0:00:04 All right. Today, I want to actually tell you a story. So there’s a story called The Happiest
0:00:10 Man in Atlantis. Have you heard it? Probably not, because I wrote it this morning. But I want to
0:00:12 read this to you. I think it’s a good one. So let’s try it out.
0:00:25 All right. So once upon a time, there was a prince, and this prince was the richest man in
0:00:30 Atlantis. He drank the finest wines. He wore the finest clothes. He slept with the finest women.
0:00:35 He had servants attending to his every need. And yet the prince was unhappy. Every day,
0:00:40 he would wake up in the palace. The servants would bathe him and robe him, and he would look out to
0:00:44 the land, and he would just feel empty and unhappy. And so one night, the prince decided,
0:00:50 enough of this. I’m leaving here. I’m running away. And he dresses up like a common man. He sneaks out
0:00:55 of the castle. And along the way, as he’s leaving the castle, trying to leave the royal palace,
0:01:01 he stops at a bar, and he’s drinking his sorrows away. And he hears two sailors talking about
0:01:07 somebody who they call the happiest man in Atlantis. They said that the man is very old,
0:01:12 and that he’s supposed to die in three days. So the prince interrupts them right away. He says,
0:01:18 I need to meet this man before he dies. They said, well, you could try, but he lives far away. He lives
0:01:23 in the cave near the cliffs. He used to be a rich king, and now he’s given it all up. He lives in this cave.
0:01:28 So the prince decides, what do I have to lose? Just another day of elegant misery? No.
0:01:32 Packs a bag, and he grabs his backpack, and he just decides, okay, I’m going to go.
0:01:38 So he gets to the cave, and he says, he meets the man, and he says,
0:01:44 they call you the happiest man in Atlantis. And the man says, well, names are curious things.
0:01:48 I’ve never claimed such a title, but it seems to have found me. What do you seek?
0:01:54 And the prince says, happiness. I have everything that a man wants, and yet I feel nothing but
0:02:01 emptiness. The man says, I see. You seek what cannot be bought, but is freely available to all.
0:02:06 And I could teach you. It’s actually very simple. He draws a triangle on the cave wall. He says,
0:02:12 everything you need is in this triangle. And he says, okay, tell me. He says, come back tomorrow
0:02:17 before sunrise, and I’ll tell you then. And the prince says, tomorrow? Can you just tell me now?
0:02:21 And the man says, what kind of guru would I be? This is a story. I can’t just tell you now.
0:02:25 Come back tomorrow before sunrise. So the prince agrees, and he decides to come back.
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0:03:01 So he comes back, and he says, okay, I’m ready. Tell me what it is. What’s the answer?
0:03:06 I want to be happy. I want the answer. And he says, I could tell you, but you really wouldn’t
0:03:12 understand. So I will help you learn. And he says, okay. And then the man gives him a coin,
0:03:18 single gold coin. And he says, I want you to go down to the market. Do you know that shop at the top
0:03:22 of the market? And he says, yeah, it’s the one with all the finest antiques. He says, yes. Go in there.
0:03:30 I want you to find their finest golden cup and buy it with this coin. And he says, one coin. I mean,
0:03:38 that would cost thousands. He says, go buy it with one coin. So the prince agrees, and he goes down to
0:03:43 the market, and he goes to the shop, and he takes the coin, and he picks up the cup, and he says,
0:03:49 I’d like to buy this. They said, okay, sure. And he hands them one coin. They say, is this a joke?
0:03:55 This costs thousands of coins. He says, I’ll take it for the coin. Can I buy it for this one coin?
0:04:02 And they say, get out of here. And they shoo him away. He comes back to the cave, and he’s pissed.
0:04:08 He said, that was stupid. Were you just trying to embarrass me? That was impossible. Why did you do
0:04:13 that? He says, why was it impossible? He says, because that cup is so valuable. Why would he
0:04:18 give it to me for one coin? He won’t just give away something valuable. That’s essentially free.
