Legendary tennis coach Rick Macci and co-author Nivedita Uberoi Jerath discuss the mindset that separates regular individuals from world champions. From coaching Serena and Venus Williams, discover their winning strategies in this insightful episode.
Order the Billion Dollar Mind book on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Billion-Dollar-Mind-Practical-Guide/dp/B0CBVYLMSP
Connect with Ben Fraser on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwfraser/
Connect with Rick Macci on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/rick-macci-tennis-academy/
Connect with Nivedita Uberoi Jerath on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nivedita-jerath-7097b044/
Invest Like a Billionaire podcast is sponsored by Aspen Funds which focuses on macro-driven alternative investments for accredited investors. https://aspenfunds.us/
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Transcription
Unlocking Your Potential: The Power of Networking
Rick Macci: If you want to improve your net worth, you have to improve your net worth. You got to branch out. And explore opportunities by just meeting people and being around that environment. You can’t stay in that cocoon unless you want to get what you put into it. So you got to network. You have to be around other people.
It could be one word, one sentence, one person that could make you millions of dollars and you have no idea that’s around the corner. You have no idea. It’s amazing. And now if you don’t have the time, I don’t like that excuse. Because a winner finds a way, and a loser makes an excuse, and you find the time.
Introducing the Invest Like a Billionaire Podcast
Ben Fraser: This is the Invest Like a Billionaire podcast, where we uncover the alternative investments and strategies that billionaires use to grow wealth. The tools and tactics you’ll learn from this podcast will make you a better investor, and help you build legacy wealth. Join us as we dive into the world of alternative investments, uncover strategies of the ultra wealthy, discuss economics and interview successful investors.
Welcome back to the Invest Like a Billionaire podcast.
Special Guests: Rick Macci and Niva Jerath Share Their Journey
Ben Fraser: I’m your host Ben Fraser and very excited about today’s guest. Plural, we have Rick Macci and Niva Jerath, they are teamed up and they have written an awesome book called Billion Dollar Mind. And when I first saw what they had put together to come on the podcast tours, I was very intrigued obviously with the connection of the billionaire, but we’ve also been doing more episodes focused more on mindset recently and how that kind of impacts us as investors, impacts us as business owners.
How we can continue to improve and grow and learn and break through ceilings. And if you don’t know who Rick is, he is famously the coach for Serena and Venus Williams and has been a tennis and a tennis coach. And one of the premier coaches for And Rick, he didn’t probably want me to tell this, but he charges 800 an hour for a lesson.
So you guys get a very valuable next hour for free.
Rick Macci: For you, since we’re doing the podcast, I’m going 7. 99. All right.
Ben Fraser: Oh, wow. Okay. That’s a good deal. We’ll just put your Venmo and the show notes at the end. People can get in and not be outdone. We have Neva, who is a Harvard educated neurologist.
And as I said, they’ve teamed up to write a book called Billion Dollar Minds. So Neva, Rick, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for coming on.
Rick Macci: Yeah. Thanks for having us. It’ll be a lot of fun.
Ben Fraser: Absolutely.
The Mental Game: Insights from a Tennis Coach and a Neurologist
Ben Fraser: So we have a lot to cover, but for those that maybe are less familiar with both your backgrounds, how about you each take a minute and just share a little bit about your background and what you’re up to now.
Niva Jerath: Yeah. So a brief background, I guess I. I grew up in Georgia and I played tennis when I was a kid before I went to Harvard and Rick was my coach, so that was a fun experience. I always worked on mental strength my whole life. There was no way I could do anything or we, anybody can do anything without positivity and being able to have a strong mind and it was something that I just found fascinating.
I think about it when I play tennis. I, mental strength was a key component to my game. So I was able to win because nothing would bother me no matter what. I would never lose the positivity, the focus affirmations throughout every single day. I, throughout my career. So I play tennis. I worked with Greg and then I went to Harvard for undergrad and then continued my education.
I decided to go into medicine and then studied the field of neurology and neuromuscular medicine, built a program in Orlando and worked there. But throughout my career, I’ve realized mental strength is important throughout all the difficulties in life. Mental strength has been important as well as with all my patients.
And I’ve always been in touch with Rick and here we are teamed up for this book. It’s been a great experience.
Rick Macci: Let me wait. I got to dive in. Listen. You gotta understand, she’s a wizard. She’s one of the best. She’s not gonna say it. She’s one of the best in the world. At what she does, you have no idea.
