Robin Sharma On Becoming An Everyday Hero

Welcome to Let It Be Easy with Susie Moore.

Susie Moore:

I almost don't even know where to begin with this Robin Sharma introduction because I have loved him as a writer for many years, ever since my sister gifted me a copy of The Monk who sold his Ferrari when I was still in my twenties. I loved that book. I bought it for so many friends, and it was such an eye opening piece of literature for me because I started to understand so deeply how responsible I am for my own life experience and how my consciousness, my actions, my commitment to myself and fulfilling my potential is all within my hands. And the way that Robin Sharma writes and creates is so incredibly unique. You probably already know him, but if you don't, he is a globally respected humanitarian and the founder of a not-for-profit venture that helps children in need lead better lives. He specifically cares about ensuring kids no longer suffer from leprosy.

Now, wildly considered as one of the world's top leadership experts as well as an icon in the field of personal mastery. Robin Sharma is an incredible author of 13 books. He's an incredible speaker. He works with huge clients, and his books have sold millions over 20 million copies worldwide, and they've been translated into more than 90 languages, making him one of the most influential writers alive today. I've also had the privilege of getting to know Robin in person most recently actually meeting in Paris with my husband, his partner, and just speaking about all things life. And I can tell you that I've met people in real life having read their books or studied their work, and Robin is the real deal. He walks his talk, he cares about others. He is dedicated to his own mastery in his own path. And in this interview, I think that you'll find a lot of ideas to start actioning and to walk away with, for you to be able to be, do and have more of what it is in your very limited special life experience. We are speaking a lot specifically about his most recent book, the Everyday Hero Manifesto. And you're going to want pen and paper for this one because I've got a feeling you'll be taking lots of notes. Okay. With no more delay, I give you with such great joy, Mr. Robin Sharma,

Robin Sharma, Robin, Robin. Robin, what a joy to speak to you again. I've already recorded your intro. So our fabulous listeners know that you and I have had the pleasure of connecting in real life. And right before we hit record, we were sharing that we've met three years ago. Of course, a lot's changed in the world since then. My first question to you, Robin, is how are you doing now? It's 2022, midway through.

Robin Sharma:

Yeah, I'm doing great. Thanks for asking in a very creative cycle and spending a lot of time with family as well and moving things forward. And by the way, thank you so much for inviting me on your podcast, Susie, it's a pleasure to know you,

Susie Moore:

Robin. Well, I was thinking how do I want to frame up this interview because I love your books. I know you have 13 of them, and most specifically, we'll be speaking about the Everyday Hero manifesto today. But one thing I wanted to kick off with as I was really thinking about this was a lot of people will look at you, Robin, and they'll go, wow, over 20 million books sold. Having all these incredible keynotes having such influence and this huge contribution to humanity that you make, it must have always been easy. Maybe you were born under a lucky star and it was just so simple, no challenges. And I love, I think one of the things I've loved most about your story is how you got started at age 25 as a lawyer writing your own book, self-publishing it with your mom and dad's help. Could you talk to us a little bit about that and how you got started?

Robin Sharma:

Sure. And I still feel like I'm a beginner in many ways. And one of the things I wrote in the Everyday Hero Manifesto is thing about a mastery. She never thinks she's a master. She always thinks like a beginner, and I don't think you ever want to lose that white belt mentality, but for me, my life changed a number of years ago when I stood in Nelson Mandela's prison cell and I had a guide and the guide walked me through the limestone quarry and then the courtyard where the A NC prisoners would hide the manuscript of his autobiography, A long walk to Freedom. Then I went to the prison cell and I asked the guard, I said, did you know Nelson Mandela? And he said, I knew Nelson Mandela. And I said, what do you think of him? What was he like? And he said, well, oh, that man was a humble servant. And so I've been in this field 27 years, but I very much, I don't think, I've don't feel like I've achieved so much. For me, it's all about service and having an impact and pursuing my craft. But yes, I come from very humble beginnings on Instagram. I think two days ago I actually showed a picture of my little dining room where I had my first book. I don't know if you saw it.

Susie Moore:

I saw it, yeah.

Robin Sharma:

Literally there were 10 boxes of my first book, which I'd self-published. And I would go to bookstores and I'd say, can you take this one book or five books on consignment? Which as you know just means they don't buy the book, they take it, and if they don't sell it, you've got to come and pick it up. And it was a self-published book. I published it in a 24 hour coffee shop and I would go to rotary clubs and give speeches and presentations. And something really interesting happened, I mean you've heard that old idea, which is synchronicity is the universe's way of remaining anonymous. And I happened to be in a bookstore one night. It was a rainy night. My son Colby, we just spent the weekend together. He was about four years old at the time, and we were in a bookstore and I asked the manager, I said, can I sign the books?

