0:00

Every day, I try to do a couple of things

0:02

that are extremely painful for me, either emotionally,

0:04

mentally or physically. Welcome

0:14

to the one you feed throughout

0:16

time. Great thinkers have recognized the

0:18

importance of the thoughts we have. Quotes

0:20

like garbage in, garbage out, or

0:23

you are what you think ring true,

0:25

and yet for many of us, our thoughts

0:27

don't strengthen or empower us. We

0:30

tend toward negativity, self pity,

0:33

jealousy, or fear. We see

0:35

what we don't have instead of what we do.

0:37

We think things that hold us back and dampen

0:40

our spirit. But it's not just about

0:42

thinking. Our actions matter. It

0:44

takes conscious, consistent, and creative

0:47

effort to make a life worth living. This

0:49

podcast is about how other people keep

0:51

themselves moving in the right direction, how

0:54

they feed their good Wolfe

1:11

thanks for joining us. Our guest today

1:13

is Lewis House, a former professional

1:15

football player to sport, All American

1:18

world record holding athlete and current

1:20

USA men's national team athlete

1:22

for the Olympic sport team Handball. Lewis

1:25

has grace lists such as Details

1:27

Magazines, Five Internet Gurus who

1:29

Can Make You Rich, and is also the host

1:31

of the hugely popular podcast called The

1:33

School of Greatness. We

1:35

got to visit Louis in his Los Angeles

1:37

apartment shortly before he left to play for

1:39

the United States handball team in Brazil.

1:42

Hey, Louis, welcome to the show. Thanks

1:44

so much, man, how are you. I'm great. I don't

1:46

get to the pleasure of sitting right across

1:48

from somebody that often, so this is pretty cool and sitting

1:51

here in your your Hollywood studio looking out

1:53

over the beautiful view. Thanks, thanks,

1:55

thanks for coming out, not just for

1:57

me, but yeah. So,

2:00

our our show is called The One You Feed,

2:02

and it's based on the parable of two wolves,

2:04

where there's a grandfather's talking with his grandson

2:07

and he says, in life, there are two wolves

2:09

inside of us. One is a good wolf, which

2:11

represents things like kindness and love

2:13

and joy, and the other is a bad wolf,

2:15

which represents things like hatred and greed

2:18

and fear. And the randsun stops

2:20

and he thinks. He says, well, grandfather, which one

2:22

wins? And the grandfather says, the one

2:24

you feed. So I'd like to start off

2:26

by asking you what that parable means to

2:28

you in your life and in the work that you do. I

2:31

feed my good wolf, uh

2:33

in a number of different ways. One, it's my

2:35

environment. And I've

2:38

had a number of different environments I've lived

2:40

in my entire life, from

2:42

you know, sleeping on couches for many many

2:44

months and years to now

2:47

living in a nice place. Um.

2:49

But the environment to me is extremely important.

2:51

Sometimes it doesn't necessarily matter where the environment

2:54

is, but who's in that environment with me and

2:56

that type of energy. So I really

2:58

like to even when I'm sleeping on couches or

3:01

not sure where I'm gonna live or whatever it may be, as

3:04

long as I'm surrounding myself with the right ideas

3:06

and the right people, I feel like my environment

3:08

is okay. But also the physical

3:11

environment uh, in my opinion, is

3:13

a big benefit to

3:17

the good wolf, I guess, and making

3:19

sure that he is fed well. So

3:22

I've tried to each year

3:24

I forgot ways to improve my environments

3:27

with the people, thoughts, and physical

3:29

surroundings that I'm in, so

3:31

that I can be on the track of cheating what I want excellent.

