THE ED MYLETT SHOW - What If Your Biggest Setback is Your Greatest Opportunity?
Episode Date: February 8, 2025The Hidden Gift Inside Every Setback What if the biggest failures in your life were actually setting you up for something far greater? In this episode, I sit down with some of the best to ever do it�...��Troy Aikman, Phil Mickelson, Sean Casey, Dean Graziosi, and Brendon Burchard—to break down how setbacks can be the turning point that leads to your greatest success. Troy Aikman opens up about his brutal 0-11 rookie season and how he refused to let failure define him, going on to win three Super Bowls. Phil Mickelson shares how one of his most painful losses in golf led to his most unexpected victory. Sean Casey talks about how learning to see failure as feedback transformed his approach in baseball and in life. Dean Graziosi reveals the deeply personal decision that changed the course of his life, and Brendon Burchard explains why fear of failure is often the thing keeping us from our highest potential. This episode is a masterclass in resilience, mindset, and learning how to turn setbacks into stepping stones. No matter what challenge you're facing, you’ll walk away with the tools and perspective to see it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. Key Takeaways: - How Troy Aikman went from 0-11 to Super Bowl champion by refusing to lose confidence. - Why Phil Mickelson’s greatest career disappointment led directly to his biggest victory. - The mindset shift that allows elite performers to use failure as fuel. - How to break free from the fear of what others think and finally take action. - Why your biggest challenges may actually be the setup for your biggest wins. Your failures don’t define you—how you respond to them does. The road to your greatest achievements will be paved with setbacks, but if you’re willing to keep going, the other side holds everything you’ve been working for. Thank you for watching this video—Please Share it and get the word out! What part of this video resonated with you the most? Comment below! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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So hey guys, listen, we're all trying to get more productive and the question is how do you find a way to get an edge?
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Hey everyone, welcome to my weekend special.
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You'll never miss an episode that way.
By popular demand, he is back again.
People seem to love the two of us doing these podcasts together, brother.
And so this week, my guest is the tremendous, the great,
the leader of the Growth Day movement,
Mr. Brendan Bruchard.
Welcome back to the show, brother.
Thanks for having me, brother.
I love these two.
I feel the same way about you.
I'm always learning from yours.
All right, here's the topic this week, everybody,
because we keep getting asked about this,
which I just know everybody's experiencing
on their way to growth and success, which is failure.
How do you deal with failure,
or what at least looks like failure in our lives? And so I know this topic means so much to so many of
you. And so I want to start out with you, Brendan, like when someone says the word failure
just in general to you, what's the first thing that comes to your mind all these years in
the space? You've been asked this question so many different times, and I know you get
asked it a lot too. So when someone just says, I'm experiencing failure or failure in general,
first thing that you think of is what?
It's probably counterintuitive, but I think,
thank God you care.
You know, a lot of people don't care.
That you care, that you wanna do a good job and not fail,
says something about you.
It says, this is an idea or a passion or a project
you actually care about.
You don't want it to go off the rails.
You want to be diligent and conscientious.
So I always start with a compliment.
I'm like, good.
I wish more people actually cared.
There's so many people flying by their seat of the pants,
wrecking people's relationships,
wrecking projects, wrecking dreams.
They don't care, but that you want to do a good job.
You don't want it to fail is a good thing.
Now we just have to find out where in your mental construct you're messing it up.
Because yes, you care, but there might be a thing that you're doing that's blocking
you from progress.
And that is failure to you, there's fear there.
So this is obvious to everybody.
This is the, of course, if there's failure, there's fear there.
But almost all fear is just poor management of our mind.
And so my fear of failing, preventing me from doing something, well, you're just managing
your mind wrong. You're worried you're going to ruin everything. You're worried you're not going
to be able to handle it. So what happens for failure, instead of thinking about it as a process
of iteration and getting better, people identify, they personify, they go, oh, I'm a failure. And if I do this thing, it will ruin me,
or I won't be able to handle it.
So first, caring about success is important.
But if you wreck that success and progress
because you keep telling yourself, I'm going to fail,
or if this thing fails, I'm ruined,
it's in the ruin idea.
I'll be ruined.
They'll reject me.
Everything will fall apart.
That fear of that type of failure
is what prevents most people from living lives
that are maxed out and great.
You're so right.
And the other thing that I just did a podcast
on the inverse of this,
where I was talking about mental rehearsal and visualization,
yet most people do it very, very well.
They just mentally rehearse the failure piece because if they've run this video
over and over in their mind about it not working or what people are gonna say
about them and they live in the future and they worry about things that have
not yet happened yet they project and create that future by mentally rehearsing
it over and over again.
And in our lives, our mind is going to move towards what it's most familiar with because it's trying to conserve energy.
It's trying to not think.
And so if you're rehearsing these fears to your point and you're projecting that into the future, you will move towards it.
I was just I just interviewed this couple that he's the biggest big wave surfer in the world.
He surfed a hundred foot wave
Right and I was saying that he said I said what's the biggest thing you've got to do before you go surf these I mean
I wouldn't surf an eight foot wave, which is still huge, right?
He need 90 a hundred feet and he says well the biggest thing is I've got to get my mind right
I can't think about crashing. I can't think the minute I begin to think about it
I move towards it and I end up having these catastrophic crashes. And in my case, it'll take my life. And I was telling it's interesting you say that because I used to be a part of a group that sponsored a NASCAR driver, Carl Edwards. And I asked Carl, I said, what's the thing about racing that most people don't know? He said really two things. One is never look at the wall. I said, why do you never look at the wall because he goes even if you're the most skilled driver in the world when you look at the
wall you begin to drift towards it unconsciously that's that you're hitting and i said what's the
thing about driving that takes the most guts he said driving through the smoke i said what do you
mean by driving through the smoke and i know i've shared this with you before but he goes there's a
crash in front of you right it could be a six car pile up on the other side of that.
And you don't know you've got to do one hundred and fifty miles an hour through that smoke.
And you don't know what's on the other side of that smoke.
And you could be going head on one hundred and fifty miles an hour
into the back of a car that's already parked there crashed.
And he said, the last thing you want to be thinking about is hitting that car.
I can't think about it because I don't know what's on the other side of it.
So I think positively about what's going to happen.
And this may seem silly to everybody,
but so many times in our lives, we look at the wall,
we think about the wave crashing,
and we wonder when it happens, why it happened,
because of this fear thing we've projected.
And we're afraid to drive through the smoke
because we don't know what's on the other side.
But the truth is, here's what he said to me,
he goes, here's what's crazy.
You know what's on the other side. But the truth is, here's what he said to me, he goes, here's what's crazy. You know what's on the other side of that smoke also?
The finish line.
The finish line.
The checkered flag, the W, the win,
the trophy, the championship.
And so in your life, what's on the other side
of that smoke is all your dreams.
It's all the things that you want.
You'll be willing to drive through some things
that you can't control.
I think sometimes people who are fearful and worry
about failure are ironically like control freaks thinking they need to pull everything in their life.
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Second thing, and I'll throw this back at you, is I think to some extent you have to
reframe what a loss seems to be for you.
Like, I played baseball as you know,
and you know, if you're a really good hitter in baseball,
you're successful three out of 10 times.
You fail seven out of 10.
And so a great hitter, hall of famer.
In this day and age, you're worth hundreds of millions
of dollars if you could just succeed three out of 10 times.
And one of the things that taught me something,
I was a leadoff hitter.
And so one of my jobs, that means you bat first. One of my jobs I thought was a leadoff hitter and so one of my jobs, well that means you bat first,
one of my jobs I thought as a leadoff hitter was to see a lot of pitches in the first at bat from
the pitcher. Meaning I would never get the first pitch. Other people could do that in the lineup
but in my case I needed to see his fastball. Right? I need to see the break on his curveball
if I could. Why? Because although I may not get a hit in that at bat, I'm getting a lot of
information. I'm learning a great deal that'll prepare me for the next at bat. And so maybe that
first at bat, you saw me look at two or three pitches and maybe I end up flying out to left field.
It looked like a failure on the surface because I didn't get the outcome I wanted, which was the hit.
surface because I didn't get the outcome I wanted, which was the hit.
But man, I got a lot of information.
I downloaded a bunch of data.
I learned a ton from that at bat.
And so it really wasn't a failure because I actually learned a great deal and I grew from it.
The heartbreaking thing from so many people is they get nothing from their
failures.
So how do you, this failure you think you've experienced, you're going to get nothing for all
the effort and then you didn't close the sale, you didn't get the deal, you didn't get the date,
and you're gonna get nothing out of it? That's insane! The people that you know that have won
in their lives, it's because they got things from their failures. Like get to something for your
pain, get the lesson, get the emotion, get the memory, get the breakthrough.
Maybe there's some other correlated when you get from that.
So to me, it's like, if your, if your model is a human is I'm a learner,
I'm going to learn and I'm going to grow.
I'm not saying it's not a failure.
If you miss a sale, that's not good.
When you ground out, that's not, you'd rather get a hit, but I'm going to get
something for that at bat is my point.
You know, does that make sense to to you and how do you fit?
I frame exactly the same thing
because I think you really illustrated a phrase
I'll often say with my high-formance clients,
I'll say something like this.
I say, if you do fail your right, you experience science.
Right, it's trial and error.
You're learning and failure doesn't scare you,
you know it to anticipate it.
You actually want it to happen because iteration requires failure.
Science requires hypothesis, testing, learning.
And so if you're failing forward and you're learning, you're doing it right.
If you're doing it wrong, you're not getting science, you're getting shame.
That's the tell. Failure is fine. Everyone here, this is not a, your audience is not basic. They understand failure is part of life. They feel it, they experience it. I would argue most people
don't have enough failure in their life, period. They're not failing forward. They're so scared of
failure, they're actually not failing.
