The productivity Hack I Use Everyday (part 2) | E63

One of the most important things that everybody listening to this podcast should be doing is... (dramatic music) I'm just gonna be completely honest, and I've never said this before. As I've come to learn, even more so this year, and as I hope I'll continue to realize in 2021, the ultimate goal is... (upbeat music) This is part two of my look back at 2020 and my look forward at 2021. If you've not listened to part one, go back and listen to that first. Um, in this episode, I'm gonna continue to look at the, the ways that I want to improve in 2021, and the ways that I know I went wrong or could have improved, all the lessons that I've learned in 2020. So without further ado, I'm Steven Bartlett, and this is The Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. (upbeat music) The next point in my diary is one that I've banged on about in this podcast like a broken record. But I just, I just know how important it's been for me in 2020, that I'm just gonna give it just a couple of more sentences. And this is that word consistency. Um, if you're watching YouTube, um, you'll see that I've been very consistent with the gym this year. But it's, it st- stretches across all facets of my life. I, I had this real rev- revelation. I think it was actually when, um, it was two things happened at the same time. It was when I hit a million followers on Instagram, and I thought about the reason why I achieved that, and I realized that it was literally just posting every single day and learning and tryna, and, and looking at the analytics and getting a little bit better, and then posting again, for years and years and years. And when I saw that my first 900 posts had got me 10,000 followers, and the next 900 posts had got me 1.1 million, and then I started reading about compounding interest and how consistency and money, um, achieves the same effect, and it's really all about time and patience and showing up every day with your investments. And, uh, as I reflected on The Slight Edge, which is one of my favorite books of all time, which talks about how the small things repeated over time are much more powerful than the singular big decisions we make, then I've just fallen in love with this idea of consistency. And I, and, uh, the reason why I'm talkin' about it again on this podcast is because it pops in my head every day. And it pops in my head at the times when it most needs to pop in my head, like the gym last night. I'm sat he- I'm sat in my, um, my apartment. It's midnight. I'm thinking, "I'm fuckin' tired. I've gotta wake up on Saturday, as I am right now, and be consistent and do this podcast at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning, but I also need to go to the gym." And so that voice creeps in, it says, "Fuck it, just go to bed, right? Fuck it off." But then this new voice appears in my mind these days, and it goes, "Steve, but remember the power of consistency." And it's these moments, it's these moments where you don't wanna do it that are gonna make all the difference. And it's these moments where people typically bail. And so it must be these moments that are most valuable. These w- these must be the moments that most people don't overcome. And so I drag my ass up every day and go to the gym. And then when I'm at the gym, as I was last night, I'm sat there thinking, "Bro, you're tired, right?" I'd had my pre-workout, but, um, it, it started to wear off. It's 1:00 AM, and I'm thinking, "Steve, you've done five sets. I know you usually do six, but just pack it in and go home now." But then this voice shows up again, it goes, "Steve, consistency. Remember the power of consistency. You've seen it all year in your life. Just do that last set." And again, as I said, it's, um, I'm recording this podcast at s- on Saturday. We woke up, uh, uh, all of the team, not just myself, at 8:00 AM to do this because we know we have to be consistent with this podcast. Historically, we've not been. But you, we've seen this year the power of being consistent. The podcast this year is doing three times more downloads and listeners, and it's growing quickly, than it did in all previous years wh- whe- where I wasn't consistent. And this voice shows up in my head. I don't, I don't wanna wake up... Uh, I got into bed at, what, 3:00 AM last night. I woke up this morning at, what, 5:00 AM to start writing this podcast and to going through my notes and stuff like that, like two hours sleep. I don't have to be doing this shit, right? But I know that the goal I wanna achieve with the podcast and with all these other areas of my life, like my health, my fitness, my business, depend on me being consistent, especially in the moments where every part of my body, you can probably tell I'm pretty tired now if you're watching me on YouTube, tells me not to be. Um, and that's why I'm just the biggest evangelist of consistency. And listen, if you're bored of it, then, uh, then good because hopefully you'll be so bored that you might give it a try. (page turns) The next point in my diary is one that I actually talked about, um, when the pandemic first broke out. And if you g- guys