They had no idea who I was. And they said, okay, sure. So I took the four copies, went to the front of the store, sign the book, because someone told me that when an author signs the book, the bookstore can't return it. And I had one arm holding Colby who was perched on the counter, and I was signing the book with my other hand, and I looked to the corner of my peripheral vision and there was a man watching the wool scene unfold. And he looked at the book and he said, oh, the monk who sold his Ferrari, that's a great title. Tell me your story. I said, I used to be a litigation lawyer, but this is my calling and I want to get this message out to help people do amazing things with their life. And he said, my name is Ed Carson. I'm the president of Harper Collins. And two weeks later, they bought the world rights to the monk who sold his Ferrari for the awesome sum of $7,500. I'm not saying it's not a lot of money, but that was the advance. And I went from there.

Susie Moore:

Robin, I love this story because so often people say to me, I love to be creative. I love to put beautiful things together, but I couldn't possibly go out there and talk about my work as if it's almost an option or as if there was some magic that other people had access to. But you are there at night in the rain with your son speaking. I think you also say in the book too, that your first live speaking event had 23 people and 21 were family members. There is nothing that isn't wonderful about starting small. Sometimes we're like, oh, but do I have to do the basic brunt work? I just go straight, straight to mastery, straight to jumping to the crowds of people who are dying to see me. And your story just really illustrates all of those steps. And you also say in the book that there was an author who you met with who discouraged you. And I mean, imagine that moment, Robin, if you just received that information, if you let it sink in. And to quote your book, you said this famous author was like, look, stick to law. It's safe. It's not for everyone to be a writer, but you say someone was going to write the next bestseller, why not me? For those of us who have experienced discouragement and advice about being practical, could you speak to that for a moment?

Robin Sharma:

I would say, Susie, the world has been constructed by impractical people.

We would not have the Sistine Chapel ceiling, we would not have the Eiffel Tower. We would not have Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, we would not have the internet, we would not have Tesla, we would not have the great inventions of the world, had the woman or man, listen to the critics. I think critics are degenerated dreamers when they were kids, they had a sparkle in their eye. They wanted to be astronauts, poets, writers, entrepreneurs, and they got knocked down and they didn't get back up. So first of all, I'd say you can change the world or you can listen to your critics. You can't do both. Second thing I would say is you have got to believe in yourself where no one on the planet believes in yourself until eventually the world believes in yourself. Every visionary was initially ridiculed, therefore they were revered. The very nature of I think a great dream or a mighty mission or an ethical ambition is it's so bold and so disruptive that the status quo laughs at you.

They laughed at the idea of the internet. They laughed at the idea of putting someone on the moon. They laughed at the idea that a human being could fly in an airplane. They laughed at the idea of the iPhone. It just goes on and on and on. And so I think the starting point is believing in your vision. I think your instinct is more powerful than your intellect, self-trust. You have an idea. It's your idea if your friends or boyfriend or girlfriend, husband and wife, whatever does not get you well. That's just their opinion. And may we not make the opinions of others more than simply the opinions of others. And then once you have the idea and you start developing the self faith, maybe it's through prayer, journaling, meditation, visualization, reading the books of heroes so we understand they were laughed at, then you've got to translate your ideation into execution. Otherwise it amounts to delusion. So a lot of people, it's I have an idea, but they're not willing to do the work to make the idea real. And I think far too many good souls want the rewards of world class without doing the work that world class requires.

Susie Moore:

It's so interesting, isn't it, because I think in a world of quick wins and social media, some people can accelerate quickly. And what I love about your work, Robin, is it's so much about mastery and the patience of that and the time that's required and what it demands of you as a human. And one of my favorite quotes too from you is that instinct is wiser than intellect. And how would you define instinct? Because sometimes I feel people go, well, maybe it's an idea, but it doesn't seem like it's reasonable and rationally this is what I know to be true. How would you advise someone on trusting their instinct and identifying within us what's when it's true? Real intuition?

Robin Sharma:

That's a brilliant question. I don't know how to answer that. I would say you'll know when I think this is what you're getting at. But there's the chattering voice of fear, and then there's the quieter voice of wisdom. And it's the more you practice. And sometimes you have to stumble to discern what's the ego or what's the voice of fear and what's the voice of truth? But if you are open and you're aware and you start paying attention and you look at when you stumble and you go, what was I listening to there? And then you look at what feels right to you. I mean, one of the models in the book before the Everyday Hero manifesto, I wrote a book called The 5:00 AM Club, and there was a model in there called Joy is a GPS. And I think that's a good way to trust, to know your instinct. It's the people, the places, the pursuits that bring you joy. That's where your soul, your wisdom, your finest self wants you to be. There's also a chapter in the Everyday Hero manifesto called a red flag is a red flag.