So everything in the book is gold. People are gonna be blown away and intrigued by the depth of what goes on. Regarding my story, I have a very unique story. I grew up in a small town. 10, 000 people. Greenville, Ohio. My dad died when I was 10 years old. I picked up a tennis racket at 12. You can’t make this up.
I taught myself how to play by 18 years old. I was the number one ranked player in the Ohio Valley. No lessons. Okay. Today I still teach 50 hours a week. I teach more than anybody in the United States. I grew up in a park. My facility Academy is in a park here in Boca Raton. It’s like Disneyland and Candyland.
It’s an amazing facility. So my whole career has come full circle, but in between I really loved helping others more than helping myself and always could motivate, educate, stimulate, and always expected a lot for myself. And that’s been the cornerstone of my teaching. And through that whole process, I’ve been fortunate to have some of the best players ever.
Venus, Serena, people saw the movie King Richard, John Bernthal played me in the movie. My mustache was like yours, a little piece of ashton. Yeah, it’s a big bushy thing, but the movie was spot on, but I had Venus, Serena, Capriotti, Sharapova, Moschino, Kenan, Pierce. Christian Root, whose son’s in the top 10 in the world.
So I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of amazing players, over 300 national titles. I’ve been fortunate to have coached in the year seven times, but I love it just as much today, seven days a week as I did back then. And that’s the wild card for anybody listening. If you have the passion, the sky’s the limit.
So that’s in a nutshell, we could go on and on about that, but enough about me.
Ben Fraser: That’s so amazing. And there’s definitely a lot there.
The Role of Mental Strength in Tennis and Life
Ben Fraser: I want to unpack a little more, but you talk about Neva, how much the mental side of the game was, something that a lot of people struggle with and how you can hit these ceilings or these plateaus.
And I grew up playing tennis as well, which is what’s so fun having this conversation never was, nationally ranked or anything. But it’s interesting to me, playing a lot of different sports, how much tennis the biggest challenge is usually yourself, right? Because it’s just you and you out there confronting yourself, yourself and how do you overcome a bad hit, a bad point, a bad game and having to work through that.
That’s, to me, my experience was such a key part of being able to grow and play in a few tournaments, among other things. But talk a little bit about how much the mental piece plays in success and continuing to grow, in that sport in particular. Because I was having a basic level of skills.
You gotta, if you’re tall, it helps, and if you’re fast, it helps and all these things. But how much of the success would you attribute to the mental side of this from a lot of these top players?
Niva Jerath: That’s an amazing question because I am a 100% sure. I don’t even, I don’t know if I.
If anybody can achieve anything in tennis or in life without mental strength or positivity. So and I’m, and I’ve, we’ve discussed this before, but there’s never been anybody successful in sports and especially tennis that have not had that positivity or positive thoughts during their success.
So that’s a key fundamental. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen anybody succeed in tennis or in life or any other sport endeavor, if they had. negative thoughts. So having said that, I think that my personal journey was that I remember when I was a little kid I honestly struggled and like me, I worked very hard.
I was like, Oh, but I would always visualize myself before matches. And when I would lose in that losing time of my life, I’d always see myself lose or see myself struggle with my forehand. I was like, Oh, and I wish I could be good in the field. South. I wish I could win those trophies. And then all of a sudden I picked up a book on the cost of affirmations when I was a little kid.
And I remember reading that one day in the, in, in play, but there’s nothing else to do in a plane. I would open it up and say, I will ace my serve. I will hit the best forehand. I started visualizing these positive things. I did that in the match the next day. And then I started winning because I realized, Oh my gosh, now I’m going to do all this stuff.
I’m going to think positively. Now I’m going. That’s the fundamental premise of this book. If we think positive thoughts, that’s what’s typically going to happen. And that’s how I started changing my game. I started treating myself to tennis. And then from there on, I became like eventually undefeated in the South.
So I remember how much those positive affirmations and positive thoughts have such a big impact, and I don’t think anybody can. Rise to the heights in any sport, especially tennis without positivity. So I would say that’s the most important from my opinion on top of, of course, technique and Rick has all of that, but you have to have, I’m sure Rick.
Rick Macci: Let me back up when you asked me about what I do and all that.
I’m probably more of a life coach than a tennis coach. I work more on the mental part of the game. Okay. Forget sports psychology. It’s all wrapped in one when I do a lesson. You got to remember to forget, and that implies with investing also, you got to remember to forget, or it could be a rough day at the office.
