The Invisible Mentor

The Invisible Mentor Interviews Brian Johnson, The Philosopher

December 15th, 2009 |

Brian Johnson 2 One of the key reasons to have mentors in our lives is to learn from the experiences of others. I present interviewees from different walks of life and they are all unique leaders who you can learn things from. Today I present Brian Johnson who is a “lover of wisdom (aka a “Philosopher”) and a passionate student of life who’s committed to inspiring and empowering millions of people to live their greatest lives as he studies, embodies and shares the universal truths of optimal living. He harts [not a misspelling] his job.” The raw honesty of Brian’s responses often brought tears to my eyes.

Learn from Brian, look at ways that you can apply the information to your unique situation. Part Two of Brian’s interview is presented on Thursday, two days from today!

Tell me a little bit about yourself.

I love wisdom, and that makes me a philosopher. I also love creating cool businesses that allow me to do what I love in service to the world and that’s why I’m currently focusing my energy on PhilosophersNotes where I’m sharing the Big Ideas from the world’s greatest teachers that I hope will inspire and empower people to live their greatest lives.

Describe a major business (or other) challenge you had and how you resolved it.

Biggest challenge here is deciding which one to chat about.

Hmmm… It’s impossible for me to describe how I resolved any of my biggest challenges, because whatever I’d describe wouldn’t do justice to the actual process and the fear and doubt and freaked-outness I felt during it. I can say that when things go really, really wrong or just aren’t going the way I’d hoped, I can see that I’m usually too attached to and focused on outcomes and I’ve found it essential for me to focus less on the outcomes I didn’t get/am not getting and more on how I’m showing up/what I’m doing on a day-to-day basis.

For example, when I was running my first business and the market crashed in the first dot com boom, we needed to lay off 75% of our young team. That sucked. We could barely make payroll, things were not looking good at all and a *lot* of stuff was outside of my control. So, I decided to focus on what was within my control: my energy and my equanimity. I started eating a lot healthier and exercising more regularly and, rather than getting thrown around by whatever was going on in a given day, I’d see if I could maintain my equanimity in the face of bad news.

These days I do the same kinda thing.

What lessons did you learn in the process?

As I mentioned, I learned the source of my stress is focusing on outcomes rather than on who I’m being/how I’m showing up.

I’ve also learned that extraordinarily successful people have a totally different relationship to challenges and “failures” than less successful peeps. For example, in my last business, Zaadz, I raised money from Sam Wyly, an incredible billionaire, and his wonderful family. He and his wife hosted a little fund-raising get together in Aspen for our biz and he introduced me to his friends. I still marvel at the fact that the thing he chose to tell people in his brief introduction of me was the fact that I had bounced back from a previous failure in that same business (we had lost ~$500,000 on a prior version of our site that never came together and I wound up throwing away all that cash and a year’s worth of work and starting all over). As he introduced me, he said something like, “Brian has had his nose bloodied and he knows how to get up off the mat and keep on going for it. I like that.”

Typing that literally gives me tears in my eyes because this is from a guy who’s circulated billions of dollars of wealth creating incredible companies that have employed tens of thousands of people and in a 2-minute intro he’s telling his other uber-successful friends about what I thought was one of my greatest “failures.” Amazing!

So, short story: “failures”/challenges/whatever we call them are really just opportunities for us to dust ourselves off, get clear on what we really want in life, and go out and rock it.

(Reminds me of a Winston Churchill wisdom that success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

Tell me about your big break and who gave you.

Although I’ve been supported by amazing people throughout my life, I don’t believe in being “given” “big breaks”—unless, of course, we consider EVERY moment a “big break”—from the moment I was conceived (and the moment my parent’s were conceived and their parents all the way back for that matter) right up to the last breath I took…

I believe in following my heart, doing my best, working diligently, patiently, persistently, and playfully, learning as I go and celebrating that as I do those things, the Universe seems to conspire to help me in ways that all the great teachers talk about and that we could never have imagined!

Describe one of your biggest failures. What lessons did you learn, and how did it contribute to a greater success?

Again, I have a nice collection to choose from here.

Let’s go with dropping out of law school. At the time, I was 23 years old and dropping out of a great law school (and ending a 5 year relationship in the same 24 hour period of time) was a monumental “failure” that threw me into a icky phase where I spent the bulk of my time split between reading books I checked out from the library and thinking of creative ways to end my life. D’oh! I just couldn’t see how I would ever figure out what I wanted to do with my life and felt like I was a fire hydrant bursting out water that was hitting an invisible glass that sprayed the water right back in my face. Not fun.

Now, what’s amazing is that here I am 12 years removed from that event, and I laugh that it stressed me out so much. Dropping out of law school is *easily* at the top of the list of best decisions I’ve ever made.

The biggest lesson I learned from that: Something magical happens when we learn to trust ourselves and, as Joseph Campbell says, “Follow our bliss.”