listened to the podcast, I did a thing that's called De- Dealing with Uncertainty or Unexpected Chaos or something like that. Um, I did this in April time when the pandemic first struck. Um, and the topic is optimism, proact- and, and proactivity, and these two words are so incredibly important to me. I learned a very valuable lesson this year when, you know, our business in March was absolutely smashed. I think we lost 50% of our revenue in that month. We bounced back even stronger and better than ever. But in that particular month, we, we were absolutely s- fucked, right? And none of us knew at that time how long this fucking was going to last and how long our business was gonna be smashed for. And you're faced with a bunch of, um, options moments like that, and I always speak about this burning room analogy, I call it. If a room is on fire, you typically have two types of people. You have one type of person who will literally just say, "The room is on fire. Oh my God, the room is on fire. Oh my God, the room is on fire. Oh my God, the room is on fire." And eventually, the fucking flames will engulf them and they're dead, right? And then you have another type of person who's in the same room with the same people, and they won't need to tell you the room is on fire because clearly the room is on fire, and there's no upside in dwelling upon the fact that we're all about to burn down. That type of person will have optimism and proactivity. They will be solely focused on making a plan and galvanizing others to feel the optimism to deliver upon that plan. They will say, "Here is how we get out of the room." Right? They don't, they don't dwell on the fact that we're all about to burn to death because it's a waste of time, and that time and energy will take away from the, um, the chance of the solution working out. And when the pandemic hit-We could have gone one of either way, uh, one of two ways as a business. We could have dwelled, uh, negatively, or we can galvanize the troops and figure out, with optimism and proactivity, how we're getting out of it. And it always transpires in life, in all of those moments where I thought we were gonna fucking burn down, that optimism and proactivity are much of the reason we survived. And we look back on it, and it wasn't actually that bad. And this is a, this is a rule for any time in your life when you encounter those moments where it feels like you are finished. And I'll tell you what, we all had them this year, but you, you've got more coming because that's the nature of life. When you encounter those moments where it feels like it's a wrap, um, you have to lean towards optimism, and you have to lean towards creating a plan to get out of there. Anything else, anything else detracts from the solution. And also, as it relates to your friends, and as it relates to the people you keep around you, and the people you hire into your businesses, and the people you call your, your business partners when you start your company, you need to do everything in your power to avoid people who are pessimistic and who refuse to be proactive in those situations. They are baggage. They really, really, really are baggage. And you're gonna have to carry them. And there's a lot of shit you have to carry in life, right? Whether it's in your personal life or in your career. So you wanna limit the amount of weight you're carrying. And those people that are negative, that dwell on all the things that could go wrong, that are, um, that are quick to, to cat- to catastrophize about the fact that we're all fucked, those people are tremendous burdens. And in 2021, carry less of those people. People don't like when I say this 'cause I... Listen, they... Do you know what they say to me? And I'm just gonna be completely honest, and I've never said this before. But every time I start talking about negative people, people misconstrue the point, um, as I'm talking about people that suffer with their mental health. They say, "Steve, well, you know, people have depression and you can't give up on them." Completely true. I'm not talking about those people with mental illnesses. I'm talking about people that have a disposition to always see the negativity as a reflection of their own opinion of themself or what they've been through. They have a, uh, predisposition to point at the negative, to, to, to immediately gravitate towards the reasons why things can't happen. Those people are fucking burdens. And I'll tell you what, y- they say you become like the five people you hang around with the most, right? So unbelievably true. So unbelievably true. Maybe the greatest influence on all of our lives, maybe even more so than social media, and that's one hell of an influence, is those four or five people that you let really close in your circle. And, um, it's almost unavoidable that you'll become somewhat of a, of a replica or a clone of them. When I was 14 years old, I became an indie, and I started listening to The Kooks and Arctic Monkeys, and I started wearing skinny jeans and a little Fred Pe- Fred Perry polo shirt because the five people that I was closest to all wear that, w- all those clothes. By 16, I was a total