So I work a lot on this. It’s a skill, it’s all perspective. You made a good point. Tennis business, tennis is one on one, there’s nobody there on the court. That’s why some people are better than doubles. You got your own therapist on the court with you tomorrow. You have that emotion get away.
So it’s, there’s so much problem solving. With tennis, okay? And it’s not always who has the best for his backhand and serve, running, fighting and having the ability to forget and be in the moment that all starts with a positive attitude. The most positive breachers, the best of all, the rest.
Business or sports. They’re the most positive people in the world. Okay. I’m just telling you and they never quit. They know they’re going to fail, but that’s how they’re going to succeed. It’s all perspective, and this is what I always tell the kids, all the time, you could be undefeated if you don’t try, if you’re not going to get past, if you never come to the net, the best shooters of all time, are the best cause they’ve missed the most.
Yeah. The best quarterbacks with the best most touchdowns. They’ve been picked off the most. This is what greatness understands. And it’s so different from investing or playing tennis. The mental part is the wild card. And that’s why I knew when I had some of these kids and we’ll talk about Venus and Serena.
Why would I take a big gamble? On these two little kids, which I did. It’s one thing to say you’re good, Ben. It’s another thing to put your cheddar there with no guarantee. There was a rage inside the way I saw them handle pressure. They were bulletproof. And when you’re all about the competition, it’s easier to not get nervous.
Keep your eye on the prize. And you become bulletproof. And as you can see, the rest is history with those two girls.
Ben Fraser: And how much of that, from your perspective, specifically with Venus and Serena was just part of their DNA and how they were wired versus forged through. Challenges, an intentional focus and, you said, there’s some basic attitude.
You saw kind of raw pieces, how the raw potential there, how much of that was just, nature versus nurture. I have some people I think, Oh, I’m just a negative person. That’s, I can’t do that. How much of it would, in your opinion, be attributed to those two factors?
Rick Macci: First off, the parents, Richard and Orsine, hit the genetic jackpot.
That’s big, strong, fast, quick, but the mental part was baked in double crispy when I got them at 10 years old. They were like. Just bulletproof. So I knew they could handle pressure, but the environment I created, okay. A positive environment. And Dina has said the best thing at the after party, when we’re at the red carpet, we were brainwashed to become number one, they were 12 years old.
I’m talking about Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova. I was talking about people who are 25 years old. It’s all, but you have to have the goods, then the technical part, you can. You can work, but the environment has a lot to do with it. But that being said, I love teaching negative kids. I love people that are negative because I look at it as a challenge and that’s a sign of a great coach.
I don’t want the perfect student. I want to flip the script, take that negativity and try to get them to look at the world through a different lens because life is crazy. Okay. You’re dealing with stuff every day and it’s perspective and how you handle it. And that’s what I’ve helped so many kids with to get better grades, maybe get off drugs, treat people better, but more importantly, work hard and never give up.
And that’s all for tennis. They don’t tell me about the four items back here that I made world class. It’s those things when people come back and that’s the best feeling.
Ben Fraser: That’s so cool.
The Importance of Forgetting to Succeed
Ben Fraser: Talk a little bit more about, you said the ability to forget that kind of jumped out at me and talk about that and why is that important and how do you do that practically both, in a business setting versus a tennis setting or whatever.
Rick Macci: You want to go?
Niva Jerath: Yeah, absolutely. I love that question because, every single day I wake up and I think this podcast is really important because we can have a lot of money, but we still may not be mentally happy. And it just, it occurs because our thoughts come, who knows what we think about.
We see something on TV, we hear, see something on social media and all of a sudden that day we’re not really happy. Tuned up, who knows somebody said something and all of a sudden triggered a negative thought or a negative feeling or negative emotion. It doesn’t matter how much money we have and so every day I’m like, okay, I clean and weed out those negative thoughts and part of it is forgetting and it’s not okay, I’m gonna make sure I forget.
It’s about reframing. So then you start saying, okay, I’m gonna be Grateful. And I think we have a chapter in the book about gratitude. And I love that concept because as soon as you start being grateful for everything you have, and there’s an immense gratitude, you can’t have frustration or anger or pain or sadness.
And so doing things like that helps you forget. And I know forgetting the past is really important or training your mind to do that. But then, there are techniques where you can just say, okay, I’m going to be grateful for that. And then all of a sudden you forgot what you’re upset about.
