18

Click here to load reader

Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

MOJO : HOW TO GET IT , HOW TO KEEP IT , HOW TO GET IT BACK IF YOU LOSE IT (Unplugged)

A conversation between Marshall Goldsmith & Moe Abdou

www.33voices.com

Page 2: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 1

About Marshall Goldsmith & Moe Abdou Marshall Goldsmith

Marshall Goldsmith is corporate America’s preeminent executive coach and the New York Times of 22 books, including What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – a Wall Street Journal #1 business book. Dr.

Moe Abdou Moe Abdou is the creator of 33voices — a global conversation about things that matter in business and in life. [email protected]

www.33voices.com

Page 3: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 2

I have a few questions that I want to get your perspective on. The first one is really simple because you’re one of the happiest people that I’ve ever met and that I ever get to speak to. I have to ask you, how do you stay that way?

Number one, I am a Buddhist. There are many schools of Buddhism. So when somebody says they’re a Buddhist, it doesn’t tell you that much. My school is a simple school. It’s basically, find happiness and meaning now.

I think the great Western disease is I’ll be happy when I get the car, the status, the money, the BMW, the achievement, the condominium. I’ll be happy when we all have the same win. We’re going to die eventually. I think the secret of life is find happiness, contentment and meaning now, and not next week, not next month or not next year.

By the way, many Western people misinterpret what I just said to mean you have to be happy every second of all eternity. That’s not what it means at all. You only have to be happy this second, now.

But you know one of the things you talk about in all of your work specifically in this book is that typically as human beings, at least Westerners, is our default response in life is typically not to experience that happiness.

No, our default reaction in life is to experience inertia. We all tend to go where we’ve been going, and do what we’ve been doing, be what we’ve been being. It is very hard for us to break this incredible spell of inertia. One of the great challenges is learning how to break that spell of inertia and achieve happiness and contentment where we are, not next week.

From your perspective personally, what do you do to not have to deal with that inertia from a day to day?

A couple of things, one thing I do is I have a coach. I have this daily question process. If anybody would like a copy of my questions, just send me an email at [email protected]. I’ll send you a copy of them. My coach asks me questions everyday, 24 questions. Every question has to be answered with yes, no, or a number. You put it on an Excel spreadsheet. It’s very simple to do.

The first question everyday is how happy were you yesterday on a 1 to 10 scale; and, how meaningful is yesterday. How many times yesterday did you try to

www.33voices.com

Page 4: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 3

prove you were right when it wasn’t worth it? How many angry or destructive comments did you make about other people yesterday? How many minutes did I walk? How many pushups? How many sit ups? They are a bunch of basic questions about life.

I find this to be a very, very useful process. I have something in the book called the MOJO Meter which I have. I get constant reminders to go through the day at the end of every interaction. Two questions, how happy was I and how meaningful was this? Everyday, I get this ongoing reminder to keep doing things that make me happy and provide meaning.

So your 24 questions stay consistent and his 17 stay consistent?

They may change over time. One question I used to ask was did I plan my day? I found out I was just wonderful at day planning. I never did anything too much that was on the plan but I was very effective at planning my day. Now I ask on a 1 to 10 scale how effectively did I execute my plan for the day. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a 10 in my whole life.

There will be a lot of entrepreneurs who are going to have the opportunity to listen to this podcast and read the text of this. One of the biggest takeaways for me personally is to be able to find a friend to do this with. How would you recommend that if two entrepreneurs want to work together to do what you and your coach do each day? How do they begin? Do they follow your questions? Is there a thinking process that you would encourage them to follow to get started with this?

I would say, number 1, they write their own questions. You can get a copy of my questions to give you some ideas. But the idea behind the process is you write your own questions. The second thing I would suggest is whoever they do this with it doesn’t have to some kind of technical expert.

It just needs to be somebody that they like to be around and somebody who they feel will be looking out for their own best interest and somebody who doesn’t have a political agenda.

Is there a particular time of day that you do this?

No, it depends when you’re available?

So with your travels, do you still find time to do it?

www.33voices.com

Page 5: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 4

Sure.

That’s why you’re Marshall Goldsmith. You say in MOJO that MOJO is about achieving two simple goals; loving what you do and showing it. Yet, I’ve been in the business for a long time, I don’t know a whole lot of people at least that I’ve been around who love what they do as much as you talk about. Is there a shift taking place certainly to the people who get exposed to your material?