And if they do try something and it doesn't go well,
instead of getting the lesson,
they shame themselves and they shut down.
Cause there's two ways to go after this failure thing.
One is actually want to try forward, right?
Every time at bat, I'm gonna miss, you know,
seven out of 10, I might hit those three
and I'll learn that distinction as you're sharing.
So that's science.
Doing failure well is the scientific process.
Doing it bad is shaming ourselves
and shutting down and no longer trying.
And so I want to tell people,
it's very rare that you have to say,
I can't have failure in my life, right?
That big wave surfer, how many waves did he crash?
And he didn't say that was a failure today.
That was the worst day today.
He probably smiled as he paddled to the shore,
exhausted and wiped down and said,
oh, I'm getting good.
His mess, his wreck, his challenge, that time
you got pulled underwater, he didn't consider that a total
failure. Now failure can be something that's physical, like
you can be hurt. But for most people, the real failure they're
considering is how they're going to perceive themselves or
others. Most fear of failure is perception.
I'm not going to like myself if I fail,
or they're going to judge me.
And either way, you're living a pretty limited life
if your only concern is, if I try this,
will I shame myself or other people make fun of me?
That means you're living well, well, well, well
below your potential.
By the way, I totally agree with you on that. I want to ask you about that.
This interesting concept, this gets to a real nuance in personal development.
So like with a lot of the golfers I work with, you're exactly right.
It's projection and what are people going to think about me?
So even with like, take a professional golfer when I'm working with them
and they've got fear over a putt, right?
They've got this putt they've got to make to win a tournament and their heart rate goes
up, they've got a lot of fear.
And I'll ask them like, are you, what are you actually afraid of here?
Are you afraid the ball is not going to go in the hole?
Is that the entire fear?
Let's dig a little bit deeper.
And what you'll find out is, well, that's part of it, but it's more than that.
It's that the, I didn't make the putt,
the ball didn't get into the hole like I wanted it to
to win the hole, to win the tournament.
And then if I go a little bit deeper, okay, so then what?
So then you didn't win the tournament, so you're dead?
No, so what is it?
Well, and as you dig deeper,
actually the fear they're experiencing over a putt
is the future event that hasn't yet happened
because it's going to happen in five seconds. Living in the future, not the moment. The
fear is I miss this putt. It's on national television. I lose the tournament. It's not
even any of that. What are people going to say? Right? I mean, the putt, what are people
going to think? Then they're going to watch the video and play it over and over again.
They're worried. You're someone to say, oh, there, there is he choked.
They're so scared someone to say he choked.
That's right.
They show if they exactly what it is.
In other words, they've moved towards what they're moved towards the wall.
But the wall is almost always what you said.
It's not the failure itself.
It's what are people going to think or say about me if I fail?
I want you to have goals to begin a golf tournament, which is to win the tournament
But when you're over the putt, I want you to separate from your outcome
And I just want you to execute in the moment. In other words, it's interesting
There's a difference between having a goal which is to win the tournament to me
There's a subtle difference and the outcome you You're forcing this pressure on this outcome,
which creates this anxiety,
which is what's actually causing you to miss the putt
because you're so outcome focused.
So this is the question for you.
This is a really hard question.
I've always wanted to ask you this
because I don't know if there's a wrong answer.
How do you feel about that?
So like our industry talks a lot
about goal setting goals, goals, goals.
But then like one of my mentors, Wayne Dyer was all about separate from the
outcome. It's kind of nuance it in what I'm working with athletes or business
people want them to have goals.
But when you get so outcome, like it's got to go this way, that creates that
pressure, that fear that we then project.
So I'm curious your thoughts about that nuance
or do you not see it differently?
Should have goals and outcomes or the same thing period?
I love that question.
Love that question.
Goals and outcomes and clear visions
of how you want it to go and the desire for winning.
That's called the setup.
That's what you do before the fight. That's what you do before the fight.
That's what you do before the game.
That's what you do the morning of the tournament.
Right?
I want to win this tournament.
I can visualize it.
I can see it.
I can experience it.
And you use it as a tool to develop a state of will.
Okay.
Now I'm in a state of will.
I'm willing to win.
I'm going to win.
I'm in a good place.
You use the goal and the outcome that you desire as a thing to fire you up, to get you
focused, to drop you in.
However, in motion, when you're on stage, when you're on the tee box, when you're in
the fight, we need you to be in two modes now.
We need you to be in two modes now. We need you to be in automation mode.
And that is you practice this a million times.
Let that be automated, right?
Don't use your mind to project
till the end of the tournament.
Use your body and your flow to make the putt.
So in the moment, we just need full presence and automation. We need habit
to take over. We need our flow, like full presence, the power of full presence now, not projection.
So projection comes in the setup, in the getting ready, in the doing thing. But once you're over
that putt, just need your putt, man.
I don't need you to think about tomorrow.
I don't need to think about the hot dogs at the end.
I don't need to think about like, I just need to execute the putt.
So I think you're doing it right.
Projection happens at the beginning, then presence in the motion.
Yeah. And by the way, everybody, you need to think about your industry.
That's the sales presentation.
You have a goal that morning to get ready, give your best, close a
sale, make the deal happen.
But in the moment of execution of presenting separate from
outcome and be present and just in that automation mode.
This helps restrict that thing that Brendan started with, which is the
fear of failure, and then we move in towards, towards the wall.
Hey everyone, it's Ed Mylett.
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in their health okay next question for you we don't have a lot of time on this
stuff today by the way already incredible dialogue love it but this
idea of and I've wrestled with this too,
so someone gets knocked down, relationship breaks up,
business fails, maybe none of that,
maybe they just miss three sales in a row, right?
They're in a down street.
This idea of you get knocked down, get up, right back up.
What are your, I've heard you talk about this before,
so I want you to talk about it.
What is your philosophy about this? You know, you get knocked down, you
got to get back up, we know that, but what are your overall, what's your, what's your
advice to somebody who's got knocked down? Should they get back up? Should
there be a period of rest and evaluation? What are your thoughts on that? I'll kind
of kick in, I'll add to it. What do you think about that? Because that's the idea,
a failure just happened.
Get up, get back on the horse.
Right?
Do you believe that?
I think the most thing,
the most important thing to do
is to get a hold of your state.
Right?
And you talk a lot about this.
Tony talks a lot about this.
You got to get re-center your breath and your mind.
Like the re-centering,
I like to use the word recalibrating.
So I just need to recalibrate.
And that almost always starts like, I need,
I just got like, if I literally got knocked down,
I need to get my bearings, I need to take a breath in,
I need to feel my feet beneath me.
And what happens sometimes, especially,
I know you work with fighters too,
when they get up, they're so up, they've been taught so many times
to just jump right back in without taking recalibration
to feel their feet beneath them first.
We gotta get some weight on the legs,
as we call it when I teach them.
It's like, hey, I need some weight on the legs,
because you're kind of like wobbly.
Like I need some weight on the legs,
I need you to feel the mat,
I need to feel where you're at.
So I think that recalibration back into the body
is really important. Same thing,
if you had that sales call and it sucked and now you feel that anxiety at the end,
because you're not going to make quota, you feel that anxiety because you didn't get the deal,
you feel that angered yourself because you didn't do a good job. Whoa, man, you better breathe that
out. You'd better recenter yourself, then reengage. So it's recalibrate, then reengage.
And that recalibration can be short and swift, but recalibrating means two things for me.
One it's bodily or what we call state.
And the second one is to reassert myself confidently.
So it's recalibrate and then reassert confidently.
So if I'm in the ring, I'm going to reassert my opponent confidently.
Because if they see me questioning myself, it's not going to be a good situation.
Also in real life on that sales call.
Okay, that next, if you let your confidence go down every time you get knocked down, you just don't even
have the will to fight.
You don't have the belief in yourself.
So re-asserting yourself, I always tell people, you want to win, you have to be assertive.
And when you fail a little bit, you question yourself, you shame yourself, can I really
do this?
And you stop being as assertive as you need to be to win the deal, to make the next call, to finish the next chapter, to take on the opponent.
I totally agree with you on that. By and large, here's my philosophy about it.
By and large, most people stay laying down too long when they get knocked down.
That's most human beings. They lay in wallow in it too long.
You got to get up. Okay. You've been knocked down. You got to get up.
Having said that, so that's most people. long. You gotta get up, okay? You've been knocked down, you gotta get up. Having said that, so that's most people, okay?
You better get up.
Having said that, like in boxing,
you get a 10 count for a reason when you get knocked out.
That's right.
I see too many boxers, they get knocked down,
they get back up, and they're still disoriented.
They've lost their confidence, they've lost their bearings,
they're not in their body, right?
And you're 100% right about that.
You get a 10 count for a reason. You can utilize it. So what I would say to most people listening to this as the
sun's shining through here, so we won't go much longer, is that use your 10 count. Now, don't stay
down too long. Most of you have been down too long. You need to get up. Let me say it to you again,
if you've been knocked down. You need to get up right now. Some of you though, you're not doing that recalibration and what you haven't done is you got knocked down, you missed the sales call,
you missed the meeting, you've done any evaluation as to why.
You've not got any of the juice out of you, didn't get any of the learning, any of the information.
The relationship didn't work out. Take a second. Why? What part of it do you own?
This isn't the first relationship that didn't work out for you. Why aren't they working out?
What are the things that you need to change?
Are you picking the wrong person?
So some evaluation, there's a healthy count in there.
It's not laid out for 60 because then you're knocked out.
You get 10 for a reason.
So we calibrate that but for most people it's get up sooner.
But when you get up as you've said, get the information,
get something for your failure.
All right, last thing because the sun's pouring through my...
I love seeing it though.
That'd be what a dream location you're at right now.
So this is great.
All right, last question.
So our friend Jamie Kern-Lemus says this,
rejection is God's protection.