3:35

One of the things I heard you say recently was

3:38

that in the past

3:40

he used to come from a place of and this really

3:42

gets I think to intention used to come from

3:44

a place of anger or trying to prove

3:46

people wrong. Or you have heard

3:48

you tell stories about you know, being a little kid and not

3:50

picked to be on the on the particular

3:53

dodgeball team or this thing, and how that sort of

3:55

drove you to a higher level, and yet

3:57

that you found later as you went on that you might

4:00

achieve certain things, and yet there'd

4:02

be a sense of emptiness. And I'm curious

4:04

about how you have sort of come to a

4:06

different place and what what informs

4:08

your intentions these days. Yeah, so

4:10

I think I think as a kid growing

4:12

up, I wanted to feed the good wolf all the time,

4:15

but the bad wolf will come out. And

4:18

this coming from this place of anger or resentment

4:21

or needing to prove someone wrong

4:23

or that was right and they were wrong. Uh,

4:26

that would definitely come out a lot, and it

4:28

drove me to achieving certain

4:31

things, but it always left me feeling unfulfilled

4:33

and left me feeling unsatisfied

4:36

or empty. And so I started

4:38

to recognize when I became aware of what was happening

4:40

over just my childhood and growing up,

4:43

I realized that that when I would feed the bad

4:45

wolf um and

4:47

think that way, it would never leave

4:49

me feeling good. So I

4:51

started to shift out of it and recognize

4:54

And there was an experience about a year ago

4:56

where I started talking about uh

4:59

getting raped as a child wild and how that affected

5:01

the bad wolf and affected me being

5:04

really resented, resistant towards people, really

5:07

stand offish, guarded, protecting

5:09

myself defensive, and

5:11

I think that's what it's held

5:13

me back in a lot of ways emotionally and

5:15

feeling connected to myself and other people. Uh

5:18

So, once I started to become aware of

5:20

what I was doing and why I

5:22

was doing it based on these occurrences

5:25

when I was a kid, I started to have this

5:27

freedom and it was like I didn't need to feed the

5:29

bad wolf anymore. I could just be

5:32

happy with the good wolf and be like satisfied

5:34

and and feed him to drive me wherever

5:37

I want to go. And since then, in the last year,

5:39

it's been the most incredible experiences of

5:41

just feeling free, feeling like

5:45

there's no such thing as a mistake or something

5:47

that's bad or wrong. It's all a lesson.

5:49

And so I really shifted my mindset towards

5:52

anything that seems like it's going wrong is

5:55

more of an amazing experience, an opportunity

5:57

for growth for how I can you know,

6:00

move forward. As we

6:02

were right before we came in and we were sitting here,

6:04

you we talked it briefly about a book you've got

6:06

sitting here, and you were talking about the um

6:09

growth mindset versus the fixed,

6:12

fixed mindset that ties in a little

6:14

bit. I think what you're saying, yeah, yeah, And I think

6:17

again coming from a place of

6:20

the perspective like okay,

6:23

um, you know, I've got to move out of my place

6:25

for six months. Like I could be upset,

6:28

or I could be frustrated, or I could be you

6:31

know, confused and mad, or I can

6:33

look at it as an opportunity. Look at all the cool

6:35

places. Maybe I can go live in the Hollywood Hills.

6:37

Maybe I can go travel Europe, Maybe I can go do this.

6:40

So looking at an opportunity to uncover

6:42

new things, to connect with people in different

6:44

places, to experience a

6:46

new journey and see

6:49

new possibilities supposed to being

6:51

upset that I get to move out or

6:54

that I have to and becoming coming from place of a victim

6:56

where the fixed mindset is. I've

6:58

also read something that you talked about

7:00

feedback and talk about inner and outer

7:03

feedback and how important that is in

7:06

leading to better life. What what do you mean by that? So

7:11

I again, I used to be fed by the

7:13

bad wolf, and uh, I

7:15

used to take feedback extremely personally.

7:18

I used to be so

7:20

insecure about feedback as opposed

7:23

to welcoming it constantly, and

7:25

it's shifted a lot in the last few years where I

7:27

welcome feedback. I think still sometimes

7:29

my ego might flare out, but I might be like, try to

7:31

get defensive, and if somebody gives

7:33

me feedback, I might try to be like,

7:36

well, this is the reason I was doing it, and be you

7:38

know, justify myself. But

7:40

really I look at it like, Okay, feedback

7:42

is telling me what's working for me and what's not working

7:44

for me, and what works for other people and what doesn't

7:47

work for them. So for an example,

7:49

UM, I'll just talk about content

7:52

on my site. There might be an article

7:54

that I put out there that some

7:56

people it hits a trigger with them.

7:59

And sometimes I'll get

8:01

like a lot of emails from people saying, you

8:04

know, I didn't like how you wrote about this, or I didn't

8:06

like what you said about this. Uh, just

8:08

to let you know your you know your your grammars

8:10

off from your blog post or whatever. I get feedback

8:12

all the time from people about whatever bothers

8:15

them, and I can look at it as

8:18

screw you, like I didn't ask for your feedback

8:20

in the first place. This is my stuff, like I

8:22

don't care what you think, um

8:24

or I can welcome it and say thank you for

8:26

the feedback, thank you for acknowledging what

8:28

it is that was upsetting you or that you liked

8:31

h so that I'm aware of what's working for you

8:33

or what's not working for you, as opposed to

8:36

what's right or wrong, good or bad.

