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Relentless Work Ethic: Why It Is Essential For Entrepreneurs | E60 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Jon Gordon: In my eyes like a garden, we the negative, we can feed the positive. And over time the garden of your mind starts to look amazing.
• 0:06
  Mike Horn: The more you know, the more you surround yourself with amazing people, the easier it becomes to reach your goals.
• 0:13
  Bob Pittman: I've often described to my kids my work, I can't wait to get up in the morning and start playing at the end of the day, I don't want to put it away. For most entrepreneurs,
• 0:20
  Brian Lee: it's usually about experiencing something and thinking I could do a better
• 0:24
  Caryn Seidman-Becker: your job as a leader is to look around corners, and being proactive and not reactive.
• 0:31
  Chris Voss: Focusing on getting just a little bit better each day, you want to go fast go alone, you want to go far go as a team.
• 0:36
  Ben Sherwood: And then sometimes the pursuit of excellence requires a little bit of self awareness and a bit of kindness to oneself, and kindness to the people around you.
• 0:49
  Randall Kaplan: Welcome to a Search of Excellence. This week, we're going to do things a little bit differently. And I'm going to give you a set of highlight clips from all of my reels talking about work ethic, which I think is the single greatest determinant to our success. We created the largest beach database in the world a company called Sandy s a n d e, we have catalogued more than 100 categories of data from more than 100,000 beaches and Twitter 12 countries across the world.
• 1:16
  Randall Kaplan: For a long time, we only had the domain sand.ie The dot E is in Estonia. And for six and a half years, we tried to get the domain sandy.com We looked on the registrar to find out who on the domain name and it was owned by a woman in Aurora Colorado who was a real estate agent. And she was unwilling to sell the name because her husband had bought the name 21 years earlier as a birthday gift. So it had a lot of sentimental value to her.
• 1:43
  Randall Kaplan: I called Sandy at least once a year, offered to come out to Aurora, Colorado to meet with one person when she declined.
• 1:50
  Randall Kaplan: And after six years, she finally said alright, let's have a conversation. I think I sent her over 25 emails over that period of time. And finally we're able to agree on terms. And we were able to get what we want. To me another part of my success has been what I called Philo and which I've been coaching for over 20 years. That means you're the first person and you're the last person to leave, you will advance your career in ways you never thought would be possible and faster ways you would be possible. If you're the first person in the office, and you're the last one to leave, that means if your co workers get in the office at seven in the morning, you get in at 645. If they leave at 11 o'clock in the morning, you leave at 1105. I'm not saying you leave the office at 4pm. If your boss leaves at four o'clock, I'm talking about working long hours, that means not 40 hours a week, you want to do the extra, you want to go the extra mile if you want to work more than everybody else. And of course I know about a work life balance. So you need to find the right work life balance for you.
• 2:46
  Randall Kaplan: But the more hours you put in, generally, the more successful you're going to become. A lot of people over the years have used a very interesting term when they're talking about me. And that is indefatigable, which means persisting tirelessly. And that's very, very closely related to work ethic, I really equate them as pretty much the same thing. And I'm going to encourage you, are you indefatigable? Are you working as hard as you can possibly work? Are you challenging yourself? Can you do better?
• 3:18
  Randall Kaplan: Should you do better, if you want to get ahead, be indefatigable. Now without further ado, here are some amazing clips from my podcast of my amazing guests are talking about the importance of work ethic, and the success they've had in their career and also in their personal life. Welcome to a Search of Excellence. Let's go back to the firing squad. Where do you close your eyes and thought you were seconds from dying? What were you thinking at that exact moment in a search of excellence? How's it related to 30,000 days? You know, I
• 3:49
  Mike Horn: believe that a life one life to the average age of 82 years old, that's the average age that we'd love to around the world, we have 30,000 days and off the time you're asleep. So you've got 15,000 days that you can actually do stuff. And then on top of what let's say to the age of 10 years old, you're not really loving life view, you kind of been taught how to love life. So we don't have a lot of time on planet Earth to really do what you want to do. And once you find your passion, that's when these days count and you want to live each day to its full capability and capacity.
