← Tom Bilyeu's Impact Theory
Tom Bilyeu's Impact Theory
Replay: Tom Bilyeu Q&A: Future Tech, Singularity, and Swearing Explained
01:02:17
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- [00:00]
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- [01:00]
Tom Bilyeu
Hey, everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of Facebook Live. Q and A. Here we are. Ready to do the damn thing.
- [01:10]
Lisa Bilyeu
I was like, I can't hear anything.
- [01:12]
Tom Bilyeu
All right, we're plugged in. We're ready to rock and roll. So, yeah, off we go. Off to. To the races.
- [01:21]
Lisa Bilyeu
There it is. Okay. All right, so we have a ton of questions left over from last time.
- [01:29]
Tom Bilyeu
Oh, wow. And I hope we're all enjoying the sounds of wind chimes, which are my wife's alarms, which she. In fact, we should cover that. We're doing a special Valentine's Day episode today with Lisa and I where I get to interview her, and I'm gonna ask her about her obsessive leaving of the phone. Like, it's one. As a guy, I really don't understand women and not the. The no pockets thing. Can we. Can we talk about that?
- [01:56]
Lisa Bilyeu
Like, I mean, we can talk about it. It's just a lot of our clothes don't come with pockets.
- [02:01]
Tom Bilyeu
There is a business opportunity, but they're, like, really excited.
- [02:04]
Lisa Bilyeu
Like, when you. When they first started making dresses with pockets, like, I lost my shit. Because it's amazing. Like, you put your phone and, like, your lip gloss, and you still have, like, your little clutch.
- [02:14]
Tom Bilyeu
And I. Whoever came up with that, I am so, so grateful to them
- [02:18]
Lisa Bilyeu
because usually I, like, have to store everything in, like, my bra.
- [02:21]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah.
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Lisa Bilyeu
Because there are no pockets in here.
- [02:22]
Tom Bilyeu
It's not a good look. It's not a good look.
- [02:23]
Lisa Bilyeu
It's, like, so weird.
- [02:24]
Tom Bilyeu
So, all right, so we have questions left over, which is very exciting.
- [02:28]
Lisa Bilyeu
So let's start with Francisco V from Facebook last week. Have you considered creating an impact theory university master's degree program, perhaps along the lines of Singularity University?
- [02:41]
Tom Bilyeu
Wow. I really haven't. And I wouldn't say, oddly enough, that formal education is my bag. And let me really reach into my soul and answer the question why? I think that there are people that are doing an amazing job. MIT makes all their courses available online. There are other places, Khan Academy, that make courses available online. Many of them are. Are absolutely free. And I think that the content that we're putting out really is me doing my best to give everything that I know away for free. And I guess so much of what I know has come from non formal education that that's just not where my head goes. And if I could see a scalable business opportunity in there, really where I think the opportunity and the need, quite frankly, is in, like, high school. And there's a pretty exciting movement happening right now where people are saying, we need to rethink high school. There's some pretty cool ads that I've seen online. So from a marketing perspective, I think they're doing a really good job of getting people to understand the problem better. They're basically showing, like, here's what technology looked like in 1910, here's what it looks like now, and it's, you know, like, it goes from, you know, row after row of sewing machines and things to, like, the Large Hadron Collider, right? And you just get this visceral sense that, oh, my God, like, we have made so much progress. And then they show a classroom from 1910 and a classroom today, and they basically look the same, except except one's black and white and one's in color and saying, you know, we really have to rethink education. I just. I'm not the man to do it. Like, that's the honest answer. I don't have a deep enough passion for it to get good at it and. And really become the best in the world. So the short answer is no, but
- [04:20]
Lisa Bilyeu
there's someone out there who's gonna do it, you know. All right, so this one comes from Michael Foster, our boy who we can
- [04:30]
Tom Bilyeu
always count on for amazing stuff. What's up, Michael?
- [04:31]
Lisa Bilyeu
It's true. Always good to hear from you. What is your number one tool for building rapport with your guests?
- [04:37]
Tom Bilyeu
Ooh, wow. My number one tool is actually quite easy. It's the intro. And the intro is representative of a lot, namely a lot of research. And I try to honor the guest and I think in showing them that I Care enough about them to really dig in and understand who they are and reflect back, like, here's something, man. If you want to beat me at my own game, let me give you the number one tip. You want to find the obscure things. It isn't the loop. It isn't the things that they're used to answering that's really going to get under their skin and make them feel understood, like, to be seen in the way, like in the Avatar way of I see you. It's never going to be the thing that what I call is their loop, right? That they get asked a thousand times in every interview, and they're so used to doing it that you can actually go on autopilot. There are certain questions that people ask me I can do on autopilot where, like, halfway through the answer, I realize I'm talking like, whoa. So that's never going to be the thing. It's going to be some obscure thing that they mention the way that they talk about it. And I'll have seen so many of their interviews, read so many articles and things that they've. They've written. I'll find, like, those little nuggets, and I'll try to work them into the intro so that they really feel seen, they really feel understood. And. And that's. Yeah, that. That more than anything.
- [05:53]
Lisa Bilyeu
True. True.
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Tom Bilyeu
Hashtag truth.
- [05:55]
Lisa Bilyeu
Hashtag truth.
- [05:56]
Tom Bilyeu
Nice.
- [05:57]
Lisa Bilyeu
All right, so this one. So we have two questions from Dan Bro. Dan Bro Fitness.
- [06:02]
Tom Bilyeu
Oh, I know Dan Bro very, very well.
- [06:04]
Lisa Bilyeu
All right, so also, besides the books on your list, what books do you think are a must read when setting up a company? And so when setting up impact theory, what was the hardest hurdle that you had to overcome? Setting up a business currently. And the process is fun, tough, and new things keep coming. They. Thanks for the awesome work.
- [06:23]
Tom Bilyeu
What are the books other than the ones on the list? Like, those really are. God. So I'm always reading and there's always new stuff that I'm excited to be adding to the arsenal. But those are the first 25 books you should read if you're trying to start a business. That's exactly why I added them. So I would say, God, I put so much effort into that book list. I really think, at least right now in my own education is pretty complete. What was the hardest thing about starting Impact Theory?
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Lisa Bilyeu
Like, the biggest hurdle we had to overcome?
- [06:56]
Tom Bilyeu
It was really that we were starting back at zero and getting guests back on the show. I think was our. The biggest. The biggest hurdle on the show side on the, like, business Business side, it's very similar, meaning that we're starting from zero, but it's different in the way that you overcome it. So it was easy for us to point to what we had done at Inside Quest and get guests on, say, you know, look at what we've done. And this is my interview style. And so people were pretty excited about coming on the show because they knew what the interview would be even if it wasn't. You know, we didn't have huge subscriber numbers and stuff. They knew that they were going to get a good interview out of it. And Christopher is just a genius at getting people to really understand, like, what the experience is going to be like. So. But that was tough and that I think Christopher had a lot of anxiety over that. Dr. Finesse was a little tense about starting from scratch, but so that was tough. And then on the business side, it's getting people to see you in a new context. Right. So I was the protein bar guy. So going from being the protein bar guy to doing something completely different, getting people to understand my vision of wellness, getting people to understand, you know, what we're trying to do on the business side and how we're going to monetize it in the long run, because people understand incubators, they understand studios, but they don't understand that intersection. And so really getting people to understand that is an ongoing thing. And I actually take a lot of pride in the fact that people can't quite see what we're doing. And there's this awesome quote, you know, which is vision is hitting a target that other people can't even see. And knowing, like, already the steps that we're taking that are moving us towards that, and where I can see us being in, you know, 10 years is it's going to be pretty cool. So. But those are our hurdles.