And this is important in business for entrepreneurs, but it's also important in relationships. And all too often we see a red flag, but we don't want to see it as a red flag because we want the person to be who we wish they would be, rather who they're telling us they are. And I think that's instinct as well, Susie. I think we can, if we really trust ourselves and we're honest with ourselves versus deceiving ourselves, we see that red flag and we go, oh, that's instinct telling me this is not the right relationship or the right business deal or the right place for me to be.

Susie Moore:

One thing that I especially enjoy about the Everyday Hero manifesto is there are so many chapters was of wisdom here that I haven't heard before. Often you read books about productivity, success, mastery, and when you speak about red flags, when you speak about mean, the threat of lifestyle complexity, when you speak about weekly sabbaticals, which I want to dive in with you today, it's so broad and helpful. It's a practical level, so useful and an inspirational level, so useful. And I think that you combine those two so well. It's not just like, go for your dreams and the rest will follow. And it's not just like, well take care of business in 20 minutes this and 60 minutes. That is that combination really important in your life being inspired and artistically called. And then also with the red flags for example, I know you say trust, but verify that's one of your pieces of advice. How do you combine the two in your work, the inspirational and the practical?

Robin Sharma:

And just to give credit where it's due, Ronald Reagan used to say, "trust, but verify". And that idea has been around for a while along with the Arabic proverb, pray to Allah, but tie your camel.

Susie Moore:

Yes.

Robin Sharma:

So why do I balance the two? Because I think the ideal human being, and I sure am far from that ideal human being, but I believe the ideal human being, the ideal entrepreneur, the ideal producer is part warrior and part poet. I think a great life is constructed on a foundation of part head being practical and tactical and realistic, part head and part heart. And it's just the way I try to live my life. I spent 16 months writing the Everyday Hero manifesto. I put my heart and my soul in it. You talk about patience, I rewrote it maybe 20 or 30 times. It was just like an obsession during the pandemic working on this book, this. But I want it to be inspirational. We must do our best to help people get to the mountaintop. Napoleon said, A leader is a dealer in hope.

If we lose our hope, we have nothing. We always must protect our enthusiasm and our optimism and our sense of possibilities. Inspiration's important. That's really, but also you can be hopeful, but if you don't have a tactical strategy, if you have poor habits, if you don't know how to execute, if you don't know how to produce things, then nothing gets done. So I believe Nelson Mandela said a strong head and a good heart is a formidable combination. And another thing you said, if I may just speak to it, in the Everyday Hero manifesto, there are a lot of fresh ideas and it is a very disruptive book. There's so many people in the personal growth field and the leadership sphere talking about mindset is everything. And we all due respect to those pundits. I don't believe mindset is everything. I think there's mindset and this word I'm teaching called heartset, and then there's healthset and then there's soulset. A lot of people are talking about hustle and grind. Personally, if you look at the science, the science confirms hustle and grind doesn't work. The most effective performers work in cycles of intense productivity and then they pull back and they renew. So I'm just trying to give people information that works versus ideas that might not help them move the needle forward.

Susie Moore:

And speaking of habits, you also say in the book that genius has less to do with your genetics and more to do with your habits. I know a lot of people go, well, she's just this remarkable speaker, or he's got this God-given charisma, whatever it may be. I agree with you, talent that we all have in varying degrees in different areas, it is quite meaningless without the right execution on our part. And could you speak to us a little bit about that, about the power of habits and how genius or talent isn't enough?

Robin Sharma:

Absolutely. I would say hard work beats genius every day of the week. You look at Kobe Bryant, I mean he is very well known for starting his training sessions at three 30 or four o'clock in the morning. He was known for that. One of my favorite documentaries, you've probably seen it, Susie, is the last dance. I mean Michael Jordan outworked everyone. So the whole backstory of genius is intense. First of all, a singular focus on the skill of mastery. And then secondly, Erickson, it's been popularized by other authors, but Anders Erickson of Florida State University was the researcher who actually came up with the 10,000 hour rule. And I mean it's worth revisiting that for 10,000 hours or the equivalent of that would be 3.44 hours of practice a day for 10 years is what is required for mastery. And it's what I was suggesting before with deeper respect for all of your viewers and listeners around the world, we want the rewards of world class. But after the fifth workout, we stop

And we sell ourselves a story that you're speaking about, which is Federer and Serena and Picasso and Basquiat and Mandela and Steve Jobs and Edison, these people or Oprah Winfrey or Madam Cury or Hedy Lamar. These people were cut from some kind of a mystical, magical cloth of genius that I just don't have. And that just isn't true. If you look at most people, let's say members of the majority, it's too easy to get caught up in trivial things. You look at most people, and I'm not judging 'em just reporting, but they're spending the finest hours of their greatest days chasing shiny toys that at the end of the career or lifetime, I don't think will amount to very much. And so it's the geniuses. They're focused, they train, they're masters of the polite. No, they get knocked down. They don't give up their sport, they stay in their sport, they have mentors, they have peers in the same field.

