- And he got a job at McDonald's,
and it mortified him to go to McDonald's,
and the day he was due to start,
he got a call that said,
"Oh, by the way,
"you know you came for that audition last week?
"You got the job."
And he became the drummer in an amazingly phenomenal band.
I'm going to move on now to the minds of super, super,
super successful people.
So, I work with a lot of them,
and I call them "the one percenters,"
because they have everything.
They tend to have an amazing relationship.
Someone like Richard Branson
who's been married for 30 years, maybe more.
They tend to be very successful in business,
and they also tend to share it.
So, that's a small percentage,
but you can join that percentage if you want to.
But when I started to work with major CEOs,
and Olympic athletes, and rock stars, and royalty,
I noticed that they all had the same habits.
And so, I'm going to tell you what these habits are.
And honestly, it doesn't matter
if you're born with these habits or if you adopt them.
Just because you weren't born with them,
that doesn't make any difference.
If you make a decision, "I'm going to acquire these habits,
"pick up these habits, adopt these habits,
"and make them my own," then that's exactly what will happen.
So, here is what successful people do,
they do what they hate.
Successful people do what they hate
to get to where they want to be.
And people who fail, they will give up their dream faster
than do what they don't want to do.
So, one of my clients who is a very, very famous...
is in a famous rock band.
It's not quite so famous now because he's been in it
since the eighties.
But he was telling me his story,
and he was saying, "You know,
"I had a wife and two kids,
"and I always wanted to be a drummer in a band,
"that was my life's ambition. But I have a wife
"and two kids, and I didn't come from money.
"In fact, I came from no money at all
"and I had to work to pay the bills."
Now in the eighties, in England, before the internet,
they used to have a newspaper called Melody Maker,
and you'd open it, and it would say,
"Audition on Friday in Camden for rock guitarist."
Or, "Audition on Saturday in Hampstead for a vocalist."
And it had all these auditions listed, and you'd get it,
and you'd go to the audition.
And then they might go,
"Very good, come back tomorrow at two o'clock,
"and we're going to audition you again."
So, he couldn't have a regular job
because you have to get the paper,
find out the auditions, go to the auditions,
and then they often did a callback.
And so, he became a taxi driver and he wasn't mak-...
He could only do night cab-ing
because he had to be free all day to audition,
but he was exhausted, and he'd never got enough money.
So, he said, "Okay. I'm going to go and work in McDonald's."
And he got a job in McDonald's, and it mortified him to go
to go McDonald's. And the day he was due to start,
he got a call that said, "Oh, by the way, you know
"you came for that audition last week? You got the job."
And he became the drummer in
an amazingly phenomenal band.
And when you tell people about the story, they go,
"Oh my God, I'd never worked in McDonald's.
"Oh my God, how embarrassing." I'm like,
"But you're missing the point.
He was prepared to work night shifts in McDonald's
so he could audition during the day, so he could be a rock star.
And you would give up the chance of going to an audition?
It's like saying, "I want to be a movie star,
"and I've got to get The Stage."
This was another newspaper. "And open it up,
"find out when the castings are,
"but I also have to have a living,
"so, I'm going to work nights as a cleaner,
"so that I can get that magazine, 'The Stage',
"and always be an audition and put myself there.
"And eventually get cast, and be in a play, be in a movie,
"get seen, be in another one."
You get, 'Well, I'd never be a cleaner. No, not me."
But they give up their dream
because they don't want to do what they don't want to do.
And people who succeed do what they hate.
So, I was taking a flight,
from New York to LA with a celebrity.
I was working on a show, with very overweight celebrities.
And I went to pick this guy up in his hotel, and he came out
in a fur coat and flip-flops, and it was snowing.
And I'm like, "Why have you got on flip-flops?"
He goes, "There's freaking terrorists.
"I've got to take my shoes off at the airport.
"And because I'm so fat, I can't get them off,
"and if I get them off, I can't get them on again.
"So, I have to wear flip-flops or hotel slippers
"in the snow, because of terrorists."
I'm like, "But it's not the terrorists, darling,
"it's because you're very fat.
"Not really the terrorists' fault.
"That's why we've got to take the slippers off."
Anyway, so we got on the plane and it was so interesting,
he didn't eat or drink a thing.
And I said, "Why not?"
He said, "I can't get in the bathrooms on an aeroplane."
He said, "You know, I just can't get in there,
"so I don't eat or drink anything
"because I'm so scared of being stuck in a plane bathroom.
"And I have to ask for a seat extender,
"and it's really embarrassing."
And I said, "Okay, well, why don't you work out?"
And he went, "Because I'm so famous,
"and I've got this famous persona. I'm the happy fat guy.
"My whole thing is, 'I'm a happy fat guy.'
"I talk about it all the time. And so I can't go to a gym,
"because then I'm a fake.
"And I can't even have a personal trainer, because I'm a fake.
"Because I've got this whole image,
"'I'm the happy guy who loves being fat,'
"but inside I didn't love it."
I said, "Okay, well, this is what you're going to have to do.
"You've got to go workout."
People who work out don't go, "Yes, I love it."
So, to his credit, I told him the story about all my clients
who are successful and who've lost half their body weight,
by doing what they hate.
They don't wake up and go,
"Oh my God, it's 5:00 AM and I'm going for a hike."
