What Larry King Learned from Interviewing 60,000 people

hey everyone this John and welcome to our live training sessions but today it's going to be a little bit different and let me share with you something that occurred recently they think will help you I recently had Larry King on my brain athan and not only did interview me and several other world-renowned brain experts but I turned the tables on him and I actually interviewed him and I wanted to get underneath the man that has interviewed over 45,000 people and I want to extrapolate from him what are some of the best lessons he's learned on success and specifically you know he's interviewed CEOs he's interviewed musicians he's interviewed murderers he's interviewed rapists he's interviewed every type of person in the world and I wasn't interested in what he learned from the rapists or from the murderers but I was interested in what he learned from the successful people in the world and he really came up with a few key elements that I know you're going to love so I've got an interview for you that's going to play right alongside this right now but I also asked him he's I think 83 years old he just celebrated his birthday recently and I was asking him I was at dinner with him and Wolfgang Puck and he mentioned some stuff to me about what he thought was the key to his success as well and so I asked him that question which you'll be able to hear in the interview and then he shares a story about how he got to start in the radio and television industry and how he failed miserably his first time on air so I'm not going to make you wait anymore I want you to enjoy the session that we did at the brain of thon which you've probably been invited to but this is a recording of it so enjoy it leave me your comments because I'm going to take a look at what your comments are after you see this killer little interview have fun and it's great to have you back here in this training session [Music] all right and welcome back and guess what I'm here for a segment I've been waiting to do for a very very long time and that's turned the tables on my friend Larry and do I look like Larry maybe I can interview as well as he did you're better looking you're younger but the look is perfect perfect the look is perfect class is so perfect why don't you get those perfect lists the internet everything we got is from the internet got the tie the suspenders I even got the the look that I you know for you begin asking me something I will ask you something oh he's already turning the table over well where the hell is the internet where is it where is the internet where is the aware-lea Internet not it is everywhere it's everywhere it's there and it's very where it's wireless they're everywhere yeah so I've been on your show nine times now you're on my show and won't leave enjoyed the day I've had a great time here Larry and I were talking you've interviewed about 60,000 people 60 years 60 years so let's talk about about you for just a moment and I know one of your character traits it's something you shared with me a few times about why you believe you've been able to achieve success well first the New Yorker magazine did a story on me once and they called it everyman so I never assumed that I was better than the audience or smarter than the audience I didn't go to college I never pretended to be an intellectual I left my ego at the door I learned a long time ago you can't make someone like you be yourself be the only secret in our business is there's no secret there's no secret there is no secret be yourself you can't make them like you you can't if the audience doesn't like you now you can do anything you want you can't make a much either like you don't it's a magical thing why they like it so I always assumed I'll just be myself therefore I leave my ego with the door I don't ask questions to begin with the word I am insatiably curious I care about my guests I never think about the last guest I don't think about tomorrow's guests in other words if yesterday I've interviewed the Secretary of State today I'm interviewing a ballet dancer and tomorrow I'm interviewing the president United States I am totally into the ballet dancer I don't let my thoughts go haywire and I can't explain that I don't know where that came from John in other words I can have a bad day but it will not affect me when that light goes on when that light goes on BAM man it's like home to me so I'm home and I'm honest and I care about what I do and I think that in retrospect that transfixed when it started I didn't know I just knew I wanted to be a broadcaster so you got started in radio uh-huh and did you bring that same curiosity and ability to focus on each individual guest back then 60 years ago yep I don't can't explain it I'll tell ya my first day on the air I always want to be in radio since I'm five years old I don't know where that came from but I just wanted it I used to listen to the radio and they would say things like a tail well calculated to keep you in suspense I would go into my bathroom close the door and go at a low L calculated I wanted to be a radio announcer it's all I wanted to be I had no interest in money I just wanted to communicate on the air when I was a teenager I'd visit radio shows that had studio audiences just to watch the announcers stand in front of the microphone what that was like and I desired I didn't go to college my father died when I was nine we had I had a younger brother who's six my mother couldn't go to work New York City bought my first pair of glasses you were in glass somewhere New York City bought my first pair of glasses how we were on they called it relief and they paid our rent and I lived in a little attic apartment and we very poor but I wanted to be on radio couldn't go to college worked at a bunch of odd jobs ran into a guy one day who suggest that I get down to Miami I went to Miami had 11 dollars in my pocket stayed with my uncle and knocked on doors and finally a small radio