0:04:25 And so the man asked him, let me ask you, how valuable is your happiness? He says, what do you
0:04:31 mean? He says, how valuable is your happiness? It’s the most valuable. It’s priceless. He says,
0:04:36 then why do you give it away for so cheap? A servant spills your wine, and you trade it for a piece of
0:04:42 your anger. A rival succeeds, and you exchange it for envy. A storm delays your ship, and you barter your
0:04:48 joy for worry. These small inconveniences, the forgetful servant, the rainy day, you gladly hand over
0:04:55 your happiness to the lowest bidder. The prince was upset, but he knew it was true. And the man goes up to
0:05:01 the triangle, and he adds one word. He writes the word focus. He said, today you learned to focus your
0:05:06 attention on what matters. Because at any given time, the world is throwing a thousand things at you
0:05:12 that you could choose to focus on. But choosing to focus on what’s valuable, on what actually matters,
0:05:18 and not the small, trivial inconveniences of your life, is the first thing. It is robbing you of your
0:05:24 happiness. The prince turns over the coin, and he reads what’s on the back of the coin. It turns out this
0:05:28 wasn’t just a normal gold coin, and it says, never trade what is precious for what is trivial.
0:05:34 So the prince says, okay, I got it. What about the other two? He says, come back tomorrow for number
0:05:42 two. So he returns the second day, and he says, I’m ready. Tell me. And the man lays out two bowls,
0:05:47 two clay bowls, and he fills them both with water. And so they’re filled with water, and now he takes a
0:05:52 pile of rocks that he has. And in the first bowl, he just splashes the rocks in, just dumps them in from a
0:05:57 height. And it’s splashing. The water is turbulent. It’s spilling over the edges. And in the second,
0:06:03 he just takes it, takes each rock, puts it in the water gently, and the water remains roughly calm.
0:06:08 Small ripple, but roughly calm. And the prince is just watching this, and he says, did you notice?
0:06:16 He says, yeah, of course. He says, great. Today, I want you to go to the market, and for the first hour,
0:06:21 I want you to react like the first bowl. Really exaggerate it, okay? So whenever anything happens
0:06:25 to you, I want you to react fully and violently, just similar to that bowl. But when the lunch bell
0:06:31 rings, I want you to mentally change your state and react like the second bowl, okay?
0:06:37 So he goes down to the market, and sure enough, he’s looking for a fight. Somebody bumps into him,
0:06:41 and he shoves him. He curses at them, and he’s reacting to every little thing that every person does.
0:06:45 Somebody shortchanges him. One of the merchants shortchanges him, and he gets angry at him
0:06:49 and grabs his coins from him. But then the lunch bell rings, and he remembers the second bowl,
0:06:58 and he changes his state of mind, and he waits for it. Sure enough, a boy comes, and he steps on his
0:07:04 foot, basically smudges his shoe, spills his tea. But instead of reacting and shouting at the boy,
0:07:08 he simply helps him to his feet, buys him a new tea. The boy smiles, thanks him, gives him a hug,
0:07:14 and carries on. It begins to rain, but instead of reacting to the rain, he simply sits under an awning
0:07:19 and enjoys the pattern of the puddles that are being made. And then he goes back up to the cave.
0:07:25 And the man asks him, he says, well, what did you learn? And the prince says, I saw that the world
0:07:30 did not change, but I did. The first bowl, everything was a disturbance. And the second bowl, the events
0:07:36 were simply events. They were neither good or bad until I made them so. The man says, yes, this is the
0:07:41 second key. You learned to calm your state of mind. You became the second bowl. Because you cannot control
0:07:46 the pebbles, but you can’t control the nature of your water. The calm bowl still feels the pebbles,
0:07:51 but it does not allow a small disturbance to overtake its entire nature. And this is the difference between
0:08:00 reacting and responding. And so he wrote on the wall, the second word, state. He said, when you learn to
0:08:05 manage your state, when you enter a situation, choose how you will feel. Because if you enter a situation
0:08:11 optimistic and charming and playful and determined, you will make totally different choices than if
0:08:17 you enter a room feeling tired and stressed or frustrated, you’ll make completely different
0:08:22 decisions. And those decisions become your destiny. So control your state of mind and you will control
0:08:26 your life. Come back tomorrow for challenge three. It’s going to be the hardest one yet.
0:08:32 So he comes back the next day and he’s ready for challenge number three. But he says, before you
0:08:37 come, make sure you bring all the gold in your vault. All the gold in your vault? I can’t do that.