Other people have said something similar to that where,
listen, it's part of a divine plan.
And I just think it's one thing to have some perspective.
For most of us, if we look back on our lives,
most of the things that we thought were failures
and hindsight, if it were 2020,
we look back and go that kind of helped them for a reason.
I'll give you an example.
Like we were talking about,
you and I were talking, which we won't cover now,
but like what this place here is costing me and stuff.
And you're like, how'd you do that?
And the truth is it comes from failure.
So out of college, I had two sales jobs I flunked right out of one.
I just couldn't close any sales.
I wasn't any good at it.
I got fired.
The second one, I quit in a day because I got rejected so
badly after that failure.
It's a really good example of getting up to so I got
terminated in the sales job.
I was in copier sales.
I was terrible at it. They eventually let me go. I hustled. I got terminated in the sales job. I was in copier sales. I was terrible at it.
They eventually let me go.
I hustled.
I got something right away.
I did not learn anything from it.
I didn't get any lessons from it.
I had ruined my self-confidence.
I go through their whole sales training program.
True story, brother.
I walk in the first day.
They put me out in the field selling.
I got rejected really bad that morning.
I quit at lunch.
Hmm. Much quit at lunch. I like lunch.
So huge failures.
I ended up living back at home with my mom and dad, complete failure.
So I started out in business and my dad, as many of you know, got me
a job at an orphanage and that orphanage, even though it seemed like a huge setback.
I was trying to make hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Now I'm making back in the day.
Eight bucks an hour when it was minimum wage.
And I thought, man, I failed in my life, but that positioning in my life,
that time changed me.
I've gotten boys and contributing and making a difference and coaching people
and loving on people.
I became so much less self-centered and money oriented.
I became very service oriented.
And then I found the businesses I went into at that time,
I approached them very differently than I would have
had I not had those setbacks, not had those lessons.
And I really believe I wouldn't be where I am today
had either one of those sales jobs worked out
and I not been humbled and had to go work
for eight bucks an hour, which to this day
is one of the two or three greatest blessings of my life
was working with those boys.
And so in that sense, those rejections were protection for me and it did change my life
and it was part of a bigger plan, I think.
So sometimes things that look catastrophic and horrible now are really a setup for something
better in the future.
I know you agree with that, but I wanted you to finish talking about it. Yeah, I feel like so many of our failures
were the perfect ingredients of humility and hunger
that we needed at that stage of our life.
That's where I always see the gift that someone has
with when they're still growing and serving
and giving and leading.
They can tell you three or four times in their life
when they got really humbled and they wouldn't say necessarily it was, they wouldn't even always say it's a
failure failure, like it was awful. They'll be like, yeah, man, I got humbled by that wave.
I got humbled by that sales call. I got, it was pretty awful. I was embarrassed. I felt terrible.
I felt small. I felt rejected. But you know what? That made me a little more hungry.
Yeah. It made me want to do better next time. Thank God I kind of sucked at that because I
want to do better next time. And that will to do better next time, that is hope. That will
to do better next time, that's what gets you off the mat. That desire to do better next time, that's what gets you off the mat.
That desire to do better next time, that's what keeps you going on all the times you
didn't.
So trust that because to me, that's that divine voice that says, hey, I know that was hard.
Keep going.
There's something in you.
You really do feel that desire to keep growing and to try again and get
better at it. And sometimes those rejections, like you weren't good at
sales, made you humble. You learned some service. You said, I'm gonna give it. And you
became one of the great salespeople literally of all time. So it's like, wait
a minute, this thing you were embarrassed about or shamed about was awful. It gave
you hunger to master that thing.
And I think that's no accident.
I think we're supposed to get humbled in failures
and then ask, okay, can I master this?
You know, I'm the mastery guy.
I believe that we're supposed to master something
in our life.
And sometimes it's the very thing we sucked at at first,
like me, with public speaking. I've thrown up on stage, I've been mortified on, I mean, just the worst experiences. But I was like,
oh, it made me upset about it. It's almost like God saying, hey, you think you want to get better
at this? Is it worth it for you? Show me. Show me you'll run the laps. Show me you'll try it again.
Show me that will that keeps you hopeful and driven and trying.
So I'm here to say failure, that thing might have given you some humility, but it probably
gave you some hunger.
If it didn't give you hunger, it's only one reason.
You stayed stuck in shame.
Like I said before, that's the only way.
If you do failure wrong, you stay stuck in shame.
If you take it as humility, a chance to get better, a chance to serve better,
then you're going to grow throughout that and growing through your failures. That's the path to high performance and greatness.
Dude, that was awesome right there.
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That was a great conversation.
And if you want to hear the full interview,
be sure to follow the Ed Milet Show on Apple and Spotify.
Links are in the show notes. You'll never miss an episode that way. And if you want to hear the full interview, be sure to follow the Ed Mylett show on Apple and Spotify.
Links are in the show notes.
You'll never miss an episode that way.
Today I've got a really difficult question for you.
Is your will to win for sale?
You know, I really believe that of all the things that comes down to in life about winning
and making our lives the masterpiece that we want them to be, I really believe will
has a lot to do with it.
And the people that I've been around in my life, they have strong faith, obviously, but there's a part
of them that has this will to win, this will to want to be somebody that's extraordinary.
And for most people in life, I think when they take enough failure, enough setbacks,
they will sell their will to win. It's an interesting thing in life about winning.
I just want to discuss this with you today.
You have to really decide right now and early on in the journey
that you can't be bought.
You can't be bought with enough success,
and you can't be bought with enough failure.
Most people, at the end of the day,
quit on their dreams, usually,
because there's just so much rejection and so much failure and so much let down.
You know, I would love to tell you that winning is pretty
and that making your dreams come true for your family is beautiful.
But man, I got to tell you, on the journey for me, there was so many setbacks, so many times I thought I had it going and then I didn't.
I thought we were going to make it and then maybe we weren't. So many people that I thought
would be there at the end that weren't. There were people like you probably have
had in your life that you really really trusted that then let you down and hurt
you. Dark nights, sleepless nights, some really difficult mornings with a lot of
anxiety and trepidation. You know're gonna win, you're gonna carry the emotional burden
of your business, of your family.
And sometimes that burden emotionally just over time
is so difficult to carry
that most people will surrender their will.
I really believe that winning has a lot to do
with your will to win.
It's not always just having the right strategy or the right people in place, although you
can't win without them.
But at some point it comes down to grit and desire and toughness and resiliency and relentlessness.
I call all of those things will.
But for most people with enough of it, enough setbacks, enough things, they'll just sell
their family's dreams up the river.
They'll call it something else, don't they? Well, I didn't get along with somebody or there was this setback or
the economy changed or this person screwed me over or whatever the story is that we come up with,
all which could be valid. But at some point, basically what you're saying is all of that
was too much and so I've sold my family's dreams up the river. And I say it to you that harshly
because I want when it comes for you, for you to avoid it
that strongly, that I won't let you create a word game that makes you feel like it's okay to take
an out, take the door in the back there and get out of here and quit on your dream. That's not what
you were born to do. That's not what it was designed for. Part of the game of this winning thing,
part of the game of changing your family forever, part of the game of changing how you feel about yourself is really difficult and it's going to come with all of
those things I described and more and shocking setbacks. Every couple, two or three years,
gonna be a day where you go, my gosh, right? Like that's going to happen and for most people,
at one point they just go, that's enough, that's enough and that's why so few people win because theirs is for sale.
See, what I would recommend you do is negotiate the price tag in advance.
See, I believe the price you will pay to make your dream come true, your vision for your life come true,
is infinitely less
than the price you will pay if you don't.
The price you pay if you don't make your dream happen, your vision
for your life, is you live with that forever. And that price I would never be willing to pay. I'll
pay any other price as long as it's legal, ethical, and moral because the price you will pay to make
that dream come true is so worth it and it is so much less than the price of living with losing
forever with the life you don't deserve, with the
people that you don't want around you, with all of your music still in you.
So many people pass away with all their best music in them still because of the setbacks
or the criticisms or the things that just didn't go their way or their fears holding
them back.
Price tags of life are interesting.
See successful people negotiate worth, whether something is worth it, not what the price
is or the expense is.
If you're focused on the expense, you're always in a really difficult place.
I'll give you an example.
This is a metaphor, but it makes sense.
When I had no money, right, which was most of my life, when I would walk into a
store, I wouldn't get what I wanted in the store. I would get what I thought I could
afford. And so, what did I do? I flipped the price tags over. I didn't always just get
what I wanted. I would, what's the cost? What's the cost? What's the cost? What's the cost?
I'm sure you've done that as well. It's just really one of the real things in life. What's
the cost? I wouldn't get the jacket in there I wanted based on what it cost. So, that's a scarcity mindset, right? And so, instead,
when I became a wealthy person, I'm able to walk in that store and get the one that's worth it.
What's the one worth it? And in our lives, when we're operating from a weak position,
we're operating from a poverty mindset, we're constantly negotiating the price tag of like, what's it going to cost me? What's it going to cost me? What's
it going to cost me? And we focus so much on what it's costing us, the pain we're going
through, the price we're paying. We're constantly focused on the price we're paying that eventually
we just go, I can't do it. The cost is too great. If you're focused on the cost, you'll
eventually lose because the cost is so extraordinary. But if you switch that subtly and say is it worth the price, is it worth it, you focus more off the cost and onto its worth,
then you got it. And so, let me ask you, what's your family worth? What are your dreams worth?
What's the pride of living the life that you've dreamed of worth to you? And once you focus on the worth, you'll probably pay any
price you'll go through any cost
But you have to negotiate in my opinion
That price in advance
I think if you wait till you're in the middle of it, you're in big trouble
And so I would challenge you today to negotiate the price you're willing to pay in advance, whatever it is.
And then the negotiation is over.
So, decide now what price you're willing to pay or not pay for your family.