- [08:40]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yes. Okay, so the. I'm gonna do one more from last week because we have a bunch of questions already in the comments, and I don't want anyone to feel neglected.
- [08:53]
Tom Bilyeu
Cool.
- [08:53]
Lisa Bilyeu
All right, so this one comes from John Smith and Stephen. John.
- [08:59]
Tom Bilyeu
Every time I hear your name, John, it just sounds fake. John Smith. Like. And I can sympathize, right? Because I have the most generic name of all time. The first name, anyway.
- [09:08]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yeah.
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Tom Bilyeu
John Smith. Man, that's like a. That's a double whammy. So, John, I trust that your personality is so badass that you could just go by John, and people would be like, that's John Smith. Respect.
- [09:21]
Lisa Bilyeu
So in Steven Johnson's book, where Good Ideas Come From He Speaks about the Commonplace Book. Do you journal or write when you read?
- [09:30]
Tom Bilyeu
I definitely write when I read. I take notes. I take a lot more notes now that I do the book reviews, partly because I. It's not just for me anymore, which reading for me was always about gathering the thematics of things over time. So I'd read as many books as I could on a given subject, and I would know that over enough time that I would really begin to understand, codify the big issues. But now that I'm that specific book, like, I'm trying to entice people, I'm trying to get them excited. I'm trying to present the big ideas from the book. I take a lot more notes now, which is actually great. It slows me down a little, which I find a little bit frustrating, but it's much more retainable and I can go back and find those things again when I'm in conversation with somebody. Trying to remember, like, I have the gist, but I don't remember the actual specific. It's nice to be able to go back to my notes and. Ah, yeah, here it is.
- [10:18]
Lisa Bilyeu
True. All right, this one I think you're gonna geek out about a little bit.
- [10:22]
Tom Bilyeu
I'm excited already.
- [10:23]
Lisa Bilyeu
So this one's from Antonio O. On Facebook. Could you expand more about the singularity?
- [10:28]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah. Wow. It's interesting. I'm curious to know if he was here yesterday. So we went deep into the singularity. So here's how it goes. The singularity is a term borrowed from physics, and what it means is there's an event horizon to a black hole, and a black hole distorts so much that we actually don't understand the physics inside of a black hole, because we don't understand the physics inside the black hole. When you go over the event horizon, everything is unknown. And so that's called the singularity. Why exactly they chose the word singularity, I'm not entirely sure. I don't know if it's because the, you know, know, pinpoint of a black hole is so infinitesimally small, maybe. But anyway, so you can't predict it. And so when Ray Kurzweil was trying to come up with a way of explaining that moment where technology is advancing so quickly that we can no longer predict what it will look like, he took that term. So. And it's actually become way more popular as a term in technology, I guess just because more people are interested in technology than black holes, I've just made people a little sad. But so that. That was the Idea that it's just technology advancing so rapidly that we can't begin to predict it. But despite that, I love talking about it. I love thinking about what will that really look like? And so I admittedly am applying. It's like any future movie that you look at, it's what the future looks like through the lens of that time period. So, you know, when you think about future movies that were created in Japan in the 80s, like Akira and stuff like that, it was all nuclear driven. It was about, you know, the, the. The tragedy that they had experienced with the World War II, Hiroshima, Nagasaki. So it. That's what really informed those films. So it was really that time period looking into the future. And that's always the way that. That movies about the future go. So I'm well aware that all of my predictions and insights into what the technological singularity is going to look like is about what. How humanity views itself now. Um, and I think that's gonna rapidly change. And I'm actually reading a book right now called Evolving Ourselves. And oh, man, like, originally I felt really, really indulgent because I. Impact theory is now taking up so much time between the content that we create and the business side of things that I really try to read books that I think would be useful to the community because I'm always trying to maximize my efforts. So, hey, if I'm gonna be reading, read something that not only is useful for me right now in the moment, but read something that I think the community that we're trying to build would find useful. I just could not help myself from starting this book. And it was meant to be my side chick. Like it was meant to be the book that I was also reading and that I would be reading something else that may be more directly applied. And I've just gotten so sucked into its world that I've convinced myself that you guys are all going to love the book review that I'm going to do. I have no idea if anybody's going to find it interesting, but this shit, it is so fascinating to me. So I bring that up because it talks about the way one of the ways that we're beginning to evolve ourselves in a way a technological way that people don't think is technology. So think about this thing called crispr. Now, I didn't know how CRISPR came to be. It was one of those things like. So CRISPR allows you to edit DNA. Yeah, stop and think about that for a second. Unless you edit D N A Man. So. But it was found, like, this is so Interesting. It was found by the yogurt industry because the yogurt industry is always battling viruses, attacking the bacteria that they use to create the yogurt. Yogurt is an enzymatic process. So they're always trying to combat these viruses that come in and end up decimating their bacteria populations. And so they're looking at these things with, I would assume, some very high powered microscope and they realize that bacteria in their own genetic code, they have this thing that's basically a snapshot of the virus that tried to attack it before. So they have, they, they actually like carry the sequence of the, the virus in it so that they know what it looks like. And then they have this thing called crispr. And CRISPR goes around and looks for that sequence and then it will cut that sequence. Because that's how viruses work, right? They insert themselves into your DNA strand. That's why they're so tricky. So, and it would go in and cut out the virus and then either put junk DNA in its place, so just like random letters or some benign piece of code. And so they thought, wait a second, like if what it's doing is looking at a picture, right? A picture, let's know that I'm doing air quotes for anybody who's listening to this. Not really a picture, but it's a snapshot of the code. If that's what it's doing, we could tell it, hey, look for this and cut this out. So we could say, look for Hodgkin's lymphoma and cut that out. Look for HIV and cut that. They've used it on hiv, by the way, and they've eradicated HIV from cells. I don't know that they've eradicated it from a, like a whole human, but they can eradicate HIV from cells with CRISPR going in and editing out the DNA. So this, you're right, I'm totally geeking out on this. This is all coming back to the question about the singularity. But like, this is, this is where you, you begin to see like people right now hearing that couldn't have predicted that, right? Like we couldn't predict that the yogurt industry is going to find this thing that allows you to actually that, that allows a biological thing to go in a biological process, to go in and cut out a strand of DNA and replace it, right? Like we could, I couldn't have imagined that. And I think about this all day, so I've got to imagine most people couldn't see that. So, and that's like Some minor point, like what happens now when technology is like. So I think it's by 20, I'm going to make this up. It's somewhere between 2029 and like 2035.
- [16:06]
Lisa Bilyeu
Okay?
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Tom Bilyeu
I think it's 29. So let's pretend that it's 2029. You can look it up. Ray Kurzweil, prediction 89 of his. 89% of his predictions have come true. Um, but he said by 2029, I believe, that the computers will be. One computer will have the processing power of the entire human race. Okay? Like, think about the entire human race all at once, thinking about one problem. Like, we've all met that cat who's, like, super smart, and you're like, whoa. Like, this is crazy.
- [16:36]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yeah.