8:38

I look at it. It's what's working or what's not working for

8:40

someone, And I look at

8:42

that in every instance

8:45

in my life now with relationships specifically,

8:48

so if someone is reacting

8:51

in a certain way with something I say,

8:53

or with something I do or something

8:55

I don't do, you know, specifically

8:58

with women, right if they were done

9:00

a certain way or whatever, they're upset or they're not

9:02

upset. I get to look at it, is okay,

9:04

am I communicating effectively so

9:06

that what I'm trying to get across is working

9:09

or am I not communicating effectively? And

9:11

based on people's reactions, I get

9:14

to see if I'm an effective communicator or

9:16

not and if what I'm trying

9:18

to land is landing. And

9:20

uh, since I've removed my

9:22

ego a lot, and

9:24

I take it out of myself and just kind of put

9:26

it here and just hold it in my hand. So

9:29

when someone reacts or says

9:31

something, or if

9:33

I feel like they're

9:36

responding to whatever I'm doing

9:39

instead of them instead of me look thinking

9:41

that like you're reacting to me personally,

9:43

to to myself. Where

9:46

my ego used to be inside of me. I now

9:48

take my ego out of myself. I just kind of put

9:50

it in my hand and I have them directing

9:52

it towards this, and I say, okay,

9:54

they're they're giving me feedback towards this, and

9:57

it doesn't bother me anymore because I've removed it from

9:59

my myself and

10:01

I look at it differently, and I don't react

10:04

really that much anymore to feedback. I

10:06

look at us, Okay, it's not working for this, so

10:09

how can I switch it around so that works for

10:11

that person and it works for me. And I look

10:13

at feedback and at the ways, you know, the inner feedback

10:16

my feelings, but also the physical

10:18

feedback so where's my body

10:20

at right now? Every moment is it's am

10:22

I tired and my exhausted and my gaining

10:24

weight? Am I losing weight? How is that affecting

10:27

my business? My relationships? I look at

10:29

everything as feedback. Now, that's

10:32

really interesting about the dealing

10:34

with feedback, particularly in relationships,

10:37

because my habitual pattern

10:39

is to immediately start defending

10:41

myself and not even

10:44

realizing that they're trying to

10:46

communicate a message to me, and I'm not hearing

10:48

the message at all. Right, I'm hearing

10:50

how does this affect me? How am I

10:52

threatened by this? I didn't do anything wrong. And what

10:55

you're saying is really really powerful

10:57

thing to be more and a lot of what you just

10:59

talked about it is I think mindfulness in general

11:01

are paying attention to what's actually

11:03

happening in the moment. And then you know, I'm

11:06

only thirty one, and although I feel like I've had

11:08

a lot of life experience and many

11:11

different relationships, I'm

11:14

still just scratching the service on being mindful.

11:16

And every time i think I've got it figured

11:18

out, that's when I'm like, Okay, I need to dive even

11:20

deeper and humble myself

11:23

and continue to dive deeper into gratitude for

11:25

where I'm at and the lessons I get to continue

11:27

to learn, and realize that I'm still

11:29

just like figuring it

11:31

all out and I don't have all the answers.

11:34

So for me, it's more of like appreciating

11:37

the journey and every step along the way.

12:07

There's another phrase that I've heard you use

12:09

somewhere, and it basically said, realize that

12:11

failure does not equal you being a

12:13

loser. And I think that ties to what

12:16

you're saying here a lot, right that being

12:18

able to what can I learn from that failure.

12:20

But also, and you talked about things not

12:22

being personal, the idea that a

12:25

failure that happens is not an indictment

12:27

of I think what you're saying of me as a person. It's

12:29

an indictment of the methods I'm taking

12:32

to go about achieving something. And I used to take,

12:34

you know, everything, really personally. When

12:37

I would fail quote unquote, um,

12:39

I would feel like a loser instantly, And that

12:41

was one of the things that drove me to being I

12:44

wanted to be great at everything, so I would throw

12:46

my entire being into mastering

12:49

every skill that I wanted to learn, and

12:51

that was like the bad wolf that was being fed

12:54

to be successful, to learn things quickly,

12:57

so that I wanted to fail at them and so that other people Wantn't

12:59

you give me negative feedback or whatever.

