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Tom Bilyeu's Impact Theory

#035 Eric Barker on How Your Personality Can Sabotage Your Success

Tom Bilyeu's Impact Theory

Impact Theory

Education, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Technology, Society & Culture, Business, Self-improvement

4.75.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2017

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Eric Barker is redefining the rules of success. Leaving behind an illustrious career as a screenwriter for Disney and Fox, Eric turned his passion for fact-finding into one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. His insatiable curiosity drives him to question everything and, in turn, publish science-based insights that reveal real and usable secrets to success. He’s spoken on these secrets at prestigious institutions like West Point, Yale and MIT and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, and Business Insider. Watch Eric Barker explain why everything you know about success is (mostly) wrong in this jam-packed episode of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu. PULL QUOTES “Peer pressure affects us our entire lives. We are always influenced by our context and by the people around us. The biggest danger is we don’t realize it.” [15:50] “It’s so hard to bring up your weaknesses. You see much greater gains by trying to double-down on your strengths.” [19:41] “Work’s not work if you enjoy it.” [22:56] “We’ve all had successes; we’ve all had failures. But which ones do we choose to define ourselves by?” [31:57] “If you have trouble changing your story, first change your behavior.” [36:42] “The more stuff you quit that isn’t delivering value to your life, the more resources, time, and energy you have to really become good at something.” [39:06] SHOW NOTES Eric speaks out about why feeling powerless at work can kill you. [3:55] Tom and Eric discuss the “prisoner’s dilemma” and whether nice guys still finish last. [7:07] Eric talks about behavioral strategies and lengthening the shadow of the future. [12:02] Eric offers advice to those who are givers in every area of life. [15:01] Eric debunks how bad behaviors can be good in the right context. [18:00] Tom and Eric go deep on what drives him and how he’s reinvented himself. [22:16] Eric explains why the Navy’s research shows self-talk was a critical component of their training. [26:21] Eric speaks on the power of personal narrative and the evolving story of the self. [30:18] Eric addresses why stories are edited and inaccurate and why your story follows your behavior. [33:53] Tom and Eric dive into knowing when to quit and how to manifest your dreams. [38:39] Eric describes how to use little bets to develop passion and asking questions to spark curiosity. [43:22] Eric reveals three keys to producing great content and uncovers the struggle with happiness. [47:22] Eric breaks down work-life balance and the four things that everyone needs to consider in life. [52:02] Eric defines the impact that he wants to have on the world. [54:38] MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE BOOKS Barking Up the Wrong Tree: The Surprising Science Behind Why Everything You Know About Success Is (Mostly) Wrong - http://amzn.to/2wXGjyu [0:57] Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries - http://amzn.to/2w9CnwX [43:28] FOLLOW ERIC TWITTER: http://bit.ly/2uFlLNH FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/2uKxvdV INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/2i0vc4q WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/1l97koO

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to the Impact Theory Podcast, your source of empowering ideas and actionable techniques from the world's highest achievers.

0:08.0

Join host Tom Billio, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of the billion dollar brand Quest Nutrition, on a journey to unlock your potential and realize your vision of success.

0:19.0

Welcome to Impact Theory.

0:22.0

Everybody, welcome to Impact Theory.

0:26.0

You are here, my friends, because you believe that human potential is nearly limitless, but you know that having potential is not the same as actually doing something with it.

0:34.0

So our goal with this show and company is to introduce you to the people and ideas that will help you actually execute on your dreams.

0:43.0

Today's guest is a reformed screenwriter who traded in his tenure at luminary studios such as Disney and Fox to pursue his passion for fact-finding, which he turned into one of the most popular blogs on the internet.

0:56.0

Over the past eight years, his humorous and wildly informative articles have garnered him massive attention and helped him a mass and army of dedicated followers numbering over 300,000 strong.

1:07.0

And I am not the least bit surprised. His content is aimed at providing readers with science-based answers and expert insights into how to be in his words, Awesomenet Life.

1:17.0

And he certainly delivers. I was so captivated by his debut book, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, the surprising science behind why everything you know about success is mostly wrong, that we had him scheduled on the show before I'd even finished reading it.

1:30.0

His work challenges many of the long-held platitudes about what makes people successful and reveals the real, usable secrets to success.

1:38.0

They're often surprising, times a little and nerving if I'm completely honest, but always useful, in his insatiable curiosity and wondrous ability to succinctly summarize often hard to digest data has made him one of the most sought after speaker educators working today.

1:53.0

He's been invited to speak at such prestigious institutions as West Point, Yale, and MIT, and his writing has been featured everywhere from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal and prestigious publications such as Time Magazine and Business Insider, regularly syndicate his content.

2:08.0

He is quite literally redefining the rules of success. So please, my friends. Help me in welcoming the best-selling author whose book was selected as the Financial Times Business Book of the Month,

2:19.0

the creator of Bucket Day Suyo.com, which in Japanese ironically translates both as, I am Barker and I am an idiot, the insightful, funny, and decidedly not idiotic, Eric Barker.

2:34.0

Good to have you. And I have to say I love that after learning what, and how do you pronounce it, by the way, that was my Bucket Day Suyo.

2:49.0

Okay, so once you learned that that translates into I am Barker and I am an idiot, that you still made it your URL?

2:56.0

The first day of Japanese class, I found out my last name means idiot in Japanese. So what taught you while I was in Bucket Day Suyo means I am Barker, what taught you while I was in Bucket Day Suyo means I am an idiot.

3:06.0

I've never had a Japanese person forget my name. In fact, they seem to love saying it.

3:10.0

That is hilarious. What made you take Japanese in the first place, which doesn't sound easy?

3:15.0

I wanted to do something different. I wanted to try something that was really out there and just so different having three character systems and something that existed in parallel, rather than a Latin-based romance language.

3:31.0

And just really see what I could learn there. It was a lot of fun, but it wasn't easy.

...

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