TRANSKRIPT 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.040
In the acknowledgment section of my book Daily Greatness, I wrote this.
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:17.440
I have a fundamental belief in life that too much credit is given to the Batman, the one who builds the company, the star who leads the team to a championship, the lead actor or director, and not enough to the robins, the sidekicks, the one working behind the scenes, those in less glamorous roles.
00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:21.679
I wrote this book, but it wouldn't exist without the help of countless individuals who deserve their praise.
00:00:21.760 --> 00:00:27.120
I'd like to send a huge thanks to my parents for supporting me through everything, even when they thought I was a little crazy.
00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:30.239
My sister Lexi for being a great role model and an even better person.
00:00:30.399 --> 00:00:33.520
Morgan, the love of my life, who puts up with me every single day.
00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:37.520
To my friends, teachers, and coaches, past and present, you played a role without even knowing.
00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:40.399
Thank you to Vanessa Mendozi for creating a great cover.
00:00:40.479 --> 00:00:44.640
And to all the greats throughout the book who challenged me, I say thank you from the bottom of my heart.
00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:46.560
If you're reading this, you're a real one.
00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:52.560
But let it be a reminder to say thank you to the robins in your life, those who played a role in making you who you are.
00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:57.359
Because after all, you are the center of your life, but you are not responsible for everything in your life.
00:00:57.520 --> 00:00:59.600
So don't forget to show your appreciation.
00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:17.599
The more I read, the more I learn, the more, the more books I read, the more podcasts I do, the more I see again and again this pattern of unlikely events or these unknown people or these lesser-known people who end up altering the tr the trajectory of someone's life who goes on to have this astounding success.
00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:21.840
These robins who help launch the seed of the success for these Batmans.
00:01:21.920 --> 00:01:26.640
And I don't think they will ever get enough credit, or at least, in my mind, the credit that they deserve.
00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:49.040
So I want to give a little appreciation to some of the Robins throughout history who have altered the life of a few people in ways that they themselves could never have imagined the wild man.
00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:56.239
Nothing in life is worthwhile unless you take Christ.
00:02:00.719 --> 00:02:04.000
A few weeks ago, I dove into legendary coach Vince Lombardi.
00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:12.879
But Lombardi's Green Bay Packers in the 1960s would not have had its success if it wasn't for Vince Lombardi himself, but also for the quarterback Bart Star.
00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:23.599
As he's described in his biography, while leading the Green Bay dynasty during the days of the Beatles in the Space Race, as the NFL stormed out of the shadows to become an American obsession, Bart Starr rarely attracted the respect he deserved.
00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:31.039
Frequently, overshadowed by Lombardi's dominant aura, he was easy and convenient to diminish his role in the Packers' unparalleled success.
00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:38.639
He was not gifted with an especially powerful arm, so he was never confused with bomb throwers like Sammy Baugh, Joe Neymar, Dan Marino, or John Elwick.
00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:43.599
He was not fast on his feet, so he was never able to elude defenders like Frank Tarkinton.
00:02:43.680 --> 00:02:53.759
He was not a force of nature like Johnny United's, but he was a clutch player who delivered time after time, lifting the Packers with the power of his mighty will while setting a new standard for offensive leadership.
00:02:53.919 --> 00:03:03.840
The cerebral, poised and efficient star, who methodically piloted the Packers through the most dominant seven-year running professional football history, remains the only quarterback to win five NFL championships.
00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.080
That was before Brady did it years ago.
00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:17.439
And Bart Star, as the years have gone on, as historians have started to look back at old quarterbacks, old film, have really started to understand just how great he was in the grand scheme of things.
00:03:17.520 --> 00:03:19.120
Kerry Bryan, he was this football historian.
00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:21.120
He once wrote this like a decade ago.
00:03:21.199 --> 00:03:22.879
It was before Brady became the greatest ever.
00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:27.599
He said, if you believe in numbers, in substance over style, there's really only one conclusion to draw.
00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:30.639
Bart Star was the best quarterback ever.
00:03:30.879 --> 00:03:36.800
No quarterback has ever performed so well, so consistently in pressure situations, said NFL films president Steve Sable.
00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:43.759
Bart was the master of the calculated risk, converting all those crucial first downs on the way to one big victory after another.
