Wooo!
Bruce Lee's top nine rules for success.
If you follow my work you will know
that I am one of the biggest fans of Bruce Lee.
You see, I was born in Hong Kong.
When I first immigrated to Canada, when I was 14 years old,
the high school that I was going to back then,
I was one of the only three Chinese in my school.
So it was a very difficult period for me
because I had no friends, I couldn't speak a word
of English, and every single week
I was getting bullied in school.
And I was super skinny, probably 110 pounds,
112 pounds, like a monkey.
And so, during that period of time
it was a very depressing period in my teenage year.
I remember one night I was flipping
through different channels, through cable.
And I came across one of Bruce Lee's movies,
Return Of The Dragon.
Where he was visiting Rome as someone
who couldn't speak a word of English.
And, as you know, that he would be kicking ass,
and taking names, and beating up the bad guys.
From that moment on he became my hero.
He inspired me to learn martial arts,
he inspired me to be a better version of myself.
A lot of what I do as a businessman, as an entrepreneur,
as a leader today, I learned from Bruce Lee.
I've had the fortune to study under two
of Bruce Lee's original students,
Sifu Tat Wong, and Sifu Joe Lewis.
Today I want share with you, from my perspective,
what are the nine rules for success, from Bruce Lee.
(upbeat music)
My last name is Lee, Bruce Lee.
I was born in San Francisco, in 1940.
Really, to me okay, to me, ultimately martial arts means
honestly expressing yourself.
Now, it is very difficult to do, okay.
As Bruce Lee said, ultimately martial arts
is about expressing yourself honestly,
and it's very, very difficult to do.
And in business, I believe it is the same way,
it's very, very difficult to do.
Because, very often, because of insecurities,
very often people put on this mask, or this facade.
They need to be someone that they're not,
in order to impress other people.
Or when you're communicating with other people,
it could be through social media, it could be one on one,
or even, you're speaking to groups.
How do you be your most authentic self.
How do you just be yourself, and you say to yourself,
you know what, here I am.
And I'm good enough just being who I am.
Easy to say, not easy to do.
Look around, I always learn something.
And that is, to be always yourself.
And to express yourself, to have faith in yourself.
Do not go out and look for a successful personality
and duplicate it.
I couldn't agree with Bruce Lee more.
Because, at first maybe you're trying to imitate someone,
and you look for a successful personality.
It could be me, could be anybody.
And, sometimes I see it on social media too where,
I can see my fans say, oh Dan, I want to be just like you.
Don't try to be like me.
Be you, be the best version of you that you could be.
You don't need to be like me, right?
If I try to be like you, a hundred percent I would fail.
If I try to be Tony Robbins, I would fail
a hundred percent of the time.
But I can do a pretty good Dan Lok.
So be yourself, express yourself honestly,
and be the very best that you can be.
You are not ready.
I know.
Like everyone else, you want to learn the way to win,
but never to accept the way to lose.
To accept defeat, to learn to die,
is to be liberated from it.
So when tomorrow comes, you must free your ambitious mind,
and learn the art of dying.
To learn the art of dying.
This is a very profound lesson from Bruce.
What does he mean by that?
You see, sometimes we get so attached to the goals.
Sometimes we get so attached to how we achieve the goals.
One of the things I've learned from my Sifu,
from my martial arts Sifu, he'll say,
okay, Dan when, when you try to attack and you say,
you know what, I'm gonna hit the opponent this way.
And then you say, I'm so fixated, I'm gonna hit him this way
and he's not gonna be able to block it, I'm gonna hit.
And suddenly, when there's an obstacle, you're like oh!
Then you're all tense, like oh!
How come that didn't work?
That wasn't going according to my plan.
It's not happening the way that I see it in my mind.
Then what happens is, this kind of stuff,
it's the same thing in life.
That when we try something, it doesn't work.
Shit, it doesn't work.
What happens, then you get all tensed up.
Well, what happens in Martial, when you get all tensed up,
you're not relaxed, you cannot react, right.
You cannot move, you're so tense.
Same thing in life.
Where, you know what, there's an obstacle,
I can redirect, there's another opening.
I can find other ways.
My goal will stay the same, that I want to hit the target.
But the way I go about it might change.
So the more, sometimes when you try to win,
the more you attach to the outcome.
Sometimes it's counter intuitive.
But when you let go of the need to control,
doesn't mean we don't strive, doesn't mean we don't try,
doesn't mean we don't do our very best.
But when you are doing that, at the same time internally
you let go of your need to control.
That's how you win.
I have already made up my mind that in the United States,
I think something about the Oriental,
I mean the true Oriental, should be shown.
Hollywood sure as heck hasn't.
You better believe it, man.
I mean, it's always the pig tail, and bouncing around,
chop chop, you know, with the eyes slanted and all that.
I can relate with this so much.
As me, as an influencer, as a business man,
as someone who, quote unquote, has built something
significant in the Western world.
As a speaker, maybe the only Chinese speaker,
that has been on TEDx stage, twice as opening speaker.
When I was getting started it was exactly the same thing.
That I experience racism.
That people look at me a certain way.
Oh, Dan Lok cannot be successful
because you are yellow, you are young,
you are Chinese, you're Asian, you speak with an accent.
And all these things that I am proud today,
I have done a small part with what I do,
showing the world that hey, you know what?
Even though I'm an Asian, in the Western world
I can be successful, you can be successful.
Doesn't matter if you're Asian,
doesn't matter if you're a minority,
doesn't matter if you're Indian.
