- How can you find your life's purpose?
How can you find your life's purpose?
I remember asking myself that
and if I had a time machine right now
and I could go back to my 12 year old self,
this is what I would say to him.
I'd say, Tai, remember,
the quickest way between two points is a straight line.
Go directly towards what you want with focus.
While the whole world is distracted and lost,
you go directly towards it.
You'll get there a lot quicker than most people.
I'd also tell myself, build on your strengths.
If you're an outgoing person, build around that.
If you're a shy person, do things behind the scenes.
Steve Jobs was shy.
He built Apple behind the scenes.
Mark Zuckerberg built Facebook behind the scenes.
Too often, we see other people's strengths
and we want those to be our strengths
and we say, I'm gonna do that.
No, you can't build on weakness.
You can only build on strength.
Remember that, you can't build on your weaknesses.
You can improve 'em a little bit so they're not so bad
but you can't build a life around 'em
and then I would tell myself lastly, I'd say, remember this,
you can get almost anything you want in life
but it always takes a tad bit longer than you think.
In fact, in my life, I found it always takes me
one year longer than I think, always one year.
If I think I can do it in one year, it takes me two
and most people give up right before.
They say the temptation to give up
is greatest right before you're about to succeed.
We live in a world where people are weak,
where they want instant gratification.
They say, oh, I'm gonna get a six-pack
and they don't have the six-pack two days later
and you know what, they give up.
Well, you're gonna sit at the bottom then.
You're gonna be wondering what your life purpose is
your whole life because life's a little bit like a ladder.
What you want is up at the top of the ladder
and you start at the bottom.
Everybody starts at the bottom.
I don't care if you were born rich or poor,
you start at the bottom in your own life
and a lot of people try to jump to the top
and when you try to jump up a ladder too quick,
you know what happens, you slip and fall back to the bottom
and it hurts and a lot of people never get back up
'cause that pain is too much.
Just go step by step.
If you always wanted to be an astronaut,
well, go down and visit Cape Canaveral in Florida,
go visit where they go.
You don't have start as an astronaut
but start immediately on the path to your curiosity
about being an astronaut.
You know you wanna start a business, start a business today.
People say, but what business should I start?
Well, any business because the goal is not
that your first business is your best business.
The goal is that you get started.
You go one rung of the ladder up, one step up
and you know what, as you do that, the vision opens up
and you get new ideas, new creativity, new innovation
and you figure out what you should do.
If you know you wanna get married
and live happily ever after and have five kids,
well, don't do so much casual dating like most people.
Some people don't care but if you know you want that
then like I said, the quickest way between two points
is a straight line.
Go directly towards what you want.
Now, even though the first person you date
probably won't be the person you marry
but get yourself in the practice of treating them
as if they were the one you're gonna marry
so that when the right one comes along, you're ready.
When you start your first business, treat it right
so that you build the practice, the mental skills,
the fortitude, the strength, the ability
so that when the right business idea comes along,
you're already practiced.
Everybody wants a six-pack at the beach
but everybody just wants to start doing a few sit-ups
the day before they go to the beach.
Nah, it don't work that way.
It doesn't work that way.
"To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want."
Remember that, that's what Charlie Munger,
the billionaire says.
"To get what you want, you have to deserve what you want.
"The world's not yet a crazy enough place
"to reward a whole bunch of undeserving people."
And people say, Tai,
I know people that didn't do that and they got it.
Yeah but they're exception to the rule.
Don't build your life around that
'cause that happens one in a million.
You don't want those odds.
Those are lottery odds.
You don't wanna make money by trying to buy lottery tickets.
You wanna do it the real way.
I'm gonna add in one bonus thing I would tell myself
and this is new.
I wouldn't have told myself this a year ago.
If I went back in a time machine
to talk to my 12 year old self, I'd tell him number one,
quickest way between two points is a straight line.
Go directly for what you want.
Number two, I would say build on strengths, not weaknesses
and don't be afraid of your weaknesses.
You can always find a business partner or a friend
or a spouse that you marry
that can cover over your weaknesses.
You build on strengths and like I said, number three,
I'd say, you can get anything that you want
but it always takes about a year or more longer
than you think so stick to it
but I'd tell myself this last thing.
Pray for what you want.
And I don't care if,
I grew up with some of my family's pure atheist scientists,
some of them are very religious, Christian
'cause I'm Catholic.
When I say pray, you take it however you want.
If you're atheist, don't get all hurt by me saying that.
If you're whatever faith,
this isn't about a specific ideology.
This is about a concept.
What I call prayer is think about what you want every day.
Think about it.
Ask for it every day.
Ask and you will receive.
Seek and you will find.
Knock and the door will be opened to you.
Remember, everybody's purpose is a little different.
That's why people say, well, what's the specific advice?
I told you the specific advice.
You probably know deep down what you want.
Go towards it.
Worse case scenario, you gotta backtrack later.
It's better to take action and have to backtrack
than be stuck at the bottom forever.
That's my specific advice.
You know what you want.
I never met you probably.
I knew what I wanted.
I wanted a life of freedom, I wanted a life of travel.
I like nature so I wanna be around farms
but I also like the excitement of a city
so I wanna be around a city.
I like horses but I also like fast cars
so I had 12 horses and you see Lamborghinis and Ferraris.
That wasn't because I wanted to show off.
That was my dream.
You see me out in the countryside.
You see me in the city.
I wanted to start businesses.
I wanted to have financial freedom.
I went straight towards that luckily.
Now, I've made a lot of mistakes along the way
but every time I follow this formula, it works out
and every time I don't, it doesn't.
Your life is gonna be successes and failures
and you mark my words, you go back in time,
the failures are the ones that you didn't follow this.
You didn't follow this.
Now, if you're real young and you're listening to this,
if you're a teenager, you don't know how young you are
so you better get on it right now.
You don't know how young you are.
What if you die in two years?
You're pretty young, you're pretty old right now.
You got two years left.
And if you're 50 years old and you're feeling discouraged,
well, remember the advice about planting a tree.
When's the best time to plant a tree?
20 years ago or today.
So if you're 50 and you feel like life left you behind,
well, get started right now.
Better late than never.
Don't think about time in age so much.
It gets people distracted.
When the whole world's distracted, you be focused.
When the whole world's distracted, you be focused
and when you do that, you know what?
One day, you're gonna come back
and you're gonna look at your life and you're gonna go,
yeah, I made a few mistakes.
I had a few wins.
A few big flops, a few big wins and a lot of in between
but you know what?
I think I lived out my life purpose
and that, my friend, is all you can ask from this life
that one day you look back and go, I pulled it off,
not perfectly but not too bad.