The Tai Lopez Show

In today's Book-Of-The-Day we look at "Where Good Ideas Come From" by Steven Johnson. If you want to buy this book and get the 'Smart Reading Course', the ‘67 Steps Video Series', and Tai’s personal book notes check it out here http://bit.ly/1yx4Is6 Also check out Tai’s new TV show every day at 11:30 am PST on TaiLopez.com  If you want to sign up for the next LIVE online seminar you can do that here: http://bit.ly/1wvWD6S There may be no better skill to possess in the world than the ability to come up with good ideas. Think about it. The reward for good ideas is massive. Mark Zuckerberg definitely knows the value of a great idea. For him it’s roughly $33.3 billion dollars.  Now, you might not need a billion dollars. But according to Daniel Kahneman and his research, you definitely need at least $75,000 a year. Good ideas have the potential to change your bank account. Good ideas also have the potential to change your health.  Tai’s dad caught scarlet fever when he was a baby, and doctors said he wouldn’t live past age 12.  He was a pretty sickly kid.  His life changed the day he picked up a magazine about weight lifting.  The article said "Forget everything you've heard, lift weights." And he went from a sickly kid who should have died to Mr. Puerto Rico, Mr. Canada, and one of the first bodybuilders in the world.  You see at the root of every revolution is one idea.  In "Where Good Ideas Come From" one fascinating story was about the scientist that came up with a law that governs the rate of growth of animals, cities and ideas - it's called Kleiber’s law. Kleiber's law is about something called "positive power scaling" But why should that research matter to you? Simple.  "A city that is ten times larger than its neighbor isn't ten times more innovative; it's seventeen times more innovative. A metropolis fifty times bigger than a town is 130 times more innovative than the town." The pace of innovation and good ideas that are going to come out of your brain are directly related to the size of the pool of information that you’re drawing from.  The more books you read (an eclectic mix), the more masterminds you study, the more mentors and advisors you surround yourself with, the more exponential growth you'll experience.  If your only source of good ideas is one book in the last year, you’re like someone living in a small town.  Your “pool” to draw inspiration from is tiny.  BUT if you’ve read 50 books instead, according to Kleiber’s Law you wouldn't just get 50 times smarter, you would get 130 times smarter. The more knowledge you absorb, the more great ideas you will come up with. Stay smart.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's book-of-the-day is "Folks, This Ain't Normal - A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World" by Joel Salatin, if you want to order this book from me click here: http://bit.ly/12BAhE0 When I was still a teenager my mentor Joel Salatin used to tell me, "Tai, nature always laughs last." For you to live the good life you're going to have to understand nature and biology. I don't care if you live in a high-rise in Manhattan or one of the hundred million dollar condos I saw in London last month. The laws of nature still apply as much to you today as they did 10,000 years ago. If you don't know who Joel is (besides the fact that he was my first mentor), he's a famous international speaker, who’s done two Ted talks, and has written 10 books.  But most importantly, he's known for pioneering grass-fed beef and pastured eggs. His Virginia Polyface Farms has had everyone (from celebrities, presidents, even prime ministers) coming to learn from his wisdom. I was actually just visiting Joel and his family for Thanksgiving last week and I recorded some special videos for you.  Enable your images to see me interview Joel Salatin The point of his book, “Folks,This Ain’t Normal” is simple. You and I in the modern world are so far removed from biological reality that 80% of the problems we face have nothing to do with flaws in us, per se, but more to do with flaws in the system. It's like the Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman talks about in “The Story of the Human Body.” The quickest way to change your physical health (weight, waistline, etc.) is not to rely on willpower, but to change the system and environment in which you find yourself.  So what is Joel saying is wrong with our system?   Why Unconventional Works   1. We grow our food with pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones: "Our animals don't do drugs. Instead, we move them almost daily in a tightly choreographed ballet from pasture spot to pasture spot." Joel figured out that you don't have to be locked into the conventional ways to grow food by using chemicals. For example, if you mimic natural systems with your beef cows by moving them around in rotated pastures not only do you get healthier cows but the fertility of the soil increases. That's a true Pareto efficiency.  2. We’ve become detached from our food and the land that grows our food: "A farmer friend of mine told me recently about a busload of middle school children who came to his farm for a tour. The first two boys off the bus asked, 'Where is the salsa tree?' They thought they could go pick salsa, like apples and peaches. Oh my. What do they put on SAT tests to measure this? Does anybody care? How little can a person know about food and still make educated decisions about it? Is this knowledge going to change before they enter the voting booth? Now that's a scary thought." The average child hardly even realizes eggs don't come from the grocery store. Or that Velveeta cheese doesn't come from a can. The only true path to food security is to know where your food comes from - have a relationship with the farmer who grows your food. Get the rest of the lessons here: http://bit.ly/12BAhE0Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's book of the day is "Bounce". If you don't already own “Bounce”, this book is an absolute must have. I worked out a deal with the publisher so you can buy the book brand new directly from me. http://bit.ly/12q7Bgk What most people forget is that life is not about the situation in which you find yourself. It's about the level of "deep domain expertise" that you possess. This is what the best scientific research shows. In the modern world, you are surrounded by generalists. Jack of all trades.  Being a generalist won't get you far. Stop being a generalist. It's like Steve Martin says to people who want to break into show business: "Be so good they can't ignore you." Only when you have deep domain expertise will you be so good that even the haters will be forced to stop and pay attention.  If you remain a jack of all trades you'll stay ignored.  