- [16:36]
Tom Bilyeu
Now imagine 7 billion people thinking about one problem at one time. Like, it's just crazy. Like the. The amount of data that you can crunch and process and at. At that point, like, what? Everything is pattern recognition, right? So all the things that we. Like there's just so many variables, so we all write it off. I need to wrap this fucking question up. You've gotta be careful asking me questions like this. I love this shit so much. So, you know, it. It. There's. It's pattern recognition. So we write things off saying like, okay, there's just too many variables, right? Butterfly effect. We can't predict it, but when you have something that has the processing power of the entire human race aimed at one problem, suddenly every pattern that you could possibly imagine becomes transparent. So that's how this stuff, you know, crispr becomes like a minor side note when you've got something like that Mic drop. Move on. Don't get me started on this.
- [17:28]
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- [17:59]
Lisa Bilyeu
All right, so this one comes from Chris Welsh. What is the cognitive bias you've overcome the most and how? Or, yeah, what cognitive bias have you overcome the most and how?
- [18:13]
Tom Bilyeu
Ooh, I don't know the answer to that. I'm not sure. I've never thought deeply in terms of. Because there are real cognitive biases. Like they've been listed out. So any answer I give would be so thin on the truth of the actual cognitive biases. The focus for me has always been emotional control. And so that's the thing that I've always dealt with, is really coming to understand that my emotions are merely suggestions from my nervous system and I can ignore them. And that's really been the main thing. But some cognitive biases, like the sunk cost fallacy, where it's like, I like this mic setup, makes me want to punch somebody. You have no idea how much time we lose to this, but we spend a lot of money on it. So I, for 20 minutes on every episode, I'm fucking over here fiddling with this damn thing, trying to get it right because it's like, oh God, like it'd be so expensive. Like, be such a waste of money. So why don't we just use it for like another six months and then I'll feel like it's paid off. That doesn't make any sense. Right? So that's a sunk cost fallacy. You see people doing the same thing in poker where they double down because it's like, well, I'm pot committed now. Well, it's like, now you're just going to lose more money, dumb ass. So better to cut your losses and just switch to the right strategy rather than think you have to somehow make good on what you've spent. That's a great one. One that's ironic that if you saw like, let's say there was $100 watch and you could buy that hundred dollar watch at one store or drive an extra 20 minutes to save $20. Most people will do that, right? So it's $100 here, it's only 80 there. They're gonna go to the place where it's 80. But if you were negotiating on a car and I said that you could save even $100 on the car by driving an extra 20 minutes, people would be like, I would never do that. But why? Like it's a hundred dollars like a minute ago. Because it becomes the percentage of the total cost of the product. But it actually doesn not a relative amount of money. It's their absolute dollars. $20 is an absolute amount of money. $100 is an absolute amount of money. And yet in one instance, because of the relative dollar amount, you'd be willing to drive an extra 20 miles or 20 minutes than you would even if it was a hundred bucks or, you know, even with a car, like maybe even $1,000. So it's pretty crazy. Those are the kinds of things people are talking about when they talk about cognitive biases. I don't spend a lot of time analyzing. Like, I'm well aware that I really would drive, you know, an extra 20 minutes to save the 20 bucks. I know it's stupid, I know it's funny, but it feels right. And since my world is emotion and that's what I deal with, it makes sense to me. Steer by your. Steer by your emotions when they do something useful. How about that?
- [20:49]
Lisa Bilyeu
Valid. So valid. I'm that person who does that too.
- [20:53]
Tom Bilyeu
Everybody does, you know.
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Lisa Bilyeu
All right, so this one comes from Lori. Do you ever get any flack for swearing? I'm a huge proponent of the F bomb, especially when I'm passionate about what I'm talking about. Have you wrestled with the idea of stopping? And how do you just address the judges?
- [21:11]
Tom Bilyeu
So I don't give a shit about the judgers? Is the honest answer. Yes, I take flack for it. Yes, it will hold me back in certain areas, but it will propel me forward in others. So the idea of trying to be all things to all people, I think is a real mistake. I think you need to look inside yourself and know who you are, what feels right, what feels good, what's true to your identity, and then. And be that. That doesn't mean I don't tone it back. Sometimes. Like, I judge my audience and if I feel like they might be really sensitive, I'll either not do it at all or I'll really dial it back. Also, why am I doing the talk? So if I'm really doing the talk for other people and it's in some ways a philanthropic thing that I'm doing, then I really think about, like, okay, what's meaningful here? Like, if you invite me to speak to a grade school, there would be zero swearing. Right. The only reason I would go to a grade school though, is if it felt like there was a philanthropic reason to do it. So I'm, you know, I'm putting myself in the shoes. But to me, it's like it is the fact that people will complain about swearing is why I swear. Right. It is the very fact that those words slap people awake, that they get your attention, that they rub some people the wrong way, that they, like, they have electricity. Like there are so few words that have electricity and the ability to impact people, like, to fully remove them, actually. I'm glad. Thank you. Thank you for fully removing them from your vocabulary. Because if you didn't, if you didn't try to Tell people that I was dumb because I use them. They wouldn't carry weight. Like, they wouldn't be that tool in the arsenal that I need. And here's the thing. When I swear, nine times out of 10, it is the only thing that feels good in that moment. It's the only thing that gives you that release. Right? So, yeah, it, man. Those words exist for a reason, and I use them. I love them. They're beautiful.
- [22:57]
Lisa Bilyeu
I curse a lot, too.
- [22:58]
Tom Bilyeu
Hashtag respect.
- [23:00]
Lisa Bilyeu
It's like, I've tried to, like, eliminate it a little bit, but for the most part, I, like, really can. But I try and watch it around kids. I'm not around that many kids.
- [23:10]
Tom Bilyeu
You and me both.
- [23:10]
Lisa Bilyeu
I'll forget. All right, so this one comes from Vaughn Carter. Loving the new.
- [23:17]
Tom Bilyeu
I want to. I don't know why I'm on names today. Yeah, but that's a dope name. Vaughn Carter.
- [23:21]
Lisa Bilyeu
Vaughn Carter. Mm. So loving the new format, Tom. Thanks for the awesome value.
- [23:27]
Tom Bilyeu
Thank you.
- [23:28]
Lisa Bilyeu
In research, I'm coming across more and more evidence that links digestive health with psychology and mental health. If mindset is everything, then shouldn't we look at digestive metabolic factors as part of this equation?
- [23:43]
Tom Bilyeu
Man, Vaughn, Vaughn, you're going deep on me. Yes. In no uncertain terms. And this is the next wave of science. And this book, Evolving Ourselves, goes super deep into this. And I think about this a lot because my wife has struggled very profoundly with microbiome and just seeing how much it can literally put your life on hold, like, for almost a year. Right, baby? I mean, our lives were even mine. Like, I wasn't suffering from it, but when you're in a relationship like that, you're so interlocked that for a year, I felt like we were on pause. And it was microbiome. And by going into the microbiome, really researching it, understanding it, working with people that understand to the microbiome and working like, we got back to a better place, but it's still, like, it's not perfect. And so there's the book Evolving Ourselves talks about. There's actually four. Oh, God, what do they call them? I actually have the note, but we're using my phone to record. Otherwise I would look it up. But there's four categories. I forget the name for it. I'll punch myself in the mouth for that later. And so you've got your core DNA, you've got your God. What do they call it? Epibiom. That's not the word, but it's basically the. The universe created out of Epigenetics, and then you've got the microbiome and you've got the viome, which I had never heard of, which is your. The, the equivalent of the microbiome in viruses. Right. You actually have more viruses in your body than bacteria. Like, everybody talks about how much bacteria you have in your body. Like, it's, it's something like 10 times more viruses. 8% of, of core human DNA is made of virus. Like, how dope is that? Anyway, I won't go back down that rabbit hole. But it is, it is really, really super interesting. Yes. The answer is, it is totally misunderstood. We need to understand it. Until we get a grip on that, we're really going to be in trouble. And the next wave of mistakes, as we found with antibiotics, you can overdo it, you can over wash your hands, all that stuff. And that one of the reasons kids eat dirt, who would have known, right? You're like, sucking up bacteria.
