The Power of One More with Ed Mylett

Mark Cole:       Welcome to The Maxwell Leadership Podcast. This is the podcast that adds value to leaders who multiply value to others. My name is Mark Cole. Today, I have to admit I am incredibly excited, because there are two legends on this podcast. The first is none other than John Maxwell. You’re all very familiar with him, but, today, perhaps some of you are familiar with our other good mentor, our other good legend, Ed Mylett. Ed is a highly successful entrepreneur who has blended some unique experiences with a diverse set of practical strategies, and it’s literally made him one of the most sought after inspirational speakers in the world. Now, among many things that Ed has accomplished, one of them has been named Success Magazine’s 125 Most Influential Leaders in 2020. Now, in my opinion, Ed, John, one and two is on the line with us. I don’t know who these other 123 are.

Today, I’m excited … If you’re watching on YouTube, I’m holding up a new book, because literally one week ago today I ran out to Barnes and Noble. Jake, our producer, helped me with this. I picked up this book because I wanted to get it. I could not wait to get my hands on it. To be honest with you, John Maxwell couldn’t wait to introduce you to this concept, and invite you to get this book, The Power of One More. I can’t wait to dig into it today on this podcast. Now, listeners, viewers, you can lean in with me here. You’re going to want to capture this book. You can go to the website I’m about to give you, and Ed’s brand new book is available right now. Go to MaxwellPodcast.com/OneMoreBook. Pick up a copy for yourself. Pick up a copy for your team. There are multiple bonuses at that web link. You will be able to buy the book and replay Ed’s powerful keynote talking on The Power of One More.

Now, I’ve said enough. There’s all these things that I could say about Ed and John, but I’ve really got to tell you. You want to check out Ed’s podcast, The Ed Mylett Show, and also go buy the book today. Now, here I am. Ed, probably one of my favorite times was when you and John did a podcast on your show that was literally epic. I’ve listened to it multiple times. We’ve made it available here today in our show notes, and you will be able to listen to that. Ed, that moment with you and John, and then the moment recently that you were with us at our Live to Lead event, two of my best Ed Mylett moments before today. Today, we’re glad to have you on the podcast. Welcome.

Ed Mylett:        It’s an honor to be with you, and obviously with John as well. I’ve been looking forward to this for a very, very, very long time, so thank you for having me.

Mark Cole:       John, it’s always good to have you, but I’m glad to have you and your friend Ed with us today.

John Maxwell:  You know, Mark, I’m so excited, because Ed is making a tremendous difference, not only in the world. He’s making a great difference in my life. When I can pick up a podcast of Ed, or when I can pick up a book like you’re talking about today, of his, I always do. I have never been with you, Ed, ever, where you didn’t teach me something, and I came away better because of who you are, and what you teach. Today’s podcast, I’m so excited, Mark, that we have Ed with us. I know everybody that’s watching and listening, they’re just going to get great help, so let’s just dive in and see if we can’t help a bunch of people right now.

Mark Cole:       Let’s do. Ed, like I said earlier, one week ago today. I mean, this is brand new. It’s fresh. As soon as John and I heard that this book was coming out, it was something that we wanted to highlight for leaders, and people passionate about growing. Tell us a little bit about the book.

Ed Mylett:        Well, I wrote the book after my dad passed away … John and I are in this space. By the way, the wonderful thing about John is that very rarely in life do you meet your heroes and they exceed your expectations of who they are as a person. That’s who John’s been in my life. I aspire to be like John, and I think about it often. Another guy I aspire to be like, though, is my dad. The reason I’m in this space where I believe people can change, and leaders can change, is I watched my dad do it. First 15 years of my life, my dad was an alcoholic, drug addict. Did not live the right way. I watched my dad make one more decision, try to get sober one more time. These one more things started to happen early in my life. I realized that you’re a lot closer to changing your life than you think you are. You’re one decision, you’re one relationship, you’re one thought, you’re one meeting, one podcast, one book, away from a completely differently life. My father was proof of that.

After he passed away, it was sort of a hybrid of wanting to honor him. Also, when you lose your father, Mark, it occurs to you, John, that you’re next. I don’t know if that’s five years from now, five weeks from now, or 50 years from now, but I felt compelled. I’m 50 years old. I’m 51 now. I wrote it as I was 50. When I was 30, I thought I knew everything. By the time I’m 50, I realized there’s not all that much I know, but what I do know I wanted to write down and book in a book, so that people could have the benefit of my experience. This book is what I do know by the time I’ve been here 51 years.