13:03

Now I don't take things personally as much anymore,

13:05

And I think when I would take things

13:07

personally, it was just like so unfulfilling. I just felt so

13:09

lonely constantly. I just remember feeling so alone

13:12

as a child and growing up very

13:14

frustrated and wondering why I

13:16

didn't feel accepted or why I didn't have friends,

13:19

and um, yeah, I just like to go with that taking

13:22

things personally and just didn't serve me anymore. How

13:24

do you go from that? Because

13:26

I think what you're describing is insecurity,

13:29

is fear and and this

13:31

idea that if I just do enough things, if I accomplish

13:33

enough things, if I'm good enough, then

13:35

I will feel good inside. And you, I think

13:37

you have said, well, that didn't really work. How

13:40

do you make that shift too? Because

13:42

it's it's confidence, but it's also

13:45

not confidence. It's it's a I

13:47

don't know what the right word is, it's a Because I'm

13:49

getting the sense that what you're saying is that take

13:51

accomplishments aside. You

13:53

don't have to accomplish all these things to feel

13:56

okay about who you are? How do you? How have

13:58

you gotten there? It's interesting because I don't

14:00

think I would have known how to get there unless

14:02

I had some support from other people, um

14:06

and guiding me along the way. I think i'd

14:08

you know, I'm thirty one, and I think I would have

14:11

been still frustrated

14:13

for another five ten years unless I had support

14:16

from other people who are aware

14:18

that I was frustrated and I was spending

14:20

all. You know, I achieved everything ever

14:22

wanted pretty much, and it was unhappy.

14:24

So I was just like, why is there a disconnect of

14:27

me wanted to do these things? Why do I want to do these

14:29

things? I just started to become more aware of it and mindful,

14:31

and really, for me, it was having the support of

14:34

friends and family who were always

14:36

stood by me and

14:38

challenged me in a loving way and would ask

14:40

me a lot of questions and ask me why you

14:43

know I'm frustrated or why am I sad? And

14:46

doing a lot of the growth work myself,

14:49

like diving in and trying to understand

14:51

myself. I would spend a lot of money

14:53

and time, going to workshops,

14:55

conferences, hiring coaches, and

14:58

uh diving in for or to

15:00

learn more about myself. That's how I figured

15:02

it out. On your show,

15:05

you ask all your guests what their definition

15:07

of greatness is, so I'll turn it back on you.

15:09

What is your definition of greatness? It's

15:12

the I think it's evolving for me

15:14

all the time. But my definition of greatness

15:16

right now is always giving my

15:18

best in every moment possible and

15:21

coming from a place of service, in

15:23

a place of unconditional love.

15:26

And if I feel like if I do that every

15:28

single day and I'm making

15:31

a difference in someone's life, then that's

15:33

greatness to me. What I like about that, I think

15:35

is that anybody can do it at any place

15:37

you are in your life, wherever you are, because I think that's

15:40

one of the things that I've been thinking a lot about

15:42

lately, is how poisonous comparison

15:44

is dous, Oh my gosh, Because we

15:46

could be sitting here and looking at your window and you've

15:48

got this beautiful place and be thinking, God, Lewis

15:51

has got it all right. But you could turn your head

15:53

to the left and look up on that hill. Right they've

15:56

got something twice as much, and those

15:58

people could turn and that chain

16:01

goes up and down endlessly.

16:03

And I've just spent a lot of time thinking about how

16:06

how poisonous that is, because even if I'm if

16:08

I'm looking up, I'm jealous, and if I'm looking down,

16:11

I'm I don't know what I am, but I'm not.

16:13

I'm not connected either way. I'm comparing.

16:16

I'm not connecting with anybody. Yeah, I

16:18

mean, I think I've been really

16:20

blessed and grateful to want to come from a small

16:22

town in Ohio so you guys can relate to me

16:25

on this and just uh, not

16:27

really having like luxury

16:29

as a kid, just growing up very humble and grateful,

16:33

and then being humbled

16:35

by having an injury after I was

16:38

like, you know, the biggest ego in the world playing professional

16:40

football and thought I had it all figured out and

16:43

losing that all and then living on my sister's

16:45

couch for about a year and a half, not having not

16:47

being to afford anything, I didn't have any money, I

16:49

didn't how to make money, and feeling

16:51

helpless. I think that really humbled me

16:53

to just be grateful for anything and

16:56

grateful for the couch and grateful for

16:59

the macaronic use that my sister gives me as

17:01

scraps, right, and uh not

17:04

be ungrateful. So

17:07

I think it's again creating perspective in myself

17:09

as which allowed me to not compare

17:11

because I could be like, yeah, I'm doing

17:14

you know, I like where I'm at right now. But to

17:16

someone like I'm Mark Cuban, they might laugh at

17:18

what I'm making or creating. It's like,

17:21

oh, I can do that, and it's not my fingers.