chav, right? I had, like, ditched all of that stuff. I was Stone Island. I was going to the football match wearing caps and stuff, probably being a bit of a football hooligan because the five closest people to me, at a very influential age I will say, were like that. And now I'm 27, 28... Can't remember my own bloody age. Now that I'm 28 years old, I... Although I've shaken off a lot of that desire to conform to the, you know, the people around me, I'm still getting my energy, getting my, my world's view and getting my perspective from the people around me. And I, uh, you know, I've done a very good job, and I will continue to do a very good job, of shaking off those burdens. And I think you should too, because those people, even though people will get offended when I say this, they are burdens. They're absolute burdens. They're burdens in your companies, they're burdens in your social life, they're burdens in your family. And you, your life is too short for you to carry burdens. So don't carry them. And it doesn't matter if that hurts people's feelings. It's the truth. Don't carry burdens. You're gonna die, so... You know. You don't... You wanna go far. You don't wanna be slowed down by carrying large, human-shaped backpacks. The next point in my diary I've just written, "If you're easily provoked, you are easily controlled." And in 2021, please make composure your superpower. I, um, I've been very guilty of this. You know, I do this podcast, and I tell people, you know, all these philosophical ideas I have, and all the things I've figured out about myself and how to implement them into their lives. But I still find myself falling foul of all the same bullshit and nonsense that I evangelize about, which is part of being an imperfect human being, right? And I still find myself being very easily provoked at times, whether it's in a romantic context or by some just totally random Twitter, uh, account, right? Or some random DM. I still find myself being provoked too often. Something that I've definitely, definitely improved on. I'd say I'm 100% better than I was last year. But, um... But in most facets of life, if you're so... if you're susceptible to being provoked emotionally, if you're someone that is quite sensitive to, um, to, to, to someone's comments or to a stranger because of... typically, because of some insecurity you have. And that's a completely separate point. If, if when you are provoked, you ask yourself that question, "Shit, why was I offended by that?" Asking myself that question has helped me identify many of my own insecurities. Because if some little random egg emoji Twitter account can, can genuinely change your mood with 180 characters or a, a couple of words, then that speaks to some kind of internal insecurity or vulnerability which you probably should address. Because as I said, if you're easily provoked, you're easily controlled. And it's, it's not their words that are controlling you, it's that insecurity that's still driving you. Um, one of the things I'm trying to work very hard on this year, this coming year, in 2021, is to be less easily provoked. And in fact, the way that I, I imagine I'll go about that is by addressing more of my insecurities. I've done a really good job though, you know? I don't think I have that many insecurities left. I still have hundreds. But we're down from probably millions, right? Like, there's probably a million things that I was insecure about to some degree. Um, but yeah. I'll let you think about that.And the next point I've written in my diary is one that definitely applies to everybody, and it's a lesson that I've learned, um, over the last couple years, especially being a young entrepreneur that started my first business at 18 years old and that always was dealing with older people that knew more and that were, in some cases, double my age. I've just written, "The easiest way to remove disrespectful people from your life is to start by respecting yourself." I know for sure that there's a direct correlation, a very, very, very strong, undeniable correlation, between the amount of respect you have for yourself and the amount of respect you get from everybody else, especially as it relates to business, especially as it relates to personal relationships, especially as it relates to romantic relationships. I know that at certain moments in my life, the reason why I've garnered the respect I have is because I have intentionally faked being a bit of a tough guy, and, uh, I think that kinda stayed with me. I'm gonna try and explain this. I've had to deal with some very successful, old, experienced, wise people in business that are many years ahead of me, and if I hadn't been a fake tough guy and sometimes cussed and sometimes been a bit, you know, antagonistic and a bit, a bit violent with the protection of my boundaries, I know for sure I wouldn't be where I am today because those people will respect me as much as they think I respect myself. And I've learnt this lesson not just through my own observations of my own life, but also people around me, people who are also my age, and people that I've watched deal with those same people, and I've managed to watch