And just be honest about it.
There's a certain place where I'm going to sell my family's dreams up the river.
You know what? I'm just going to give up.
And that's what most people do in life.
Like I said, they call it something else.
They frame it differently.
They create a story that makes them feel okay about it
By the way, the only reason I know this is I've done it myself on several different things
This guy screwed me over here that one let me down. Ah, you know timing wasn't right, right?
Whatever the bottom line is is that the price became too great for me had I negotiated that price in advance
Maybe that would have never happened. So if you focus on what it's costing you all the time, which is what you're doing and you
know it, it's costing me this time, it's costing me this money, it's costing me this experience,
it's costing me this, it's costing me that, you're probably gonna lose.
But if you start to focus on is it worth it, is the price I'm paying worth it, then you
got it.
Why does that also matter?
Negotiating the price as you're going through the battle in life takes all your energy and your focus.
Isn't it constantly a drain on you? Is it worth it? Is it worth it? You're asking yourself this all the time.
How do I know? It's what most people do that are trying to do something great. Is it worth it? Is it worth it? Is it worth it? Right?
What's it costing me? What's it costing me? You're constantly negotiating. It takes all your energy. It takes all your focus.
And so, the bottom line is it's better to just to decide today. And I would just ask you, what's your family worth?
What are your dreams worth? What's your life worth? What price are you not willing to pay?
Hopefully, you don't want to do something illegal or unethical or immoral to do it.
But beyond that, what's the price you're willing to pay? And get clear on it and then just stop
negotiating it. Stop doing that thing back and forth, those mental gymnastics that you know exactly what I'm talking about and just decide I'm going to win,
I'm going to pursue this. Whatever comes my way, I've already negotiated in advance.
So, although it might be shocking or really painful, I already negotiated that price.
I already negotiated it. One of the cool things for me like in my faith is I know the price has
already been negotiated for me, right? Like it's already been negotiated. I didn't have to do it. Remember this, change
only happens when love is greater than your fear. When love is greater than the price
you're paying. What I believe you have to do is you have to start to attach yourself
to the love you have for other people. That love, because you're such a good person, is
so much greater than the adversity that will come your way. But what happens when adversity comes,
we detach from our love for our family, for ourselves, from the people that we want to help.
And the love part gets diminished and the fear and pain part gets increased. See, you show me
anybody with a big old dream with enough reasons to win and I will show you somebody who's going to win.
I believe more than anything in life having big giant compelling reasons why you want
to win.
The why is so much greater than the how or the what.
The why is and relentlessly focusing on that.
When the why is big enough, you'll go through the how and you'll figure out the what, right? But in most cases in life, we don't attach those two things. People say to me all the time,
I'm not even sure what will motivate me. I can tell you. Do you want to know the two things that'll motivate you in your life?
I'm gonna give them to you right now. You always go, I lack motivation. I lack inspiration. I can tell you what they are.
They're your dreams or other people.
Those are the two great motivators in life. Usually most good people won't
do very much stuff for themselves. They just won't. They're too giving. They want to change
other people's lives. They love other people. They put other people first. Those are the people that
ultimately win long-term. So, the two things that will motivate you are your dreams, what your vision
is for your life, and other people. Those of you that have children, are you really willing to quit on them? Are you? If you have parents that you love, are you really willing to quit on them
or do you love them more than any adversity that will come your way? Could you negotiate
the price in advance? Say, listen, it's worth it because my mom is worth it. It's worth
it because my children are worth it. It's worth it because my God is worth it. It's
worth it because I'm worth it. It's worth it because my dream is worth it. It's worth it because my God is worth it. It's worth it because I'm worth it. It's worth it because my dream is worth it
It's worth it because if I make this happen
I can change all these other people's lives and those lives are worth the price I'm paying
Once you have the thing and the reason the love for what you want now
You've got the negotiation handled because that is greater than the price
But when this isn't focused on when the price is greater than the love when it's greater than the price. But when this isn't focused on, when the price
is greater than the love, when it's greater than the dream, it's difficult. So, one of the examples
of that that I've talked about before is Bella's wedding day. Number one key from Bella's wedding
day story from that many years ago, 20 years ago, why matters most? You show me somebody with a big
enough why, a big enough reason, I will show you somebody
who will solve for how to do it, for what to do.
I will promise you that.
Why is the most important thing?
You give a father a story like not being there and the picture, the mental picture in my
mind of some strange man that I've never met before having that first dance and walking
Bella down the aisle on her wedding day, I'll do anything before, having that first dance and walking Bella down the island or
wedding day, I'll do anything to make sure that doesn't happen. I'll do anything to be there and
I can tell you I've done just about anything. In fact, my doctors that I'm with right now,
part of that journey of staying healthy where I found both of them, Gabrielle and Amy, is because
I want to be there on that day and beyond. One of the reasons I'm willing to take this sort of downshift
to some extent is yes, I'd love to help more people.
And yes, I'm going to contribute.
And yes, we've got one of the number one podcasts in the
world and I'm one of the top speakers
and my businesses are growing and all that matters.
And I want to help all kinds.
I want to continue to help millions of people
that I've been blessed to help.
But not more than I want to be there for Bella's wedding day.
And so number one key is why matters most.
If you say I don't know what my why is, I can tell you.
Let me give you a hack to find your why.
Your why will always be your dreams,
whatever your dreams are or other people.
Whys can be distilled down always into dreams
or other people doing something for other people
that you love or proving people wrong.
And what I will tell you under the why is that love is the biggest force in the world.
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It's made a big difference in my life.
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My will to win is not for sale. So that's why I get up and I work out. That's
why I try to do the nutritional program. That's why I'm taking this break from social media
and reducing my travel schedule because my dream is to be a Bella's wedding day and my
will to win is not for sale on that. I've got to be there. There's no negotiation for
me. It's get up and work out. It's make sure you take the right nutritional supplements.
It's the doctors say slow down Ed and take a break for a while, I do it. There's no negotiation because I belong in that dream.
I belong there with Bella on her wedding day and I like to get to the heart of it guys. Like,
I think the more we water down the reason, the easier it is to have the price take us out.
Listen, as I've been doing this video or audio with you, thousands of people quit on their dreams.
I've been doing this video or audio with you, thousands of people quit on their dreams, thousands of people quit on their vision.
Every single day, thousands and thousands of people quit on something and the reason
they quit is the price got too great.
And by the way, that's okay as long as you've already done the negotiation.
But I have a feeling that if I asked you again really closely, how much if your parents are
still here, do you want to make them proud of you or take care of them?
How about your children or your spouse, these people that you love the most?
Maybe it's none of them.
Maybe you have a grandparent who that when you were a little boy or a little girl really
believed in you, really saw greatness in you and you want to honor them and make them proud
of you as they've gone to heaven and they're looking down on you and you want to honor them and make them proud of you as they've gone to heaven
and they're looking down on you and you want to make sure that you really prove them right, right?
I won't let you not focus on that today because if I can get you focused on these people you love
or these great visions for your life, I think that that is greater than the price you'll pay.
And so, I want to ask you that today one more time.
Are you willing to quit on them?
Are you willing to give in?
Really, the only way you can lose in this life is to quit.
Only way you can lose is to quit.
Now, that doesn't mean you shouldn't pivot, innovate, course correct.
That's not quitting.
That's the pursuit of something and saying, listen, what I'm doing isn't working.
The definition of insanity is do the same thing over and over again, expect a different result. I've got to innovate. I've got
to pivot. I've got to get a different strategy. Clearly, I think you should be doing that. That's
what my show is all about, is about strategy and innovation and progress. But the truth of the
matter is most people aren't totally committed to their dreams. They're not. They're going to
stick their toe in it. I'll stick my toe in it as long as it's not too painful, doesn't get too
difficult, too uncomfortable, take too much from me, be too inconvenient, then their toe in it. I'll stick my toe in it as long as it's not too painful doesn't get too difficult too
Uncomfortable take too much from me be too inconvenient
Then I'll pursue it, but if it gets too inconvenient too difficult too uncomfortable
Yeah, I'll give him let me give you a secret people ask me all the time about the people that have been on my show
That are some of the greatest achievers in life
What do they have in common and I'm gonna be candid with you?
Here's what they have in common They don I'm going to be candid with you. Here's what they have in common.
They don't have it all figured out.
I don't have it all figured out.
Most everybody frankly is pretty screwed up to some extent or another and we're all just
trying to get through this life and figure it out.
What they also have in common is they didn't quit on their dreams.
And the reason they didn't quit on their dreams is their love of their dream,
their love of other people was greater than their fears for their inadequacies.
But I can tell you that we all feel inadequate. We all don't feel prepared.
We're all sort of faking it to some extent, aren't we in our lives?
And I know that shocks most people, but I think it should give you hope.
They don't have it all figured out. I don't have it all figured out.
But what I have figured out is that I'm willing to go into situations I'm ill-prepared for because I want to win for the people I love so much. I want to win
for me. I want to win for God. I want to do something great with my life. And so, although
I don't have it figured out completely, I don't have all the answers and neither does anybody
that's been on my show, anybody you've seen on this show as my guest, most of them don't have
the vast
majority of it figured out, but they're better at pretending they do. And to the extent that
they are good at stepping into spaces they aren't prepared for, but that they can kind
of pretend they're prepared for. They got this belief in themselves that if I can get
in the room, I will figure it out from there.
If you had to know everything required to win in life, the truth of the matter is you
probably would never get started. If Henry Ford started Ford Motor Company and said I have to know everything for the next
hundred years for this company, he would have never got started. I mean, who's supposed to repair
these cars? There's nowhere to repair them because there's no dealerships yet. There's no mechanics.
What about all the stuff for the tires? You know, how are we going to fix these things? Where are
they all going to get fuel from? What are we going to do when there's emission standards?