John Maxwell:  You know what, Ed? We just talked about your father and how he made one more decision. He went one more time, and said, “Let me try again.” I’ve often said that if people realized how close failure and success are together, they would be greatly encouraged. I think many people that are not cutting it, and not really getting what they want out of life, I think they think that the success is a long way away. One of the things I love about you, and one of the things I love about this book, is you’re basically saying, “I don’t know where you are, but you’re closer than you think. If you can just make one more good decision, if you can just take one more time and make the right choice, you can turn this around.” You just encourage so many people, including myself. If the book said, “The power of 789 mores,” … We’d read page one and then give it a toss, because we don’t have 789 in us.

Everybody watching us today, and listening, Ed, they’ve got one more. They’ve got one more. What you’re going to do in this book, and what you’re going to do today on the podcast, is you’re going to just kind of take that person that thinks they’re a long way off, but they’re really not far, and you’re going to just help them make that one choice, that one decision, and their life is going to start turning. That’s what I love about who you are, and that’s what I love about your father, and that’s what I love about this book. You just have proven that we can make that one more choice, and one more could make a huge difference in our lives.

Ed Mylett:        It is. Think about in your own life, everybody listening to this, or watching it. You’ve already proven this a few times. If you’re married, that one decision, how it changed your life. I was thinking about, in my dad’s case, the one decision. Meeting you, John, it was a confirmation for me. More of the man I wanted to be. I’m not just saying that because we’re here today. It made a huge impact on my life, that one relationship, that one meeting that we had, so I know that this is true.

The Bible says, “Where there’s no vision, the people will perish.” I think if you really broke that scripture down more, because I have a lot of pastor friends I’ve asked about it. Is it that there’s none, or is it that it’s a little blurry, maybe? I mean, most of us, if you ask someone, “Do you have a vision for your life? Do you want to be happy or sad?” Your vision’s happiness. “Do you want to give to people or not give to people?” You want to give. Right?

John Maxwell:  True.

Ed Mylett:        We have a vision. Our issue is depth perception. We think it’s so far away. Because we think it’s that far away, with act in accordance with this belief. We perpetually keep it there based on the choices and thoughts that we have. If I’m right, and you’re right, that you are potentially one decision away, one relationship away, then you begin to look for them, and almost expect them. When you live in expectation that change can come, that increase can come, then your life is different than having no such expectation.

When you’re in high school, if you played sports, or your first dance, or asking your sweetheart out for a date, you get those butterflies. You know, those butterfly feelings. Unfortunately, oftentimes that’s only relegated to young people, because as we get older … I say in the book, John. I have this whole chapter on that one percent of people operate out of their imagination and their vision. 99%, unfortunately, operate out of their history and their memory. I mean, if you operate out of your history and your memory all the time, you will just repeat it. Different people, different circumstances, but basically the same emotions. If you could shift and have this expectation that right around the corner there’s a relationship, there’s a meeting, there’s a thought, there’s a book, there’s a podcast. Now my outlook on my life is different, and you begin to find the things you seek in life.

There’s a part of your brain called the RAS. It’s a frontal part of your brain that is the filter. It reveals to you. I’ll give you a quick example of this. It’s so funny. I just bought a Tesla. I don’t even know that I wanted one, but I kind of like what this dude Musk is doing. I don’t know what he’s doing, but I think I like it. Right? I buy this Tesla. I’m driving my wife crazy, who you know I’ve known since elementary school. We’re driving. I go, “Babe. Red Tesla. White Tesla. They’re everywhere.” Three lanes over, other side of the freeway, going the other direction, “Babe, black Tesla.” She’s like, “What is wrong with you?” I said, “Babe, it’s become important to me, so I see them everywhere.” The truth is they were always there, but I was missing them because I didn’t believe strongly that they were present. This is true in our life. The key is to make these decisions, these relationships, these thoughts, our Teslas. In the book, I teach you how to do that through visualization. This is true in being a leader, being a parent, being an individual. It’s finding the Teslas of your life, and how to get your brain to see them. That starts with expectation.

