I cannot tell you how long it takes for your exercise to work. If you haven't seen any results in a year or six months you're doing something wrong.
What I understand about this concept of why is that it functions exactly the same way as parenting or exercise or any of these things we claim to invest in.
We pursue exercise even though empirically we see no benefit from the energy we're spending and we're hurting. So empirically we should quit. The why is exactly the same thing. You persist even though there are some short-term stresses and even though there is some uncertainty.
If you go to the gym and you come home and look into the mirror, you'll see nothing. If you go the next day and you come home, you will see nothing. In fact sometimes you're in pain.
I would never find myself or unlikely to find myself in a room where I have a skeptic who brought me in. But I very often am in a situation somebody who's there who didn't invite me was a skeptic. That happens all the time.
Too many people write books because they want to be a New York Times best-seller. They want the glory and the fame.
Nobody writes a book to get rich. It's like speaking.
When you show up to speak publically, you have to show up to give. You always know the ones who do and the ones who don't.
I'm interested in the innovator and the early adopter.
What I thought I developed all of those years ago was a pattern to understand communication.
People who believe I'm an idiot don't hire me and they don't call.
I put messages out there that start with why and they talk about what I believe. They go on to demonstrate and give examples. If it resonates with others, those with whom it resonates will share it with their friends and say, "This inspired me. You should watch it. You should read this."
Of course there are people out there who are helping others find their why. Some are doing a really great job and some are doing a not so great job. I love the fact there are people out there, and consultants out there doing that.
If somebody wants to learn their why, either you help them or send them over to their course. All of this stuff helps.
The ones who show up to take, they show up and say, "Hi. My name is Steve. I'm an expert in this and I've studied this and I've worked with these clients." On every single power point presentation, it has their email, their Twitter handle and their Facebook account, so you can follow them. At the end, they tell you, "Please follow me." When you ask them a question, they say, "Well, I could tell you the answer, but you should really just read my book."
I'm pretty confident the why works now. When it first began, somebody said to me: "Will this work in big business?" I said, "I don't know. Let's try." Somebody said will this work in entrepreneurs, relationships or government and military. I said, "I don't know. Let's try." I kept applying the scientific method. I had a theory. I kept applying that theory, looking for opportunities to fail and it kept working.
You have to have a patience for college.
You have to have a patience for exercise.
What's important to me is that I put messages out, whether it's a TED talk, whether it's a book.
I don't hire any companies or ask any of my friends to write reviews for me on Amazon when I have a book come out so they can drive up my ratings on Amazon. I don't have a publicist.
I was always curious why certain marketing worked and some marketing did not.
I knew what I did and I knew how I did it, but I didn't know why.
I was a nobody when I met with the publisher. Nobody knew who I was. I was doing some speaking for entrepreneurs. I did little groups. I had no following.
If you help one person in the room, you're an abject failure. You have to change something.
My job is to preach and preach and preach.
