you go, you got a cereal, people say, well, why you promote your stuff? Guess what? If you own it, you. Every chance you get, you should be promoting it.

[Lewis Howes]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Master P]

If you're a real businessman, you're a real entrepreneur. So what's gonna make me want to buy it if you don't believe it?

[Lewis Howes]

You know what's crazy? That you just say that. I have friends that are in the financial business. Yeah, right. And you go to a. Go an event with them and they'll leave. And then when they leave, people ask me, what's that guy doing? Like, how did you come to this whole thing?

[Master P]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

You didn't tell anybody here.

[Master P]

You miss your moment.

[Lewis Howes]

You missed the. You got to tell everybody what you do all the time. Social media, posting, texting, conversations, meetings. Like, you can't be embarrassed to talk about your business.

[Master P]

No. You can't also be like, oh, this is too much.

[Lewis Howes]

Right?

[Master P]

Wait, what's too much?

[Lewis Howes]

What's too much?

[Master P]

What's too much? If you have a business and a brand and you believe in it, I Don't care where I'm going at. Right?

[Lewis Howes]

Thank you. You gotta act like you got the cure for cancer. You had the cure for cancer. Would you keep it quiet? Right this. You're gosh. Thank you.

[Master P]

That shows me, right? I tell people all the time, how you gonna sell me something if you don't believe in it? How you gonna sell me some shoes if you're not wearing it?

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Master P]

Let's be honest.

[Lewis Howes]

You're so right.

[Master P]

You a bad salesman, if you ask me. Why would I wanna be a part of whatever you doing and like. And guess what? You're not gonna be my trainer to help me get in shape if you're not in shape.

[Lewis Howes]

Thank you. Thank you. It's exactly right.

[Master P]

Let's be honest. You wasting my time.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Master P]

You showing me that you just doing this for money because you're not dedicated to it or only reason I want to be here with you because I'm thinking, okay, well, I need to get myself together the way you got yourself together.

[Lewis Howes]

Master P just told you, Listen to me, everybody. This is a man who's built one of the most iconic brands ever in the history of the rap hip hop game. Number one, number two, NBA talent level basketball player. Number three, prolific entrepreneur. And he just told you it isn't too much. You got, you know, this, you all have this. You're about to go out to a little dinner party or something like that, and your wife's like, hey, hey, don't come on too strong tonight about business. You know, let's keep. Don't listen to this stuff, you guys. There's not too much you. I, I know when I was coming up as an entrepreneur, even now, people like friends of mine were like, here he goes again.

[Master P]

That's what I do.

[Lewis Howes]

Exactly.

[Master P]

Think about how you think the mother companies got big as they are. Somebody believed in it. Maybe it wasn't a boss. It was somebody that took, took a loan and said, I gotta go do my part.

[Lewis Howes]

What did you, what did you. What were you like earlier? So clearly to me, this is a man. By the way, I'm a sinner. Saved by the grace of God too, let's be very clear. But this is a man who's, you know, has God in his life. His sons are remarkable young men. That is not by mistake to be so proud of that. And obviously you've built this incredible business life. I have to think in your industry there was a lot of dudes who went to excess, so. And were you the guy who, like, would leave a little early and go home and get rest. So you got to go up the next day and still work? Or did you go through a stage in your life where you're a little bit lost too?

[Master P]