John Maxwell:  You’re so right on it. Sometimes people ask me. They’ll say, “John?” You know, I get up every morning at 5:00, 5:30. I start writing. They say, “You’re just amazing. You’re self disciplined.” I said, “No. No. No. You don’t understand. I get up 5:30 in the morning not because I’m self disciplined. I get up at 5:30 in the morning because I anticipate that I’m about to write, and what I’m going to put.” I write it literally by hand with a four color pen on a legal pad. That’s how neanderthal I am. Here’s the point, Ed. I can hardly wait to get that pen on the paper, because I anticipate that I’m going to write something down that, in a year or two, when that book comes out, some reader is going to grab hold of that, and they’re going to say, “Yes.” It’s anticipation.

What happens, and what you create so well, is you create an expectation or anticipation in your readers and your listeners. That gets them to action. I don’t take action because I’m self disciplined. I take action because I anticipate. I anticipate good things are going to happen. Now, the moment you take action like you know, then you go into what I call action attraction. Action attraction is very simple. Nothing comes to you good until you start moving. We’re supposed to leave our footprints in the sands of time, not our butt prints. You know what I’m talking about.

Ed Mylett:        I love that.

John Maxwell:  You know, many people are just kind of sitting. They’re kind of waiting for the train to come to them some day. What you do so well is you cause the reader to act, because you know the moment they act with anticipation, expectation … Once they act with a Tesla mindset, then, all of a sudden, all these Teslas. By the way, those Teslas you’re noticing now? They were around you before you got your Tesla.

Ed Mylett:        That’s right.

John Maxwell:  When people say, “Well, I don’t have the opportunity.” No. No. No. No. No. It’s not the opportunity that’s hiding from you. It’s that you’re not opportunity thinking. You’re not opportunity expecting. What you do so well, Ed, is you cause all of us to sit on the edge of our seat. The moment you say, “Go,” we go. We go because you have taught us that it’s in the expectation, it’s in the action, where all the fruit is.

Ed Mylett:        I’ve got to tell you something about what you just said. It’s in my book, and it’s from you. The last time I interviewed you, you said something. You say so many things. I have a chapter in the book where I talk about extremity expands capacity. Well, that comes from John Maxwell. In the last conversation we had … Usually when you do a show it’s for the audience, but there’s moments that are just for me. You said, “Ed, I’m growing more right now than I’ve ever grown in my life.” I thought, “Oh, that’s a really nice thing to say.” You said, “No. No. No. I’m really growing right now more than I’ve ever grown in my life.” You said, “Because my capacity to grow is much greater than it’s ever been in my life. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I talk in the book about extremity expanding capacity. When you do more, you expand. When you do the extreme, you expand your capacity to do it. Not only do you get better at it, but you extend your capacity to do something. It’s exactly what’s true about what you’re saying. This expectation thing, anticipation, when you first do it, it’s foreign to you. It’s new. The more you do it, you extend your capacity. You expand your capacity to expect, and to anticipate. I must say, that part of the book right from you and our last conversation.

John Maxwell:  Ed, I’m 75. Let me tell you something. My capacity for growth and learning has never been as great as it is right now. Therefore, I’m seeing more opportunities than I’ve ever had. I’m more excited than I’ve ever been, but if I think I’m doing good … when you talk about your dad in the book. My father, when he was 94, we were having lunch one day. He looked at me, and he said, “Son. Son, listen to me.” He said, “I’ve been thinking about this. I’ve been praying about this.” He said, “I believe.” Now, he’s 94, Ed. He’s 94. He said, “I believe my greatest days are still ahead of me.”

Ed Mylett:        I love it. I love it.

John Maxwell:  Huge.

Ed Mylett:        Huge.

John Maxwell:  Now, how could he say that? Is he a delusional old man? No. No. All of his life he has intentionally developed, and grown, and stretched himself, just like when you go to the gym. You go there every day, and you increase your physical capacity. You can do the same thing with your emotional capacity, your spiritual capacity, your mental capacity. Once you get in that game, it all expands. Again, that’s what you do for so many people. Every time I’m with you, every time, Ed, I learn. Every time I’m with you, when I walk away, I am better than when I came into your presence. That’s who you are, and that’s why Mark and I are absolutely thrilled to have you on this podcast, because everybody that hooks into me some way, they need to know you, and they need to be listening to you, and they need to be reading your stuff, because you will help all of us go to another level. That’s a fact.

