- Sometimes our dreams don't come true but to understand with the right attitude, hey, whatever is meant to be, I'm gonna reach my full potential. (upbeat music) - Welcome everyone to The
School of Greatness Podcast. We have one of the top
motivational speakers in the world, Nick Vujicic in the house. I'm gonna pound it brother. - What's up? - Good to see you man.
- Love you. - Super pumped, love you too, man. - I'm excited to be here, Lewis. - Dude, I think I saw a
video of yours probably like seven, eight years ago online of you, speaking at some small
school or something. Where you're just kind of
like flapping your foot maybe playing guitar or drums. - Drums and kicking a tennis ball. - Yes.
- Yeah. - And I was just like, man, this guy's got such a positive attitude and such a kind soul and
then at the end of the video, you're hugging like 1000
kids and I was just like, I can't wait to one day to hug this guy. So when you came in, I was
like, my man, bring it in. (laughs) Very excited. You've been taking the world by storm with your message of positivity, of living without limits and for those who are
watching or listening that maybe have never seen your story, give us a brief recap of how you were born and really, how you became this way. I guess how you're born, what happens and how you got into this world? - Well, first of all, it's
so awesome to be here. Thank you, Lewis so much for having me. - [Lewis] Of course, man. - And hello everyone
watching, it's an honor. First of all, my accent
is a little watered down from Australia, that's where I was born. And my parents, they loved me. They encouraged me, they believed in me. They told me everyday that I'm
beautiful the way that I am and when I asked them what happened, why was I born this way? They said, well, we don't know why but there's a greater purpose and I love your title,
The School of Greatness because that's what it's all about, leveraging your full
potential in not saying and wishing and hoping,
I wish I was given more, to do more but doing your
best with what you have. Those are the people who master full potential in their life. And I'm never gonna be a
motivational speaker to say, everything's possible, just
dream and it's gonna come true not just hard work, but
your full potential. Sometimes our dreams don't come true but to understand with the right attitude, hey, whatever is meant to be, I'm gonna reach my full potential and that's what it's all about. And I didn't know why I was born this way. I didn't believe I would
actually become independent, married, now with four kids
traveling around the world to talk about hope was really fantasy. I actually felt like at one stage, I had no hope for myself, no purpose. - How old are you when you had that? - Yeah, age six, seven, eight
were the bigger questions that I asked myself,
saying, why am I here? Why did this happen to me? And I went to school
and kids would come up and they would tease me and
I'll try flip it around, on a humorous level and
they asked me what happened. I just say cigarettes and
just the oldie buddy goodie. - Alcohol.
- Yeah, alcohol, right? And you know, I love pulling pranks today and doing crazy things
like getting my friends to put me in the overhead
compartment of airplanes and dress me up as a pilot. - That's amazing. - Yeah, it's been fun. Traveled now 74 countries and the universal truth
of asking yourself, why am I here? What's my purpose? What's my value? What's my identity? Am I defined by what other people tell me? Am I defined by my previous failures on what I can or cannot do? And so that whole understanding
of who you really are in this self awareness
that we all need to have and embracing who you are,
embracing that you are unique that there's not another you and that's why my own parents always said, Nick there's not another
you, do your best. Keep going, don't give up. - Now, usually Serbian
parents aren't as positive from my understanding. There's more of a mentality
that's more of like, pessimistic than optimistic in Serbia, I don't want to be judgmental but that's kind of the thoughts that I've heard from my Serbian friends. - No, it's true. So we have a mutual friend, Norman. - Exactly, so how did your parents actually instill this in you? Were they always positive
or when you were born, they were like, we have
to switch this on so that he doesn't go down a dark place? - Well, the way that I just told you, how they encouraged me aren't the words that they actually used every day. It was more of like, we
love you but hey, basically, we can't change what we can't change. We can't tell you why this has happened but it's up to you. You don't know what you can
achieve until you try it 'cause I have a little appendage
on my left side of my body and it's enabled me with two toes to do. First of all, it's my mobility. I can walk, I can swim,
I can golf and fish and move and drive my wheelchair. - It's amazing. - I've had no limits
like I've even done--. Have you done skydiving? - It's funny my girlfriend
wants to do it this year and I'm like, I just have no desire. I've seen a video of you do it but I've just had no desire but I feel like I should probably do it, I think because I have no
desire, maybe I should do it. - I don't know, that's up to you. - Okay, good, I'm glad you're not pushing me to do it. - I'm not pushing you, man. Hey, look, my palms are sweating. My knees were shaking when I did it but I'll tell you, it was
a thrill of a lifetime. I'll never do it after
having now kids though. Now we have four children
and things change. - It's not worth it. I went in the Blue Angels,
do you know the Blue Angels? - [Nick] I do.
- The fighter jet. For me, that was the most
terrifying thing to go in a jet with five G
or 6G, whatever we did and to do the loops and everything because I get very dizzy quickly. Yeah and I get seasick. I get like when I go upside
down, I get nauseous. So for me this was a big risk to take. - It's massive.
- And for three days, I was pretty much sleeping,
recovering from this. So I'm just like, I just don't know. I feel like I've done scary stuff. - It's all good.
- Yeah. Jumping out of a plane, I don't wanna be out for three more days. It's the same thing with bungee jumping. I'm just like, I don't know. - I never do bungee jumping
and I wouldn't do anything just because someone told me to go to do. But for me, what I was
told by my parents-- - Siri got you.
- It's all good. But for me, my parents always said, Nick, we don't know what you
can achieve until you try it and so they didn't know what I could do until I was given a keyboard and now I can type 53 words a
minute, in a normal computer. - With like one toe.
- That's it. - 53 words? - Yes, a minute. - That's crazy. - And so no one knew what Nick could do unless Nick was ready to try something but embrace failure as his classroom and that was the attitude. First of all, my parents said Nick, you need to become a
millionaire to survive. You're gonna need caregivers,
mom and dad can't help you. You need to start a business in accounting and financial planning, get employees, they're gonna be your hands and feet and I was six years old
when they told me that. And so that was the-- - You'd be like but I don't
wanna be an accountant. - I'm like that's boring. - Or a soccer player.
(laughs) - But that was the understanding. I'm never gonna be a
professional football. I'm never gonna be a tennis player. I needed to go find my full potential and I'm so glad that it
started from ground zero where I actually started
vacuuming the floor of our home with my shoulder
and chin for $2 a week and it taught me goal setting. It taught me being thankful for what I had and my parents the Serbian way they don't give their
children everything they want, when they want, how they want it. - You cry, you complain. They're like, you're not getting nothing. - Nothing nothing and it's interesting. Now look at the millennials
if they are given everything they want, how they
want it, when they want it when are they ever first
thankful for what they have? And second of all, are we really preparing them for what the world is? Does the world really give
you everything you want, when you want it, how you want it? That's not preparing them. So my parents said, look,
we are here for you, go and do your best and get ready to fail. That's basically--
- At six? - At six, what the upbringing was. - It's interesting because probably around six, seven, eight I was asking, it's probably every kid's
asking, why am I here? What's my purpose? Why am I here? what is this place? And I remember I would get in trouble. I was horrible in school, horrible. Always in the bottom of my class. It's the reason I created
The School of Greatness is because I created the thing
I wish I would have had and the way I can learn
something when I was a kid and I remember I would go
into the principal's office often 'cause I'd get in trouble
and I would just tell them, I wish I were dead, all the
time, over and over again, getting into the principal's office. Was there ever a time when you just said, I wish I were dead? I wish I wasn't here and
did you get picked on a lot in school or were they kind of like understanding of what was going on and friendly with you in school? - And by the way, congratulations
on your documentary. - [Lewis] Thank you. - Because that's one of my inspirational, aspirational dreams that I want one day wanna hop on that, that's my passion, to reach now young kids about bullying because of me being affected by it and so everyone has a story, and I think everyone
deserves a documentary, but congrats to you
and your team to do it. Because it's gonna inspire
and change people's lives. So it's awesome.
