Things I wish I’d known when I was younger

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1:52If you had the chance to tell your younger self something, what would you say? Welcome to High Performance. This is a question that my co-host Damien and I ask every single guest that sits in the chair. And the reason why we ask it is because actually what we've noticed is the people that join us very rarely think back to these times in their lives, do they? You're right, Jake, because the research is out there and tells us why this is the case. It's estimated we make about 10 ,000 decisions every single day. Like 236 of them are just around the food and drink we're going to consume. So we're constantly deciding what we're going to do next, what's coming at us thick and fast.

2:27And we develop a concept in psychology called heuristics. These are mental models that allow us to live our life forward based on lessons we've learned from the past. And once we tend to learn those lessons, if they work, very rarely do we ever go back and revise them. So by asking that question, you're asking people to go and share with you. Where did that make sense for you? And why does it continue to make sense? And does it, in fact, need updating? And we're now about 300 episodes into high performance, right? We've said right from the very beginning, this entire project is not about income.

2:59It's about the outcome. And one of the big outcomes for us is trying to help change the mindsets of young people, which I guess is why we like asking, what would you tell your younger self? Because it's such a formative time. so we've actually created a foundation linked to high performance it's called the high performance foundation and we've built something called game plan which is an amazing resource that we are spreading around schools starting out in the uk and we're getting the resilience that young people need into their minds at an early age we're trying to get them to think in ways that they haven't been asked to think about before and trying to really equip them with the soft skills that are going to be so valuable in later life and we're actually going to be joined by a guest in a moment a really generous, kind-hearted entrepreneur and CEO, a guy called Sam, who's going to explain to us why he's supporting the High Performance Foundation, but he's also going to share his incredible journey with us.

3:48If you want to find out more, just go to highperformancefoundation.org. But right now, let's hear from a couple of our guests who we've asked this question to, and we've kind of been impressed by the answers that we've heard, and we can riff about that for a second. So who would you like to start with? I think the first one I'd like to do is almost a guide that's regarded as a guru of productivity, a man who's got a phenomenal best-selling book that's been in the top 10 around the world for many years called Atomic Habits. It's the brilliant James Clare. And the reason I want to talk about James' stuff is because not only is getting better made really accessible and understandable, he boils it down to just really small principles that any of us can do, regardless of our starting position.

4:34Shall we listen to the way he explains it? What do I think is good general advice for a teenager? Or what is something you would tell, you know, an 18 year old? I think it mostly comes down to focusing on getting started and being consistent. So I always encourage people to start with what in the book, I talk about the two minute rule, take whatever habit you're trying to build and you scale it down to something that takes two minutes or less to do. So read 30 books a year becomes read one page or do yoga four days a week becomes take out my yoga mat. and the real key there is that you're encouraging yourself to start small because you want to master the art of showing up you know you want to become the type of person that does it consistently there's that quote from ed latimore where he says the heaviest weight at the gym is the front door and you know there are a lot of things in life that are like that oh what a conversation and the reason why i think this is a powerful place to start is that i think for a lot of people who enjoy high performance, but particularly for people who are still in school, who are still at the start of their journey.

5:36I think they still have this belief that high performance is a great leap in a certain direction. It's about making fundamental changes to your life. It's about doing things that no one would ever believe you're going to do. It's about being brave and outlandish and these huge kind of leaps where you have to really trust yourself. But it's not true. High performance is separated or we are separated from high performance by a huge number of very tiny things done in a really good way. Well, it's like that great line, isn't it? That you don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.

6:09And I think what James articulates brilliantly there is just how do we all start? It doesn't matter. You don't need to have great connections. You don't need to have wealth. You don't need to have real privilege. We can all start from the position that we're in. If it's we want to get fitter, just getting your trainers on and going out the door and running to the first lamppost and walking the rest of it. You've started. If you want to get better at school, it's about reading the first page of that book rather than memorising it all. It's all about small steps that any of us can take. And I think that's a really powerful lesson for not only young people, but for those of us that have left school a long time ago.