Ed Mylett:        Thank you, John. Wow.

Mark Cole:       Hey, let’s go. Let’s go, Ed. You talk about identity, changing your identity, in the book. I want to know what you mean by that. Then how will that impact a leader to lead more positively?

Ed Mylett:        My daughter was just asking me that yesterday, Mark. She’s reading the book right now. She says, “Daddy, can you explain to me this identity in this thermostat analogy?” Your identity is basically the thoughts, concepts, and beliefs that you hold to be the most true about you. It’s sort of your worth but more, so what really governs everything in our life. One of the reasons that John grows like he does, and his father did, is that successful people have this nuance of a lot of self confidence, combined with humility.

We all know people with a lot of self confidence. They can kind of wear you out. They usually make a mistake or two if it’s not combined with humility. We also have friends with tremendous humility. If they don’t have any self confidence, you’re constantly trying to carry them through life. Humility allows a confident person to be curious, to have expectations, to want to grow, to want to learn. When you hear a John Maxwell being willing to say to someone like Ed Mylett that learns from him, that can only come from a place of humility, because he’s still learning and growing. Certainly it’s been a one way street most of my life, with me learning from John.

Having said that about identity, it’s the most powerful governor on your life. It’s almost like a thermostat setting on your life. This room right now, Mark, John, is set at 74. You have different thermostat settings in your life. You have a faith one, an abundance one, a happiness one, a physical one. Let’s just take physical or business. If you’re a 74 degreer as a leader in business, and you start acquiring the skills and knowledge to grow your company and transfer them in the ways John teaches you so well, you’re at 85, 90, 100, 110. If you don’t also increase the identity of you and/or your company, you will eventually hit the air conditioners, and cool it back down to get to what you believe you deserve.

You watch people do this in their fitness. Maybe they’ve got a 74 degree fitness identity. They want to lose those 20 pounds. They get the tools, and the tactics, and the diet. You see them. They’ve lost the 20 pounds. They’re 100 degrees of fitness. You see them a year later. What have they done? They’ve turned the air conditioners on and put all the weight back on again. This is an internal governor. It regulates the temperature of our lives. It’s not the external. It can be 150 degrees outside. You can turn that thermostat on. By the way, the reverse is also true. Life can start to get worse, at 40 and 30 degrees, and you turn the heater on, don’t you, and get back to what you believe you’re worth.

The key thing is changing this identity. Very quickly. I won’t get into the details, but I teach what I call the trilogy of changing one’s identity. They’re the following. I’ll say them briefly. My identity does not come from my abilities. My identity does not come from what I do, or what I look like, or what I achieve, because that is fleeting. I’ll always be chasing it.

Identity comes from three things for me. One, faith. Regardless of what it is, if you’re a person of faith, it’s always amazing to me. Say Christian, like myself. Someone has faith on Sunday when they go to church. Wednesday night Bible study, they’re reveling in their faith, but when they walk into that business meeting on Monday, they’re alone. When they do that sales call, they’re alone. Why is it that you’re not bringing your faith into every area of your life and allowing that? If you’re really the child of an all loving God, and the DNA of king of kings is running through your blood, that ought to impact that identity.

Number two is intentions. I met Wayne Dyer when I was very young, John. He said to me, “Ed, please. You’re going to change the world, and it’s not because you’re a good orator, and you have a big brain, or whatever it is.” He goes, “Ed, it’s because you have such a good heart. You intend to serve. Please always focus on your intentions.” At that time, he was writing a book called The Power of Intentions. My identity comes from my faith and my intent to serve. Right before we started, I said a quick prayer, connected with my faith, and also I connected with my intent to contribute. Not my ability. My intent. Even though I’m growing my abilities, that’s not identity.

Third is association. The four, five, people you hang around the most shape your identity more than anything … Mentors are great, but your friends … My kids, when they have school teachers, that affects them. Who am I really worried about? Who they’re around every day. I’ll just say this last to you about your friends. Here’s a way to know whether friends serve you. Are they operating out of their imagination and vision, or do they operate most of the time out of their history and memory? If when you’re with your friends, it’s all, “Remember? Remember when? Remember when we did this? Remember when we did this? Remember this? Remember this?” You’re in a friendship peer group that operates out of their history and their memory. When you’re with friends, you’re saying, “What are you working on right now? Where are you going? What are you excited about? What’s your vision? How can I help you?” Now you’ve got the right peer group. The trilogy of faith, intention, association, will change your thermostat setting.