These things didn't even exist then. He couldn't think through every logical problem.
He had to just get started. If Steve Jobs and Wozniak, when they started Apple,
which was basically a board company, would have thought about, well, what do the internet comes?
What about this iPhone phone software? What about the Mac? What about?
Well, they could never think about all of those things. Things evolve. You just get into the next room and you evolve, right?
You get into the next space and you evolve. So, you don't have to know everything. By
the way, no one you see that's successful knows everything. But they do have this ability
that when they get in the room, they're not negotiating the price anymore, they're negotiating
their way into the next room. They're negotiating their way to the next level. They're willing to take the heat and the adversity. And then the other thing
is this, you got to resell yourself regularly on the dream. Once you have a dream and you know what
I'm talking about, some of you are years into years, right? Maybe you just got to resell
yourself on the dream. What it's going to mean when you get there, what it's going to look like,
how amazing it's going to be. Project into the future. Listen, an idle mind really, really is in pain. It's in jeopardy. But a mind who's saying,
I'm fully focused in the present, but man, the future looks so bright. The future's amazing.
It's going to be incredible when we get there. Everything's going to be different. We're going
to have great change. Our family's never going to be the same. We're going to get to go to this
vacation and see this thing and help that many people and feel that emotion and have that memory. The truth of the matter is that your dreams in your life
are not a hallucination. I believe they're a gift from God that is a glimpse into what's possible.
It's like a possibility projection for your life is when you look into the future. Dreaming is free,
yet most people don't take advantage of it or they did it once but they haven't resold themselves the dream again
Maybe you need to go touch your dream take a weekend somewhere where you get clear on this is where we'd love to live or this
Is what we'd love to drive or this is how I'd love to serve in our church and just take a Wednesday and serve one
Day in your church and resell yourself, you know most of life the truth is
It's really selling yourself on things.
You're selling yourself something right now.
You're selling yourself your worries and your fears and you're selling yourself the story
of how big a trouble you could be and if this doesn't work out.
It's a sales pitch you're doing on yourself, aren't you?
It's a story you're telling yourself.
There's a narrative that you're starting to speak to yourself.
So is the other one. It's
reselling yourself on the dream, on the story, on the narrative of where you're going and what it's
going to look like. I just feel like in life, a better life is to sell yourself on the future.
Sell yourself on how great it's going to be when you get there. Learning to live fully present in
the moment. Let me say something. When you're negotiating the price You're not present
You've projected into the future more pain more difficulty. You're not in the present
So if you negotiated it already and you block that off in your mind you go i've already decided i'll pay that price
I've already negotiated that that's already happened for me
Then and only then can you sell yourself on where you're going and what it's going to like look like when you get there
And when I say resell yourself, i'm a big believer that you need to touch your dreams
And so I said this a minute ago, but I want you to understand it
You got to sell yourself on stuff
So like for example, like where I ended up living in my life
I would take a little vacation there on a weekend for like one night. I'll never forget this
I wanted to live in Dana point, Laguna Beach, California, that area. And so, when I would have a win in my business,
I would go to one night at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, Laguna Beach. Just one night there.
And I never had been anywhere like that in my entire life. And I had the feeling of driving up
to the valet in my not so great car at the time. But I remember just the feeling, it may sound hokey,
but given the valet, my keys and Mr. Mylet or are you staying here? Yes, your name, Mylet. Great,
and you write Mylet. I never forget the first time the guy wrote Mylet on the valet tag,
and he gave it back to me. I saw my name, Ritz Carlton, Laguna Beech, and then it said Mylet.
And I remember putting that in my pocket.
And I remember walking into the lobby and like the marble floor.
I was like, oh my gosh, this is incredible.
And I'd watch how other people walked and talked that belonged there because I didn't
feel like I belonged there.
And then I checked into the hotel and I remember back in those days, I would go play golf just
to be around successful people.
And, you know, my wife would go get a massage and
Lay out at the pool and then we'd have a nice dinner and I would just touch that dream just for one night
Maybe every eight weeks just one night
But what started to happen is I started after time over time going I belong here. I belong here
I became comfortable in that dream and our mind moves towards what it's most familiar with
And then I remember the first speech I gave being super uncomfortable But I remember the more I did it the more I felt like I belong here. I'm comfortable here
I moved towards what I was familiar with and it's interesting
The other place that I would go take my many vacations was to the desert to the Palm Springs
La Quinta area of California
And I would go out to this one resort called the La Quinta resort
And I couldn't afford to be there for more than one night but I'd get a deal on the
room you know and I would just touch that dream for a night. I remember going,
wow these desert nights are so amazing. And then we'd go out there maybe like
three months later. But I would touch that dream three or four times a year
and I would touch the other one. Do you know that later in life, for many many
years, those are the two places that I lived. I lived in that area and I lived in the other one.
And I really believe it's because I had touched that dream
over and over again.
Maybe your dream isn't anything like that.
Maybe it's to be full time in the charity
or full time in your church.
Go take a day off and serve and just feel like it.
Maybe do that every three or four months if you can
and touch the dream.
Because we move towards what we're most familiar with and we get in life what we believe we deserve and where we believe we belong.
And so long term, if you're doing this negotiation thing, you just don't believe you belong there.
And at some point there's going to be enough pain that's going to prove you right.
You're going to go, I knew I didn't belong here.
I knew this wasn't for me.
I knew this was for other people.
I knew I'm an imposter.
I knew I was faking it.
What am I crazy? And I have to tell you, I have this happen all the time. Like,
I have something I'm doing right now in my life. It's a very major project. It's a property that
I'm developing and there's a lot of difficulty with it. And every time that difficulty comes up,
I go, what am I doing? Am I crazy? That's not for me. That's for someone way wealthier, way more successful than me. And I have this thing where I want to surrender.
Right? I'm negotiating it. So, I'm not perfect at this stuff. And so, a lot of times when adversity
strikes, it's like proving you right. The price is too great. The price is too great. I'm literally
going through this right now with something. And I have to remind myself, I'm reselling myself on the future.
Actually today, tomorrow, I go visit that place
just to resell myself on the dream of being there,
just to resell myself on the vision.
Because it's so easy when you have a vision and a dream,
right, and you have it, so you establish a plan and a goal,
and then you start going through the stuff,
and you feel like further and further away from the vision and
The dream and why you did it in the first place and the inspiration behind it and you're more and more focused on the price
So today's podcast I literally designed for me, right? It's the price. I'm like gosh, it's taking a toll on me physically
It's taking a toll on me emotionally, right financially
Yet it's my dream
emotionally, financially, yet it's my dream. It's my dream.
And so, I've got to come back and go, I love this dream.
I love the experiences I'll have with my friends and family more than the price right now.
Stop negotiating the price, Ed.
You already negotiated this price.
Your love for these people in this place and the memories that'll happen there are greater
than your fears and your worries.
And then I'm reselling myself by going back because our mind moves towards what we're most familiar with. So,
if we're most familiar with our fears and our worries and our concerns, we're going to move
towards it. It's like a magnet. Thoughts are magnets. They pull us towards what we're focused
on. So, it's very dangerous to focus on all the pain, all the price, all the cost all the time
because you're going to move towards more of it. But if you focus on how worth it, all the price, all the cost all the time because you're going to move towards more
of it. But if you focus on how worth it is, remember this cost versus worth, right? Then you can
say, my will to win is not for sale. I can't be bought. You can't be bought with enough success
and it can't be bought with enough failure. You know many people are bought with success.
They have a dream, they get a little bit of it and then they're bought. Their will's gone. They
don't want to work like they used to work because they've got a little taste of success. They have a dream they get a little bit of it and then they're bought their will's gone They don't want to work like they used to work because they've got a little taste of success
They got a little taste of progress
Those people end up paying a greater price later when it goes backwards and they have to start all over again
So don't let success take your will to win and don't let failure take your will to win
I think basically today my message to you was
You got to decide right now what you're willing to pay for a price and not.
And once you've decided it, don't revisit it. Don't revisit it. Just make the decision
that you're going to will this to happen. Get some prayer about it. Get some clarity
about it. Feel like you've got a conviction over it. Get your mind empty. Meditate a little
bit. Get clear. And then ask yourself, is this really my dream? And if it is, start
reselling yourself all the time on that dream that it's worth it, that you belong there. I'm going to say something
to you that I want you to never forget. You belong in your dreams, your big, bold, God-sized
dreams. Those aren't hallucinations. Those are visions of what's possible in your life.
And I want to tell you, I believe you belong in those dreams. You do not belong in your
fears. You do not belong in the negotiation. You do not belong in your fears. You do not belong in the negotiation.
You do not belong in your worries.
You belong in your dreams, the big ones and the small ones.
But I think especially the big God sized dreams.
And most of those dreams are how you want to feel about yourself,
the emotions you want to experience, the memories you want to have.
I believe are the things that most matter to us.
It's not the thing or the house or the this. It's how we want to have, I believe are the things that most matter to us. It's not the thing or the house or the this.
It's how we want to feel.
And I believe you deserve to feel that way about you and never give in
to a price that tells you you're not willing to do it or worthy
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I'm glad you're enjoying the show so far.
Don't forget to follow the show on Apple and Spotify.
Links are in the show notes.
Now onto our next guest.
Today's awesome.
I just reached out to this man.
I said, hey brother,
I think the world needs a little bit more Dean and Ed. He's just a good man.
He's a great husband. He's a wonderful father.
And I count him as a friend and somebody that I admire greatly.
So Dean Graziosi, thank you for being here today, brother.
Thank you for that beautiful introduction. I feel the same way about you, Ed.
We met each other a little bit before the podcast and it was like we were a
bonded brothers forever after that. And it was a great show and I
still get hit up on a regular basis. I know you do. There was something magical
about that show because we get hit up all the time about it so it's good to be
here with you. One thing that's a lot of people are listening to this and they
know they've got that thing they're not working out like they should maybe they
are in that text thing maybe it's that they don't eat the way they should they
don't make the context they should they're not up as early they got a thing
but they're winning in spite of it, right?