• 4:33
  Mike Horn: And, and that's why I I love your subject about excellence.
• 4:38
  Mike Horn: The more you know, the better you inform the better you educate yourself. The harder you work, the more you're interested in what others do, the more you build relationships instead of of destroying them. The more you help people the more you become help the more you surround yourself with them. mazing people, the easier it becomes to reach your goals, and those things are the search for excellence that I did in my life, just the fact that I wanted to go out there and just make my life a better, better, better place because I am allotted 30,000 days in a lifetime. And those 3000 days, we've got to be able to live to the fullest of our capabilities.
• 5:22
  Mike Horn: And basically, that's what I did.
• 5:29
  Unknown: I can
• 5:30
  Mike Horn: just the death squad, I don't know, that this squad was was was was just trusting people that I that I shouldn't have trusted, going walking dry towards the lion that was going to eat me. And I was caught with another nother guy that I thought was a rebel. But he attached himself to me. And we kind of traveled together and having to people to stop and want to just scout out to find information and stuff made it easier for us. So we will code together. And when we were caught by the rebels, obviously, it was like we were put into our heart and kept present in that heart and, and that night. Well, when we were caught this, they said they were going to publicly execute us the next morning. So unfortunately, the guy that I got caught with was shot first.
• 6:27
  Mike Horn: And I I was going to be shot second when he fell. I just walked forward and I took the gun, that Kalashnikov of, of the command and put it on my head and I said just Just shoot me.
• 6:42
  Mike Horn: But that willingness of me to survive, made him afraid. That willingness or saying that you I'm not who you think you are.
• 6:52
  Mike Horn: But if you think I'm really a rebel, shoot me while I look at you, but I'll be your biggest problem for the rest of your life, you will never get rid of me, I'll be in your mind, I'll be everywhere. And I'll haunt you. So that power of survival that I needed to portray to him just mentally made him hesitate at that moment. Why they shot the other guy first is because he he he read a fear II died the night before. He said he was going to die. And I believed I would survive. Although that if I believed that I survived that I would survive, and I actually die. I would know. So why don't you want you give yourself a chance of survival in your mind?
• 7:44
  Mike Horn: Why should you worry if you worry, you die if you don't worry, you also die. So why worry about stuff that you cannot change, be able to be the power that influence people that overpowers people in moment that you really need it. And that hesitation led that policeman come out and actually saved my life and said, This is a military affair. This is a civilian affair. This is not a military affair. We cannot be executed military. Why? So I was taken in by the police. And a couple of hours later, I had the gun in my hand, that commander was put in front of me. And I had the right to shoot him.
• 8:25
  Mike Horn: Because I was protected by Musa veiny, the president of Uganda, everybody knew that I was coming through and that I'm just an explorer, and they should leave me out. So the roles changed.
• 8:38
  Mike Horn: And when they said shoot him I just said to him, Listen, I'm still alive. He did nothing wrong in my eyes. That's why I cannot shoot him or kill him.
• 8:50
  Mike Horn: I'm alive. I'm fine. What it did might have been wrong. But it didn't kill me.
• 8:59
  Bob Pittman: Passion isn't something you plan. It comes out of nowhere. And somehow I got really, really interested in radio and the bug bitmain and it's interesting I look back now I was 20 years old when I was hired at NBC in Chicago WM a cue and I think is five years earlier I was a part time disc jockey in Brookhaven, Mississippi, how on earth did that happen? And and you know, you get lucky breaks. But part of a lucky break is to know to take it to know to do it and follow that and I you know in the 20s I think 20s are about people trying a lot of things until something hits them and they go I love doing this. You know you're going to spend more time at work than you are spending the money you make it work. So you ought to have something at work that you love.
• 9:53
  Bob Pittman: I've often described to my kids my work is it's it's like a giant video game. And I can't wait Get up in the morning and start playing at the end of the day, I don't want to put it away. And I think that's what we're in search of in whatever we do. And you know, some people do stuff that makes them a lot of money. Some people do things that barely pay the bills, some have to do multiple things. But whatever you're doing, you should do something that you really enjoy doing. And I look at my age, work is my golf. My friends go out and golf, I like to surround and futz around with work stuff, that that is a real passion and a real stimulation and, and just arouses my curiosity, and gives me a place to focus it.