6:45I remember Shane Parrish coming on the show. He's an author who created the Farnham Street blog. And do you remember when he said to us, he said, at the end of each day, imagine that you've had a camera crew filming you to show other people how you live your life? What would people think of the decisions that you've made? You know, that idea of who really are you when no one's watching. But I think the most powerful example of this was when we had James Clear on the show and you've heard a clip from him there. And he said to us that every action you take is a vote for the person that you want to be.

7:17And so I think that makes it so simple because what time you get out of bed, what you eat for breakfast, the way that you speak to your partner, the way that you speak to yourself, whether you bother calling your parents to tell them that you love them, whether you make a good decision at lunchtime, whether you go for a run, whether you scroll on your phone too much. You can do all that stuff, no problem, but just remember that each one of those is a vote. And every time you cast a vote, you're casting a vote for who you want to be. I think it's brilliant. Yeah, and again, to follow up, when Eddie Jones told us that everything you do, every action you take either enhances or erodes your self-image.

7:52so if you're the sort of person that goes for everyone you create this self-image of you're a person that values keeping fit if you're the sort of person that makes time to go and help somebody else you're you're a person that shows kindness and compassion to others so every action you take is a vote for the person you are absolutely but that imbues everything we do with a sense of importance that it matters and sometimes i think what stops people from doing this is that the decision seems like a hard decision. But do hard things is a message we've had time and time and time again on high performance.

8:25And the reason is because, well, what did Mark Webber say? Average is easy. That's why it's popular. So there's that to take into account. But also, and you're great on this, is that actually when we do hard things, it reminds us that we can do them. It builds our self-belief. It builds our self-esteem. It means when hard times come, we actually think, I've got this because I do hard things every day. Therefore, hard is okay for me yep confidence is built on evidence for us to believe that we're capable of anything our brains search for the evidence of prove it to me give me some tangible proof that i'm able to do it so we don't start out with confidence we start out by taking an action and that built confidence is a consequence of all that right let's hear from another guest who we posed a question what would you tell a teenage you it was alex albon the williams formula one driver and this was his answer.

9:19I never truly had the confidence that I'm at now and I still feel like there's more you know I'm still not the most totally confident person there is but I'm on I'm in that journey and you could imagine me as a kid I was the opposite side I was quite low down. I think a lot of that comes from what you know me being introverted and all that kind of thing. It's really hard to give him advice because i know he didn't listen you know my dad and my mom and my dad would always feed me with a lot of confidence and and always tell me um you know you don't know how good you are and all this kind of stuff but i never really took it to heart and i think i'd shake him i'm like no it's true there's a few interesting things to pick up on here isn't there i guess i guess the first one is this idea of we've realized high performance to do the best you can where you are with what you've got and sometimes we have to be really aware that young people are still doing the best they can where they are with what they've got they don't have our wisdom they don't have our knowledge they don't have our life experience so part of the game here actually is allowing young people to fail it's an absolutely vital part of creating high performers that's a powerful point i'd encourage any young person as well though to pick up on alex's point there and there's a billion uh educational psychologists called Howard Gardner that I really love his work and he has this great line of don't ask yourself how clever are you but instead ask yourself how are you clever because every one of us is clever at something his theory is called the multiple intelligences theory for anyone that wants to explore it but some people are going to be good at music some people are going to be good at math some people are going to be good at socializing some people are physically gifted but we're all gifted at something and I think rather than look at what we can't do or define ourselves about what we're not capable of i think start to look at what are our strengths like alex says he was a quiet kid yeah he was a quiet kid but maybe he had the like a real good perception of other people maybe he had a social intelligence that meant he could fit in and i think focusing on our strengths as opposed to trying to mitigate against our weaknesses is a powerful lesson again that doesn't just apply in the classroom it applies in the real world for the rest of us and the reason why it's such a passion point of ours to create the high performance foundation right is that the schools do so much good teachers work so hard you know that they are doing the very best that they can do but there's also an argument that schools are testing the wrong things in the wrong way so i struggled at school because there was never an exam for emotional intelligence right so i was getting bad marks in my maths, my science, my history, my English.