Gratitude is important and forgetting the past is important. I think they’re linked hand in hand and it’s very important to start reading every morning, all this. And I do it every hour because I’m like, okay, as soon as there’s a negative thought, I realize that’s creating a negative emotion.
I’m not used to that. Positive and upbeat. So I like okay, that needs to go, whatever it is it needs to go and I’m going to fix it right away.
Rick Macci: First off. I love this question. It’s in my wheelhouse. You have to remember to forget, okay, that doesn’t mean the important things like in everyday life. I’m just saying how you are.
Deal with things. People say, Rick, you never get mad. I go, yes, I do. You never get upset. I go, yes, I do. But they don’t know that because I deal with it differently. You have to look at it and take a negative and turn it into a positive. I try to control this situation, not let it control me. And this is really like a tennis match.
You look at some of these guys, they make a mistake. It never even happened. It’s mind control, but you have to train yourself Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It’s just like investing. You have to remember to forget. Okay. And that’s, you have to have thick skin when you’re talking about cheddar.
You know what I mean? If you want to feel better. Okay. So you got to really have a thick skin. So it’s the same. Thing now you can’t be footloose and fancy free. I don’t care about anything I’m, not saying that you got to be locked loaded and ready to launch but You cannot forget and let it go listen ben There’s people probably still mad about stuff that happened 20 years ago.
What is that all about? Hank, what you know, I don’t And this is where a lot of times I can almost help the kids more than the parents because they’re listening to a different voice, a different way, and the way, like Nib said, I frame it up or how I say it, why to say it, when to say it. That’s the art of coaching and being able to connect.
But if you cannot forget, all and its mindset and Nib brought something up that I think is gold. Every day, we’re all aware, most people, what you eat. What you put in your mouth, but we’re not aware of what we put on our brain, you want to be around positive people. You want to hear positive stuff, read positive stuff, go on YouTube, listen to motivational speakers, whatever, but people like the train wreck.
They like the problems of the news. They like all the creeps and listening. Whether it’s right there or over there, it’s in your subconscious. Okay. And I’m not saying it’s bad. You need balance. You got to be in the real world. You can’t just, it’s not rainbow lollipop and sunshine, but I think people need to be more selective and write it down, look at it, and if you get into that routine, you’ll become a machine.
Ben Fraser: Like it to me, it seems like he is applied in multiple ways. Instances one, both the natural one is on failures, right? Is reframing the failures as a learning opportunity or, okay, that didn’t work. So how do I make a pivot? How do I make an adjustment and try something new?
Applying the Mindset to Investing and Beyond
Ben Fraser: But the other side, I would think of investing and what I see a lot of times is.
We get into these do I call them ruts or whatever, where what worked yesterday might not actually work today. And in kind of the investing frame, these economic cycles can change in the investment vehicle of yesterday may not be the right one for today and being able to not only look at the failures and learn from those, but also You know, remember to forget about maybe the decisions that you made that worked out well, that maybe were just based on luck, right?
I’ve read one of my favorite books, Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke. I don’t know if you read this, but she talks about how much success we see. Most of the time it’s attributed to luck, obviously you have to be met with the right circumstances and preparation, these kinds of things, but we as humans like to over attribute the success to our ability versus the things we can’t control.
And I think there’s almost a bias that can be created from success. You rest on your laurels. You rest on the things that maybe worked and you don’t have a fresh perspective to, to see something that might catch you off guard. Do you see it apply in both scenarios or is it more kind of the failure side of things?
Niva Jerath: So you’re just saying that it’s important to forget failures, but it’s also important to, you’re even saying successes because sometimes the successes are not always. Going to be there. There’s life. It’s about change. So every day, we’re changing every day. Stocks are changing every day. Long, one day you never know the stock that you invested in is suddenly plummeting.
So we always have to be very flexible with the way we think and very flexible. So absolutely. I think sometimes you have to forget success as well. I think about what’s new that’s going to make you successful. And I remember when I was writing this book, Rick told me, it’s always every day to learn to get better.
And I love that because that means that you’ve got your mind. It doesn’t matter what happened in the past, but you’re going to be better. That day and the next day moving forward. So that’s how you have to think. It’s like your mind has to be different. I think everybody is.
Rick Macci: Yeah. It’s perspective.