00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:51.840
But here's the importance of Robbins, because Bart Starr would not have led those Green Bay Packers to championship after championship after championship.
00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:01.759
He would not have helped Vince Lombardi become one of the greatest coaches ever if it wasn't for a random good deed from a fellow peer that would change the course of his life and sports history forever.
00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:12.639
So for some context, Bart Starr was a great high school quarterback, and he earned himself the opportunity to play at the University of Alabama in the 1950s, which was right when they started to become a powerhouse in college football.
00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:24.480
And while Starr had some promising arm strength, while he was a great student of the game, a fast learner, it would take
Load full transcript
him until his sophomore year before he was given the starting role as quarterback for Alabama.
00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:28.560
And Starr would actually end up leading Alabama to an SEC title that year, his second year.
00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:34.720
But it would be the beginning after his sophomore year that would really start a rough two-year stretch for the young quarterback.
00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:39.920
So after his junior year, his head coach, Harold Drews, was let go by the University of Alabama.
00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:40.800
He was there for like eight years.
00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:43.680
He had a lot of success, but they finally let him go.
00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:46.399
And they brought in a man named JB Whitworth.
00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:50.480
And Starr had dealt at this time with a back injury for most of his junior year.
00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:58.319
And he was still recovering heading into his senior year, but he would hope to come back fully healthy for one final year to, to, to really play well.
00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:02.319
And maybe if he had such a good year, it could give him a chance to play at the professional level.
00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:05.199
But it would be just the opposite of that.
00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:20.160
His biographer Keith Donavant writes, largely recovered from his debilitating back injury, Starr worked hard during the offseason to regain his momentum, eager to bounce back from a frustrating 1954 season and lead the Crimson Tide to a big season in 1955.
00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:29.199
But instead, he mostly watched as a dark cloud descended across the once proud Alabama football program, determined to emphasize the run and go with a youth movement to build for the future.
00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:41.360
JB Whitworth, who was the new coach, left passing specialist star, future member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, hero of the ice bowl, to ride the bench as the Crimson Tide finished 0 and 10.
00:05:41.519 --> 00:05:52.319
The history of football is littered with great pros who never developed fully in college, but it'd be difficult to find a future pro of such prominence who was so fully wasted as Bart Starr during his senior year in Tuscaloosa.
00:05:52.480 --> 00:05:53.120
With Albert L.
00:05:53.199 --> 00:06:01.600
Moore and Claywells, who were the other two quarterbacks, taking most of the snaps, Starr played only sparingly on the only winless team in Alabama history.
00:06:01.759 --> 00:06:03.600
The situation dented Starr's confidence.
00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:09.600
When Whitworth played him, usually after the game had already been lost, he felt less sure of himself and he often performed poorly.
00:06:09.759 --> 00:06:17.439
One year after he was called the best passer the University of Alabama ever had, Starr felt completely demoralized, believing his football career was over.
00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:33.199
So with Starr not playing at all during his senior year, senior campaign, and uh especially in the 1950s, with no advanced scouting, no advanced film at the time, it seemed that Starr's football career, his any chance at playing at the professional level, was over.
00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:55.120
His biographer writes, at a time when college football appeared to be an end in itself rather than a launching pad for the NFL, when the vast majority of players at schools like Alabama moved directly into fields related to their majors, when the salaries in pro football remained modest, when the entire league consisted of just 12 teams and therefore produced fewer than 5,000 playing positions at any given time, Starr's dream was complicated by an even more daunting task.
00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:59.519
In his senior year, he had essentially vanished, discarded by a winless team.
00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:01.680
Many people would ask, Bart who?
00:07:01.839 --> 00:07:10.160
As Star wondered if he was walking the fine line between delusion and dream, one man believed in him, one man who had the power to help him.
00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:12.480
And that man was a man named Johnny D.
00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:15.839
He was actually the current Alabama basketball coach.
00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:17.920
And he had developed a relationship with Barr.
00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:27.279
And he himself, he had seen Bart play, Bart Bart Starr play, and he had seen his greatness at times, and he truly, truly believed that Bart Starr was good enough for the pros.