12:02I was getting bullied at school. I didn't fit in. I remember my parents going in to see Mr. Pugh, who was my form teacher at the time, and they said, like, almost like, what's wrong with Jake, or Jacob as they call it? What's wrong with Jacob? Like, nothing's working. And Mr. Pugh just said, well, he's only 15, I was at the time. He said, he's 15. And he has emotional intelligence I've never seen in a 15-year-old before. And the truth is that that's actually causing him problems. Like, it's not making life at school easy for him. Because I didn't fit in. and I think that the way that we judge people at school is kids who are on the extremities are often the ones that are forgotten.

12:36They're often the ones where, because school's trying to get hundreds of thousands, millions of people to go through the same system. The only way to make that work is to funnel them through something that you know will get most people to a point where they can go and get a job. Therefore, it naturally leaves those on the edges exposed, underserved, underrepresented and misunderstood and that's why I think the High Performance Foundation needs to do the work it needs to do. Because we need to speak to those kids. It's the creation of the soft skills. You know, in all honesty, how often in your life now do you rely on algebra?

13:08Do you rely on Latin? Do you rely on knowing how the Tudors laid out their gardens? Do you rely on, you know, using maths to a great degree? I've never used a Bunsen burner in 30 years. I'm proud of that. There you go. And I'm not denigrating schools here. But what I am saying is we're entering the post-knowledge generation, right? Where technology is doing all the things, we're equipping young people to do. What technology can't have is soft skills. Technology can't have empathy and understanding and care for one another and creativity. So it's time to start getting kids to ask better questions rather than answer questions better in school.

13:43You know what, Jake? There's a brilliant educational writer called Ian Gilbert that wrote a book about 15 years ago that said, so why do I need a teacher when I've got Google? Yeah. And it's such a brilliant book because the point he's making in the book is that we don't need to be teaching knowledge exclusively. We need to teach how to ask questions, how to be able to synthesize different bits of information and make sense of it, how to combine ideas. And I think that's precisely what you're describing, but I think that's precisely what the work of the foundation is aiming to do to equip kids with that emotional intelligence to be able to go and make sense of the world and the world around them.

14:22And you know who's created the foundation? Teachers? It was teachers reaching out to us, telling us that this stuff wasn't available enough in schools. That meant we created it. We then put a working group together of teachers who came up with Gameplan, came up with the resources. Because we know how stretched teachers are, this needs to be as easy and as simple as possible for all teachers to get their hands on, to get into the classroom and start impacting young people. So before we introduce Sam and have a conversation with him, let me just say one more time, if you're interested in finding out more about Gameplan, more about the foundation, please go to highperformancefoundation.org.

14:55But right now, it's time to welcome our very special guest.

15:02Well, Sam, thank you so much for joining us. It's a pleasure to be here. Let's just explain, first of all, to people watching and listening to this, how you came to be sitting in this chair. So we all met at the High Performance Gala night where we raised funds for the foundation and you very kindly put your hand in the air during the live auction and bid for the chance to come and speak to us and share your journey and share your story. But I think you only would have done that if you'd have heard the messages on the night that resonated with you. So why does the work of the foundation really matter?

15:34Expanding on what you were just talking about a minute ago, I always feel like schools never really prepare you for the kind of life skills that you actually need in the world. So I didn't really enjoy school at all. I didn't really feel like I engaged with it. But, you know, schools teach you that, you know, get good grades, get a job, and that's it. When in reality, it doesn't teach you, you know, practical skills, how to manage your finances, you know, how to stay healthy physically and mentally, you know, you don't have to get a job, you can start a business. You know, none of these kind of practical skills about how the world actually works.

16:09in my case it wasn't until I was kind of 16, 17 when I started googling things and reading books of Richard Branson and Lord Sugar or all of the greats that had come before that you can actually do anything if you put your mind to it and so what you guys are doing is very much about changing the way that we educate children in a way so that just resonates really strongly with me. So let's explain then to our audience your journey and the reason one of the reasons why you're sitting here is that you've done something really pretty cool okay so give us a give us a potted history of sam stoffel from kind of being at uni to being the the ceo of a multi-million pound business sure um so i went to university of leeds and as most students do i was looking for ways to make money so what were you studying i was doing cinema and photography because i used to want to be a movie director okay um and uh so i was looking for ways to make money and googling all the options and i came across something on on money saving expert called match betting i was like what is this and it was like horrendously complicated pages and pages of reading and eventually gave it a go and the basic idea is you're signing up to bookmakers across the uk and they've got promotions to try and attract new customers in but if you strategically place bets on all possible outcomes.

