HARRY： An American Success Story, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO279
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
153.52174
Summary
In this episode of the CEO Project, Andy talks about a story about a guy who overcame his shyness to become a star actor. It's a story that is 1,000% applicable to your happiness and success not only in 2019, but for your whole entire life.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
I can stack them honeys to the roof. I ain't stopping till they stack to the moon.
00:00:04.780
Without me, my family wouldn't have food. Anybody go against me gotta lose.
00:00:12.020
What is up guys? You're listening to the MFCEO Project. I'm Andy. I'm your host.
00:00:17.480
And this is the motherfucking CEO Project. Guys, we're here. 2019.
00:00:23.500
This is the first podcast of 2019 and I want to start it off directly with a story, okay?
00:00:33.420
And I could get into all the other stuff that we do about paying the fee.
00:00:36.380
If you're a regular listener, you get it. So I'm not going to waste your time.
00:00:40.380
If you don't get it, go back and listen to some other shit.
00:00:43.340
I know you guys are busy getting your stuff done. I'm busy getting my stuff done.
00:00:48.100
So I'm going to get right to it. And I want to share a story with you guys.
00:00:52.160
It's a story that is 1,000% applicable to your happiness and success.
00:00:59.600
Not only in just 2019, but for your whole entire life, okay?
00:01:04.960
And this is part of also a little bit of a project that I've been working on for 2019.
00:01:09.780
I'm sort of giving you a little bit of a preview, but you're going to have to guess if you want to know
00:01:16.020
because I'm not ready to tell you all about it yet.
00:01:20.220
This story starts out in the suburbs of Chicago, okay?
00:01:26.020
Right after World War II, in the early 1940s, there was a kid, okay?
00:01:31.080
And we're going to call this kid Harry, all right?
00:01:33.720
He was short, and the other kids in his elementary school made fun of him.
00:01:39.000
And you know what? By all accounts, he was a nerd, all right?
00:01:42.900
So a lot of times, he'd go out to recess, he'd be by himself.
00:01:47.380
When he'd try to join the other kids, you know, climbing up the hill and playing games,
00:01:51.560
they'd shove him back down the hill, they'd call him names, they'd make fun of him,
00:01:55.720
and basically made him feel like he wasn't good enough to hang with them, all right?
00:02:02.180
This didn't really change for Harry as he got older.
00:02:05.400
Everybody in his class, according to these people, said he was shy, it was hard for him
00:02:14.140
These people figured that this guy was either going to be some sort of murderer,
00:02:25.820
He got involved with his high school's radio station.
00:02:29.260
He actually worked up the nerve to become its very first sportscaster, and he loved it, all right?
00:02:37.200
He loved it so much that when he got to college, Rippon College in Wisconsin,
00:02:42.720
he decided he needed to do whatever it took to overcome his shyness.
00:02:48.660
He knew that his shyness was a major obstacle to his ultimate success.
00:02:56.120
He knew he had to get more comfortable around people.
00:02:59.260
So he looked over his college course directory,
00:03:02.220
and he found courses that he thought would help him to get over what he knew was a handicap for him.
00:03:10.860
And he enrolled in these courses, and one of the courses that he took was acting 101.
00:03:17.120
And you can imagine for someone who's extremely shy, like I know a lot of you guys are, all right?
00:03:23.440
That's one of the most common questions that I get.
00:03:31.240
How do I get over the anxiety of talking to other people, all right?
00:03:38.560
And for guys like this guy, Harry, and people like you listening, this is hard, okay?
00:03:45.360
And this acting class, it stretched him out of his comfort zone.
00:03:52.320
He loved it so much that he became obsessed with acting.
00:03:56.500
He learned every single thing that he could about acting.
00:04:08.000
And he took advantage of every single opportunity that he could to act.
00:04:13.300
In fact, he was so obsessed with acting that he ended up leaving college.
00:04:18.140
He left the Midwest, and he headed to L.A. to become a full-time voice actor, all right?
00:04:26.760
And once he got to L.A., he was promised, like a lot of people who just up and moved to L.A.,
00:04:31.760
a bunch of roles, a bunch of success, the next big thing.
00:04:39.200
Just when there seemed to be some sort of hope that his career might gain some momentum,
00:04:45.680
he had an encounter with a very well-known, very influential director.
00:04:50.460
And without intentionally meaning to, he offended this guy and seriously pissed him off.
00:05:01.760
And the word of mouth, because of this incident, because this director was so influential,
00:05:07.440
his name sunk to the bottom of the hiring list.
00:05:11.260
Basically, a blacklist of people not to work with, okay?
00:05:15.760
And for the next three years, Harry, all he could end up getting was uncredited roles,
00:05:21.560
which are basically little bits in parts of movies where the role is so unimportant
00:05:27.220
and so insignificant that your name isn't even worth mentioning.
00:05:32.760
And as you know, when they're mentioning the Key Grip and the Key Grip's assistance,
00:05:37.940
and your name doesn't get on the list, it makes you feel pretty fucking bad, all right?
