The Tai Lopez Show

You may know him as Dwight Schrute from The Office, but now Rainn Wilson is staying busy shooting movies and building his very own nonprofit organization, Lide (http://www.lidehaiti.org/).He also has written a new book, The Bassoon King, and stopped by my house to talk about it.It's hard to write a funny book that actually teaches something.The Bassoon King is not just a funny celebrity biography; it also has a lot of substance. Rainn talks about spirituality, being abandoned by his mother, as well as a few other events that changed his life."That's what the whole book is actually about, the artistic and spiritual journeys, and the ups and downs we all have."Follow this link to buy his book: http://www.tailopez.com/rainnwilsonYou can also follow his Youtube channel, SoulPancake, by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/user/soulpancakeLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today I've got a special guest: Keith Ferrazzi, the author of Who's Got Your Back and Never Eat Alone.Everybody knows that it's not what you know, but who you know. How do you find successful people that can help you? Once you do, how do you convince them that you are worth mentoring?It's give and take. If you're not willing to open up, then they're not going to open up.Keith says, "Find a way to help. Find a way to care. The best way to get someone to like you is to make sure they know you care about them."Do you believe that human relationships trump almost everything else?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The other day, author Jay Samit came to my house to discuss his book Disrupt You.You can get Jay’s book here: http://tailopez.com/disruptyouDisruption means a lot of stuff to different people. Jay says that innovation is disruption.It doesn’t take great wealth or connections to make a difference. It really only takes two things, an idea and perseverance.Value is created when you discover things that no one else has seen.We live in an era of endless innovation, but most people are lazy. 42% of college students never read another book.What's one thing in your life you can improve on by thinking creatively?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lewis Howes is a man of many talents -- he's an athlete, coach, and now author.The title of his book, The School of Greatness, implies that greatness is learned.It takes more than just hustle to be great. You've got to work hard and work smart.What's an example in your own life where you haven't yet put into practice something that you learned from a mentor?You can purchase The School of Greatness here: http://tailopez.com/schoolofgreatnessLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matthew Lieberman, author of the book Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired To Connect sat down with Tai Lopez to talk about why it’s important to form real bonds with people, even if our instincts might tell us otherwise.Studies have shown that being lonely has the same health consequences as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and that 20 to 30 percent of the world is lonely.Everyone uses Facebook, but has it really made us more social?Do you think that social media has made you more or less social in real life? And how can you use social bonding to improve your life?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's Book-of-the-Day Show, Tai Lopez interviews professor Joseph LeDoux on the topic of fear and anxiety. You can purchase his book at http://www.tailopez.com/anxiousAre you anxious or fearful about the future?If you want to know how Tai conquered his fear and obstacles with money, click here to apply for the Accelerator Program: https://www.tailopez.com/josephledouxLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You can grab a copy of "Riveted" by Jim Davies by clicking here: http://www.tailopez.com/rivetedOn today's Book-of-the-Day show, I had the chance to interview Jim Davies, author of "Riveted."In his book, he says you have to understand 6 things about the human brain to win friends and influence people:1. We are interested in stories about humans... 2. We pay particular attention to things we hope or fear are true... 3. We delight in finding patterns... 4. We are attracted to incongruity, apparent contradictions, novelty, and puzzles... 5. The nature of our bodies—the nature of our eyes and other sense organs, affects what kinds of things draw us... 6. We have certain psychological traits, many of which are evolved, that make us like and dislike, believe and disbelieve....So when you interact with other people, make sure you utilize all 6 of these to compel, fascinate, and persuade everyone you meet.Sign up for the Accelerator Program to listen to the full interview by clicking here: https://www.tailopez.com/jimdaviesLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I got to interview one of the greatest real estate entrepreneurs, Gary Keller. He has sold over 2 million books and owns the largest real estate agency in the world.I was reading the book, "The One Thing" by Gary Keller.You can grab a copy by clicking here: http://www.tailopez.com/theonethingIt's all about getting things done. Reading this reminded me about one of my habits that massively boosts my productivity.Stop making lists.Lists create cognitive loading. Your brain is like an attic - it has only so much room before it gets filled. Lists use up too much space and limit deep thinking.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I got to interview Cole Hatter today, a serial entrepreneur and real estate genius.You can watch the full interview and get more exclusive content by joining the Accelerator Program at http://www.tailopez.com/colehatterFind out how Cole's career as a firefighter turned for the worse and left him in a wheelchair without knowing if he would ever walk again.Luckily, that led him to pursue entrepreneurship.Fast forward to now, he has closed over 100 real estate deals and built multiple seven figure brands.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn how to find your destiny and change the world at the same time with Adam's story by clicking here: http://www.tailopez.com/pencilOn today's Book-of-the-Day show, we learn why Adam leaves his successful Wall Street career and began building over 250 schools around the world.Adam suggests these three simple tips to help you figure out if you're on the right track to finding your life's destiny:1. Truthfully write. Journal as much as you can with the mentality that no one will ever read your thoughts but you.2. Question your sleeping patterns. If your dreams and goals don't keep you up at night or wake you up early in the morning, you need to change them.3. Ask for feedback. Always seek the guidance and truth from your loved ones who will never steer you wrong.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I just interviewed Tim Grover about his book, "Relentless: From Good To Great To Unstoppable."All I have to say is... read his book. You can grab a copy of it here: http://tailopez.com/relentlessTrust me...Tim talks about the three different levels of people:A Cooler, Closer, and Cleaner.Coolers are individuals that will deliver the end result that you ask for, but they will not do anything exceptional. They will not give you anything more or anything less. You know what they're capable of doing, and what they're not capable of doing.Closers can get you the end result as long as there aren't too many variables thrown at them. As long as they have a plan to follow, they will deliver the result that you desire.Then there are those that are exceptional at what they do...A Cleaner is an individual that will get you the end result that you need EVERY single time. They are so in tune with their instincts that they're able to not overthink in high pressured situations. Everything becomes less of a reaction and more of a reflex.Michael Jordan was a Cleaner. He delivered a championship every time his team made it into the NBA finals.Michael is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and it's not only because he was elite at the end of games; he consistently played at the highest level.Are you a Cooler, Closer, or a Cleaner?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's Book-Of-The-Day show, I'm really happy to be speaking with Brad Stone, who wrote a book on Jeff Bezos and how he built Amazon.com into one of the greatest companies, not just of our time, but maybe of all time.Learn more about Jeff Bezos' story and purchase The Everything Store by following this link: www.tailopez.com/theeverythingstoreThe book, The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, applies whether you're an entrepreneur now, or dreaming of bigger things in the future.As you read the book, you might notice that Bezos was very aggressive, maybe to a fault at points, but it made him who he was.At his 2010 Princeton commencement speech, he said, "In the end, we are our choices."He took the path less trod upon, and he was so much happier for it.