17:33So imagine you have a tennis match and Federer's playing Nadal. And you put one bet on Federer and one bet on Nadal. So you've hedged your bets, you've covered all possible outcomes. But you're then given a free bet as the promotion. You can repeat that process again using the free bets and make a guaranteed profit, regardless of what happens. There's no risk involved. So I tried that, made about 20 grand at uni, so I was enough to pay pretty much my whole way through university. and at the end I was like everyone should be doing this everyone wants free money so I was like how can I make this complicated process as easy as possible so set up a website built some software, had to teach myself how to code because I didn't know anything about that I read every book I could get my hands on how to market a business and build a business and then launched it as a subscription service just making it kind of a simple step by step, here's how you do it sign up to this bookie, place this bet, and this is how much profit you'll make.

18:31So that was in 2014. And a year later, it had done a million in revenue. And since then, 10 years later, we've done over 40 million in sales since then. So at what stage did you abandon the film director idea and decide that this was going to be the path to take? I've got an auntie that is a director, and I've been like an extra on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and little things like that. and the kind of 3am starts and I just realised it wasn't really for me I felt like I wanted to have my own thing that was kind of all mine and have the kind of independence that goes along with that and therefore it just made more sense to kind of do my own thing So here's a question then what did school and university not equip you for that you then kind of had to fill in the blanks on your own and what were the blanks that you had to fill in?

19:23uh there's so many um i think some of the probably the biggest one is knowing that you can do anything if you're committed enough to it so i don't think schools teach you that you can completely change your circumstances you know if you want to be a professional singer if you are completely dedicated to learning how to sing you can do that even if you're not naturally talented at it if you want to be a business tycoon if you're completely committed to doing that and every you know you wake up and it's the first thing you think about and it's all you all you focus on you can achieve it um and school doesn't really teach you anything about about that so i think it's knowing that whatever you really really focus on and commit to you can achieve as long as you completely focus on it that was probably the biggest one for me and i'm interested in the books that you said that you devoured when you were trying to scale up your business and be able to market it.

20:23Was there any book that jumped out at you that, again, you think you would want young people to read or to understand? I find it always easier to read biographies just because it's a bit more of a story attached. There's a lot of value in kind of factual books, you know, Think and Grow Rich and Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but things that are more based on actual experiences. So Richard Branson's biography I really enjoyed reading. was it losing my virginity what was it then because I'm interested to know the bits that you saw in that one it was a combination of things there was the moment where he talks about with Virgin Records where he had the whole VAT thing where he was importing it across and he got a slap on the wrist some people would have given up at that point and he sort of carried on going and learned his lesson and moved on or just the the adventures that he went through along the way, going, the hot air balloon.

21:21See, when I read that, it reminded me that the things that I think you get told off for in school are the things you get rewarded for in real life. Yes. Like, you know, the being a bit edgy, pushing the boundaries. Asking questions. Asking questions. You know, like, so when I'm doing maths with Florence and she asks Alexa for the answer to the maths question, how do I, as someone that knows what I know about the world, tell her off? How do I explain to her that's the wrong thing to do i need to because she's going to not get good grades at school because she won't know the answers when she's sitting in the exam but those are those clever people that are pushing the boundaries and doing the things that others aren't they're the ones that struggle at school but fly in the real world and for me it was a realization that i just thought there was successful people and there was there was normal normal in inverted commas people like me and then when i read that book i thought what so anyone can just set up a business and give it a go it was absolutely eye But it's crazy.

