- [Interviewer] All right, so Neil, you've been
super successful over the years with all your
different businesses.
- [Neil] I don't know if I'm successful,
but that's what some people think.
- [Interviewer] Well, to us, to your fans base,
you've definitely reached a level that I think everyone's
looking to achieve, but I think a lot of people
struggle with confidence, believing themselves,
that they could even get there in the first place.
I'm curious, have you ever struggled
with any confidence issues yourself
as you've kind of gotten to this level?
- Honestly, as I've mentioned,
I don't think I'm successful.
But I did one thing when I was young.
I just wanted to be better off than what I was.
That was my only life mission,
and I was like, cool, if I can take care of my parents
one day, that would be a plus.
I just want to be better off, and I hated doing things
like picking up trash and cleaning restrooms.
And I took it with the concept of
I'm just gonna try my best to
generate income and do whatever it takes to succeed.
I didn't know what I was doing.
I was young, I was foolish, I was naive,
and being naive helps, because when you're ignorant,
you don't know how the world works.
And I'm not saying I know how the world works now,
but I have a better idea than when
I was 15 or 16 at the time.
And I take the concept of
I don't know where I'm gonna be,
I don't know if I'm gonna do well,
I don't know everything,
and I don't know how to succeed.
But I'm just gonna put my best foot forward
and try to get better each and every single day.
I made a lot of mistakes,
I kept learning from 'em,
and I tried avoiding to make the same
mistake over and over again.
And what's got me to where I am today in life,
and what will get you to where you want to be in life,
is one simple thing.
If you avoid making the same mistakes over and over again,
eventually, you'll know what not to do.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- If you avoid making the mistakes that
you shouldn't be doing, what's left?
What's left?
- [Interviewer] Yeah, nothin'.
- No, no, no.
If you started a business, okay?
And you continually make mistakes,
but you learn from 'em, and you stop making those mistakes,
and you're like I know what not to do,
what happens, what's left?
- [Interviewer] Yeah, success.
- Yes, but why is there success?
- [Interviewer] Because you're not making mistakes?
- You still could make new mistakes.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- But the chances of you making new mistakes
will go down because, naturally,
if there is a hundred mistakes that you made,
and you avoid making 'em because you've learned from 'em,
eventually, you won't make 'em anymore,
and you'll start doing things that are the
quote / unquote "right things."
You may not know what these right things are,
but you'll stumble upon 'em.
It's just probability.
If you keep making mistakes, and you avoid
making the same one over and over again,
which means if you make another mistake,
it's a new one that you've haven't
experienced in the past,
eventually you'll also start doing some of the
stuff that'll make you grow.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- And that's how I got to where I am in life.
I'm not smarter than most people.
I didn't get the best grades when I was a kid,
at least compared to my sister.
But I just kept at it, I never gave up,
and I learned from my mistakes.
And even you guys, all you guys watching,
if you avoid making the same mistakes
over and over again, and you learn from 'em,
eventually you'll know what not to do,
which leaves you with one simple thing.
The stuff that you should be doing.
And there's no quick solution.
People don't just go from nothing to hero,
all of the sudden are super-successful.
It takes years.
Seth Goden, Guy Kawasaki, Gary Vanderchuck, even me.
I'm not as big as big as many of these guys,
but I've just been doing it for so long.
Uber didn't come out of nowhere,
wasn't an overnight success.
A lot of these businesses that you're seeing,
you're hearing about 'em now,
but they've been around for a long time.
Everyone's about this crypto craze, Bitcoin, Ethereum.
They weren't overnight successes.
Bitcoin's been around for a while,
but it's been recently exploding.
It's not like it was like that for when it first came out.
For a long period of time, it was flat.
The point I'm trying to make is
you're not going to be an overnight success.
That's okay, learn from your mistakes,
avoid making the same ones over again, and eventually
you'll be left with what you should be doing.