To be honest with you? I told you, I come from nothing. I had no time to party or play or hang with those guys really. So I didn't get that type of childhood. I didn't get that type of. Even me being successful in the music industry, I've always thinking I need to out thank these other people. I know if I, if I, if I sit on here and party and play with them, I'm done. They want to catch me slipping. They are not going to catch me slipping because I know what the ultimate goal is. I got to get, if I'm going to be better, I got to do better. I got to work, I got to get out here. I got to outwork them. I got to out thanking them. I need to be 10 steps ahead of them. I need to be playing chess while they playing checkers. And I got to show them that no, I'm not just no dumb black guy that you're going to just throw around because this is a white man business that I'm in the music industry. Think about it. I'm in their game. It's nobody look like me that's making the type of money I'm making. I went from having nothing to being the top under 40 and Forbes because of that type of mindset saying I can't play with them. They want to catch me slipping. So you got to realize, anybody that's listening to this, if you had something that you really want to make it in, people are looking for your downfall. And I don't care in life, I told you, success is like a seesaw, go up and down. But you're not going to beat me mentally. You're not going to catch me out there and play me and take me down. I don't care. Like even in the Bible, like it say, God, make your enemies your footstool. Even if somebody says something negative about you, God will use that for something good that they thought was gonna be for evil. So you just gotta keep going and keep doing the right thing. I always tell people it's accountability and so and accountability and integrity is all about doing what's right when nobody's looking. And so I couldn't, I couldn't worry about what they was doing. I already knew, especially as a black man, I shouldn't be in this anyway. I should be an artist, right? So I need to Take it. I should be talent. So now if I'm gonna be a boss, I gotta take myself home early. If I'm going there, I'm not going nowhere unless that it's going to benefit me. Like you, you're going to pay me my work, you know, you're not going to look down on me, and I'm not about. So. So to me, I think that's what we mess up at thinking that you want to play in a game where you're not wanted. I'm only there because, yes, my talent has got me into this room. My success has got me into this room. But do they really want me here? No. So that means I gotta work ten times as harder than them. I gotta outdo them. And when they go home, they gotta be like, man, that black man over there, man, he's still working, his computer's still up. He's still in the gym. And that's. That's. That's what I teach my kids is like, you know what? We the underdogs. My company name, no limit. But guess what? I'm the underdog. I come from nothing. They don't think I'm smarter. They don't think I'm, you know, I know more than them. Cause think about it, right, like, it's these traditional business older gentlemen that think they understand the game. And it's like the game has changed. You got to have an open mind to the youth, to what's going on. That's why my business is so strong right now. That's why I'm still relevant, because I have an open mind for the next generation. These people live off tradition. That's why we able to have Snoop cereal, Brodus food. Because they thinking tradition. We thinking, you know what? We could beat y' all with social media.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes.

[Master P]

We could get this to every kid in the world, every person that love, because they say 90 of the world eat cereal. How come we not selling it to them? So now I got to figure out how to get this some. Same way I did with the music. So when you look at it right, we sold 100 million records. But that wasn't just to African American. When I started going to my shows and seeing that, I did a show in Tyler, Texas. It was 35,000 white kids. And I'm asking the promoter, you show this my show? He said, p, they love you. I'm telling. They sung it word for word. That's when I knew that I crossed over that I have business people now that I go into these rooms, that I Don't look at color. So when I looked at okay, I sold how many to. When I first got on the label with the distribution deal with Priority, they told me I was gonna sell. If I sell 10,000 records, we could pop bottles.

[Lewis Howes]

10,000.

[Master P]

My first week said, if you sell 10,000, we could pop bottles. I put the Ice Cream man album out, but I've already then went to all these cities, put T shirts, visit all these places. I did all the street team marketing on my own. So I was putting up posters and I have my hoodie on, and it be like, oh, oh, you look like the guy on that part. I said, nah, man, that ain't me, man. We all look like that in Louisiana. So I'm putting my stuff up. But I believe I couldn't let nobody else. Somebody would have threw my posters in the garbage can. I need to get out here and do this.

[Lewis Howes]

We did it yourself.

[Master P]

I physically did it myself. And guess what? That first week, we sold 50 something thousand units. Nobody knew who I was. They couldn't believe it. It was like the next thing you know, 100,000, 200,000 went platinum. And that's when they had NWA.

[Lewis Howes]

They.

[Master P]

Had ice Cube, they had the Ghetto Boys. This was all on one label. They had Jay Z. All these guys was on one label, man. Wow. And so that's why I put my trust in faith in God. It's not about me. That's why I say I'm God made. Because without that faith, I wouldn't be here.

[Lewis Howes]

But faith without works is dead, like you said earlier.

[Master P]

And I had to get him put.

[Lewis Howes]

To work in you know what? And two, faith is first. Because when you have faith that you'll put the work in that there'll be a harvest parable of the sower right in the Bible. And you know what this is? This is. No pun intended. I mean, this. This is a master class.

[Master P]

Yes.

[Lewis Howes]

People will be watching this interview. I'm serious. Ten years from now. This is. This is that level.

[Master P]

I'm gonna tell you something. I love my people and I want to educate the ones that want to listen. Because they have some people that don't want to listen. They like, well, I'm gonna do it this way. I'm saying, you know what? Look at my mistakes and look at my success and then choose.

[Lewis Howes]

Talk about your mistakes for a minute. Yeah, you don't have to tell me what they were, but I'm sure you've had.

[Master P]

I've had failures in business all the time.

[Lewis Howes]

Have you learned from them? And what have you learned from the times you failed?

[Master P]

I learned so much. And. And I'm excited. I know. Like, think about it. At first, people thought you just need to get money to be successful. I learned the importance of credit. That's your report card. I could go get whatever I want with credit. I don't even need the money. Most of these big deals are not done with money. It's done on your word, done on credit.