22:16No one tells you that that's the way the world works, that jobs aren't just there. If someone has set up a business and taken a risk and that is why their jobs have been created. I think the fact that schools don't teach that is a real shame. And it's the same with how to manage your finances. People get a credit card and they think, oh yeah, I'll just go and spend on that and then they end up in debt. Whereas if schools just taught you a basic amount of financial responsibility, how to pay your taxes just practical skills that we all need I think it would set people up for success much more easily We want to get to the five bits of advice that you've got for yourself for a young Sam but before we get there I'd really love you to share some advice for the many, you can call them entrepreneurs if you like, that are listening to this they're still not sure what the opportunity is for them they're still not sure what their real skill set is but they know that this old idea of get a job the weekends and the holidays you can be happy and the reward comes when you retire they know that's not for them what have you learned that you'd love to share with them at this point I don't think you ever really know what the thing is that you want to do even now when I think about what business do I want to do next there's a hundred possibilities in your head of what it could be I think the main thing is just go for something something that you know you're good at if you know you don't want to have a job and you want to start a business pick something that you're good at and just commit to it and just take action and just do it.

23:44I think it's very easy to get stuck in overthinking, indecision paralysis and just sort of analyze every possibility when reality is the key to success is start taking actions and consistently do that until you get to a result. And how often have you failed? Oh, many times. I've had several businesses that didn't work out. I tried to do a mobile app company, you know, that didn't work. I've done property developments that have just sort of broken even. But I think that's really part of the process. There's an expression I like, which is to fail faster than your competition, which basically means don't be afraid to test new things, try something different.

24:25Because if you're testing and trying new things, even if you fail, eventually you're going to find something that is transformative for your business. So you're innovating faster than everyone else, and that is how you stay ahead. which is an amazing piece of wisdom so we want to explore these five lessons that you would have told the younger sam do you mind telling us the first one i think the first one is by far the most important to me and i've slightly touched on this already but it's it's relentless determination and for me that is you know whatever it is you're focusing on the first thing you think about in the morning and the last thing you think about before you go to bed is on achieving that goal doesn't matter.

25:06So for me, if I'm, even if I'm on holiday, I can't go a whole day without at least putting some time into, you know, advancing, you know, whatever goal it is I'm focusing on. So, you know, all these gurus out there say, you know, you have to get up at five in the morning, you have to do meditation and all this stuff. You know, I've not found that to be the case at all. For me, the most important thing is that you are completely committed. You know, if someone's saying to you do you want to go out to a nightclub tonight no i need to stay in and focus on what i'm doing so that is by far the biggest indicator of success to me can i ask you though because you've earlier just said about failing faster than your opposition and relentless determination sometimes gives the impression of we just have to grit our teeth and keep going regardless of the evidence that might be accumulating how do you know the right time to give up on it on a dream and pursue another path.

26:01It's very rare, I think, that it's the right time to give up. And I think most people tend to give up just before they actually achieve success, which is such a shame. As long as you're measuring what it is you're doing and if you're pivoting around the same point and you're trying different avenues, unless there's something overwhelming saying that this is a dead industry or there's just absolutely no appetite for it, which is extremely rare, it's usually not the right choice to quit, in my opinion. And among this relentless determination, where does self-doubt and imposter syndrome and fear sit for you?

26:37Yeah, massively. I've had that, you know, because, you know, I started my business when I was 24 and it did much better than I ever thought it could do. And then since, you know, when I tried to launch the app company afterwards and that failed and, you know, did some properties that didn't make money and I've had moments where I was literally just thinking to myself, oh, I'm a fraud. I can't do this. You know, I've just been lucky. I'm not the entrepreneur that I am in my head. You know, it's a big, it's really hard to come to terms with. But then I think once you then realize that failure is a really important part of any kind of entrepreneurial journey, it becomes a bit easier to kind of accept that and you kind of push the imposter syndrome to one side and carry on and yeah very good right your next lesson to a young sam the next one is to trust your instincts there have been times when i've been i don't know about to do a transaction with another party or go into a deal with someone and it's not felt quite right but i've gone along with it anyway and almost universally that ends up being a bad idea i think your gut is a really important indicator of whether something is a good idea or not and there's a phrase i think it was tony robbins that said it which is a decision made from fear is almost always the wrong decision and i couldn't agree with that more because if you're making a decision out of fear that's if that's your primary motivator that can't be the right long-term decision so it's better to just wait it out and go with something that you actually feel good about there's a real echo there in the interview we did with James Timpson who spoke about during Covid the landlords that were willing to work with him and his business and those that weren't and he said before we even approached him to see if we could come to some kind of compromise to help each other out he said I could have given you the three landlords that just wouldn't budge that wouldn't show any empathy or compassion and he said and I knew at the start of the relationship I didn't trust them and when it was borne out they proved not to be trustworthy this so what is it that you are looking for in in your instincts that would say i want to work with you i want to trust you they need to come across authentic and i suppose that's quite subjective but it's almost just like their actions should be consistent with the words that they tell you so you know i've had instances in the past where especially if there are multiple parties involved some one of them will say one thing and then they'll do it they'll perform an action that It's just not inconsistent with the impression they're given.