John Maxwell:  Wow. I love those three things you just gave us. I’m telling you, every one of us can put our hands around this one, Ed. I mean, you put the cookies on the lower shelf. I don’t have to get a ladder here. I mean, it’s right where I am. Several years ago, I read from a guy named Jerome Bruner, who was a Harvard psychologist. You know what he said? It’s so interesting. The article was, why do people sabotage themself? Why do people who are seemingly do well all of a sudden get off the track? His whole thesis of the article was the fact that we sabotage ourselves when we do not think that we are worthy of where we are. What happens is we then go back to who we really believe that we are. You have to change the belief system, how a person thinks.

I can still remember. As a kid, my father paid us our allowance to read books. I still remember reading The Magic Power of Thinking Big. I was in the 10th grade. How I got that concept, and it just grabbed hold of me. Or Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. All these great books I read when I was a kid in school. It’s so true. What you do for people is you not only believe in them, but you give them such practical, simple helps, that they begin to say, “Okay, I’m going to try this.” All you really are wanting, Ed, all of your audience to do is just to try it. I mean, it’s kind of like if it’s not any good, you don’t want them to try it, because they’re going to find out it’s not any good. If it’s really good, there’s nothing better than saying, “Just try it. Just go. Just do it,” because you know that they moment they do it, they’re going to start getting a return on it.

I think that’s one of the things that keeps you and I in the game. We love helping people, and making a difference, and serving them, and adding value to them. All we do is say, basically, “These are the principles. They work for us, but they can work for you too, so just try it.”

Ed Mylett:        That’s right.

John Maxwell:  The moment they try it, off they go. Is there any greater reward than seeing your audience grown, and develop, and get better? That’s why we’re in the game.

Ed Mylett:        It’s what keeps me in the game, and it’s exactly what you just said. I did when I took out a page out of your book. I put a lot in it. I’ve got like 19 one mores in there, knowing that some will resonate with you more than other ones in the book. To your point, when I started doing this, I’ve never felt more at home in my life. It’s not work. I get to do this. I don’t have to do it. I get to help people. I remember a time where nobody wanted to listen to me. Now, when people do, I’m honored when they want to. At the time, I feel compelled to give people the real stuff. I’m really proud of the book. I really feel like I did that in this book. Finally did it in the book.

Mark Cole:       You know, Ed, you said it. There’s 19 one mores. For all of you watching YouTube, I’ve got the book held up, because I’ve got my own copy here. Here’s what I love about Ed. The content’s incredible. That trilogy that you just gave us, insanely good. There’s a matrix concept in chapter two that I cannot wait to go and redigest. You know what I love about the book most, Ed? The thing I love about you, Ed, the most, is your passion. I don’t care if we’re having a conversation, you and John, and I’m just a fly on the wall, or whether you’re speaking for one of our events, or whether I’m listening to your podcast.

Your passion is contagious, and somehow you have put that passion into this book. It’s almost every time you finish a page. You can hear that Ed Mylett passion saying, “Turn the page. There’s a little bit more for you. Turn the page.” I think you’ve done a great job capturing your passion, which is one of your greatest assets in this book. I’m going to remind you again. If you have not picked up this book, or if have not bought a copy for those on your team, you need to go to MaxwellPodcast.com/OneMoreBook, and you’ll be able to pick up The Power of One More. That is a no brainer, my friends.

Let’s go to another concept that I love that you did. You’ve got some really interesting things about this concept we’ve all tried to tackle called time management. Tell us a little bit how we can change our relationship and perspective of time management, and see more opportunities in our life.

Ed Mylett:        I talk about this in the book. I think the 24 hour day is the most antiquated, ridiculous concept that we currently have all bought into in the world. I know it’s got something to do with the sun, and the Earth’s rotation, and all that other stuff. I get all that. Forget it. Here’s the truth. 300 years ago, there were 24 hour days. If I wanted to communicate with John Maxwell, I had to find some way to write down some letter, stick it on the butt of some horse. A month later, John would get it, hopefully. He’d read that thing, and then he’d have to write me something back, stick it back on the horse, and hope I’d get it a month later. Now I can text him in two seconds, but our days are measured the same way. That’s insane. We can begin to bend and manipulate time.