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's special guest on the Book-of-the-Day Show is my mentor Joel Salatin.His goal is to empower food buyers to pursue positive alternatives to the industrialized food system.You can grab Joel's book "Holy Cows and Hog Heaven" by clicking here: http://www.tailopez.com/holycowsLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I just interviewed Ryan Holiday about his book, “The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph."Life will throw tremendous hurdles at you, but don’t think that the world owes you anything.The sooner I realized that, the better I’ve been at coping with the trials and tribulations thrown at me.Many people complain about how things are and feel entitled to something better, but they are not willing to do the work.Will Durant said, “A nation is born stoic, and dies epicurean."A great nation is born from people who are willing to put in the hard work.Instead of only looking at luxuries, you have to learn to love the grind.Make sure to grab a copy of “The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph” by clicking here: http://amzn.to/1EQMjLxLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People say that to be happy you have to be unselfish. But are they right? Because we all know selfish and greedy people, who seem to have it all. We have all been betrayed by someone who went on to live a seemingly perfect life. So there has to be something more to this - a more elegant explanation of the conflicts of life. A root explation of our selfishness... Of our altruism... About our DNA and "Nature vs. Nurture..." In today’s Book-Of-The-Day, “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins, we examine this question of whether we are born greedy and 'evil' or if we only learn it from our environment.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There is one thing sure to kill your hopes and dreams. It's the "mismatch." And there is one thing sure to bring you the "good life: Health, Wealth, Love, Happiness." It's avoiding the "mismatch."Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every million dollars you earn will start with an idea. But an idea isn't enough. It must evolve into a strategy. Another word for strategy is a "plan." In today's Book-of-the-Day, "How to Write a Great Business Plan" the Harvard professor William explains the secrets to creating your own powerful business strategy. It's a short read. But you definitely want to buy it. Here are a few of my notes for you: 1. Plan around 4 main areas:A. Why your team is qualified (What do you know? Whom do you know? How well are you known?)B. The opportunity (Things the entrepreneur can control.)C. The context (Things the entrepreneur can NOT control.)D. Risk and Reward (Be honest about what things could make your venture fail, not just about how many you could make theoretically.) 2. Your plan should seem like a movie about the future: Show the story from multiple angles. Unfold possibilities of problems and you reacting to them. Discuss things as a moving target not as a guarantee that you know what the future holds. 3. Don't be too cocky and think you're the only one with the idea: "Among the many sins committed by business plan writers is arrogance. In today's economy, few ideas are truly proprietary." Go out and do something big with your life. But don't do it randomly. Make sure you are following a good plan. Stay strong, TaiLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

**Sign up for my free online seminar this Thursday June 11th to learn "How to get 1 Million People to Pay Attention to your Idea: What I Wish Someone had told me at 18" - http://www.tailopez.com/onemillionpeopleyoutube Tai interviews psychologist George Mumford, adviser to all-star athletes Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and championship winning coach Phil Jackson. Mumford is author of the book, "The Mindful Athlete", which you can purchase here - http://amzn.to/1FHWgp8 Hear the legendary stories and lessons learned from over twenty years experience working in professional sports. They discuss everything from sports, mindfulness and how Tai can improve his ping pong skills :) There's a ton of good information in this video you can take away and apply to your life. A lot of what George Mumford talks about is stuff Tai wishes someone had told him when he was 18. Stay StrongTai Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I spend most of my workday walking on this treadmill desk because sitting kills more people than smoking. For every one hour you sit, two hours of your life is lost forever. Dr. James Levine makes strong claims in today's Book-of-the-Day, "Get Up." And he's no pseudo "fake" scientist. He runs a Mayo Clinic... His main point is that your office chair, your sofa, the seat in your car - they are all killing you. 75% of health care costs (currently at $3.8 trillion) come from things like diabetes, high blood pressure, back pain, obesity, depression, cancer, cardiovascular disease - issues directly related to sitting too much. Here are my book notes: 1. Going to the gym won't fix sitting all day: “4 large studies in Australia and the U.S. demonstrate that going to the gym at the end of the day sadly doesn’t quite offset the apparent harm of sitting all day long." 2. To lose weight you have to increase your "NEAT" activity - your non-exercise activity: “Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) calories—explain why an active person can expend 2,000 calories a day more than an inactive person of the same size.” 3. It's sitting at work that's your main problem: “Job is the major predictor of NEAT. Active work can expend 2,000 calories per day more than a sedentary job.” 4. It's killing our kids: “In the USA only 4% of elementary schools, 8% of middle schools and 2% of high schools provide daily physical education. We were also told that many fidgety children (probably those with high NEAT in their brain circuits) were frequently medicated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).” 5. Walk after eating: “With a 1-mph walk after a meal, blood sugar peaks are halved. After every meal, I take a short NEAT walk, usually for 15 minutes” 6. Walk 10,000 steps (2 to 3 miles) using a treadmill desk: This way you can use work hours to get in the ideal 10,000 steps a day. Plus treadmills can measure your daily steps. Also most iPhones now can measure too. I love my treadmill desk. Set it to 1.5 mph and you easily walk 5 miles a day without even realizing it. I use the ones from http://www.lifespanfitness.com - I don't make a penny from them for all you skeptics... Check out the full video demonstration on my youtube.com/tailopez channel. Stay strong,TaiLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's amazing how big an impact Robin Williams' suicide had on society. Celebrities, presidents, musicians, little kids - the whole world noticed. For today's Book-of-the-Day I was reading Emily Herbert's, "Robin Williams - When The Laughter Stops." It made me think deeply about human happiness. The book lists different theories on the reason for Williams' suicide: money problems, bad marriages, drugs and alcohol, being bullied as a child, an absent mother, Parkinson's prescription drug side effects, a highly sensitive personality, and addiction to video games. He struggled with demons his whole life. Here are my notes: 1. You can't be delusional: "One of Williams' tragedies was that, although an exceptionally intelligent man, he couldn't see the truth about himself." 2. Video games made his depression worse: "Dr. Douglas Gentile says, 'I was expecting to find that depression leads to video gaming. But (our study) found the opposite. Depression seems to follow the video gaming. As kids became addicted the depression seems to get worse… I think it's truly co-morbid - where medical conditions are intertwined." 3. Physical exercise helped his depression: "Robin Williams took up cycling… And the more he cycled the better he felt… Physical exercise helps anyone with depression…" Williams' said, "Cycling saved my life… " 4. He knew how to change the world: "No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. " I don't know the answers to these hard issues but I know there is much to learn from mentors who achieve great things like Robin Williams did. P.S. My favorite Robin Williams joke: "If women ran the world, we wouldn't have wars, just intense negotiations every 28 days." HahaLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To make real money you have to train other people to have all your same skills.This frees you up from the day to day to work on the big picture. This is easier said than done. Like the old business saying goes, "You have to work ON the business, not just IN the business." You need someone to mentor. To be your protégé... But remember, this assumes you have real skills yourself - or else nobody is going to listen to you.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Your brain can easily be manipulated. Be careful. Science says you are more likely to buy German wine when German music is playing at the store in the background, and French wine when French music is playing. You are more likely to name Gatorade when you are given a green pen in order to fill out the survey of your favorite sports drink. You are more likely to buy an an expensive couch from a website with a background of fluffy white clouds. A bit sad (haha) but research shows this is how simple our brains can be when it comes to decision making. For today's Book-Of-The-Day I was just reading, "Everything is Obvious – How Common Sense Fails Us" by Duncan J. Watts. The author makes a good point. You can't always just rely on common sense. The world is too complex. Too many factors are involved. "Common sense is bad at dealing with complex social phenomena like political conflicts, healthcare economics, or marketing campaigns..." Our inborn common sense only works some of the time. Watts explains, “Urban planners in the United States have repeatedly set out to 'solve' the problem of urban poverty and have repeatedly failed. There is a wistful myth that if only we had enough money to spend—the figure is usually put at a hundred billion dollars—we could wipe out all our slums in ten years.