00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:31.519
And he said this, I'm going to call someone in the NFL for you, D told Starr one day.
00:07:31.680 --> 00:07:32.560
I think you can play.
00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:36.000
I know I can play, Bart said, if I can get the opportunity.
00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:44.000
For some unknown reason, Johnny D had a feeling about Starr, so he called his friend Jack Vancey, the director of player personnel for the Green Bay Packers.
00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:46.240
You need to look at this kid, he insisted.
00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:48.879
And then there's this great line in Starr's biography.
00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:53.040
Sometimes a phone call can change a man's life.
00:07:53.199 --> 00:08:06.879
And that phone call from Johnny D led Bart to have a tryout with a Packer Scout and would ultimately lead the Green Bay Packers to drafting Bart Starr in the 17th round of next year's draft, the 1956 NFL draft.
00:08:07.199 --> 00:08:12.399
I was so happy, Bart said after getting drafted, just knowing I was going to get the opportunity to compete.
00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:20.160
Starr stopped to thank Johnny D for his help, but at that moment he could not fully appreciate the life-altering impact of one man's active fate.
00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:23.920
How do you thank a man for opening the door to your future?
00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:37.759
Because just a few years later, with Bart Starr as the starting quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, with Vince Lombardi finally coming in and turning the culture around, the Green Bay
Packers would put together one of the most dominant runs, not just in football history, but in sports history.
00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:48.879
And Bart Starr's life was changed forever because of a single phone call, because someone believed in him when others didn't, because of a Robin named Johnny D.
00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:53.759
This is something I feel like I keep mentioning more and more throughout these podcasts.
00:08:53.919 --> 00:09:00.080
But there seem to be these hidden forces or unknown people who completely change the trajectory of someone's life.
00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:11.759
Maybe it's a phone call in the case of Bart Starr, maybe it's someone just believing in the person, maybe it's a connection someone makes, maybe it's money they supply for their business, or some words of wisdom just at the perfect time in their life.
00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:19.360
But in these stories of these Batmans, there are always Robins behind the scenes who helped make things happen, who don't get the credit they deserve.
00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:30.879
Another one of my favorites on this idea, because I'm a massive sports fan if you haven't picked it up, and I think he's the greatest athlete I've ever watched in my life, and I've come to admire his genius and his greatness, and it's it's LeBron James.
00:09:30.960 --> 00:09:32.799
But LeBron James is not LeBron James.
00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:36.639
He's not the greatest basketball player ever, or the or one of the greatest basketball players ever.
00:09:36.799 --> 00:09:42.639
If it wasn't for the help of a random family who extended a helping hand when he and his mother were struggling when he was young.
00:09:42.799 --> 00:09:45.759
So LeBron James, for some context, grew up in Akron, Ohio.
00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:49.360
And he didn't have you could argue anything working for him from a very young age.
00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:50.480
He didn't have a father.
00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:55.679
His mother, Gloria, gave birth to LeBron when she was in high school, which was a very tough time in her life.
00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:58.799
Gloria actually had to drop out of high school after giving birth.
00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:02.960
And those in her support system, there were two women, her grandmother and her mother.
00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:06.240
And shortly after she gave birth, both of them passed away.
00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:10.639
So here was here was Gloria with no support system, no education.
00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:14.559
And she was trying to raise a young boy and she was she was struggling to say the least.
00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:16.480
Here's a description on their situation.
00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:19.360
Gloria and LeBron lived like nomads during this period.
00:10:19.440 --> 00:10:23.679
People who knew them referred to them as Glow and Brian, a mother and a son just trying to survive.
00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:28.480
I can remember numerous times when my son and I ran out of food and went hungry, Gloria said.
00:10:28.639 --> 00:10:32.720
What kept us going was help from friends, family, and the community.
00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:40.080
With his mother barely getting on by welfare and food stamps, LeBron struggled to form friendships with classmates or establish bond with bonds with teachers.
00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:45.600
Without a permanent address, he frequently changed schools and developed into a quiet kid who seldom spoke up.
00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:48.799
I was a scared, lonely boy, young boy, LeBron said.
00:10:48.960 --> 00:10:55.360
As LeBron put it years later, I was on the edge of falling to an abyss from which I could never escape.
