Everybody wants the good

life,but not everybody gets

the good life, right?Imagine for
a secondif right now, today,
how much
more successful would you beif
you just started a
company50/50 with Bill Gates
as your business partnerand he
was using every trick of the
trade
that he used to build
Microsoftinto one of the biggest
companies in the
world?Imagine how much
money you'd have
in your bank account today -
how much more money, I
should say -if Warren Buffet
 was teaching you
how to invest in the stock
market,showing you what he
used
to build Berkshire
Hathawayinto a $140 billion
company.Imagine how much
happier you'd be todayif the
Dali Lama was your personal
guide,showing you how to find
fulfillment in life,in the little
things
that most people
overlook.Imagine how healthy
you'd be todayif when you
woke up,you went down to your
gym,and Arnold
Schwarzenegger
was waiting there,who was your
 personal trainer,showing you
how he built his bodyinto the
most fit body maybe ever,
right?Imagine the change you'd
be
making in the world,the
injustice you'd be solving
today,if Mother Theresa and
you
were running a charity
togetherand she was showing
you what she learnedon the
streets of Calcutta,
helping the poor, the sick, and
the dying.Mentors have the
power
to do this in your life.I think
everybody here recognizes
the importance of a role
 model.But in the next few
minutes,I'm going to show you
how
mentors are more powerfulthan
you can possibly imaginein
their ability
to transform your life.It's
interesting that
I'm here in
Luxembourg,because my
grandmother
was born not too far from
here,in Berlin, Germany.She's
96 years old, by the way,and
she said, "Tai, tell them
hello."So, hello from my 96-
year-old
grandma.(Laughter)She said,
"There was a role model,
a mentor that I hadwhen I was a
little girl."She was born in 1918
in Berlin,and she said, "We had
a renter
in our house."Edith Knox, who
was
a famous piano playerfrom
California in the 1920s.She
said, "Tai, this woman
made such an impression on
me."She rented a room for a
summer,and she said,
"Edith Knox wore pants."My
grandma said, "I'd never seen
a woman wear
pants."Apparently, in Germany
in the '20s,
no women wore pants.And not
just regular pants.
 She had an orange jumpsuit
on.And then she'd play the
piano,
and Edith Knox, every
hour,would stand on her head
for exercise.My grandma was
like 7 and she said,"Tai, I
thought if that's how women
are in California,one day I'm
going to move to
California."And sure enough,
she ended up in
California.That's part of the
story of how
my family ended up in
California.I'm from California. I
flew here.It took me 20 hours to
get here,
and I'm from Hollywood,
specifically.So Hollywood, the
"Land of Dreams."Or for most
people,
it's the land of broken
dreams.Every year, 100,000
people
move in and out of
Hollywood.Some come to be
movie stars,
actors, singers, writers,
comedians.Most go home
empty-handed.So I live up in
the Hills,and I'm surrounded
by all these celebrities.I have
one on my left,
one on my right.I often think,
"Why did
these celebrities make it?What
did they do differently
 that allowed them to make
it?"Because in Hollywood,
everybody wants something,but
not everybody gets
what they want.So I want to
talk a little bit
about that today.Because life is
short.I think we all realize the
sands of time
quickly can slip by in your
life.And you don't want to be
old
when you finally get the good
life,or too old. Right?It's like
the Dutch saying,"We're too
soon old, too late smart."Steve
Jobs said, "I didn't want to be
be the richest man in the
graveyard."And I realized this.I
 remember back, I was
youngerand Alan Nation, one of
my mentors,
he had told me,"Tai, what did
you want to be
when you were 16?That's the
truest version of yourself.What
did you want to be
when you were 16?"And I
remember at 16,
I wanted to find the good
life.Aristotle talks about
eudaimonia,
his definition of the good
life.Health, wealth, happiness,
love.
All those things.I remember
going, "It's too hard.
How am I ever going to figure
 this out?There's so many hard
questions.
I'm 16.I got to figure out what
college to go to,
what religion I'm going to
follow,who I'm going to marry,
what politics, where to
live,what career and path to
pursue."And I had this idea.
