Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to
discover it. Now, you're probably familiar with Michelangelo's David, one of the most
famous statues in the world. But what you may not know is how it was almost not ever completed.
So the story starts in the city of Florence at about the year 1400,
and we've got twelve statues that are commissioned. Now, in 1410, the famous
sculptor Donatello finishes the first statue of Joshua, and for the next 50 years, donatello and
sculptors under his charge continue to work on the project. Unfortunately, in 1466, Donatello passes
away and a number of the sculptors working under him decide to abandon the project.
Now, over the next 30 years, the overseers of the project try to
bring in a number of different sculptors, and none of them seem to stick. In fact,
one particular block with the legs sort of cut out, called David, remained untouched,
just exposed to the elements for 26 years. All that changed in the year
15, one when a relatively unknown sculptor named Michelangelo at the age of 26 took up the task.
And in just over three years, he took that unremarkable chunk of marble that
so many other skilled artists passed on, and he transformed it into what
is considered today to be one of the greatest masterpieces of history. Now,
at this point, you may be saying, well, what does the story of Michelangelo's David have
to do with me becoming the man, the guy I want to be? Well, gentlemen,
think about it. That unfinished block of marble that's you and within it is a masterpiece.
Yes, it's not complete, but you just need to chip
away. You need to work at carving out and be able to show the world what is
within the stone. I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.
The reality is, gents within all of us is greatness. The ability
to become the man we know ourselves to be. Yet we don't have the courage.
We're not willing to put in the work. We're too afraid to look at the light, to carve away
to see what we could become, because, yeah, it intimidates us. I know it intimidates me.
That being said, the feeling of regret that I know I would feel if I didn't give
it a shot. That's what pushes me forward through the fear, through the frustration,
through the failure, knowing that I've got to give it my best shot. Now,
how to practically apply this? Well, guys, have a vision of who you want to become.
What does that man look like? How does he dress? What are his values?
How does he behave? And similar to a sculptor, anything that does not fit into that vision,
maybe it's going to be your use of recreational drugs, maybe it's going to be alcohol. You've got
to have the courage to be able to start chipping away. You don't need to knock it all out at once.
In fact, that could crack right through the stone, ruin the entire marble. No,
what you want to focus in on is just a chip at a time. To start,
you need to have a vision, a crystal clear image of who that man is and who he is not.
What I love about the David analogy is when Michelangelo looked at that marble, he saw David.
It just was covered by all this excess material that he had to slowly chip away. But the vision,
the idea, it was crystal clear in his mind exactly how the body placement was going to be.
And if you think about it, that's just like us. We
are all born with different gifts. Some of us have a particular set of skills.
Other ones, not so much. The point being is we
have limitations. We've got to work within those limitations.
But Michelangelo, having those limitations, still was able to produce an amazing work of
art. If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at
all. In a nutshell, when we see somebody else on Instagram, we're envious of what we see.
But what we don't see is all the filters, all the work, the fact that it could be a house of cards,
or the fact that if they did get that, maybe it's taken them ten to 20 years to reach that
point. And let's talk about that comparison. They say that comparison is the death of happiness.
I have to 100% agree. And, you know, when Michelangelo,
he came and he looked initially at the stone,
there were other artists. DA Vinci was one of them that they were trying to get to come on.
But he was able to go in there and he trusted,
he was confident in his own ability, he believed in himself. And again,
he wasn't comparing himself to these other great artists. He was comparing himself to himself.
And this is key gents. Avoid the comparison with others,
especially those that are farther ahead that those that have more. It's just going to bring you down.
Instead, it's about competition with yourself to be better than the man
you were yesterday. The next step to becoming the man you know yourself to be. Be genuine.
Maybe you're 25 years old, maybe you're 55 years old. Don't try to be somebody you're not. If you
have experience, if you're a bit more mature, then be the most interesting man in the room.
Don't walk in the room thinking that you've got wisdom and experience or that you're
smarter because maybe you went to an Ivy League school. Guys instead,
bring in energy. Bring in a bit of levity, a bit of fun.
You're bringing in new experiences, energy. And older men, other women,
will be interested in you because you're genuine, you're yourself, and you're going to attract the
right person that way versus again trying to be somebody you're not. It never works out.
People have too good of a BS detector. Next up on our list,
we've got confidence. And if you've watched enough of my videos,
you guys know that confidence is key to being able to walk into a room and own it.