- Thank you man. Appreciate it.
- Fist bump, dude. - That's awesome.
- Appreciate it - But that's the point. It's like, everyone feels at times that we're our biggest bully because we will always have someone saying something negative but
it's when we walk away, do we believe it? Do we let those voices echo in our mind when no one's watching? And that's when I realized I'm either my biggest encouragement
or my biggest discourager and that's where attitude comes in. You have people in your
life where they'll keep on beating you down but if
you keep them coming back up, they won't keep you down and so for me, that was the fight that I
had to have within myself and I one day look myself in the mirror, after a big bullying day
at school in Australia and I look myself in the eyes and said, there's gotta be one good
thing that I've got going. And just hold on to that,
that no matter what happened and no matter what anyone
else said that day, that I could hold on to
deep, inner strength to say no but you know what? I know I couldn't play
that sports activity but I was watching and
waiting for the first person to be eliminated out of that game. So then I could come
over there by their side and look him in the eye and say, good job, better luck next time, how you doing? And all of a sudden,
I couldn't participate and I was kind of the alien but here I am transforming that obstacle
into an opportunity and holding on to that and
holding on to a physical aspect. Sure, we understand that body
is a body, we have a spirit. We have a soul we have a
mind and those are the three biggest elements of really
who we are as a being but I did look myself
in the mirror and said, Nick, your eyes are pretty good looking and no one can ever tell you different and so when I look at people,
we know that the saying is the eyes are the windows to your soul and so when someone
looks at me in the eye, subconsciously, it's
them affirming my value and it's the attitude of
looking you straight in the eye and saying, I acknowledge you, I see you. I'm listening to you and
I'm speaking to your soul and you're looking into mine. All of a sudden, everything
else goes blurry. And now you look at
them and smile and say, you know what? Better luck next time Well, they're telling me
what they're going through. All of a sudden, I have
depression, I have bullying but if I can look and reframe
my attitude to saying this, if I don't get a miracle,
I can still be one. Now all of a sudden that
attitude redefines impossible. - Wow. - And so it's not a victimization. It's the attitude of understanding. Here I am, this is who I
am, this is what I have, I'm gonna be thankful for what I have and I'm gonna do my best to
make a difference in this world. - Yeah. It's interesting because
sometimes the bullying is actually not that bad compared to how much we bully
ourselves like you said. Someone might say something for what? 10, 20 seconds at school
or a comment online but then we hold on to it
and we repeat it ourselves. You suck, you're no good. You're not smart, you're not beautiful. We repeat it over and over
for days, weeks, years. From what one person
said for a few moments and we attach it to like that bullying. I did this for a long time. Kids would bully and then
I would hold on to it and repeat it for years. It's crazy, right? - Yeah, there are 48-year old adults who are still trapped by
what their father said when they were nine years
old and we feel like okay, I've moved on but deep, deep down, have we actually released those chains? So it's unchaining those bounds, it's unchaining those fears, it's unchaining that mentality that really holds you back
from actually being happy. - How do we unchain them? - How do we unchain them? - If we've had it for a day
we hold on to it or a decade? How do we let go of the
bullying or the negativity? - One of the greatest tools
that psychologists use is actually writing a
letter, either to yourself or writing a letter to that person, telling them what they did
to you, how it made you feel and how you forgive them. - I've done this many times. I've done so many different rituals and letter writing, burning the letter and burying it, it's so powerful. - It's been helpful for me too and no matter how courageous we seem or immune to depression, we
all go through ups and downs. We all sometimes need to just
take a step back and say, okay, wait a second, what am
I actually still chained to that I'm not even aware of? - Is there anything
you're still chained to? - There was a recent unchaining, I would have to say 18 months ago. - What was that?
- Someone hurt me really bad. - Someone close to you or more of like a business relationship? - It wasn't a business relationship. I quickly forgive business
relationships actually 'cause money comes and
goes, we all know that. - I need to learn that lesson. (laughs) I need to hang out with you, man, sorry, you finish the story first, go ahead. - Go on, we'll come back to that. - I mean, for me, it's been
for the last seven years, I've really learned how to let go quicker because I held on for stuff forever. I was sexually abused when I was five and so I held on to this feeling like anytime I was always 11 guy but anyone triggered me
with the feeling of abuse. It was like I wanted to destroy them. - Yeah, absolutely. - Until I started to
really started to heal within the last seven years and practice it over and over but in business relationships
because I was poor. At one time, I was like, if anyone ever messes with my
money, they're gonna get it. So I've had to learn a
lot quicker to let go of that stuff and just be like, okay, money comes and goes, relax. Listen to Nick (laughs). - You know the greatest lesson is just losing all your money
twice and then coming back. - Is that what--
- (laughs) That's exactly. - No way, really? - Yeah. - How did that happen? - At age 19, I was in the stock market. I was in real estate as a teenager. I learned how to day trade and I did that as a college student and then I went all in on
a bubble that burst in 19, no, in 2001, 2002, that's
when I lost 40 grand. - That was everything for you? - That was everything for me. Now before I lost that, I
gave away 30K to orphans in South Africa 'cause that was my goal. So okay, I don't wanna miss
the other question there. - How do you unchain the
bullying or the hurt? So you first said 18 months
ago, there was a situation, someone hurt you. - Right, maybe we should leave that. Okay, we've got so much to talk about. Okay, so because my parents grew up poor, they taught me to give
money back to the poor. My parents were in refugee camps. They met in Australia, they
fled Yugoslavia in 1960s. My grandfather's were both jailed and tortured for their faith. So coming back from
such a humble beginning and then see my dad work his
butt off three different jobs, plus my mom working, hustling all the way through while we grew up. We basically grew up in
my grandparent's home because they were just trying
to do everything they could and so we got to a stage
where they're like, hey, you gotta hustle,
become a millionaire, all that kind of stuff. My dad taught me learn financial literacy. That's how I got into it and then I lost my money
the first time at age 19. - And you're probably thinking why I just learned financial literacy but maybe I'm not that smart after all. - But I took that
failure was my classroom. Remember I was always
getting ready for a no. I was always ready for
a falling of an attempt that became failure because
that's how I learned how to become successful,
that's how I realized, I don't know what's possible until, so I don't know what's impossible until I know what's possible. That was the mentality. So when I lost the money the first time, I got back up, I lost money-- - The second time, when was this? - January 2011, I had a cashflow crisis. So you know business,
85% of businesses fail. - In three to four years. So wait, 10 years later,
you lost how much? All of it? - Yeah, I lost, yeah. - You were married this time? - No.