In spite of it, they've got some winning going on
because in spite of the fact for many years, Dean,
that you weren't as congruent as you wanted to be,
you were still producing financial success.
Massively. Massively.
But what's happened the last four or five years
is your life has become a freaking rocket ship
in terms of influence.
You guys, Dean's been famous a long time.
You go back to all the infomercial days.
If you've not seen Dean or you hear this voice,
it's because Dean was all over television forever.
Very successful in that space, in the influence space,
the real estate space,
as he was not congruent in every area of his life.
But man, the last four or five years.
So speak to that.
If you can solve that thing you got,
it's like a football team who's got no running game.
Man, if they could just run the football,
they've already got a good passing game,
their defense is good.
They're a playoff team already.
But if they could run the football,
they're gonna win the Super Bowl.
There's always that thing, right?
True or false?
Yeah, so okay, and I love this question.
And I love hanging out with you, man,
and thank you for everybody listening.
I know you have lots of options,
so thanks for hanging out with two friends,
talking about stuff where I had no idea
what we were talking about, so this is really cool.
Here's what I know.
What happens sometimes,
I'll tell you what I did for a decade.
If we're gonna talk about relationships,
I'll be completely transparent.
I thought about leaving my relationship every day of my life for five years.
It was almost the first thing I thought about every day, not because she's a bad human in
anyway.
It just wasn't the right fit.
I'm not an advocate of divorce, but it just didn't fit.
But here's what I did for years.
I was financially successful.
At the time, I thought I was the best dad
possible even though I wasn't showing them the best example but I thought I'm
an engaged father. I coach little league, coach softball. I'm there. I bring them to
school, make them lunches, love them to death. I'm a great leader to my team. I'm
a good friend to people who need me. So my relationships off and I'm not congruent.
I should be freaking fortunate. So who gets it all?
This is what I remember, oh you want it all Dean,
you want love and congruency and a good dad
and financially free and I remember just thinking,
stop being greedy, if your relationship doesn't work.
But really what I was doing Ed is I wasn't facing something
because it was scary to me.
It was scary leaving my kids and not thinking
and not being with my kids and not thinking,
thinking and not being with my kids every single day
was like a shot in the gut.
And I just ignored it and avoided it and it grew.
It grew to where I didn't become the man
that I was supposed to be.
Listen, whatever you believe in, God, the universe,
I believe in God and I believe God has created you
to be bigger, better, and stronger than you currently are.
No matter where you are in your life, God wants you to be the woman you were
meant to be, the man you were meant to be. And if you believe in karma, whatever
your beliefs are, you are meant to be more. And when you let one of those areas
build, it doesn't go away. I don't care how much I try to push it down on the
inside, it just kept growing. And you feel that, like you're looking away from it even though it's there.
And I want you to think about this.
When you have to, some things are difficult, you might have to face a change of a business,
a change of a business partner, change of a job, change in a relationship.
The thing that you've been avoiding is growing even though you think it's not.
And it's like got roots and the roots are creeping over into all areas of your life
and you don't know and you're working harder, stronger, faster to overcome this and you
think you're conquering it if you're in a relationship that's not good and maybe you
go to the strip club or you text on your phone or you do something and you think you're fulfilling
it you're not.
You're just letting the roots grow in deeper and stronger and you're working twice as hard to be successful and you don't even realize it. And here's
the way I looked at it. When I decided or we decided to get a divorce, and you can use
this analogy, you can tell I got some silly analogies, you can use this in any area of
your life. Picture your ship is in a bay. It's calm. The water's calm. There's other
great ships in the bay. the weather's kind of beautiful,
it's kind of nice, but you know you're not meant to be in that bay.
But man, it just has all the signs where you're supposed to be there.
But the only way out of that bay is you got to sail your ship through the storm
that's out in the ocean, and you're watching the storm, and you're watching how turbulent it is.
You're in the bay, and it's comfortable, but the only way to your next level,
the only way to break through,
the only way to get rid of those roots,
to kinda crush that thing that you're avoiding
or afraid of is you gotta sail your ship through the storm.
You see the storm, it's turbulent,
the waves are high, the sky is dark,
and you're not even sure
because you've never navigated that territory.
You don't have a map,
because you've never been there.
You've never experienced it.
And the way I looked at it when I was going through
a divorce is I was so scared for my kids,
not me being alone, but scared on how that would
work out with my kids, that a lot of times
I put my ship in the storm, it got bumping,
I went back to the bay.
And I'll tell you, when I finally said,
I can't be the man I'm supposed to be,
staying in this harbor, even though it's pretty
and there's great people around,
and it's going through that storm,
going through the changes, the navigating of new territory.
You're mapping out new territory on the fly
and your ship's going down
and you wanna turn back 100 times.
But there's this moment, and it happened to me
when I went through a divorce, there was this moment
where I didn't know if I could take it,
and I was scared for my kids,
and I was having anxiety attacks.
But I wanna share with you, there was this moment
that my ship landed on the other side of the storm,
and it was over.
And I was a different human, I was a different man,
I looked through a different lens, I had a new map,
and I realized I wasn't meant for that other bay.
Yes, it was safe, yes, it was okay, but listen, at the end of our lives, lens, I had a new map and I realized I wasn't meant for that other bay. Yes it
was safe, yes it was okay, but listen at the end of our lives do we want to be
okay, right? And when I got to the other side it was this fresh start. I found a
way to be friends with my ex, I found a way for my kids to be safe, I found a
way to replace quantity with quality with my children, I found a way to be a
better version of me and attract Lisa my life
And when those roots were gone
This is what I want to share with all of you for that one area of your life that you know what I'm talking about
As you're hearing this you're picturing it and you're going wow
Nobody really knows that I do that when no one's watching nobody knows that I'd like to fix that no one knows that I kind
Of BS everybody else and say I'm working on it, but I'm not. I want to tell you, when they go away,
your sailboat turns into a ship with five engines on it.
Like my life exponentially grew.
I became a better dad, a better leader, a better friend.
I had more compassion, had more empathy.
I replaced anger with compassion.
And things just, I just became a different person.
I mean, I think I was a good man 10 years ago but I wouldn't recognize him I'm not the same human
today and that allowed me to go faster and and I just encourage you you've
heard this before but your next level lives on the thing on the other side of
the thing you're avoiding the other thing you're afraid of and Ed I think I
heard you say this you know all us, we get to learn from each
other and listen to each other and I'll go listen to a podcast when I need a little,
I'll listen to a little Ed Mylet or watch it.
But I remember somebody saying it, it may have been you, but what drives me to fix those
pieces guys, and I want you to hear this, the business that you want to scale, start,
the relationship you want to fix or end, the parenting style that you've gone so long doing it one way, you think it's too late
and you got to fight for it, it's worth the fight, whatever it is the fight. I just
want to tell you, I picture, I've always pictured being at the end of my life and
having a conversation with God and he said, how did it go? Right? Always
picture that. And I always have the fear of going, well you know, I was in a good
relationship, right? Or things were okay. you know, I was in a good relationship, right?
Or things were okay.
You know, I was great at my business,
great at impacting lives, and I did this,
and I was a good dad, what about your relationship?
It was okay.
Like I picture saying that to someone
where we have this creation given to us,
this opportunity, and I feel like this inner disappointment
where I'd wanna scream and go, you know what?
Damn it, can I do that over?
And you don't get that chance. You don't get that chance. Like you don't get a do-over, and you'd want to scream and go, you know what? Damn it. Can I do that over? And you don't get that chance.
You don't get that chance.
Like you don't get a do over and you'd want to.
So I put those emotions of my future back on me.
Things you've again already heard.
And I think I heard this from you, Ed or someone, but I heard someone
put that on a whole nother level.
Could you imagine if God pulled out his iPhone and said, Ed, I appreciate all you've done
and you've served and you give in that one area of life.
Can I play you a quick video of the man you could have been?
That's my stuff, yeah.
That is yours.
I knew I heard that from you.
When I heard that from you, Ed,
it honestly took what I had been telling myself
my last conversation with God.
And when I heard that from you,
I've shared that and I feel that all the time.
And if I didn't, I wanna share this with you guys
and I hope it's relating to where you are
in your life right now.
If you're looking for what's gonna drive you,
what's gonna take you to the next level,
how do you move your lighthouse out,
how do you wake up compelled again,
not just wanna chill and how do you find that thrive,
that energy, that zest for life again,
I just wanna share with you that if I didn't sail my ship
out of that harbor, that safe harbor,
and go through, I'm understating what I went through.
I don't take aspirin.
When I was going through a divorce, worrying about my kids,
I was popping Xanax three days a week
because I couldn't control my anxiety.
I was drinking a glass of wine five nights a week
because I couldn't put myself to sleep.
So I'm understating how bad I was for a short period of time. When I was in a glass of wine five nights a week because I couldn't put myself to sleep. So I'm I'm understating how bad I was for a short
period of time. When I was in the middle of that storm I thought of turning back
because I felt so crappy about myself and worried about my kids so much. But I
want to tell you on the other side, I never would have experienced what real
love could be like. I have love in a way that I wish it for every single one of
you. There's nothing I can even share that compares to having a true soulmate that's got your
back that supports you and loves you and you feel the same, where you don't keep score
and you got each other's back.
I never would have experienced that if I didn't go through the storm.
And whatever that storm is for you, you have to have that compelling future and you have
to stay steadfast and realize if you go back to where you were,
you'll get more of what you used to have.
Brother, that's just absolutely riveting.
And that's why I know we would do some magic stuff today
or you would, I just didn't know to what extent.
I didn't even know where it would go.