You got to look at yesterday’s history. You can learn from it. Tomorrow is a mystery. And even though I’ve had amazing success, I’m the luckiest guy in the world. Okay. I’ve been fortunate, right place, right time. Sure. It takes two to tango at the end of the day, I got to get better.
Embracing Continuous Improvement and Handling Success
Rick Macci: And I tell her, if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. Now, if that’s what you want to do, just unplug. That’s okay. And that’s why I treat the maintenance guy the same as the barber or Serena Williams and people ask me, and this Ben from the bottom of my heart, they go, who’s your favorite student of all time besides Dr.
Neff? I got to say that she’s next to me, but okay no people think it’s going to be Venus, Serena, Capriati, Roddick, someone at Sharapova. It’s really who’s on the other side of the net. That hour. That minute that second and that’s how I feel and if people would look at life like that You’ll be more peaceful yourself.
You’ll handle stuff better. Understand you’re right. You got lucky. Don’t think you’re the wizard of Oz because when you get too full of yourself, bang, that’s when things can go the other way. And then you freak out. You got to understand slow and steady. You have to understand what the landscape is, but always just try to get better.
Don’t think you’ve solved all the problems of the world. There’s another one coming tomorrow.
The Power of Adaptation in Life and Sports
Niva Jerath: But I wanted to add to this because I think Rick, when you were talking about Ben, about success, getting you somewhere and then changing. I’ve seen with working with Rick that all the time he’s talked about professional athletes who’ve had to change their technique and their serve.
He does this all. You do this every single day. Like somebody has to change something that was maybe working, but not great. And so I think that’s life. That’s not just in tennis. It’s every single day. I had a patient this morning who has been doing great for 40 years, but now needs to change.
And stretch a little more, now things have to change. You have to understand bodies are changing. You have to be very flexible with that. And same thing with the stock market, who knows once that goes up, then the next day it goes down. So that ability is very important. I think that’s crucial.
Ben Fraser: Yeah.
Maintaining a Growth Mindset as Adults
Ben Fraser: You mentioned something else that kind of, jumped out at me and Rick, I think you said in some ways, it’s easier to coach, train kids than it is adults, right? And I think as we age, as we have life experiences and we’re maybe not intentional with our mind and how we’re reframing things and how we’re focusing on growing and learning, we can get into these patterns, get into these ruts, hit certain ceilings or plateaus.
And get stuck there. So what do you say to someone that, and again, these are people listening to this show who are generally pretty successful in life. They’ve hit a certain level in their life of success. They became doctors and, or made a lot of money.
They became an entrepreneur and are having success in their business. They’re retired and making money on their investments, but we all have these places where we need to keep growing, we need to keep being and how do we keep a flexible mind as adults, right? Where maybe our, the actual physiology, which nobody can probably talk on, like our synapses get more, ingrained together.
And it’s harder to create a more flexible mind, but what are some practices? What are the things that you can do as an adult, if you’re feeling where you can reframe and change some of these patterns?
Rick Macci: Yeah.
Strategies for Personal and Professional Growth
Rick Macci: First off, I think that if you really want to get better, you have to get uncomfortable if you ever want to get more comfortable.
So that’s what people that are successful should really try to do unless they just want to keep the status quo. You know what I mean? You got to get out of your strike zone to get in the end zone. That’s what people have to do. And it’s interesting. You said about adults and kids. I can tell when I get it, because I teach adults too, people fly in from all over the world, and even though she’s a doctor, I do reconstructive surgery also, and I do it in five minutes.
No, because I can put Humpty Dumpty together so quickly, and they’re blown away, and I can tell in five minutes. I say, wait a minute. Are you an engineer? They go, but you know that because I can tell this guy’s analyzing everything So I gotta reprogram his reflexes change his muscle memory and get him to look at things differently because it’s all analytical And I just said listen your job description today is going to be run sweat and shut up and maybe not in that order that’s the way I have to say even though I do a lot of biomechanics Okay, and we’re the worldwide leader in that area You It’s not always about that.
If people want to, you should always want to grow and get out of your comfort zone. That’s why people have to, unless you don’t want to do that, and you cannot be afraid of rejection and failure or disappointment, because that means you’re knocking on the door and the only time it’s over, Ben.
is when you quit. Always remember that. It’s over. Okay. Serena. No, Serena. She, when she was a kid, even when she lost matches, she never thought she lost. She just ran out of time, even though she lost. That’s the way her mind was. It’s silly, but that’s a lot of mental strength, and you can see what came on the horizon was the greatest player of all time.