- Oh, that's good. Right but I did meet my wife
and now like, bad timing. So someone stole 50 grand from me. - In 2011? - In 2011. And then I had a cashflow crisis and so the other parts of
business is the failure because of success and you
weren't ready for success. So all that to say, I know
that money comes and goes and you can always pick up your shoes bread and butter, if not bread and butter, go bread and water and then go back to it and you just keep on going. - Yeah, yeah exactly. - You're the only person
who's gonna stop you from trying again, period, doesn't matter. And you look back and say,
now I know what I know, I will never come back here again. - And we're not gonna
take the money with us. - [Nick] Exactly.
- So it's like you lose it, you're not gonna have it
if you're dead, either way. - That's it, that's it.
- It stays here. - Right but I'm driven now. Now that I'm married, four kids and I wanna make a
difference in this world, leave a legacy, Nick ain't
giving up, he'll never give up. He'll never slow it down
either, I ain't retiring. - [Lewis] What's the purpose of that? - What is that? - We gotta make an impact in the world. - Exactly. - too many people that need to be served. - I heard the saying
that the jet runs fastest on the end of the jet way. So with all your context,
with all your wisdom, with all your knowledge and understanding, you actually are most productive
in your last 10 years, believe it or not, with less work and so-- We're the same age.
- Same age. You're a few months older. December and march. - You're a little taller.
- Exactly. - But in all of understanding
where we're moving forward from failure to failure, it's not failure, I don't like the word failure or success as much as values, valleys and mountains. After every mountain peak,
there's another valley and you keep on going
from success to success but when it comes to going through the ups and downs of life,
you do sometimes have a monkey on your back of unforgiveness
of something in the past, - [Lewis] Resentment, anger, frustration. - All that, all that so I had-- - So tell me this. - So here it is and the amazing thing about happiness Lewis, two things. Are the people who can unchain
themselves of the past, are the most happiest and those people who actually intentionally practice an attitude of gratitude. I've met billionaires,
I've met 21 presidents, Prime Ministers, vice presidents, I've spoken in front of 10 governments. I've been on the internet. 2 billion people know
me from the internet, being on TV to 730 million people, for 90 minutes of my time,
like just the whole keynote to 700 million people,
that's 10% of the world and now we're focusing on America. But when I've done all that, looking back, I've realized until 18 months ago that I've been carrying something that someone did to me in 2007 and I actually wrote about
it in one of my books but no one really reads my book. They're gonna see me more on the podcast than my book with you but in
my second book, I talk about how I fell in love with a girl in America back as a teenager, we were both teenagers and her dad was a mentor
of mine and encouraged me. But when he found out that we
had feelings for each other, he didn't think that I was good enough-- - Suitable, provider. - If I could just put a
verbal kind of just umbrella not for my daughter kind of thing. And so--
- You're 17? - I was 19 and she was also
a teenager and we walked away but I was waiting for
her a very long time. And unfortunately, when I
could finally let her go, in my heart, in my mind, this was four and a half years of waiting, no dating, waiting, suddenly
waiting for her to-- - No contact?
- No contact. Finally we saw each other again and it was like the first time, I could actually think of her, look at her and talk to
her after all those years and feel like okay, I
can actually look at her, just like any another human
being and not have butterflies. Finally, I could let go and
then guess what happened? - What?
- She fell in love. - With you or someone else?
- No, with me. - No way. - So like when we first
met sparks were in the air. - Wait, was this 18 months ago? - No, no, no, no. This was ages ago. 2002, we first fell in love. She said, I'm not ready
for a serious relationship. I said, I'll wait for you
for four and a half years and I waited, I'll wait
for you, no timeframe. Finally saw her after
four and a half years, she had sparks, just like
we had when we first met. And she's like, I
actually might be stopping the biggest blessing in my life by not moving forward with you. Her dad still refused and
her whole family said, basically, it's either Nick or the family. - Shut up. - And that was so hard for her. And it was so hard for me and we'd never really had closure on that and I never really forgave her
family until two years ago. And it wasn't like, I got
to talk to her whole family. One family member reached
out and we had a conversation and it helped me to like, wait a second. Here I am, I'm married, I love
my wife with all my heart. I love my kids with all my heart. You'll never forget your
first love for sure. No one ever forgets it but
to actually be missing a part of my heart or thinking
at all in some aspect, way, shape or form of that rejection. It was me whether or not
people say sorry to you, is not the point,
whether people understand that they've done wrong to you or not, is not as much as a point
of you actually saying whether they say sorry or not, it doesn't make it easier even sometimes because you can still hold unforgiveness. Again, it's the attitude of understanding. I need to let go of things
that I need to let go for me. Because if I harbor unforgiveness, I already have no arms and no legs. Why add another disability, right? And so I feel like we all go through that and it's all got to do with attitude. Who am I? What have people done to me said to me? Just like that, it's all bullying but what do you still
subconsciously believe that you still haven't addressed? - How do we get people...? I mean, there's a lot of people watching and listening are saying, yeah, that sounds easier said than done. How do I truly let go of
hurt, pain, resentment? And there's a quote that you said fear is the greatest disability of all. - It is. - And I think probably a negative attitude is probably one of the greatest
disabilities of all too. I don't wanna speak for you but if you don't believe in yourself and you have this negative
attitude constantly, you're disabling yourself for all the good and all the love and all
the joy in your life. - [Nick] Yeah. - You said writing a
letter is one strategy. What's another? I mean, it took you what? 10, 12 years to let go. - Right so going back to any
depression or letting go. So first of all, when I was a kid, going back to bullying and stuff, ages eight to 12, I was depressed. I attempted suicide at age 10. Believing that I had no future. Believing that I had no hope. Believing that people's opinions
on me to find my future. Failure defined my future. I was just in this very unhealthy spiral. So there are three things
to get out of depression. Number one, what I ritually
do is, I'm a spiritual man. So apart from prayer and believing that God gives me faith
and purpose and help, I actually ritually write out the things that I'm still thankful for
and intentionally every day, being thankful for what I
have and not just the things that I have but I'm
actually writing a book actually on attitude right now. And one of the things I
wish that we all did more is stopping and going
back to the last thing that could have happened even
worse and being thankful. - That it didn't happen worse. - Yeah and I know that sounds-- - I'm alive, I didn't lose my foot. I can speak, I can see everything. - Okay, so watch this? My dad died of cancer. Okay 2017, I'm thankful he
didn't die in a car crash that I could still say goodbye. I'm thankful that my whole
family was in California when he got diagnosed with cancer. Can you imagine if half
of us were in Australia and half of us were in America? - They were all here. - That we're all here.
- That's amazing. - Really and not saying that's a cop out. Oh, it could always be worse and then what do we say about the orphans and the people who are human trafficked. While I've seen human traffic
people go through a rehab, find this spirit and their
faith and their value once again to the point that not only
are they mentally healed but watch this, they
get a job, save up money and they go with a buck,
talk about forgiveness and letting go and
transforming into a miracle to let other people
let go of their chains. They save up money, they go with a bucket, a white towel, water and
they save up 700 bucks cash in India, I've been there. They go back to the pimps in mud dams where they were once being abused by, they were kidnapped by them and they said, I've come here to wash your feet. - Shut up.
