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March 28, 2025 10 mins

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Ever wonder why some people navigate life's storms with remarkable resilience while others remain perpetually adrift? The answer might be simpler than you think: a working philosophy that guides your decisions and responses.

Picture the world's oceans filled with thousands of container ships. Every vessel that safely reaches its destination has something in common—a captain with both a clear destination and the ability to recalibrate when blown off course. Without this guidance system, no ship randomly drifts to safety. Your life operates by the same principle. Without a coherent philosophy to navigate by, you'll struggle to reach your desired harbor regardless of how hard you work or how talented you are.

The philosophy we adopt fundamentally shapes our experience. Consider the profound difference between believing "life is friendly" versus "life is out to get you." The latter creates a perpetual state of anxiety and defensiveness, while the former opens us to possibilities and connection. These core beliefs function like operating systems, determining how we process every experience and opportunity. Perhaps the most powerful metaphor shared in this discussion is the circus elephant trained to believe it cannot break its chain. Even as the elephant grows into a magnificent beast capable of snapping that chain with ease, it remains captive to a limitation that exists only in its mind. How many of us live this way—constrained not by actual limitations but by beliefs formed when we weren't strong enough to overcome them?

What would you do if failure was impossible? This question reveals the gap between your current life and your potential—showing how much your self-imposed limitations constrain you. Break free from the chains placed on you when you were too small to overcome them. You've grown stronger. It's time your beliefs caught up with your capabilities.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One of the things that you've got to have for a
successful life is a workingphilosophy, and again, it
doesn't matter where you get itfrom.
Like for me, I get my workingphilosophy from Christianity.
That's where it comes from forme, and I kind of take it and
work it into a philosophy, apractical philosophy that works
for me.
But it doesn't matter where itcomes from, right, you've got to

(00:20):
have some kind of guidanceguiding your life.
So a good example of that islike you go out on the ocean
right now.
How many ships are on the ocean?
How many container ships, howmany oil tankers are on the
ocean right now?
Thousands, tens of thousands,shipping goods across the world,
whatever, how many of thosewill arrive at their destination
?
All of them that?

(00:40):
How many of those ships have acaptain that has a specific
destination in mind?
All of them.
How many ships set out for salewithout a captain that has a
specific destination in mind andjust goes?
Well, how many of those shipsactually arrive at a safe
harbour?
How many ships set out with nospecific destination just go?

(01:02):
I'm just going to arrive at aplace that they're safe.
I'm just going to arrive at apositive destination?
None of them do.
But but all of those ships,those big murse container ships
and stuff like that, it's likethey get blown off course.
Do you think they get blown offcourse with storms and stuff
like that?
Do you think they have to takedetours?
You know, they set their courseand all of a sudden there's a
storm or something and they haveto go around it, or maybe they

(01:24):
get caught in a storm and itblows them off course.
Of course.
Of course, seeing as thecaptain has a very specific
destination in my mind, he'sable to recalibrate and then go
back to the harbor that he'sheading to and that and that
that that comes from the captainhas.
Captain has a workingphilosophy, right?
The captain's philosophy is nomatter what happens on this
journey, I'm going to steer thisship to safety.

(01:45):
That's a working philosophy.
The captain also believes that,no matter what happens during
this journey, I have the skillto navigate.
That that's another philosophy.
How could you possibly set sailacross contact, to different
continents, across the pacificor the atlantic, knowing that
you're going to encounterhardship, without the philosophy
, whatever happens, I have theskill to handle that.
I have the skill to handle that.
I have the skill to overcomethat.

(02:06):
That's the philosophy.
That's what we've all got tohave and it's like that's what
it is for me.
That's what Christianity.
It gives me work in philosophyand we can take things like all
things work to the good of thosewho believe.
I don't care where you get thatfrom, I don't care what you
believe is the force behind that, I don't care.
I just don't want to be aplagiarist, right?
It's like I tell you that, notbecause I'm trying to evangelize

(02:26):
anybody, but because I'm citingthe source.
In the same way, I cite othersources as well.
Like you know, all men live alife of quiet desperation.
I'm not that's Henry Thoreau,like, I'm just giving the source
.
But this is where it doesn'tmatter what happens to me, I'm
going to use this to make mestronger.
That's a philosophy.
It doesn't matter what happensto me, it's working to my good.
That's a philosophy.