But what exactly is confidence, and how is it different than being overconfident or worse,
being arrogant? So if you're confident, you are self assured, you have convictions. You
know what you stand for. Maybe you don't know how to exactly overcome every problem,
but you believe in yourself, in your ability to problem solve,
to be able to deal with difficult situations and come out on top.
Arrogance, on the other hand, is a false belief that you are better than others because maybe
you went to a really nice school. Maybe you think you're smarter than other people. But,
yeah, are you smarter in all ways? I mean, if you were to say a fish is dumb because
it can't climb a tree, that's not measuring the fish on its true level of intelligence.
And, yes, you may be book smart, but do you know actually how to replace and fix
an oven or change out a water heater? That guy that didn't go to school,
that handyman that you're looking down on and you're being arrogant to could school your
butt when it comes to everything that goes to just simply being able to live off the land and
make things happen. So be humble. At the same time, be confident in the skills you do have.
Really quick, we're a style channel. I will talk quickly about style and dressing. Well,
I do think you need to practice it.
I talk about this because you develop confidence when you practice dressing
well. It's not wearing a suit. It's not wearing a necktie.
It's not the fancy dress shoes that you spent a lot of money on. It's
actually knowing when you put that outfit together. You've practiced.
You've put in the effort. You've had people compliment you on it. And whether you got
this stuff from a thrift store doesn't matter if you feel good,
if it looks good on you, if you're confident this complements your build,
you're going to be able to walk into that room and own it.
The next key to being the man is to develop your jedi communication
skills. Come on. We're all a fan of the original Star Wars obiwan.
What's he tell the stormtroopers? These aren't the droids you're looking for. Yes,
of course they're looking for those droids. But he was so confident in the
way he waved his hand through a little bit of what is it? The mitochondria.
I never did like that part of Star wars. Anyone else agree
with me? Smash the like button. That ruined a lot of Star wars.
For me, it's about the magic, the force, but it's actually for regular people like us,
it's more than that it's simply believing that you belong. In fact,
if you go up to people and you assume that they like you, your mannerisms,
your behavior, your body language is going to imply that. And guess what? People are going
to be much more receptive to listening to you, to talking with you, and to being around you.
And when it comes to communication, as you guys know, it's so much more than just the
words that are coming out of your mouth. It's also about the way your body moves,
the way you present yourself, the way you stand. All of this, they're picking it up.
They look at the way you are around others. So if you walk in a room, yes,
you don't maybe know anybody, but you just start talking. You're introducing yourself.
People are giving you a signal that, hey,
I'm interested in talking with this guy. Seems interesting. Other people notice this.
In fact, it's one of the most powerful signals when you're in a group of people, how other
people react and defer respect and attention to another person. We all pick up on this,
and we assume, well, everyone seems to be liking this person. Therefore, I should like this person.
A very, very powerful tool to use. Next up, develop the emotional intelligence of
Anola Holmes. If you haven't watched that on Netflix, it's actually really good.
My daughter's got me into it. And so Sherlock, he's a bit yeah, we love Sherlock Holmes, and he
has his own level of intelligence, but emotional wise relationship. He's not always the best anola.
On the other hand, she's paying attention to all the cues, and this is what have fun with
this. See what you can infer about people. Not what they say, but actually the way that
they are behaving, the way that their gestures and movements and their actions are speaking.
All of a sudden, this is something a lot of guys are totally clueless,
but when a woman, yes, she says, no, you can go out with your friends. Okay,
she actually gave me permission. But why was her body kind of moving in a way that
said she wasn't approving of this? Now, of course, you got to make up your own mind.
You got to make your own choices here. But when you understand that,
okay, she's actually upset here. Yes, she gave me verbal permission, but I'm going to get into this.
Oh, wait a minute. It's our anniversary. Maybe I shouldn't be going out with my friends.
Maybe I need to run and quickly get flowers delivered to the house and,
yeah, let's go out to dinner. This was all part of the plan, right? Genius tip here from
one guy to another. This one's been married for 20 years, and so far, most unhappy years.
Guys, set reminders in your calendar for birth dates and anniversaries.
Definitely with your partner, with sisters, with daughters. Guys,
it makes a big difference when you remember people's important dates.
Even though it may not be the biggest deal to you, it is important to them. And yeah,
just give them a phone call, text, send them some flowers, stay ahead of the curve. That way.
The next tip to be in the man, to be in the guy that everybody looks to,
is to show respect. And the easiest way to do this is to know your basic manners. Please.
Thank you. Excuse me. That's the basic stuff.
