Shift Your ENERGY! Go from Fear to LOVE and MANIFEST Your Perfect Life! | John Mackey

There's an infinite number of realities but the choices we make the thoughts we make that Multiverse is forming around us once you understand that you're the dreamer the dream gets happier as you practice forgiveness being kind and compassionate and caring the world begins to shift for you John Mackey co-founder and co-ceo of Whole Foods Market and co-author of conscious capitalism Flatout tighten in the Industry thank you John Mackey we're faced with choices every day we can either contract into fear anger and judgment or we can expand into love and if you forget that's okay because

in the next moment you can choose love human beings should flourish everybody that's encounters the business should be touched in a positive way business can be this amazing Force for good I made a commitment but I was going to be a better leader I was going to channel More love and my soul was saying you either have to step up or get out conscious capitalism came directly out of that experience if someone's watching listening right now and they're saying I really want to generate more Financial Freedom for my life mhm and if you could give

them one piece of advice what would that be it's been so amazing last year was just a transformative lifechanging event team greatness is great my name is Louis How thanks so much for being here and before we dive into this special video today I want to remind you about the summit of greatness our annual conference happening this September in Los Angeles with David goggin Dr Joe despenza and many more incredible speakers and performers there will be so many live attendees there that you can meet with you can network with and you can help transform your

life make sure to click the link in the description to Get your tickets and I can't wait to see you at the summon of greatness here in Los [Music] Angeles welcome back everyone to the school of greatness very excited Our Guest we have the inspiring John Macky in the house good to see you John thanks for being here thanks for having me here Lis very excited about the conversation we're about to have because I've been following your journey but also just Whole Foods uh for as long as I can remember really last 10 15 years

of being kind of in the the conscious health and wellness space but also Entrepreneur Space and seeing your story and business uh just some stats for people that don't know Whole Foods sold to Amazon for 13.7 Bon I believe it is and you guys were also doing 22 billion in sales annually before selling no that's what we're doing now are you're doing now okay after selling um but it's Been a multiple decade journey to getting there and the thing that I really appreciate about you and your philosophy is how you said I want to create

a business based on love and creating one of the happiest workplaces in America or in the world you had that vision and that intention in a world of win lose capitalism and competition and business especially you know 30 40 50 years ago how did you have the belief that coming from Love and forgiveness And creating a environment a work and customer environment of Love would ultimately create abundance for all well you know one of the things of course what my book kind of demonstrates is that I didn't have that when I was 24 years old

I mean I didn't have that Vision it's a common mistake that um journalists make is that that somehow or another you know I hatched this whole thing out when I was just a kid and and now we just executed on this Grand Vision that we had but it's more of an emergence you know a discovery process you're going along and you're discovering things in and doing a business is a is a great way to discover more about yourself more about life and so that what I I talk about in the book how really the although

I got a taste of love when I was pretty young in 1984 when I actually did MDMA for the first time that I really saw my God this is at the core of reality love is the most Important thing and I've never forgotten that experience so that was six years after we started safer way and then Whole Foods Market so the love came that energy started to flow in at that time it wasn't something I had at the very beginning right you're just trying to figure out how to start the business and make money and

have a profit but you so one of the things that I really disagree with that that not necessarily what you said but but what people believe is that The capitalism is a zero sum game it's truly not that people think that way because that's the way games are that's the way sports are right there's a winner and there are lots of losers so if Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk they have a lot of money then they must have you know taken that money from other people there's a fix pie and they just greedy and they

took a big piece of the pie that's really how most people think about it Winner Takes all that's not the Way business works that's not the way capitalism is it's it's this game where you have all these interdependent stakeholders in it you have customers you have employees you have suppliers you have investors you have the communities that you're part of they're all trading with the business voluntarily for Mutual gain and what you have in business is this upward spiral where all the stakeholders are benefiting the the this is a competitive Element to capitalism where you