those same people, those old, very experienced businesspeople, totally disrespect these people because they don't respect themselves and they're not coming with that same, "I know my value. You're gonna res- fucking respect me or I'm going to, um, violently protect my boundaries," type of energy. And it was just a lesson I've learned, and it applies to all facets of life, even at those outside of business. In your relationships with your partner, um, they'll typically respect you, typically, not always. Some people are a little bit nicer. But they'll typically respect you as much as you demand to be respected through the precedences you set, the standards you set, through what you allow and what you accept, and it's just a really important lesson. The easiest way to remove disrespect from your life is to start by respecting yourself. Um, the next point in my diary is one that I've, um, I've learned through the hiring process, of hiring almost 1,000 people. We have s- about 750 active employees at Social Chain. I've not hired all of them, but, um, as I've hired people, but also in my sort of close friendship groups, I've learned this very, very important lesson about self-awareness, and I've just written in my diary, "If someone can't accurately identify what their own flaws are, then they have the most dangerous flaw of, of them all, which is a total lack of self-awareness." And I'll be honest, the people who I am most impressed by, the people that I see achieve the most success and those that are often the most happiest, or at least those that appear to be the most in control of their life, are those that can tell you all the ways that they're fucked up. And I, I, I have conversations... I remember one particular conversation with a friend, who I shan't name because thou- they will not like it, and they, I know they listen to this podcast, where I asked them their flaws, and as their friend, I, I think as friends, we can always identify glaringly obvious flaws in our friends. We know what they're good and bad at, sometimes, and unfortunately more than they do. And my friend sat there and went, "Oh, nothing. Um, yeah, couldn't think of anything." Right? Could think of all the things they were good at, but couldn't identify their own flaws. And it struck me in that moment that they had the most sort of debilitating, dangerous flaw of them all, which is that lack of self-awareness. I think everybody should have a very, very clear idea and also brag about the fact that they know what they're shit at and what their insecurities are and how they're damaged and how their childhood fucked them up. I think those are the people that I bet on the most. Those are the people that are conscious about the things that might hold them back and therefore can do something about them. If anyone you encounter in an interview or on a date or wherever, a colleague at work, can't tell you accurately what their flaws are, how they're fucked up or what they're not good at or what their recurring toxic thoughts and habits and patterns are, then that's deeply concerning because perfection definitely doesn't exist, right? We know that for sure. But we also know that a s- lack of self-awareness certainly does. If someone can't accurately identify what their own flaws are, then they have the most dangerous flaw of them all, a total lack of self-awareness. In part one of this podcast, I talked about Huel and my partnership with Huel and the impact it's had on my life. I've actually got one of my best friends, one of my top four best friends, has suffered for the last, how many years? Probably about the last two decades with his diet. He's got, like, a mild eating disorder, and because of that, he's been fairly unhealthy and fairly overweight for the last two decades, right? And he came across Huel three years ago. I have always been worried about my friend because if you eat just crisps every day, you are going to, uh, it's gonna catch up on you at some point. He came across Huel, and the guy lost so much fucking weight and now has a six-pack. He actually still eats Domino's pizzas, which is quite strange, but he says that Huel is the reason that he now has this, like, beautiful six-pack. He loo- He's skinny. You know him, Jack, don't you? You know him. Do you know who I'm talking about? Do you actually know who I'm talking about? Yeah. And he attributes that to Huel. I've seen, you know, the, the upside of having a nutritionally complete diet. Some of us are too busy to have it. Some of us are, we don't like fruit enough or we don't like this enough, and that is where Huel comes in. It's changed my life. It's changed the life of my best friends and, um, I know if you're one of those people, like me, too busy to eat well, or at least that's what they tell themselves, then Huel can change yours too. The next point in my diary is about labels, and I've just written in my diary, "Resisting my own labels."Society and culture and Instagram is very, very quick to tell you to go and find your passion, or to go and find your thing, or what you are, or who you are, as if it was like pre-ordained or predetermined for you before you were born. And this