In "Bounce", today's book-of-the-day, Matthew Syed talks about the myth of inborn talent. I ran across this book several years ago and it's made its way to my top 150 books that I read over and over again at least once a year. For Thanksgiving, I visited the Amish and Joel Salatin's farm in Virginia and I read "Bounce" again on the airplane and recorded a video for you out in the snow by the chickens and pigs. This book will scare you.  This book will inspire you. It all depends how you perceive it's conclusions. Here are some of the book's main points:  1. It takes reps and sets: “It is the quality and quantity of practice, not genes, that is driving progress." Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about the same thing in his autobiography, “Total Recall”. It's all about reps and sets when it comes to weights. There are a few shortcuts but you still need sheer volume of practice to get good at anything. And it's not just the body and weight lifting this applies to. Ignore all the newfangled books that are being published about how you can bypass sheer volume of practice. It's not really about shortcuts, tricks, and the genetics you were born with. It's about practice.  2. Your passion quotient: “Every endeavor pursued with passion produces a successful outcome regardless of the result." This was the motto of one of the expert coaches that the author interviewed. At different times in your life, you probably grappled with big decisions: which major you should pursue in college, which diet plan you should follow, which career you should pursue, which person you should date... And you might've been paralyzed because you were concerned about making the right or wrong decision. But forget that obsolete, black-and-white type thinking. This book lays out a completely new way to think about those type of decisions.  What if the more important thing is rewiring the neural pathways of your brain? The key factor is not whether one thing is right or wrong (it's mathematically impossible to know if one decision was better than the other unless you could live in two alternate, parallel universes and then look back at both decisions outcome). The key, instead, is that when you do something, do it with intense passion, even if it turns out to be the "wrong" thing in the long run. At least you will have been training your brain to do something with massive focus, energy, and passion. You can always pivot and do something else later. Whatever you do don't do things half-hearted because then you're training your brain to be a generalist. As Samuel Johnson said, "The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." Live in a world where people struggle to really grab hold of anything and take ownership of it. Warren Buffett was asked for his best career device and he said to do something with passion because: "The truth is, so few people really jump on their jobs, you really will stand out more than you think. You will get noticed if you really go for it.” A. Know yourself.  B. Select your industry and life's focus and don't deviate for a decade or more.  C. Develop deep domain expertise. D. Reap the harvest and cash in and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Now, there are quite a few other fascinating points you need to know from this book, so I recorded a quick video for you to watch.  If you don't already own “Bounce”, this book is an absolute must have. I worked out a deal with the publisher so you can buy the book brand new directly from me.  Plus if you buy it from me, you get it for the same price as you would anywhere else (or cheaper) and I'm throwing in a whole bunch of free bonuses. So you're getting like $100 worth of value for just the price of the book. To order your brand new copy of "Bounce" now and get your free bonuses: http://bit.ly/12q7BgkLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Six hard-won lessons inspired by Navy SEAL training are broken into short, actionable ideas. Topics include mastering practical skills through relentless practice, working tightly as a team, and over-communicating for clarity. The conversation highlights embracing relentless effort, focusing on the immediate next step, and reviewing mistakes to learn and improve.

I'm here in Palm Springs doing some work with my team and thought I would make a quick book of the day. I got asked if someone had a gun to my head and I was completely broke how I would make 1 million dollars? Here's my answer, "I would go out to a big market and I would take an idea that is working really well and bring it to a small market."Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's book of the day is A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers From Warren Buffett by Peter Bevelin. This is one of the best books on investing I have ever read.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever asked yourself these questions: How smart am I and does it even matter? Do I need a high I.Q. to be rich?  Today's Book of the Day is, “Successful Intelligence: How Practical and Creative Intelligence Determine Success in Life” by Robert Sternberg. Sternberg hypothesizes that I.Q is not a fixed measurement, the way it has been misunderstood for years, and he gives us a lot of insight into how IQ is changeable.  Can you answer these questions as a comment below? 1. What is a self defeating attitude that you have had towards your I.Q. or intelligence? 2. What is a negative expectation that others have put on you that you want to defy?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For today's book of the day, I chose "Man Alone with Himself" by Friedrich Nietzsche. He says that everybody aspires to be set apart from the crowd. What do you have to do to become great, to not be just another blip on the radar? In the book, Nietzsche says, "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." Too many people create strong convictions and stick with them without ever challenging the idea. You must challenge your convictions if you want to grow. Here are three action points to take:1. What resonated most with you form this video?2. What is an action point that you can take from this video?3. What is a conviction that you need to challenge?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today I was reading "On the Shortness of Life" by Seneca and I was thinking about one of the 8 ways he says people waste time, "going after no fixed goal." You must have an end goal. Time is limited, you have to know how to use it properly.  Can you answer these three questions? 1. What is your end game goal?2. What frivolous activity are you doing?3. Which area of your life is going to make you more of a philosopher? Sign up for my book of the day newsletter at http://tailopez.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A lot of you are probably interested in self-help. One of the best idea's  in self help comes from Socrates who said "Know Thyself".  Here are 3 ways to know yourself: 1. It's not natural 2. Some of what you think about yourself will be delusional and some of that is ok 3. Define what areas you need to know about yourself Do you know yourself?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.