00:05:47.800
And he started to gain some momentum in the late 60s and early 70s.
00:05:52.460
He got small roles in some TV shows that were fairly popular, which, you know, weren't his dream,
00:06:02.520
And finally, he had a breakthrough, or so he thought.
00:06:07.060
In 1969, a well-respected French director cast him as the lead role in his first American film,
00:06:20.220
The bigwigs at Columbia Pictures, the people who were producing this film, the executive team,
00:06:32.260
And imagine being Harry and literally picking up his whole life,
00:06:39.480
working for years to get that one opportunity that would help launch him,
00:06:45.120
getting it, and then getting it snatched right out from underneath him.
00:07:11.700
And he was willing to do anything that he could to keep his acting career going.
00:07:20.200
and would take any menial job that he could to pay the bills and support his family.
00:07:34.460
He met a young visionary director that impressed him enough
00:07:38.820
that he secured a small part in the top-grossing film of 1973.
00:07:48.520
He sensed the tide was turning and the good things were coming.
00:07:51.640
The problem was good things didn't come for another four years.
00:07:56.300
So Harry continued to work his ass off 24-7 to make ends meet
00:08:12.360
In fact, he ended up installing a door for Francis Ford Coppola,
00:08:22.520
His dream was not to be installing fucking doors and sweeping up shit and doing menial jobs.
00:08:40.080
But he knew what he had to do to keep that dream alive and he did it.
00:08:47.240
It led Coppola to cast him in a few minor roles in successful films,
00:08:54.720
which is one of the things he got shut down for,
00:08:59.080
And that connection with Coppola eventually led Harry to be reunited
00:09:02.980
with the same young visionary director that he worked with on American Graffiti.
00:09:08.220
That young director hired Harry to be a stand-in for screen tests
00:09:14.820
a movie that would end up becoming the highest grossing film of all time,
00:09:20.020
a movie that would literally become part of American culture
00:09:30.660
And even though he was just a stand-in and he was just a quote-unquote screen tester,
00:09:39.840
And his charisma lit up the screen and captivated this young director.
00:09:44.920
And you know what that young director's name was?
00:09:52.500
Lucas cast Harry to play the role of a cocky smuggler
00:09:55.680
and space pilot, a kind of galactic cowboy who flew a ship,
00:10:00.520
as you might know, called the Millennium Falcon.
00:10:05.040
Now Harrison Ford is known worldwide and will always be known as Han Solo.
00:10:12.960
That was his legendary role that launched a legendary career in Hollywood.
00:10:17.940
When you think of A-list actors, Harrison Ford has been at the top of that list for 40 fucking years.
00:10:28.140
You've seen him in Blade Runner, Patriot Games, The Fugitive, Air Force One, Indiana Jones Series.
00:10:34.780
But let me tell you, and I guarantee you this, throughout his career,
00:10:40.120
some fucking idiot has said at every single success that Harrison Ford has had
00:10:46.000
and gets paid millions of dollars for, lives in a big fucking house,
00:10:50.620
owns nine fucking airplanes, and some idiot is going to be saying,
00:11:02.280
They don't see the 20 years that this man put into this craft.
00:11:19.840
They didn't see him installing fucking garage doors.
00:11:23.400
They weren't there cheering him on when he got rejected again and again and again.
00:11:33.320
All they see are the swanky suits, the red carpet, the popping bottles,
00:11:39.220
the hot bitches, and the fucking big house, big car, and the airplanes, and all the life.
00:11:51.060
is the entire picture of how success really works.
00:11:54.960
You see, no person reaches ultimate prosperity without taking a shitload of punches to the fucking face.
00:12:07.900
there is no overnight success in the business world,
00:12:17.120
Would Harrison Ford, would you even know who Harrison Ford was
00:12:21.900
if he didn't have unshakable confidence in himself?
00:12:26.680
Would you even know his name if he didn't have the grit and the persistence and the drive
00:12:33.380
to push through literally 20 years of doing shit that he hated
00:12:43.280
Most people would have given up when the rug was pulled out from underneath him
00:12:52.060
Most people would give up when the rug was pulled out from underneath him in year one,
00:13:04.480
They think they know, but they don't know the price that has to be paid.
00:13:10.040
Everyone else would have fucking thrown in the towel
00:13:13.420
when they didn't get the dream role that they thought they were destined for
00:13:17.580
or entitled to, the role they thought they deserved.
00:13:21.400
The average person wouldn't be able to stomach that rejection.
00:13:28.420
If you're going to be successful, you better get used to being told no.
00:13:34.980
and every other successful person, the people you look around
00:13:42.940
This is what sets him and them apart from all the wannabes,
00:13:48.180
the pretenders, the fakers, the shit talkers, the dreamers,
00:13:54.580
This is what makes them them and what makes you you.
00:14:10.240
Did he have to do shit he didn't want to do repeatedly
00:14:13.080
over and over and over again for years at a time?