I was like, "I know the perfect
idea."I'll find one person -I
thought this was so genius,
it turned out to not be so smart -
But I'd find one person
who had all the answers.So I
wrote a letter.The smartest
person I could think of
was my grandfather.I wrote this
letter: "Will you tell me
 how to design my life?"TED is
about T-E-D.The "D" is about
Design,
the designed life.So I said,
"Will you help me
design my life?"And I was so
excited.Four days later I got this
letter
back from my grandpaI read it
and it said,
"Sorry, Tai, I can't help you.The
modern world's too
complicated.You will never
find all the answers
from just one person.If you're
lucky, a handful of people
along the way will point the
way."And I was like, "Ugh!"
So much for my shortcut.But
 seven days later, a package
came.It was books.My
grandfather had a 20,000-book
library,and he had sent me some
old dusty ones.A 1,000-page
volume. 11 books."The Story of
Civilization,"
by Will and Ariel Durant.I was
like, "1,000 pages?
This is too much."But I see
now, he was giving me
a hint, I didn't understand
it.There's this myth that you
have to go inward to find
truth.But the truth he was
saying
is you have to go outward.If
you can download the
consciousness,
the mindset of peoplewho have
gone before you -the smartest,
the wisest,
the most intelligent,the most
experienced people -then you
will get what you want.And so I
went on, and I started
writing down note cards.I called
them mental shortcuts.
And I was reading these
books.And then I started
traveling.
I went to 51 countries.I'd read a
book and say,
"Let me go visit this person in
person."So I went to New
Zealand and Australia,South
America, Argentina, Ireland,
all over the world.I was focused
 on those 4 things:
health, wealth, love, and
happiness.I decided to focus
on health and happiness.I lived
for two years with Joel
Salatinon his famous
sustainable
agricultural organic farm.Then I
spent 2 1/2 years with the
Amish.No electricity, trying to
see what
was life when we lived in
community.I made one mistake.
I forgot about money.That's one
of the things,
so eventually, I ran out of
money.I had to do the thing
nobody wants to do,
call my mom and be
like,"Mom, I know I'm an adult,
but I don't have any money.Do
you mind if I come stay at
home
until I get back on my feet?"She
had a mobile home
in Clayton, North Carolina.I
went and she said,"Sorry, Tai, I
don't have a room for you,
but you can sleep on this
couch."So I remember laying
there at night,
like: "Did I mess up?Did I miss
out on the good life?Here I am,
I have no college degree.My
skills?
I could milk a cow with the
Amish."That wasn't a very
marketable skill.I remember I
 had like $47
in my bank account.I had a car,
but it had holes in the
floor.Somehow it had rusted
through,and if you accidentally
would put your foot down,it
would chop your foot off.
So I didn't want to drive it
anywhere,or pick anybody up in
that car.I remembered back to
what
my grandpa said, "Look
outwards."So I started asking
around:
"Will somebody help me?"My
uncle said: "You need
somebody
who'll show you how to make
money."So I was like, "Great
 idea.
I'm going to go find
somebody."But I didn't have
any gas money.I was stuck
there
at my mom's house. I had $40.I
walked to the kitchen.
That's what I could afford to
do.I found the yellow pages
and opened them up.I looked in
the finance section
and I found this guy.I said, "I'm
going to visit this guy."So I got
a suit out of the closet.It wasn't
mine, it was too big.
It looked weird on me.I don't
know what I looked like
when I showed up at that guy's
house.I got somebody to drive
 me in,I showed up and Kathy,
his secretary,
opened the door and I walked
back,and Mike Steinback, from
the phone book,
I walked up to him and I
said,"Mike, you don't know me.
If you show me what you
know,- you must know a lot
about money,
if you can afford a full-page
adin the yellow pages -if you
show me what you know
I'll work for you for free."I'll
never forget.
He was sitting in this chair.He
had a big mustache.
He looked kind of like Tom
Selick.He was sitting there,
 and he just rolled his chair
towards me.And he said, "You
know, Tai? I've been
looking for someone like you
for 20 years.Show up in the
morning,
I'll show you what I know."And
sure enough, he did show
me.And he began to mentor me
on business.And now I'm an
entrepreneur.