I think that actually most of the great leaders I work with do love what they do and they do communicate this to others and they do a good job of it not a bad job. If you look at three leaders I’ve worked with who I put at the top of the list. One is Frances Hesselbein , former CEO of the Girl Scouts; Alan Mulally who is now CEO of Ford and General Eric Shinseki who was head of the U.S. Army, who is now head at Veteran Affairs.

I’ve been around these people a lot of hours and I’ve never seen any of them be downbeat or depressed. They’ve always found meaning in what they’re doing. I would imagine when General Shinseki got his leg blown off, I’m sure he didn’t complain. That’s just not who he is. I think that the people I worked with who are the best or people who really focus on communicating the sense of, I’m really happy to be here and this is meaningful to everyone around them. Because, think of the opposite message.

Let’s say you’re an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur by the way is even more important than a corporate person. Because when you’re an entrepreneur, that message is not just about you, the company is you if you’re an entrepreneur. It’s all connected. I think very important for the entrepreneur to communicate, you know, this is important. My work is important. I’m happy do to this.

A lot of entrepreneurs wonder why their kids don’t want to go into the business. The reason is obvious. They come home at night and they whine and bitch and moan and complain and they talk about how bad their lives are. Their kids say, “I don’t want to do that. You don’t have enough money. Why would I want to live like you?” We don’t think about the message we send to the people around us when we don’t communicate this sense of happiness and meaning. Not just the message to ourselves but to the message to everyone we touch.

You’ve been advocating for a long time and certainly in MOJO that there needs to be harmony between internally what you feel inside and certainly what you show outside. I find it difficult sometimes for people to feel that

www.33voices.com

Page 6: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 5

internal happiness. I don’t know if it’s the struggle and most people haven’t been able to master their minds yet. But the internal piece seems to be a lot more difficult.

I think what happens here is we just get lost. We just get lost and forget what matters in life. I mean the people that you and I meet on a scale of people who have less in history of the world, are pretty much all way up in the top 10%. I mean, if they’re not happy, whose fault is it, right? These people aren’t starving to death.

Many of the people you’re talking about are healthy. They have families. They have plenty of food. Their incomes are in the top 10% of any human who ever lived. If you can’t be happy, whose fault is it? Look in the mirror.

By the way, if you look at studies of wealth and happiness in the United States, over 70,000 bucks a year doesn’t matter anyway. There is no correlation between wealth and happiness after that. The common misconception people who win the lottery are happier. No they’re not. Five years later, no increase in happiness.

When you mentioned the ingredients for MOJO in particular and you talk about identity, you talk about achievement, you talk about reputation and you talk about acceptance. I believe while a great number of us probably don’t really know who we are, acceptance to me seems to be a really difficult one. I’d like to get your perspective on that notion.

I’ll give you one concept about acceptance that I found incredibly helpful for me and it was thought to me by Peter Drucker. This sounds amazingly simple and obvious. That so few people ever get this at a deep level. Every decision in the world is made by the person who has the power to make the decision. Make peace with that. Not the best person or the right person or the fairest person or good person or logical person. Every decision is made by that person. Well, that person is the decision maker. Once you make peace with that, life is a lot better. Your job is to influence that person if that decision is important to you and treat that person like a customer. But not to go through life judging or critiquing other people for who they are. People are who they are, make peace with that. Once you make peace with that, life is a lot better.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever said this to yourself? I am amazed that someone at that level followed by this weird crazy does dumb things or isn’t fair. Have you ever said these words to yourself?

www.33voices.com

Page 7: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 6

Of course.

I want to point out how completely idiotic that sense is. Have you ever read a history book in your life, yes or no?

Yes.

In the history of the world, most people at these exalted levels have been women or men?

Men.

Have they been younger or a little older?

Older.

Is there anything in the history of the world that indicates you take a bunch of old men, you give them incredible amounts of status, money, and power, they begin to act excessively sane and rational. Did you read that book?

Not yet. I’m waiting for you to write it.

Just waiting for that book. We talk about life as if somehow, people who have power is supposed to be sane and rational and good and logical. Why would you believe that? What in the history of the world would lead you to believe that’s true? They’re just as crazy as anybody else is. They’re just crazy with status, money, and power.