That becomes, it becomes an obsession. So I do want to emphasize that every single one of us has the potential to be world-class at something. But if we have a story that the masters are genetically gifted or lucky, I hear a lot of people say, oh, she was lucky. Well, that's a story. It's a story that's discounting that producers, that masters, hard work, grit, relentlessness, obsession with the skill. So our story about our potential determines whether we'll live our potential because if we think we have a story, I can't be the best in the world at whatever it is, then we're not even going to start the first workout.

Susie Moore:

And also, Robin, one thing that how you balance this too, which I think is very important, is you speak often about in your peak productivity strategies. I've got to hear on page 139 for those of you who have the book you speak about rest. And this has come up a lot in my community lately because often we think that rest is something that we earn or it's something that is a reward for reaching a specific goal. But you speak specifically about the weekly sabbatical. You say during a simpler period in history, one day a week known as a Sabbath was reserved for a vacation of sorts from one's labor, families united the puzzle pauses, books were read and meals were shared. The final standard operating system of the peak productivity strategies pyramid is getting exceedingly good at taking days off. I mean, first of all, massively overlooked. People don't talk about this enough. Can you tell us about what rest looks like for you? I know at this stage you like to take longer stretches where possible, you say a week and month isn't an incredible goal. And could you speak about the role of rest in your life while you balance of course, mastery and creating and always wanting more?

Robin Sharma:

Well, I would say if you want get a lot done, if you want to get a lot done, become a professional rester.

Susie Moore:

Could you say that again?

Robin Sharma:

I said if you want to get a lot done, become a professional rester. There's an idea that I teach that has transformed the lives of my clients. I introduce it in the Everyday Hero manifesto. It's called the Five Great Hours Rule. You see, it takes a lot of people, if not most producers, eight days, 10 days to get five world-class, hours of work done. I'm talking about genius grade level work done. So what I've encouraged my clients to do, and I write about it in the book, is just work five hours every day, 8:00 AM to one o'clock. But when you work, be monomaniacal focused on the work, set yourself up so there's no distractions, so there's no notifications on your phone. Understand the difference between fake work in real world work, get lost and do beautiful work. And then after five hours of deep mono manically focused creative labor, go for a massage, take a nap, hang out with your kids, go to an art gallery, read a book, scro your stomach, go out and walk in nature.

So I would say if you want to get a lot done, become a genius grade rester. I would also say rest is not a luxury. Rest is a necessity. And there is this mindset in society today that if you want to be a tight enough industry, if you want to be domain dominant, you need to work 24 7. Let's go to some of the great research of the Energy project. They have found that the most productive people are much more like sprinters than marathoners. If you were to look at some of the Olympians, their secret weapon, their work rest ratios. So it's really important to work really hard when you work and then rest. What does it look like? For me, I do run the five grade hours rule. If I'm writing a book, I'll start at eight o'clock. And if I get four or five hours where I go into flow state and I'm exhausted at the end of those five hours, I'm not talking only cognitively, but emotionally, physically and spiritually.

That's great. And then I'll take a nap. I live the two massage protocol that I talk about in Everyday Hero Manifesto. Fridays are generally what I call device free days. So from the first thing I do when I wake up at 5:00 AM on Friday, the device is off and Ellen and I will go for a lunch at our favorite restaurant on Fridays. Friday mornings I might sit in the sun and read or write in my journal and I won't have my devices around me. So that would be an example of a weekly sabbatical past 15 years I've taken from the last week of June until the last week of August. I've blocked it out every January and I will travel. And Haruki Murakami, the great Japanese novelist said, when I'm not working, when I'm not writing my novel, I'm actually writing my novel. Because during that fallow season, the ideas incubate and a great farmer understands that to have a great harvest, you've got to have a great fallow season.

And so I take two months off in the summer to go to art galleries, to travel to talk to people, and then I come back strong because the key to Legendary is longevity. And so you want to be one of those people who do not lose their spark and their game and their hunger to optimize their craft after a couple of years because you burn out. You want to be like Def Leppard, like you two, like the Stones, like Jay-Z, not only two years at world class. You want to create an entire career at world class, which is really very rare.

Susie Moore:

And speaking of social media and your device free Fridays, I think that people have this idea that I could go one day a week without a device or that's available to me, but yet it rarely happens. And I also discovered that the average American spends two hours and 40 minutes a day on social media, on social apps, and we haven't got time to learn other languages. We haven't got time to create, to write a book or to work on our speech, whatever it may be. What's your relationship outside of those Fridays? I'm sure people are curious, what's your relationship like on social media? You have a great active page. I love watching your stories. That's actually what I want to speak to you about today about happiness. But how do you manage it every other day, generally speaking?