… But look what we have built with the first several billions: Low-income projects that have become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace..." Why did those housing experts with good intentions make such stupid mistakes? It's the effects of the cognitive biases. “Psychologists have identified so many of these effects—priming, framing, anchoring, availability, motivated reasoning, loss aversion, and so on..." I would add to this book's list all of the other 25 cognitive biases and 100+ logical fallacies. If your whole life strategy is to just trust your common sense, you are probably headed for a disaster. “Bad things happen not because we forget to use our common sense, but rather because the incredible effectiveness of common sense in solving the problems of everyday life causes us to put more faith in it than it can bear." Common sense is best kept for simple stuff like not petting a growling Rottweiler. Don't over use it. It won't work on some of the most important areas of your life It won't work on your diet. When you eat junk food your bodies "common sense" meter will tell you that it must be good for you because it tastes good. Wrong. If you're driving fast and you hit a water puddle and start spinning out of control, common sense will tell you to slam on the brakes. Wrong. The list could go on and on. Learn when to use common sense and when to use higher thinking. Higher thinking comes only through training. The world is full of people going to the gym for their body. But hardly anyone's going to the bookstore to "workout" their brain. One of the main reasons I created the 67 steps program was to show how you can invert the problem and reverse engineer your own brain. Put in the work. Use your common sense for common things and your "trained" brain for the harder things in life. What's an example of an area in your life where you overused common sense?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you want to learn faster you have to experiment with different 'modes' of reading and learning. One of my favorites is the 'gulping' approach, where you bounce around between 4 or 5 books all in one sitting. This takes advantage of what Steven Johnson in his book, "Where Good Ideas Come From," calls "negative quarter-power scaling." This means reading twice the books doesn't just give you twice the knowledge - it's exponential - it gives you 3 or 4 times the mental growth...Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I once read a poem that said, "Who is mighty? They who control their own thoughts." The good news is as you learn to harness your brain you will unlock a tremendous tool. How are you practicing mind control (haha I like how that sounds)...?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone says you should follow your passion. But everyone isn't always right. If you want to achieve massive success in your career then passion might not even remotely be the right place the start. In today's Book-of-the-Day, "So Good They Can't Ignore You," Cal Newport examines the science of how to best choose your life's work. Newport says, "Don't follow your passion." This book is a bit controversial. It goes against most of what you've heard in the popular media. Steve Jobs, of course, disagreed with this book's premise.Jobs said, "You've got to find what you love... And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle."But Newport argues that if you actually look at what Steve Jobs did with his life, you will find a different story. Steve Jobs didn't start with passion for technology or design. In fact he was more of a hippie at first, interested in going to Zen monasteries and 'dropping out' of life.Newport summarizes, "Compelling careers often have complex origins that reject the simple idea that all you have to do is follow your passion."That reminds me a bit of Einstein, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." So what is a better way to find out what you should be doing for work?Let me give you a few ideas from the book and a few of my own:1. Experience Creates Passion: Yale professor Amy Wrzesniewski published a paper called, "Jobs, Careers, and Callings: People’s Relations to Their Work." She discovered that the strongest predictor of seeing work as a calling was the number of years spent on the job. Experience at something seems to create love of what you do. Practice and years in the career matter.2. Passion Is A Side-Effect Of Mastery: Daniel Pink is mentioned in the book along with a 40 year scientific framework called "Self-Determination Theory." The theory goes that intrinsic motivation comes from:A. Autonomy - Having control over your career and feeling that what you are doing is meaningful.B. Competence - Feeling like a master of the skills you practice at work.C. Relatedness - Having strong social connections at your job.So you must have a well rounded approach to finding your life's work. It's not as simple as just finding your passion. This theory of 'relatedness' actually shows that "WHO" you work with is almost as important as "WHAT" you do for work. Social life matters - even when it comes to work. 3. Strengths Before All: My personal experience is a bit different than this book. I think that more important than just having a lot of experience, autonomy, competence, and relatedness, you must have 'APTITUDE' - what are you good at naturally?I believe that this is the trump card that beats all other factors. This is what Peter Drucker taught in "Managing Oneself": "Most people think they know what they are good at. They are usually wrong…And yet, a person can perform only from strength.” One of the most important parts of my "67 Steps" program is the question of "Eularian Destiny."I talk about the 5 or 6 ways you can determine your strengths (it's a bit too long to explain here but check out the "67 Steps" and review that video).The basic explanation is that you have to open up multiple lines of "feedback analysis" so that you can get clues as to what your strengths are from multiple sources. You can't just go with your gut or ask your mom or best friend. Most of us have huge blind spots when it comes to determining our strengths.And make no mistake, personality types exist. And because they exist it's logical that natural strengths and weaknesses must also exist. You can't just pick something you are passionate about and make that your career if you have no natural aptitude at it. Some passions should just stay hobbies.You have to be better than the average. Much better.In "Positive Psychology: The Science Of Happiness and Flourishing" authors Compton and Hoffman say the three most common human regrets are: Career, education, and romance.Let me know, how well have you built your career around these principles?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you want to learn faster you have to experiment with different 'modes' of reading and learning. One of my favorites is the 'gulping' approach, where you bounce around between 4 or 5 books all in one sitting. This takes advantage of what Steven Johnson in his book, "Where Good Ideas Come From," calls "negative quarter-power scaling." This means reading twice the books doesn't just give you twice the knowledge - it's exponential - it gives you 3 or 4 times the mental growth...Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Americans spend 520 billion minutes a year online. That begs the billion dollar question - are these social networks bad for you? Today's Book-of-the-Day, "The Village Effect" by Susan Pinker, tries to answer that question using a fairly new scientific field called 'social neuroscience.' There is a power to face-to-face contact.It's fascinating, “Research shows that playing cards once a week or meeting friends every Wednesday night at Starbucks adds as many years to our lives as taking beta blockers or quitting a pack-a-day smoking habit.”Now maybe it's just correlation and not causation.But there's more: "In 2007 Steve Cole and his team at UCLA discovered that social contact switches on and off the genes that regulate our immune response to cancer and the rate of tumor growth."Pinker did her research and found, "Several remote Sardinian villages are the only places in the world where men live nearly as long as women. Everywhere else there is a gender gap in lifespan of about five to seven years.”So what are the Sardinian's secrets?"One essential piece of the puzzle, I discovered, has to do with the epoxy-like social bonds of village life.”The healthy glue of community life.So back to the original question, do social networks actually help or hurt our social life?I think the answer is found in understanding the difference between quantity and quality.You really don't need volume, you need what scientists call 'strong' relationships.So for me the answer is simple - use social networks to find old friends you lost touch with and to invite them over for dinner or game night.My action plan based on this book (always make sure you have a practical action plan for every book you read or conference you attend) is the most practical action plan ever.In fact, I used to do this but I stopped for some stupid reason.I am going to have a game night once a week on a set schedule at my house.And I'm going to use social networking like Facebook, email, and texting to invite them.Can't get simpler than that.What is something simple you can do to increase the amount of in-person, "strong" social connections you have?