- [25:44]
Lisa Bilyeu
That's how you build immune system, right?
- [25:46]
Tom Bilyeu
So it's actually good that kids are eating stuff off the ground. The bad news is though, right, that nature is like, totally happy to kill a whole bunch of people off, right? We're the ones freaked out by that. But, like, nature's like, oh, if, if you're too weak, kid, when you eat this bacteria, you should be dead. Right? Hey, so nature doesn't give a shit. So it's, it is so fascinating to see, like, as humans begin to take control of this stuff, like, we now place ethical judgments on it, right? So if you see somebody like, as I'm sitting here saying, oh, kids should eat dirt, all I'm thinking about is the kid in the grocery store who's like, picking things off the ground. Oh, God. Like, that freaks me out on a level that I can't tell you, even though I know, because nature doesn't care if 1 out of every 10 kids just dies there on the floor from, like, E. Coli. Right? Nature doesn't care.
- [26:34]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yeah.
- [26:35]
Tom Bilyeu
So, but as humans, I care. Right? Like, I don't want that to happen. But anyway, so it's fascinating. We don't understand it. Must understand it. There's huge business opportunities. If anybody out there right now is watching this and you're a meaningful entrepreneur, you're at that stage and you're fucking around with the biome or the viome. Like, I want to know about you. So write in. In fact, the first company that we're going to fully explore, I won't say that we're going to back it yet, because I don't know if it's real, but the first company that impact theory is gonna fully explore as a medical device company. So, hey, like, we're in that world, man. So if you're for real and you're studying this, like, I can help. Yep.
- [27:13]
Lisa Bilyeu
Just FYI, I was that kid who always put everything, like, in her mouth.
- [27:16]
Tom Bilyeu
Dude.
- [27:17]
Lisa Bilyeu
It's.
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Tom Bilyeu
It's a thing. Like, that's what, like, you're literally programmed
- [27:19]
Lisa Bilyeu
for the immune system of like, the rest of my siblings.
- [27:22]
Tom Bilyeu
So eat that dirt.
- [27:24]
Lisa Bilyeu
Worked out, guys. All right, so this one comes from Brian. How important is self awareness to success? And should one work on developing their weaknesses or should you just go all in on your strengths?
- [27:36]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah, this is like almost an Internet meme at this point. Like, this is. The Internet is obsessed with this question right now. It, as with all things, it's a little of column A and a little of column B. So you have to have self awareness. And the most terrifying thing, I think for any of us and only people with self awareness are asking this question, by the way. So if you're even asking that question is. Cause you have a modicum of self awareness, you should feed that. You should really look at yourself. But here is the thing. You must understand this. You must understand this. Jesus Christ. People, listen to this. The human mind is wired for adaptation. It is an adaptation machine. That's it. So, yes, there are certain skills that you have a natural bias to acquire those skills more rapidly. So the amount of energy and effort that you put into certain things based on your skillset, they will yield higher return. Okay? So now if you want to do something that aligns with that skill set, that's amazing. Like, you'll get high returns. It'll be incredible. But when you were born, you couldn't walk, you couldn't speak, none of it. And you applied yourself and you figured it out. And the exact same thing will hold true your entire life. So if there's something that you want to do that you have the passion to acquire those skills, acquire them, and then, yeah, leverage the things you're good at. I am highly verbal, right. I Not only did I get early big returns in that, right? So when I say that, hey, I'm the result of hard work and I didn't show natural talents and things as a kid don't. Like, let's not get it twisted. When I started applying myself to speaking and things like that, like, whoa, that was where I got. I just got the chills thinking about it. That's where I started getting my early returns. Right, Right. So my sister got them by playing basketball and sports. I did not. Was I to just awkward, not motivated. Like, I didn't get early returns there. When I found Speech and Debate, I started getting early returns. So I started really applying myself there. So I. But then basically 30%, maybe 50% of the stuff that I really apply myself. Reading. Reading did not come naturally to me. Not at all. And that has been something that is maybe the single largest contributor to my success. So it's a fool's errand to pick a binary, decide what impact you want to have on the world, what you want to contribute to, what makes you feel most alive. And if the thing that makes you feel most alive is not something that you get, early returns, double down and work your ass off. Like, your brain will adapt. That's what its job is. I could keep going, but I'll be disciplined. I'll stop.
- [30:06]
Lisa Bilyeu
All right, so this one comes from Molly. Tom, could you offer any advice to a college student in search of self improvement? So podcast books, actual work in an environment where people aren't necessarily giving a shit about those same things.
- [30:22]
Tom Bilyeu
Oh, man. What. What a blessing. So let's play an intellectual game right now. All things being equal, I would tell you to surround yourself with people that are going to empower you, that think like you think you should seek those people out when you find them, grab them, hold on to them. Now, if I find myself in an environment where the people aren't like that, then I begin to tell myself a narrative about being exceptional, about being different, about being able to understand what my goals are, where I'm trying to go, and that I'm willing to work towards that, even though I'm surrounded by automatons who don't think that way. And that actually can be very empowering. It's super judgmental. And you have to be really fucking careful not to close yourself off to the amazing people that probably are hiding in plain sight. And not to be afraid to, like, tell people what you're about, because I just. I guarantee either there are people there that will awaken, like, when you begin to be that light and that beautiful thing, like, they will come and they will gravitate towards you. But for whatever reason, if you find yourself around people that are just trying to tear you down, they truly are detrimental, and you just can't get out of that scenario. Like, you've got to flip a switch and just begin to tell yourself a narrative about that's what you do. Despite the fact that people are trying to attack you, despite the fact that they're trying to hold you back. Like, you just rise up and you keep doing what makes sense and you're focused on your goals. Like, to me, it's either change scenario or change narrative or both. But there's always a solution. You're never a victim.
- [31:40]
Lisa Bilyeu
Truth. Hashtag truth. All right, so this is an accountability question from Antonio O. What have you done to get those Nike shoes with their name brand on them lately?
- [31:54]
Tom Bilyeu
So, I mean, this is the strategy that goes for anything that you're trying to do. You need to find a way that you can add value. So it's identifying the key players, who are they? It's identifying what they need and how you can be useful and then doing that. And then, if I'm honest, I'm now banking on relationships that I've been building for a very long time, building them just because I like them and they're great people, and I want to develop a real authentic relationship with them. Like, the guy that's started that, that's probably taken me the highest in Nike, he's just a good dude. Like, I had no idea that he had any connections whatsoever to Nike. And we were talking about something else, and it came up and I was like, oh, yeah, I'm actually trying to be the first entrepreneur with his own Nike shoe. And he's like, oh, my God. Like, I happen to know this guy, but he's just my boy. Right? So it's like there's people that you connect with you click with you. Like, you maintain those relationships, make friends before you need them. That. That is really, like, let that be one of your life's mantras. Like, I think that a lot because I am so introverted, and my instinct is always to spend every conceivable moment with my wife. I don't think people really understand, like, how much I revolve around my wife. I don't think they get that. And like. No, no, no. But for real, like, there is a. Like, there is an alternate universe where my wife and I are wildly impoverished. We're like food stamping it. We live in a studio apartment in, like, a really dodgy neighborhood. So we can just like, cuddle, like, for real and talk. Like, my wife and I just. We talk and she's indulgent. When I go on a tangent about the Singularity, Very indulgent. So, yeah, like, that. Yeah, that is. That's a thing. That's the thing.