like, I think this- this- this fuels this culture of labeling, but we also have this innate desire to fit and to be identified and to fit in. So, we search for labels that- that make us make sense. And this year, I quit my business. I was the CEO of Social Chain, and as I, um, as I left my business, I left with that label. It's what the world knows me as. It's my sort of adopted but also like earned identity. I am a CEO of a social media business. And as I reflected upon that, as I was out in the- the jungle in Costa Rica writing my book, which you can now pre-order, Happy Sexy Millionaire, on Amazon, um, I started writing about this idea of labels and how really, really dangerous they are. We all have labels. And I don't mean just labels as in work titles. I mean some of us have labeled ourself poor. We've labeled ourselves a poor person or a rich person, mom, dad, tall, short, fat, Black, white. These are all labels we've given ourselves. CEO, intern, creative, right? These are all labels. I don't think any of them really help. When I left Social Chain, you know, typically what you'd think, okay, successful social media CEO. Oh, he's gonna go and start another social media business. And I just thought, but- but why? I've done that. I've achieved that. I've built a great social media company. I don't have to be my label. What- what I am fundamentally, if you wanna get down to the- the ni- the- the sort of fundamentals, is like I'm a set of skills and experiences, and a set of skills and experiences that should theoretically be able to be applied to any, um, challenge that I put myself to. And if I- if I- if I- if I just focus on these labels, CEO, social media business, there's a high chance I might lose some of the joy of life, which is the spontaneity and the exploration. I might start to just live out my label, and I think a lot of people do that. They live out the label that they are a mom, and only a mom, and they can't be anything more, or they are a poor person, or they are a this or that or whatever. And these labels, I think, are more restrictive than they are beneficial. So, what I said to myself this year upon leaving Social Chain was that I was just gonna resist all my fucking labels and try and live life on those, on that basis, because these labels are just a bunch of society-induced given bullshit. And so, the first thing I did was obviously the Diary of a CEO, right? So, the Diary of a CEO: Live, Live Show, is a big theatrical performance. You guys that haven't bought tickets, I really think you should have bought tickets because it's such an amazing thing. It's basically like a- a- a theatrical performance. I'm giving the game away a little bit here. But I wanted to create like a theatrical performance because- because why not? Because that's not... Because I'm creative, right? The next thing I did was write a book. Again, does- not in line with the labels of being a social media CEO. I wrote every word of that book. No ghost writers. Because again, like I'm creative and I have ideas. These are the fundamental constitutes of who I am. Then, I started to learn how to DJ because that's interesting and fun as well. And then, I started working in biotech because that's interesting and I can apply myself to that as well. And I've basically, for the last six months, completely resisted all of the things that my labels tell me I should do. Um, and I really think it's a much better way to live. I think there's this real sort of insecurity and comfort-seeking nature in all of us that tells us to go and be the thing we just were and to stay in our lane. And I think the danger is that if I start to believe that because I've spent the last 10 years doing this thing on social media and being a CEO, that the next 10 years has to be the- the same or that my comfort or happiness or I- I'm only allowed to be my past, I think my life will be really like one-dimensional and shallow. One of my goals for the next year that I've already started to implement is to resist my labels and to just focus on the fact that I am nothing. I am just a guy with a bunch of skills who can apply those skills to a bunch of different things that he might enjoy. And, um, I think a lot of the time, in fact, that's why people don't quote-unquote "find their passion." Not that it is some Easter egg that's waiting at the bottom of your garden for you to find, but because they think too narrowly about what and who they are. They go to one school with a certain sort of economic situation, socioeconomic situation, and then they start looking at five things and saying, "Well, I don't like any of these five things." When you broaden your approach and when you stop living your life through your own labels, I think you can discover how many different things you love. And- and for me, variety is the spice of life, and labels are the antithesis of variety. They are pigeonholing. They are excitement killing. And they're unnecessary. They're one of the things in life that aims to guide you, but paradoxically will lead you astray. (page turns) Okay, so the next lesson, which I- I- I felt like I have somewhat of an obligation to talk to you guys about