Robin Sharma:

Well, I'm just very aware when I pick up my phone and I have those timers that you can set it for. Let's say it's Instagram, you set it for 30 minutes a day. And I use, I'm just very strategic and very deliberate and very willful in my use of social media. I think social media and technology is an incredible servant and it's a horrific master, but I think we live in the greatest. I know there's wars and I know there's plagues and I know there's social divisiveness and there's a lot of problems in the world. But also, Susie, you can change the world with a phone. You can start a look at you, what you've done using technology. You can be 17 years old and get a little mobile device. Start a channel where you not only make your fortune, you serve the world and distribute beautiful content that helps people. So I think we live in a really wonderful time in many ways, and that often gets looked. My relationship with technology is I think I'm an introvert at heart and I really like my quietude and I really like nature and I really, I'm old school in many ways. I love, I love books. I mean Around Me are real like the tactical books. So I don't really have much of a problem with it, but we all know about the addictions of it.

You mentioned some research. I was reading the Financial Times yesterday and they were talking about people's relationships with technology. And these researchers tried to do an experiment where they wanted to look at what happened to people if they actually turned off all their notifications over an extended period of time. And I'm not kidding you, they had to cancel the experiment because they couldn't get any people who would accept turning off their phones for more than few hours. So I mean, it'd be very tactical on your device, free Fridays, you can take your phone, put it in a little bag or put it in the trunk of your car or put it in your refrigerator. I don't know, but put it in some place or maybe like a little bag where you have a label on it, which is do not touch this at the price of your own good health. Because I think if you look at geniuses, they all had one thing in common. They spent a lot of time alone without distraction. And so if you want to be super productive, it's important to get lost. Reading this great book, the Splendid and the Vile about Winston Churchill, he would get lost at checkers.

The great artists, they all had their retreats. Basquiat had his work studios. So we must find our places where we get lost from the world. I mean, I think it's important to spend a lot of time in the wilderness if you want to be really good in the world.

Susie Moore:

I remember from the 5:00 AM Club, Robin, one of my favorite sentences from it was Tranquility is the new luxury of our society. Because I mean, there isn't really a moment. Well, and it's easy to have that kind of passive language. I just get sucked in. I don't have a, but really we are, like you said, it's a wonderful servant but a terrible master. And sometimes I think we forget, we just forget. We think it's required. We don't want to miss an opportunity. We don't want to miss something that could be, I always like to joke with my people, if the queen calls, you'll know if the queen's inviting you to tea, you'll know something so urgent and big won't happen. And if you take a day off, it'll be okay. But it's interesting how also too, Robin, I'm sure sometimes just being who you are in the world, someone who focuses, takes breaks. It's not the most common thing. So it's also an act of bravery to do this. It is almost like an act of courage standing out, being almost considered rebellious to take a long break, maybe privately retreat for a while. Is that something that you still encounter when you meet new people? Like, ooh, you spend so much time alone. Ooh, you are so interesting. We work all the time.

Robin Sharma:

There's a line in the Everyday Hero manifesto, and it's to have the results, only 5% of the population has, we must be willing to do what 95% of the population is unwilling to do. And I'm not judging, I'm just reporting. But if you want to be really productive, and this is not only about productivity, but if you want to be uber productive and then have the psychic joy and the satisfaction of pursuing a craft and knowing that your labor serves the world, and if you want to have more free time to do the things that fill you with joy, then I think you have to be unorthodox because I think it is a reality. Most people, they have their notifications on, they're very consumed with social media. Too many good people are masters of entertainment versus good students of education. Too many good people are busy being busy going through the paces and they've lost the sparkle in the right. And so I think if you look at how a lot of people behave and you do the opposite, I think you're going to get great results. That does require bravery. It does require you to be comfortable in your own skin. It does require you to be okay with being called strange, weird, and eccentric. But you know what? The world has been built by strange, weird, and eccentric women and men,

Susie Moore:

Speaking of what it takes to stand out and live true to yourself. One of my favorite chapters in the book is the 40 by 40. So it's page 1, 4 5, 1 4, 6. I love this. I love lists like these, Robin, it's called 40 Things I'd Wish I'd Known at 40. I'd like to share with you a couple of my favorites and to have you expand on them, if that's okay.

Robin Sharma:

Of course.

Susie Moore:

Okay. The way people make you feel when you interact with them tells you everything you need to know about them.

Robin Sharma:

I don't know how much more I could add to that. I think we've all met people who make us feel small. And of course someone could say, well, that's your stuff. You've got to make yourself feel bigger inside. And there's truth to that. And yet we're humans and the human condition is a flawed condition. And I've encountered people sometimes they've been my heroes and they haven't made me feel good. And I think it's worth paying attention to that because you want to be like Nelson Mandela who left every person he met bigger than he found them. And I've been blessed to have met people like that. They were just so secure in their own skin, such teachers of wisdom, bravery, and love, that they s shine a light on everyone else around them. And there's not so many people like that in the world anymore, but I think we should pay attention to that. The people who make us feel bigger, and then the people who make us feel smaller. And I think if you want to change your life, you basically pull out your journal and you do a list of the energy vampires, and then you do a list of the, let's call them the joy inflators, the people who make us feel good. And you strip out out of your life the energy vampires and you refill your life with the Joy Inflators, watch what happens to your positivity, creativity, productivity, prosperity, sense of humanity.