00:10:55.600 --> 00:11:04.080
There's this, there's even this uh uh crazy stat that in the fourth grade, LeBron missed something like a hundred days of school, basically like half of the school year.
00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:12.000
And it was because of this lack of stability in LeBron's life and and those who knew him that people really started to want to offer a helping hand.
00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:17.039
And that's when a family would alter the course of a young boy's life forever.
00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:25.360
Things were so dysfunctional that LeBron's football pee-wee coaches wanted to take him in, but most of them were younger single men who weren't well equipped to take on the responsibility.
00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:29.360
The one exception was Frank Walker, the coach everyone called Big Frankie.
00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:32.080
Walker worked for the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority.
00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:38.720
Walker cared more about LeBron's personal welfare than his athletic prowess, and he knew that LeBron was hurting and needed a lifeline.
00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:45.919
It was apparent that he had seen and experienced hard things that had sapped some of the joy in his life and made him mature beyond his years.
00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:49.120
The Walkers approached Gloria about having LeBron move in with them.
00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:50.559
It was a difficult subject to broach.
00:11:50.720 --> 00:11:54.000
Gloria knew she wasn't able to provide LeBron a stable home life.
00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:59.279
Without passing judgment on Gloria, the Walkers were offering to give LeBron security and family structure.
00:11:59.440 --> 00:12:01.120
He could share a room with Frankie Jr.
00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:03.360
There would be three square meals a day.
00:12:03.519 --> 00:12:08.399
He'd have a set bedtime, and school attendance would be an integral part of his daily routine.
00:12:08.559 --> 00:12:12.559
Frank made it clear that they have LeBron's best interest in mind.
00:12:12.799 --> 00:12:14.080
Gloria knew she needed help.
00:12:14.240 --> 00:12:17.279
I hated raising him that way, moving and moving and moving, Gloria said.
00:12:17.440 --> 00:12:18.480
I truly hated it.
00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:19.919
So what does LeBron do?
00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:21.840
He ends up moving in with the walkers.
00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:25.919
And for the first time in his entire life, he's eight, nine, ten years old at this time.
00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:29.919
He has the one thing he has never had before: stability and structure.
00:12:30.080 --> 00:12:31.679
There were a lot of rules with the walkers.
00:12:31.759 --> 00:12:35.360
LeBron was expected to wake up each morning at six to bathe and get ready for school.
00:12:35.440 --> 00:12:37.840
And after school, homework came before anything else.
00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:39.759
The family ate dinner together each night.
00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:43.039
Afterward, there were chores, taking out the trash, doing the dishes, sweeping.
00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:45.600
It was all foreign to LeBron, a schedule, a routine.
00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:46.240
Chores.
00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:48.879
I got the stability I craved, LeBron later said.
00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:51.200
I loved being part of the flow that is a family.
00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:53.279
I saw how life was meant to be lived.
00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:57.200
And it's actually with the Walkers that at this time LeBron hadn't played basketball yet.
00:12:57.279 --> 00:13:04.080
He's actually introduced to the sport of basketball and a handful of the coaches who would later influence his life and how he plays the game.
00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:08.639
But what was most important was just the stability he had for the first time ever.
00:13:08.879 --> 00:13:14.480
And LeBron even said on the importance of that time in his life and the importance of living with the Walker family.
00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:17.120
LeBron recognized how lucky he was to live with them.
00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:22.559
Without that time with the Walkers, he said, I don't honestly know what would have become of me.
00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:27.600
Without that time with the Walkers, I don't honestly know what would have become of me.
00:13:27.759 --> 00:13:31.840
It's so crazy to think about that the man, like I love to watch him play basketball.
00:13:32.240 --> 00:13:44.639
The man who has inspired millions of people and kids worldwide, someone who has changed the game of basketball forever, may never have been put in that position if it wasn't for a family's help during a rough point in his and his mother's life.
00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:48.000
Another example of the importance of Robbins.
00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:54.159
And if you listen to the episode on Mary Kay Ash, who built her cosmetics empire, K Cosmetics, we saw a very similar thing.
00:13:54.320 --> 00:14:03.039
So after Mary Kay spent decades working as a saleswoman and was close to the age of retirement, she couldn't actually fathom retiring and stopping work.
