The School of Greatness: A Real-World Guide to Living Bigger, Loving Deeper, and Leaving a Legacy

I truly believe Lewis Howes saved my life.

By the end of 2015, Id hit rock bottom. Having broken up with my boyfriend John, I felt hopeless and beyond sad. I began mixing Xanax and alcohol every day; everyone who knew me recognized my downward spiral.

Given the violence and horrors of my childhood in Cambodia, I considered myself fortunate to have built a career as a print model.

Late one afternoon, I arrived at a friend’s house in Las Vegas for a photo shoot for his clothing line. Lying at poolside, I admired the stunning golf course nearby. My friend was reading The School of Greatness and handed it to me.

You should read this book. Or watch the Lewis Howes interview about successful people. He promised that if I read the book, he would take me to dinner at my favorite restaurant. So of course, I started reading it.

Lewis ideas were inspiring and I liked how he made them so easy to grasp. Still, I confess, I didnt take the book seriously enough at the time; I was too depressed and drugged most of the time.

But its importance finally hit me one night after a party at the Chateau Marmont restaurant in Hollywood. I spent the evening at a friends house in Hollywood. It was a wild night and I drank way too much. In the morning, I woke up sick and rushed to the bathroom to throw up. Everything I had eaten the night before came back.

This was rock bottom.

I remembered my friends advice and watched the Lewis Howes interview about successful people.

That same day, I decided to do anything necessary to be the best version of myself and live my American dream. Now, I work my butt off and when Im not working, I dedicate myself to self-improvement. Ive become obsessed with it.

Ive read many books and learned from other successful entrepreneurs, like my ex-boyfriend John, Mark and, of course, Lewis.

It’s been a big change for me since that night. At the time, I was 30, hopeless, unemployed and unable to even figure out how to get a job. After reading Lewis’s book twice, I decided to work for myselfas a beauty specialist and personal stylist.

Look at me now: a young immigrant, living in Beverly Hills and being my own boss. Thank you, Lewis!

How do you achieve greatness? Lewis Howes entices those of who strive for more with his recently published book called The School of Greatness. The premise poses the intriguing idea that with just 238 pages we could take a world-class course in how to live a great life. Perhaps hokey to the more cynical minded, but for dreamers like myself it caught my eye.

Howes is an All-American athlete who after suffering a career-ending injury and being dumped after moving across the country found himself broke of heart and broke of spirit laid up on his sisters couch for months. But sometimes rock bottom points us to our peak, and he ended up getting back up, creating a multi-million dollar business and motivating thousands as a public-speaker and consultant.

In the book, Howes identifies eight lessons that he learned along his journey and through the many professors that he interviewed over the past few years on his podcast. Ill provide a quick summary of each :

1.) Create a vision Identify a specific vision with a clear set of goals to achieve your dream. Further, make that vision your new identify.
2.) Turn adversity into advantage Let the challenges in your life be the motivators to pursue your dreams. Accept your failures and be grateful for them as they move your towards success.
3.) Cultivate a champions mindset To be a champion one must think like a champion, which is rooted in a strong belief in ones self. This belief is coupled with vision, focus, discipline and humility
4.) Develop hustle You must embrace a burning desire to do what others are unwilling to do. To achieve your goals you have to work harder and smarter.
5.) Master your body Greatness starts with the mind and the body. Sleep, nutrition and fitness are all keys to ensure that we feel good so that we have the energy to get what we want in life.
6.) Practice positive habits Daily habits can make the difference. Make your bed, meditate, go for a walk every evening, read for 30 minutes each day whatever the habit, commit to it.
7.) Building a winning team Surround yourself with people who motivate and inspire. Cultivate strong relationships. Find the right mentor or coach. And cut those people who are not helping you on your path to greatness.
8.) Be of service to others In addition to improving your own life, improve the lives of those around you your family, friends, community and the world. Think outwardly to achieve greatness.

The book is easy to digest even as it gives you a lot to consider. Each chapter includes exercises to help put these lessons into practice. For me, it requires a second reading in which I force myself to dig deep and consider each lesson a bit more closely. However, the books works on just the surface level to challenge yourself to do better.

I have never listened to his podcast but definitely want to check them out now. My only surprise with the book was that his professors were not bigger names. Not to mean that insight cant be gained from people of less renown but some of his examples like his brother and a friend from high school while impressive felt too shoehorned. Overall though it was worth the time and consideration and will be a book worth revisiting as I work through my goal setting for the year ahead.

Some book focus on how to be better ‘at’ something.
Be a better husband…be a better Salesperson…be a better athlete.
Lewis focused on how to be a better YOU.

He doesnt judge and he doesnt ask you to judge yourself.
He instead helps you to think about how you can be an overall better “person” by focusing on what’s important to you, and how (at times) you can use that passion to help others as well.

While you are reading the book, try to find some of Lewis’ stuff on YouTube.
He’s an earnest, gentle soul with a lot of great ideas.
He’ll motivate you without feeling the caffeine rush headache that some “gurus” give you.

This book is a great read with a clear call to action and example activities to get you going. There are excellent examples throughout the book, stories of others journies to greatness – ones that I’ve never heard about, so it is refreshing to not hear the same person’s journey over and over again (i.e. Steve Jobs, etc.). There are several parts of the book that is about Lewis’ experience and he talks about himself in reference to a lot of matters – if that bothers you, don’t let it distract you, it’s just his writing style. Focus on the message he is trying to get through, because there is one.

This is an excellent book that focuses on the key areas of personal vision, turning adversity into an advantage, the champion’s mindset, mastering your body, practicing ‘hustle’, developing positive habits (including your morning routine), building a winning team, contribution/impact on the world.

I love the ‘Get Grounded’ sections that start each chapter, then the summaries and action lists at the end. There are also a number of simple but very powerful exercises within the chapters so you can immediately start get clarity – which is the first step to you getting real life results.

One chapter echoes the age old lesson of the Overcomer, as explored in Ryan Holiday’s book

The Obstacle is the Way: The Ancient Art of Turning Adversity to Advantage

. This is such a key issue as so many people disempower themselves with reasons taken from their personal history. Lewis shows how you can turn this around

Overall, I liked the sense in this book that ‘greatness’ is not something to achieve by pushing others down but more that we become all that we can be. In doing so, we have an opportunity to use our influence to serve even more people and help them take greater steps forward in life.

Pad
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Success Coach, Speaker, Author of Team Me

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