have competitors that are trying to serve customers better than you do right well that's how you make progress because they're doing things better than you do and it's like well we got to study them and copy what they're doing better and then iterate on it and surpass them we got to step up that's right you got to step up the competition keeps complacency from settling in in the organization but all of these people That are trading are gaining so for examp I always say that when we did the Amazon merger it was totally a win-win-win

deal for every one of our stakeholders hopefully needed to drop its prices Amazon was willing to look longterm and let us drop our prices we dropped them four times in the first two years cost hundreds of millions of dollars to Amazon for us to do that they gave raises to everybody in our company within 30 days of the merger occurring They wanted to have a $15 minimum wage and then go up from there um um our suppliers not only didn't get cut out once that deal happened but Amazon studied our sales and they picked up

a lot of our suppliers and brought them into Amazon wow and then um the investors got like a 30% gain on their stock with the with the deal even the government got lots of more taxes uh from the deal right everyone won yes and and our philanth our Whole Foods Market Foundations the whole planet Foundation the whole kids Foundation Amazon not only didn't get rid of those they put money in themselves and supported it so it was a win-win win win deal every every stakeholder was benefiting and I just think that's what happens in business

in general the customers are benefiting or they wouldn't trade with the business right and you know what if they don't like Whole Foods there's a Trader Joe's down the street or there's A Vons or there's a Ralph's if you're in LA and there's HB if you're in Texas if if you're don't doing a good job people don't trade with you yeah you got other competitors you got other places to go right uh and if you're not paying people a good wage if they don't feel like they have opportunities to advance if they don't like the

way they're being treated they're not slaves they can leave any moment they do and they do leave they do find better jobs all the time and so we Have to compete to hold on to our best workers because otherwise they'll go take better jobs they'll go somewhere else yeah suppliers aren't forced to trade with us either if we are late in paying them or we treat them poorly they can just not do business with us any longer um investors when we were a public company for 26 years nobody had to trade with Whole Foods I

mean they didn't like our way we're running the business they could sell their stock and They did and others would buy it so it's this voluntarily exchange for Mutual Gain Is Lifting Up the whole system it's not a win lose game it's truly a win-win-win game and and that's how capitalism continues to lift this planet upwards to higher levels does that mean everybody in business is a you know an altruist and and always acts ethically in all situations no business people are people they have they're human Natures some are greedy some are selfish as I

Might add is true of some athletes some lawyers some politicians some doctors because it's just the way human beings are we're we're wired to to be kind and generous but also to compete and to win and be selfish and greedy sometimes so business is not uniquely you know greedy and selfish in that way but it does occasionally have Bad actors anyway my point is is that I really do love capitalism because it's it's the only system in the history of the world that Is it's the essence you combined science with capitalism and those two together

are responsible for almost all the great progress that we've seen in this world in the last couple hundred years who are some Business Leaders in the last you know 5 to 10 years that you've really either looked up to or respected in a certain way on how they approach capitalism in kind of this AI social media modern world versus what it was you know years ago you know I mean I my Highest regard goes to the great entrepreneurs that create great organizations I mean I've always was a great fan of Steve Jobs for example now

I'm a a fan of Elon Musk does that mean I agree with everything Elon doer says no just like I did with Steve Jobs but they have built great organizations and they're helping you know between Tesla and SpaceX and the other companies elon's creating they're changing the world in positive ways Uh also really admire Warren Buffett Charlie Munger who just passed on um pretty much uh if you find uh you Michael Michael Dell uh the entrepreneurs that that you know Google guys Sergey Bren and Larry pagee the creative types I mean I self-identify that way

myself so those are the people I most admire in your book the whole story I really love what you've covered in here about adventures and love life and capitalism Um it's kind of like your Eat Pray Love in a sense of how you've like lived your life in a capitalistic world but also and how you've had great love in your life yes talk about your wife in here uh I'm curious because you grew up with a Christian faith if I'm remembered right but then you became more of an atheist for a period of time but