- No. - Shut up, they do not. - No, I've interviewed these guys. - Oh, my gosh. - They go back with a bucket of water and a white towel and said and I wanna show you the
symbolism of my forgiveness. My soul has been restored,
I am a brand new person and I know what you did to me was so bad and I don't know why
you've chosen this path. You've got money, you've got
power but your soul is lost and you haven't found happiness and I've come here today to tell you that I held unforgiveness until I found the forgiveness for myself of the things I've done wrong. So I'll get to the three points to getting out of depression
but I've seen from brokenness to triumphant victory
where this sex slave, forgives that person, washes
their feet, hands them money and says, give me that 10-year old. - Oh my God, so they buy them from them? - Buy them, that 10-year old girl is told by the 19-year old, you're my sister and that'll
never happen to you ever again. They go through rehab, they find a job, they save up money, then
together they comeback-- - No, they don't.
- They do. - Dude, this is crazy. - If that's not redemption,
Lewis, I don't know what is. So do I believe in redemption? Absolutely. So if you really believe in redemption for even the failures of your own self and the redemption of broken pieces being turned into something beautiful, then we must be able to forgive ourselves. We must be able to forgive
others because in the end, we only harbor that negativity. So moving forward, the three things to get out of depression. Number one is still be
thankful for what you have and be thankful for what
could have gone worse, right? That didn't happen. Number two, talk to someone. - This is key. - I feel like-- - Especially for men, most
men never express how we feel. - [Nick] No. - I wrote a whole book, it's called "The Mask of Masculinity. It's about opening up and
being more vulnerable as a man because for 25 years, I held
on to shame and resentment and right when I started talking about it, is when I started setting myself free. So sorry to interrupt but
now talking to someone, one person can transform your life. - And I think especially
when you become a visionary and you become successful,
you actually realize the value of having friends, real friends, who can be like a men's group around you, who can encourage you and
you just share life together. What's going on, man? Well, this week, I have
a men's group once a week and we do life together
because we need each other. And so talking to somebody,
being transparent with them and getting that
encouragement and thirdly, actually helping someone
in need where you cannot ascertain or even is it in your mindset of waiting for them to
look you and say thank you. - Just being in service, giving. - Yeah and that instigates purposeness. Many people are depressed because they don't know what to live for. They haven't found
something yet to die for and when you have found something
to die for and live for, when you know why you do what you do, that's when purpose gives you the strength to override all limitations and fear. Purposeness was key for me and that's what I wanted to tell you. As a teenager, that no matter
what hell I went through, I tricked my attitude
into a positive mindset. How did I do that? I focus, just like that
I look myself in the eyes and said I'm holding on to the eyes. Hold on to a goal. My goal was to give money to orphans. So I put a picture of
an orphan on my mirror, who's smiling at me, I didn't
know who that orphan was and I knew no matter what I
was gonna go through that day, that I'm a day closer
to making a difference in someone else's life
and the reason Lewis why I became a speaker
was because a janitor, you're gonna love this. It was the janitor at my
high school, who looked at me and said, one day you're
gonna be a speaker. And I said, you're crazy. He was the first person to encourage me to start speaking to
students at my school, which led me to a public school speech, where in front of 300 sophomore students, I was just sharing my heart
and one girl was weeping. Half the girls are crying
but one girl was weeping and she interrupted my speech. She put up her hand in the air, and she said, I'm so sorry but can I come up there
and give you a hug? - This is the the video I saw, yeah. - And she came up and she
hugged me and she said, no one's ever told me that they loved me. No one's ever told me that I'm
beautiful the way that I am and that's when I knew I
was born to be a speaker. And I realized, well, here
I was at 10 years old, trying to commit suicide
because I had no hope. Now finding hope and helping other people find hope for their own
life, it's the greatest drug I've ever found in my life. - [Lewis] It's amazing, right? - It is and that's why
we're here in America establishing a whole new
platform in corporate America because it's not just the
teenagers who lack self-belief. It's not just the teenagers
who bullied themselves. It's not just the teenagers who have problems dreaming bigger and when they see a man
without arms and legs on stage, saying, what's your excuse? Wait, wait, wait, what
attitude do you have? Why? Wait, let's adjust that and
let's see the trajectory of where you really could go. If this is what I've done
without arms and legs. What can you do? - It's amazing, man, it's amazing. One of the things that came up for me is, someone said this, I can't remember who but holding on to resentment
or being angry at someone is like drinking poison and
expecting them to die, right? Something like that. I'm getting the wrong wrong. - No, no, you're right. - But it's something like that. - You're right. - And so the more we hold
on to this resentment, or even just, I think the
more we hold on to depression, anger, resentment and negative attitude. So we're expecting someone else to be hurt by this attitude or this resentment but we're just hurting ourselves and that person continues to abuse us over and over again, the
more resentment we have. So we only can set ourselves
free when we start to forgive. - There's other proactive
things and I love that. There's other proactive
things that I'm actually writing about in my upcoming book in the next couple years that
will come out in attitude but I've learned something about me that I've never learned
before just recently, which is being proactive
and actually realizing and being aware of those triggers, being found when I go
into a room in my mind, how do we get to that place? Is it when we're tired? Is it after we've had a drink of alcohol? Is it when we're missing something? Is it when we fail? - Or didn't sleep?
- Didn't sleep well? Is it a music? Is it a song? Is it a mood? And no, I'm not getting so
scientifically but no joke I actually found the triggers
that took me to that room. - What were they? - And I started cutting it out. So believe it or not, this is the first time I'm
ever sharing this on public. - This is what happens here, man. This is what happens in
the School of Greatness. - (laughs) It's awesome. I love you, man.
- I love you too, man. - So no one knows this but
I've got now chronic back pain. So I have really intense pain that kicks in about five
or 6 p.m. every day, no matter what I do. Just to sit up straight, you can see that I'm
not sitting up straight. It takes a bit for me
to just sit up straight and so with that, in the Serbian culture, you can ask anyone, we grew up, seeing my parents have
a glass of wine a day, - [Lewis] Every day. - And that's it, that's just normal that's it and so we
were surrounded by that and so what I found myself
doing was going towards that but also taking the edge
off the pain of my back. And when I did that,
especially when I'm traveling that's when your mind kind
of like hey, I can now relax and sometimes it's so easy
being away from the wife being away from kids that some
of those other issues come up and you start going into the room then you start playing some
songs that you reminiscing and then it's just a trigger effect. And what I've realized was, I never want to be dependent
on something at all because when you-- - A substance.
- A substance. On any way, shape or form. So like I had a problem with alcohol as much as I actually challenged myself. I took two months not drinking anything, was fine then did another
three months, no problem. But knowing that that's
going to eventually end. I'm like, I wonder if
that itself is enough. So I'm transparently telling
you November 16th, 2019 I made a commitment to myself that other than special
occasions to have one drink. So my birthday and my family's birthdays, my anniversary, Valentines,
those eight, nine days of the year, my twins
are born in the same day, so I can't do two--
(laughs) But I'm off alcohol
completely, completely. - Congrats, man.
- And thanks, thanks. And that--
- That's big. - To me, was big. It was big and-- - Well, here's the thing, I mean when you probably have a lot of pressure, especially in the space that you're in to, you're speaking about positive mindset, you speak a lot, do a lot
of motivational speeches in corporations but you also do a lot in the faith-based Christian community and you probably have a lot of pressure to show up a certain way every single day and sometimes if you feel pain, I mean, it's like, you
got pain, you got stress, you got all sorts of
stuff you're dealing with. - And I promise I never took
a shot before I went on stage. That's never happened (laughs). For the record but no joke, yeah. - We're all human beings and I've never been drunk in my life. - That's awesome.