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is violence ever justified? It’s a hard question. I just saw the movie “American Sniper”. Some people are saying it’s military propaganda, while others say it’s the story of a true American hero.When I’m confronted with hard questions like these I look to people with more expertise than me. I go straight to the top. I’m fortunate enough to be friends with Dr. David Buss and he sent me the fifth edition of his book “Evolutionary Psychology”, which I have read many times.There are good arguments for both sides. Clearly Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi were very effective in their campaigns for non-violence.But what about WWII, where Hitler was met with violence and the war was almost lost due to inaction? It took a long time for the Allies to join the war; the U.S. didn’t even get there until Pearl Harbor and it almost cost them the victory.When we’re confronted with hard questions like these we tend to oversimplify. Remember what Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” This question is not something to be oversimplified, though most people will. When you break your leg you don’t go to an amateur. You go to someone who has spent 20, 30, 40 years of their life setting broken bones. In Chapter 5 Dr. David Buss talks about cooperative alliances - he calls it “the problem of group living.” In your life you will come across people who are free-riders; you give, and they take without giving in return. You will also meet defectors - these are people who betray you. This problem of group living is something that we’re all confronted with. So why do we participate at all? Buss says, “The beauty of reciprocal altruism is that both parties benefit.” In an ideal, Utopian world there would be no military because people advance through cooperation. We grow emotionally, socially, and intellectually by working together. The problem of war and violence is certainly one of people not getting along, and part of that is because of defection and free-riding. You see this among nations - at some level we must get along on both a national and global scale. Buss says, “Experiments show that higher levels of cooperation occur when a system is in place to punish free-riders - inflicting costs on those who fail to contribute their fair share.”When someone makes a mistake, should you yell at them? A wise person would say, “It depends!”It depends on the type of person - some are motivated by aggression and some are not.It’s the same with violence - it depends on the situation. For Martin Luther King Jr., who was leading a small minority against a nation, rising up with arms would be counterproductive. When Mahatma Gandhi was fighting imperialism in India, violence wouldn’t have helped him. He used non-violence and it worked. But like I said, if you tried that during WWII it might get you killed. The most effective strategy for most environments is something called ‘tit for tat’ theory, which was developed by two scientists; Robert Axelman and W.D. Hamilton. Buss says, “Axelrod identified three features of this strategy that represented the keys to its success: (1) Never be the first to defect-always start out by cooperating, and continue to cooperate as long as the other [person] does also; (2) retaliate only after the other has defected-defect immediately after the first instance of nonreciprocation; and (3) be forgiving-if a previously defecting [person] starts to cooperate, then reciprocate the cooperation and get on a mutually beneficial cycle. To summarize: ‘First, do unto others as you wish them to do unto you, but then do unto them as they have just done to you.’"Aristotle said, "Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy."Going to war is easy. Being a pacifist is easy. But to do the right thing at the right time? That’s difficult. To know when to be aggressive and when to be passive is difficult.You must become wise. You can’t live your life with simplistic, black and white thinking.As either an individual or a group, when is war justifiable? When is it the right time to be pacifistic or aggressive? Leave me a comment below and let me know your opinion.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There’s only one way for you to rise up out of the ashes in any area of your life. And it’s to combat a disease, a mindset that has poisoned the minds of millions. If there’s one thing that’s sure to kill your dreams and goals in life, it’s learned helplessness. If there is one ounce of this in your brain, dig it out. Because if you don’t get rid of it it’ll grow and become a poison that stops you from living the good life. I talk more about learned helplessness in Step 7 of my 67 Steps Millionaire Mentor Series. Click here to check out the program -- http://bit.ly/1u7VKeBPsychologists Martin Seligman and Steve Maier conducted an experiment where they put dogs in a locked cage and gave them electric shocks. At first the dogs jumped, and yelped, and tried to get out but eventually they just lay down and took it. They learned to be helpless. The psychologists then left the door of the cage wide open and shocked the dogs again, but the dogs stayed in the cage because that’s what they’d been trained to do.You and I have a medieval mindset. Back then, if you contracted a disease it would most likely kill you. Germ theory didn’t exist until a couple of centuries ago – our ancestors didn’t even understand that they could prevent transfer of disease just by washing their hands. 500 years ago life was like a box – you were caged in. If you were born poor, you died poor; there was virtually no way to get a better life.But guess what? It’s a new year, it’s a new century, and we're free from these cages. What plagues us is the voices of 10,000 generations whispering that the cage is still locked. In my last video I talked about Stephen Hawking, who was able to look past his debilitating disease and live an abundant life. We’re not hampered by the environment, we’re hampered by the mirage of this cage that we feel over us. It’s been transmitted by our DNA so in a sense it’s not our fault, but it is our responsibility to change itI read an interesting book about internal rebel forces in WWII. In France there were freedom fighters who rose up to sabotage the Nazi forces on behalf of the allies, and died for their beliefs. The author argues that these deaths were a complete waste because the sacrifice made by the rebels didn’t really help the war at all. What ended the war was industrial power – having more tanks and weapons than the enemies. Rallies and protests might make you feel like you’re making a difference, but at the end of the day they don’t really help much. A study in “The Millionaire Next Door” found that the average high-net-worth individual worries about things within their control, while poor people tend to worry about things that are outside their control. That’s learned helplessness – if you feel for too long that you can’t fix your situation then you lie down in the cage and stop trying. Protesting won’t solve anything. What you should be doing is reading a book on finance or health, finding a mentor, travelling the world, and saving more money.Focus on what’s in your control. Before you start protesting, read a book about your cause. Allan Nation used to tell me, “Before you can change anything you have to understand why it is how it is." Earn the right to be a protestor. Start the revolution in your own brain. What’s the biggest area of learned helplessness in your life and what can you do to fix it?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I’m not really into materialism but I have to admit fast cars are pretty fun.In business and in life it’s important to have a mix of selfish and unselfish goals.Why is capitalism so successful?It’s based around the first cognitive bias – the reward bias.Adam Smith says that you have a reward mechanism built into your mind in terms of what you want to buy and what you want to consume.But more importantly, everything in business is about creating customers. So whether you own your own business or work for somebody else you still have to focus on creating a customer base.“There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.” - Peter DruckerA lot of people get confused about what a business exists for. They think it exists for personal profit, or net profit for shareholders, or that it exists for charitable purposes: to save the world.All of those goals are real, some are worthier than others, but at the end of the day they’re there to create a customer.Without customers you have nothing.The most important thing to understand is that you not only have to be able to create a customer, but you also have to be able to capture the value that you create.One of the biggest mistakes people make in business is to create value but not capture it. It’s not enough to have great skills. You need to be able to monetize them.Ideas create value, but creating and capturing are not the same.The average person in Los Angeles makes $52,000 per year, but that’s not enough value. Over 30 years you will capture a value of about $1.5 million, but how much value do you think you’re capturing for someone else? If an employer is willing to pay you $52,000 they’re probably making at least twice that profiting from your work.You can work for other people, it’s good to learn from your competitors, but there comes a day when you have to say, “Enough is enough, and now is enough. Now it’s my turn.”You can do it as a more highly paid employee, as a partner, or as a solo entrepreneur.But make no mistake, you can’t find the “good life” if you don’t capture your own value.Like Henry David Thoreau said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”Some people try to capture value by forming their own business, but that doesn’t always work because you need skills. There are 50-60 skills you need to have to run a successful business.A lot of people oversimplify things. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” – Albert EinsteinWhat you really need to do is “know thyself”. Peter Drucker says, “Success in the knowledge economy comes to those who know themselves - their strengths, their values, and how they best perform.” Entrepreneurs and people who create wealth and financial freedom always follow the same rule. They follow the rule of knowing themselves.Try taking a personality test. I recommend the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator – it measures the ways in which we experience the world and make decisions.Identify your strengths and weaknesses, and build a business around that.Knowing yourself is the quickest path to not only wealth, but fulfillment. The average person spends only 12% of their life doing something they really care about.What’s more important that the money you make is the quality of the minutes you spend. You don’t want to spend 12% of your life doing what you love, you want to spend 88% of your life doing what you love. You have to invert it; the rest of society is lost. “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” – The King James BibleThe first step in capturing monetary value is knowing yourself. Peter Drucker says that it is only when you build on your strengths that will you be good enough for people to pay you for what you know.You can’t build on weakness, so take the time to find your true strengths and capitalize on them.Capture your own value by building a business around the things you’re best at and wealth and happiness will come naturally to you.Visit tailopez.com for more advanced material like this.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I am not really religious but it's the holiday season. So I decided for today's Book Of The Day I would read the Bible, specifically the Book of Proverbs. The wise man says in Proverbs 22:7, "...the borrower is the slave of the lender." How true this is. Throughout history, the lender has always been the master over the borrower. The average person in the USA is $225,238 in debt. They owe $15,263 on their credit cards (at interest of around 14.95%), $147,591 on their house, $31,646 on student loans, and owe a staggering $30,738 on their car. You might be in debt too. If you are in debt you have two choices. You can be like most people and blame capitalism or 'corporations.' Or you can follow the old saying, "If you can't beat them, join them." So become a lender. Start lending money yourself. Start small. Lending money will accomplish one main thing: make you sophisticated with money. Nothing will make you more financially savvy then lending out a little money and losing it, then learning from your mistakes, and evolving into someone skilled in advanced financial principles. Lending money will teach you: 1. How to read people and be discerning with money. 2. How to structure win-win negotiations. 3. How to draw up a promissory note. 4. How to calculate a loan repayment schedule. 5. How to deal with conflict from people that aren't paying you back. Remember, if you want to thrive in life you have to become sophisticated with money. One of the reasons I went through the whole laborious Certified Financial Planner Program was to understand money at the deepest levels. So start by lending out a $100 or $500. Remember only lend out what you can afford to lose. I once lent a buddy $38,000 to renovate and flip a house. That was in 2007, right before the market dropped. I still haven't seen a penny back yet. But who cares? Gaining knowledge to me is more valuable than losing money here and there. It's like anything in life, you will suck at first. But if you patiently commit to building the new skill of lending money you will get good over time - real good. I don't recommend lending to family or close friends since there is always the chance of some long-term tension. Lend to an acquaintance or a friend of a friend. And do not just informally lend out the money. That won't teach you anything. You probably have already done that in your life before. There is no real educational value from just pulling a $100 out of your pocket and giving it to a friend who is broke. Structure the deal formally so they have to pay you back on an exact lending schedule. Go to Rocketlawyer.com and download a simple loan agreement. Don't worry about charging interest. This is a training exercise not an attempt to become a bank or a loan shark. The bonus to all this is that you will also be improving the world. When I lived with the Amish I realized they have a secret weapon. Instead of only relying on big banks, they lend each other money at low interest. This allows young people who don't have much credit to get started running their own businesses. Many Jewish, Lebanese, and Muslim communities do the same. It's genius. By the way one of my favorite charities is Kiva.com where you can lend money to people in third world countries so they can start up their own business and rise out of poverty. So stop being a servant. Become a master. I don't care if you are 18 or 85. Flip the tables on the conventional structure by becoming sophisticated with money.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For today’s Book-Of-The-Day I’m talking about “Attached” by Amir Levine & Rachel Heller, and how you can use the science of human attachment to find love and form lasting relationships.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From taking Elvis Presley on tour, to raising 1 million dollars in a day, Jerry Weintaub has done it all. He is one of the most dynamic, persuasive men there has ever been. In todays book of the day I go over how he became the man he is today. Want to get some bonuses and the book from me? You can get them here: http://bit.ly/1CxyxKRLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you could snap your fingers and instantly stop your aging problem, would you? In today's book of the day "The 50 Secrets To The World's Longest Living People" I look at this great book on reversing aging. You can buy this book from me here and get some special bonuses here http://bit.ly/1z4V2AoLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is one of the best books for getting anything you want, today I read "Total Recall" by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Get this book, my private bonus notes, and 'Smart Reading' here http://bit.ly/1sMbNnkLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today I'm talking about the book "Trump: How To Get Rich." It has a cheesy name with some very powerful insights. You can buy this book from me and get my new 6 video smart reading course, and some bonus video notes that I don't go over in this video here: http://bit.ly/1uUe1LKLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When I was seven years old I remember listening to some country western song on the radio and asking my mom, "Why do people always sing about love?"(At that age, I would have rather listened to songs about video games instead of how some guy misses his ex-wife).My mom answered, "Because love is important and complicated."It turns out mom was right.How we relate to other humans in love and friendship basically makes or breaks the quality of our life.Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business at concluded:"Conflicts in relationships - having an annoying office mate or roommate, or having chronic conflict with your spouse is one of the surest ways to reduce your happiness. You never adapt to interpersonal conflict. It damages every day, even days when you don't see the other person but ruminate about the conflict nonetheless."That's why 25% of all the books I read are about social life: romance, love, friendship, and family.Today's book of the day is "Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters" by Alan S. Miller and Satoshi KanazawaYesterday I was talking about it on my Book-Of-The-Day TV show check out at new episode everyday a 11:30 am PST on www.tailopez.com/tv) ( I had to divide this into two emails so you will see part 2 tomorrow) This book will mesmerize you.It's full of some of the most profound truths about life of any book I have read in years.But first let me say:"WARNING: THIS BOOK WILL BE TOO INTENSE FOR MOST PEOPLE!"Don't email me complaining that I didn't warn you...Just remember, if you read the book and still disagree, despite the mountain of evidence the authors have collected along with their appeal to plain common sense, then go ahead and leave me a comment stating your case. Just make sure you provide some real proof for your argument.[make sure to check out my Book-Of-The-Day deal to get your own copy of “Why Beautiful People have More Daughters” and my own personal notes]...The chapters are divided up into controversial subjects like:-Why do beautiful parents have more daughters and wealthy parents have more sons?-Why do men like blonde bombshells (and why do women want to look like them)?-Why is beauty NOT in the eye of the beholder or merely skin deep?-Why do girls of divorced parents experience puberty earlier than girls whose parents remain married?-Why is prostitution the world’s oldest profession and pornography a billion dollar industry?-Why are there virtually no polyandrous societies (where one woman is married to multiple husbands)?-Why does having sons reduce the likelihood of divorce?-Why might handsome men make bad husbands?-Why are there so many deadbeat dads but so few deadbeat moms?-Why are almost all violent criminals men?-Why do politicians risk everything by having an affair (but only if they are male)?-Why do men so often earn more money and attain higher status than women?-Why are most neurosurgeons male and most kindergarten teachers female?-Why are most suicide bombers Muslim?-Why is ethnic conflict so persistent throughout the world?