It’s a very interesting perspective.

Yeah, once you make peace with that, life is a lot better. How much of our energy is wasted complaining about politicians or sports coaches or God knows what, stuff we have no control over. Yet, we’re just wasting our lives complaining about all these things. What is the matter, for what?

One survey I had on the book, I said, what percent of all interpersonal communication time is spent on A, somebody talking about how smart, special, and wonderful they are or listening to others do that. Plus B, somebody talking about how stupid, inept or bad somebody else is or listened to people who do that. Well the answer from tens of thousands of people around the world the average answer is 65%. That’s a lot of time. When and why you can be happier

www.33voices.com

Page 8: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 7

and save a lot of time is? Reduce that number for ourselves and reduce that number for others.

You’re certainly one of the smartest people that I’ve ever had the opportunity to be around. I know that there is still such a need out there in society especially with some leaders in particular to be the smartest person in the room. As you are out there promoting this message, are you starting to see a shift in that where people aren’t as worried about that today as much?

A lot of the stuff I deal with it’s just very basic human behavior. My coaching clients are only people whose issues are behavioral. They want to get better. They’re willing to do all the stuff I talk about. So I’m often asked, what about the broader sample of people and the answer is I don’t know. I don’t really work with a broader sample of people. I only work with the people that care. I think the broader sample of people, it’s probably more people are willing to change and do the stuff that I’m talking about than used to. But, I don’t have any statistics to support that. So the answer is, I don’t know.

So obviously that’s an ego thing when somebody is really consistently thinking — or even just a security thing that if I’m the leader of this organization and I don’t have the answer, how am I going to get these people to believe in my vision?

Yeah, and the reality is none of us have all the answers. One way is to recruit the people to help you put together a vision as opposed to fill a need you have to be a little god and know everything yourself.

One of the most fascinating concepts towards the end of the book is when

you talked about quota. Really, more so as a parent more than anything else it really opened my eyes. Can you elaborate a little bit on that?

When I started writing the book, my goal in writing the book, I think was a real positive goal. Help people be happier and find more meaning in their lives. There is certainly nothing wrong with that.

In the intent of the book, it was directed actually toward the reader. The customer was kind of the reader. But after I started writing the book and getting into the concepts, I realized, the reason we need to do this isn’t just about ourselves, it’s about everyone around us.

www.33voices.com

Page 9: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 8

Now, think about it. Let’s say you have a hard day at work, you go home. You’re angry and bitter. If you communicate you are not happy, what is the message you send to your children? Being around you doesn’t make me happy. What’s the message you send to your spouse, your partner? Being around you doesn’t make me happy.

You communicate this is meaningless, what’s the message you send to your children. Being with you doesn’t mean anything. What’s the message you send to your partner? Being with you is irrelevant. What message do you send at work when you communicate I’m not happy. I don’t want to be at this place. I’d rather be retired or do something else, playing golf. What’s the message you send when you communicatet this isn’t meaningful? This place is a joke. Is that really the message we want to communicate to the people we love and respect? Probably not.

I hope not.

I hope not. Well I think the main reason to do this is not just for ourselves but it’s for all those people around us.

How about this whole notion of identity? One of the tools you have in the book and you provide 14 fabulous tools that we’ll talk about. One of the first things you talked about is decide what to measure about your identity. How do you recommend that people start to think about their identity?

If we look at our identity, I have in the book, a matrix. On one dimension we have the past to the future. On the other dimension, we have self and other. We can look at our identity from four different perspectives. How do we know who we are? Well, MOJO is a positive spirit toward what you were doing that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside. Who is the you in MOJO? Well, you is our identity the way we define ourselves.

The first part of identity is called our remembered identity. Let’s say your identity is you are a bad tennis player. Well, how do you know that? Well you remember times when you lost playing tennis. That becomes part of your identity.

The second part is our reflected identity. That’s feedback. How do you know you’re a bad listener? People told you, you were a bad listener and then after

www.33voices.com

Page 10: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 9

awhile that becomes part of your reflected identity that becomes who you define yourself to be.

Our programmed identity, I talked quite a bit about that in the book. That’s the powerful messages others give us about ourselves. For example, in my case, my dad had a gas station. My mom didn’t want me to work in the gas station. What’s an element of my identity? She told me from birth, you have no mechanical skills and you’ll never have any mechanical skills for the rest of you life.