- I've been drunk. - Come on.
- I've never been high. I've never taken drugs. I've had a couple of sips
of alcohol here and there but I've never been drunk. I just remember saying to myself, I have other vices, don't
worry, I'm not perfect, I like sugar, candy cakes, like all of it. But I remember saying to
myself when I mess up in life, I don't want it to be
because I'm on a substance and making excuse.
- So good. - I wanna be able to say,
yeah, I was an idiot. I made a mistake, I screwed up. It's my fault and I'm the one to blame. Not this thing or I was on this influence but I think it's cool. So why have you never
told anyone about this? Why is this the first time publicly? Were you feeling shameful by it? Were you feeling? - No, it's almost like I haven't written a book for five years and they said, so what do you been learning? I'm like, well, let me tell you some stuff but what was beautiful about that it's actually making the most of life. The two other stories
I wanna bring into this on the alcohol thing
because then you understand the full context of things. My kids, I used to jump on the trampoline. My oldest, now he's seven. So when he was two, we used
to jump on the trampoline. I used to run around. My back got worse in the last seven years, I can't do as much but then
after I have a shot of whiskey or scotch, which is what I really enjoy or a glass of wine, I don't feel like it and he looked at me as a young kid. I think he was only
four or five years old. And he knows that daddy,
he's smart kid, smart kid. He knew what jet lag was at age five. And he said, daddy, I know
why you don't play with us 'cause you're jet lagged, right? But I hadn't been a
flight for three weeks. And I'm like, man, if I
didn't take that shot, I would have had the
energy to remember that and that was like, I'm missing out. My son's missing out. I'm gonna be the best me that I can be. I don't wanna take medication for my pain until I really need to. - Yeah, maybe some natural
right herbs or CBD. - Something but my wife as well. After I have a glass of wine. Like I'm a little bit more relaxed, right? And when she makes me laugh or
when something funny happens it's not like I go giddy
like, I'm not like that. But I was wondering subconsciously, does she think I'm actually smiling or laughing at what she just said more now because I just had a drink? - Right, right. - But I'm like no, that's got
nothing to do with influence. So I want even every word
and interacting moment that I have with my wife and
I'm a little different, Lewis. You know that I've lived on the road and you know that I'm a person that I'm thankful when I'm home. I don't wanna be 30,000
feet in the air anymore. And that's why you inspire me by the way with this model but no joke I want to
make the most of every day and three months ago I lost
one of my great friends in a car accident and he was married to a girl called Bernadette. Check this out for a story. You think I have an issue? Just like a story of
just pain and friends. So we were friends and I'm
writing this in our book. I haven't asked for permission but I'm sure they'll give us permission but two couples that I've known. A couple in Ohio-- - [Lewis] That's where I'm from. - Okay, in Akron area. A couple in Ohio and a
couple in California. The husband in the couple of California came down with leukemia and
the wife of the couple in Ohio, she had bowel cancer or colon cancer. They both died around age 39 and these couples knew each other. We're all friends and
they bonded as couples going through the same
thing with and chemotherapy and all that kind of deal. So the husband, who now's wife died and the wife whose husband
died, they got married. - No way. - Now this couple in California
had a child at one year old. That's when the husband died here. They had no children. He came to California, they got married, they had a child and at 10 months old that child, he died in a car accident. So imagine this woman in California, who loses her first husband to cancer and has a child and then five years later loses her second husband in a car accident at 39 years old. - Lost her husband, not the son. - Not yeah. - The husband?
- Husband. - Wow. - So now she's left with two children from two different
fathers within five years and I look at this woman and I was able to speak
at his memorial service but I look at her and
I won't share her name. And I'm like, wow and she
looks at me and she says, I don't know what good
is gonna come from this but you look at her and
she looks at me in the eyes and you just see, she's
never gonna give up. And she knows that
someday, sometime, somehow maybe she's gonna be able
to inspire one other person to not give up and I feel
like that's the human spirit that we must understand
the crux of every cloud or funk or curve ball or depression or whatever you wanna call it. It comes back to who
am I and why am I here? Your value is not determined on your past. Your future is up to you today. You loving yourself, embracing yourself not judging yourself,
being able to forgive but being the best you can be,
proactively being self aware. Don't let you yourself
get in the way of you. It's not to say that
everything's possible. It's not to say that everything's smooth. No, we all go through ups and downs but I needed to get out of my own way to reach my full potential and
then take one day at a time, when you can't think of thriving and you can only think of
surviving, that's a reality. You've been through that. I've been through that, the strongest of motivational speakers have
been through those seasons and that's okay, don't beat yourself up. Take one day at a time
and go one step at a time and eventually, you will
come out of that valley and come on the other side of that and say wow, I'm glad I'm where I am because people look at me one last thing Lewis, people
say, wow, Nick's strong, he's courageous, he's a man of endurance. They can ask me, Nick, do you think you're a man of strength and courage and endurance? I said yeah, they can say or why? I say 'cause I know
what I've been through. We've been through what we've been through to become who we are today,
to conquer the next barrier and so we've gotta keep on
going, we gotta keep on going and I just hope that people
see the smile on my face is authentic and the peace and strength that I have in my eyes, never to pretend that I've got it all together. No one has it all together. - That's true, man. - But if we can get ahead of that curve, when you get rid of those negativity, our aspects and move out of that room and shut that room down, fire excuses. It's like here I am,
that's where I wanna go. How can I help myself focus on that next goal, keep on going. Knowing that you're
value and your happiness has nothing to do with money or fame but being happy content
and embracing every day, I could die today, Lewis, I'm happy to, I know where I'm going,
couldn't care less. When I die, I'll die at the right time. I don't think about death as
much as I think about life and I live it to the fullest. - Man, I wanna ask you
a few more questions 'cause this is powerful for me. The first one is self-doubt. I'm a big believer that
self-doubt is the killer of dreams and the more we doubt ourselves, the less joyful we're gonna be, and the less happy we're gonna be. You said something about money and fame, putting those things as our value. It's not gonna make us happy
if we value those things for our happiness, how do
we overcome self-doubt? If everything is telling us
we're not good, we're stupid, we don't have the skills,
we don't have the value. No one cares about us,
our parents left us, this person cheated, this person stole, whatever, how do we build self-belief when there's so much self doubt? - Yeah, it's a great question. So I always encourage
people to first define what their goal is and
where they wanna go. What they must-- - [Lewis] You sound like an athlete, - Do I? - This is all I talk about. I learned all these lessons from sports. It's like everything starts
with the goal for the season. I look at life as seasons
because in a sport, you have usually three
months in the season and then there's the postseason,
then there's an off season, then there's a preseason,
that's kind of like the four seasons of life.