I'm an investor.But I've
continued on that path,
traveling, finding mentors,
reading.I read a book a day.I
have a little book club, I
write.And what I've found in
my research
is that I wasn't the abnormal
 path.Mentors - your ability to
copy -
is the biggest predictorof the
success that you will have in
life.As Picasso said, "Good
artists copy,
but great artists
steal."Right?And I looked
around, and it's interesting.Did
you know Albert Einstein
had a mentor?Every Thursday,
he would have
lunch with a mentor growing
up.Jay-Z, the rapper, he had a
mentor.Oprah Winfrey said she
had two mentors.Gandhi had a
mentor.Alexander, the Great,
had Aristotle.Bill Gates had
Paul Allen.Warren Buffet had
 Benjamin Graham.There's
something here
that most of ushave missed out
on.So I want to share with you
some things that I've
found,some specifics that you
can do with mentors.The first
rule,
I call it the Mentor Rules.It's the
Law of 33%.You should divide
up your life
and spend 33% of your
timearound people lower than
you.You can mentor and help
them.And they'll help you back
by making
you feel good about yourself.It's
good to know somebody's
doing worse than you. That's
that 30%.Then you have 33% of
people
that are on your level.These
become your friends, your
peers.But that last 33% is what
most people forget about.Those
are people 10,
20 years ahead of you.They'll
make you feel
a little bit uncomfortable,but
that's what you want, and
rememberyou don't want to
make the mistake
most people make with
mentors,finding somebody just
a little bit better than them.You
don't want to be the blind
leading the blind.So I call it the
10x rule; find somebody
 ten times further ahead than
you.If you want to learn how to
grow
a $1 million company,you have
to find somebody
who has a $10 million
company.Don't be afraid to go
to the top.In-person mentors are
amazing.And you can get
people
like Warren Buffet, Bill
Gates.You'd be surprised!My
friend Frank heard a talk.
He's a director in
Hollywood.He's like, "Tai, you
won't believe this.
I heard your talk and emailed
some people.And Elon Musk,
the founder of Paypal,the only
 man to own three companies
worth
$1 billion wrote me back and
we had lunch.You'd be
surprised,
because people remember.They
remember their struggle,
and they'll reach out and help
you, too.Remember, everybody
wants the good life,but not
everybody's willing
to follow these rules.You must
follow these rules.Next,
humility.One of my favorite
stories in business,
Sam Walton.He becomes the
richest man in America.He
starts Walmart, this big
empire.And he takes a trip to
 São Paulo, Brazil.And when
he's there, his host family
gets a call from the police
department.They're like, "Come
bail out
Sam Walton. He's in jail."By
this time, he's an older guy.
Billionaire.They rushed down.If
you've ever seen the inside
of a Brazilian jail cell,it's not a
good place
for a 60-year-old
billionaire.And they asked the
police, "Are you crazy?
Are you arresting him?"They're
like, "We didn't know who he
was,and we found him crawling
around
the floors of stores."They asked
him what he was doing,and he's
like, "I was just measuring how
wide the aisles were with a tape
measurer.I was trying to figure
out
if these Brazilians
knewsomething that I didn't
know."Already a billionaire.
You'd think he'd be cocky.You
see, everybody wants the good
life,but not everybody's willing
to be humble like Sam Walton
was.You have to be
humble.Next, perseverence.The
media has tricked us.They only
show us the success at the end,
but Bill Gates started at 12.It
wasn't until 31 years old
that he was a billionaire.He said
 from age 20 to 30,
he never took a day off. Not
even one.You must
persevere,and in your search for
mentors
you must persevere, as well.I've
been lucky to become
friendswith one of the top real
estate
investors in the world.I said,
"How did you get started?"He
said, "Back when he was 19,
I decided I wanted to do real
estate.I lived in a little town, but
there was
one developer who was pretty
good.So I went down to the
developer's office.
I met the secretary.I said, 'I'd
like to meet this developer.'She
said, 'Sorry. He's a busy man.
He doesn't have time to meet
you.'"He went back the next
day.
She turned him away.17
times!He said on the 17th time,
the lady felt bad for him and
she said,"Here's what you do.
Hide
behind the plant by the
elevator.When he comes out of
his office
at the end of the day,jump into
the elevator.And he won't have
a choice.