The Importance of Mindset in Overcoming Challenges
Niva Jerath: I wanted to add to that because it’s so much about being able to change. And then we talk in the book a little bit about thinking. So that’s one of the techniques of whoever’s listening out there, if they have trouble with change, they know they need to start watching patterns and human beings are so predictable the way they think.
It’s almost to the point where like, wherever I work, whoever I interact with, I always know exactly what they’re going to do because they’ve done it before. And for everyone listening, they want to change how they think. The first step is awareness. Then watching their thoughts and how they think and we talk a lot about journaling. There’s so many amazing things, almost everyone who’s really she types it has had to journal in some way, you know so you even journal your phones with an iphone.
I created a journal for our book as well. That’s going to be coming out soon. But in the book itself, there’s pages to write down, writing down how you think and what those processes are. And you start realizing a pattern is not just for the past year patterns with the past 20 years, 30 years, where you can’t fall into the same traps, getting the same outcomes.
So you want the outcome to change. You have to change your thoughts first, and then you’ll see a change in the outcome. So that’s a really important technique. And I think it’s changed a lot of people’s lives. When they read this book, they start becoming more wary, especially my patients. They start realizing they’re falling into that trap.
Feelings when they think a thought, then they go into the sad depression that they’re going to die or do whatever. And then they suddenly can’t do anything. In fact, they’re not even active. They can’t go and exercise sadness and thoughts. As soon as they flip it, they start realizing there’s, positive thought and they go and do the positive action.
They feel a lot better.
Rick Macci: Let me just dive in, this is all, this is mind control and it’s the same thing in business. When you say the ability to remember to forget, in a tennis match, you have 20 seconds to make it like it happened 20 years ago. And you come back up to that line to serve or return serve.
You got to feel amazing. You know what I mean? You got to feel amazing. Especially the guys on TV or the girls. Or they wouldn’t even be there. You know what I’m saying? That is the cornerstone to even get there. Some do it better than others. And it’s all mind control and how you look at this stuff, but you got to get into a habit.
You know what I’m saying? And that’s what I try to do with these kids. They get out of the car, bang, they skip to the court. I want them to improve their footwork. We don’t make excuses. Okay. It’s just training your mind or you have to get into a routine. Now change is good, but if you’re into positive stuff and all that, you keep that rolling.
I’m just saying, don’t, you don’t want to send that merry go round. Negativity at being around the wrong people, don’t be afraid to ask people for help, never you want to get smarter, be around smarter people, there’s some very vanilla things here and I try to get confidence in people because my feeling is once people believe that they can change the world, Then they’re going to cheat.
Ben Fraser: Yeah. I love that.
Breaking Through Plateaus: Networking and Self-Discipline
Ben Fraser: We’ve been talking about this from different angles, but I think one of the things I wanted to address specifically is, how do you break ceilings? How do you break plateaus? You achieve a certain level of success. And I’m thinking, say there’s an entrepreneur, they’ve hit a certain level of revenue.
They hit a certain amount of. Get clients and employees and we’re coasting there, but they don’t know how to get to that next level. Maybe they feel like they don’t have the ability or the resources or capacity to get to the next level. Same with investing in these kinds of things.
What are the things that you’ve seen when you’re working with your clients to help them, obviously thinking loops can help, but how do you break through these ceilings or how do you get to that next level? And break through.
Niva Jerath: Yeah, sure. Absolutely. I love that question because. It’s something where we can all relate to when we do reach a certain level, we have a certain level of financial success, a certain level of success in our job and we’re just like coasting in life and go into a pattern of feeling like comfortable, we’re like, Oh yeah, this is it.
And I think good is always the enemy of great. And so it makes you feel so good. You’re like, okay, I don’t need to do anything close and you get it to this pattern with just being the same and you don’t have any sort of goals or achieving kind of plateau. And I think 1 of the most important things to do at that point is to recognize.
What it is that’s important to you and there’s a lot of ways to do that. It’s a lot of time spent with yourself. It’s you versus you when you’re at home. What are the things you enjoy doing when nobody’s really paying you to do it? What you really enjoy in your own free time. You really love and those passions for instance for me.
I love diets, you know, and exercise are two things that I really love. And of course, Rick’s a master of all those too. But for me, I love that. I love optimizing my diet and I love being on top of my health now. So I could be really average in it or above average in it. And then I talk in the book about Djokovic and how he’s number one in it.