Because he had to work out, he had to run up and down
where he lived in Laurel Canyon, at four in the morning,
in the pitch black, so nobody could see him.
He never woke up and go,
"Oh, four o'clock, putting on my running shoes,
"going up that hill, 600 pounds. Yes."
He didn't love it. But, of course, he did it.
And, of course, then he did begin to love it,
and then he lost a ton of weight.
I went to his wedding, he danced with his wife.
It was a beautiful thing, because he did what he hated.
So, people who succeed are always prepared
to do what they hate.
And they always say, "If you want something done,
"give it to a busy person."
So, people who succeed will do three jobs.
They understand that, "You know,
"I've got to go to college and do this."
Or, "I've got to work weekends.
"And maybe I don't see enough of my kids,
"but it's not forever; it's for now."
But you've got to be prepared to do what you hate.
So, I write books, and it's not always fun.
It's a very isolating thing.
And when I got my first book deal,
I gave them the money back,
because I just couldn't sit in my house on my own and write.
Because all I could think of was how boring it was.
And then I realized that,
I looked at all my clients who've made it
and they didn't do that.
They go, "I hate this. I'm doing it now."
Because that's the second thing of people who succeed,
they do what they hate first.
They've got to fire someone? It's the first thing they do.
They've got to make a difficult phone call?
It's the first thing they do.
Now, I do that as much...
I wake up and go, "What do I not want to do?
"Map out this talk. Well, I'm going to doing it now then,
"because successful people do what they hate first."
But, you see, they don't think,
"Yeah, I'm such an amazing person."
They have a different brain that goes,
"Well, I don't want to do it,
"so am I going to think about it all day?
"I've got to call in this member of staff and go, 'Look,
"'I've just discovered you're taking money out of the company.'
"And they're my friend, and I've got to call them in
"and bring that up.
"But if I wait all day, I've got that feeling of dread.
"'Oh my God, I still haven't done it.
"'It's now six o'clock, I'll do it tomorrow.'"
And then they have the dread all the next day.
Some people do it naturally though, "I couldn't stand the anxiety.
"I thought, 'Come in at 7:00 AM.' I've got them in the office,
"I sorted it all out. I was like, 'What a relief?'
And the others go, "No, I just keep putting it off."
So, the people who do it naturally don't do it
because they're virtuous,
they do it because they don't want to carry around
that anxiety all day of, "What do I hate? Let's do that later."
And even getting to the gym,
if you hate going to the gym go first thing in the morning.
Because if you go, "Well, I'll go at four.
"Oh no, I need to eat now, I'm really hungry.
"Now I can't go to the gym, because I've just eaten.
"I'll go at five. And now someone's just called me.
"And now I can't. No, I haven't gone to the gym.
"I'll go tomorrow at four." And tomorrow never comes.
But when you do what you hate first,
here's what happens, you feel like a winner.
Because winners do what they hate first.
First of all, they do what they hate,
that's good enough in itself.
And they do it first. And, "hate" may be a strong word.
Maybe you want to say, "I do what I dislike first."
So, my client who became a rock star
was fully prepared to work in a burger bar
in order to achieve his dream.
My client had got out of bed at 4:00 AM,
and walked up and down Laurel Canyon in a sweat,
was prepared to do what he hated.
Because he had a dream of marrying this beautiful girl
whose parents said, "Well, he's going to drop dead on the job.
"I mean, he's a 600 pounds,
"you can't marry someone of 600 pounds.
"He's going to kill himself."
And he wanted to marry her. She wanted to marry him,
but she also wanted her parents to be very happy.
He did what he hated,
and ended up having a much happier life.
So, I want you to think about,
what do you believe that you hate to do, or dislike?
What is it that you dislike?
And how good are you avoiding that, and putting it off?
Which is normal.
And how different would your life be if you did it first?
So, in my company, we have a little motto now,
"What do I hate? Let's do that first.
"Let's do what I hate first."
Because you feel good all day long
when you do what you hate first.
And if you do what you hate last, you feel terrible,
because you're waiting.
It's like waiting to be punished or, you know...
So, a lot of people will... Say, for instance, kids at school,
will, when the teacher says,
"Okay, we're all going to read out loud.
"Who's going first?"
And the kid that puts their hand up, does it first,
says, "But, you know, I didn't want to be the last one.
"I was dreading reading in class.
"But I thought, 'Let me get it over with.'"
And the kids that do that, put up their hand and go,
"I'll read first, I'll go first, I'll do it first,"
are the ones that naturally become phenomenally successful.
Because they automatically do what they hate first.
Doesn't matter if you've never done that in your life.
It doesn't matter.
I mean, you didn't pee in the toilet once
but no one here says, "I still don't do that." Well, I hope not.
And just because you didn't do something,
it doesn't mean you can't acquire habits.
You can acquire and adopt any habit.
So, when you ought to commit
that you're going to go home and say, "Right,
"I'm going to go to work and say, 'What do I put off?
"'What do I put to the back? What do I really dislike?'
"I'm going to do that first.
"I'm doing it first every day until
"it isn't what I do, it's who I am."
Because it isn't enough to play it and go,
"Oh, I just did it today. I made a difficult phone call.
"I talked to a really difficult customer.
"I rang someone up who owes me a ton of money and said,
"'Okay, we need now to work out a payment plan for this.'
"I did the difficult stuff."