Well how does this impact my development? I’m never encouraged to be around cars, tools, mechanical things so I don’t learn. I’m 18 years old, I take the United States Army mechanical aptitude test, I scored in the bottom 2% of the entire United States. By the way, that test wasn’t called mechanical achievement test then. That implies what you’ve done. Mechanical aptitude, that implies what you are. Message is you can’t do that. You have no aptitude.

I’m 27 years old, I got a PhD at UCLA and Dr. Tennenbaum, my teacher said, what do you do well? What do you do poorly? What do I do well? What did I write; scholarly pursuits, research. What did I do poorly? What did I say? I have no mechanical skills. I’ll never have any mechanical skills.

He said, “How do you know you have no mechanical skills?” I said, it’s hopeless I took a test. He said, “How are you at mathematical skills?” I got a perfect score in the SAT math test, nine courses, as matter of fact I passed calculus. He said, “Why are your mathematical scores high and you can solve complex mathematical problems but you can’t even solve simple mechanical problems?”

I thought that was a good question. He said, “How is your hand to eye coordination?” I said, “I could play pinball games, shoot pools, drink beer.” Why can you play pinball games and shoot pool but you can’t hammer nails? When I was 27 years old I realized I had no mechanical skills because I was told that, I bought into it, I believed it, and it became part of my identity. There is no logic behind that.

Well as obvious as that sounds, I see it everyday with the leaders I work with. They say things like, I can’t listen. I look in their ears, why not? Why can’t you listen? You got something stuck in there? Or, I can’t give recognition. Why not? Who is stopping you?

www.33voices.com

Page 11: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 10

As long as we define ourselves in this limiting ways, we put ourselves in a box. One of two bad things happen, one is we continue on with this negative behavior, this limiting behavior, I can’t listen therefore we’re bad at listening. Or two, we really work on getting better and other people tell us we are better and some people say, I think you’re doing a good job of listening but you know what it feels like in the inside? A phoney. That’s not really me.

Well, if who I am is someone who can’t listen, and you tell me I’m a good listener, what’s my reaction? He only thinks I’m a good listener. I’m really a bad listener. I’m just acting like a good listener. Well, what’s the definition of phoney, not me.

I really work on trying to help people and then in the final box is that identity we create for ourselves in the future. I use an example in the book of Bono who is a humanitarian. I mean the guy was a regular guy. He was a rock and roll fan. He became a musician. He became a rock star and now he is a humanitarian. I get to talk to him about his life and his identity and his history. I think he’s a great role model, somebody who can be something completely different without being a phoney. I mean, he’s not a phoney humanitarian. He’s really a humanitarian.

You have such an uncanny ability to simplify things. One of the things, as I mentioned to you and just visiting with people about the contents of the book just in the mastermind session, one of the great things that came out of it is just as human beings, our ability to just simplify as much as we can and certainly as leaders.

And as somebody who’s got an incredible mission of helping your clients specifically leaders achieve positive change both in interpersonal behavior and the people they work with. Is there a lesson that you continually are learning as you’re dealing with these people that other leaders could apply in their lives and/or in their organizations in leading others?

Well, you know, as I’ve grown older and older, my level of aspiration has gone down and down and my level of impact has gone up and up. Because you know, I’m not going to change the entire world next week. My job is tell very successful people if he has achieved positive long term change in behavior. Let’s tell people to read these books and have happier and more meaningful lives. That’s good enough for me.

www.33voices.com

Page 12: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 11

Somebody sends me an email today and says, you know what, I listen to your work and I’m a little happier. I listen to your work and my life is more meaningful. That’s good enough. That’s enough for me.

I was teaching at UBS and a woman who worked for UBS had been under my class two years before. I asked her, what would you change? She said, to be honest, I haven’t changed anything. She said, I’m a better mother. You know what I said? It’s good enough for me.

Let’s say that people that I work with achieved positive change in only one important behavior. That’s judged by any significant group of people in their lives over any significant period of time. How do I feel? Happy. Not only are they going to have a better life, the world around them is going to be better off.

You know, we can’t have everything. We can do something though. What I try to do is get people to focus on what is that something you can do? Let’s forget about that laundry list of things we cannot do because you know, you can’t do them anyway. Let it go.

