How Lewis Howes Turned Setbacks into The School of Greatness

0:00Lewis Howes:I didn't have any other dreams because I didn't think I was capable of doing anything else. I didn't know how to make money. I wasn't an entrepreneur. I didn't even know what an entrepreneur meant or didn't have that mindset until after sports. I was recovering from a surgery where I had an injury. I was trying to figure out what was next. I went through a dark time because my identity was shattered from not being able to play sports anymore.

0:20Alex Chisnall:Lewis Howes, New York Times bestselling author, lifestyle entrepreneur, and hosted one of the biggest podcasts in the world, The School of Greatness.

0:28Lewis Howes:Since I was a kid, I always dreamed of the life that I wanted to live. And so dreaming and getting clear on my vision was never an issue for me, where so many people come to me and say, well, how do you find your purpose or your passion? For me, I've always felt like whatever I feel most inspired by, I just lean into that. The thing that lights me up the most, that excites me the most, where I can use my gifts and talents for the most good. I'm like, that's my purpose.

0:50Alex Chisnall:Welcome to this special bite-sized episode of Screw It, Just Do It from our back catalog of over 550 past episodes. If you like what you hear, don't forget to follow the show and grab your free two-day pass to the Festival of Entrepreneurs this October. Just head to festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk to claim yours and don't forget to dive into the back catalogue. Now open for this year's Festival of Entrepreneurs. Join us at the NEC in Birmingham on October the 8th and 9th for two game-changing days with 200-plus speakers and thousands of ambitious founders. Get your free limited two-day pass at festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk or click my personal link in the show notes.

1:27Alex Chisnall:I guess looking back now, I'm assuming being an author as a potential career growing up was never remotely even on your radar.

1:35Lewis Howes:Never thought about it, man. I never thought about being a writer or an author or being a New York Times bestseller. But I did believe in sharing my voice and getting my message out there and being a catalyst for people. I always saw myself as a catalyst. early on it was with sports. I, I didn't think I was smart enough to speak in front of people to have anything interesting to say, but I did believe I could be a great athlete and I could inspire and wow people with my performance on the field or on the basketball court or on the track. And I loved the feeling after in a game, would someone come up to me and say, you know what?

2:15Lewis Howes:You really lifted me up today. That one move you did or where you didn't fight and you came back and you scored this and that. It really lifted me up. You showed me what was possible for my life. And I loved that feeling, that impact that I could have through doing something I loved and hearing stories of people. So I've always wanted to recreate that when I was done with sports, I said, I got to figure out a way I can be a catalyst for people to show them what's possible in their life by me living my dreams and, um, you know, writing, doing the podcast,

2:47Alex Chisnall:all that stuff has kind of helped and was wanting to be a pro athlete the the only childhood dream

2:55Lewis Howes:literally that was it man that was it i mean i didn't have any other dreams because i didn't think i was capable of doing anything else i didn't know how to make money i wasn't an entrepreneur i didn't even know what an entrepreneur meant or didn't have that mindset until after sports i I was, you know, on my sister's couch for a couple of years. I was recovering from a surgery where I had an injury and I was trying to figure out what was next. I went through a dark time because my identity was shattered from not being able to play sports anymore. And also just before I got injured playing football, my dad went through a pretty big accident where he, um, he was on vacation in New Zealand and he got in a car accident where a car came up on top of his roof of his car.

3:42Lewis Howes:The bumper came to the windshield and hit him in the head.

3:45Alex Chisnall:Wow.

3:46Lewis Howes:And he was in a coma for three months and they had to cut the car in half, airlift him out. And we didn't know if he was going to live or not. We had no clue. We just knew he was on in a coma in life support in the hospital. And so for me, this was a turning point because I was so used to having my father kind of mentor and guide me my whole life and, you know, provide for me financially, inspire me. He was like, you know, whenever you're done with sports, you can always come back and work for me. So I had this kind of backup plan and my dad that never forced me to get creative with anything else.

4:23Lewis Howes:then when he went through his injury he's still alive today he finally woke up and uh he's just never been the same he's he's not emotionally there the way he was he's not mentally all there the way he was can still have a conversation with him but he's very forgetful and just kind of a different energy now which has been a whole nother letting go experience for me but in those two year window, he was really in a rough spot and we had to kind of teach him how to walk and talk and read and write and just move again for those couple of years. And I was just like, I have this, you know, my father who I'm essentially taking care of can't take care of me anymore.

