pretty good. But I know I can be great. If I could just beat my self-sabotage. And my demons.”
“What did he say?” asked the homeless man, now standing and twiddling with his big watch. Beads of perspiration meandered down his angular face.
“Here’s exactly what he said,” mentioned the artist: “‘I wanted to be sure, very sure, that every word of it was the very best I had to offer.’”
“Gnarly,” replied the homeless man. “That’s the standard that the best ones always hold themselves to.”
Abruptly, The Spellbinder could be heard coughing in the audio. His comments that followed seemed to struggle out of him, like an unborn child fiercely reluctant to leave the security of its loving mother’s warm and safe womb.
Anyone can become an everyday leader by showing up as I’m encouraging. When it’s easy and especially when it’s difficult. Starting today. And if you do so, a guaranteed victory is in your future. And I need to add that there’s not one person alive today who cannot lift their thinking, performance, vitality, prosperity and lifetime happiness magnificently by wiring in a series of profound daily rituals and then practicing them until they become your second nature. And this brings me to the single most important principle of my talk: The greatest starting point for winning in your work and making a splendid life is joining what I call The 5 AM Club. How can you ever be world-class if you don’t carve out some time each morning to make yourself world-class?
The entrepreneur was now taking notes with a ferocious intensity not previously seen. The artist’s face had a “this makes me feel strong” smile on it. The homeless man burped, then got down to the floor and held a plank, the kind fitness pros at the gym love to do to build a strong core.
You could hear The Spellbinder begin to cough even more fiercely. A brutal—and sustained—pause followed.
Next, he uttered these words, haltingly. He was wheezing audibly. His voice began to quiver like a novice telemarketer on her very first sales call.
Rising at 5 AM truly is The Mother of All Routines. Joining The 5 AM Club is the one behavior that raises every other human behavior. This regimen is the ultimate needle mover to turn you into an undefeatable model of possibility. The way you begin your day really does determine the extent of focus, energy, excitement and excellence you bring to it. Each early morning is a page in the story that becomes your legacy. Each new dawn is a fresh chance to unleash your brilliance, unprison your potency and play in the big leagues of iconic results. You have such power within you and it reveals itself most with the first rays of daybreak. Please do not allow past pains and present frustrations to diminish your glory, stifle your invincibility and choke the unlimited possibilitarian that lurks within the supreme part of you. In a world that seeks to keep you down, build yourself up. In an epoch that wishes you would stay in the dark, step into your light. At a time that mesmerizes you to forget your gifts, reclaim your genius. Our world requires this of each of us. To be champions of our crafts, warriors for our growth and guardians of unconditional love—for all of humankind.
Display respect and compassion for all other people who occupy this tiny planet, regardless of their creed, color or caste. Lift them up in a civilization where many get energy tearing others down. Help others sense the marvels that sleep within them. Show us the virtues we all wish more would practice. Everything I’m saying will speak to the unspoiled part of you, that side of yourself that was ferociously alive before you were taught to fear, hoard, contract and distrust. It’s your job as a hero of your life, as a creative achiever set to change the culture and as a citizen of Earth to find this dimension within you. And, once done, to spend the rest of your days reconnected with it.
Accept this opportunity to human mastery and I promise you that a synchronicity of success as well as an orchestrated magic well beyond the boundaries of logic will infuse the remainder of your days. And the larger angels of your grandest potential will begin to visit you regularly. Actually, an orderly series of seemingly impossible miracles will descend onto your most genuine of dreams, causing the best of them to come true. And you will evolve into one of those rare and great spirits who upgrade the whole world by the simple act of walking amongst us.
The conference hall was now dark. The entrepreneur let out a sigh the size of Mexico City. The artist was motionless. The homeless man began to cry.
He then stood on a chair, raised his arms like a preacher and boomed these words of Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw:
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
The homeless man then fell to his knees. Kissed his holy beads. And continued to weep.
A Bizarre Adventure into Morning Mastery
“Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure… . The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“If you two are interested,” said the homeless man, “I’d be happy to spend a few mornings coaching you at my oceanside compound. I’ll show you my private morning routine and explain why dialing in the way you run your first hour to the highest degree is essential for personal mastery and exceptional business performance. Let me do this for you cats. Your lives will start to look glorious—within a fairly short time. And the ride with me will be fun. Not always easy, as we heard from the old guy on the stage. But valuable and prolific and beautiful. Maybe even as wonderful as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.”
“First time I saw it I cried,” the artist said, stroking the hairs of his goatee.
“Michelangelo was a bad dude. And I mean that in a good way,” the homeless man offered as he, too, played with his beard, which was soiled. He then raised his shirt to show Greek god abdominal muscles. A long finger of a grimy hand moved along the contours, the way a raindrop zigzags down the stem of a rose after a May shower.
“Hit me with a stick,” shouted the artist with the enthusiasm of a cat let loose in a parrot shop. “How the heck did you get those?”
“Not from some plastic ab machine I bought from a late-night TV show, that’s for sure. Work is how I got all lean and chiseled up like this. Plenty of push-ups, pull-ups, planks, sit-ups and seriously sweaty cardio sessions, often on my special beach.” The homeless man pulled out an obviously expensive leather wallet, then carefully removed from it a piece of plastic with a drawing on it. Here’s what it looked like, so you see exactly what the entrepreneur and the artist saw in that moment:
Mae