then you went more on a spiritual path yes after that so you kind of believed in something then I guess believed in something else And then came into a spiritual journey what is what was that like for you well so let's let's kind of like when I was a boy we went to church but as soon as we became teenagers my parents said if you don't want to go to church anymore you don't have to my dad used to fall asleep this was an Episcopal church and it wasn't particularly a strong they weren't uh I'm

not sure even the ministers particularly were believing it was more of a social you know thing to Something to do on Sunday and um but then when I was 18 I had an experience of um got a crush on a girl and I was going you know I was leaving I graduated from high school I'm going on to college the world's sort of confusing and uncertain and uh uh she pitched me on Christianity and I became a born again Christian when I was 18 years old which um I was really into it seriously into it

for a couple of years I probably got involved in a group called The Navigators and I probably ma managed I probably memorized about a quarter of the new test because they were big into me memorizing scripture and the thing that got me away from that was as I dive deeper I study philosophy I did I did religion studies and it was the problem of evil the problem of evil is this you know the problem of evil is if God is all powerful and all omniscient all knowing and all loving why is there so much pain

in suffering in the world and I mean Christianity had an answer that was you know original sin free will but it didn't really it didn't satisfy me I didn't think it was a good answer so I drifted away and I I studied philosophy I became I would say I became a existentialist probably an atheist an agnostic but I was probably saying I was an atheist then because it sounded Bolder and you know I'm just a kid young guys you know shock people um and then um when I was 22 years old just turned 22 I

had I did a psychedelic trip with LSD that that changed my life completely because I experienced the only way I can describe it retro retrospectively is that I had what I would call an ego death and what I mean by that is we experience ourselves as separate we identify with our bodies you know you're lwis I'm John this is a cup this is a table and we're we're separate from that we're we're individuals we're we're and when you experience this when your ego Dissolves there's no separation any longer there's no there is no John there

is no Lewis there's only beingness pure beingness and I was part of it I I there was no I I was it um I didn't have any sense of any separation or differentiation and that was sort of a Timeless State and I don't know how long I stayed in that state probably until the drug began to wear off and then I began to slowly differentiate again but I came out of that with Completely changed it was like I realized oh my God the essence of what I am not my ego not my body the essence

of what I am is Immortal it's always existed it always will exist and and then it was like wow it's all just an adventure forever it we're just an adventure forever adventuring forever and we're free to create whatever kind of life we want to create so I let go of a lot of fear then not all of it but I did let go of a lot of fear about I'm Going to go out and take chances I remember symbolically I started hitch I went outside and started hitchhiking really it's like the guy says I don't

have a shirt on it's August 1975 the guy picks me up and he says where do you want to go I I said I don't care wherever you're going he says I'm going home I said I'll go there so he drives a few miles and um and he said well son this is as far as I'm going I said okay and I got out and then I thought where The hell am I so I started to walk home and I ran into my philosophy Professor this is a lifechanging event on the way back on the

way way back and and I this was the guy that I idolized he was my intellectual hero he written a ton of books Bob Solomon Robert C Solomon he wrote 35 or 40 books still had a big influence on me entire life was he were you in college at this time or he was a professor of the college or okay yeah And uh when I was studying for philosophy at the University of Texas he was a one of my professors wow so I run into him and I I said this is a great opportunity and

I went up to says Professor Solomon it's John Mackie I'm one of your students I don't have a shirt on and uh he didn't recognize me at first and I said you know listen I I've had a couple questions I've been dying to ask you for for years and he said well okay this is a great Opportunity so what are your questions I said well sir you know you teach you know he was an existentialist influenced by sarta and cimu and there's more to his story which I won't get into because it take us to

far field but he would teach that you know life is absurd there is absolutely no meaning whatsoever to life at all there's just we we live we die we disappear and that's it but he believed that you could kind of shake your fist at that Grim fate and That you could create your own meaning sort of in defiance to this absurdity of life so you give life meaning it doesn't have any meaning but you give life meaning so I asked him I said so Professor Solomon do you really believe that there's no real meaning to