00:14:03.200 --> 00:14:07.200
So she decided to build what she called her dream company, which was a cosmetics company.
00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:09.120
And she wrote this in her autobiography.
00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:10.320
It was 1963.
00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:16.080
After 25 years as a professional saleswoman,
with my children grown, I just decided that retirement didn't suit me.
00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:19.600
And so I had developed a strategy and philosophy for beginning my own dream company.
00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:24.159
I had recruited several salespeople and invested my life savings into a chance of a lifetime.
00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:32.559
Using my years of experience in direct sales, I was going to train and supervise the beauty consultants while my husband was going to handle the administrative details of our new business.
00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:36.320
Exactly one month before we were scheduled to open, my husband and I were having breakfast.
00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:38.960
He was reading the final percentage figures for the company.
00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:46.720
And I was listening very much as a wife often does when her business when her husband talks about the budget with half an ear, because I considered it to be his problem.
00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:49.279
At that moment, he suffered a fatal heart attack.
00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:52.000
I believe that work is often the best antidote for grief.
00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:54.320
So I decided to open the business as planned.
00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:58.720
Starting the company had been my dream and my idea, but I never imagined that I would run it alone.
00:14:58.879 --> 00:15:01.600
I knew that I didn't have the needed administrative skills.
00:15:01.679 --> 00:15:06.879
And yet at this point, all the merchandise, bottles, and common labels were useless if the company folded.
00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:08.159
I had to go on.
00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:18.879
And one of the few reasons Mary Kay Ash was able to go on, one of the reasons the company would get off the ground and have its eventual success, is because of the sacrifices her kids would be willing to make for her.
00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:20.480
Here's how Mary Kay described it.
00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:23.919
The day of my husband's funeral, my sons and daughter came to Dallas from Houston.
00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:28.399
Perhaps it was the worst possible time to make a business decision, but it could no longer be delayed.
00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:34.559
My 20-year-old son, Richard, was a sales representative for Prudential Life Insurance Company, one of the youngest agents in Texas.
00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:40.960
He was making an incredible salary of$480 a month as a 20-year-old, the equivalent of like$60,$70,000 a day.
00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:47.279
But if Mary Kay were to become a reality, she wrote, I needed his help, but there was no way I could afford a salary like that.
00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:51.759
I took a deep breath and offered him$250 a month to help me guide the new company.
00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:59.759
Richard accepted without hesitation, and over the horrified protests of other family members and friends, he immediately quit his job and moved to Dallas.
00:15:59.919 --> 00:16:03.200
My elder son, Ben, was 27 married and the father of two.
00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:05.759
He could not pull up roots and move as quickly as his brother.
00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:10.320
But after hearing my plans to continue the company, he said, One day I'd like to join you and Richard.
00:16:10.399 --> 00:16:14.639
Then calmly and deliberately, he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out his savings passbook.
00:16:14.799 --> 00:16:20.639
The balance showed$4,500, a sum I knew represented everything he had saved since high school.
00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:24.559
Mother, he told her, I think you could do anything in the world that you wanted to.
00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:26.559
Then he handed me the passbook.
00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:27.600
Here's my savings.
00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:30.559
If it will help you in any way, I want you to have it.
00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:35.440
Eight months later, when we needed someone to handle our expanding ware expanding warehouse, Ben left his job.
00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:41.360
At the time, he gave up a salary of$750 a month and started with the company at the same pay as Richard,$250.
00:16:41.840 --> 00:16:52.399
If you think about it, if her son Richard didn't leave his promising job to help her, if Ben didn't give her all of his life savings at the time, Mary Kay Ash may not have survived the early years.
00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:53.840
That's the power of Robbins.
00:16:54.000 --> 00:17:05.519
I mentioned this one on Howard Schultz in episode 154, but there's this moment in his life when Schultz joined Starbucks, which was before it was this global empire, it was this three, four, five chain Starbucks retailer store.
00:17:05.599 --> 00:17:08.079
It only sold coffee, beans, not actually coffee by the cup.
00:17:08.240 --> 00:17:16.880
But after a year of working with Starbucks, he decides that he wants to leave to start his own espresso bar and cafe type company, basically exactly what Starbucks is today.