It doesn't matter you're background, I don't care.
That if you want it bad enough.
Yes, you need to work twice as hard, three times as hard.
You need to sacrifice more, but yes, you could do it.
What is the highest technique you hope to achieve?
To have no technique.
Very good.
What are your thoughts when facing your opponent?
There is no opponent.
And why is that?
Because the word I does not exist.
So, continue.
A good fight should be like a small play,
but played seriously.
A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready.
Not thinking, yet not dreaming.
Ready for whatever may come.
When the opponent expands, I contract.
When he contracts, I expand.
And when there is an opportunity, I do not hit.
It hits all by itself.
When there's an opportunity, I don't hit.
It hits all by itself.
What Bruce is talking about is, day to day,
if you are well trained, if you are well prepared,
doesn't matter if it's martial arts, or in business,
when you go into any scenario, you are well prepared.
You have this self-confidence,
that you trust yourself, you trust your body.
That if someone strikes, if someone attacks,
that your body will know what to do.
Now, it takes a lot of self-confidence
to let that go and say hey, you know what?
I believe that my body, my spirit, my mind
will do the right thing at the right time
and strike the right spot.
That is not easy to do.
It is also one of the things I teach
to all my students who are closers,
who are sale people, who are sales professionals.
That they try to go into a sales call,
they try to go on a closing call.
They are well prepared, meaning that they're looking
at a script, and they try to force.
They try to predict, they try to follow the script
word for word, that's not how it works.
In closing in all depends on what your prospect is saying.
What are they saying?
How do you take what they say, how can you ask questions.
How could you qualify them?
It's like you trying to go into a sparring match,
a tournament in martial arts, with predetermined moves.
Okay, if my opponent throws this punch,
I'm gonna do like this, and if he throws
a kick, I'm gonna block it like that,
and then I'm gonna hit him this way.
It doesn't work like that.
Same thing in closing, you cannot go into a scenario
thinking that, my prospect's gonna say this,
I'm gonna do this, and then he's gonna do this,
and I'm gonna do that.
That's not how it works, that's not how business works.
Being able to pivot, trust yourself,
knowing that you could do the right thing.
Train yourself, over prepare, so that when you go
into that scenario you just let go.
You just let go and let your training,
let the skill come through, in any scenario.
The word superstar really turn me off,
and I'll tell you why.
Because the word star, man, is an illusion.
It's something what the public calls you.
You should look upon oneself as an actor, man.
I mean, you would be very pleased if somebody say,
hey man, you are a super actor.
It is much better than superstar.
I agree with this.
As I have, now so many followers from all over the world.
Millions, and millions of fans.
I don't see myself as, oh I'm a star, or I am a celebrity.
I'm still just me, I'm still just a man.
So when people call me, oh I'm a YouTube star,
I don't see myself as a YouTube star.
It's just a platform that I have,
that I share my message, my story with you.
That's all that it is, it just happens too,
that I have millions of people
follow what I do, and study my work.
And they enjoy what I share with them.
I see myself as, people call me star.
I prefer, my students they call me Sifu, as a mentor.
That I take pride, I take joy in that.
Or they just call me mentor, it's very, very simple.
I think that's a more appropriate term.
So, I could totally relate to Bruce, what he's saying here.
All type of knowledge ultimately means self-knowledge.
This is probably one of the most important rules
for success, that I have learned from Bruce Lee,
and that is all knowledge ultimately means self-knowledge.
What it means is self awareness, knowing yourself,
knowing your own strengths, knowing your own weaknesses.
How much do you know yourself?
Most people, do not know themselves that well,
they don't understand themselves.
You ask them what is your purpose, what is your passion?
What do you like, what you don't like?
They have no clue.
It's very difficult to make any kind of decision
or choose a career path, or choose a business,
or whatever it is that you want to do,
if you don't know yourself.
Or, during the path, on the way
achieving your goal and you are not sure.
All the confusion, the lack of clarity, I promise you,
all comes from lack of self awareness.
It is like a finger, pointing away to the moon.
Don't concentrate on the finger
or you will miss all that heavenly glory.
Don't focus on the finger or you'll miss
all that heavenly glory.
Sometimes we focus so much on the vehicle, the means,
that we lose sight of the end goal, where are we going.
Sometimes the vehicle, the path, the world might change.
But if you're clear, you're focusing on your big picture.
Maybe in between you're experiencing some adversity.
Maybe you are having some challenges.
Don't lose sight of where you want to go,
don't lose sight of your vision.
Don't focus on the finger or you will miss
all that heavenly glory.
This is what it is, okay.
If you try to remember, you will lose.
I said empty your mind, be formless, shapeless, like water.
Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup.
You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle.
You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now, water can flow, or creep, or drip, or crash.
Be water, my friend.
Be water.
Be flexible with your approach.
It also means to be able to adapt,
not get so fixated in your own way.
Be able to learn from everybody else.
In different scenarios, right?
A lot of my business acumen, and knowledge, experience,
I've learned from a lit of different people.
It's not just, okay, this is the way
that I've been doing it, this is the only way I do.
No.
You have to adapt and change.
The way you do business, the way you do marketing,
the way you do closing, the way you do sales.
You have to adapt, you have to be able to absorb, right?
One of the things that Bruce Lee talked about is,
absorb what is useful, reject what is useless,
and add what is eventually your own.
So at first you have to learn from everybody,
and eventually you will develop your own style.
Those are Bruce Lee's top nine rules for success.
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And remember, be water, my friend.