GLENNApril 24, 2017

What 'School of Greatness' Author Lewis Howes Learned From the School of Hard Knocks

Lewis Howes, New York Times bestselling author and host of the wildly successful School of Greatness podcast, was named one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under 30. He went from making $250 a week and living on his sister's couch to being described as one of the five internet gurus who can make you rich. Bullied in school and challenged academically, Lewis joined Glenn in studio to talk about his amazing journey and the playground pivot point that drove him to success.

Enjoy the complimentary clip or read the transcript for details.

Glenn: School of greatness, one of the top podcast, over 30 million downloads, detail magazine calls Lewis Howes one of the five Internet gurus who can make you rich. Named one of the top 100 entrepreneurs under 30. At 33, he has built and sold several multimillion-dollar online businesses, and here's the reason why he's on this program. He's from Ohio, he went from having a dream of being a professional football player, it ended in a snap, if you will of his arm or wrist. He went from making $200 -- $250 a week having food stamps, so he had food on the weekend to living on his sister's couch for two years?

LEWIS: Year and a half.

GLENN: Year and a half. Two years later making over a million dollars a year. And it's all because of a mindset, and I want to pick up the conversation. We don't like to bring people in until they sit down on the chair as we're inducing them. But a mistake happened. And he sat down on the chair, and we started talking, and this is going to be a Frank and open conversation. Because he sat down and said something about my story that you read up about my story.

LEWIS: I'm so inspired about what you created and I'm always interested about the origin story of someone who's so driven, so successful, and who has a massive impact on the world. Usually, when someone has a huge impact on a lot of lives, something happened or a series of events happened.

GLENN: Correct. That drives them.

LEWIS: That drives them.

GLENN: And we were talking about my mom's suicide. And he said "Well-- I mean, I don't have that. But.

LEWIS: Yeah, I was sexually abused when I was 5, I was raped by a man that I didn't know. The baby-sitter's son. By 8, my brother went to prison for four and a half years selling LSD to an undercover cop. My parents were always arguing and fighting and eventually got divorced, and I was bullied in school because I was a special needs learning disability student, you know? I had dyslexia, hard to read and write. You know, I --

GLENN: Yeah, yeah, whatever. Did you hear that Stu, he had his front quarter panel that he had to replace in his car. When was that? About 1998?

STU: Yeah, insurance covered it but --

GLENN: So, please, stop your whining, man. Stop your whining.

LEWIS: Yeah.

GLENN: I'm really inspired by people who I like pivot points, you know? Pivot points tell me everything you need to know about a man. Because life is not about what happens to you. I know that sounds trite, but it's not. It's about that moment that you say "I'm at the brink. I'm right here on the edge. And I'm either going to jump -- or I'm either going to fall off and die, or I'm going to jump because I've got an idea, and I want to do a different thing."

What was your pivot point? Where was your low point?

LEWIS: Well, there were many. For whatever reason, when I was picked last in elementary school playing a dodgeball game on the playground; right? I was picked last, it was two captains. Two guys in my class, they picked all the guys on the team, except for me, and then they started picking all the girls.

GLENN: Oh, boy.

LEWIS: And I remember I was the last picked by default to get on the team. And at that point it was, like, third or 4th grade, and I was, like, I'm never going to be picked last again. I'm going to train my mind or body or brain so that this never happens.

GLENN: Wow. Because I continued to be picked last.

[Laughter]

I just kind of went dead inside. So that's an interesting choice to make.

LEWIS: Yeah, that was a moment of time. Now it's so long ago. But there were so many moments where I continued to try to improve myself whenever something bad happened, I was, like. Okay. What can I do -- this is feedback for me. How can I be better? How can I improve my life? So my vision was to be a pro athlete, you know? That was my goal to be in pro sports because that's all I really knew how to do. I wasn't good in school, so I was, like, what's the other option? If I can get paid to play football and hang out with my buddies, awesome. So I just trained every single day to do that.

GLENN: And you really didn't pay attention in school.

LEWIS: I tried, but I couldn't consume the information or retain it. So it didn't matter how many tutors I had, how much I studied, it was just exhausting. I would read a page over and over for 20 minutes, and I couldn't remember what I was reading. So it was just really terrifying. And terrifying for me to read aloud when the teacher would say read aloud. I would just miss the simplest words. So it was intimidating, scary.

GLENN: Humiliating.

LEWIS: Yeah, humiliating, I was already being picked on. So I couldn't wait until the bell at 3:30 to go on the sports team and just let it all out.

GLENN: So you were the stereotypical dumb jock.

LEWIS: Yeah, I was. I was. And it was challenging, but I found kind of my niche in school@.

GLENN: You didn't get into the NFL. You made it into arena football. You were making $250 a week. A little different than the NFL.

LEWIS: It was so brutal because every week they're bringing in new guys who have a dream to play. There's, like, no rules in the arena football league, pretty much. It's like bush league. People are going so hard. They're doing any cheap shots they can. The referees don't really care. It's like the wild, wild west of football. It's so physical, you're pretty much landing on concrete every play, and there's walls, you're constantly getting banged up.

GLENN: You break your wrist.