- That's good. - But everything you
need to have is a goal, so I'm sorry to interrupt you but I'm glad you're speaking my lane. - Great, great, I'm glad. So my book's not gonna help you. (laughs) But it's true, that's
exactly what it's all about. So first, defining who you
are, where you wanna go but also seeing your dream in your goal, not as something but actually as a baby, and your parenting and your nursing and you're nurturing that dream. Now no one says that their
parents were perfect. - That's true. - So we're never a perfect
steward of our dream and when we look at our dream, we kind of try think of it as well which season am I in of this
dream and how do I treat it? Take baby steps first. The best way to build self-confidence, which is the opposite of
self-doubt is to set small goals, do what you can now and start
building on that confidence. You can't build confidence
without a track record. - [Lewis] That's true. - And you can't wave a magic wand and now all of a sudden
your dreams come true. What's the first step? And if the baby falls
down, trying to walk, you pick it, okay, let's try again. - There's an amazing meme online. It says something like, when a baby falls 1000 times
when it's trying to walk, it doesn't say to itself,
maybe this isn't for me. - Yeah, I love that, I love that. - It's just, I fell
down, let me get back up. It's not like well, maybe I
shouldn't walk cause I failed. No, you need to fail over and over again. - Right, right and that's
part of the process. Thomas Edison said I
didn't fail 9999 times, now I know 9999 ways in how
not to make a light bulb and to have an emotional psychological. - It's a framing of it. - It's a framing of it, attachment, it's a framing of your dream and goal to almost be you're birthing a baby. You're not birthing a baby
but you're nurturing a baby so that thing can become
giant and run and strong and so you're gonna help
it, you're almost like you putting yourself in the baby shoes, okay what's my first step? And so that's it. So if you wanna become a
speaker, go to a seminar, read a book about speaking. - Go to Toastmasters. - Start somewhere, so many people say, I ask him, what's your dream? I guess one day I wanna
and I'm like, really? Have you ever written your dream out? I'm like, okay, wait a second. So how much money do you wanna make a year and they tell me I'm like, so is that before or
after tax in California? I'm on 54% tax. - [Lewis] I know, me too, man - It's a difference. It's like so and you wanna get married? And how many kids you want? And you want them to go to college? So wait, how much money do you really need to have in the bank to actually get a five to 6% interest bearing mutual? (laughs) I was like--
- Sure. - Oh, I need, I said, yeah. Do you know anything
about compound interest? No. How much have you saved? None. How many credit cards you got? Three (laughs) I was like-- - [Lewis] That's me 15 years ago. - Do you really believe in your dream? Have you ever really been
honest with your dream and I'll never forget, my
life changed reading a book called "Money Secrets of The
Rich" by John. R. Burley. His book changed my life and I went to his boot
camp in Scottsdale, Arizona and we did this thing where we had this breakthrough exercise, right? And my dream was to become
a speaker, this is 2002. - Wow.
- Okay? - You were like a baby. - My mom, what do you mean
you're gonna be a speaker? She said, "Do you know what speaker?" I said, "No." That's Australia. There was no Ozzie motivational speakers. If there's a motivational
speaker in Australia in 2002, they were American. - Yeah, they were American
then came over here. - Exactly. No one was making money. It was an industry that
was not even heard of. - It was dead, maybe Tony
Roberts came over one time. - That's it, right? That kind of thing. My mom said, "What do you
mean you're gonna speak?" She said, "What are
you gonna speak about?" I said, "I don't know." She said, "Do you have any invitations?" I said, "No." She said, "How you're
gonna get the invitation?" I said, "I don't know." All these really good questions but I said, I don't care. When I knew my goal, I didn't care how many times I had to fail 'cause I define that goal for me. I went through a breakthrough
event, really cool exercise that most breakthrough events do. On one side of the piece
of wood, you put your goal. On the other side, you put your fears that you got to break through. So these people they
punch this piece of wood and they crack it, right? And I didn't walk on hot coals 'cause my pants will go on fire but I headbutted this thing, right? And it defined me. - Really, that one exercise? - It was a defining exercise. - So are you breaking
the side of your fears and the goal is on the other side? - Yeah. My fear was-- - You're facing your fear,
you headbutt your fear and then you had the goal.
- Yeah, breakthrough. And I realized like, there's a lot more to my story with my parents
but my parents were so scared about my decision to become a speaker that they said you must do your accounting and financial planning
degree for a plan B, which is great advice,
which I'm thankful for but I had to break through the fear, what if my parents never
talked to me again? And that was extreme
but that was in my head. I didn't wanna disappoint my parents. They did everything they could for me, why now disappoint now? Is this my stupid crazy little fantasy? Or is this what Nick's gonna do? And that was the moment
like Nick's gonna do it. With or without my family.
- With or without them. Even if they're not there
for me I'm doing this 'cause it was a part of your dream. - [Nick] Exactly. - And I think we need to
be guided by our dreams. We need to be driven by our dreams. Because if it's staying in there, we don't pursue it then what? - You're right and I'm
not saying, now look, I wasn't married, I wasn't engaged. Now that you're married, if you're married that's a different thing,
well, with a without my wife, I'm gonna-- - You gotta learn to communicate to renegotiate your dream to-- - And seasons and commitments
and them to believe in you and what's the trigger point to success? When do you give it up? When do you not give it up? That's a whole different book. That's a really good
book to write actually. - [Lewis] You should write that book. - I should write that book (laughs). - You mentioned your wife
a few different times throughout this, when
did you know your wife was going to be your wife? What's the biggest
lesson she's taught you? And what is it you love about her the most after all these years? - Gosh, I love those questions. So we met in April 2010 in Dallas. We had sparks and fireworks in the air. I couldn't feel my legs. - Almost ten year-- - Yes.
- Meeting. - Meeting, right? And you got that?
- Yeah. - And then there was a complication. She had a boyfriend at the time. - That was a big complication. - And there's more other complication but we were not in touch for six months and then we met up and
the chemistry was huge. And we started developing a friendship and then went into dating
and three months into dating, that's when I lost all
my money the second time. - Oh, wow. So she was there for you
when you had nothing. That's when you know this girl's amazing. - I had more money than the average 19. Which 19-year old gives away 30K cash and loses 40K then comes
back with the money that goes back into real estate. So my mom's like, as a
teenager, make sure your wife never married you for your money and the question was like, but how would you ever really know? (laughs) That's impossible. So 12 weeks after dating, I lost it all. - What she say? - So, first of all, Nick was not Nick. - So you're in crazy mode,
you're in survival mode, you're panicking. - Panic. - Running around without legs on. - Lewis, I woke up 30 days
straight with panic attacks. - Oh, man. - I was not myself.
- Heart palpitations. - Yeah, all that stuff. It was terrible. - Your legs are trembling.
- Yeah, exactly. Sweating all the time, I'm on the floor. I don't even know what to eat,
I don't know what to wear. - Losing weight. - It was bad, I've never
been so low in my life. Sure, when I was depressed with some other things in my life but this was really and
the worst timing of all. Like I'm supposed to be
at best now to develop a friendship who could be my wife. And I finally told her what happened. She said, "Don't worry, babe,
I'm not going anywhere." I said, "Babe, I lost all my money." She says don't worry, like
straight, don't worry. - Wait, how long did it
take you to tell her? - It took me two weeks to actually, she knew something was wrong. - You're just like, everything's fine. - She was in Texas, I was in California. - Oh, okay. - I said, look, I'm not myself. She says I'm coming over. So she sent her friends home and we talked during the day
and I finally was with her and it took me three days face to face before I could really tell her anything. - Oh my gosh. - She said, "So what happened?" Said I lost all my money. I said four things happen
within three weeks, cashflow crisis, then
someone took the money and just took on more than I could chew and I said, I lost all my money. She said don't worry. I'll get a nursing job and
support the both of us. - She did not. - In a split second,
she looked me straight and I'm like, man, I wanna marry you. - You said that? - No, I'm thinking. - You're thinking.