station I did test at the microphone said they'd hire me and I start the following Monday from Friday to Monday I'm up all weekend picking out records what I'm going to play I was a disc jockey now it's my big day on the air May 1st 1957 upper case in seven decades this is my live stream the general manager calls me into his office and says what namely going to use and I go my name is Larry Zeiger so you can't use either today they would it's too ethnic people know how to spell it you need another name I'm going on the air in 10 minutes he's got the paper open to the Miami Herald for which I would later write a daily column and it was an ad for Kings wholesale liquors and he said how about Larry King oh my I would lay to legally change it so I said ok now I go in I sit down it's 9 o'clock the record starts swinging down the lane la selva da da da da dee dee I lower the record turn on the mic nothing comes out I bring up the record I look nothing comes out I look at the clock it's like three minutes after 9:00 and I tell myself I can't do it I wanted to do this on my life but I can't do it I'm scared I can't do it the general manager kicks open the door and says you better communicate this is a communications business and he slammed the door I turned the mic back on and I swear to god to you John here's what I said this is it's almost 60 years ago good morning my name is Larry King that's the first time I've said that because I've just been given that name and all my life I wanted to be on a radio and this is my first day and I'm scared and I'm nervous so I've been sitting here fading this record fading it up and fading it down so I better and then the guy just opened the door and said I better communicate so I better communicate and I've never been nervous again ever cuz I Arthur Godfrey told me you learn the secret that day you were yourself you were truthful to the audience now think about this I didn't think about it then any goof I made if i cued a record wrong screwed up a commercial it's his first day put the audience in my shoes take them into my grass and I've lived my life that way so my first day on television I was radio with pictures I've still reverted that's why this what we're doing now is radio with pictures so all my life what no matter what I've done whether it's radio television Internet I'm doing the same thing I did 60 years ago I'm asking questions I'm transmitted differently whether it's satellite phone line Internet I'm doing the same thing I'm doing what you're doing right now what I did 60 years ago I love it I remember when when you and I met several years ago many years ago and you were getting makeup done I came in and started chatting with you and I asked you how did you know that radio you know initially and then television was what you were supposed to do and and what gave you the the courage to step up and do it do you remember what you see maybe not remember cuz you've met so many people but I do know it was what is it I just loved it I just passion passion you said the word passion - yeah I don't know where that came from but I've never lost that right Miller was I screwed up a lot of other things but I never ever I was never called in to a general manager's office or to an executives office to say why did why did that happen yesterday how did you screw up that never happened because I treasured it I had passion for it I loved it I didn't like other things I would had no interest in business I never wanted to read a balance sheet I don't want to attend a corporate meeting of 40 Giants but I'd like to ask him all questions so I that passion has stayed with me where it came from that that's why I was interested in your brain athon I was asking some of your doctors off the air have a wonderful time interviewing them it's where does that how much of it is inborn how much of it is environment I mean my father was a general worker he was building ships he died early my mother an immigrant from from Russia my brother became a lawyer I had no interest in in any of that I just wanted to be on the radio but where did that come from yeah there's the there's the nature versus nurture and they say that 3 to 5 percent of people who are born have something within them where they already know what the passion is and 95% of the world has to discover what they want to trade their life for I do remember my curiosity being boundless I can remember being a boy getting on a bus school bus and saying to the driver why do you why do you want to drive a bus that would fascinate me and so later in life I would ask pilots are all flights the same what what what kick do you get out of taking an airplane oh I remember asking a pilot once he said he'd never been asked this I said when you were going down the runway right and you go on 80 9100 do you know it's going to take off you know it's going to take off and he said I know it's going to take off I don't know if it's gonna elevate I don't know if it's gonna elevate I'm going to take off but if there's something goes wrong in the engine I could crash right there but I will lift I have to lift the law of aeronautics will have me lift but if I lose an engine the lift is going to go down that's kind of like life isn't it yes so I try to ask those questions that I think humans asks as New Yorkers had Street questions why do you want to do this so at the weather Nelson Mandela Jackie Robinson or Frank Sinatra they all put their pants leg on one leg at a time they're all human presidents a human singers a human victims a human people who are having tragedy in their life or having exaltation in their life they're all still people and they're all still what do you feel what what's it like to be President what's it like what surprised you about the office what don't you like about it if you're a former president what are you missing why why do you do what you do how much of it is self caring for other people humph do you really feel you're representing an entire country how's