As an individual whose coached sales people and entrepreneurs my entire career, one of the fascinating stories you share earlier on in the book I believe was your whole notion of Mr. Mudd.

You really got me to think when I look at sales people today and I see how the public really isn’t interested in dealing with a lot of sales people because of the notion of just pushing, pushing and pushing.

Is that philosophy viable in today’s world for somebody that just say, hey, take a look at the work, if you like what I do or you love what I do, pay me what you think it’s worth?

Let me ask you a question, who is probably the highest paid executive coach in the world.

You are.

That’s what I do.

How do you approach a client? If I come to approach you today and say, “Hey, I have…”

www.33voices.com

Page 13: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 12

I only work on a pay only for results basis. I get paid zero during the entire engagement. If my clients don’t get better, I don’t get paid a cent.

Do they determine that?

No, everyone around them determines that. I have a simple contract. If I’m working with somebody who is a future CEO, I talk to the CEO and say this person gets significantly better at these behaviors as judged by these important people. Do I get paid? Is it worth it? He says it would be worth it. I said, “Fine, hire me, you can’t lose.” If a person gets better, I get paid. If they don’t get better, it’s all free. I’m been doing that for years. It hasn’t hurt me any.

I had no idea that you wrote a book called What Got You Here Won’t Get You There in Sales.

That’s a new book. That book just came out. That’s brand new.

I couldn’t find it on Amazon but I found it on your site.

It just came out. It will be on Amazon. It’s not even on Amazon yet. It just came out.

So it’s brand new?

Uhuh, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There in Sales. My friends Bill Hawkins and Don Brown, they did most of the work in the book but they adapted, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There to Sales. It just came out.

Can you share with us just kind of a brief overview of what to expect in there?

It’s like my book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Only, it’s not applied to leaders. It takes the concept and it applies it to sales people and it talks about teaching sales people classic challenges of what not to do in sales and what to avoid in sales. It gives people some real clear simple techniques.

For example, how to apply Winning Too Much was a classic problem for leaders also, a classic problem for sales people. And how this applies to sales and how they can learn to — again, Peter Drucker inspired me to do this with a quote. He said, we spend a lot of time teaching leaders what to do. We don’t spend enough time teaching leaders what to stop. He said, half the leaders I meet

www.33voices.com

Page 14: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 13

don’t need to learn what to do, they need to learn what to stop. That led to the book, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. All this book does it takes that same concept and applies it to sales.

When you look at sales people today, you know, you mentioned some examples in the book about the difference between people who love what they do and who aren’t. Sales people in general out there are in need — everybody is looking for a silver bullet. I can imagine that this book is as much of a silver bullet as more of a thinking process.

There is no silver bullet. In fact, I think one subtitle I have or one title I have for a possible next book for me is just called Getting Better. The book is going to start out by saying this isn’t a silver bullet. It’s not going to transform your life. This book is just designed to help you get better at something. These are very simple positive techniques, tools you can use to actually get better, not to get perfect. None of us are going to get perfect anyway. I’m over getting perfect. Let’s just get better.

I know that you’re only working with the best out there but when I take a look at this and I see the emerging leaders out there even that you said are out there. What message does your work have for the next generation of leaders out there?

I think MOJO is really good for young people. In fact, I think that’s good for high school kids or college graduates. In fact, I’ve already been asked to write a book, MOJO for Teenagers because I think that’s very important for young people.

I think number one, my generation has nothing to be proud of in terms of what we’re leaving to the world. What are we giving these young people today? One word, debt. That’s our gift to young people, debt. Not a nice gift by the way, right? We created it and you pay it back. Not a good gift at all. What I write in the book, I mean, I think young people, it’s tough out there.

I’ll give you an example from my daughter Kelly. I’m proud of my daughter. She graduated from Duke. She was on the TV show Survivor Africa. She finished her PhD at Yale and now she’s a professor at Northwestern in marketing at the Kellogg school. When she was at Yale, there were 22 students in her PhD program. How many were born in the United States of America? Answer, one — her. She’s the only one. They didn’t have to compete with these kids. They’re all from India, China, Eastern Europe.

www.33voices.com

Page 15: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 14

By the way, they’re not there to get drunk and go to parties. These kids are serious. While the average American teenager survey by Kaiser Permanente in a study that was just published, are spending 7-1/2 hours a day on non-academic media; Twitter, email, voicemail to friends, texting, videogames, movies, TV. Seven and a half hours a day, this is a disaster.