life except what we just kind of make up and he said yes that's what I believe and I said well I don't see if you believe that how you could be happy and he he looked at Me and he said I'm not I'm not very happy and it was like from that moment I didn't want to be an existentialist anymore because I had just had this incredible experience I saw I was part of all it is it was all an adventure meaning is everywhere and um I just wanted to get on with my adventure so

after that is when I I moved into this vegetarian commune I wasn't a vegetarian in Texas in Texas yes in Austin and I had this sort of food Awakening I I Never realized before I always thought I knew exercise could make me feel better I just thought food was kind of like fuel like you're a car you're you you got to go into the gas station and get fuel and and but it if it tastes good that's all that really matters I didn't think about whether it was nourishment for I didn't think of I thought

myself a machine not as this living organism that needed to nurture trillions and trillions of Cells so I had this food Awakening learned how to cook uh became the buyer for this commune food buyer for the commune and then I went to work for a small natural food store and I came back after doing that I I loved it I loved working in that store and I came back to the co-op to the commune my girlfriend Renee who I'd met there and I asked her I said what do you think if you and I open

up our own natural food store and she Said oh Maco man she's hippy oh ma man that'd be cool let's do that so we did wow and that was the Genesis of Whole Foods Market so I start the book telling that story because that LSD trip changed my entire trajectory of my life Wow uh so that's why it's relevant and the the first chapter of this book is called The Game of Life and the final chapter is called the infinite game so in some ways the thread that goes throughout that whole book is is that

it's all an Adventure life is an adventure and it's it's so I love your school of greatness because if you're going to have an adventure you might as well go for it you be as be the best version of yourself that you can possibly be absolutely so when you're in that season of life I guess you're your early 20s mid 20s at this time starting this natural you know food store are you still you know atheistic mindset are you seeking spirituality in other ways now Because you're exploring different philosophy or where do you go there

spiritually let me let so you want to I'll give a little bit more of the spirituality story here so at that point I I would Define myself kind of as a Seeker I mean it's like all I knew for sure is that the whole thing was spiritual everything was spiritual I went from an atheist to the whole entire universe is spiritual and so it's the opposite of absurdity it's like meaning Is everywhere and um it's what you make of it right yeah well but yes but also it's it's it's at the essence of what we

are uh it's at it's at the core of our being it's not uh it's not um and and so then in the the spirituality accelerated in 1984 when I did I I was invited to do an MDMA Journey this was when it was still legal I never heard of it before and I went in and uh with some friends and and I was invited over to this house and I had that just compl completely my Heart just completely opened up and it was like yes this is the meaning of everything it's all love it's all

love and this universe that I've been part of it's It's the universe itself is the essence of love and and so then I started to do a uh started to do a technique called breath work holotropic breath work at that time stainless off gra had done it and for those that are listening that have never done breath Work I hardly recommend in breath work because you can have a Transcendent experience just breathing yes so so you don't need a psychedelic to have a deeper experience of of of of of your soul and your spirit and

so I started to do this regularly and then you said you you said you hardly recommend breath work or you mean heartily heartily heartily I hardly okay I passionately recommend breath work I really I still do breath work it's very very powerful So um and now I'm doing this breath work and I've met a bunch of people through this MDMA experience and one of them gives me this book called the course of Miracles or a course of Miracles and you know I kind of because it seemed kind of vaguely Christian I said what is this