I see myself as a very average and ordinary person who’s had to create some tactics and strategies, many of which I’ve learned from John. I mean that. Many of which I’ve learned from John over the years. I had to change time, so I started to figure out. Wait a minute. When I used to be in high school, if I do a report, I had to go to the library, get an encyclopedia, write stuff down, find the right book. Now my daughter gets Google, and she’s got a report done in four minutes.

It’s crazy that the days are the same length, so I started changing it. Now my day is from 6 a.m. to noon. That’s a day. We’ve all had a morning where we go, “I got more done this morning than I’ve done in three weeks.” Well, can’t that be most mornings? Now, by the way, some of my 24 hour days, I watch Netflix and relax. That’s okay on a given day. Some of my days are exclusively faith and church. That’s okay, but my days now are six hours. 6 a.m. to noon is a day. In there I’m going to get the most fun, fitness, work, faith, whatever it might be, 6 a.m. to noon. Then, at noon, the day ends, and a new day starts. That clock goes off in my head now, it happens, where I go, “What did I just get done yesterday? What do I need to double my efforts on? What am I grateful for? What do I need to celebrate? What do I need to triple my efforts on?”

The new day starts noon to 6 p.m. That’s a mini day, noon to 6 p.m. The amount of fun, business contacts, meetings, relationships, podcasts, family time, whatever it is, noon to 6 p.m. At 6 p.m., the clock goes off, and I’m accountable again. “What did I get done? What am I grateful for? How about my prayer time? What about my leadership time?” Then the third day is 6 p.m. to midnight. I’m going to sleep in some of these times. I’m going to relax. I’m going to watch TV, but same thing. Now I get 21 days a week when everyone else has had seven.

Mark Cole:       Wow.

Ed Mylett:        Now, stack that up. Stack that up over a month. Stack that up over a year. Stack that up over 10 years, and I’m getting thousands more days in my life. Not only am I doing more and getting more, but here’s what also happens. I have now bent and manipulated time. Here’s the big kicker. It’s the way everybody else responds to you. What is perceived as more scarce is perceived as valuable by many people. Now I’m walking faster, talking faster. A little bit busier, and all of a sudden the world responds to me as if I’ve got something I didn’t have before. My accountability changes. My repetitions change. My expectations change.

I’ve also extended my life by thousands of days, and the rest of the world responds to me differently. If you still operate a 24 hour day, you are operating in something that is so antiquated. By the way, you’re with 99.9% of the people in the world still. I know, after this book happens, there’s going to be a percentage of people who start to understand getting 21 days a week instead of seven.

John Maxwell:  Oh my gosh. You know what? I just added it up. I’m 225 years old right now … Listen, this is huge, Ed. Wow. No wonder I’ve got wisdom. I’m 225 years old. Now, let me say this. You know this to be true. If a person’s getting ready to go on a trip or something, that day before they go on the trip, they get a lot done because, oh my gosh, I’ve got a deadline. All of a sudden, we’re making calls. We’re just doing the stuff we should, because we now are on a limited time thought for just a moment, so we do it.

What I love about your six hour days is that’s exactly what it does. You know what it does? It makes every day count, because it’s six hours. I mean, on a six hour day, you don’t look and say, “You know, I’ve got some time to waste now.” You don’t even think that. You’ve compressed time and brought it down so that we have a sense of urgency. We’re not only urgent about it, but we’re intentional about what we’re doing in those timeframes. I love that, Ed. I love it.

Ed Mylett:        You already do this. See, people that excel do some form of this unconsciously. I’ll give you an example. You just said earlier you’re up at 5:30, and you’re writing. The last time I was with you was at an event. You had just traveled from somewhere abroad. You weren’t feeling great when we did this event. You just crushed the event and spoke. You probably don’t remember this, but then after the event, you’re like, “And I got to go to Texas tomorrow.” You’re this very busy, highly productive man, who also has an incredibly rich social life, and golf life, has an incredibly deep faith life, has a rich life with his family. People will look at someone like you and go, “Boy, how does he have it all?” You don’t feel like you have it all, but what you do is the way that you look at time is just slightly different than most people. You don’t have it in the three day thing and formatted, but you already do most of this, John. As do most of the people that you and I like to spend our time with. Their perception of time is different.