5:06Lewis Howes:And my dream is done, my identity, who am I? I was just kind of going through this darker phase where I knew there was something bigger for me. I didn't know what it was, but I just knew that this wasn't going to be my story. And I said, I'm going to figure this stuff out. And I started seeking out mentors early on who were just local, successful business owners, people who had achieved certain things, who'd made some financial gains, who professional speakers I started mentoring with, marketers, inventors, designers. I just wanted to, I was thirsty for information. My education really began after I was done with college.

5:48That's when I started to learn and I became so hungry for information to help improve my life.

5:58Lewis Howes:And that's when everything kind of started to shift. I didn't have this, again, backup plan with my dad. So it forced me to think differently. It forced me to think, okay, how can I get someone to pay me 50 bucks? How can I get someone to give me a hundred dollars? How can I survive? Because otherwise I'm not going to make any money. And this was right in the crisis of 2008, 2009, the economy in the U S was going down and people with master's degrees were getting fired. And I didn't even have a college degree yet. So, and I also didn't want to go get a job at the time because I had this taste of a professional life, a professional athlete lifestyle that was amazing.

6:35Lewis Howes:And I was just like, how can I recreate this? How can I recreate this in my, in my life? And, um, yeah, so my dad getting injured, me losing my dream and all those things kind of at the same time happening really got me to be creative. And a lot of people ask, you know, do you think you're born as an entrepreneur or you can be made one. And I definitely was not born one. I was made one because of circumstances. I never made money. I never knew how to make money. I was like, you know, worked on a golf course, getting paid whatever, six bucks an hour. I worked as a bouncer at a nightclub. I worked as a truck driver all during high school and college.

7:17Lewis Howes:I never, I was never like, oh, let me start a lemonade stand. Let me trade baseball cards. Like I was never that guy who was always entrepreneurial. Never. I was terrified. It wasn't until I was broke, felt like a loser on my sister's couch for two years. And my father wasn't there to support me anymore. It was like, oh, I've got to figure this out. It was a necessity for me to learn. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't be where I'm at if my father didn't go through that. And And I didn't go through all those things at that time. I would have just kind of like had the backup plan and never been forced to.

7:55Lewis Howes:But it gave me this desire to be more, to reach a potential of another life that I never even thought was possible outside of sports. And it's been a challenging but beautiful journey.

8:08Alex Chisnall:If you're enjoying this conversation and thinking, I need to be around more people like this, then I've got the perfect solution for you. The Festival of Entrepreneurs is where 5 ,000 to 10 ,000 ambitious entrepreneurs come together to learn from the people who've actually done it. It's on October the 8th and 9th at the NEC in Birmingham, and I'm giving my listeners free two-day passes. Real entrepreneurs, real stories, real strategies, exactly like what you're hearing right now, but live and in person. Go to festivalofentrepreneurs.co.uk and get your free two-day pass before they're gone. And is that when you started first forming the vision for what you've gone on to achieve?

8:47Alex Chisnall:Because I always listen to your podcast and listen to the one last Friday when it was, you know, talking about talking about vision for five minutes. And yeah, was that when you first started putting that together?

8:59Lewis Howes:I mean, I've always had dreams since I was a kid. I always dreamed of the life that I wanted to live. and so dreaming and getting clear on my vision was never an issue for me where I or so many people come to me and say well how do you find your purpose or your passion and for me I've always felt like whatever I feel most inspired by I just lean into that and that becomes part of my vision you know the thing that lights me up the most that excites me the most thing that gives me the most joy where I can use my gifts and talents for the most good I'm like that's my that's my purpose otherwise if anything else is boring and lame and not fun why would i make that my vision when i could have a more fulfilling rich experience throughout life pursuing my vision so for me at that point the vision was how do i get off my sister's couch how do i make some money so i can feel like an adult and um but i also wanted to do things that were interesting to me now we don't always get that choice where we get to do things that are like fun all the time and make us a lot of money.

10:02Lewis Howes:So for years I had to work hard and work for free for mentors to learn until a little bit of money started coming in. And even then I was teaching LinkedIn to people, you know, because that's something I was just mastering early on to connect with mentors. And I wanted mentors to get, I wanted potential mentors to respond to me on LinkedIn. So I learned how to master my LinkedIn profile and optimize it. So people would think I'm credible enough that they would email me back. that's how I got into LinkedIn because I was like, here's someone I want to connect with, but why would they talk to me when I'm just some like scrub living on my sister's couch?

10:43Lewis Howes:So I was like, you know, professional athlete to support all American. I was like using all my credentials to lead with this like credibility and really started to just study LinkedIn. Like what works, what looks clean? What are these other profiles that are Epic looking to me? Who would I respond to? And I just started to like dive in deeper and deeper and deeper. And people kept saying to me, wow, you have a great looking profile. Can you help me? And friends, I just started helping for free. And then one guy said, here's a hundred bucks. This is going to change my business. And I was like, really, you'll pay me for this.