• 10:37
  Jon Gordon: I started this weekly positive tip, I knew I wanted to write and speak. So what am I going to write and speak about? I want to be more positive. Okay, great. So how can I become more positive, I start to research all the ways that I could be more positive.
• 10:50
  Jon Gordon: And this was during the emerging field of positive psychology.
• 10:53
  Jon Gordon: And so a lot of these ideas weren't even prevalent. They weren't pervasive in the world.
• 11:00
  Jon Gordon: And they weren't even known. So I was doing a lot of these ideas, I was doing the research.
• 11:02
  Jon Gordon: And I have a coaching mind, I've been called an applied genius, I'm able to take ideas that are very complex, and then apply them and make them simple. So it's taking all these complex ideas, and then making it simple for myself. And then I started this weekly positive tip, where I'd share what I was doing with others, just what was your What was your first step, the thank you walk, the research shows, you can't be stressed and thankful, at the same time. So if you're feeling grateful, if you're feeling blessed, you won't feel stressed. So what I did for me, and this is my number one tip to being more positive myself this rewire my brain from negative to positive, and it's helped so many people around the world like millions, every day, to take a walk, have gratitude. And while I'm walking, I just say what I'm thankful for. And the research shows when you're doing this, you're flooding your brain with these positive emotions and your body to that uplift you rather than the stress hormones that slowly drain you. And over time actually slowly kill you, if you let them. So when you do this, you're creating a fertile mind that is ready for great things to happen. The mind is like a garden, we the negative, you can feed the positive, right, and I tried to do both we did negative feed deposit, you do that on a daily basis we did negative, then feed the positive each day.
• 12:22
  Jon Gordon: And over time, the garden of your mind starts to look amazing. We that garden, feed it, nourish it one day, doesn't do a whole lot. But do it for a week, do it for a month, do it for a year, do it for a lifetime, the garden of your mind looks amazing. And that's what I did. And that's what I wrote about first thing, I started sharing that tip, I started doing it that saved my marriage that changed who I was, it's been my number one tip and I've seen the impact it's had on my life and others and we know the power of gratitude. Like when you appreciate you elevate, you elevate your mood, your mindset, your performance, and the people around you. When you practice gratitude with others and you appreciate them. They perform at a higher level. I work with a lot of companies, a lot of organizations and leaders and being better leaders, building great teams and gratitude is a foundational principle and practice that everyone I share with follow. So when you do that, it makes a huge impact.
• 13:15
  Randall Kaplan: Let's talk about success. That's one of the goals of my podcast inspire motivate people on their path to greatness and excellence. What are the three most important ingredients of success on that path to excellence?
• 13:28
  Chris Voss: First of all, I think the biggest one is really just just focus on getting a little bit better every day.
• 13:36
  Chris Voss: You'll be surprised at how quickly you get how far you get quickly by getting a tiny little bit everyday plus, you know, the or the fringe benefit. The other day, it didn't get better. You don't feel this great sense of loss, like oh my god, I'm never gonna recover. You know, feeling of losses probably impacts us more than anything else. So focusing on getting just a little bit better each day.
• 14:00
  Chris Voss: Also, success you want to go fast go alone, you want to go far go as a team. Be a better team player versus a team leader. That's been a real struggle for me because I always let you know diva. You guys support me flipping around. How do you support the other thing and you start putting a team in front of yourself. That also seems counterintuitive. And again, you'd be surprised at how far you get in six months if you go as a team and want to go far go as a team. And then third was probably hear people out the people who are dying to have their say. You will also accelerate all your relationships and all your outcomes by hearing people out rather than giving direction, which is you want them to listen to you. So hear people out to really strengthen your relationships strengthen your team learn And, and work better, more cohesively?
• 15:03
  Randall Kaplan: How important is it In Search of Excellence have passion to be successful at what we're doing?