- [33:47]
Lisa Bilyeu
That's so cute.
- [33:48]
Tom Bilyeu
Is it?
- [33:49]
Lisa Bilyeu
It's kind of cute.
- [33:50]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah, it's cute for me, maybe. I'm not sure it's cute for the rest of the world. And I'm not sure that I tied that all back together. Ask me the question again. I want to make sure I answer it.
- [33:59]
Lisa Bilyeu
Where was the question? Shit. Where'd it go? Oh, the Nike shoes, man.
- [34:06]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah, so I think that's a long enough answer on that.
- [34:08]
Lisa Bilyeu
So, yeah, we got there.
- [34:10]
Tom Bilyeu
But make friends before you need them. That was the thing. I forced myself out of the house.
- [34:14]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yeah, he does, actually, to connect with people. All right, so this one comes from Chris. So his girlfriend is going through a demotion at work, and he's seen her outlook take an absolute 180. She's still fine. Her pay is still the same, but she's lost her baby, and it's very down and bitter, which spills into her everyday life. Now, I've tried inspiring a different outlook. Can you give me any advice on what she could try?
- [34:41]
Tom Bilyeu
So whenever something bad happens and it is inevitable, it will happen to all of us, there's one question that should immediately pull you out of it. Two, really. One, does being negative serve you? If it does, then be negative. But I have yet to encounter a situation where for anything more than, say, 10 or 15 minutes while I kick myself in the ass to make sure that I'm moving, focusing on the negative is just never, ever useful for more than 10 or 15 minutes. And then the other question is, how is this the best thing that's ever happened to me and really think about that, like, and, oh, God, I want people to know how true this is. And I wish I had said it out loud because it would have been the second time in this interview, for whatever random reason that it's happened, where someone leads with, like, something really bad has happened. And my instinct. My gut instinct is, awesome, awesome. And Cindy will vouch for this. You've seen me go through something really traumatic.
- [35:32]
Lisa Bilyeu
True, True.
- [35:32]
Tom Bilyeu
All right. How did I react in that. Like, that day, that moment, right then
- [35:36]
Lisa Bilyeu
and there, he was like, all right, this is perfect. Like, it's time for me to get into action. And, like, 100. Move on.
- [35:43]
Tom Bilyeu
And that's. That's just training, right? That isn't. My natural inclination is to cry in the corner, right? Like, that's where everybody wants to go. And so I get that same rush of, like, oh, right. Where you just feel yourself going flush, like, whoa, this thing is so bad. And I force myself to ask and answer the question, how is this the best thing that ever happened to me? And when you start, you get what you focus on. Okay? You get what you focus on. So if you focus on being demoted, you're going to feel demoted. If you focus on how this makes you feel like less of a person, less talented, less gifted, less successful, then that will become real. Like, you will be less of yourself. You will be less effective. Because every thought that you have goes through that negative filter first. It's like fucking trying to, you know, climb up from the depths of the ocean to get a gasp of air. And if every thought starts with that long swim to the surface, like, just never going to be effective. So you've got to ask and answer the question, how is this the best thing that ever happened to me? I promise you, it is. Because, like Tony Robbins said, I'm unstoppable. Because I decide I am, right? Like, really think I'm unstoppable. Because I decide I am. That's it. That. That is the thing that makes you unstoppable. You fucking decide you are. And therefore, when something hits you, you go, well, I'm not going to stop because I'm motherfucking unstoppable.
- [36:55]
Lisa Bilyeu
And.
- [36:55]
Tom Bilyeu
And you just keep pushing forward. And so you've got to ask yourself, how's this the best thing? So let me tell you, your woman got demoted. Fuck yeah. Because they pointed out something that was a hole in her game. Awesome. Now she knows where the weakness lies. Or they're tyrannical assholes, which, by the way, is almost certainly not true. But even if that is the case, oh, my God, thank God I now see that they're tyrannical assholes, that I need to make a radical, you know, change. Let me really turn inward, self assess. What do I really want to be doing? Maybe this wasn't it. Or he said, you know, this is her baby. She lost her baby. Fantastic. What do we learn from this? It's a hole in my game. I've got to. I've got to shore it up. Like, now I know what skill set I need to acquire. I'm going to go out and get that. Because here's the thing. I was just thinking about this in the shower. Hashtag, showerthoughts. Just today, I was thinking about the fact that people look at themselves as if right now, today is the end of their personal evolution. Like, hey, this is it. I'm the math equation equals, and it's me today, Right? But what you have to realize is that's not true. Like, you've got to look at yourself on a much larger timeline, and you're in the middle. Right. You're just in the middle right now. So maybe you lost your baby today. Maybe this is a crushing defeat at work. But you're going to learn. You're going to keep growing, you're going to get better, you're going to push forward, you're going to move on, you're going to go and do amazing things. But now that you have that insight, that you need to know what part of your skill set is underdeveloped, it's not being valued. Whatever it's not, People don't see it. There's something wrong with the way that you treating people, whatever the case may be now, you know, and now you can improve.
- [38:23]
Lisa Bilyeu
Absolutely.
- [38:25]
Tom Bilyeu
And. And look, I am well aware that some people still aren't going to embrace that, and they're still just going to insist on being in a negative place. It's a bad life strategy, man. Just no two ways about it. It's a bad life strategy.
- [38:37]
Lisa Bilyeu
That's true. Doesn't really serve you that. That well. You can give yourself a moment if you need it, you know, 100%.
- [38:44]
Tom Bilyeu
Because, in fact, set an amount of time right. Okay, I got demoted. How much time do I have for me, if I. I've always done this. If I were, you know, turned into a quadriplegic today, how much time do I get to mourn? The answer is four weeks. I get four weeks after that, how's this the best thing that ever happened to me? Moving forward. So anything less than that, like, you got to shorten that shit, right?
- [39:07]
Lisa Bilyeu
Huh? That's like a good way to work backwards on that. All right, so this one comes from Ethan Smalley. Have you read the book the Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck?
- [39:17]
Tom Bilyeu
I have. That's it?
- [39:20]
Lisa Bilyeu
That's it. That was a good question.
- [39:23]
Tom Bilyeu
It's okay. Yeah, like, you've already got it. The subtle art of not giving a fuck is people. They're not gonna hold you back. Right? So to me, that it was an essay, it was maybe a tweet. I don't know. It needed to be a whole book. I say that watch. We're gonna have him on the show one day, and he's gonna be fucking amazing. But the book was right.
- [39:46]
Lisa Bilyeu
But it's like delivering the message in various ways for people to be able to digest it. So it's like, if it didn't resonate fully with you, it probably resonated, like, super hard.
- [39:55]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah, I think the book's done really well.