LEWIS: I played wide receiver, so I don't have into the wall trying to catch a ball and snapped my wrist.

GLENN: That was it.

JEFFY: Did you catch it?

LEWIS: I did not, so it was even worse.

STU: Does it count as a drop when you break your wrist? I don't think it does.

GLENN: I think it does. It does.

PAT: Arena football is interesting in that the wall is the sidelines; right?

LEWIS: Yeah.

JEFFY: Indoor war, baby.

PAT: Surprising more guys don't do that. Get hurt like that.

GLENN: So then you go from, you know, making $250 a week to making nothing, living on food stamps.

LEWIS: And I was in college debt. I didn't graduate college yet. This was in 2007 when I was injured, so ten years ago in August.

GLENN: Oh, good now you're right up to the financial crash in Ohio.

LEWIS: Exactly, exactly. I don't have a college degree because I left early to try to make the NFL draft. You know, I didn't really have any skills, besides playing football, but that was gone now. And, again, 2008 and 2009, they weren't hiring for people who had MBAs and degrees in the first place, so I was out of luck. And a mentor of mine, you know, my sister, bless her heart, she just let me crash there for a long time and eat her macaroni and cheese or leftover food that she had. And I was living off about three credit cards at the time, so I didn't have any money coming in.

GLENN: Hang on a second. Were you at that point, were you still this bright eyed guy that you are now? Or were you depressed and, like, I'm just not going to make it?

LEWIS: A little bit of both.

GLENN: Okay.

LEWIS: I was depressed and sad that my career was over, and I thought I was going to come back. I was in a cast, so I broke my wrist, they took a bone out of my hip and put it right here because the bone crumbled so much, so they couldn't put a screw in it. So I have a big scar here from the hip surgery, and I was in a cast from here to here for six months.

GLENN: From his shoulder to fingers.

LEWIS: So my fingers could move, my thumb was tight, so I could just do this.

GLENN: So anybody who was coming or going, you were, like, hey. See you.

LEWIS: What's up, guys. You know the movie rookie of the year? Ever see that baseball movie?

GLENN: Yeah.

LEWIS: The kid had an arm cast and had superhuman strength afterward. I wasn't like that.

STU: Was that a documentary? Because that --

GLENN: Surprisingly, that I believe was a Disney movie.

LEWIS: Yes, exactly. So six months like this on my sister's couch, no money, you know? No college degree. 2008, 2009. And it was just kind of -- I thought I was going to be able to come back. I was, like, I'm going to be able to make it, I'm going to be strong enough. And after the cast came out, it was another year of me recovering just so I could bend the elbow and the wrist to get a certain amount of strength. So I realized. Okay. I'm probably not going to go back to the arena league and make 250 bucks a week and make it to the NFL, two or three years later, it's not going to happen. It was already, like, a tough spot for me.

STU: Is that a tough moment of realization?

LEWIS: Really tough. It took years for me to overcome, like, the feeling every, you know, fall that came around football season, it was hard to watch the game because I would play against guys in the NFL, like, oh, they're making it and look at the money that they're making and look at the opportunities and look at me here.

GLENN: Jeffy's son was in the NFL.

LEWIS: Oh, yeah?

GLENN: And was out within an injury.

JEFFY: Within a year, it was the same kind of feeling. In the end, it's been difficult. It's been, like, three years now.

LEWIS: It's your identity of. It's what you wrap your whole life up in. And when you don't have that, it's hard to move forward and feel confident.

GLENN: I think that happens -- I mean, I'll be real honest with you. This will be everywhere. Stu was saying don't.

STU: There's no point in going into where you're going.

GLENN: You don't even know where I'm going.

STU: Yes, I do. I've known you too long. I know where you're going.

JEFFY: Yes, we do.

GLENN: You know, yesterday, Tucker Carlson takes Bill O'Reilly's spot. Well, you know, I was at 5:00 and the 5:00 show moved up to 9:00 and Tucker moves to 8:00. All great stuff. I'm so thrilled for all of them. I really am, and I wouldn't go back to fox. I don't want to go back. But it is a weird thing to see, you know, would have been, could have been, whatever, and it plays with you. It does play with you. But I think that happens in everybody's life. Whatever it is you do, you see good people that you like, and you're, like, I wonder if I could have -- I wonder -- you know what I mean? It's hard.

LEWIS: Yeah, there's a guy that I played against in college named Pierre Garçon who's still playing wide receiver, and I played against him in the national champions. I went to a small D3 school, and he was a stud in the other D3 school, and I broke all of these school records against him. He didn't even do that well. And at the end of the game, he says "You're the best wide receiver I've ever seen." And I was, like, "Wow. Okay."

This guy was playing in the NFL for ten years saying this to me, I was, like, what could have happened? What if I just made one practice squad and caught a touchdown and they're, like, we're going to keep you want to a two-year contract, understandable you just never know.

RADIO

Shocking train video: Passengers wait while woman bleeds out

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.

Glenn's Show Prep

What 'School of Greatness' Author Lewis Howes Learned From the School of Hard Knocks

Shocking train video: Passengers wait while woman bleeds out

Transcript

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

Here’s what we know about the suspected Charlie Kirk assassin