The doors will close.And
you've got four floors
to convince this guythat you're
worth talking to."I don't know
what my friend said,
but he said enoughthat when
they got to the bottom
of the elevator,that developer
said,
"Meet me at the airport in the
morning.We'll go down to my
private jet.
You can come down with me to
Florida.I'll show you how I
invested
in hotels down there."Sure
enough, my friend learned
from this mentorand became
one of the wealthiest
real estate investors in the
world.He persevered, because,
you see,
 everybody wants the good
life,but not everybody's willing
to persevere to get it.You must
persevere.Next, books.Books
you should see as hidden
treasure.Think about it,because
as I said,
mentors are great in person,but
some of the great mentors
are no longer alive -
Shakespeare, Darwin, Freud,
Mahatma Gandhi.But if I told
you all those people
were in my houseand they're
going to be there
this Saturday answering
questions,- magically I can
make that happen -
would you show up at my
 house?Of course everybody
would buy
a plane ticket and end up in
California.They are there in my
house.They're on my library.
They can be in your library,
too.Talking about Sam
Walton.This is a man who made
$160 billion for himself,more
than all the other billionaires,
basically, combined.He wrote a
book on his death bed.How
many people have read it?It's a
tragedy that not every
businessperson's read a $5
bookby a man who built an
empire.It's because the modern
education system
has turned people off from
 books.You have to rewire your
brain.
Let me show you a few quick
tricks.First thing: stop seeing a
book
like a one-time event.See a
book like a friend.You read it
over and over.
You come back.And just like
friends,
you pick a handful of them.I
recommend you find 150
books.There's 130 million.
You can't read that many.But
150 you can read over and over
for the rest of your life.There's
no rule, either,
at how fast you have to read
them,at what pace. I set my own
 pace.People say, "How do you
read
a book a day?"Sometimes I take
a week.But sometimes, books
only have
one or two things worth
reading.In fact, most books only
have that.So I'll flip through the
pages.I like to go through it
three times.First time, I read
the table of contents at the
back.The second time, I go a
little faster.The third time, I just
focus
on one chapter.See yourself like
a gold miner
just looking for that one
nugget.Then put it back on the
shelf.The average American
 buys 17 books a year.Maybe
reads one a month.
You should read at least one
book a week,because
remember,
everybody wants the good
life,but not everybody's
willing to read to get it.You
must read more.And lastly,
stoic versus epicurean.One of
the first books that I read, this
11-set volume I got from my
grandfather,there was a quote
that I wrote down."A nation is
born stoic
and dies epicurean."Stoics were
people
willing to sacrifice present
pleasurefor something better
 later.You could say they were
investors.Epicureans live for
now.They were
consumers.They said, "You
only live once."There's a
saying, "If you're in a roomand
you don't know who the sucker
is,
you're the sucker."You never
want to be the sucker.Guess
what the media wants to do.I
can tell you, I'm from
Hollywood.They bombard you.
We see on average 2,000 ads a
day.They're trying to sell you
something.Luxury comes at the
cost
of killing your hopes,your
dreams, your ambitions.So
 toughen up a little bit.Be a
stoic.When was the last time
you
went a week without eating
sugar?Or walked instead of
taken a car
to get groceries?Or did 100
push-ups?Or turned the air
conditioning off?Toughen
yourself up.
Take a cold shower.Everybody
wants, but not everybody
toughens up to get the good
life.You must toughen up.So in
closing,I'll share with you my
favorite poem,
Chief Tecumseh.He says,"Love
your life.Perfect your
life.Beautify all things in your
 life.Seek to make your life
long,and its purpose
in the service of your
people."Mentors will help you
do that.They are the shortcut
that you want.You don't want to
do it the hard way.Find a
mentor, no matter
if you're just starting outor if
you're already
experienced.There's always
someone to learn from.You
must follow those rules.Be
humble. Persevere.
Read more. Toughen
up.Remember, it's going to be
a little bit hard.It's like Tom
Hanks says
in that one movie,"It's supposed
 to be hard. The hard is what
makes it great. "If you do these
things,
you will find the good life.
Thank you.

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