And so getting, learning about that. Once he learned, okay, like he’s never had chocolate. He doesn’t eat any gluten really to optimize his tennis. We, I started to start comparing myself. How can you be on top? How can you get to the next 5% of perfection? Because all of us will cheat a little bit.
Oh yeah. Or we’ll eat a little bit of gluten. We don’t have that intensity. Perfection there. And that is the concept of self discipline. So you get to that, you break that barrier by doing, by disciplining yourself and it’s you versus. So if you want it and you start making that discipline and then we’ll start by visualizing what you want and you’ll break through with those two things of visualization and discipline.
And getting there. So I love those concepts because for me, it was almost a little 5% that I could do better. And I was like, I’ll bring more everywhere that I could do better. I’m going to make this diet better. I’m going to be better. I’m going to learn more and I’m going to achieve that rather than just saying, okay, my diet’s good.
I’m okay. Like I can always make it better and learn. And so knowing what you want and then visualizing it and then getting the discipline to get there, even if it’s a 5% difference. You can maximize your life.
Harnessing the Power of Positive Thinking and Action
Rick Macci: First off. I love the question, when people plateau or they want to break through, if you want to improve your net worth, you have to improve your net work.
Okay. You, as I just said you got to branch out and explore opportunities by just meeting people and being around that environment. You can’t stay in that cocoon unless you want that. You give what you put into it. Okay, so you gotta network. You have to be around other people. It could be one word, one sentence, one person.
That could make you millions of dollars. You have no idea that’s around the corner. You have no idea. It’s amazing. So that’d be my advice for anybody listening now. Everybody’s business is different It’s situational, I get all that but maybe they could create passive income There’s many opportunities to monetize things They have to network because you never know what’s around the corner And now if you don’t have the time, I don’t like that excuse because a winner finds a way and a loser makes an excuse and you find the time.
I tell the kids all the time, I tell them, would you, if I said go run a mile, how many of you guys are going to do it now? And the couple raised their hands and I said wait a minute. If I gave you a thousand dollars. Would you run the mile? Yes. She can’t raise her hand. I said, you got it back.
You know what I mean? You got to do this to get that. It’s not the other way around. Unless you inherit a lot of money or whatever. That’s a whole different thing. So maybe then when it comes easy, you could blow all that also. Okay. You have to keep your eye on the ball. Okay. Don’t get ahead of yourself and in my opinion, greatness has always taken the stairs, never the escalator.
Ben Fraser: Ooh, I like that, man. You got a lot of good say. This is great. It reminds me of this concept I’ve heard semi recently, and it was like a common phrase, but it stuck with me. And he’s called it the concept of adjacent possible and so much of what we believe is possible is by what we’re adjacent to, right?
And so it’s this concept of networking. So it’s this concept of being around people that are better than you. And if you’re the best in the room, you should probably get a different room, right? If you are not pushing yourself, if you’re not around other things, that may not seem possible initially, but it’s crazy that I’ve continued to improve in different areas and grow as I keep getting to different levels, meeting different people.
It’s crazy. It’s Oh these things that I thought were so unattainable, so unrealistic. At one point in my life, like it’s not, they’re not doing that much differently. You meet people at their level. You’re like, okay, like I can do what they’re doing. It’s not that much harder. I, how can I make these little tiny improvements to continue to grow?
And so much of, for me and my jury has been the limiting beliefs are created by the environment that I’m in. So putting yourself in a different environment. It creates the possibility because you have to have belief, but to me, sometimes, what’s the chicken or the egg is belief come first or does, seeing what’s possible come first and then they build on each other, right?
Niva Jerath: Absolutely. I love that because even one word from somebody that’s negative can just eat up everything. Like you, you go from 95% confidence. Oh, you’re 100% confident in 95, 90. Oh, I can’t do this. Oh, what’s the fear? What’s the risk in doing this? So all of a sudden being around negative people can really be detrimental, even if it’s just a little bit of negativity.
So it’s that you’re right. The people that just surround yourself. So you think you see someone like Rick who eats five or six items a day and is so disciplined, it’s like he makes it. Everybody around him is better, he’s the emblem of hard work and discipline and having a connection like that is amazing.
No wonder he charted his 800. I think that’s still, if you know him, it’s still I, it’s how much of what he does is amazing. So I think I like knowing. How other people are around people who are positive are going to get you to the next level is crucial because that one little negative word, the one will come and when you’re driving home, all of a sudden it feeds, it goes into your mind.