- [39:56]
Lisa Bilyeu
So it's like, you know, very Fair. All right, so this one comes from Masha. Hey, Tom. In the book Relentless, Tim says that if you have the vision and passion, you should follow it. And it doesn't matter what other people say or think. If they don't get it, then they don't. But what if the people you care about don't get it or have different plans for you? How do you show those that you love them if they tell you that you can't do means that you don't love them?
- [40:29]
Tom Bilyeu
How do you love a hater? Right?
- [40:30]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yeah.
- [40:31]
Tom Bilyeu
We're just gonna sum it up so one, I like to put it in perspective. People, if they really are somebody that cares about you and they don't want to see you pursue that, they're being protective, right? Almost certainly like nine times out of ten, either you've triggered an insecurity in them, and so they're jealous, they're whatever. Which we'll deal with that in a second or two. They really want to protect you. They care about you and they don't want to see you hurt, they don't want to see you fail. They, you know, whatever, but you can't let that hold you back. And so I think it comes from showing affection. Like you can show somebody affection as they are hating on you, right? Like if you can rise above, like, whatever, being honest with them and, you know, telling them how you think and what you feel, but that you love them and, you know, you don't have to agree on this and being affectionate, not withholding kind words or being supportive of them, you know, I mean, look, most people in my life have thought routinely that the things that I'm doing are crazy. They don't make sense. They. They're worried that I'm going to fail, all of that, but I'm just not. I'm not afraid of losing, right? And so if I'm not afraid, they shouldn't be tense. But just don't withhold your love. That's my answer. Don't withhold your love. And don't listen at the same time. And yeah, I'll give an example from my own life. So my father in law, who has always been incredibly kind to me, did not want me to marry his daughter, but by the way, still being kind, just maybe he had his doubts. And so I told him, I said, you know, because I really respect him, respected him then, respect him now. He's just an incredible, incredible human being. And I said, look, I respect that you don't want me to marry your daughter. Totally get that full disclosure, I will be asking your daughter to marry me in the next day or two. So I just want to float that out there. And you just have to have the guts to simultaneously be respectful, show love, and totally ignore them.
- [42:28]
Lisa Bilyeu
All right? All right. And don't forget that if you share this live feed, you'll be entered to win a copy of anything on Tom's reading.
- [42:38]
Tom Bilyeu
Lewis, did Jared just ping you?
- [42:39]
Lisa Bilyeu
No, it's. It's, like, on there. It's been on there, and I haven't really.
- [42:43]
Tom Bilyeu
Like, I can't believe I didn't.
- [42:45]
Lisa Bilyeu
And I completely forgot. I'm like, we're 40 minutes in.
- [42:47]
Tom Bilyeu
It's terrible.
- [42:48]
Lisa Bilyeu
All right.
- [42:48]
Tom Bilyeu
It's terrible. Sorry, guys.
- [42:50]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yeah, but, you know, do it. It'll be awesome. So this one comes from Anna. Anna Mena, which I completely forgot to kick off with this one. It's a really great question. So I'm really excited and happy about the new mythology that you're going to create. What are your thoughts on new female superheroes? One, have you heard about the Bechdel test? As a woman, I love superheroes, but female superheroes are really misrepresented, and I really hate that. Have you heard about the Geenith Davis program? And if she can see it, she can be it. So that's like, a separate question we can address, but, like, start with the female superhero.
- [43:30]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah. So my wife is behind the camera right now, literally celebrating. This question is amazing, by the way. And oddly enough, as a guy, a white guy at that, I'm super excited to bring people of color, women, and really show them, like, in a. Just a raw, real way. And our first wave of superheroes are going to be people without powers. And I think that's really important. I love, like, true superhero mythology. So there'll be plenty of that as well. And I think that actually having them in the same universe will be very, very interesting. You know, what happens when it's like Superman and Batman? What happens when people without powers collide with people that have powers? And how do they deal with each other? I think is. Is a really great way for mythology to deal with things like intelligence. Right. So when you've got a world full of superheroes, we'll call them the Elon Musk's of the world, the Steve Jobs of the world. The people that you're tempted to say, well, they're super, they're special, and therefore I am off the hook, and I don't have to compete at that level and be great to show people that you Know, like Batman, that holds himself to the same standard and he realizes he has to outthink Superman in order, you know, should there ever be a collision, which of course, course. And Batman v Superman, there is. And you get to see, like, how he had been preparing for that. So that kind of stuff is interesting. But anyway, back to females. So one will have very strong women, which I am a huge believer that while there are differences neurologically in the way that they're wired in terms of potential, I don't think that men or women have more potential. I think there are fascinating differences. Like when we had Amelia Boone on the show, which the episode hasn't launched yet. Right? No. You guys are going to love it, though. So Amelia Boone is an obstacle course racer. She's three times finished this thing called the Death Race. They don't tell you how long it's going to last. Sometimes it's like up to 72 hours. They don't give you water. You die without water in three days. Like, just to put this shit in context. And they have you do the most absurd stuff in either extreme heat or extreme cold, and it's ridiculous. And she's finished it three times. It breaks like Navy seals and just Marines and all kinds of people that they just can't do it. And this woman is unbelievable. And she said that the longer the race, the longer the race, the better women do. And not like from a. Hey, I have a hypothesis, like, just looking at the stats, the longer the race, the better women do. So I find that incredibly interesting. And I think that they may have. Maybe it is a genetically hardwired thing to be able to deal with suffering because of childbirth and all that. Don't know. But it's just incredibly, incredibly interesting. And I think the mythology is such a powerful way to begin to explore all of that. So, yes, we're gonna have that. I am vaguely familiar with the Geena Davis Project, which I came across when I was researching Jessica O. Matthews, who's another strong female that you guys are gonna love. She is a real life superhero. They call her the real life Riri Williams. And if they don't, I do.
- [46:28]
Lisa Bilyeu
And people will.
- [46:29]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah. So that she's amazing. So, yep, gonna do that. And then I'm assuming when you say you don't like the way that females are portrayed, we're talking about the highly sexualized way that they're often drawn. I'll have to follow the female lead on this one. Like I'm. I can't help but look at the world and see that women enjoy looking and feeling sexy. So to me that's a very real thing. But if women feel, you know, demoralized or objectified, I don't need to contribute to that. But I don't want to pretend that women don't like to be, be sexy. So.
- [47:02]
Lisa Bilyeu
But yeah, so yeah, but it's usually stemming from the idea that like they can't be like fully formed beings. So like if you think about like Harley Quinn, like even in the newest movie, was it Suicide Squad? Like she really didn't have a storyline. She was just kind of there.
- [47:20]
Tom Bilyeu
None of them did.
- [47:21]
Lisa Bilyeu
I know none of them did. But like her powers and like her storyline centered around her love for like.
- [47:27]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah, that's fair.
- [47:28]
Lisa Bilyeu
And so it's just she was kind of throw away.
- [47:30]
Tom Bilyeu
Yeah. We need some badass chicks who stand on their own, who are not in skin tight outfits. Like absolutely. No question, have to. And if that's what they mean by I can see it, I can be it. Yeah, we need like some, we need some scientist women that don't give a shit about how they look because not everybody does. Like, you know, I mean we need to, we need to represent, we need anything that's going to inspire people like powerful women. Inspire me. Right. Because.
- [47:51]
Lisa Bilyeu
Right.