17:24

So letting go of trying

17:26

to like, you know, compare myself to the people and

17:28

doesn't work for me, So I just let it go, right.

17:30

I think that gets back to the theme we've sort of been talking

17:32

about about being internally

17:34

focused on how I feel inside because

17:37

external focus, like like we just

17:39

said, you can there's always a positive

17:41

and negative external comparison always,

17:44

and I know when I'm in

17:46

that space, I am profoundly unhappy.

17:49

Yeah, it's not fun to compare. When I used

17:51

to come to l A, I used to have a lot of that when

17:53

I was younger. Yeah, I would come to l A and I would see there's

17:55

so much money here, right, I mean, it's crazy,

17:57

And and once I learned to sort of

18:00

do less of that. I began to really appreciate

18:02

l as it is a wonderful place. Yeah. Yeah,

18:04

you've interviewed a lot of really fabulous

18:07

people. If you had to try, and

18:09

this is not an easy question, but boil that down

18:11

to what is the one characteristic

18:14

that that seems to define those people? What

18:16

do you think it would be? I would say overcoming

18:19

adversity. It's probably the main thing that

18:22

you know, some of the people have come to

18:24

mind is Kyle Maynard born without

18:26

arms and arms and legs and grew

18:28

up in a society where everyone around him

18:30

was able bodied, and he had

18:32

to crawl everywhere. And he climbed Mount kilman

18:34

Jaro on his elbows for twelve days

18:37

to the top. And he fought

18:39

in a UFC fight against someone

18:42

with arms and legs and just got

18:44

pummeled on his you know,

18:46

on his back, and has

18:48

done some incredible things. He does cross fit,

18:51

He has no he lives with no excuse, uh

18:53

mindset. Everything he figured out

18:55

a way to do it. I think about just

18:58

people with all the extreme adverse city

19:00

that they've had a face that I've interviewed, and

19:02

what it took from them to overcome

19:05

those adversities to get to where they are.

19:07

And I really think that's kind of been

19:09

the key for a lot of people have interviewed and their

19:11

success. What what powers

19:13

that in people? Because that's a that's

19:15

not a common skill, right, it is

19:18

not something, but I think it's one that

19:20

everybody would like to have. I mean, your show,

19:22

my show, there's a lot there's a lot of people out there

19:24

listening who feel they're in a place

19:26

of adversity of some sort and may

19:28

not feel that they have that that courage.

19:31

So what are what are some things you

19:33

you would throw out? There is

19:35

ways to build that because I don't I

19:37

don't think it's I don't think it's

19:39

you're you're born with it. I hope

19:41

not anyway, Right, I think it's a

19:43

internal game that a lot of people play

19:46

and they feed a couple, you know, they feed

19:48

each of the wolves at different times,

19:51

and you know, I want to be able to speak for

19:54

them necessarily, but I can speak for myself

19:56

that the bad wolf

19:58

when I would feed it had a lot of dry I've

20:00

had a lot of passion to get what I wanted,

20:03

and it was like unstoppable feeling. It was like

20:05

another being. When I would feed

20:07

that wolf, um,

20:09

but then it would leave me with an empty

20:12

feeling. But the now,

20:14

when I feed the good wolf, it's

20:16

like I feel this drive and passion in a whole

20:18

different way. It's unstoppable in like a

20:20

loving way as opposed to uh,

20:23

I don't know, a fearful way. And

20:25

uh, I think a lot of people

20:28

that I've interviewed have fed both

20:30

of those wolves and

20:32

they started to shift from the bad

20:34

one to the good one. And then that just overtakes

20:37

like this momentum for them.