Susie Moore:

Oh my gosh, I agree, Robin. We recently had Laurie Gottlieb, the therapist on the podcast, and she said, before, I want to diagnose someone as depressed. I make sure they're not surrounded by assholes. Interesting. And I love the story that you share in the book too. It was an athlete, he was at the airport, it was a rush and someone wanted to stop and take a picture. And he did. And you asked him, he said, you're so gracious and stopped for that family. And he said, it takes a little to make people happy. And I would also like to say, Robin, that when we were together in New York having a lovely walk, there was a waiter who we came across in the street who served you the night before at dinner, and you stopped him and asked him something about his personal life. I think he was doing something that evening and I was like, wow, Robin, really? I mean, not that there's anything to prove, but I was just the real deal right here, checking in with a guy who was just also so happy to give you an update. I'm not sure if you even remember that. You probably don't. But kindness.

Robin Sharma:

I think it comes down to we're all brothers and sisters on a very small planet in a galaxy with trillions of other galaxies. And I think I want to give credit to the person you mentioned. His name is Pau Gasol and he was the former center of the Los Angeles Lakers, and he had attended one of my weekend events and I was taking him to his gate at the airport, and I just watched this man in action and he stopped for everyone. And he did say that to me. He said, it takes so little to make someone happy. Also reminds me of another experience I had that I wrote about in the Everyday Hero Manifesto. I was in the Dubai Airport, I got into the elevator and there was this gentleman who had a baseball hat, and if you're a motocross or fox motocross, and I used to race motocross when I was younger, and I wanted to say, great hat, but how much do we miss in life because of our fear of rejection?

Just think about that. How much do we miss connections and opportunities and friendships and love stories and businesses because we're afraid of a no? Anyway, so I got it right in that moment, and I said to him, I go, you've got a great hat. I love it. And without thinking, Susie, he took the hat off and gave it to me, and I show the picture in the book, but without even thinking he gave it to me. So I'm not trying to say that I'm anyone special, but I was in Cairo three weeks ago. I went in the men's room in the domestic, excuse me, the international men's room terminal, and there was a restroom attendant, and he looked at my kway jacket. It was one of those little kway jackets, the windbreakers. And he goes, cool. And without thinking, I gave it to him because that man in Dubai taught me a really good lesson. So I think so little is required to make people happy. I think it's a good way to go through life.

Susie Moore:

And I love too what your dad, I know that your father was, is this huge mental for you, such a guide, and I love what you shared that he put in a letter for you. I can read it or would you like to share it?

Robin Sharma:

I think you better read it. I don't remember off the top of my head.

Susie Moore:

It's about understanding what pertaining to this conversation that when you are born, everyone around you is rejoicing and you're crying and you want to live your life in such a way that when you die, you are rejoicing and everyone around you is crying. I mean, oh.

Robin Sharma:

Yeah, he said, Robin, when you were born, Robin, when you were born, you cried while the world rejoiced  he said, son, live your life in such a way that when you die, the world cries while you rejoice. And my dad turned 85 a week and a half ago, and I learned so much about my dad. He was a family doctor for 45 years. And I said, why did you keep practicing so long? And he said, because my patients needed me. So I mean, one thing I really believe in is good mentors. And I think these people we've been talking about, they really can influence and remind us about what's most important in life. So yeah, you're right about that point from that chapter. It's like trust how people make you feel.

Susie Moore:

Yes. And the perspective too of your life. I mean, I always like to think when I'm 19, when I look back, I want to think, oh gosh, I gave everything. I was generous. I maybe speaking of the Let It Be Easy podcast, maybe I brought some ease to some people maybe that was available. And I think that the perspective too, and the Everyday Hero manifesto was what we're getting. It's like we're present now. We do what we can now, but also the end will come inevitably. And so how will we have lived? How will we have lived? And going back to this list that I love, oh, here's another one that I like. The activities and places that fill you with joy are the activities and places where your wisdom wishes you to be.

Robin Sharma:

Again, I believe we have a lower self, call it our reptilian self, our animalistic self fight, fight, flight, freeze response, amygdala, limbic hijack, the fear hormone, cortisol. We could get in all that neuroscience, neurobiology, but we also have a higher self. And it's easy in this complicated, volatile, busy world to get disconnected with who we truly are. But that is who we truly are. I believe we are born into magic. We get resigned into frustration, and we're born into possibility. And then we experience micro and macro trauma, which if we don't know how to heal it and work through it, it causes us to contract. Then we're 25, 35, 85, and we're in a shell, and we're disconnected to our love, our genius, our creativity, our productivity, our humanity. And so when we connect with that higher part of us through solitude, prayer, meditation, working with a spiritual counselor, massage, sweat lodges, reiki, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, all these different modalities, we rebuild the relationship with our finest self. And once we rebuild that relationship with our best selves, well then our relationship with our loved ones, our friends, money, our community, productivity, creativity, and society represents that fundamental relationship. So I think when we go, for me, we talked about it off air, but when I land at Fiumicino in Italy, and I walk off the plane, I go, I think it's like a past life connection or something.