(02:48):
Without having a workingphilosophy, you're just a ship
without a captain.
How many ships set sail withouta specific desperate
destination or a captain withouta working philosophy and get to
their destination?
None of them do Not.
One in 10,000 by chance leaveafrica and arrive at new york

(03:09):
without the captain specificallyset in sail for that not one,
not one in 10 000 gets blownthere without a rudder, you know
, and?
And most of us don't even havea destination.
It's like this, is like this,this is like.
It's what I'm trying to giveyou with the, with the attitudes
like unconditional positiveregard.
That's a philosophy like I'mtrying to give you, with the
attitudes like unconditionalpositive regard.
That's a philosophy Like I'mgoing to have unconditional
positive regard.
I'm going to have an attitudeof gratitude.

(03:29):
Those are philosophies.
So, when you go, well, mydestination is a safe harbor.
I'm the captain of this shipand my destination is to get
this ship to a safe harbor.
Well, you've got to have aphilosophy to do that or you
won't get.
We look at the four habits,right, four toxic habits which I
encourage everybody to go backand look at again this week.
Negative interpretation is adestructive habit.

(03:50):
Escalation, invalidation andwithdrawal these, these are the.
These are the toxic habits.
Well, all things work to thegood of those who believe life's
a friendly place.
It doesn't matter what happens.
I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.
If I'm good, I'm good, I'm bad,I'm good, I'm good.
It's like well, that takes careof negative interpretation.
Right, that philosophy.
That is an all-encompassingphilosophy that covers so much.

(04:13):
If you go, I'm going to adoptthe philosophy of all things
work to my good at all times.
When I'm good, I'm good.
When I'm bad, I'm good, I'mgood.
Like well.
It's really hard to havenegative interpretation if you
have that philosophy.
It's really hard to escalatesituations if you have that
philosophy.
That one solitary philosophy isenough to get you through most

(04:36):
things.
Life is friendly.
Life is friendly to me.
I watch alone I don't know ifanybody watches alone with my
kids.
It's like a survival show.
They dump them on an island orsome horrific place and they
have to survive for however long, by themselves or whatever.
And I was watching it the otherday and the guy goes.
My parents taught me from a veryyoung age life's out to get you

(04:57):
.
You're either going to kicklife's ass or life's going to
kick your ass.
And I'm like what a horriblephilosophy, man.
What a horrible philosophy.
You spend your whole life goingthrough life, going life's out
to get me.
No wonder you're depressed, nowonder you're anxious, no wonder
everything's negative, nowonder you're in this state of

(05:20):
funk all the time.
What else could you be whenit's like life's out to get you,
everyone's out to get you.
It's like that's BS, man, likethere's no evidence.
There's no more evidence tosupport life's out to get you
than life's friendly towards you.
It's another aspect of myworking philosophy.
Life is friendly.
Life's a friendly place.
The world is friendly.
It's friendly place.
The world is friendly.
It's friendly towards me.
The world is safe because ifyou don't have that view, like

(05:42):
if you're of the opinion thatlife is hostile, life's out to
get you, will you?
How can you feel safe, man?
How can you ever feel safe?
You're gonna say you're gonnaspend your whole life
precariously balanced on thetype right life shooting darts
at you, trying to knock you off.
It's like it's no way to liveand it's like I'd rather, if I'm

(06:02):
wrong, I'd rather.
I'd rather die in ignorance,man, I'd rather die out of
stupidity.
Like life is a friendly place.
The world is friendly.
People for the most part, wantto help you.
People, for the most part, arefriendly towards you.
People for the most part like agood.
You know the only the most partare friendly towards you.
People for the most part like agood.
You know.
The only reason they're notfriendly towards you is they're
not good is because they've gotdamn horrible mentality that