a lot how do you handle criticism see all these things boggle me so let me turn that table around do you ask yourself those questions side your own life sunshine alliances like are you going to respective with here's how introspect away I pinch myself every day that I can't believe that I'm known around the world I can't believe that I went to make some speeches in South Africa and I had lunch with Nelson Mandela and he came to the door and suspenders like you're wearing like I'm wearing and I was walking down the street in Johannesburg and it was like a Hut and a man came out of a hut he looked at me and said letting King alive and I said to Jesus Wow and you never let it get to your head no because I always never remember the little kid in Brooklyn had no money was on relief New York City borders for North I left Brooklyn but Brooklyn never left me so I never forgot where I came from love it so we're obviously live on the brain athon and we've been talking about you know success mindset skill set action sets you've interviewed 60,000 people are there any common denominators that you have garnered from these individuals from the successful people successful people all have one thing in common maybe two but it doesn't matter could be a little introverted like Bill Gates you can be extroverted like Warren Buffett but they have one thing tremendously in common unbelievable drive unbelievable drive and the drive is not for money the drive is not for money the money is the byproduct of what they do Bill Gates is left Harvard because he had a dream about a machine a machine warren buffett was fascinated by businesses why that's one succeeds why that one doesn't succeed so he put his investments paid off but his goal wasn't I want to make him why does this company do it and that company does it the athlete who pays attention who works hard at it the passion so they all have that drive they all have a passion all successful people even people who are evil even people who are evil which is one of the putt sure because nobody evil this is so true think about this folks nobody Osama bin Laden Hitler didn't comb his hair in the morning and say I am evil hey I'm a terrible person I'm a horrible human being and I hate what I do no they have the same Drive it just works Al Capone Dillinger they just work off the same thread I interviewed Willie Sutton the great bank robber who answered the great question why do you rob banks because that's where the money is that was simple to him he had nothing else in life his Drive mr. rob banks he took the risks the FBI loved him because he never used the gun but he robbed banks he was that was his thought to fool the bank that was driven so that's why the thing I worry about all our technology I was expressing this to one of your doctors his every advance brings a throwback if we didn't invent the airplane no one would have died in an airplane crash didn't invent the car people didn't die in horse-drawn carriages right so somewhere right now someone is thinking about finding a cure for Alzheimer's he's in a laboratory he's a scientist he's almost closed somewhere else someone's in a laboratory thinking about making a bomb that could be hidden in your shirt that would pass through an electronic thing to blow up a city that's the fear I have for this nuclear age for this Internet age there's so much good you do so you have a brain Mathon there's so much good how do we stop the bed and I don't know if we can stop the bad I think as you were talking you know one of my thoughts was you know we have this amazing ability we have passion and drive when we focus it on the good for ourselves our family our friends our communities in the world I think we can do a lot to diminish and squash the bad I hope so and and so that's that's what my hopes are as well as that's part of what why we do what we do is a powering people maybe things like this help that's someone watching young person negative thoughts maybe he's in trance by Isis something about Isis is appealing to him I can't investigate that but something is appealing to he doesn't want to die something's appealing to him so maybe things like this positive things can trigger that same thing another way wouldn't that be great that's why you have to keep doing what you do that's why we're doing what we're doing we're doing this to help transform the lives of people let them know that they can't had a wonderful time here you have have you enjoyed meeting the guests in the ex you do this every year every year I'll come back you come oh and you guys want Larry King back I'll be back he'll me back yeah well one person should boo no leave us no no so we've got about one minute left for the people who have some dream inside them there's something stirring follow your dream tell that follow your dream and net don't be afraid to fail you will fail sometimes Jon had a lot of success there had to be some failures oh god yeah and you you'll earn success by failure so you overcome failure Derek Jeter the great baseball players say to be a good baseball player you have to understand failure I'll get a best example I'll use a baseball analogy if you're a baseball player and if every ten times you come to bat you get two hits two hits out of ten you're in the minor leagues if you get three hits out of ten you're in the Hall of Fame never give up every block down is a block up every misfortune is a fortune get off the porch don't give up if you've got a goal in mind and someone can tell you not to take that goal and you believe it you don't have a goal stay on course love it all right my friends you understand why I love this man he's his down-to-earth honest just speaks the truth my pleasure Thank You Larry you you

Channel: John Assaraf

Views: 31,208

Keywords: john assaraf johnassaraf, larry king, larry king live, larry king now, brain a thon, personal development

Id: kFsjYH8yc64

Length: 22min 10sec (1330 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 21 2016