11:16Lewis Howes:This is just something I'm doing every day for fun because I'm trying to get in touch with, you know, interesting people that could potentially give me the answers to my challenges. And, um, and I just leaned into it. You know, I made a hundred bucks here, another couple hundred bucks. Then people, you know, I realized like at the time, Twitter meetups were a big thing. Tweetups back in the day, 2008. I said, huh, there's something to this. Maybe I can create like LinkedIn meetups. And so I started forming groups on LinkedIn, just kind of like Facebook groups today. And I started cultivating these communities of people that were struggling and needed resources, needed connections.

11:52Lewis Howes:And I was just the curator. And I said, let's throw these events. I threw 20 events around the country in a year and started making, you know, a few hundred bucks, then a thousand bucks, then just optimizing. How can I make these events more efficient? How can I make more money? How could I sell sponsorships, get a commission from the food and bar? How can I sell tickets at the door? How can I, you know, do consulting services around LinkedIn here? How can I, I wrote a book and I was selling books. I was just like any way I could make money around these events, I'm going to figure out the angle.

12:24Lewis Howes:And just little by little, I started to learn and progress and get better. And then I created a course. People were like, can you teach me more of this? So I leaned into it. Let me create a video training course on LinkedIn and had no clue what I was doing. I just made mistakes and continue to fail forward and just like, oh, okay, that sucked. But I made a few grand still. So let me make it better and try to make more. And just kept leaning into this. Because for me, the vision was how can I not be broke and have financial freedom first. So I leaned into the thing that I could do that with. Then eventually I got kind of bored with just talking about, you know, adding a photo to your LinkedIn profile a thousand times a day that I was like, this is not my purpose anymore.

13:08And I had to reflect and look at, you know,

13:12Lewis Howes:the direction that I wanted to go in my life. I said, yes, this has been great financially and it's made a great impact on people's business, but it's not the thing that excites me the most. And if I want to live the richest life, what could I do? What would I be doing every single day? Who would I be spending my time with? What activities would I be doing? So I just started to continue to reevaluate. And I really liked this idea of getting kind of back to my roots of just connecting with the most fascinating people in the world and learning from them. And as opposed to using it for my own benefit, which was what I was doing for the first four years.

13:50Lewis Howes:And I helped myself build a multimillion dollar kind of online social media course business. I said, how could, you know, there's so many people that would love to hear these things that I'm getting to hear behind the scenes and at, you know, at dinners, at these events and on the phone with these leaders, like they're sharing so much with me. And I just wish the world could hear this. so i said i'm going to start up you know my own podcast and do it once a week where i just interview my friends who are doing some of the most fascinating things in the world and share it with the world and it just took off and from there i was like okay this is actually what i wanted to do five six years ago but i didn't have the credibility i didn't have the platform i didn't have the results to really make it a massive impact um on this information and um so i did it when the timing was right and it took off and i said okay how can i continue to build and impact people through this same message so we started creating courses we started writing books we started doing events we started doing stuff for people all over the world so they could get connected to the singular message of how to live your best life how to make a full-time living doing the thing you love and feel the most fulfilled in the process.

15:13Lewis Howes:And that's what I've always wanted to do and teach.

15:15Alex Chisnall:That conversation just proved something. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So here's my challenge. Upgrade your network. The Festival of Entrepreneurs is happening October the 8th and 9th. And I'm giving my listeners free two-day passes to get in the room with 5 ,000 to 10 ,000 entrepreneurs who are actually building something. This is where the risk takers, the game changers and the people who've decided to screw it and just do it come for inspiration, education and connection. Don't just listen to their success stories. Go meet the people living them. Grab your free pass now because the biggest risk isn't taking a chance.

15:51Alex Chisnall:It's missing the opportunity entirely. If Lewis's journey taught us anything, it's this. Your rock bottom doesn't define you. It's your response to it that does. For me, this was one interview that I was probably my most nervous. School of Greatness was one of the first podcasts I listened to that inspired me to start this podcast. Screw it, just do it. So it was also early in my podcasting journey. I think it was episode, I don't know, 20, 30, something like that. I was super nervous. That's all I can remember. but once I got into it I enjoyed it and it definitely was one of those pinch me moments when I suddenly realized I was speaking to Lewis Howes one of the people who inspired me to start this podcast if you'd like to listen to the full episode then dive back into the back catalog of Screw It Just Do It and don't forget to follow or subscribe so you never miss a story like this one