because I know there's gonna be some of you listening to this podcast that aren't doing this and haven't probably even considered it yet because you just don't think it's important. Um, one of the most important things that everybody listening to this podcast should be doing, and I say this as someone that does this and spends at least two hours a day doing this, is investing your money. Um, there's a- there's a couple of important sort of sub-points to this. Find ways to spend less, find ways to save more, and find ways to invest even more. And when- when we talk about investing, typically you think of investing as something that other people do, right? Like wealthy people that live in, you know, Canary Wharf in London or New York City run around in suits waving pieces of paper at the stock exchange and investing their money. Um, but genuinely, genuinely, genuinely, if you learn the habit of investing your money now, it- it can have a...... completely disproportionate impact on how free your life is in 10, 20, or 30 years time. And when I talk about investing, people, uh, will often come back to me and say, "Well, I just don't understand it," right? They'll say, "I, I just don't, I just don't know how to..." And I think it's like, isn't it tragic that in a, in a, in an, in an era where we have the sum total of the world's information at our fingertips, and with 5G internet so we can get it in a, in a, in a second, that not understanding something, which is actually quite simple if you just gave a couple of hours to it, is the barrier that's stopping a lot of people from ever building their wealth. And, like, living hand-to-mouth is, like, okay if you're earning a decent salary. But if you want to build wealth, which is ultimately freedom, I think of money as just like freedom coins, and you're letting, "I just don't understand it" because you've never Googled it and never tried, be the barrier, be the first hurdle that you can't even jump. For me, that's a great shame. And I did this for a long time. I did this for maybe 25 years. I think I started investing capital when I was about 26 years old. But up until 25 years, I just thought, oh, well, investing is for other people, right? People that aren't like me. And my thing is, I can, I need to make more money and then just save it. No. Your money can act like a s- like soldiers. It can go out every day, take prisoners and come back with more, right? And that's what you should be doing with your money. If you don't know how to invest and, um, because you don't understand it or you don't understand cryptocurrency or Bitcoin or whatever, Google it, please! I swear to God, if there was one investment of your time that stands to make you multiple riches over the next 10 or 20 years, it's just learning what this investing thing is. And it could quite literally take you 10 hours to understand, 10 hours to genuinely multiply your future wealth. And you're letting, "I don't understand it" st- stand in the way of you and your chances of being wealthy. I don't actually know how someone can be wealthy without understanding investing w- outside of winning the lottery or starting a very big business that, that ends up being sold or acquired or whatever. Or, you know, when I'm s- and I'm, keyword here, not rich, I'm s- I'm talking about wealthy, right? But I also know how someone who is earning a wage, a decent wage, can become a multi-multi-multi-multimillionaire by just doing the most basic form of investing. But the problem is they don't teach you this stuff in school. So this is one of the things in life where you're gonna have to do it yourself. You're gonna have to go and put those 10 hours in. My brother said to me one day, he said, um, I was talking about, you know, what to do with my money. I was like, "Bro, I'm gonna..." My brother's an investment manager, an investment banker. I said, "Bro, I'm gonna, um, I'm gonna buy a house." And he turned to me, he said, "Steve, if everybody knows how to do it, the returns are low." And he said, "How many people do you know that are buying houses and that know how to buy houses?" I said, "Everybody I know. Everybody in social chain, all 700 people. Some people have two or three houses." He went, "Then don't do that." He said, "If you want a higher return, you have to go and do the thing that most people don't know how to do." And he went, "Investing." Most people don't ever bother to teach themselves about investing. We all typically live in this world where, um, the narrative is you, you, you go to university, whatever, you, you get a job, and then you go and get that mortgage and you buy a house. That's the path. So just, like, thinking logically, it does make sense that there would be greater returns doing the thing that nobody's told you about or that is off-piste, right? And that's what investing is. And we're, we're seeing a real renaissance moment at the moment with young people, old people, who would never invest before, because of apps like Revolut and Monzo and how easy it's become to invest, start to get into investing, but also because of Bitcoin, that pulled a ton of people in. And I just want... I, I would just... Uh, I