00:14:17.780
Did he have to develop thick skin and a strong state of mind?
00:14:24.520
But what you have to understand is that is the recipe.
00:14:28.240
That is how successful people become successful people.
00:14:33.580
They pay the price other people aren't willing to pay.
00:14:37.980
And I know you've heard that and I know you've seen that.
00:14:40.960
But do you truly understand what paying your dues means?
00:14:48.380
Because the people that do win, they don't sometimes win.
00:15:03.620
They understand that they're going to have to do shit that they fucking hate.
00:15:10.460
But what they also understand is they're not willing to settle
00:15:20.580
That's why Harrison Ford is a multimillionaire.
00:15:26.520
That's why his net worth is now over $230 million.
00:15:34.300
That's why he's Han fucking Solo and you aren't.
00:15:38.800
Right now, more than ever, every single one of us is bombarded with get rich quick,
00:15:46.800
overnight success, luck, winning the lottery, all this crazy shit.
00:15:52.840
And you know why we're bombarded with that shit?
00:15:59.600
Because secretly deep down inside, we hope that we're going to be one of those people.
00:16:21.220
It's never going to be as simple as you thought.
00:16:23.560
It's never going to happen as quick as you want.
00:16:29.700
I wouldn't trade places with one of those motherfuckers that got rich quick or won the lottery or any of that shit.
00:16:35.260
I love the fact that it took me 20 years to get where I am.
00:16:41.420
And you should appreciate that too because here's the thing.
00:16:44.660
You could take every single thing away from me right now.
00:16:47.580
You could take away my business, take away my house, take away my cars, take away my employees, take away every dollar I have.
00:17:01.460
I have the last 20 years of understanding what it takes.
00:17:09.580
And that's where you want to be in life because inevitably bad shit is going to happen.
00:17:19.740
You're going to have some sort of circumstance that sets you back.
00:17:23.680
And you're going to want to know what to do when that happens.
00:17:28.000
I would not trade places with anybody on earth because I know what that's worth.
00:17:35.640
You guys have to understand that if you're going to become successful, if you're going to create what you want in 2019 and beyond,
00:17:46.640
you are going to have to understand the concept of three steps forward, two steps back.
00:18:03.380
And I continue, I will continue to have these days until the day I die.
00:18:08.800
I'm certain of that where I get two steps ahead, three steps ahead, and two steps back.
00:18:14.240
You guys all have the perception that it's all forward progress.
00:18:18.000
You guys look at people who have this, whatever it is that you want, and you think it's some mystical force.
00:18:27.740
It's all about what you're willing to do, how long you're willing to go, how many punches you're willing to take in the face,
00:18:36.340
and how many times you're willing to get back up.
00:18:42.420
Everything you needed to learn about success, you can learn from the movie Rocky.
00:18:54.100
You don't need to join this thing or do that or this or that or this.
00:19:04.640
Understand it's going to take a long fucking time and go fucking do it.
00:19:12.860
Whatever it is that you struggle with, you know what that is.
00:19:32.940
They try to bury those things in the sand and act like they don't exist.
00:19:36.500
And a lot of fucking gurus say, play to your strengths, not to your weaknesses.
00:19:44.120
Being shy, being introverted is one of those things that you have to get over if you want
00:19:51.400
And you might not have a critical flaw like that.
00:19:57.860
But I'm going to bet you that if you attacked it instead of hiding from it, you are going
00:20:03.680
to have a much better chance at being successful.
00:20:09.440
Attacking your flaws and addressing your flaws, it's not fun.
00:20:13.120
It's not fun to look in the mirror and say, you know what?
00:20:17.140
It's not fun to look in the mirror and say, you know what?
00:20:21.840
I look in the mirror and I say, oh, you know what?
00:20:24.580
You can't, you're not a good salesman or you're not good at this or that.
00:20:32.660
But there's some skills that you cannot succeed without.
00:20:44.260
He went for every single opportunity he could to improve something that he knew was going
00:20:52.120
And I challenge you in 2019 to figure out what it is about you.
00:21:07.040
But I challenge you this year to look in the mirror with honest eyes and see what it is
00:21:17.020
the world sees and know what it is everyone else knows and look beyond that and see the
00:21:24.580
shit that nobody sees and see the shit that nobody knows and work to fix those issues.
00:21:31.420
Because come January 1st, 2020, you're going to be ready to attack.
00:21:39.040
You're not going to be sitting there with all these insecurities, all these issues.
00:21:43.520
There's not a skill that you lack right now that you can't make tremendous improvement on,
00:21:49.400
whether that be a physical thing or a mental thing or a sales skill or interpersonal relations
00:21:57.540
If you have no sense of humor, you can learn to be funny in 12 fucking months.
00:22:01.860
There's nothing that you can't fix in 12 months.
00:22:05.080
And I challenge you this year to take an honest look at yourself and attack the problem
00:22:18.700
That's what people do that are worth 230 million fucking dollars and own nine motherfucking airplanes