00:17:17.039 --> 00:17:20.960
And he decides to make the decision right when his wife gets pregnant.
00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:23.680
Schultz writes, gradually, I realized what I had to do.
00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:24.480
This is my moment.
00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:31.119
I thought, if I don't seize the opportunity, if I don't step out of my comfort zone and risk at all, if I let too much time tick on, my moment will pass.
00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:36.640
I knew that if I didn't take advantage of this opportunity, I would replay it in my mind my whole life, wondering what if, why didn't?
00:17:36.799 --> 00:17:37.519
This was my shot.
00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:39.680
Even if it didn't work out, I still had to try it.
00:17:39.759 --> 00:17:43.039
I made up my mind to leave Starbucks and start my own company.
00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:47.599
Just as I made up my mind, we found out Sherry, his wife, was pregnant without my salary.
00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:50.880
We would have to live off her income until I could get the new company up and running.
00:17:51.039 --> 00:17:58.240
She was willing
to go back to work soon after the baby was born in January, but I hated the fact that because of my decision, she had no choice.
00:17:58.319 --> 00:18:10.000
And this idea of Schultz starting this coffee company, it'd be called Il Giornale, which was not an ideal business in the 70s and 80s because coffee was not this premium thing, it was not this, this, this commodity that people actually enjoyed.
00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:11.039
It was not popular at all.
00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:15.920
Right when his wife was getting pregnant, was not an appealing idea, especially to Sherry's father.
00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:21.599
And Schultz recalls this moment when his wife's father actually pulled him aside to have a talk.
00:18:21.759 --> 00:18:24.720
And he tells Schultz this whatever you're doing, I respect it.
00:18:24.799 --> 00:18:26.079
But it's not a job, it's a hobby.
00:18:26.240 --> 00:18:28.400
My daughter's working, she's working, you're not.
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:30.640
You need to get a job.
00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:38.720
And Schultz said in an interview four decades later that after that conversation with Sherry's dad, that he just started bawling.
00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:41.920
And Schultz ends up telling Sherry about this conversation.
00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:45.839
And you might think that she would agree with her father that she was frustrated by this whole situation.
00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:48.240
But she was actually outraged by her father's work.
00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:52.720
She couldn't fathom Schultz, her husband, giving up this dream and this idea.
00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:56.160
And she urged him to keep going.
00:18:56.799 --> 00:18:58.160
And what happens years later?
00:18:58.319 --> 00:19:01.759
Schultz buys back Starbucks and then turns it into the empire it is today.
00:19:01.920 --> 00:19:07.200
And Schultz later recalled on his wife, she is the glue to everything that happened.
00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:20.640
So just a little reminder that I like to remind myself in my own life a lot that as you work toward your ambitions and dreams, as you give your life to a mission or a craft, do everything you can to make those things work in your favor.
00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:27.599
Be disciplined, work obsessively, make, make, make the right sacrifices, do what you can to move in the right direction to make progress.
00:19:27.839 --> 00:19:34.000
But don't forget that there will be robins in your life who have as much of an impact as any single thing that you do.
00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:36.160
Sometimes it's a coach or a peer like Johnny D.
00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:37.119
who helped Bart Starr.
00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:41.200
Sometimes it's a it's a random family like the Walkers who helped LeBron James.
00:19:41.279 --> 00:19:47.039
Sometimes it's your own family or your partner, like it was for Mary Kay Ash and Howard Schultz.
00:19:47.119 --> 00:19:50.160
But the robins in your life help you more than you realize.
00:19:50.319 --> 00:19:52.880
You need them, to be honest, more than you realize.
00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:58.960
And if you think about it, we don't have the entrepreneurs, we don't have the artists, the athletes, the difference makers in this world.
00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:07.839
We don't have the Batmans getting all the spotlight, the Batmans who who eventually inspire millions and millions and millions of people who help others today if there aren't those robins in the background.
00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:14.720
So when you have that person in your life, make sure to thank them because they are as important as anything you will ever do.
00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:18.640
And no one, not a single person, succeeds their way without them.
00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:24.640
Batmans, they they do deserve their praise and adulation, but without the Robins, they wouldn't be where they are today.