(06:24):
everybody's out to get them andthey got to protect themselves.
So you're the enemy.
When you're able to transitionfrom that just simple philosophy
, man, like life is friendlytowards me, the world's a
friendly place.
Again, it changes your thoughts.
Thoughts create feelings,feelings create actions, actions
create results, and then youuse those results to reinforce

(06:47):
your confirmation place andbefore you know it, you're in a
downward spiral and it's likethere's no hope.
There's no hope, and your wivesare there, my view are there.
You've got to change.
If you just change that oneaspect of your philosophy and go
well, life is friendly.
I don't know how, but these,these are, you know, the

(07:08):
parables that I'm telling you,right, that I'm sharing with you
, put them in your toolbox thedonkey, the farmer and the
donkey.
You know, it's like that helpsyou.
When, when, when, things arecoming at you telling you life
isn't friendly, life is hostile,it helps you.
That philosophy helps you.
When life throws you somelemons, man, and it doesn't seem

(07:30):
friendly, those philosophieshelp you.
It's like I give you anotherone.
This is what set me free manMassive philosophy, how they
train elephants in circus.
In the circus, when an elephantis trained in the circus they
put a chain, a big chain, aroundthe baby elephant's leg and
they chain the elephant to astump and that baby elephant,

(07:53):
who doesn't have the strength tobreak the chain, tries and
tries and tries and tries andtries and tries to break that
chain God knows for how long,until finally it just loses the
will and says that chain is toostrong for me.
I will never break that chain.
But the elephant doesn't.
It's a baby elephant.
But then that elephant growsinto a full chain beast and that

(08:15):
chain does not have any powerto hold that elephant any longer
.
When you yank that elephant'sleg and it'll snap that chain in
a heartbeat, but that elephantnever tries to pull that chain
again because that elephant hasbeen told over and over and over
and, over and over and, overand over again you will never
break that chain.
You will never break that chain.
You will never break that chain.
And the elephant believes thatit will never break the chain,

(08:35):
even though that chain has noability to hold that elephant
any longer.
And that that's where each andevery one of us are like why?
Why did that book sit on myhard drive for 10 years?
Because the chain held me.
I believed that it was a chainthat was too strong for me to
break.
That chain had no ability tohold me.
I just got it put on my legwhen I was a baby and I couldn't
break it and after a while Ijust stopped trying and accepted

(08:57):
that that chain was going to bethere forever.
And that's each and every one ofyou, man, and this is not just
marriage counseling.
So this is like your money,this is your health, this is
your business, this is your job.
This is every aspect of yourlife.
It's like the ceiling thatyou're experiencing right now is
just a chain that somebody puton your leg as a baby and you
tried to break it so many times.
You just don't bother tryinganymore.

(09:20):
And that, marco, is what yourwife is telling you.
I've never seen anybody breakthe chain.
I've never seen it, but thetruth is each and every one of
you.
It's a fine line betweenencouraging you to be better or
reinforcing the belief thatyou're not good enough.
It's like each and every one ofyou is a fraction of the man

(09:42):
you could be a fraction becauseyou're held down with the chain
that you believe is too strongand you just don't try anymore.
I mean, what would you do?
The way to really sort of bringthis into your consciousness is
what would you do if failurewas impossible, if you knew you
could not fail?
What would you do if failurewas impossible?
If you knew you could not fail,what would you do?
Would you start a business?

(10:03):
Would you expand into a newmarket?
Would you?
What would you do?
Would you buy a house?
Would you buy a bigger house?
What would you do if you knewfailure was impossible to you?
What would you do?
Even straight away, even evenwhen we're still in our very
limited experience, like we'rein the infancy of like really
liberating our thinking andreally developing a philosophy

(10:24):
that really can move us forward?
Our lives are a compromise ofwhat we think is possible to
what we think is possible.
It's not going at it like we'relimitless and we could do
anything.
It's like the reason you don'tstart the business is because
you've got that chain on yourleg.
Truth is, like anybody could.
All of us are limited by ouryou know you go.
What would you do if you, ifyou knew you couldn't fail?

(10:45):
What would you do?
That gives you some idea.
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