• 15:11
  Brian Lee: It's a great question I think you definitely need to be passionate about what you're doing to get the full effort, because it's always a grind, right? It's always a grind. So if you're not passionate about something, you're never going to put in your, your entire body and soul into it unless unless you are. And so even with, with LegalZoom, with shoedazzle, with the Honest Company, I was very passionate about the missions of those businesses, right? So the mission of bringing Affordable Legal Services to the world, the mission of having women feel beautiful about themselves, basically, for $39 a month and get a new pair of shoes every month. It made it made everyone happy with the Honest Company helping to build a or to create a non toxic world. I mean, what's more important of that right, the site there, so I was extremely passionate about all the missions of those businesses. But this is the first time with arena club that I'm passionate about not only the mission, but the actual offering and the service. And it's only because I've been collecting trading cards, baseball cards, mainly since I was a kid. Right? So I remember, I was seven years old at the time and my dad took me to my first Dodger game, right. And I just fell in love with the game and being at the stadium. And Steve Garvey was our, our first baseman at the time, and I went and bought his card. At the card shop, I rode my bike to the local card shop and I I bought a seed Garvey card, and I held on to it all these years, I still have it. And I started collecting cards them and I never stopped. Most of my friends stopped. It was my friends ties thought like, yeah, so most most do they stop in junior high school or high school or whatever. I collected in high school, college, law school, young adult, old adult, I just I just love it. All right, I just love collecting my heroes. And it's a category and industry that I thought was was pretty right for some innovation, right? Because there hasn't really been that much innovation in this space for a while. And so the idea that we had was to digitize the physical, I mean, how many how many guys, you know, that collected cards, and those cars are sitting in a shoebox in their closet, or their parents closets, or basements or whatever it is? Everybody a lot, right. And so I always felt like, gosh, it'd be so great to bring all those out. And to digitize them all, and then put them on blockchain. And you could display all your cards at Arena club online. And those are your cards, verified and authenticated that you can buy, sell and trade with each other.
• 18:06
  Brian Lee: And that's the genesis of arena club is really kind of, we call it bringing the card show to life. And so my happiest days are spent at the card shows and card shops, going with Davis, my son who who you know, and I just love it. I just love it. I love the the wheeling and dealing and the action of the card shows.
• 18:27
  Brian Lee: And for anyone who's ever been in a car show, you know, it's like you walk around with your little zipper on case and it's like ArtRage, these two cards and 50 bucks for that card. And there's just a lot of excitement. And no one's ever brought that online. I think we're one of the first platforms that allow for trading even, right, and we're trying to build this community where people can really follow each other and like each other's cards and so forth and, and trade with each other and have a lot of fun doing it. So that's the idea of reading club.
• 19:01
  Randall Kaplan: Somebody inspiration was because you sent in a card to another grading company. We don't have to mention which one who the way the grading cards work as if you have a 10 They're manually graded by people sitting in a room they measure the center of the car, the borders, the picture, the quality of the colors, everything. 10 card, Michael Jordan, I think you told me this and correct me if I'm wrong. rookie card is a tank could be 250,000. If it's a nine, it could be 50,000 or 25,008 is way less. That's right. You had a great card. You know your cards, well, you send it in it gets graded. It takes three to six months, you pay a fee and it came back I think at an eight. That's fine. You said this is easily a nine, maybe a 10 you can appeal the grade it comes back in a plastic sleeve that's sealed with a grade honestly you can't change it.
• 19:52
  Randall Kaplan: And so you said okay, well this is not an eight. This is a nine.
• 19:56
  Randall Kaplan: You send it in history. appeal, you pay another fee, a more expensive fee, it takes three to six months and maybe even a year because their way back down.
• 20:06
  Randall Kaplan: This is a huge business. There's a company in this space last year that sold for $800 million, right? One of your competitors, but you're gonna take their ass once, once you get going. And then you started saying, Okay, well, that's not fair. I'm gonna do some more research, I'm gonna see how they grade these cards.