- [47:52]
Tom Bilyeu
There's an element of the underdog, especially in the superhero genre where it's largely physicality to see like how does a woman deal with that? How does she even the playing field? I think that there's a lot of really interesting things to explore because Look, I'm not 6 5, I'm not 320 pounds of muscle. So it's like, I dig it. I want to be inspired by stuff like that too.
- [48:13]
Lisa Bilyeu
Right. Okay. So. All right. And don't forget that there's a giveaway going on in the comments right now. So share your favorite content series from Impact Theory and you get the chance to also win a book.
- [48:28]
Tom Bilyeu
Yes.
- [48:29]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yes.
- [48:30]
Tom Bilyeu
A life changing book.
- [48:32]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yes. Off the top 25. And someone had asked what, what criteria do you use to like, did you use to create this list of the
- [48:43]
Tom Bilyeu
top 25 impact on my life? Usability. So here's one thing that I, I do fear that this one comes from Jen.
- [48:52]
Lisa Bilyeu
Sorry.
- [48:53]
Tom Bilyeu
Okay, so Jen, having run businesses, you're living in a no bullshit world of either something is generating revenue or it's not. Profitability is real. Making sure that people have a job when they show up the next day. All of that stuff is very, very real. Excuse me. And it creates a lot of clarity in your thinking because the Only way that your company is going to stay alive is if you. If you make choices that actually have real world advantageous results. So I put on that list the books that helped me develop the skillset that I needed to do that to execute. And so the books have a massive bias towards action, towards understanding oneself, towards executing. I have one book on there, which is Linchpin, which is for people that don't want to start their own business. I think 99% of what's out there applies when it's good applies, whether you're trying to be a better parent or you're trying to be, you know, a traditional entrepreneur. But Linchman is specifically for people who have no interest in starting a business and want to know how the mindset applies to being really great in somebody else's company. So. But it's all stuff that works. It's all stuff that's real, and that's the criteria that I held it all to.
- [50:06]
Lisa Bilyeu
Cool. That's a good one. All right, So this one actually comes from Sophia from last week. So we were talking about goal setting and everything. So she said, why can't you build up towards the goal instead of reverse engineering from like the end point backwards?
- [50:28]
Tom Bilyeu
Well, I'll rephrase the question. So why can't you just start now and sort of see where things take you? Because if you don't begin with the end in mind, you are literally doing that. You, you are sort of waffling about and hoping that it ends up somewhere and, you know, maybe garnering a random skill. And the easiest way I can explain that is to say if you tell me that you want to win a gold in the Olympics and you've got a tennis racket and you're out there just practicing, practicing, practicing, then I'm like, well, do you want to win a gold in tennis? Because if you want to win a gold in swimming, what you're doing right now does not make any sense. So you really have to begin with the end in mind. You have to know, like, what spirit sport, not only what sport, like so. Or genre, like if it's swimming, what event in swimming. Right. Because that's going to determine how you train and people get it when it's in the physical world. Like, if you're trying to be the next Kobe Bryant and you've got shoulder pads on, like, that doesn't make any sense. So you need to know what the end goal is and work your way backwards from there to make sure that you're just really efficient and hyper efficiency. Is the key. We all have the same number of hours in the day. So the only way that any one person shines more than the other is, is by using that time more efficiently. And if you don't know what you're trying to get to, you won't be efficient with your skill acquisition. You just won't.
- [51:39]
Lisa Bilyeu
True. All right, so this one comes from Sindri. Sindri, what would you tell your 21
- [51:47]
Tom Bilyeu
year old self to stop having a fixed mindset? That was the problem of my youth up until I was probably, I'm looking at my wife here, 25, 26.6ish was really when I just, I had my emotional epiphany that I was telling everybody I wanted to get rich, but I was acting and acting like somebody who wanted to feel good about himself. And I then realized that you have to like, whatever you're doing, it has to make you feel good about you. And that that was so critical that it trumped my desire to get rich. And the reason I wanted to get rich was because I thought it would make me feel good about myself. And so finally putting all that together and then realizing that you can change what you build your sense of pride around. And once I realized that, that I had been priding myself on being smart, on being good, that good at something, that it was just about putting myself in situations where I could prove that I was smart. And that was such an ineffective strategy. But by doing that, because I prided myself on being smart by putting myself around people who were not as smart as me, it felt awesome. And that's what people have to be really real with. Right. Like feeling being right feels awesome. Right? Can we agree? Yeah, that feels good. Like there's no two ways about it. So you have to be really, really careful about what you build your self esteem around. So I switched mine from focusing on being right to identifying the right answer. Because that was the thing that was going to actually allow me to get rich. And I've since switched and you know, obviously getting wealthy is not my primary focus. I understand the power of money and trust me, I'm all about it. And commerce is hugely important. It just, I have a whole nother diatribe about that and how focusing on money will actually get you less money. But that was just a huge switch. So I would shave years off my life by pointing that out much earlier.
- [53:37]
Lisa Bilyeu
Do you think your 21 year old self would have listened though?
- [53:44]
Tom Bilyeu
Can we do. My wife is saying no, but I was gonna say can we do shower more. Shower Thoughts. So this is something that I've thought a distressing amount about. Like, if I were to go back in time and confront myself, how would I convince myself that it was really me?
- [53:57]
Lisa Bilyeu
Right?
- [53:58]
Tom Bilyeu
So. But there are ways, right? Because there's things only, you know, and like, so I'm convinced that because my powers of persuasion are so good that I could convince myself that it really was me. And then, yes, despite what my wife will rightly tell you, I think I could convince myself, myself. Like, yes, I would listen.
- [54:16]
Lisa Bilyeu
All right. I feel like you're giving yourself the benefit that one. Like, you're 21. Like, do you listen to anybody? I like, thought about it like I was.
- [54:25]
Tom Bilyeu
If you said at 16, I didn't listen to anyone for sure. At 18, I was probably still a little arrogant. But when I went to college that everything became real for me and I became very goal oriented at that point because I wanted to get into film school and I wanted to get my three picture deal. And. And at that point, like, there's no bullshitting. Like, I got to film school and they're like, asshole, what are you doing? Like, you can't just roll up and think you're going to get into film school. Like your. Their whole stat was, you're more likely to get into Harvard Law than you are USC film school. So what are you doing? Stop taking film classes. You have to be realistic. You're going to get something else. And so I was like, wait a second. Like my whole life has been building up to getting into film school. Like, this is my everything now. I was wrong about. You can fail a thousand times and still pick yourself up. If you execute properly and deliver results, you're going to get wherever you want to go. And if you're not getting where you want to go, it's because you're not delivering results. But I digress. So I knew that I had to get in. Everything became results oriented. I would have listened to people at that point. So if I came after that point and could show how, hey, if you listen to this, you'll achieve your goals, I think I would have done it.
- [55:32]
Lisa Bilyeu
Okay, I guess I'll give it to you. All right, thank you. So this one comes from Ian Pet. Itsounds. What do you mean when you say you want to find the next 1000 Elon Musk? In other words, what characteristics will these people have and how will you know you've found the real deal?