[Lewis Howes]

Oh, my gosh. That's so.

[Master P]

And everybody gonna feel. Don't be afraid to get back up. If you look at some of the best people in the world that are successful, I don't care what you look at from LeBron James. Go look at LeBron James as example. He didn't win a high school championship till his last year. Go look at Michael Jordan. He got cut from the high school team and he ended up being one of the greatest players in the world.

[Lewis Howes]

Brady was a backup quarterback on the team.

[Master P]

Brady was a backup quarterback. Think about it, one of the goats now. And so when you look at this stuff.

[Lewis Howes]

So true.

[Master P]

It amazed you knowing that everybody come from something where they had to. I look at Damon Little right now, right? He was number 1,000 and something.

[Lewis Howes]

No one believed in him.

[Master P]

Steph Curry was 1,000 and something. These guys, some of the top players in the NBA. 6 2. How could you be running a franchise at 6 2? That's what I tell my kids. I'm like, don't get caught up by the numbers. We don't care about rankings. We don't care about none of that. It cannot be hard work. Hard work is going. See that. Do not try to cheat the game they got. People don't realize them failures is going to get you to where you need to be at. So use that. Use that. It's not a race, it's a marathon. Nipsey Hussle said it the best. And when you look at that, if you in a rush, that's like being. So you get up driving. I can't come in my neighborhood, somebody flying past me, trying to get to where they going. Then I catch them at the light. I'm like, you did all that to go nowhere. And my thing is what I learned. Stop running in place. Because most people think they're going somewhere. But if you're running in place, you're not going nowhere. You can't just live your life on the treadmill. If you're going to run around the block of the park or the gym or whatever, get out there and run. Running in place, get you nowhere. And. And. And the most important thing that I realized, a turkey and an eagle look alike, but it's not the same. A turkey on the ground, he can't fly. An eagle fly high. And most of the time, eagles fly alone. Don't be afraid to be alone. Don't be afraid to be alone. Because think about it, he always says, alone at the top. Yeah. Because nobody else really want to work. Work.

[Lewis Howes]

You're right.

[Master P]

People want to come. Come eat the bread. I tell people, you know what? If you don't come in here and bake the bread and get your hands dirty with me and get all this dough all on you, then don't come to the party to eat the bread. You're not invited. You're not. Because I'm going hard every day. I'm working hard. I'm building something. They not going to say that we wasn't working. They're not going to say that we wasn't trying to do the right thing. You know, I wake up in the morning saying, I'm going out and better myself. I don't care if I'm super on top. Because I know one thing. Is somebody else working too? And when you get comfortable, that's when you fall.

[Lewis Howes]

That's a million percent, right? There's three. I think there's three people. Three types. There's people who just. They don't. They're not busy at all.

[Master P]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

Then there's people who are like, busy.

[Master P]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

That's different than doing the work. That moves the needle.

[Master P]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

What you mean about running in place a lot of you out there. And I mean, this is. All due respect, you're like, no, I put a lot of hours in your situation. What did you actually do? Like, you actually handed the shirts out. You actually worked out of the trunk.

[Master P]

Like, most people want to be supervisors.

[Lewis Howes]

They do. You know, that's exactly.

[Master P]

You don't want to be a boss. You want to be a supervisor.

[Lewis Howes]

Exactly.

[Master P]

But you want the boss paycheck.

[Lewis Howes]

Yes. Yes.

[Master P]

And all you want to do is sit around and complain, talk about the boss. I'm not talking about the boss. When. When. When I had to be the worker. Yes, sir, boss. Thank you, boss. I appreciate you, boss. Because you've given me an opportunity. And don't be mad at me that I turned into the boss. Cause I watched what the boss do and I learned from the boss mistakes. And then I was able to apply that game with what I'm doing and say what to do and what not to do. And then if I don't like what the boss said, then I need to go create my own. That's what entrepreneurs do. Like, we don't get mad. We don't play or hate on people. We just like, you know what? Okay, this don't work for me. Instead of me working for you, I need to go create something for me, and that's all I've done. So if somebody get mad or jealous of me, it's like, you know what? I don't know everything, and I don't need to know everything. I don't even need to know where this company or where this brand, like, say, how many we gonna sell? I never looked at it like that. I love the process. I'm gonna get out here and work and create this. Cause I told you, wealth is created by ideas. So I created something I'm happy with, and I'm gonna get out there, I'm gonna go put it to the world. I. And then I'm not going to say, oh, we're going to sell a billion of these. No, I want to sell one first.