(laughs) - Wait a few months. - So that was the day, that was it. And then six months
later, she was in Dallas and I was in California
and we had a text going on. And it was the first
uncomfortable moment where like, we were not on the same
page with something. And she was going into the shower and she just said out loud, I just want someone to fight for me. - [Lewis] Oh, my gosh. - And what it was was, there was an issue of just an uphill climb of what we had to together do together
and it was uncomfortable and I felt on my heart, I'm
just gonna pick up the phone, pick up the phone, she picked it up while she was in the shower,
she turned off the shower. I said babe, I just wanna give you a call to say I'm gonna fight for you. Word for word, verbatim and that's when she
knew I was her husband. Three months later, I'll
popped the question. I got the ring in a cream puff
with a tray of cream puffs. I got her to feed me the cream puff and I finished a cream puff in my mouth without choking on the ring
and went down on her finger and she thought I was getting kinky and then I pulled back and
put the ring on her finger and six months later, we got married. So that's when I knew that
she was gonna be the one. What was second biggest question? - Biggest lesson she's
taught you in the last, how many years have you been? - Eight now.
- Eight years. - We just did our eighth
anniversary celebration. The biggest thing she's taught me she is quicker to love people, quicker to forgive people than me. She has a huge heart, her
heart's bigger than Texas and she's not afraid to dream. She's actually probably
the most intelligent woman I've ever met in my life. I just look at her after
she said something. I'm like, she's so wise and I'm like man, I didn't even think I'd
ever come to that epiphany. She just says straight off the cuff. So she to me is a woman of discernment and wisdom and clear,
just cut through the crap. There's no fog in her life,
like it is what it is. Nick, this is what you should really do. And I'm like, okay. - Don't do this deal, don't
hang out with this person. - Yeah, just straight up. Not that she offers it but I
asked her for it and then bang. So she's taught me that
there's always a path and to do things together, I think is what my best friend taught me. She is my best friend but to do things together is so important. Because if you don't do things together, you've missed the whole point of living and being content with where
we're at and to not freak out. She sees me freak out, she's
Japanese, Mexican, okay? - My girl's Mexican. - Awesome.
- Full Mexican. Does she speak Spanish? - Yes, she does.
- No way. - Born and raised in Mexico, man. - No way.
- Yeah. - Where? - Zitacuaro, Michoacan. - Where is it? - Michoacan, it's a state-- - Michoacan, I know Michoacan. - In Northern Mexico City? - Yeah, I know Michoacan My girl is from Monterrey. - Awesome, yeah. Her mother's from Monterrey. - We'll double date, man. - Of course. (speaking in foreign language) - I need to learn Spanish now. Are you fluent? - I understand 70%. - My mission is to get a
full-time teacher this year. - It's good. - And the next month, I'm
trying to find somebody to come to my place and teach me because I feel like it'd be
the best skill I could learn. - I'm sure someone watching
your podcast could-- - I know right. I'm a fluent salsa dancer. I've been salsa dancing for
15 years around the world. I like to top salsa clubs, it's a blast. So I'm around the culture and the music. - Man, I love watching people dance. - It's a blast. - If I had arms and legs, the first thing I would do is dance class. No joke, I love. Anyway-- - So the thing you love
about her the most? - So the thing I love about her the most is that she's calm, she's collected and she's wise and she's
taught me to be happy and don't freak out in anything. You have no idea. She's still in the process
of getting her papers, okay? She had a rough life. Her mother left the
family when she was three. Her dad died of cancer when she was 18. She was alone in the
house with her brother, took over her father's
fish breeding business to just sustain and
then she came to America with her brother, speaking no English, not finishing high school. Came to America to start all over again. So she's been through a lot. I've been through a lot but
together, it's like wow. I feel unstoppable when I'm by her side and I just gotta sit down, calm down, 'cause I'm like, personality A, my brain and she's taught me to switch
my brain off and I wanna share one last personal
success with all of this. When I go to the dining
table and I bring my phone, she grabs my phone, she puts
it on the highest book-- - She's like, go jump for it. - Right, exactly, do it, try,
let me see, entertain me. I'm not a doctor on
call, no one's gonna die and I was so adamant
about time management, prioritization and reverse engineering, where do I wanna be? And where I wanted to
be, I achieved in 2018. Lewis, I'm looking you in the eye and telling you for a year straight. I was able to reach 17 employees, one for profit company,
one nonprofit company. 17 employees, I'm CEO of both. I switched off my phone every week. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. - Wow, four days, no phone? I worked Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, eight hours a day. When I'm not traveling, that was my week. - That's inspiring man,
especially for kids, it's gonna be inspiring.
- It was amazing. - When you just learn to prioritize. What are the things I need to do and who do I need to
hire to do this for me? - Exactly, delegate. - As supposed to work harder. - Exactly, so now I'm going through a massive rebranding though. - Yeah, we're gonna help you. - Thank you, I'd love to figure that out. But the bottom line is I don't wanna travel
internationally anymore between my back, my physical, I don't know how I'm gonna be in 15 years time. But I wanna be there for my kids. I wanna be there with my wife, and having that opportunity, even for me. It's a scary transition. So I'm like, I've got
millions in the bank saying, Oh, yeah, let's throw a
half a million at this. You know what I mean? Like, I didn't wanna work to become rich. I do enough work to get what we need. To reposition is not an easy task. - It's not easy man.
- For anyone. - I've been through a
rebranding of my website for like eight months, it's
like moving to new office, letting go of agencies, hiring people. It's a lot of energy, time, money. - But it's amazing, it's
the right thing to do. And if you look at nickvujicic.com today, well, let's-- - Don't look at it today. Unless you wanna book this guy to speak, look at it in a few months. Hopefully, it'll be rebranded. - I'm just gonna say it's a miracle because we actually put
no marketing or branding. - I don't know how you do it. - In some countries,
I'm top-three speaker. - That's crazy. - And we've done no
marketing and branding. - In the U.S.
- And so I've been spoiled. - That's crazy.
- And so now I'm like, hey, America, I'm here. I wanna go all around Corporate America and all the companies
use me as a megaphone. As almost like a physical demonstration of what they've been trying to tell their team and sales team. Hey, we have no excuses, let's run and let's live a life without limits. - It's hard to sometimes
hear from your partner, your spouse, what they need to hear. Sometimes you need to bring someone else who they can respect and
be inspired by to say, okay, it's time to do
what you told me to do three years ago.
(laughs) So it's amazing. - I get it.