- [55:52]
Tom Bilyeu
We'll know we found the real deal because the world will be fundamentally different and people creating the Greatest companies in the world will say, I did this because of Impact Theory. Like that's the metric that we will hold ourselves to. And they are people that when they encounter an obstacle, they don't think to stop. They go over, under, through, around, whatever. They have a growth mindset. And like Elon Musk, the reason I use him is one. I think that he's building companies that matter. So his companies are all mission based, which is absolutely critical to what we're doing at Impact Theory. We are not interested in just making a quick buck. It's got to be a company that we really believe in, can get behind, we're passionate about, Believe, believe it's going to make the world a better place. I don't need it to, you know, sort of fundamentally change the world, but it needs to make the world a better place, at least incrementally better. And ideally it would be, you know, some of the most important companies and that they're not afraid to teach themselves something. So Elon Musk did not know rocket science. He didn't go to school for rocket science. His first company, actually, it wasn't his first company, but his second company was eBay. Lies. PayPal. I don't know why those are. They share the same neuron in my brain. But he was one of the founders of PayPal. And so it's just so impressive to me that he taught himself that. He's doing the Boring Company now, if you guys know about that, where he's literally going to be drilling underground. And it's just it because he doesn't want to sit in traffic. That's what he jokes about. I'm sure it's actually more tied to Hyperloop, but he jokes that I'm so tired of sitting in traffic. I'm going to create a company called the Boring Company and we're going to bore. That's what we do. And he's. They have created this boring machine that apparently is 10 times faster than conventional tunnel tunneling equipment.
- [57:32]
Lisa Bilyeu
It's like so we can have subways in la, you can have whatever you
- [57:35]
Tom Bilyeu
want, like underground, like, but come on, like, don't you want to be that? Like, I want to be that and that. Anyway, that's going to be the standard that we hold ourselves to. We want to help those people. This all started because I used to work with kids in the inner city and at the beginning of Quest. So at the beginning of Quest, I think I've told the story a lot, but I'll tell it one more time. I Used to ask people the magic genie question, and I. Oh, God, I thought I was going to get such different answers. So magic genie walks in. They're going to grant you one wish, and one wish only you can't ask for, like, ending world hunger, curing cancer, bringing somebody back from the dead. It has to be something entirely for you. Can I ask for more wishes? What do you wish for?
- [58:11]
Lisa Bilyeu
And.
- [58:12]
Tom Bilyeu
And most people said a job. Okay, they're saying job because they're there being interviewed. And that's what they want me to believe. I would get them past that. They would start, you know, then going on to money. And the amount of money that they would ask for was almost always a million dollars. Like, what? So that's such a spastic amount of money. Like, that's so low after taxes, you know, you've got like, 500,000. It's like, you can't.
- [58:37]
Lisa Bilyeu
You.
- [58:37]
Tom Bilyeu
You can't even get a house in LA for $500,000. So it was just, like. It showed me that there's a perspective problem. And I remember one time talking to this kid about what he wanted to do with his life. And, you know, he's like, I don't know. And, okay, well, what do you like? I like art. Awesome. Like, what else? I like being high. Not high, like high, but, like, elevation high. And so I'm like, cool. Like, how do we combine? You know, I'm thinking, like, murals or something. He's like, maybe I could be one of those guys that hangs up billboards. I'm sorry, what you want? Like, that's the dream. And I'm not saying, like, that's a bad job, but, wow, like, if that's your dream, if, like, that's the grandest, great. He was like, 14. Like, that's what you do when it's like, I need something quick. I gotta make ends meet. Totally respect it. But, like, when that's your dream, like, your perspective, you're just not thinking big enough. You're not thinking, like, how far you could push your talents, what you could do. Like, how could you impact change with loving heights and loving creating art? Like, you know, how do we really do something that is going to help improve somebody's life? Do something, make it better. Like that. That just showed me that. And I heard answers like that just over and over and over. You've got to help people have a new perspective. And so that's. You know, what we want to do is we want to get kids believing that they could become the next Elon Musk. That they could be thinking outside the box that they, that they could have an idea like I don't want to sit in traffic and so I'm going to build a machine that bores under the ground. It's going to be 10 times faster. Or I want to end this CO2 experiment that we're doing in the atmosphere. So I'm going to create an electric car, but I'm going to look at the truth of the market, which is that people want a sexy car. They don't want a Prius, they want something that's really awesome and that, you know, for all the reasons that we would like any other car, they'll like this one as well. Oh, and by the way, it happens to be electric and that it's going to totally revolutionize the industry from a technology perspective, all that.
- [60:29]
Lisa Bilyeu
So yeah, that's why, that's why.
- [60:32]
Tom Bilyeu
And, and, and you guys know that they based Iron Man Tony Stark on not the comic book character obviously which has been around forever, but the movie incarnation was based on Elon Musk. So respect. You know, I'm obsessed with comics. So there it is.
- [60:50]
Lisa Bilyeu
That's amazing. All right, so I'm gonna look for our final question.
- [60:57]
Tom Bilyeu
I was gonna say we must be near the end here.
- [60:59]
Lisa Bilyeu
Yeah. Before we head out. Alright, so this one comes from Alexandra. What is the key factor when choosing guests for interviews like Moran Surf, for example, the only common feature that can be easily spotted and these are all self made, successful people.
- [61:16]
Tom Bilyeu
That's one. I don't necessarily think of it as self made, but I do think they need to have achieved some level of success. It needs to be something that inspires me. And really the thing that I hold is it's twofold. The truest answer is, do I think it will add value to the community? Do I think you guys are going to be able to get something out of them? Because I'll be honest, there are people that I've said yes to that I'll say this, between InsideQuest up through all the people that we've already said yes to but haven't even interviewed in there somewhere, there have been people that didn't necessarily inspire me, but I thought that you guys would derive tremendous value from them. And as long as I believe you guys can get value out of them, I will bring them on and I will crush that interview for you. That's the truest answer. Then there's the secondary thing where I really, really, really try to bring people on that as I'm interviewing like, or as I'm researching. I'm really learning something. And I'm like, whoa. Like, this is. And even the people that when I said yes, I wasn't necessarily inspired. I really, really try to find a way to connect, like, find something in their story that I may not have known about when I first said yes, that I'm like, whoa. Like, this is actually really amazing. So, yeah. And that was our last one, right?
- [62:36]
Lisa Bilyeu
That was our last question.
- [62:38]
Tom Bilyeu
Cool.
- [62:38]
Lisa Bilyeu
But I just wanted to quick wrap up and let's Justin Alcott and Alexandra Tomaskawa know that they have won our Facebook Live giveaway.
- [62:48]
Tom Bilyeu
So congratulations. Enjoy the powerful book that is coming your way. All right, cool. Well, that's it for today, guys. Thank you so much for joining us. I love doing these. It's so much fun. I love answering your questions. So keep them coming, Pour them in anytime. Does not have to be just doing this. We collect all the questions that people give us socially. We aggregate them. We answer them here. So, yeah, that's it. Thank you guys so much for joining us. And until next time, be legendary.
- [63:14]
Lisa Bilyeu
And don't forget to rate and review our podcast on itunes.
- [63:17]
Tom Bilyeu
Booyah. There it is. And that's how you can be legendary. All right, thanks, guys.
- [63:21]
Lisa Bilyeu
Bye.
- [63:22]
Tom Bilyeu
Hey, everybody. Thanks so much for joining us. If this content is adding value to your life, our one ask is that you go to itunes and stitcher and rate and review. Not only does that help us build this community, which at the end of the day, is all we care about, but it also helps us get even more amazing guests on here to share their knowledge with all of us. Thank you guys so much for being a part of this community. And until next time, be legendary, my friends.