29:13Give us an example of what you mean. So I was going to merge a few years ago with another entity and their main shareholder was coming to me and saying, oh, you can lead the company, you can be in control, make the decisions. But then when it came to the kind of negotiating phrase, it was all, oh no, we're going to have a board of directors that are controlling the company and you'll just be one of these directors. and it's just things like that where it's just not consistent with what we discussed previously and it just sets alarm bells ringing in your head so yeah third lesson number three is to never get complacent and I've been guilty of this myself before so when you start to do a little bit well it's very easy to kind of sit back and think oh you know I've nailed this now it's done and if you don't constantly innovate in your business to stay ahead And your fortunes can turn around very quickly.

30:10We had a period a couple of years ago where we went from being a very profitable company to losing 100 ,000 a month during COVID. And because we hadn't sort of stayed on top of our game and been constantly innovating the whole time, it was harder for us to recover from that. So I think you always need to be learning. You always need to be trying to improve your business in every way, whether it's adding on new products or becoming more efficient or improving your customer satisfaction or whatever it is, you've got to constantly be building and growing the business because if it's not growing it's declining, you can't ever really just be stagnant Brilliant.

30:50And how do you avoid complacency? It comes down to just your own sort of personal attitude it's just discipline I suppose I have an inherent desire to want to learn anyway I love learning new things all the time a couple of years ago I learned how to fly a helicopter I did that in three months just because I just wanted to try something different and for three months I just obsessed over that and did nothing else if you have a desire to learn then that will naturally help with that anyway and then it's just knowing that it's so important to business to keep innovating that's mainly the main driver the next one would be about balancing work with self-care and I don't mean this in a work-life balance way I more mean it in your kind of physical self so I've been guilty of you know I considered a computer for 12 hours a day and you know I'm trying to focus on you know getting a job done but by the end you just your brain just kind of loses focus and if you're not spending enough time on eating well and exercising and moving around the room just to get some blood flowing around, it completely impacts your ability to perform to a high standard.

32:04So it's really important, even when you are in that kind of relentlessly focused zone, take some time to go for a walk, get some fresh air, eat well, those kinds of things just to make sure that you are at high performance as well as your business. I'm so pleased you said that because I think so many entrepreneurs in your position, they put the success of the business ahead of everything. before we move on to the final question which the fifth one I'd love to be your kind of golden rule for high performance I'm really interested in how you have got to a place where you don't judge your own self-worth on the success of your businesses maybe you do, maybe that's still a work in progress it's definitely still a work in progress I've definitely been guilty of beating myself up even if I have a day off sometimes mentally why aren't you working I do attach some sense of worth to the business, but it's more about the impact that you're achieving in the world.

33:02We're quite lucky in what we do. We get people sending us messages every day of how they've made money and how it's changed their life. We've got examples of people who've bought their first house using the money they've made, or they've bought a car, or they've taken their family on holiday or paid for a wedding. That's always really rewarding to hear and it's nice to make a difference in the world. but then also becoming a father and having two children you know that shifts your priorities massively in a completely different direction as well and now their well-being is you know much more a focus of my self-worth and making sure that i'm raising them to be you know well-rounded nice humans but can i ask you about being a dad and combining that role with some of these other elements we've spoken about this relentless determination and trusting your instincts not being complacent and this idea of having that balance with work and self-care how have you managed to combine all of those with also doing the most demanding role of your life so for me i never knew my dad growing up so you know i've kind of jumped into fatherhood as with two feet as best as I can because I don't want them to experience the same minute that I did.