-Why are single women more likely to travel abroad?Now you might think you know the answers to these questions. But, I guarantee you this book will have you second guessing basically everything you have ever heard on life, love and how humans get along with each other.Every time I dive into any books on evolutionary psychology I realize that literally 95% of what we have been taught about life is absolute nonsense. And what is being taught about love and human attraction is probably the subject most full of error.I don’t know why the heck we never learn any of this in school.It's a crime. But it’s understandable because most of what is written about love, friendship, romance and social life comes from a view of what people would LIKE to be true, NOT what is actually true. I think love is too painful a subject for most people. It’s "too true" for the average person.Just like Jack Nicholson said in A Few Good Men, "You can't handle the truth!"This book covers many of those "too true" subjects.The authors say the problem starts because the standard social science model says we are a blank slate, that our behaviour is environmental and comes through socialization.We have been taught that our personality is based on our environment and what we have learned from our parents, teachers and culture.For example, you may have heard that society created the traditional male and female gender roles.But the authors of this book quote a Cambridge University study that proves that baby boys stare more at mechanical toys and baby girls stare at toys with faces - even babies only 24 hours old.They say:"In summary, we have demonstrated that at 1 day old, human neonates (babies) demonstrate sexual dimorphism (differences) in both social and mechanical perception. Male infants show a stronger interest in mechanical objects, while female infants show a stronger interest in the face.”In this image below you can see t

In todays book of the day I read the Lessons of History By Will and Ariel Durant. You can buy this book from me, and get into my private mentor program, my new smart reading course, and my in depth bonus book notes here: http://bit.ly/1qTIvSxLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You must innovate if you want to change your life, your bank account, and the world. Innovation is easier said than done. In “Zero To One” the author, Peter Thiel, opens by saying that if you are merely following and 100% mimicking other people, you will always be one step behind. You can sign up for my VIP Club and get the book here http://bit.ly/1GvRE5B Thiel says, "Every moment in business happens only once. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. And the next Mark Zuckerberg won’t create a social network. If you are copying these guys, you aren’t learning from them.” The key (as I talked about on my live TV show - tune in at 11:30am daily on TaiLopez.com) is knowing the exact balance between brand new innovation and not falling prey to "Nudist Buddhist Syndrome." "Nudist Buddhist" is what one of my mentors, Allan Nation, says is the law of innovation. He told me, “You can be a nudist and people won’t think you’re super weird, because it’s just one thing weird about you. And you can be a Buddhist and people will give you a pass cause that’s only one weird thing about you. But you can’t be a nudist Buddhist. That’s too weird.” So for me, it’s not just blind innovation. I don’t want to come up with the solution on how to do underwater basket weaving. There’s no demand. It’s too weird. It’s too "Nudist Buddhist." Where you want to be is that happy medium where people feel like, “Wow, this is insightful, this is something I’ve never heard before.” But yet their conservative, pragmatic, risk-averse side says, “Yes, I’m willing to take a chance on this new product.” How can you actually do this? Well in your career and in business, Peter Thiel says: “Start small and monopolize. Every startup is small at the start. Every monopoly dominates a large share of its market. Therefore, every startup should start with a very small market. Always err on the side of starting too small. The reason is simple: it’s easier to dominate a small market than a large one. If you think your initial market might be too big, it almost certainly is.” Peter Thiel is exactly right. Think about it. Facebook was able to beat out the 800 lb gorilla Myspace by starting out by always erring on the side of being too small. At first Facebook was just Mark Zuckerberg in his room and his first customers were his roommates. And then he moved on to just dominating and monopolizing his one university. And once he conquered that he moved on to the next stage, which was conquering and expanding his monopoly to all universities. It wasn’t until he had conquered this step-by-step that he then went on to acquire over a billion customers. Not many people can say their business hit a million customers. Zuckerberg was able to say he reached a billion. You may not want to be a billionaire, but there’s a lesson to be learned. Go "straight to the top" in what you learn. Remember, the main principle that Peter Thiel believes in is that whatever your idea is, just shrink it down. In one of my VIP coaching calls I talked about the book “Switch” by Chip and Dan Heath where they discussed the need to shrink a problem. If your goal is to make a million dollars a day, think about it more like you need to make $80K per month. Since even that still seems like a big problem, then shrink that down so you only need to make $2-3K a day. That’s a realistic goal. Err on the small side like Zuckerberg and eventually you can have market share and change the world. When you do this your bank account will never look the same, and neither will the impact that you have on the world. Stay Strong, Tai P.S. If you want to learn how to get people to pay attention to your big idea, don't miss my free online seminar @ 12 pm PST http://bit.ly/1GvRE5BLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People say that to be happy you have to be unselfish. But are they right? Because we all know selfish and greedy people, who seem to have it all. We have all been betrayed by someone who went on to live a seemingly perfect life. Who went on with seemingly no consequences... So there has to be something more to this - a more elegant explanationof the conflicts of life. A root explation of our selfishness... Of our altruism... About our DNA and "Nature vs. Nurture..." In today’s Book-Of-The-Day, “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins, weexamine this question of whether we are born greedy and 'evil' or ifwe only learn it from our environment. You can buy it from me here http://bit.ly/16gFhPR plus get a bunch of other bonuses for free. I consider this to be one of the 5 most important books that everyhuman should read. Yesterday I was talking about it on my Book-Of-The-Day TV show (checkout a new episode everyday at 11:30 am PST on www.tailopez.com/tv) One million people have read "The Selfish Gene" since Dawkins firstwrote it in 1976. He had a noble goal in writing it. He explained, “My purpose is to examine the biology of selfishness andaltruism. Apart from its academic interest, the human importance ofthis subject is obvious. It touches every aspect of our social lives,our loving and hating, fighting and cooperating, giving and stealing,our greed and our generosity.” Dawkins was right. The question of selfishness vs. unselfishness is atthe core of every major decision you will ever make. Who to marry. Who to make friends with. Who to protect. Who to ignore. Get this question wrong and you will get your life wrong. Most people approach the question all wrong. Whether it’s people who believe in religion or atheists, the confusionknows no boundaries between the sacred and the secular. So what did the scientist Dawkins discover and explain in this book? [make sure to check out my Book-Of-The-Day deal to get your own copyof “The Selfish Gene” and my own personal notes]... http://bit.ly/16gFhPR 1. Although selfishness is our natural inclination, we are not always destined to follow it: “Our genes may instruct us to be selfish, but we are not necessarilycompelled to obey them all our lives. It may just be more difficult tolearn altruism than it would be if we were genetically programmed tobe altruistic. Let us try to teach generosity and altruism, because weare born selfish. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are upto, because we may then at least have the chance to upset theirdesigns, something that no other species has ever aspired to” I like that Dawkins recognizes that you and I have the chance for somelevel of enlightenment, however little it might be. We have somemastery over our genes. We’re not doomed to take advantage of peopleor to act in a more base manner. No, you see it all around you. Altruism. And not just the kind of natural altruism that we have towards ourfamily, friends, and loved ones (which in a sense isn’t really charityat all because of the possibility that we can be paid back). You see people giving to people that have no chance to give back to them. There is still hope. 2. The secret is to become a simulation machine, not just arobotically programmed automaton: Read the rest at TaiLopez.com If you're in financial scarcity now, or if you're making decent money but you know you should be making a lot more, @ 12 pm PST on "10 Rules to living the Entrepreneurial Lifestyle: The New Rules of Money" http://bit.ly/1GvRE5BLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Almost everyone thinks they’re an expert when it comes to food and diet.In fact, we all know people that have crossed the line, and it’s almost become a religious conversation.In today’s Book-Of-The-Day, “Diet Cults” by Matt Fitzgerald, we delve deep to try to find the truth.Get the Book-Of-The-Day Deal here: http://bit.ly/1skG9xaWhat is the diet that we should all be following?I talked about this a few days ago on my new live Book-of-the-Day TV show that airs every day at 11:30am PST on TaiLopez.com.When I was at Joel Salatin’s, it was fascinating. Thousands of people would come in from all around the world, each of them with their own opinion on diet - whether they were Vegan, Paleo, Low-Carb or Atkins.And most of them came there extremely confident in their beliefs.The interesting thing about a farm is that you’re so close to the earth that you actually get insight on