I says well this is a it claims to be a channeling from Jesus I'm thinking of myself well that's nonsense you channeling from Jesus you know I had a bad attitude about it but I like this Guy a lot and he said this would change my life so I said I want to read it so I start reading the course of Miracles with kind of with not a great attitude but I don't know 50 60 70 pages in in the text I came across a passage which changed my life again and the basically the passage

says my son lifetime after lifetime after lifetime you have blamed God for everything that you see that's wrong in the world and you've cursed him And you don't believe in God and you've rejected God you've rejected love and it and it and then it said my son you are asleep you think when you wake up in the morning that you have awakened to reality you haven't you've awakened to yet another dream a dream that you were creating everything that you're experiencing is something you were creating through fear and through judgment and through anger And God

just loves you and wants you to wake up to love wow so it's like I got so excited cuz this was was the answer to the problem of evil for me it was like because that was what got me to be this agnostic atheist was I couldn't reconcile evil and the course says it's just a dream it's not real so like when we sleep at night and we're having a dream we are um it's interesting right you think about a dream a we're the dreamer right or a character in the Dream too right who are

the other characters right who are these other characters they seem to be acting independently of us but when we wake up and everything disappears uh yeah what happened to those characters right right so the course says you think that you're waking up to reality but you are just waking up to yet another dream and so the course is a path of Awakening to the real reality which is love so I've been on That path ever since and I I like to say I've made some progress I am a much more loving being than I was

you know 20 25 or 30 years ago yeah and this is a great quote from your book it says I love learned that the key was to remove the blocks to Love's presence through practicing forgiveness instead of fear judgment and attacks on others the dreams we experience here are actually reflections of all of our thoughts and emotions we are always unconsciously Creating the world that we are experiencing our task here is to become more conscious and begin to transform our waking dreams to happy dreams of love and then to share that love with everyone we

encounter couldn't have said it better myself you said it it here I mean forgiveness became a very important part of your path in the aftermath since you encountered A Course in Miracles how do you learn To create an environment of love compassion and forgiveness while building a capitalistic business while trying to build a business earn money make money when you have so many people involved whether it may be employees who maybe are out of alignment at times or stealing or not living up to their responsibilities of their job or customers that are potentially doing good

or harmful things towards the business or business partners or uh you Know agencies you're working with that are maybe out of alignment whatever it might be how do you continue to forgive yeah spread love be love yes when others are doing bad or evil against you okay so this this I'm going to do the best I can to explain it but it's going to seem weird um so have you ever had a lucid dream before I think I've had you mean where you're experiencing you're in the dream you wake up in the dream and realize

You're dreaming yes you've had that once or twice yes okay it's and so what's different about a lucid dream once you wake up how's the dream change well it feels very real but you wake up you mean afterward the dream no while you're in the dream the Dream Begins to change and the dream changes because once you realize that you're the dreamer and you whatever you're thinking in the dream manifest you have control Of the dream you have more control yeah yes so imagine that it's not any different here as you wake up and you

realize who you are that your thoughts and your emotions are going out and they are creating what you're experiencing or you can put it in the context of like a Multiverse that that there's an infinite number of realities but the choices we make the thoughts we make the universe that Multiverse is forming around us So once you understand that you're the dreamer and you begin to wake up into it the dream gets happier as you share more as you practice forgiveness as you practice not judging others but being kind and compassionate and caring the world

begins to shift for you it becomes more of a happy dream instead of being in Conflict all the time because we're judging and attacking others and then we find that we're Attacked and judged too and that we're kind of at War um we bake different choices we go the path as we as we choose a different path the world shifts it's not to say there not terrible things happening in the world there are but your world shifts yes your world shift your environment your world the people in your world maybe not the entire world but

your world yes and the course the course of Miracles has a very good metaphor for this it's like like as We as our heart awakens deeper to love our job is to extend that love to to everyone else we encounter and then it's like it's like we have a candle and we help light the candle in their heart and then they light the candle in other hearts and the world you you don't wake up alone you're waking up because we're all part we're all all one we're we're the we're all the best metaphor I can

say it's because we're so attached to our egos And our separateness um it's like there's just the one being the one being is you the one being is me the one being is everything you've got all eternity what are you going to do in all eternity you're going to play because it's an adventure because it's fun because you can create anything so you do all and so the one being is continually playing forever and ever and ever W it it it it expands through the Big bang and self-love and it comes back breathe back in

