Michael Stein - From Concentration Camps To Hollywood: A Rags To Riches Story (#91)

Introduction to guest:

You don’t just wake up one day and become a butterfly. Growth takes time, refinery and a huge amount of struggle. No one knows this better than Michael Stein.

Michael is a self-proclaimed “long Shot”, coming from a line of “long shots”. His grandmother and her family escaped the Russian concentration camps at gunpoint on their way to America.

His father was a homeless New York street kid who eventually became a millionaire, then lost everything due to a reckless lifestyle and returned to homeless living.

He was an unplanned child, born more than two months premature, with immunity issues, “learning disabilities”, dyslexia, and a bad stutter – “I grew up in a broken home. I was weak, riddled with health challenges, frequently confused, felt out of place, socially awkward, quiet, hyper, and impulsive.”

Michael overcame many of these issues to organise arguably the largest promotional movie event ever, produce an award winning short-film, create a multi-million dollar business, donate thousands of tarps to the needy and share stories with other innovators, entrepreneurs, and high achievers on his popular podcast Long Shot Leaders.

See the show notes below for all the topics discussed.

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More from Michael:

Website: longshotleaders.com

Key quotes and takeaways from the show:

Six Human Needs of Psychology: Certainty, Uncertainty, Love, Significance, Contribution, Growth.

The Triad of Human Emotions: Physiology, Focus & Words (Language).

Be aware of the patterns in your behaviour (physiology, focus and words), because you can end up in a spiral of “embracing the suck” even if “the suck” is not beneficial to you.

“Look in the direction you want to go in and your hands will follow. Look towards the track!”

“Move the pencil… Did you MOVE the pencil or did you just TRY?”

“Life’s only as good as the emotions that live within that life.”

The most successful people in the world all have the same amount of hours in a day but they are experts in managing what they do and how, when and why they do those things.

“I care what I think of myself and I care what other people think of me […] I want to give love and I want to receive love.”

Ego doesn’t help you to connect with people. Ego and pretentiousness occurs when someone is trying to meet a basic human need with a negative vehicle.

Comedy is based around surprise. Build an assumption, then shatter that assumption.

Emotional strength and thick skin is like building muscle.

The number one thing in stand-up comedy is your rapport with the audience.

You are here to serve! You must give to receive. Give people what they want, not what you want.

We are always performing.

Failure can be your biggest gift. Use failure to your advantage.

Learn to manage your emotions. Try to fill your life with the happiest emotions you can and study the negative ones.

Take care of your body and your mind.