• 21:18
  Randall Kaplan: And you are very resourceful. By going into LinkedIn, and finding employees who used to work at these companies and say, How does this process happen? And you realize, and you heard that the former employee has told you, well, we sit in a room, we use microscopes, we grade the carpets, we don't have a manager tells us what to do. But some days they come in and they say, No more nights. And you took something that was a problem, and you fixed it. How important is it not to accept the status quo on something like this? And how much of a motivation is it to be an entrepreneur by looking at things not only that, you have the passion, but you're trying to fix something that's broken?
• 22:10
  Brian Lee: I think that's most of the time. I think for most entrepreneurs, it's usually about experiencing something, or consuming something and thinking I could do it better. Right? Or it'd be great if it was done this way or that way. Right, as opposed to the current way. And I think that's, that's, that's mostly everyone, right, that has started something or built something at least innovative.
• 22:33
  Brian Lee: Right? It's one thing to say I'm going to be an entrepreneur, I'm just going to completely copy that company. That's, that's a little bit different. I'm saying anyone who's innovating and creating something new, or looking to create something better than the status quo. And so very similar to what you described with arena club. Yeah, that was kind of fed up with what was out there, right from the marketplaces that exist, or the grading companies that exist and so forth. And I just thought I could do it better with more transparency, with with with more ease, with seamless transactions, all on blockchain.
• 23:09
  Brian Lee: And so I just thought, I'm gonna go do this. Right. And I hope people like it. So that's that that was the idea, even for Legal Zoom. So the idea for Legal Zoom really came about because some of these law firms charge a lot of money for some very simple legal procedures, right forms. Yeah, there are forms that you file. Why? Why should it cost $2,000 to form a corporation, right? Or 3000 hours, even right in today's inflationary world? So a lot of ideas come about like that. And even with Jessica Alba, and the Honest Company, I remember what she told me, she said, Why do all eco diapers have to be brown? Why can't we make them cute? Here's what she said, and with with really fun patterns, and it struck a chord with her.
• 23:59
  Brian Lee: I was like, You're right. They should be, we could do that.
• 24:02
  Brian Lee: Right? So it's like, a lot of times entrepreneurs come up with these ideas, because they're not happy with the status quo. And they want to innovate and make something better. And our
• 24:14
  Randall Kaplan: search for excellence, how important is it to overcome challenges, especially those that may seem insurmountable?
• 24:22
  Caryn Seidman-Becker: So going back to learning, you know, I learned a lot in the 2008 2009 market downturn. And you could map that market downturn back to what was happening in 2007. And burying your head in the sand is a sure way to not win. And so on February 25, Ken and I were on a train down to DC I believe the stock market was down four and change percent. You were reading what was happening in, in Asia and in Italy. And it was like, you know, there were a few cases in Seattle, right, just a few.
• 24:54
  Caryn Seidman-Becker: And, and we thought that there was a big problem, you could read a lot of tea leaves, we talked to a lot of people, we put together a lot of data. And we started taking action on February 25. So being proactive, and not reactive is massively important. And your job as a leader is to look around corners, and and to, you know, make predictions and to act on them not to wait till it hits you in the face with a two by four. And so we did start taking action that day, taking our marketing budget to zero, you could always what's the worst thing happened, you're wrong and you turn it back on. We did start to put our team members on a leave of absence plan and make sure we were taking care of them. And we also took our salaries to zero, just mine and Ken zero. And we contributed that to a clear one one clear fund where we could take care of team members around the country.
• 25:42
  Caryn Seidman-Becker: And so it was that action that allowed us to both communicate it to our company in aggregate on March 16, and then move on to to health paths to see what was coming around the corner and leverage our assets. Again, our mission is to make experiences safer and easier. And we believe that there will be another card in your wallet. And we're all about digitizing those, and connecting people to all the things that make them them, well, your vaccine or your test results are part of that. And so we were able to move quickly because we were proactive, because we had learned a lot from the markets for you know, a few decades and, and you've got to act and you've got to look around corners. And you've got to put yourself in a position to lead and be proactive. And by the way, your teams wants stability, your teams want leadership, your teams want to know that someone has a plan, that we're not making it up as we go along. And so we did those things. By the way, traffic wasn't down 90, it was down 98.