But for a lot of you,
that safe harbor is not your relationship, it's your job.
It's where you're working right now
and you've got this dream.
And by the way, that dream you keep trying to suppress,
that's gonna keep rising up as well.
It doesn't go away.
If you wait too long, you'll get to a point
where it is too late.
And you're gonna be watching that video of your life.
It's an interesting thing, two things occurred to me.
One is that the people that I love the most,
man, they have two things.
I'm gonna ask you a question about the second one.
But one of them is oddly,
we do contemplate death more than most people.
I think the contemplation of the end of your life
causes you to be so present now
because you know that there's a finite amount of time.
It's when you don't contemplate the end
that you think you have forever.
Most people think everyone else is gonna die.
They don't think they're gonna die.
Everyone else is gonna die.
You're gonna die too.
There's going to be an end to this.
And by the time you're at the end of it,
all the shit you worried about,
the crap that you stressed over, the people you were concerned about, what they thought by the time you're at the end of it, all the you worried about the crap that you stressed over the people you were concerned about what they thought,
the risks you didn't take, the things you didn't pursue, the pain you weren't willing
to go through, you will regret worrying about those things and not going through the pain.
You will regret when you watch that video. And so contemplating that end is important.
My guest today played 12 years in the major leagues. Let me just tell you something,
he could flat mash. This dude could hit. So we're going to talk about peak performance today
and overcoming adversity, all kinds of incredible stuff with Sean Casey Casey. Welcome to the show,
bro. Thanks for having me on dude. So fired up to be here, brother. The other part of baseball though
is that it's a failure based game. I mean like if you're really, really good
and you're a great hitter, right?
You're successful, I mean 30% of the time,
you're dealing with failure 70%.
I actually think because I was an okay player
and not like a great player like you,
I actually think baseball did equip me for life
in many ways because of all the failure. and I have a good saying for what failure is
and I want to give you the grace to share it with everybody but to just talk
about that part of baseball failing what failure means to you and what you did
with it because that's part of life too but it's really pronounced in baseball.
Yeah you know failures feedback you know at the end of the day failures feedback like I you can
First off in baseball and in life if you start taking your failures personally
Well, then you become the victim like man. I just can't do it. It's this guy's fault and this guy's fault
It's like no man. It's feedback. What are we gonna do with it? Yeah, you know, what are we?
What are we gonna do with the feedback that we just got?
You know, are we gonna run are we going to do with the feedback that we just got? You know, are we going to run and hide or we going to run forward? Right?
Like you know, I would say like the Navy SEALs, they feel gunfire, they run for it. Like who's
doing that? Like, you know, and you think of baseball, like, hey, man, failures, feedback,
failures information, you know, it's only failure for fail to learn Harvey Doref, you
should tell me that you ended up becoming a friend, incredible. A couple years into
the big leagues, I called him.
I just called him. I was 2,000.
I was like, I cannot end my career
without not having met Harvey Dorfman to tell him.
This is the guy who wrote the book that changed his life.
Yeah, the mental game of baseball.
So I called him, and I'm like,
hey, Harvey, my name's Sean Casey.
I know who you are. You got a sweet swing.
I'm like, oh, yeah.
You know, sometimes you meet people,
you're like, this guy knows who I am.
You know what I mean?
And so I ended up working with Harvey, you know
And and we get one of the greatest stories was I remember I was I was in 2004
I was really having a great year probably like mid beginning of June
I was hitting like 390 which is like, you know, that's credible, right?
And I went I went up I went in a time was over 12, right went over 12
But I was like you said over six with line outs. I had probably 11 line outs.
I call Harvey one night.
And what I loved about Harvey,
he broke through your.
He was like, dude, like, I kind of don't want to get,
call me if you got something good,
but if you don't, I'm going to let you know.
So I was like, I picked up the phone on this one.
I like, I think this is good.
I think, he answers the phone.
He's down North Carolina. Hey, hello. I'm like, hey Harvey, it's case. I was like, hey, bro
Can I talk to you real quick? He's yeah. What do you got? I was like man. I'm just grinding right now for my last 12
He's like art break it down for me. What do you got your last 12 of bad?
So I'm like, all right, you know first a battery rocket in the gap Jim Edmonds
You know makes a ridiculous play next one. It shot the first, you know guy, you know, so I've had 11 12 of bats But 11 11, you know, make some ridiculous play. Next one, it shot the first, you know, guy, you know, so I've had 1112 at bats, but 1111, you know, rockets, he's like, listen, he goes,
your job and he turns into like that, like crudgy, don't guy. Your job is to focus on the process.
Your job is to make sure you take a deep breath every pitch to get ready for that next pitch.
Your job is to hit the ball hard every time up. Sounds like you're doing your job. I'll talk to you later.
He hung up on me. Because he knew you can't believe the failure. You can't
believe you have to take the fail. You have to make the and the adversity in
baseball. Make it, why don't you look forward and say that's gonna make me
stronger. Yes. That's gonna make me stronger. You know I mean I always looked
at it like if I were batting,
like I was a leadoff hitter,
so I try to take a lot of pitches for other guys too.
I wanted to get as much info.
It's really interesting, the big leagues now,
like that's not really the thing anymore,
that leadoff guys can still strike out all the time.
Like I never wanted to strike out, but.
I feel like it's going back that way though.
Well, you would know,
because we're gonna talk about that in a minute.
He's also a broadcaster for the MLB network,
so he's still very much involved.
That's a whole other part of his life.
But I would try to get information.
But like if I did go, oh, for one,
even if I grounded out the short first battle,
I'm like, okay, he's trying to work me away.
His breaking ball does this.
He can't locate his change up.
Like a download information from the at bat.
And I watched the World Series last night,
where we're recording this, the World Series is happening.
Probably by the time it comes out, it may be over. The big tall dude
for Philadelphia two nights ago, Alec Bohn, he hit the home run, yeah yeah and they
said something to him like they interview him during the game and they
said to him hey what did Bryce Harper say to you because Bryce had come over
and said and he said I'm not I'm not gonna tell you what he said to me but
what had happened was Harper had actually got out the at bat before but
he downloaded from that failure feedback
Said he gave it to bone, right? So that's part of what failure should be when you miss a sales call
It's not like I suck. It's like, okay. What did I not say? Where did I miss? Did I not hear something?
Where did we lose the energy? Where did I lose the connection in parenting when I've done stuff with my kids and haven't work?
I'm looking at the feedback. Like How could I have said this differently?
How could I have phrased it differently?
When I walked in the room, was my physiology intimidating to my kids?
Was I loving?
Failure is feedback.
I love that term, and baseball forces that on you.
Because if you don't get feedback from your failure as a hitter or a pitcher, if you don't
get feedback from that failure, you're not going to last very long.
Yeah.
You're going to have to figure that stuff out.
Can I tell you one quick one, just quick story?
Please.
When I go back to my rookie, it was my second year,
my rookie year in the big leagues,
I faced Randy Johnson for the first time.
You go back 6'11", he's with the Dimebacks at times,
just throw him behind you.
Lefty on lefty.
Just lefty on lefty.
I was literally up there like, oh my god.
I was like, if these are the pitchers in the big leagues, I'm going to be out of here soon. Luckily they weren't all lefty. I was literally was up there like oh my god
These are the pictures in the big things. I'm gonna be out of here soon, right? They weren't all like that It was incredible
So I remember going over for with him with a couple punch outs and I remember thinking man, that's Randy Johnson
He's one of the best lefties ever. I got his baseball card, you know, my tour my mind was going
We faced max a couple days later. He cars me up slices and dices me one to you know, to see him right my hip
I'll never see that in my life.
I think I screamed. I was like,
like strike three. It's so right. So, so I remember,
I remember having a conversation with myself, like, wow,
I'm getting feedback here that I'm, I'm looking at these guys that I'm putting
them too much on a pedestal. I gotta get back to controlling, like the controllables of what I can do, right? So this is what I said.
This is what I said at I started to think,
okay, what adjustment can I make here
to not look out there at these great pitchers
and think that they're so much better than me?
So I just said was I've been facing a pitching machine
since I was 14 years old.
As soon as it leaves those guys hand,
whether it's Randy Johnson, Greg Max, John Smoltz,
I told myself mentally, it's not a pitching machine, right? I just have to be able to get my process so well that
when the ball comes into an area over the plate, that I got to be ready to square it
up. So whether it's leaving it at a three quarter lefty, that's 6'11", throwing a hundred
or 93 mile an hour slider, if it comes across across the plate I still got a shot if I can control my controllables if I can control me
Yes, so it's a becomes that me versus me game your brother. I love you. Oh my gosh
Yeah
See guys one thing Sean's doing we're gonna talk about in a little bit as he's got something called think like a pro where you're
Gonna be able to start to get guys like him him specifically their insights that I'd apply these things in life
And what you just said is like any time I've got something that overwhelms me,
I try to get internal.
What are the things that I can control?
Even like when I'm speaking and there's like 15 speakers on in a general,
they're going to love this guy who's going up before me.
Right. You know, I remember even when I played, I'd be worried about even in college.
Like, oh, it's Friday night.
I get there. A starter.
Who they throw in the night.
I hope he's not a lefty or, you know, whatever.
And I started to say I go, no,
the bottom line is when the ball leaves his hand,
it's me and the ball, right?
And I have a fighter, I won't say who,
but he's fighting in the next few weeks,
one of my UFC guys.
And he sent me a voice note the other night
because we couldn't reach you.