0:08:43 This is too much. He said, bring a thousand coins of gold. So the man goes back and he drags a thousand
0:08:49 coins of gold to the cave. He’s like, oh, you’re one of those kind of gurus, huh? And the guru laughs and
0:08:56 he says, okay, I will take the coins in exchange for the stone. And he hands him this small stone that
0:09:03 looks, you know, average. And the prince says, is this a joke? I’m not buying this stone for a thousand
0:09:10 gold coins. He says, really? Because this stone was given to me by your father. Your father who died
0:09:15 when you were young, he came to visit me at the cave as well before he died. And he told me, he said,
0:09:21 one day, I hope this never happens, but if my son ever comes to give him this stone. He says, is that
0:09:29 true? He said, it’s true. And he said, so this stone might look worthless to others, but to you, I’m
0:09:35 assuming it means something. He says, it does. And he agrees to trade him the gold for the stone. He says,
0:09:39 no, no, no, I don’t need your gold. I’m dying tomorrow. But you can see you’ve learned the third
0:09:48 lesson, which is the power of a story. And he goes to the triangle and he writes the word story. He said,
0:09:56 you see, a story can make a stone precious or worthless. A story can change a punishment into
0:10:03 a blessing. It could take a disaster and turn it into a triumph. And the world is simply full of events
0:10:08 that are really meaningless until you choose to give them a label, you choose to give them a meaning. It is
0:10:13 the story you apply to something that gives it its weight and worth in your life. It gives it the
0:10:18 meaning in your life. And he says, these three together that I’ve showed you, your focus will
0:10:25 determine what you see. Your state will determine how you feel. And the story determines what it means.
0:10:31 You master these three and you’ve mastered the art of living. And the prince understood. The prince
0:10:37 gets up, he thanks him. And the man says, you know, you came to find the happiest man in Atlantis. Did you
0:10:42 find him? And the prince laughs. He says, I did not find him, but I became him.
0:10:49 All right, let’s take a quick break because as you know, we are on the HubSpot Podcast Network, but we’re
0:10:52 not the only ones. There’s other podcasts on this network too. And maybe you liked them. Maybe you should
0:10:56 check them out. One of them that I want to draw your attention to is called Nudge by Phil Agnew.
0:11:00 And whether you’re a marketer or a salesperson and you’re looking for the small changes you could
0:11:04 make, the new habits you could do, the small decisions you could make that will make a big
0:11:09 difference. That’s what that podcast is all about. Check it out. It’s called Nudge and you can get it
0:11:15 wherever you get your podcasts. All right. I hope you enjoyed my story. I had fun writing it. I hope you
0:11:18 had fun listening to it. Maybe you learned a little thing or two. Maybe you like the prince can learn to
0:11:25 either up your level of focus, focusing on what is truly valuable, not the trivial state. So choosing how you
0:11:29 step into a situation, which will change the way you respond and those decisions become your destiny.
0:11:34 And lastly, the story. So the labels you put on things, you broke up with your boyfriend. Is that
0:11:39 the end or is it the beginning of something, right? You get to decide. That meaning is up to you and that
0:11:45 meaning will totally change how you approach the next situation in your life. So hope you enjoyed this
0:11:50 story. I’m Sean. Thanks for listening. Oh, and by the way, if you’re here right now, I don’t know when
0:11:53 you’re listening to this, but April 16th, I’m doing something fun. You should check it out.
0:11:59 I’m doing a CEO bootcamp for anybody. It’s free, totally free. You can come. And I’m basically
0:12:05 going to share my method of running companies that is very similar to what in YC they’re calling
0:12:08 founder mode. And I want to explain what I think founder mode is and how you actually do it.
0:12:13 It’s going to be pretty awesome. April 16th, you can find the link in the description below.
0:12:14 Thank you for listening.
0:12:18 I feel like I can rule the world. I know I could be what I want to.
0:12:24 I put my all in it like no days off on the road. Let’s travel. Never looking back.
0:12:31 New York City founders. If you’ve listened to my first million before, you know, I’ve got this
0:12:36 company called Hampton and Hampton is a community for founders and CEOs. A lot of the stories and ideas
0:12:41 that I get for this podcast, I actually got it from people who I met in Hampton. We have this big
0:12:45 community of a thousand plus people and it’s amazing. But the main part is this eight person
0:12:50 core group that becomes your board of advisors for your life and for your business. And it’s life
0:12:56 changing. Now, to the folks in New York City, I’m building a in real life core group in New York
0:13:01 City. And so if you meet one of the following criteria, your business either does 3 million in
0:13:05 revenue, or you’ve raised 3 million in funding, or you’ve started and sold a company for at least
0:13:12 $10 million, then you are eligible to apply. So go to joinhampton.com and apply. I’m going to be
0:13:17 reviewing all of the applications myself. So put that you heard about this on MFM. So I know to
0:13:19 give you a little extra love. Now back to the show.