think if I could give you a s- a piece of value, if there's something you could come away from the podcast and think, "Do you know what? That was the day where I, I started investing," then I, then I think that would be a tremendous, um, a tremendous thing that I've done. Because if I could just get one person listening to this podcast to put in those hours and to Google how to invest and to get the Hargreaves Lansdown app or an investment app on their phone and just start putting 10 pounds in every single month into the index funds or the S&P 500 or into Facebook stock or whatever it might be, then I think the habit you'll learn and the rules you'll learn about money will change your life and the, the life of your kids forever. So I think that's a... I just couldn't not say it today. (page turns) The last bit in my diary this week kind of goes against what you typically hear from people. There's a narrative which is circulating social media at the moment about burnout and about, you know, don't work too hard 'cause it'll destroy your mental health and all of those kinds of things. But I just wanna bring a bit of nuance and realism to this debate. Um, hard work does really, really matter. And I, um, people, like, don't like when I say this because they, they think that I'm, I'm pushing that hustle porn star thing. There's a caveat to this. Like, hard work really, really matters if you want to achieve really great things. B- And, and the reason why I- I'm comfortable with saying that and with it feeling true is because I can't think of one person that I know, founder of a company, um, philanthropist, activist, that has achieved really great things, scientists, without really hard work. Even the, you know, the, the absolute astonishing job they've done with the vaccine, with Operation Warp Speed where they managed to get this vaccine done in a fraction of the time with urgency, I can't think of one person I know that's been wildly successful that hasn't worked really, really hard. Not one. So as much... As tempting as it is, and I know for a fact that if I do a tweet saying hard work doesn't matter, take care of your dog and take your wife for dinner, I know if I tweet that, I'll get shitloads of retweets, but it's just not true. It... A- and, like, I know people don't like when I say this. Like, but can you think of one person in your life that has been extraordinarily successful in, like, building a company or, or that sort of initial uphill graph that it takes to achieve great things that hasn't worked really, really, really hard? I can't. And so I think that's important. But, but, but here's the thing. Hard work at the expense of all of the other things in life that make life worth living, family, relationships, your dog...Hard work at the expense of those things is illogical, because as I've come to learn, even more so this year, and as I hope I'll continue to realize in 2021, the ultimate goal is happiness. That is the north star. That is the sort of prism in which you should look to make all of your decisions, right? Not success, not being really, really rich, not being happy, sexy millionaire, like I wrote in my diary at 18 years old, it's happiness. That is the north star. And if hard work, or your career, or your job, or any of that stuff compromises your happiness, then it's not worthwhile. But I don't want to lie to you and I wouldn't be sat here now, you wouldn't be listening to my podcast, I wouldn't have all this stuff, I wouldn't be in this penthouse in London with these people around me if I didn't work really, really fucking hard for a long period of time. But I managed to do it and I managed to maintain my focus on that north star, which was being happy. And that's really the nuance that this debate needs. And I genuinely believe that anybody that tries to tell you otherwise is lying to your face. (instrumental music) Thank you so much for listening. We're back again next week with an amazing, amazing guest on this podcast. And 2021 is the year of The Diary of a CEO. It's the year where we're gonna deliver a podcast every single Monday, and I'm gonna own your Monday. Um, we're gonna be consistent and we're, we're urgently stepping up our level of ambition with this show. Thank you so much for listening. I feel like I didn't... I, I, I don't say that enough to all of you guys. It means a ton t- to me. And honestly, there will be little moments where I'm in the street, or in the gym, or someone will say something about the podcast and it just puts this tremendous fire under my belly to continue to do it, 'cause we're waking up early Saturday mornings at 7:00 A.M., 5:00 A.M. sometimes to record this show. It requires a huge commitment, and the driving force behind that commitment is all of your feedback. If you're listening on YouTube, hit the subscribe button. If you're listening on the, the, the Spotify, or the podcast, go and hit the subscribe button. It means a ton to me and it's more fuel for this movement, um, and, yeah, i- it's the reason why we can keep bringing you th- these episodes. And I'll see you again next week for another installment of The Diary of a CEO. (instrumental music)