And I'd say this to all of you to listen,
just because I wish I knew everything I know
about coaching top performers back when I was young
because they're human beings and they actually have a lot of the same worries, anxieties, fears,
insecurities that you have. They've just come up with processes and they get feedback from
their failures. The thing Sean is saying is a fact and so he says to me, he goes,
here's the truth, bro. I'm scared. He said to me, I'm scared. I'm afraid and I'm worried
he's this is the best opponent I've ever faced and you know and and you know
I'm just relying on my training and the things we talked about and some of the mental triggers
I give these guys different mental triggers and anchors that you did when you hit as well that baseball players know about that a
Lot of athletes don't and I said back to him in the voice note because we couldn't reach I said
Hey, just remember this man. He's scared too
And he's about to face a badass man note, because we couldn't reach her, I said, hey, just remember this, man. He's scared too. Exactly.
And he's about to face a bad ass man himself.
And he's facing the best fighter he's ever fought in his life.
So we can't control that.
But we can control is what we feel internally.
So just know this.
Other people are afraid when they give a speech.
Other people are worried.
Other people, when they're not sure they're going to make it,
they're not sure.
Just realize this.
The things you think you suffer from that are just yours emotionally, your fears, your anxieties are human. And the top
people, I'm talking about people that have run big countries, run big companies, that 12-year MLB
studs, right? Like the best UFC fighters, the best boxers, the best putters I've worked with,
the best golfers, they all have these thoughts that you have. But they come up with coping mechanisms, they come up with things that they can play offense
in their life, they deal with failure better.
Today's special.
It's not every day you sit across from a three-time Super Bowl champion.
But actually, as impressive as his football career was, I like the fact that the dream
didn't stop there and he was able to post football, create an incredible brand, an incredible career,
an incredible life post football.
So I just wanna pick the brain of the great Troy Aikman.
Troy, good to have you.
Yeah, great to be on, great to meet you.
Dealing with failure.
It's part of being an athlete.
I think back to, I just watch a lot of football.
Your rookie year was not gorgeous.
So most people that listen to my show
may not even be football fans,
but I'm interested to hear,
why don't you describe it a little bit,
tell them what happened your rookie year,
which was not, you weren't winning a Super Bowl that year.
No.
And how you dealt with a lot of the rejection and failure
criticism that came with it,
and probably even to this day you get criticism,
people saying things about you that aren't real favorable.
How do you deal with that?
My rookie year was, I guess when I first got criticized
or had to deal with that was at Oklahoma.
I was trying to run an offense that just didn't fit my skills.
And so it was a real challenge.
And OU of course is a hotbed for football
and we were pretty
good at the time and I was probably holding this back just because we were trying to run
this wishbone offense and it just wasn't for me.
So that was the first time I really had to deal with it.
I broke my leg and then I went to UCLA and ended up going to Dallas as the number one
overall pick.
But I went to the worst team in football and then my rookie year, new head coach, college coach,
bringing in a lot of different players every week.
We really did not have much of a fighting chance.
I was 0 and 11 as a starter.
Crazy.
And it was tough.
I took a beating.
We weren't very good up front.
0 and 11, everyone.
0 and 11.
And so there were games where we should have lost
based on how I played.
And then there were other games where I thought
I played pretty well, you know,
and we'd have a lead with 30 seconds left in the game
and somehow we'd lose it, you know.
And I just remember thinking, man,
what does it take to win a game in this league?
I mean, this is brutal.
Right.
And, but I never lost confidence.
And I think the reason was I had a quarterback coach
by the name of Jerry Roam, and he had played in the NFL.
And he just, he refused to let me get down on myself.
And there were days when it was hard.
It was hard to be positive.
It was hard to be upbeat.
It was hard to believe that good things were gonna happen,
but he was always there being
my champion and he was in my corner.
And so fortunately, my very first game, my second season, we won.
And so I got that monkey off my back and then over time we slowly got better and better.
And then of course we won the Super Bowl in my fourth year and had great success.
But yeah, I just think that...
Does criticism hurt you? Even now?
Well, nobody likes it. You know, it's easy. I hear people say,
hey, I don't pay any attention to criticism. I have a hard time believing that anyone
just can totally brush it off. But if you get criticized enough,
and now that I'm still in the public eye
with the broadcasting and all that,
that you just learn that it's just part of it.
Someone once told me that, hey,
it comes with the dinner.
And criticism just comes with the dinner.
And I'll read Twitter from time to time,
and if you've called a game and you read Twitter,
buckle up.
Oh my God, I can't even.
But some of it's pretty funny,
and I laugh at most of it,
but what I like, the reason I do it,
is because you know, you know deep down,
if there's truth to those criticisms.
Sure, yeah.
And so I try to evaluate myself objectively
and I don't dismiss that.
I mean, I listen and then think,
yeah, you know what, they're right.
They're right.
That wasn't good enough.
I kind of dig some of it.
Some of it's ridiculous, but some of it I'm like,
you know what, I've heard this enough times,
there's some validity to this.
I do need to make that adjustment.
And it's a bit of a wake up and all that's good.
So I don't mind it.
I mean, I honestly don't mind it. Even at the criticism, if you know deep down, like
you've done your best and whatever it is, and then you just accept it and move on. And
now, as you know, I mean, the critics, now everyone has a platform. So you get all the,
everyone gets criticized now. Yeah, we definitely don't lack feedback in this day and age.
There's plenty of feedback.
I have one of the greatest athletes of the last two decades in any sport.
He also happens to be one of the greatest golfers of all time.
And I'm going to get a whole bunch of out of his brain today.
So please welcome Phil Mickelson to the show.
Phil, thanks for being there, brother.
My pleasure.
Thanks for having me on.
I'm glad we had a chance to do this.
2016, Phil's going to win the US Open. I think you bogeyed the 16th hole. You come
back, you par 17. Maybe I have my years wrong. I got a digit wrong, 2006. He bogeyed 16,
par 17. If you par 18, you're probably going to win the US Open. And you hit a bad tee shot.
There's a series of events that in hindsight weren't great decisions potentially.
I want to ask you about that.
And I remember at the end of the round watching you, I've always rooted for you.
I'm a left-handed golfer.
The way you treat people, like most fans, I just root for you.
And I remember physically in my body hurting for you, you know, and I remember
you saying, I think you literally said, I'm such an idiot.
I can't believe I did that.
I think you actually referred to yourself that way.
I want to know what does it feel like to have a failure, all of us here, failure in a marriage,
failure in a business, and we have to come back again, and you have an event like that
happen. How did you come back?
What were you thinking?
How long did it take you to come back, et cetera?
Tell us about that.
So I lost six US Opens where I finished second.
The wing foot was one I probably came closest.
But there was another one I'd rather talk about,
which was Marion in 2013, where I had a chance.
I was tied for the lead or leading
with nine or 10 holes to go.
And I ended up hitting a bad wedge on a short par three and I made bogey on a hole
that you really needed to make birdie.
I ended up losing by a shot or two to Justin Rose.
For the next week, I was really down because I was 43 years old.
It was kind of my last chance to, one of my last chances, let's say, to win a US Open
and I was really down after letting that one slide.
And I went to a place with my family,
spent about seven to 10 days,
and about the eighth or ninth day,
it dawned on me that I'm playing really good golf.
And even though I lost,
I don't wanna let this linger and carry on
into my next performances, my next opportunities.
And so I went to Europe and played in the Scottish and British open.
And it happened to be probably the best two week experience of my career.
I ended up winning the Scottish open, my first tournament win in Europe on links
golf, I followed it up with winning the British open at Muirfield where I never
didn't, I never really believed I would win the British open the way I knew I
was going to win the masters or other majors. And so that was probably my greatest accomplishment. So I went
from one of my toughest failures to my greatest accomplishment, meaning we can't let the failures
hold us back. Yeah, it hurts, it stings, but we have to put it behind us and learn from those
mistakes and not let that hold us back because we have to refocus on what we want to accomplish
and we're all gonna deal with setbacks and failures.
And I've had a number of them,
but I've also had a lot of successes that make up for it.
So are you one of these guys where like you savor these wins
more than you lament the losses?
I interviewed a lot of athletes and go,
no, to be honest with you,
some of these losses hurt more than the wins felt good. What's true for you?
I think that I certainly hate to lose more than I love to win. And that motivates me
to work harder with the failures that I have. And it motivates me to practice harder so
that I don't lose. It's not so much the great experience of winning that I thrive on. It's
just that I hate to lose but as I
look back I really try to cherish the positive moments that have happened in
my career and appreciate and be grateful for for having those moments those
memories and I try not to dwell too much on on the failures but the one failure
that I will look back on is the one that you mentioned the 06 US Open a week but
it wasn't the drive that really bothered me. I only hit two fairways out of 14 the whole day.
It was the second shot because my short game that week was better than it's ever been.
It was the best short game week of my career.
I averaged, I think, three or four fairways around and yet I almost won the US Open.
So it was the second shot that I did not carve the three iron around the tree.
I started a little too far left.
It caught the limb and fell straight down.
If I started a little bit further right and slice it around that tree and I had a fine
lie, I came off of the corporate hospitality tent, but that graph was all matted down.
My lie was fine.
That three iron gets up by the green.
I'm going to get that up and down.
That was the best week of my short game.
I would have made a four.
The second shot was the one that I look back on.
That's interesting because I'm going to challenge you on that. I think you know that a lot of people
thought the error was in trying to hit the three iron. Didn't people feel like you should have tried
to lay up and just get up and down or am I wrong about that? That they felt like...
A lot of people probably thought that but again I'm able to see things that others aren't and I had
a eye and all I have to do is just hit a high cut three iron around the tree it's
gonna end up by the green somewhere probably on the green it wasn't a hard shot I'm going
to pull it off seven out of ten times eight out of ten times it's gonna end up by the
green if not on and then my short game takes over and I get up and down when the US Open
so I pushed it about two yards too far to the left and it caught the limbs.
I love it thank you for sharing that by the left and it caught the limbs. I love it.
Thank you for sharing that, by the way.
I love being in that moment with you because I'm never going to be in that moment in sports,
right?
And most of us aren't going to be.
This is the In My Land Show.