John Maxwell:  Yeah. No, that’s exactly right … I’ve never thought of the six hour days. See, what I love about you is you come into a person’s life, and you take a principle, and you make it tangible. There are a lot of people that can do principles, but they can’t bring it down. I mean, the Tesla story makes it tangible. The six hour day, it makes it tangible, until all of us look and say, “Wait a minute. I think I can do that six hour day.” I love it. You’re helping all of us today. I’m so glad you’re on the podcast. Come on, Mark. You and I got to get better because of him. You know that. Come on. We’re going to have to slap each other if we don’t get on that Ed path and do it. We’ve got to do more and get on it. You know that.

Mark Cole:       I know. I know the one thing in this day of my day, day number two for today, is this podcast is going to be a change for me. It’s going to make a difference, and let me tell you why. It’s not just the 19 one mores. It’s not just the book that I’m in the middle of, but it’s these concepts that are really radically changing the way that I engage in productivity. You have one more that I want to hit. Now, again, there’s about 16 more in the book, podcast listeners, viewers. You have one more that I want you to unpack for me right here, Ed, before we say goodbye. This idea of goals and standards. You’re rocking my thoughts here on how you are viewing the difference between goals and standards. Can you unpack that a little bit for us?

Ed Mylett:        Yeah. I wrote them back to back. I have a goal setting chapter. John’s better at teaching this than I am, but I have a pretty specific system on setting goals. I think if you’re setting the right types of goals, you’re not going to hit all of them all the time. I think ultimately in life, long term, you do get all of your standards. Your standards are teaching people how to treat you. Your standards are what you’re going to get. I’ll give you two things on this.

First, when I was young, and I had no self confidence whatsoever, I built this philosophy that if I could just start to keep the promises I made to myself, I could build some baseline confidence. I think, for the most part, if you lack self confidence, you lack a reputation and relationship with yourself where you trust you. I didn’t trust me as a young person. Even as a young adult. I said, “I’ve got to start keeping the promises I make to myself,” and they were small. When I’m going to get up. How much water I’m going to drink a day. How many contacts I’m going to make in a given day. When I’m going to pray. These are things I could control. If I was going to work out. All of a sudden, I started keeping these small promises I made to myself, and I built some confidence. Then I thought, “Well, if I can do these small things, I’m going to point my mind at the big things.” I believed I could do them all of a sudden.

Then, once I did that, I thought, “Well, how can I become super productive? I’ve got to change the standard.” The standard is no longer I do what I say I’m going to do. It’s I do what I say I’m going to do, and the new standard is and one more. If I say I’m going to get on the treadmill for 30 minutes, I do 30 minutes and one more. If I’m going to make 10 contacts in a day, I make that promise of 10, and I do one more. If I’m going to tell my daughter Bella I love her every day, and now I keep that promise to myself, I do it, and I tell her one more time every day. All of a sudden, that standard has changed who I am. You stack up all those one mores.

John, your great friend Art Williams, who’s another hero of mine, had this amazing saying that I’m sure he still says. He used to say, and you said it earlier, “The difference between winning and losing is so small. It’s almost too scary to talk about.” He would say this, and I’d say, “Well then tell me what the thing is. What’s the small thing?” He never told you, but I was looking for it all these years. I believe I know what it is. I believe it’s one more.

John Maxwell:  Yeah. That’s a fact.

Ed Mylett:        I believe that’s the difference. I believe it’s the difference.

John Maxwell:  Definitely. You’re so right. In fact, Art and I were having a conversation the other. You know, he and I are both swimmers. He said, “You know, I swim every day an hour and one minute.” I just cracked up, because it’s the one more concept you’re talking about right now. He said, “I never swim 59 minutes. I never swim one hour.” He said, “I swim one hour and one minute.” He said, “Everything that I do is just one more.” I mean, it’s just exactly what your book is. In fact, I’m sitting here, and I’m less than half a mile from his house right now, because he’s a neighbor of mine. I love that. One hour and one minute. One more. Just like you’re talking, Ed.

Ed Mylett:        I love it. That makes me feel so good to hear.

John Maxwell:  That’s great for Mark.

