Howes - The school of greatness : a real-world guide to living bigger, loving deeper, and leaving a legacy

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Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

2015 by Lewis Howes

Simultaneously published as trade hardcover and international paperback by Rodale Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

Book design by Joanna Williams

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

ISBN-13: 9781623365967 hardcover

ISBN-13: 9781623367145 paperback

ISBN-13: 9781623365974 ebook

We inspire and enable people to improve their lives and the world around them.
RodaleWellness.com

To my family, this book is for you,
Diana, Ralph, Chris, Heidi, and Katherine.
Thank you for encouraging me to chase my dreams,
guiding me spiritually, showing me how to be
of service in the world, and teaching me grace,
patience, and most of all, love.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

You were born with potential.

You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness.

You were born with wings.

You are not meant for crawling, so dont.

You have wings.

Learn to use them and fly.

Rumi

F or the last few years, Ive felt like the luckiest guy on earth. Every week, my job has been to study at an elite and exclusivebut entirely unofficialuniversity, a mythical academy where the worlds greatest men and women teach, lecture, and pay forward the amazing knowledge theyve accumulated on their paths to becoming the best in the world at what they do.

My professors were Olympic gold medalists, award-winning musicians, New York Times best-selling authors, world-changing activists and philanthropists, enormously successful entrepreneurs, and inspiring experts and thinkers. I was fortunate enough to be their student, audit their classes, and learn things from each of them that I will carry with me forever. I consider this education the greatest gift Ive ever been given.

Deep down, all of us suspectwe hopesomething like this exists somewhere, but we just have no idea where it is or how to get in. Our world is swimming in information and data, unlike at any other point in human history, and for years that has been intoxicating to many of us. We could type anything into the Google search bar and wed have a million answers in a millionth of a second. We could pick a topic and go down the Wikipedia rabbit hole for hours, if not days. But eventually, information for curiositys sake wasnt enough. We needed more. We wanted to know how to apply it to the world and to our lives. We wanted knowledge and wisdom, not just 1s and 0s. We think that places like the World Economic Forum in Davos are maybe where we can find it. Or Summit Series. Or TED. Ive been to a few of those forums and events, and frankly, theyre not even close to what Ive experienced over these last few years.

The place I am talking about is more like Platos cave than the red circle on the TED stage. My amazing mentors did not speak to me for 18 minutes and then disappear into the ether; they sat across from me, literally and virtually, and brought me out from the shadows into the light of real knowledge. How did this happen? Im still not entirely sure, but there is one thing I know beyond any doubt: They fired my passion to sit across from you, through the pages of this book, and share their teachings with you.

Ive come to call this place the School of Greatness.

Its not your stereotypical school. There are no classrooms. No homework. No principal or dean enforcing rules or even tracking attendance. Nobody pays tuition (except maybe the price of this book). Some of the professors would recoil at being called that. And when we leave to try our hands at the real world once again, there will definitely be no graduation ceremony and certainly no diploma.

Now to be clear, this school is great not because it admits only great students but because the teachers are and the students want to be. Both share big dreams. And as Wilma Rudolph, the Olympic champion who was once the fastest woman in the world, said, Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.

With The School of Greatness, you will learn how to recognize and harness this potential. You will come to understand the importance of dreams and the tools that exist within you to make those dreams reality. The School of Greatness is not a bag of tricks and hacks. Its not a boot camp. Its a way of life, a way of living. When you want to lose weight and keep it off, you dont go on a diet, because diets are about artificial restriction. Theyre miserable. Instead, you change your lifestyle to match your goals. This is the same thing. The School of Greatness is a lifestyle for a lifetime that you are going to love.

Like the professors and students in The School of Greatness, Ive chased big dreams my whole life. Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be an All-American athlete. Growing up in Ohio, and then growing to be 6 foot 4, obviously meant football at the Ohio State University. That was every Ohio boys dream. Everything I did as I grew up was aimed toward accomplishing that goal. There wasnt a day that went by that I didnt think about it and work on itand I made it, sort of. I went to a smaller Ohio college after I transferred schools a couple of times for better (and bigger) opportunities, and I even set a number of records along the way. But it wasnt until my fourth year that I finally became an All-American athletein the decathlon, of all things: a sport Id never even trained for. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that happening!

As soon as being an All-American became a realityfirst as a decathlete, then the next year, finally, in footballit immediately began to lose its luster, and I had no idea why. Id accomplished all of my goals, and I went further than most people would have ever expected, but that was little consolation. At a party celebrating my achievements, the moment that should have been my greatest triumph, I was miserable. I couldnt enjoy it because my focus had already shifted to bigger and better things: turning pro. Eventually, I had a tryout in front of a dozen NFL scouts at an indoor training facility at the Ohio State University, my former dream school, along with a number of future NFL players, including an eventual Super Bowl MVP. I performed well, but coming from a smaller school, I had little chance of being drafted. An Arena Football League teamwhich is technically professional footballdid pick me up, but 1 year is all I played as my career ended due to a series of frustrating injuries and recovery setbacks.