Quick story to get the point across: At the time I was dropping out, the only thing I really knew I wanted to do (besides burn my résumé) was to coach a Little League baseball team. So, in the midst of the pain of blowing up my life and moving back in with my mom (to her great delight), I volunteered to help a neighbor coach his son’s 9- and 10-year old baseball team, the Angels.

Long story a little shorter: we really had no idea what we were doing and we were pretty much the Bad News Bears. In the process, I saw just how important youth sports were to a child’s development and that a great experience with their coach and teammates could translate into a powerful opportunity for healthy development. The Internet was just getting going and I had a vision that in a matter of time, every team and league would be online and that we could leverage the Internet to really help families enjoy their sports experience more.

So, I wound up cracking open my 401k (with its monstrous $5,000!) and started a company called eteamz with a tech genius named Aaron Eisenberger who was passionate about the idea as well. We wound up winning a business plan competition at UCLA, raised $5 million, hired the CEO of Adidas and created an extraordinarily cool business that currently serves over 3 million teams and their families around the world.

I NEVER could have predicted that making such a painful decision then following a tiny inkling of my bliss would translate into that “break.” But it did. And, I’ve seen it happen again and again in my life—which is why I’m so committed to inspiring and empowering people to follow their hearts and diligently, patiently, persistently and playfully embody the values they hold so dear. Magical things can happen when we do that.

How did mentors influence your life?

Interesting that I get to this question after describing the above. I have a complex relationship with mentors.

On the down side, had I followed a couple of “mentors’” advice early in my life, I never would have created my first business, eteamz. When I asked some pretty successful people what they thought of the idea, they thought it was a terrible idea and one actually told me “to take another hit on that pipe if you think you can pull that off.” They told me it would cost at least a million dollars to build the technology (we did it for less than $15,000 + 6 months of hard work and a lot of canned tuna) and reminded me I had no experience or contacts so who was I to get that money and build it (fair points as I had very little business experience and essentially no contacts). Oh, and they said I violated rule #1 of a business: the market has to “need” your product—which was a valid point because, at the time, there were only a few hundred teams and leagues in the world who were using the web so they didn’t think there was a need.

That was just the motivation I needed to rock it. I set the goal of getting 1 million teams in 5 years. (We got there in 4)

On the positive side, I’ve gotten amazing support and wisdom from some extraordinary human beings. Special thanks to Sam Wyly again, plus John Mackey (the CEO of Whole Foods) and Gay Hendricks (author of 30+ books including my favorites: “Five Wishes” and “The Big Leap”).

Being around these guys has totally changed my life. But, I’ve gotta say that it has been less what they *told* me (although they’ve each given me great practical advice) and much more about who they are and how they show up in the world and how that mojo has rubbed off.

For example, the scope of Sam Wyly’s vision is RIDICULOUSly big. He sees the world in terms of THE WORLD. So, when I’d tell him I wanted millions of people in our community at Zaadz, he’d nod his head and smile and say, “How can we do it and how much money do you need to do it?!?” (I remember one day when I met with him (a billionaire) and a nice, well-meaning potential investor (a millionaire) and the difference between how BIG they thought and the resulting advice they gave was *amazing.*)

Additional unsolicited advice: In addition to choosing your mentors wisely, I think the biggest thing to keep in mind is to trust yourself. Ultimately, a great mentor is someone who reflects back your highest potential and helps you tap into the wisdom you already have while sprinkling some tips they’ve picked up along the way. I’d personally run away from anyone who tells me I’m thinking too big or can’t do something or some such other nonsense.

As John Eliot says in his great book, Overachievement: “as soon as anyone starts telling you to be ‘realistic,’ cross that person off your invitation list.”

What’s one core message you received from your mentors?

Trust yourself.

(I vividly remember a chat with Steve Wynne (the former CEO of Adidas who we brought on as our CEO at eteamz), when he told me the two most important things about business: 1. Trust yourself. 2. Business is simple, keep it that way.)

Which resources (books, movies, training etc.) did your mentors recommend to you?

A lot of them are here!

As an Invisible Mentor, what is one piece of advice that you would give to readers?

Trust yourself.

What are the steps you took to succeed in your field?

Boy, I wish there were “steps”!!!

The quick version: I made a lot of mistakes, worked hard to figure out what I really love to do, and, in the process, I realized there aren’t any perfect steps anyone can ever take to achieve “success” in any field.

What advice do you have for someone just starting out in your field?

Rock it!

Now that you’ve read Part One of Brian’s interview, what are some nuggets of wisdom that you have gleaned?

Here are Five Great Ideas

A great mentor is someone who reflects back your highest potential and helps you tap into the wisdom you already have while sprinkling some tips they’ve picked up along the way
Trust yourself
Fall down seven times get up eight (Chinese Proverb)
Failures and challenges are disguised opportunities
Instead of focusing on outcomes, focus on who you essentially are, and how you are showing up daily. You may not be able to control external events, but you can shape and control who you are

What are your five great ideas? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please comment.