You’re like, is that, something I can’t do, start downing yourself and that confidence can go down.
Rick Macci: No, listen I look at this thing. Very different.
The Transformative Potential of Belief and Persistence
Rick Macci: Okay, let me explain. Okay, people, everybody is the same. We’re all humans. Now we achieve different levels of success, then we get labeled.
You’re an actor, or you’re great in sports or whatever. Everybody has to understand whether you’re a kid, you’re Or an adult you can do whatever you want. Okay, if you try, okay You have no idea how many people i’ve had as a ball boy Or some of the best people in the world and they beat the best people in the world 15 years later Okay, why not you but we get into this idolization Stereotype no one’s really that amazing and you’re not really that bad But we push ourselves down and the power of belief You know what I mean?
But you gotta, like I said, you gotta take the steps. You can’t just jump to the penthouse. This is what I want everybody to understand. Okay? Anything is possible. And I know that’s such an easy thing to say, but it is. If you try, and you’re relentless, and you never give up. But people let things stop us. I lost, I failed, I’m doing bad on a bad day, and you get on that merry go round, you can become that person, never, ever give up.
Life goes by like that before you know it. And everybody almost looked back and said, I wish I’d had done that. I wish I had done that. I should have done that. I’m telling you right now. Do it now, don’t give up, never give up, they’re, it’s not that much, they’re not that much better than you, all these people that have millions and millions, or billions, okay, just what I’m saying now they never thought that, they maybe worked towards it, or they visualized it.
And then it could happen. All I’m saying is that you can be you if money’s what drives you. But number one, you should be the best you can be every day and always try to get better. And at the end of the day, y’all look in the mirror. There’s a mirror test never lies, okay, and just say that I get better today.
And don’t lie to yourself. And when you get it on that type of routine, okay, good things are in the oven.
Niva Jerath: I love it. And in this book, the book, one of my favorite quotes, it says, think big and be big. I love that quote that Rick says is because you’re as big as your biggest thought. And that’s true.
Your thoughts are the generation generators of every. So if you generate big thoughts and big dreams you’re going to, you’re going to go really well.
Rick Macci: People should never, ever look back. If you look back, you’re going to go back. You gotta let go. And, but people keep these anchors on them, and it’s just, it kills people in all facets of life.
You know what I’m saying? And that’s what it is to be mentally strong as a tennis player. So many times these people, the kids I talk to, I said, how many times have you played someone, you had a better forehand backhand and serve, and you lost two and two? Because they’ve gone and they sweat. You’ve been there, he plays that, they just get every ball, and they’re just all about being a dog and fighting and never giving up.
And those qualities, okay, are the cornerstone and the underlying factor. And everybody who watches this, but if they’ve hit the ceiling and like I said, they have to start networking and get out of their comfort zone. Like I said, to get in the end zone.
Ben Fraser: That’s awesome, man. This is so good.
Conclusion: The Impact of Mindset on Success
Ben Fraser: Thank you guys for coming on.
I want to make a deal with you because I know you said you charge 800 an hour. We put Venmo in the link, but what if we put the book in the link and we’ll tell people to go buy the book and support what you guys are doing.
Rick Macci: You know what’s interesting? In the book, there’s so much of me, there’s probably like 50 hours of lessons from me, of these gold nuggets that I throw, and when I hear people, even Venus, Serena, or Capriati, when they reframe it, cause they have, especially the Wimps, cause they have a totally different platform that’s the best feeling in the world, knowing you made a difference in someone’s life, people that read the book, it’s one thing to read it. Some little kid I go, Hey, to read my, you read our book. He goes, I read the book. I go, what’d you think? He goes, I only read the cover. I go, no, wait a minute. I was 10 years old. I said, all right, you got a ways to go. So what I’m trying to say is it’s one thing to read it.
It’s another thing to apply it. And what’s great about the book. It’s the gift that keeps on giving because there’s so many like little things you can go back to and look at every day and give you that little shot of adrenaline. Cause listen, everybody needs a shot of adrenaline and you got Rick Macci and Dr.
Niv in this book that can really lift you higher.
Niva Jerath: Changes lives.
Ben Fraser: All right, we’ll put the link in and go get the book. It’s on Amazon and I’m sure other outlets as well. And thank you both for coming on. It was really fun and exciting to have everyone listen to this.