and it's in the singularity again and it blows up again and it comes out all possibilities are realized everything we do it's it's we're on this Grand Adventure yes so make it a great grand Adventure one that's fun one that you share with others one that you you help others um I'm sure I'm you know for people watching or listening right now they may be saying they may have turned this off By now no they they might be saying like this sounds like a a a beautiful dream scenario but you know it's just it's hard

paying bills or it's I've tried to launch a business and it's failed or I've got employees you know stealing or complaining and like how I'm trying to give love to them but they're not giving it back boundaries are being crossed people are not meeting expectations they committed to the way they should right exactly so how do you you know over 40 Years of Living this life in your business and seeing your business go through ups and downs over the last 40 years and dealing with the challenges of the economy or employees or St stakeholders how

did you navigate the the emotions when people did not did something that was harmful towards the business or towards you do you just keep giving love do you create boundaries do you I wrot a whole book about it exactly But um I didn't say it was easy it's it's it's hard however um as you become more conscious it gets easier because it's like imagine that love is the deeper reality but we continue to block it through our judgments through our anger through our fear I talk a lot about in the the book about we we

always have a we're faced with a choice choices every day of we can either contract into fear And anger in judgment or we can expand into love and here's the thing this this is I'm going to give you one of the most important tips that's help me the past doesn't exist in the next moment you can choose love and if you forget that's okay because in the next moment you can choose love and if you if you make a judgment or you attack somebody you say something cruel it's in the past you can let it

go and the next moment you choose It and you practice being in the next moment openhearted and and yes stuff's going to happen think about it as a big game and things are happening these are all challenges for you you've got to overcome those challenges yes somebody just did something really cruel to you and and said something really hateful or or betrayed you it's like wow what an opportunity for me to learn here this is incredible what were a couple of the Most the biggest breakdowns that you experienced whether in business or life from or

personally um or professionally from people that either did things to hurt you whether intentionally unintentionally or financial breakdowns what were the a couple of those moments for you well there were many and I outlin them in the book so there were actually four separate coup attempts to take me out really oh yeah mhm yeah four times of your own business yes exactly Uh uh what was that like well it it there was a sense of betrayal the people that I loved and trusted I I call it in The Lord of the Rings there's the ring

of power and the ring of power people are so attracted to to wealth Fame and power those things are seductive and in the Lord and the Rings in that particular fantasy series The Ring was you could it was very difficult to wear it and not be corrupted by it right it begin pressure Pressure exactly it's AE it's a it's a metaphor for the ego the ego wants to be you know it's in this competitive war against all and and and so I think as I became more successful and wealthier and better known a lot of

people wanted that they they envied it they wanted that so how did you navigate it the first time versus kind of like the other three times did you get better at navigating or each time was painful I got oh each time was painful but I got better at it And because remember I was using I said that you know you forget I forget I go back into the ego I contract into fear I'm I'm I'm on the journey like we all are and I don't claim to never you know get upset or fall back into

fear but the what's different over time lewiis is I don't stay there as long it's like oh yes I just did it again I contracted into fear but instead of beating myself up for not being perfect it was like yeah but now this moment I can open my Heart back up and be back in the love space and so you it it's like anything if you practice it you get better at it so I've been practicing it I'm better than I used to be right but still not perfect am not perfect so how did you

navigate that that first kind of big betrayal moment in business then how were you able to keep your heart open while also I guess protecting yourself and your interest in your business uh and how do you navigate Those relationships with people that want to hurt you that's what's so that's what's so powerful about forgiveness yeah you know one of the things that it took me a long time to learn is that uh when we hold on to a grievance against somebody we're actually it's kind of like this poison that we want to give to them

we're drinking in ourselves that judgment and grievance is harming us right and so once you realize my God you know I got to let go of that that's Really holding on to that anger and judgment it poisons your soul so you have to let it go and forgiveness is the way that you let it go so everyone that I've ever felt like you know harmed me or hurt me in some way it's like I've forgiven them all it's like I wish them the best I love them I want them to be I I understand they