20:39

Once they start to do that shift and come from a

20:41

better place of abundance, a place of love,

20:43

a place of inspiration, this momentum

20:46

takes over and everyone starts to see that,

20:48

and it just starts to blow up for them. Yeah, momentum

20:51

is such a such a big thing. It's

20:54

funny. Like a good example of Chris My,

20:56

you know, co host here, he's been He's

20:58

been working out stays a week for

21:00

quite a while now, when it used to be

21:03

so hard to do it at all,

21:05

right, but once you get going, it just rolls.

21:07

He's outlifting cinder blocks by the board this morning,

21:09

right, just to keep it going. Whereas when you're too dead

21:11

stop? Is it hard to get moved? You've

21:14

said elsewhere that the goal is not to make

21:16

life easy, but to keep growing. We've

21:19

talked a lot on the on the show about the idea

21:21

of comfort, that that comfort is

21:24

not the same thing as happiness, and I think you're saying

21:26

the same thing there. Can you share a little

21:28

bit more about how you put that to work. Yeah,

21:30

it's interesting. Someone emailed me yesterday and asked

21:32

me they're doing like a speech on

21:35

entrepreneurs and she wanted

21:37

to know the main attribute that

21:39

piece of advice or attribute that I feel

21:42

like I had. Um, that's

21:44

helped me towards getting success. And what I what I

21:46

talked about was falling in love

21:48

with pain. And every day I try to

21:50

do a couple of things that are extremely

21:52

painful for me, either emotionally, mentally or

21:54

physically. And I usually do this in the

21:56

gym because that's the easiest place to do it. I try to push

21:59

myself so to the edge of

22:01

exhaustion or uh, muscle

22:03

fatigue or where I'm about to throw up or

22:05

something where I feel so uncomfortable.

22:08

UM. I do this in relationships. I'm

22:11

like, shoot, I really don't want to have this conversation with this

22:13

person right now. I really do not want to talk

22:15

about this, and then like, that's

22:17

when I need to do it. Okay, it's it feels

22:19

painful. My heart is pounding. I need to call

22:21

this person. I've talked to this person right now and confront

22:24

this conversation whatever it is. I

22:26

really don't want to talk to my family member and tell him about

22:29

getting raped as a kid. You know, I was feeling that when

22:31

it was coming up for me. I was like, this is a painful

22:33

thought, so let me do it. And

22:37

what I've learned personally is the more pain

22:39

I experience, my

22:41

body, my mind, my emotions expand

22:44

to take on so much more that

22:46

doesn't affect me that I used to when I was a

22:48

teenager or something. Um that

22:51

little things. Uh Now

22:53

I can just take on so many little or big

22:55

things and absorb

22:58

them or just let them bounce off me without a affecting

23:00

me. Whereas I see other people any

23:02

little thing, they react where they get

23:04

frustrated. They're like, oh, the world is over, and

23:07

I'm just like, that's because you haven't

23:09

built up enough pain endurance. So

23:11

I really try to get out of my comfort one as much as

23:13

possible, and uh, experience

23:16

as much pain as weird as that sounds,

23:18

but the more pain I experience, the

23:20

more I can endure and create in the world

23:22

without anything affecting me. It's the mindset

23:25

of your You're you're thinking if pain

23:27

is a positive in that case, right, You're not. And

23:30

another thing I've been thinking a lot about lately

23:32

is resistance like that. You

23:35

know, it's a it's a Buddhist concept, right that says it's

23:37

not the thing that happens, it's how I react to it.

23:40

But that is I've I've just

23:42

been trying to play with that lately of noticing

23:44

like, Okay, I am resisting

23:46

whatever this thing is. And if I just don't resist

23:49

it, if I sort of notice it or think about it,

23:51

but don't fight, it's like so much of the pain just

23:54

leaves that. That the the emotional

23:56

pain that I'm stacking on top of it, right,

23:58

Yeah, the pain, the emotional pain, and the guilt, whatever

24:00

it may be. So

24:26

you are playing handball at

24:28

a at a pretty high level. Now, what else is

24:30

in your You've got some other goals in

24:32

the future, You've got a business is going well, You're playing

24:34

handball. Is there anything else out there that you're

24:37

working Yeah, I'm working on a book

24:39

right now. You know, I've always been

24:42

attracted to books. I think one because I

24:44

could never read as a kid, and it was always a struggle

24:46

for me to read and still is sometimes to day.