• 26:46
  Caryn Seidman-Becker: And if you ever want to stress, if you ever want to stress test a model, and you are a subscription travel business, you know, take it down to borderline zero and see what happens to your business. And I think because we built trust, and because we took care of our members, and we were still there for them. For the few who showed up every day, it went a long way to coming out of it with even greater strength.
• 27:07
  Randall Kaplan: I want to make a statement, and then I'd like you to react to it. Okay, are you ready? Yeah. When you're graded, something great things happen to you.
• 27:18
  Ben Sherwood: Got a true kind of false. I think that when you're great at something, great things can happen if you're also lucky.
• 27:29
  Ben Sherwood: If you're also in the right place at the right time, if you can stay out of your own way, if there are lots of deaths. So I think that it's hard for great things to happen to you if you aren't great at something. But it's easy for not great things to happen to you. Even if you are great at something if you see what I mean. That is I think it'd be being really good.
• 27:54
  Ben Sherwood: Working hard is a necessary condition but not a sufficient condition for great things to happen.
• 28:03
  Randall Kaplan: When I think about being the best that I can be and living up to my own potential, a huge part of me wants to give back to others less fortunate, and trying to make a positive, impactful difference in their lives.
• 28:16
  Randall Kaplan: You're involved with a lot of things I know you've been giving back for a long time. How important to you is giving back your sense of accomplishment and where is that on? You're In Search of Excellence to be the best that you can possibly be
• 28:32
  Ben Sherwood: top of the list. I think that doing well means doing good. I think that that to to make a difference. Success is got to involve helping people who are less fortunate. So in this new company that we started Mojo, one of our founding principles is that we are here to help level the playing field between haves and have nots, there is huge inequality in youth sports, there is a huge divide between families with resources and families that don't, two thirds of the families that have money play sports in the United States, and kids play all the way through high school, only a third of the families without money in the United States get to play sports. That's not right. So one of our founding principles, the very beginning of this company was that we can only do well as a company if we do good and make sure that everyone has access to the best coaching and the best resource. And that's why we've made Mojo free for anybody to use. There is a mojo plus that you can buy for 9099 a year that has additional features. But we think baseline everybody should have access to the very best coaching in the world, the very best tools and resources. And that's part of a core philosophy that you cannot succeed unless you are doing good and making the world a better place. That's another reason why we've launched Mojo in partnership with coaching core, which is the wonderful nonprofit sort of like a Peace Corps for coaches in the United States with 10,000 coaches who volunteer in low income areas to help kids play sports and we're putting Mojo plus the preferred the premium version of mojo in the hands of all the coaches coaching core across the country, to help them get the best resources they can possibly have. So I I'm with you, Randy, I think that the Giving back is an important piece of success. And I also think back to Adam grants book which is called Give and Take by the way I had the title wrong give and take. Giving is an incredibly important piece of the success and excellence formula. I have one thought to leave you with and leave your listeners with. Just I think that the thing that is missing in the in the book is about excellence in the in the writing about excellence in the pursuit of excellence. is a very important idea, which is to go easy on yourself, to be patient, to not be punishing, that those who seek excellence have a voice in their heads, that is relentless, that is merciless.
• 31:15
  Ben Sherwood: That can be cruel. And I think that one of the things that I've learned with time and maybe with some success is that that voice can be very, very destructive in that that voice, that relentlessness, that constant striving can be ultimately counterproductive. And that sometimes the pursuit of excellence requires a little bit of self awareness and a bit of kindness to oneself, and kindness to the people around you. Because that quest, that sometimes insatiable quest can be very, very hard, and even unhealthy. And so one of my thoughts, especially when I'm around young people who drive themselves hard or mid career, people who are driving themselves unbelievably hard or even advanced age, careers driving themselves so hard, is go easy on yourself. It's okay.
• 32:11
  Ben Sherwood: You're going to end up where you're going to end up. You're going to achieve what you're meant to achieve the road will take you where you are supposed to go. But if you aren't easy on yourself, if you don't go easy on you're easier on yourself sometimes and take care of yourself, you're in for trouble.
• 32:30
  Randall Kaplan: I love anything on that. I mean that is just perfect.