biological processes that the average city person never gets.If you ask most people in the city how many grams of protein, sugar, or carbohydrates they should be getting every day, they have no idea. But a farmer knows exactly how much protein a one- week-old chicken should have, and how much they should be eating at six and eight weeks as well.It becomes a science. And of course, you’re experimenting on the best testing ground possible (the livestock you’re raising, because there’s no placebo effect).There is no one diet that works for everyone:Adaptability is the hallmark of man as eater. For us, many diets are good while none is perfect.We know this to be true. It would be an impossible environment for humans to live in without adaptability. The problem with something like the Paleo diet is that in Paleolithic times, not all people lived in the same part of the planet. Some people lived in rainforests, some lived in savannahs. Even though there is truth that there is a genetic predisposition that some foods are probably more nutrient dense than others, it’s not an absolute black and white fact."Scientists are discovering that the extreme responsiveness of gut flora to changes in diet are a major contributor to humans’ dietary adaptability."You must search for disconfirming evidence:“My friend Richard did a lot of reading on the science of veganism and came away believing that veganism was the correct way to eat. But this happened only after he had already given up animal foods. And, of course, he cherry-picked his sources, ignoring experts like Walter Willett at the Harvard School of Public Health and going straight to gurus like Caldwell Esselstyn, a man who could never get a job at the Harvard School of Public Health.”You see, you have to disprove your own theory.Because whether you’re Vegan, Paleo, Atkins or Macrobiotic, there’s evidence to the contrary of what you believe if you’re willing to open up your eyes and not see this as such a black and white conversation.Agnostic healthy eating is the plan Fitzgerald recommends."I claim only that you will find agnostic healthy eating to be the easiest way to eat for maximum health if you’re turned off by diets that claim to be the One True Way."Fitzgerald says that what we need to do is have an agnostic approach, meaning whatever works is what we should gravitate towards, instead of trying to be a part of a certain group and getting our identity from that group. So it's up to you to “ask, seek, and knock” for that diet that's adaptable to not only the environment in which you live (which is different if you live in the North Pole compared to if you live in Africa), but once you do this search, set up a series of experiments and do it at the same time with top experts and doctors.Stay Strong,TaiJoin me on tomorrow's free online business seminar: http://bit.ly/1BENytXLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you're not careful, the 25 cognitive biases of your brain will destroy your life. As Friedrich Nietzsche says in today's Book-Of-The-Day "Man Alone With Himself" "Many people are obstinate about the path once it's taken, few people about the destination." Get the Book-Of-The-Day deal here: http://bit.ly/1BwZ5vj He means we are stubborn about the wrong thing. Earlier today on my new TV show [Every day at 11:30am PST on TaiLopez.com] I talked about how stubbornness can be a powerful tool. But the devil's in the details. It depends on how you define stubbornness. If you are stubborn about the methods you’re using you will usually lose your way - it will be fatal. You should only be stubborn about one thing: Getting the end goal you wanted. Everything else should be flexible - up for discussion. I had someone in my family decide he was going to become a Fruitarian. He ate bananas all day. But he didn't set it up as an experiment. The Fruitarian diet experiment became his god. He became the servant of his brain and the cognitive biases called "commitment consistency & mis-weighting bias" that many great scientists and psychologists like Cialdini have written on. He shouldn't have cared about which diet plan he adopted - only about which diet plan worked. If you read the book "Diet Cults" you will see how millions of people blindly follow their diet cult: Vegan, Paleo, Macrobiotic, Atkins, Vegetarian, etc. But who cares about the diet?? You should only care about looking in the mirror and being lean and healthy. That's all the matters. If eating cardboard accomplished that, then eat cardboard. People love to elevate the experiment into the goal. The experiment is never the goal. My Fruitarian relative forgot to look in the mirror to see his muscle mass and health deteriorating before his eyes. He forgot to listen to the doctor that said that every Fruitarian he had ever met and treated in his clinic had always had serious health problems. You should never love the path. Love the results. You see this bias in business too. You see business owners with a goal to make net profit. But they try to use their intuition and immediately decide upon the product and strategy to get them the net profit. They guess. And stick to their first guess - even when it's losing money. Brandon Routh, who played Superman in the big Warner Brothers movie, was at my house yesterday. He told me about a friend who moved to Hollywood to get in the entertainment business. He had no acting potential. But he wanted to act. He was stubborn about his imaginary acting skills. He could have been a great writer or producer. But he was so intent on the one path/experiment of acting that he ended up with nothing. Just a nasty Pareto inefficiency. A lose-lose situation. No acting. And no writing or producing. That's most people's life. One nothing after another. You might have noticed this tendency in your love life. You dated someone with the goal of living happily ever after - finding your soul mate. But then you realized, "Hey, this person I'm dating, I don't think there is anything long term here." But you stay committed to the relationship anyway (and kick yourself for it later). Don't be that person. The one trapped in the cycle. Life's too short for deadly mistakes. The simplest way to overcome the biases is to always ask yourself 2 questions: 1. "What's my end goal?" 2. "Is this current experiment getting me efficiently towards that end goal?" If the answer is "No", ditch the experiment (NOT the goal). Just iterate and modify the experiment slightly. At first this will seem like it's too slow of a strategy. It's not. Like Munger says: "Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day – if you live long enough – most people get what they deserve." Stay Strong Tai Join me on tomorrow's free online business seminar: http://bit.ly/1wXQm3C Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today's Book-Of-The-Day we look at "Where Good Ideas Come From" by Steven Johnson. If you want to buy this book and get the 'Smart Reading Course', the ‘67 Steps Video Series', and Tai’s personal book notes check it out here http://bit.ly/1yx4Is6 Also check out Tai’s new TV show every day at 11:30 am PST on TaiLopez.com If you want to sign up for the next LIVE online seminar you can do that here: http://bit.ly/1wvWD6S There may be no better skill to possess in the world than the ability to come up with good ideas. Think about it. The reward for good ideas is massive. Mark Zuckerberg definitely knows the value of a great idea. For him it’s roughly $33.3 billion dollars. Now, you might not need a billion dollars. But according to Daniel Kahneman and his research, you definitely need at least $75,000 a year. Good ideas have the potential to change your bank account. Good ideas also have the potential to change your health. Tai’s dad caught scarlet fever when he was a baby, and doctors said he wouldn’t live past age 12. He was a pretty sickly kid. His life changed the day he picked up a magazine about weight lifting. The article said "Forget everything you've heard, lift weights." And he went from a sickly kid who should have died to Mr. Puerto Rico, Mr. Canada, and one of the first bodybuilders in the world. You see at the root of every revolution is one idea. In "Where Good Ideas Come From" one fascinating story was about the scientist that came up with a law that governs the rate of growth of animals, cities and ideas - it's called Kleiber’s law. Kleiber's law is about something called "positive power scaling" But why should that research matter to you? Simple. "A city that is ten times larger than its neighbor isn't ten times more innovative; it's seventeen times more innovative. A metropolis fifty times bigger than a town is 130 times more innovative than the town." The pace of innovation and good ideas that are going to come out of your brain are directly related to the size of the pool of information that you’re drawing from. The more books you read (an eclectic mix), the more masterminds you study, the more mentors and advisors you surround yourself with, the more exponential growth you'll experience. If your only source of good ideas is one book in the last year, you’re like someone living in a small town. Your “pool” to draw inspiration from is tiny. BUT if you’ve read 50 books instead, according to Kleiber’s Law you wouldn't just get 50 times smarter, you would get 130 times smarter. The more knowledge you absorb, the more great ideas you will come up with. Stay smart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's book-of-the-day is "Folks, This Ain't Normal - A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World" by Joel Salatin, if you want to order this book from me click here: http://bit.ly/12BAhE0 When I was still a teenager my mentor Joel Salatin used to tell me, "Tai, nature always laughs last." For you to live the good life you're going to have to understand nature and biology. I