Mark Cole:       I’m going to let you both have a couple of minutes just to kind of close out. Ed, we’ll start with you. Then, John, you can wrap today’s session. Ed, this idea of embracing inconvenience, there’s so much that we did not get to today that is jam packed into this book. I wish you would just take a minute. We are constantly trying to add value to our listeners, to our viewers, so that they will multiply value to others. Do me a favor and just kind of give that one more thought of why they really need to go grab this book right now.

Ed Mylett:        Well, for leaders, I have 19 chapters in the book, but only two of them are on leadership. Meaning it’s the only chapter where I repeat the topic. I had so much to cover on leadership I put it in two chapters. I had something occur to me, guys. I just want to share with you about three weeks ago. I wrote this whole book, and basically the premise is that my dad made this decision to get sober, as we opened up with. That changed my life. I’m not sure, if my dad doesn’t make that decision, I’m with you all right now. That decision impacted my children who weren’t even born, and eventually it’ll impact my grandchildren, and all of his grandchildren, the millions of people I’ve been blessed to reach. That one decision my dad made.

John, it’s like three weeks ago. I’ve already written the book. This isn’t in the book. I just feel like most people watching, or listening to it, think, “That’s great, but I’m disqualified. You don’t know about this thing I’m ashamed of, or this embarrassment I’ve had, or this divorce, or bankruptcy. I’ve just always been average, so my history tell me this is who I am. I’m disqualified.”

I woke up in tears. I haven’t cried very much in my life. I woke Christy up. I said, “Babe, wake up.” She goes, “What?” I said, “Something just dawned on me.” I said, “Someone helped daddy.” She said, “what, honey?” I said, “Someone helped my dad in the lowest moment of his life, when he was on his knees about to lose his family, maybe thinking of taking his own life. I don’t even know where it happened. It was some bar, or dark alley, or a coffee shop somewhere. Some precious human being stepped forward and helped my dad when he needed them the most. I don’t know who they are, and they’ve helped millions of people, including our kids who weren’t even born.” She goes, “Oh my gosh.” We’re both crying.

I said, “That’s not the incredible part, and that’s pretty incredible. It’s what had qualified this person to do it.” What were their qualifications? The things they were the most embarrassed and ashamed of. Their humanity. The fact that they were also an alcoholic, that they were also a drug addict. Little did they know that the Lord was preparing them with the worst moments of their life, when they were driving and drinking, or lying to family, or stealing from them. God was preparing them, if they had the courage and the expectation, to step forward at some point. That test would become their testimony to my father. The very thing this person probably thought disqualified them from ever doing something great with their life was the one thing that did qualify them, because God doesn’t call to qualify. He qualifies the called, and this person was called in that moment to save my father’s life. It was their imperfections, their flaws, that is what qualified them to do it.

The very things, oftentimes, in our life that we think discount us from being a leader, from making a difference, are the very things that are preparing us to do so, if we have the expectation and the courage to want to help somebody like this person helped my father, and ultimately all of us today. That’d be my final thought.

John Maxwell:  Wow. Wow. Amen and amen. Ed, you know this as well as I do. If we want to impress people, we talk about our success. If want to impact them, we talk about our failures. I promise you … It’s in my humanity that makes me reachable. It’s also in my humanity that makes me believable … Your book, The Power of One More, here’s my final thought. I’m glad I had one more session with you, because the session I had with you, I have four takeaways. I have four takeaways. In fact, I can hardly wait to get you off this podcast so I can get back to work on the takeaways. You gave me four takeaways that I’ve got to go now digest, and begin to reflect on, and begin to apply to my life.

I close with this, Mark, and I know you would agree with me, my precious friend. When you’re with big people, they just make you feel bigger. Ed, right now I feel real big. I love you, man.

Ed Mylett:        I love you, brother. Thank you. Thank you so much, you and Mark. Thank you.

Mark Cole:       Yeah. Well, thank you both. To all of you that listened today, all of you that have viewed, thank you. We love you. We do what we do because you’re family. You are people that go make a difference. I thought I know that many of you have already went to MaxwellPodcast.com/OneMoreBook, and you’ve already ordered a book. Then when Ed was sharing that last piece, you thought of that person that has impacted you. You need to one more time go back to MaxwellPodcast.com/OneMoreBook, and you need to order this book.

Hey. I want you, today, to do this. I want you to grab the book. I want you to apply it. I want you to be a leader that goes and makes a positive, powerful change in this world, because everyone deserves to be led well.