These kids are going to get stepped on by some kid from India or China who is not wasting 7-1/2 hours a day. They’re actually studying. It’s a tough world out there. I think very important to accept what is, realize that in the old world if you didn’t love what you did, it wasn’t that bad. In the new world, if you don’t love what you do, you’re screwed. I mean, I love my job. I work all the time but I don’t have to work. I don’t work because I have to, I work because I want to.

I find the people I work with who are successful, none of them are working because they have to. They’re all rich. They’re working because they want to. If you do what you like to do, it’s not an imposition or a hassle or a challenge, it’s fun. My job is fun. What am I going to do? Play crappy golf with old people at the country club, eating chicken sandwiches and talking about who I used to be. That doesn’t sound like fun to me.

What’s keeping you inspired now? I know it’s the people that you’re around but is there anything in particular that you wish to try to change over the next couple of years?

The hardest problem I have is just more time for writing because for every person I can speak to, there are hundreds of people reading what I’ve written. I’m very extroverted. So I like people. It’s very hard for me not to schedule time with people but just to schedule time by myself to think and to write and reflect. It has nothing to do with money.

I’m always flying on the airplane. On American Airlines alone, I have over 10 million frequent flyer miles like that man in the movie. Sometimes some poor man sits next to me. Occasionally he says, “What do you do for a living?” Eight hours later I look over the poor guy, he’s ready to kill himself.

You know, great is the need for the student to learn, far greater is the need of the teacher to teach. My biggest challenge in life was not doing what I do. My biggest challenge in life was stopping. I need more time to think and reflect and it’s hard for me because I’m naturally extroverted and my challenge is to realize I don’t have to always be extroverted. That sometimes I’m better off

www.33voices.com

Page 16: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 15

just being by myself thinking, writing, and reflecting. I don’t even know how many people have read something I have written but I’m sure it’s over 10 million. I can’t talk to that many people. So the way I reach people is writing and thinking and reflecting, not just speaking.

How does technology help you? I know that there are issues there but how do you use it to leverage that message?

Technology is huge. For example, if you go to www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com, that’s my website.

I’m on it all the time.

If you go to that website, how many times does somebody listen to or downloaded something from that website - 4.92 million from 195 countries. Well, that’s one way I use technology. I give everything away. Again, I’m a Buddhist. All my material I give away for free. You can copy, share, download, duplicate, use any of my material anyway you want to. That’s how I reach people.

My blogs, I don’t even know how many people read one of my blogs every month but I’m guessing a hundred plus thousand. I mean, I know over 30,000 read the one on the Harvard Business Review. That doesn’t count Business Week. That doesn’t count the ones that are — that’s all reprogrammed over to Bloomberg. I don’t even know how many people read this stuff but it’s a bunch, right?

So for me technology is basically — the biggest way I reach people is through technology. I mean, I’ve sold over a million books but that’s nothing compared to the internet in terms of the number of people I’ve reached.

Have your CEO retreats changed at all or is it still use this facilitating conversation amongst these guys or ladies?

That hasn’t changed at all.

You just see yourself as a facilitator. You don’t go in with a preconceived agenda. It’s really their agenda.

No, that’s not my show. It’s their show. Just give them an opportunity to talk to each other about what’s important in their lives and then they don’t have

www.33voices.com

Page 17: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How To Marshall Goldsmith with Moe Abdou Get It Back If You Lose It (Unplugged) !

33voices.com 16

anyone to talk to. By the way, that’s not a bad thing, that’s reality. They shouldn’t have anyone to talk to because at that level, you just cannot disclose personal issues. It’s not appropriate. There is billions of dollars sitting there on the table. You can’t just disclose that stuff.

How often do you those?

I tried to do a dinner about every three months. One of these more formal retreats, probably a couple of times a year. Those are all just by personal invitation.

www.33voices.com

Page 18: Marshall Goldsmith- Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It (Unplugged)

We believe that the best version of yourself is when you don’t have to choose between doing what you love and making a living. So if you’re stuck or simply want an extra spark of inspiration, please tell us how we can help.

FeedBack

What Are You Struggling With?

ASK A QUESTION THINK WITH MARSHALL

www.33voices.com