And forgive me if people don't believe in that, that's fine. But I personally, I think it's probably true.

Susie Moore:

We actually just had Oprah's past life reader on the podcast too, saying There is connections when you feel deeply connected with the country. And often the opposite too. If you feel a real repulsion against a certain place, it's because there's a past life connection.

Robin Sharma:

Yeah. And there's a great book you've probably read. It's called Seat of the Soul by Gary. Oh,

Susie Moore:

Yes, yes, yes, yes, love.

Robin Sharma:

And one of the things I learned from that book was he said, let's say you have a facility and a love of piano. Well, maybe you were a maestro, a virtuoso in a previous life, but if people don't believe it, I don't want them to shut down because there's an idea that causes them to dismiss everything else I've been saying. So I'll simply say, trust your gut. There's lots of good science on the gut, the instinct, the third brain science confirms we have the cognitive brain, we have a brain in the heart, we have a brain in the gut that's instinct. And so there are places you go to where you just feel alive. Trust that that's where your wisdom wants you to be. There are people that we meet the first time we meet them, could be in love, it could be his friendship. We just go, I don't know what it is, but I have just feel I've known you my whole life. Trust that. And then there are pursuits where when we do them, time just passes. We enter flow, state, trust that, I mean, imagine if we fill our lives with the people, places and pursuits that light us up and we do the corresponding exercise we remove from our life, the people, places, and pursuits that destroy our joy. That idea right there, if any one of your listeners were to do it with excellence, rigor, and follow through is completely life-changing.

Susie Moore:

Yes. And part of, I mean, I learned not long ago that the word passion, the origin of the word passion means to suffer. And this is also part of the conversation. What is it that you are willing to suffer for? If you want to create something great, it won't just be up into the right expansion, ease all the way. That's certainly no path is like that, which is also why I love to read different stories, different autobiographies. But one other thing you say in this list is when you feel most, which can happen sometimes I think when you're really pursuing your path and other people don't understand you, you say that when you feel most alone, your higher power is closest to you. Is that how you felt in different cycles of your life?

Robin Sharma:

Absolutely. During my seasons of greatest suffering and during my long walks in the valley of darkness, when I experienced great difficulty in my life, first of all, that's when, that's what cracks the ego. Rumi said a beautifully Susie, he said, keep breaking your heart over and over and over and over again until it opens. And so for me, the times that have broken my heart have been the times that have opened my heart. And it's during my seasons. To borrow a phrase of Khalil Giran, the great Lebanese poet in my seasons of sorrow is when I connected to my finest self. And then you get your days in the sunshine and you get to bring all of the gifts you've learned about who you truly are into the seasons of sunshine. And that's why a lot of the, I mean, there are a few chapters in the Everyday Hero manifesto that speak to the incredible value of hardship.

The ego in our society says, don't suffer. Don't suffer for your craft. Don't suffer heartbreak, rush into the next activity. What I would suggest is when you're in one of those seasons of pain, I know this is counterintuitive, but stay in it. Let the pain be your purification. We cannot experience a resurrection without a crucifixion. The old part of us must die for the better part of us to be born. And what I've found is when the old part of me died, maybe whatever, through a painful time, what I learned and who I became and what I purified found its way into my next book, my writing evolved, my relationships evolved, my connection with strangers evolved. So I believe we must use suffering and actually exploit the suffering to burn off the fear, the ego, the shame, the disappointment, the sadness. Let the current pain touch the old pain. So you process through it and release it and become reborn anew. And people say, well, what about productivity? I'm an entrepreneur. What could be more valuable to your prosperity? Impact, performance, productivity. Then letting go of the baggage that was keeping you small.

Susie Moore:

You say too in the book that a difficult day for the ego is a splendid day for the soul. And I think that we don't want to face that. We're like, this has to be over. How do I fix it? Who can help? What can I drink? What can I eat? Where's my phone? I need to go a million miles an hour. But like you said, the gift, I mean, we don't see it in the moment though. The gift, like you said, it evolves. You become a better writer. You use the pain creatively. But when we're in it, because it has been a difficult couple of years for everybody, and I think that for anyone who's feeling like I'm having a difficult day or I'm having a difficult season, is there anything that you tell yourself while you are in it? I know you say exploit it, stay in it. Is there anything, do you also remind yourself that it's temporary or is there a practice that you have during more challenging experiences in your life?