[Lewis Howes]

I'm the same way.

[Master P]

I'm not going to even tell you nothing like that. Oh, we're going to make billions. Nope, I'm not doing that. But I'm going to tell you one thing. I'm going to make the best product. It's going to taste the best. I got a great system. I got the best distribution, and then I'm going to let God do the rest. And then God has that in store for me for this to be one of the biggest brands in the world. And it will be. But I done did my part because we just talked about that earlier. Fate without work is dead. I don't put the work in, but I'm not trying to count the chickens for the egg hatch. And so that's the mentality that I have. I just keep out there grinding, keep going, never looking back. When they tell me no, they say, you can't do it, Po. Well, you ain't gonna make it. I'm like, man, y' all crazy because I came from nothing and watch what I'm about to do. You thought that what I did 10, 20 years ago, you ain't seen nothing. Because I'm just getting started. So you say, what makes you get up in the morning, go so hard? I feel like I'm just getting started, especially in this game. I've never done this before. I mastered the music industry. Now I gotta go master the food industry. So I gotta educate myself. I gotta meet with people I gotta study the game. I'm constantly reading because I tell people all the time, if you don't understand business, you have to do more studying than anything else. Like, you need to know what you're doing. You know what you sell it. You need to know your product. You need to know the people you putting out there to represent you.

[Lewis Howes]

You know the mistake most people make? They go, yeah, I do. I'm like, no, it never ends.

[Master P]

No.

[Lewis Howes]

Right. You know what I mean?

[Master P]

It's okay not to know, right? That's why you seeking the information. That's why you studying. Like, think about it. I tell. I tell my kids, you want to be great basketball players, Go study the game. I don't care if you're doing all kind of dunks. You could shoot, whatever. Guess what the thing. What they looking at Your iq, they got guys six, two that ain't that big, but they basketball IQ is incredible. That's why they making the money they making. That's why Steph Curry making the money he making. He an expert. He ain't come out the hood now. Best I took. I told my kids, y' all in the best world now because you could go get all these top trainers, and you could be just as good as a kid in the hood. I had to go off of. I don't have nothing. My passion drove me. But now you could really go off of. Let me put the word at. No matter if you live in a mansion or you live in the projects, it don't even matter if your work ethic is the same and you really love what you're doing and you're passionate about. You gonna make. You can make that 2% now. Now, if you thinking that now, you just got to be from the projects to have heart. No. You know what my kids said the other day on. On the. On a talk show about basketball? He in high school, Matt Barnes asked him, so one word, describe your game. He said, I'm a dog.

[Lewis Howes]

Dog.

[Master P]

I love it. And that's what I create.

[Lewis Howes]

I love it.

[Master P]

Like, we dogs. That's how I get up in the morning. I say, look, with this boxing series. Well, Pete was. I'm a dog. When I come in, I don't care what salesperson you have. Here I go, the dog is here now. That's what I told Snoop. We dogs. Like, we the cats ain't gonna make it.

[Lewis Howes]

Yep. Always bet on the dog, by the way. Always. Listen to me, everybody, by the way. This is one of the greatest conversations of all time. Just so you know. I Just, just so you know. And I have to tell you, always bet on the dog. People tell me that when I hire people, even like I don't even always hire the smartest or most talented people, I will take this person who will outwork everybody every single time. Because by the way, it might not even be in that, that work with your sons. Might be in basketball, but that might.

[Master P]

Turn to something else. I came from basketball. That's where I'm at now.

[Lewis Howes]

That can travel. I tell my son that all the time. The time that I call my son a gladiator, but I tell him that all the time. By the way, he, he grew up in some comfort too, unlike how I grew up. Tell him that all the time. That will travel. You might not be in golf. Maybe it'll be in business, maybe it'll be as a father, I don't know. But I know that hard work, that living with integrity stuff.

[Master P]

Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

That wins eventually because it is a long game. Life is a long game. Now some people take the long game and go, well, I'm pacing myself. It's a sprint, the whole marathon.

[Master P]

So let me tell you something, right? Nothing is going to be easy. Even with our kids. We got to let them overcome their adversity. I don't care. You might live in a nice house, but you're still going to deal with some adversity. I don't care whether it's at school, might be with the players on your team. We have to let them go through their adversity. And that's what we was able to go through, our own adversity. And so when I look at life, I say, wow, if you do the right thing, you gonna come out on top. If you don't, none of us ain't God. Like, we can't stop our kids from going through whatever they got to go through. Even though we might try them and give them a nice life and do this, you can still walk out that door and go be an a hole.

