1400: I Spent 60 Minutes With A Billionaire Yesterday, Here’s What I Learned by Benjamin Hardy on Personal Growth

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Work Daily, Episode 1400.

[00:00:03] [SPEAKER_00]: I Spent 60 Minutes With A Billionaire Yesterday.

[00:00:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I learned by Benjamin Hardy of benjaminhardy.com.

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm your host and narrator Dan, and this is the place where I read to you every single

[00:00:14] [SPEAKER_00]: day from terrific articles that we find on productivity, work-life balance, and all

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_00]: sorts of work-related topics.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: So let's get right to our post now as we hear from Benjamin and Optimize Your Life.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I Spent 60 Minutes With A Billionaire Yesterday.

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I learned by Benjamin Hardy of benjaminhardy.com.

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Yesterday I sat down with Graham Weston, the co-founder of Rackspace, a company which recently

[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_00]: went public in 2008 and in 2016 was purchased and taken private by Apollo Global Management

[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_00]: LLC.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I was introduced to Weston by super connector Joe Polish, who's the founder of Genius

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Network.

[00:00:56] [SPEAKER_00]: Selling Rackspace made Weston a billionaire.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Since stepping away from Rackspace a few years ago, Weston has focused his energy and attention

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_00]: on the city of San Antonio where he lives.

[00:01:07] [SPEAKER_00]: He's created a startup incubator called Geekdom, where people pay $50 a month to have

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_00]: access to the co-working space and community.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Weston has personally invested hundreds of millions of dollars into San Antonio to re-energize

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_00]: the city and make it more of an innovation and technology driven city.

[00:01:24] [SPEAKER_00]: San Antonio is Weston's startup now.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: While other people are trying to start a company, Weston is trying to scale the entire city

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00]: of San Antonio.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_00]: This is a different level of thinking.

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_00]: So how did he do this?

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Belonging First, he understands that human beings have

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_00]: an innate need to belong.

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Maslow put belonging as essential on his hierarchy of needs, but people don't simply want

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_00]: to belong anywhere.

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they need to belong, they need to feel needed and valued, but ultimately

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_00]: people want to belong to a winning team.

[00:01:56] [SPEAKER_00]: If you feel that the team you're on isn't moving forward, then that has a negative impact

[00:02:01] [SPEAKER_00]: on your entire identity and perspective.

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_00]: From Weston's perspective, the purpose of work and the best way to energize a group

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: of people is help them feel like a valued member of a winning team on an inspiring

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: mission.

[00:02:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Weston is for sure a capitalist, but he's not motivated by money.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: He's motivated by purpose, hence the inspiring mission.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_00]: Weston says, quote, you can get people really excited to work when they feel they're a part

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: of something important and inspiring.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_00]: And quote, the power of two.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Weston loves a particular book, powers of two.

[00:02:35] [SPEAKER_00]: The book is about the innovative pair of working in twos.

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Consider the examples of John Lennon and Paul McCartney or Marie N.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00]: Pierre Curie or Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Working in twos is more powerful than working solo, no matter how introverted or creative

[00:02:50] [SPEAKER_00]: you are.

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_00]: The best creative work is collaborative.

[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Even people you think work solo have scores of advisors and people who help them make their

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: work happen.

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Weston applies this principle to every area of his life.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: He has advisors or collaborators in everything he does.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Billionaires think in terms of who rather than how.

[00:03:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Rather than trying to do everything themselves, billionaires find experts and specialists

[00:03:14] [SPEAKER_00]: who are brilliant at what they do and get immediate help.

[00:03:16] [SPEAKER_00]: This is a very different mindset than we're taught in public school and in society in general.

[00:03:22] [SPEAKER_00]: People are generally taught to figure things out rather than collaborate and innovate.

[00:03:26] [SPEAKER_00]: An upgraded mindset.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: The human brain is highly adaptive and always changing.

[00:03:32] [SPEAKER_00]: When you change your behavior, you change your personality.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00]: Over time, your brain develops new neural connections and networks and you have a new brain.

[00:03:40] [SPEAKER_00]: You also have new memories of the past since your past is always reconstructed based

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: on your present circumstances and brain and perspective.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_00]: When you begin surrounding yourself with billionaires and people who think much bigger than the

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_00]: typical person, you start to have many of your core assumptions of life and possibility

[00:03:56] [SPEAKER_00]: peeled away like layers of an onion.

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Your subconscious doesn't really know how to handle what it's grappling with because

[00:04:02] [SPEAKER_00]: what you're learning is forcing you to unlearn everything you've been conditioned

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_00]: to think and do.