Robin Sharma:

Well, there's a very old idea, which is rough seas make great sailors. So pretend we're sailors. Well, the first storm we freak out, but the 1000th storm or the 50th storm, we know we can get through the storm. We know how to handle that wave. We know how to run our navigation systems. We develop an ease, a facility, a fluency, and eventually a mastery with dealing with difficulty. So the key is to begin, well, we don't have to begin. We all have bad days. But the key is to start the process of how can I learn from this bad day? What are the tools that will help me navigate this bad day? We can get into them. For me, if I'm having a bad day, prayer is incredible. If I'm having a bad day, a nap never hurts.

Susie Moore:

Agree.

Robin Sharma:

If I'm having a bad day, a walk in nature for one hour, incredible. If I'm having a bad day talking to my partner about it to get it out of my system, amazing. If I'm having a bad day, I'll get on an elliptical machine and sweat it out. So now the question, what happens if you're having a bad year? What happens if you're having a bad decade? Well, you use these tools, but it starts with the awareness that a difficult time has great gifts in it. I mean, I talked about in the book, I was once on a flight to Paris and I was sitting next to an artist and he said, I pick relationships that break heart. And I said, why do you do that? And he said, oh, because in the heartbreak, I do my best work. So if you look at the greatest human beings who've graced the planet, they've suffered the most. Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, mother, Teresa, MLK, these people suffered. I'm not minimizing it, but we have a bad day that they spend 27 years in confinement. And yet every single picture you see of Nelson Mandela after he was released from prison, he's smiling.

Susie Moore:

Robin, I could keep you forever. I've got to look at the time because I feel like, I mean, I hope you'll come back on the podcast truly because be a

Robin Sharma:

Pleasure.

Susie Moore:

There's so much more I want to talk to you about. But I love to end the Led Be Easy podcast with a rapid fire round of quick, a few quick questions if you are up for it. Sure,

Robin Sharma:

Absolutely. Wonderful.

Susie Moore:

Before we do that, where is the best place to be able to find you, connect with you, follow you?

Robin Sharma:

Sure. The Everyday Hero Manifesto is available on Amazon. People are loving the audiobook, so that's Audible. Audible. They can follow me on Instagram, and if they want to get regular videos and mentoring and great value, they can sign up for my email list at Robin Sharma, R-O-B-I-N-S-H-A-R-M a.com. We put out a lot of really great videos and teaching programs that speak to all of the ideas that we've covered in this amazing conversation we've had. I've really enjoyed it.

Susie Moore:

Oh my gosh, me too. And also for everyone, this book, I feel like it should be $5,000. What You Share. So many, like I said, so many practical pieces of information, actionable steps that we can take incredibly inspirational stories from your life, from other people's lives. You also share your favorite movies, documentaries, books. I mean, everything's curated here for us. So thank you, Robin, for this marvelous creation. Can't wait for the next one. Welcome Hope. That's on the books, but okay, we'll kick off our final round now. Okay. What would your very last meal be?

Robin Sharma:

Oh, I've had that conversation with people. There's actually a book about last meals of famous chefs. I would say it would be a splendid piece of mozzarella, dela buffalo mozzarella, fresh from the farm to start off with some olive oil over it. And then a plate of good pasta, fresh pasta, simple Pomodoro sauce. And I'd finish it with maybe some nice fruit with some nice cream or gelato.

Susie Moore:

I love how it's not like a, Ooh, lemme think a place in the world. You still really want to visit

Robin Sharma:

Tokyo.

Susie Moore:

Oh, interesting. Tokyo, beautiful place. When people think of you, how do you want them to feel

Robin Sharma:

That he's a humble servant, that he's honest and that he really cares about?

Susie Moore:

How would someone who knew you well as a kid, describe you back then?

Robin Sharma:

I think full of energy, very talkative and maybe a little quirky.

Susie Moore:

Oh, speaking of quirks, what is a quirk that you have now as an adult that only those closest to you would know about?

Robin Sharma:

I fast a lot. I really love fasting, and there's great science about it. I dunno if you know this, but fasting releases, brain derived neurotrophic factor, key to longevity, caloric restriction, a lot of research coming out about it. Just amazing. But I mean, people close to me just they say, wow, you really fast a lot.

Susie Moore:

Fascinating.

Robin Sharma:

Saves on the grocery bill too.

Susie Moore:

Hidden benefit, an item in your home. You can't live without

Robin Sharma:

My books.

Susie Moore:

Okay, finish this sentence. Success is

Robin Sharma:

Service.

Susie Moore:

And then finally on the Let It Be Easy podcast. What's one thing you do consistently that allows your life to be easier?

Robin Sharma:

I am a card carrying member of the 5:00 AM Club.

Susie Moore:

Robin Sharma, thank you so much. Until next time. Bye-Bye for now.

Robin Sharma:

Thanks so much.