were doing it for their own ego drive and it wasn't satisfying them but they wanted things and I just let it go I forgive I forgive Them I don't want to hold on to those anger and that that judgment so it's a skill you have to practice it I'm not saying and I've completely mastered it I don't I'm I'm not pretending to be a fully enlightened being every instant of every day and you put set yourself up for that and people are going to show you lots of ways where you're far you sure you got

that lesson let me let me test you again exctly let me test you again Um when was the time that you felt like your ego was the biggest during this kind of multiple decade business Journey that the one that hurt me the most the story was back in 200 um 2000 and we had started uh back when this was when the.com boom was occurring and Whole Foods wanted to we jumped into it we created something called whole foods.com and then we changed it to whole people.com I my wife and I moved to Boulder and we

were doing A uh we were doing it there and we were we created a team we raised Venture Capital money and then that Bo boom turned into a bust and it and it failed and we had to shut it down we sold off we sold off Pennies on the dollars what we had left and um meanwhile while I'd done that I'd asked a really close friend of mine that was the number two guy in the company president of the company to to to be I want you to sort of run Whole Foods While I'm focused

on this but that only went on for about a year and then I said I want to come back I'm coming back to Austin I'm taking back over this leadership role after the bust happened yes he did not want that to happen he want well he liked being in charge and uh meanwhile since ID failed a couple of the directors didn't really want me to come back and that they wanted me to go if you failed this thing we don't want you back failing our thing pretty much Uh and uh so I was at my

most vulnerable you might say and the Betrayal was it was somebody I loved and trusted and then there's a there was a conspiracy right and uh some of the directors with this man with this leader and um and and so you know this is because we're talking a lot about love this is a great this is a great story of how I sort of um overcame that so the board calls this meeting in Florida where all my leadership and and and his name is Chris Chris is going to be there the board's going to be

there my other executive team members are going to be they're all going to be interviewed by the board so you know I I don't know what's going to happen happen I may not survive this so I go one of the things I do whenever I would travel I'd always want to visit our stores so I go visit the Fort Lauderdale store and while I'm visiting the store I had this you know my heart opened up and And my soul spoke to me and it said this is this is your purpose this is what you love

and and you've not lived up to your own standards here and so what the message was coming across cross that there was nothing I love more than this and that I loved every I loved all the customers I loved all the team members I loved everybody and uh that I I didn't want to lose this and I was willing to commit and and learn from my mistakes and do better going forward I Sort of was making this meanwhile I'm walking around in this complete openhearted love space guess who walks in Chris wow so I said

Hey listen can we talk for a minute just randomly random synchronicity synchronicity or is there synchronicity in those dreams um maybe so we go back into the store store team Leader's office and I I said Chris you and I have been close friends for 16 years it's not too late we can stop this nonsense right now if you're willing to We can go back to the way it was and we'll just let this be in the past and he said it's time for you to go John you've had a good run here wow and he

said you could go out with you can go out with honor oh my God or you're going to get thrown out oh my goodness and I said it doesn't have to be that way and he says that's how it's going to be oh no so you had this beautiful dream hey we're going to come together and everything I'm going To be back in my position but I was still open in my heart I the point is I was willing to forgive and and we could move past it and he wasn't no but then then we

I I go into this I go into the board meeting I am still wide open in my heart love yes I'm in love I'm just loving and I talk about how much I love Whole Foods and and uh how much I love Chris and uh and how the company's going to go from here on I had a whole vision of where we were going to go and and uh Um and I I was told later many years later by the by the lead director he said John you were gonna you were going to lose that

vote and you came in there and you won everybody but one director over wow and and and he said and when Chris got in there he went into like a 30 minute r about terrible person you were you know cataloging all your failure failures as a leader and so later on another director told me he says well John you know you know what I Did after I wanted to know when went on there so for many years after that they wouldn't tell me it was a secret but I would get these directors oneon-one take them