[00:04:08] [SPEAKER_00]: People who grow in success often become highly skilled thinkers and strategists as well

[00:04:13] [SPEAKER_00]: as visionaries and leaders who can inspire and motivate others to build.

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_00]: This doesn't mean they don't have brilliant technical ability.

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they likely have a higher degree of technical ability than their counterparts,

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00]: the experts and specialists they begin hiring and partnering with.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_00]: However, they literally have a new and different brain, one wherein they have a much harder

[00:04:32] [SPEAKER_00]: time getting caught in the weeds of technical creation.

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_00]: They think much differently, broadly and at scale.

[00:04:38] [SPEAKER_00]: They have the eye and ability to do the technical work, which allows them to determine if the

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_00]: work being done is good, but they stop doing it themselves.

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Their time is worth 100 or 1000x if they don't do the technical work anymore.

[00:04:52] [SPEAKER_00]: As a result, they build several partnerships, small teams of two or so in several different

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_00]: areas of their life.

[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_00]: This allows them to get their brilliance, their ideas and thinking into a collaborative

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: synergy and their partner creates it.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Over time, they get good at creating the right partnerships with true experts who are

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: the best in the world at what they do.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_00]: They can make a much bigger impact and do far more by partnering over and over.

[00:05:17] [SPEAKER_00]: The fear.

[00:05:19] [SPEAKER_00]: The thing is, most people don't have this skill nor do they have this confidence.

[00:05:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Who are you to get other people to do your work for you?

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't have to be this way.

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, people want to be valued members of winning teams on inspiring missions.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: You shouldn't assume that people hold the same values as you.

[00:05:35] [SPEAKER_00]: As long as people are doing work they personally love, where they have freedom and

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: autonomy as well as a high degree of responsibility, they will love what they're

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: doing.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they'll feel stoked and honored to be a part of the project.

[00:05:48] [SPEAKER_00]: We live in the gig economy.

[00:05:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Jobs shouldn't be viewed as jobs but projects.

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Even Weston, who is spending hundreds of millions and decades rebuilding and

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_00]: transforming the city of San Antonio views it as a project, not a job.

[00:06:01] [SPEAKER_00]: And there are several different projects within the project.

[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_00]: There are tons of different projects.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_00]: How are you doing at building partnerships?

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Are you maximizing your strengths and superpowers or

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_00]: burning yourself out trying to do everything?

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Conclusion.

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Without question, billionaires think differently than the masses.

[00:06:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Weston and others are literally trying to improve cities.

[00:06:23] [SPEAKER_00]: They think in terms of partnerships.

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: They understand what makes people tick and it's clearly not carrots and

[00:06:28] [SPEAKER_00]: sticks.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: It's being a valued member of a winning team on an inspiring mission.

[00:06:34] [SPEAKER_00]: This is the essence of transformational leadership, inspiring individuals to buy

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: into a powerful future and feeling valued and supported and excited to be involved.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listened to the post titled, I spent 60 minutes with a billionaire

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: yesterday.

[00:06:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Here's what I learned by Benjamin Hardy of benjaminhardy.com.

[00:06:57] [SPEAKER_00]: This show is sponsored by BetterHelp.

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00]: We're all marveled at how quickly kids learn and that sense of wonder meant they

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[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_00]: But as adults, sometimes we lose that curiosity.

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[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_00]: That's betterhelp.com slash workdaily.

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_00]: And thank you to Benjamin.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_00]: He is an organizational psychologist and the best selling author of Will Power

[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't Work and Personality Isn't Permanent.

[00:08:07] [SPEAKER_00]: His blogs have been read by over 100 million people and are featured on

[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Harvard Business Review, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, CNBC and many others.

[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_00]: He is a regular contributor to Inc and Psychology Today.

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_00]: And from 2015 to 2018, he was the number one writer in the world on

[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_00]: Medium.com.

[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_00]: He and his wife Lauren adopted three children through the foster system in

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: February 2018.

[00:08:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And one month later, Lauren became pregnant with twins who were born in

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_00]: December of 2018.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: They live in Orlando and you can come by benjaminhardy.com to learn much more.

[00:08:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And thanks so much to Benjamin for letting us share his work throughout

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_00]: our podcast network.

[00:08:46] [SPEAKER_00]: But that's going to do it for today.

[00:08:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Hope you have a great rest of your day.

[00:08:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And I will of course be right back here with you tomorrow.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_00]: And that's where your optimal life awaits.