34:17I don't see it as a as a chore at all because I get such a pleasure out of you know the interactions with them especially now they're getting a bit older and I can converse with them and everything. For me it's you know I just want to make sure that I can instill the right values in them as they as they grow up and hopefully I can you know teach them about business and I can sort of combine those two things together in that way as they get a bit older. And if you could instill three values in them, what would they be? I always say that whatever career path they want to do, they can do anything they want as long as they are committed to being the best they can at it.

35:00I don't care if they want to be a ballerina or a business tycoon or an artist, whatever it is, just commit to being the best you can be. at that that's the only thing that i think really matters in that respect so that'd be number one um number two is um to just be kind you know at any time you interact with someone try and leave them better than when you found them and number three it's really important to me that because they're quite lucky and they're you know they're coming into quite a privileged background i want to make sure that they stay grounded and they stay humble and that they have the right work ethic and And, you know, they sort of appreciate everything in life and they're willing to work hard to make the world better.

35:46I love it, Sam. Well, look, we certainly appreciate you taking the time to be with us. Before we let you go, two things. Your one golden rule for a high-performance life? Whatever you're doing, the whole point really is to try and leave the world in a better place than when you found it. So if you're trying to amass success or amass wealth, the whole point of that really is to try and do something good in the world at the end of it. that is the ultimate goal so whether it's interaction with another person or a greater impact on the world try and leave things better than when you found them i love that and look you've certainly done that by supporting the foundation by coming on here and sharing your story um if anyone would like to find you across your social handles how do they track down sam stoffel uh sam stoffel on instagram tiktok or samstoffel.com is the best way to find me brilliant sam thank you so much thanks cheers guys

36:40I really enjoyed meeting Sam, actually, and I think it's a great reminder that, you know, your path is not laid out for you. It's amazing how often the things that you find a struggle in your early years are the very things that give you the kind of tools and the armour that you need in later life, you know? Yeah, I did. I really enjoyed it. I think one thing I would say is that schools do an awful lot of good as well, and I think that sometimes we can be guilty of looking at what somebody doesn't do rather than what they do. I think schools and a lot of teachers do an incredible job with the resources and the conditions that they're often working under.

37:11Absolutely. And of course, we thank the many, many teachers that listen to the High Performance Podcast. Thank you very much for giving up your time to listen to our show and share some of the learnings and lessons that you're hearing on this show with your students. So come on, as we're talking about lessons that we'd want to give our younger self, why don't you give me a lesson I should give my younger self and I'll give you one. Yeah, good, I like that one. Well, I think knowing some of your studies, like when we're lucky enough to meet Liz your mum and she spoke to us about a young Jacob you know and you went through that tough time at school with bullying you then decided that you were going to pursue a career in TV you were dealing with the death of your grandmother there was an awful lot of bleak things happening to you at that young age and I think the big thing I'd say to a young Jacob is just be kind to yourself because being kind to yourself becomes a superpower in your adult life that those difficult things that you're facing will eventually pass.

38:09So being kind to yourself keeps you healthy and ticking over. Beautiful. What would I say to a young Damien? Well, I just imagine you looking in the mirror going, Hey, get up, Damien. Now then, look in the mirror. What would I say? Do you know what I would say? I know how painful it was when you lost your dad, right, in the last sort of 18 months. And I would say that just make the most of those moments with your dad when you've got the time and the space to just be the two of you. And I think it's, I always try and say this to young people, like when you're young and your parents are in their 30s and 40s, you think you've got them forever.

38:48And then when you suddenly realise that in the blink of an eye, they're in their 70s and 80s, and it's painful every day to think, there isn't long left here. And when they've gone, they have gone. So I would just say, enjoy those days with your dad. Thank you, mate. That was really lovely. Thanks. mate and thank you for another great episode i've enjoyed it and thank you to sam for his generosity of both financial but also of spirit of coming along and leaving us better than when he found us absolutely and one final time if you do want to support the high performance foundation please just go to highperformancefoundation.org and find out about the work that we're doing thanks for listening and watching

39:36Thank you.

40:05coach who's with you throughout your entire program. Plus, career coaches are available to help you navigate your professional goals. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more at capella.edu.