24:49

But I always was inspired by the

24:51

idea of books and that you could learn

24:54

so much from just reading, you know, a

24:56

hundred pages in a book, and you could really expand your

24:58

mind from these idea is

25:00

and you could get them in the hands of everyone who

25:02

could read that language. And

25:04

um, I've written a couple of books, but

25:07

mostly through through Kindle and

25:10

uh, I've never had a book like in the Airport

25:12

or Barnes and Noble. So it's not you know what, it'd

25:14

be cool to be able to get my message out there to more

25:16

people and to inspire people

25:19

to experience their own greatness. Whatever

25:21

it looks like for them doesn't need to look in a certain

25:23

way. So I'm working on a book right now

25:25

that I'm very excited about. It's about greatness and achieving

25:27

greatness in your own life and

25:30

the goals that have that out in bookstores

25:32

in the next you know, year, year and a half. Um,

25:35

my dream has always been to be an Olympian, and

25:38

I want to inspire people to follow their

25:40

dreams, no matter how big or small they are, no

25:43

matter what it looks like. Uh. And

25:45

for me being a thirty one year old still

25:47

trying to go to the Olympics, a

25:49

lot of people think a little crazy because I'm

25:52

too old and I'm starting a sport, you

25:54

know, later in my life. And these guys are twenty three,

25:56

twenty four, in the best shape of their life. They've been playing

25:58

since their seven uh. And

26:00

I just want to continue to show myself and

26:02

other people that anything's possible.

26:05

And even if I don't make the Olympics, I want

26:07

to try as hard as I can. I'm gonna give my

26:09

best and that's all I can do. One of the four

26:11

agreements is to always give your best. I believe

26:13

that's one of the four greements. And um,

26:17

so I'm just gonna give my best and go for my

26:19

dreams, because why am I alive

26:21

if I'm not going to go for my dreams. Yeah. And

26:23

I think we talked about rich role

26:26

recently get right as we were coming on the show,

26:28

and he talks a little bit about

26:30

because I like what you said, They're about even if

26:32

I don't make it, because you talked about

26:34

becoming an All American and that was a big goal,

26:37

and you you talk about sitting at the ceremony

26:39

feeling empty. Right, So it's not about

26:41

achieving the goal now, right. So

26:43

it doesn't sound like the the Olympian

26:46

is a is a place to shoot for, But it sounds

26:48

like it's it's the process journey.

26:51

What in that process do you love? Oh

26:53

man? I started this journey

26:55

in two thousand ten. I moved to New York City.

26:58

I made enough. You know, Originally I wanted got

27:00

my sister's couch. I want to just feel like I could

27:02

be a grown ass man and pay

27:04

for my own place. I was able

27:06

to do that, and I got a four month

27:09

apartment off First and High in the Short North, and

27:12

I was like, Okay, I've got my you know, I can at

27:14

least pay for my own rent and buy my own food

27:16

in the Short North. And I loved that experience.

27:19

And then I was like, but I really want to learn this

27:21

sport. And there

27:23

was no team in Ohio, so

27:26

I was doing research and I knew that the best team was

27:28

in New York. I said that's where I want to learn from

27:30

the best. So I said, when I make enough money

27:32

here, I'm gonna pack up and move

27:34

to New York City and start playing this sport. A

27:37

year and a half later, my business was just taking

27:39

off. I was like going beyond

27:42

what I ever thought I would make in my life. And

27:44

I said, okay, now was the time to leave Columbus. Moved

27:47

to New York City with a suitcase

27:50

and uh found a sublet,

27:52

went right to practice and showed up

27:55

the first day the only American out

27:57

of you know, people from all over

27:59

the world who played the sport who lived there

28:01

now, and said, Hey, my name is Lewis House. My

28:04

goal is to make the OSA national team and go to the Olympics

28:06

for team Anball. And everyone

28:08

laughed at me and it was funny, yes

28:11

you three days ago, four days ago. I

28:13

was with the same team

28:15

four years later at the national

28:18

championships and one guy, one of the guys who

28:20

was a good friend of mine, he goes up to me,

28:22

he goes, I remember that first day you showed up to practice

28:25

and you said, Hey, what if Lewis House and that would

28:27

be you know, an Olympia And we all laughed at you,

28:30

and now look where you're at. Now you're with us. We

28:32

just won the national championships and

28:34

you're on the USA national team. He's like, what a

28:37

journey it's been on for you to watch you grow over

28:39

the last four years and for me the ups

28:41

and downs. I've had a number of injuries in the sports.

28:43

I've had to not be able to play for a couple of months.