don't care if you live in a high-rise in Manhattan or one of the hundred million dollar condos I saw in London last month. The laws of nature still apply as much to you today as they did 10,000 years ago. If you don't know who Joel is (besides the fact that he was my first mentor), he's a famous international speaker, who’s done two Ted talks, and has written 10 books. But most importantly, he's known for pioneering grass-fed beef and pastured eggs. His Virginia Polyface Farms has had everyone (from celebrities, presidents, even prime ministers) coming to learn from his wisdom. I was actually just visiting Joel and his family for Thanksgiving last week and I recorded some special videos for you. Enable your images to see me interview Joel Salatin The point of his book, “Folks,This Ain’t Normal” is simple. You and I in the modern world are so far removed from biological reality that 80% of the problems we face have nothing to do with flaws in us, per se, but more to do with flaws in the system. It's like the Harvard professor Daniel Lieberman talks about in “The Story of the Human Body.” The quickest way to change your physical health (weight, waistline, etc.) is not to rely on willpower, but to change the system and environment in which you find yourself. So what is Joel saying is wrong with our system? Why Unconventional Works 1. We grow our food with pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones: "Our animals don't do drugs. Instead, we move them almost daily in a tightly choreographed ballet from pasture spot to pasture spot." Joel figured out that you don't have to be locked into the conventional ways to grow food by using chemicals. For example, if you mimic natural systems with your beef cows by moving them around in rotated pastures not only do you get healthier cows but the fertility of the soil increases. That's a true Pareto efficiency. 2. We’ve become detached from our food and the land that grows our food: "A farmer friend of mine told me recently about a busload of middle school children who came to his farm for a tour. The first two boys off the bus asked, 'Where is the salsa tree?' They thought they could go pick salsa, like apples and peaches. Oh my. What do they put on SAT tests to measure this? Does anybody care? How little can a person know about food and still make educated decisions about it? Is this knowledge going to change before they enter the voting booth? Now that's a scary thought." The average child hardly even realizes eggs don't come from the grocery store. Or that Velveeta cheese doesn't come from a can. The only true path to food security is to know where your food comes from - have a relationship with the farmer who grows your food. Get the rest of the lessons here: http://bit.ly/12BAhE0Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's book of the day is "Bounce". If you don't already own “Bounce”, this book is an absolute must have. I worked out a deal with the publisher so you can buy the book brand new directly from me. http://bit.ly/12q7Bgk What most people forget is that life is not about the situation in which you find yourself. It's about the level of "deep domain expertise" that you possess. This is what the best scientific research shows. In the modern world, you are surrounded by generalists. Jack of all trades. Being a generalist won't get you far. Stop being a generalist. It's like Steve Martin says to people who want to break into show business: "Be so good they can't ignore you." Only when you have deep domain expertise will you be so good that even the haters will be forced to stop and pay attention. If you remain a jack of all trades you'll stay ignored. In "Bounce", today's book-of-the-day, Matthew Syed talks about the myth of inborn talent. I ran across this book several years ago and it's made its way to my top 150 books that I read over and over again at least once a year. For Thanksgiving, I visited the Amish and Joel Salatin's farm in Virginia and I read "Bounce" again on the airplane and recorded a video for you out in the snow by the chickens and pigs. This book will scare you. This book will inspire you. It all depends how you perceive it's conclusions. Here are some of the book's main points: 1. It takes reps and sets: “It is the quality and quantity of practice, not genes, that is driving progress." Arnold Schwarzenegger talks about the same thing in his autobiography, “Total Recall”. It's all about reps and sets when it comes to weights. There are a few shortcuts but you still need sheer volume of practice to get good at anything. And it's not just the body and weight lifting this applies to. Ignore all the newfangled books that are being published about how you can bypass sheer volume of practice. It's not really about shortcuts, tricks, and the genetics you were born with. It's about practice. 2. Your passion quotient: “Every endeavor pursued with passion produces a successful outcome regardless of the result." This was the motto of one of the expert coaches that the author interviewed. At different times in your life, you probably grappled with big decisions: which major you should pursue in college, which diet plan you should follow, which career you should pursue, which person you should date... And you might've been paralyzed because you were concerned about making the right or wrong decision. But forget that obsolete, black-and-white type thinking. This book lays out a completely new way to think about those type of decisions. What if the more important thing is rewiring the neural pathways of your brain? The key factor is not whether one thing is right or wrong (it's mathematically impossible to know if one decision was better than the other unless you could live in two alternate, parallel universes and then look back at both decisions outcome). The key, instead, is that when you do something, do it with intense passion, even if it turns out to be the "wrong" thing in the long run. At least you will have been training your brain to do something with massive focus, energy, and passion. You can always pivot and do something else later. Whatever you do don't do things half-hearted because then you're training your brain to be a generalist. As Samuel Johnson said, "The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." Live in a world where people struggle to really grab hold of anything and take ownership of it. Warren Buffett was asked for his best career device and he said to do something with passion because: "The truth is, so few people really jump on their jobs, you really will stand out more than you think. You will get noticed if you really go for it.” A. Know yourself. B. Select your industry and life's focus and don't deviate for a decade or more. C. Develop deep domain expertise. D. Reap the harvest and cash in and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Now, there are quite a few other fascinating points you need to know from this book, so I recorded a quick video for you to watch. If you don't already own “Bounce”, this book is an absolute must have. I worked out a deal with the publisher so you can buy the book brand new directly from me. Plus if you buy it from me, you get it for the same price as you would anywhere else (or cheaper) and I'm throwing in a whole bunch of free bonuses. So you're getting like $100 worth of value for just the price of the book. To order your brand new copy of "Bounce" now and get your free bonuses: http://bit.ly/12q7BgkLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today's books of the day I'm sharing 6 insights with you that I took from some of the toughest people in the world, the Navy Seals. I thought this book was so good that I went out and bought some that you can buy from me here http://bit.ly/1zJU6mJLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm here in Palm Springs doing some work with my team and thought I would make a quick book of the day. I got asked if someone had a gun to my head and I was completely broke how I would make 1 million dollars? Here's my answer, "I would go out to a big market and I would take an idea that is working really well and bring it to a small market."Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's book of the day is A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers From Warren Buffett by Peter Bevelin. This is one of the best books on investing I have ever read.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever asked yourself these questions: How smart am I and does it even matter? Do I need a high I.Q. to be rich? Today's Book of the Day is, “Successful Intelligence: How Practical and Creative Intelligence Determine Success in Life” by Robert Sternberg. Sternberg hypothesizes that I.Q is not a fixed measurement, the way it has been misunderstood for years, and he gives us a lot of insight into how IQ is changeable. Can you answer these questions as a comment below? 1. What is a self defeating attitude that you have had towards your I.Q. or intelligence? 2. What is a negative expectation that others have put on you that you want to defy?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For today's book of the day, I chose "Man Alone with Himself" by Friedrich Nietzsche. He says that everybody aspires to be set apart from the crowd. What do you have to do to become great, to not be just another blip on the radar? In the book, Nietzsche says, "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies." Too many people create strong convictions and stick with them without ever challenging the idea. You must challenge your convictions if you want to grow. Here are three action points to take:1. What resonated most with you form this video?2. What is an action point that you can take from this video?3. What is a conviction that you need to challenge?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.