But whenever another person enters a room, introduce yourself, get their name, find
out a little bit about them. Stand up whenever you're shaking somebody's hand. These things,
they seem very antiquated, but I'll tell you, a lot of the basic rules,
they were there because it was about showing another person respect.
Speaking of talking, let's talk about how to properly have a conversation. Work on
your listening skills and being able to understand what somebody
is saying versus waiting for your turn to speak. And there's a big difference.
A lot of times people, they aren't even listening to others. They just want to get their two cent in
versus actually letting somebody know it's. One of the, I think, strongest signs of respect is to let
somebody know they've been heard and to actually ask them to elaborate, to go into more detail.
And it's okay sometimes if someone is going on and on to interrupt them to ask,
can you give me a little bit more detail here? It shows respect that you are listening and it
also allows you to bring back the conversation to where you want it to go. But seriously, gent,
you have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth, so you should probably be looking and listening
twice as much as you speak. Another thing, if you speak less when you do speak, speak a bit slower.
Pronounce the words that you are saying very clearly and get rid of all the crutch words. By
doing that, you are going to immediately stand out from people that just stammer on and talk
in circles. Now gentlemen, really quick, if you're interested in becoming the man
you know yourself to be, you need to check out my project over at Mission Fragrances.
So the whole idea here is conditioned response to scent. And you want to be more honorable,
you want to be more courageous, you want to be more committed to your goals. We've got a
whole course that goes with our scent triggers that trains you how to leverage the science of
scent to be more focused so that you can zero in on becoming that man that you know yourself to be.
Seriously, gents, I've had men go through this course and it has transformed their
lives. If you want to learn more down in the description of today's video,
I'm linking over to Mission Fragrances or just go over to missionfragrances.com. You
can enter your email address and I will let you know the next time we launch.
The next step to be in the man is ten pushups. That may be a lot,
that may be nothing. Now, if you're working out every day, congratulations, you're ahead of most.
If you're not, you want to start and preferably do it early in the morning. And I'm not talking
going to Jeremy fragrance here, good friend of mine, but yes, he loved doing push ups
all over the place, but he did have a point and that is once the blood starts to flow,
you just feel better. A lot of times we think we can think our way out of
situations, we can think our way, we can motivate ourselves to feel better.
To a degree, yes. But nothing gets a person's blood pumping like doing a few push ups,
doing jumping rope, exercising. First thing in the morning you get the endorphins,
you get the blood going, all of a sudden your skin is going to look more full,
it's going to look healthier, it's going to look better, it may even look a little bit flush.
You don't want to go overboard here. Great part about this is
the results are immediate. They're that same day all throughout the day.
Hence why I'm saying do it in the morning because it lasts for about 8 hours. It is something that,
yes, if you've been doing it every day for years,
you're going to see results in the shape of your body. You're going to throw off more confidence.
That is an immediate effect from just a workout you could have done that morning. Next up,
let's talk about you being charismatically, curious. And I'm putting these two words
together because you got to do it right, but genuinely be curious about everybody in the room,
not just the hot chick over there that has three guys around her.
Yes, you're curious about her, but you're also curious about the three guys. You're
also curious about everybody about that one homely. Yes, she's pretty simple looking,
no one seems to be paying any interest to her and her friend.
Go talk with them, it may turn out that they all came together. You all of a
sudden you don't know where this is going to go, but you're genuinely curious about
everybody in the room. And that should be your goal, to meet and to talk with
everybody there at the party to all of a sudden build some real friendships.
Because the reality is you're not going to. Yes, I know a lot of you guys are single,
you want to connect up with that hot one over there, but the reality is
most likely you won't. But you know what you can control? You can't control meeting
and just getting to know some really cool people that maybe future business partner,
somebody that could have a lead to a job that you or company you wanted to work at,
it could just be, hey, this is a long lost cousin that you didn't even know was here.
And definitely, that's probably why you shouldn't be chasing her. Point being
is you learn something you're curious to hear more about. Oh, she's from New Jersey.
Your uncle's from New Jersey. What city? And when you're genuinely curious, you're going
to be charismatic because you're going to be at ease. You're going to be able to throw in humor.
You're going to be able to have conversations and get into things that you want to talk about,
that you're passionate about. And that's when the magic happens. Now,
what about style? What about image? What about presentation? I touched on it briefly.
But, guys, if you want more, check out this video right
here. The only style rules a man needs to know. This is a foundational video.
I just put it out. It is, I think,
a great one. It's getting pretty good views and for good reason.
I go into great detail about what you need to know to be
able to dress in any occasion. Guys, check it out. Solid video.
Boom. Right here.