28:46

I've learned a lot. It's been extremely frustrating

28:48

for me because I like to be great at something

28:51

right away, and it's taken

28:53

time for me to develop my skills as this in this

28:55

sport. So the journey

28:57

of learning new things, connecting

29:00

with a community of

29:02

people are so passionate about

29:04

something. I mean, this team is so passionate

29:06

about each other, and

29:08

they all came together because of one sport. So learning

29:11

so much about cultures

29:14

and language and just like their lives,

29:16

it's been an incredible journey. You've been doing athletics

29:18

for a long time. I think you've probably learned a lot

29:21

through that, right You've learned a lot of the discipline

29:23

and the things that let's let's pretend somebody

29:25

is not going to be playing high school sports because they're

29:27

forty or what are ways

29:30

that people in their day to day life can build

29:32

that discipline that you're you're talking

29:34

about, because that it sounds like, you

29:36

know, I watched my son, right, he plays lacrosse

29:39

and he goes every day and he

29:41

does it, and it there's a building of that

29:43

that I think a lot of people really wrestle with.

29:46

I think it starts with parents and like

29:48

creating setting good habits for any of your kids,

29:50

you know. I mean, I'm not a parent, so I don't know,

29:52

but my you know, the school

29:54

system also helps you because it's like, okay, every

29:56

day is there's practice. If you're in an instrument,

29:59

you're gonna practice every day in class. And

30:01

I think if parents can really support their kids

30:03

at least like being consistent with

30:05

practice to mastering one specific

30:08

thing, then once you learn how

30:10

to master something, you can repeat it with anything.

30:13

So it's just staying consistent. So

30:15

if you're older, something small every day, right, keep

30:17

even in the right direction. The biggest

30:19

thing that I've seen from a lot of people that I've interviewed

30:22

are just people in the online marketing world who

30:24

are successful. The ones who are successful,

30:26

they're not the smartest they are so consistent,

30:29

and I'm just like, man, if they're smart as well,

30:31

that's great because then they can accelerate that

30:34

growth. But I look

30:36

at my you know, myself, I would not say

30:38

that I'm the smartest by any

30:40

means for a lot of people that I hang out with. In

30:42

fact, I like to hang with people who are so intelligent

30:45

that I just feel dumb, right,

30:47

And but a lot of them

30:50

I'm doing better than and it's because I'm

30:52

just consistent. You know, a podcast every

30:54

week. I was doing a blog post every week. I was creating

30:56

a new product every couple of months. I was just being consistent,

30:58

doing a webinar every sing all week

31:01

promoting a product. I wasn't trying to do

31:03

new things. I wasn't trying to act

31:05

like I knew something I didn't know. I was just consistent

31:08

with what I knew. And uh what other

31:10

people were like way smarter than me. They

31:13

weren't consistent. And

31:16

some of my you know, good friends that I

31:18

was like, these guys are killing it in the online

31:21

business world. When I first met them,

31:23

I was like, man, these guys are just doing everything

31:25

right. Within a year and a half,

31:27

I just saw myself accelerating

31:29

past them. And I was like, I

31:32

don't really know much, but I'm being really

31:34

consistent with what I do know right, what

31:36

you do. And I think there's there's a lot to

31:38

be said for what we focus

31:41

on, think about create because it's there's so

31:43

much, I mean, there's so there's always another

31:46

blog to read, there's always another book to read,

31:48

there's always another program to try. There's

31:50

there's so many of that things, and

31:52

and that not flitting from

31:54

one to the other, so much about picking

31:57

something. And that's why that's what I like about

32:00

talked about the idea of a book. I mean, the book is

32:02

a really cool thing. I grew up with books, and but

32:04

there's also something about two pages

32:07

of an idea versus you

32:10

know, ten paragraphs of ten different ideas

32:12

that you get, you know, from the internet world,

32:14

of course. Yeah, well I think that's all I've got.

32:16

Louis, thanks very much for having us over

32:18

to your place. It's really been enjoyable to

32:20

be here. And thanks for your help in uh

32:23

sort of reaching out to us early as we

32:25

were a new podcast and introducing yourself.

32:27

And it's been a pleasure to get to know you. Yeah, I appreciate

32:29

it. Thanks so much for having me on, all right. Thanks. You

32:48

can learn more about Louis House and this

32:50

podcast in our show notes at one

32:53

you feed dot net slash Lewis