[Lewis Howes]

Yep.

[Master P]

Think about it. See, people always say, money change. People know money enhance who you are.

[Lewis Howes]

It's a magnifier it do.

[Master P]

And so I've always had a good heart to help people, even when I had no money. So what you think I'm gonna do when I have money? So. But I'm not gonna let people use me. So what I, what I focus on, I focus on the young kids and the elderly. Cause I feel like I want the people that want a hand up, not out. And so most, most people, they, they come in With a hand out, I'm like, nobody gave me nothing. Like, if I'd have died in them projects, if I'd have went to prison, you wouldn't care about me. Think about it. I decided to do right and change my life now. Oh, well, Pete, you think I'm going to change your life? No. I can't just change a person's life. I'm not God. Only God could do that. But what I can do is I can give you the right advice. I could show you, I could help you. If we decide to do things together and build something, a partnership or business, then that's fine. But the Bible say, no man owe no man nothing but love. That's it. And if you do that and be there for your neighbors, don't wait till it's too late. So my whole thing is, if I could stay on that path, everything else gonna be okay. God gonna take care of the rest. And that's how I live.

[Lewis Howes]

I have to tell you something, brother. You were just talking. I literally, I don't even know why it happened. I just said a prayer. I just said, I feel so blessed that I'm in this conversation.

[Master P]

Thank you.

[Lewis Howes]

I do. And I'm so blessed. I'm so blessed that this is like millions of people are going to hear this from you. Like, I knew this was. Well, no, I didn't. I hope today was going to be good.

[Master P]

Well, the thing about it is, like for me, I keep telling you that I don't need to know everything. I don't need to know how things going to go. I really just let God lead me on the journey I'm on. Like, even when people want to hate on me or want to stop me, right. My thing is, the thing that we have to realize as people hate is from a distance you can see that, that motivate me. When somebody know or don't know me and they trying to stop me from getting somewhere or do something. Oh, okay, that's hate. That's motivation. But when it's in your circle, it's envy and jealousy. That's the part that I don't like. We gotta stop that self hate to where if you in somebody's circle and you hating on somebody that's trying to help, that's just going to come back on you. That envy and jealousy never going to get you nowhere. God always showed me like, okay, and on that journey, because I would tell you this is a journey, I like to see that. Okay, man, I give people money to leave because I don't Want you to going where I about to go at. We going to a whole nother level now. I had to pay family members. I had an uncle. I told my grandma, I said, he ain't good for my business. His customer service is bad. He just think just because we got money, he talk to people any kind of way. I say, oh, here go a couple dollars. Go do whatever you want to do. Start your own business. I don't need you in my business.

[Lewis Howes]

Wow.

[Master P]

Because you're going to mess up my.

[Lewis Howes]

Business to get out of the circle.

[Master P]

Get out the circle. My circle is small.

[Lewis Howes]

Me too.

[Master P]

But you know why it's small? Because I don't. So I don't have time to explain to people that really don't have the integrity to go on a journey with me. I feel like I'm wasting time, too. I'm not wasting time no more. So I'm good with saying, look, this not for you. This not. You're not on the journey that's going to last a lifetime with us. You was on the season.

[Lewis Howes]

You're right.

[Master P]

And by the way, your season over with now. Yeah.

[Lewis Howes]

And I think the longer you keep someone like that around you, the more it grows. It can. It can have a big. The. Once you sense someone shouldn't be in your circle or in your business, the sooner you get that out, the better, because it can. It can start to. To spread.

[Master P]

I tell people, I don't want headache money. I don't care what. How big your idea is. And you going to go and we're going to make all say, you know, I don't want headache money, man. I want some money that I could be like, man, I'm happy to work with this person. I can't wait to see you. Let's go get this done. Headache money is the worst kind of money, cuz you need Aspen. I don't. I don't want no headache money, man. I'm cool on that. Y' all could keep your headache my table all the time. All money ain't good money. I done turned down so many deals. That was the one thing my grandfather taught me before he passed. He said. He said, son, never do a deal when you're desperate. And I don't. And never do business with shaky people. Because if it start off shaking on end shaking.

[Lewis Howes]

The wisdom coming out of you is just so profound. Everything you say. I got to tell you, the other thing you said earlier about. By the way, I'm stealing that from you. I know. The headache money thing, that's mine. Just so you know, that's mine. But the other thing I got to tell you is this idea about not needing to know everything.

[Master P]

Yeah?