The Three Truths

You are lying on your death bed surrounded by your family; everything you have ever written, posted, emailed, journaled, blogged or vlogged has been deleted. You are passed a piece of paper and asked to write down the three things you have learned about life that you know to be true and want to pass on to others as your lasting legacy.

That is the challenge lifestyle entrepreneur Lewis Howes sets his guests on his podcast - The School of Greatest. A simple question but don’t be fooled, in less than three years Lewis has become one of the best in the business, and his interviewing style and questioning has contributed to that success. Lewis’ guests include successful entrepreneurs, authors, actors, musicians and sports celebrities, and this question forces them to distil their life’s learnings into just three bullets. Some guests are prepared for the huge mental challenge that this question throws up, others less so, either way, it makes for compulsive listening and gives us insight into some great minds. 

 

Larry King

Episode 361: What 60,000 Interviews Taught Him About What Really Matters.

• Nothing is given to you - you have got to earn it. If you come from humble beginnings like Larry – you never forget the poverty.
• Don’t chase a bus; there’ll always be another. Classic wisdom from Mel Brooks’ 2000 Year Old Man.
• Things will work out. Sometimes things look bad, but they always work out in the end.

 

Sally Hogshead

Episode 179. Leverage Your Strengths to Fascinate Your Audience.

• The greatest value you can add is become more of yourself.
• Stop focusing on your strengths and highlight your differences - different is better than better.
• You don’t learn how to be fascinating - you unlearn boring. We are born with qualities and traits that get dulled over time, turning us into me-too personalities. Sally reminds us that when this happens, we kill off our greatest advantages and the way we can light up the world. To unlearn boring, stop looking at what others are doing and do what you are.

 

Tony Robbins

Episode 311. Tony Robbins’ Key to Success, Wealth, and Fulfilment.

• Love is everything.
• The secret to living is giving.
• Remember that the most important decision of your life is deciding whether you are truly committed to being happy no matter what. Tony reminds us that life is going to throw curve balls, and extreme stress will affect us all at some time. Suffering can take the form of stress, depression or feeling overwhelmed and the greatest gift we can give ourselves is to decide that life is too short to suffer. “We live our lives in two states, states of suffering or beautiful states of being and if you choose the latter you will always find something to enjoy or appreciate, regardless of what happens” – powerful words.

 

Arianne Huffington

Episode 181. Arianna Huffington on Building an Empire and Her Key to Success.

• Who we are is much greater than our job. No matter how great our job is, there is something sacred within us which is so much more important than what we are doing right here, right now.
• We are a soul having a human experience, not a human being having an occasional spiritual experience.
• Giving is a shortcut to happiness. The more we see our lives as go-givers rather than go-getters, the better we become.

 

Dan Millman

Episode 193: Turn Your Life into a Champion’s Journey.

• Our lives are shaped by our actions over time.
• Trust the process of your life unfolding. We constantly doubt ourselves but need to trust the process of our life and accept that in some transcendental sense, it is unfolding as it should - even when this seems not to be the case.
• “Try to be a little kinder.” These were the words of Aldous Huxley when asked to summarise all that he learned throughout his lifetime. Nice counts! We do not need to feel compassionate, loving or confident, but we need to learn to behave that way.

 

Gretchen Rubin

Episode 187: Create Powerful Habits That Make You Happy.

• Be yourself.
• Enjoy the process.
• One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.

 

This is just a selection of the three truths from some of my favourite episodes and guests. For more, subscribe to The School of Greatness on Itunes, Stitcher, or Pocket Casts. You can also find out what Lewis is up to at Lewis.com or checkout his YouTube channel for the videos of his interviews along with more great content.