(laughs) - What's the thing you're most proud of that most people don't know about you? - Wow. - Is there something you've
done, something maybe that you haven't announced to the world, or maybe something you've
done that no one knows about, not even your wife or
your kids or something that is big that you're
proud about as well but most people don't know about? - I have to say that every
entrepreneurial visionary needs some spark, not just
of continuing to create and build and innovate but to give back and I've silently been mentoring and I might actually start
podcasts category just for it but coaching CEOs of nonprofits. So I've had 15 years of
experience of nonprofit. I turned around our
nonprofit from where it was from different directors that were hired. I was kind of the speaker, the founder, the President but not the CEO and I took over about five years ago and I learned a ton in the last 15 years and basically helping
nonprofits who were doing okay. Most beginning nonprofits, they'd be happy with 30
to $100,000 in the bank and we help them go to the next level and it's just an hour with me and the executive team and the CEO. Sometimes it's four hours,
I love white-boarding. I love helping them
define their next goal. How do they change this? How do they change that? And I've learned that
any big organization, they cannot change 20 things. But if any organization
for profit or nonprofit, if you just hold on to two
or three things per year to change and you do two to three a year, massive change happens. So they're now triple in the bank. One of them just has
done phenomenally well and I'm actually now mentoring because of my friend
who lost both husbands I actually googled, what's a
nonprofit that helps widows and apart from Bill Gates whole deal, there was only one and
it's run by three widows. And they've done the biggest uphill climb of nonprofit registration being able to give actual money to
a widow 'cause here I am and I asked the local churches, can I give a tax-deductible receipt to
a widow through the church? They said no, I'm like. So I had a call with these
women, I told them who I was. They said but what do you want for it? I said, nothing, I don't want
you to even tell anybody. Now I'm telling everyone
but I'm just saying-- - You just wanted to serve. - I just wanna serve and so this something that no one knows, I
love seeing other people fulfill their dreams and
using the talent and skill, if I can help fast-track 15
years of education in a year for free, I would do it
and so what we're doing is I'm getting so many requests
that we may have a whole list of content and even maybe
phone calls that we could do and just helping many nonprofits. You know, there's 400,
no, 1.2 million nonprofits in the US alone.
- That's crazy man. - So many people are saying, well, Nick how did you break it? How did you do this? How did you do that? How'd you build the team? And all those kinds of things
and so that's something that many people don't know
it and if I don't do that, I feel incomplete 'cause
I wanna pass it on. - It could be a whole podcast series. Just how to help nonprofits grow. - That's it and they'd subscribe. - Absolutely, yeah. - To all the content. I didn't know, I think
I bring value to that. So we after this show, Lewis, are gonna brainstorm-- - A lot of things man,
it's gonna be great. - And I'd learn from you because
this is interesting, right? Here I am as a worldwide speaker, trying to actually rebrand myself to put my stake in the ground here in America like never before. - I'm excited for you. - And it might take a
podcast and all this stuff that I'm gonna pick your brain on. - We're gonna talk after for sure on this. I've got a couple questions left for you before I ask the final few questions, I wanna make sure that
people do hire you to speak. If you've got a big
corporation, hire this man. If your decision making
there, send it to your boss. Where can they go if they wanna book you or learn more about
booking you for speaking? - nickvujicic.com, it'll be there. By the time this is up, it'll be there. - Okay, it's up there, yeah. Go there, we can also follow
you on Instagram, Facebok. What's the most? - I'm hearing you're growing like crazy but we're the same, 1.5.
- Okay, cool. - And then English
Facebook, we have nearly 10. - 10 million? - But I've hardly done nothing. That's English and then I've
got 2 million in Spanish. - You don't do anything do with it? - No, we're starting now. See, how spoiled, I didn't do anything - I got 10 million fans. - I get 10 million, exactly what happened. - Just so simple. (laughs) - I worked my butt off
around the world to get that but we didn't strategically build it. So I mean that's organic. - That's amazing dude. - And that's just a little barometer of what it took to inspire a billion people in some sort of level. - It's amazing. So you have Instagram,
Facebook, just your name? - Yep, Nick Vujicic. N-I-C-K V-U-J-I-C-I-C - Nick Vujicic.
- That's it. - Where else can we
follow you or support you? You've got five or six books, this is one. "Life Without Limits" - Yeah "Life Without
Limits" is our bestseller. - It's amazing. - We sold over a million copies of that. - That's it?
- It's in 40 languages. - You're playing small man. - Again, no marketing (laughs). - That's crazy, 40
languages, go get this book. - So now 1.1 million you
guys, thank you for selling but yeah go to any bookstore on that, just go online for that but yeah, I'm writing a new book
coming out on attitude. I wanna take the attitude space. I feel like that's the one
thing I could talk about when it comes to happiness, depression, overcoming, exceeding your own
expectations of your limits. - Yeah, relationships, everything. - All of that so we wanna
do an attitude checkbook and just help everyone to
have the premium attitude, to have the optimum altitude. - I love it, man. This is a question, it's
called the three truths. I ask this at the end of every interview. So imagine you've accomplished and achieved all of your dreams and you've lived a very long life. You've lived as long as you
want and then at one point, you gotta go, right? And hypothetically, you've got
to take all of your content, books, materials, video, audios with you. So no one has access to your spoken or written or visual word
any longer, hypothetical. But do you have a piece of paper and you get to write down
with your toes or your mouth you get to write down three
things you know to be true about everything in life
that you've learned. These would be the only three things you could share with the world your three lessons to the world. I call three truths, what will be yours? - How long could the sentences be? - As long as you want. - All right.
- Yeah. Truth number one. - The truth number one,
you're beautiful just the way that you are and you have value. Number two, you've been created and designed for a greater purpose. Find it and run for it. And the third thing is even
facing death, there's hope. It's called heaven. - I love this, man. - And so that for me, I understand we all have
different philosophies and religious beliefs, I understand that but for me, I found nothing
limitless like that. That even if and when, not
if but when I face death and however I may face it every day, I know that I have value. I'm achieving my greater purpose and I know that this ain't it. And when you have that, then you make the most
of everything you have. Because not only are you doing good, to be good to know that you are good but that you actually do good, do well to even change the trajectory
of eternity for other souls and if you could encourage people to know that there's a wonderful thing
called purpose and eternity that to me is the bottom line. But when you have that in
your mind, go for your dream keep running but never give up. - Yeah, now imagine that you're able to broadcast
live to the entire world and everyone could understand English and you could only say
one thing to the world and you had 30 seconds to share a message and the whole world was
tuning in at this moment. What would you say to the entire world? - I want you know that I love you. I want you to know that your broken pieces can somehow and some time will
come together for the good to be something beautiful. I have a history of brokenness
and pieces in my life and I tell teenagers, it's always worse being in a broken home than
having no arms and legs. So it's not about what brokenness we have. It's about holding on to the beauty that will come from them. Where if you can help
someone else in need, that's when you realize you
don't need a miracle to be one. - Oh, it's good, man. You're a great speaker. - That was 30 seconds? - I love it, it was on the dot. Yeah, it was on the dot,
you got a timer in the head. - Was that good? - I love it.
(laughs) Dude, before I ask the
final question for you, I wanna acknowledge you, Nick,
for your generosity, man. You have a huge giving
heart to serve people and it's not easy for a guy with arms and legs to fly around the country, the time the amount of times that I do but for you to do it
hundreds of times a year, year after year to serve, to inspire, to lead, to create hope for people and to tell people they're beautiful and they matter is a beautiful thing, man and I wanna let you know
that I value your heart and your effort and your
energy towards service. I really appreciate that part of you. So I acknowledge you for
that and so many things. I'm excited to hang out, hopefully we can double
date soon before you leave. - Definitely, some Mexican food. - I mean, man. My final question is what's
your definition of greatness? - Greatness? Humility. Believe it or not, if
there's only one factor because the moment you
think you're more important than somebody else, is the
moment you have clipped and limited your own full potential. I think the greatest barometer
of greatness is humility because with a humble heart, you're happy, you're thankful,
you have a serving heart and you know that every
single soul matters. So you take time to make the most of every opportunity with everyone. I think humility is out of all the words that I could have ever said
would be to me, greatness. - Nick, my man. - Appreciate it, love you. - Love you.
- Beautiful, man. (soft music)