out to dinner pour a couple glasses of red wine ask a few questions time had passed and I slowly built the whole story up and and uh so Chris had gone in there and ranted and one of the directors said well we weren't sure we still wanted to keep you as a CEO but we weren't going to put him in because he Was crazy he was he was like so angry uh that we couldn't put him in and so we decided that you seem to have a vision for the future and we thought we we

should give you another chance so they put you back in they forgave me you went from you to be kicked out of the company completely yeah but because you went in with a Clear Vision and an energy and an attitude towards love and forgiveness and appreciation and gratitude And they they put you not they didn't remove you they actually made you back in the CE you yes wow and and there's another important message here which was I made a commitment when I was turning that store that I was going to be a better leader that

I was going to and I was I was going to channel more love I and it was like my soul was saying you either have to step up or get out out and I I made the decision to step up conscious capitalism came directly out Of that experience that's when it began to take place in my mind what are the key what became the key tenants of conscious capitalism from that moment on yeah well um first of all of conscious capitalism to explain it to the listeners here to I got to say first what is

not it's not an economic system it's not a corporate governance system it's simply a management philosophy okay so it's cuz it's controversial now you know the whole stakeholder thing is Being attacked and and so it's just it's just the better way to manage your business and so um the four pillars of conscious capitalism first every business has this potential for higher purpose besides just making money business has to make money but that's not why it exists a a good metaphor is like my body has to produce red blood cells or I will die but my

purpose is not to produce red blood cells right similarly business has to make a profit Or it dies yes but that's not why it exists it exists to create value for customers and the higher purpose is in that value creation for example whole foods' higher purpose is to nourish people and the planet we're about selling healthy food to people to help nourish them so they can be the healthiest versions of themselves um Google's higher purpose is to organize the world's information and make it readily accessible Amazon's higher Purpose is to be the Earth's most customer

Centric company uh these purposes can change and evolve over time but these are having been the stated purposes of these companies so um what was the first pillar the first pillar is that this higher purpose business has a higher purpose business is condemned I mean ask what's the purpose of a doctor is it to make money to heal yes but they make a lot of money right okay teachers educate Architects design buildings Engineers construct things all have some type of higher purpose that is in service to other people well so does business it's the enemies

that have made it into it's just about the money yeah if you go to a party a cocktail party you ask people randomly for example what's the purpose of business they'll say what do you mean what's the purpose of business make money it's like no that's not right it's not the purpose of business it's to create value for Customers profits come from that profits are not the goal they are the result of creating value for other people and if people could see this and articulate it the hatred and dislike of business would would definitely be

toned down why do you think so many people hate wealthy individuals because they're stuck in that in that well Envy but also stuck in that Paradigm that um uh if somebody has more somebody has less rather than seeing that's not true business is Creating value for other people and it's it's if you people don't understand history of where we were for example if you go back just 200 years ago 200 years ago 94% of everyone alive on this planet lived on less than $2 a day wow 94% 85% lived on less than $1 a day

the average lifespan was 30 the illiteracy rate 88% of the people alive on the planet couldn't read wow that's 200 years ago it has been science and capitalism that has lifted That up so that today the average lifespan is pushing 80 across this planet and those numbers have reversed on the literacy now 90% of the people across the planet can read the average the average lifespan has gone up and the average income the the abject Poverty of people that make less than $2 a day it's dropped to like 6% wow it's it's and it'll be

ended because as long as we continue to allow science and free markets and capitalism to lift people Out of poverty people don't understand understand that they don't know their history they don't know where we were what about people that think that you know we should have more I guess socialistic economies or you know people should just be getting paid the same amounts no matter what job they're at you know and the government should be funding these things socialism's not new I mean it in the last 100 years 41 C countries have tried Socialism 41 failures

really it doesn't work why doesn't it work but there seems to be like this uh utopian dream that it should work but why hasn't it worked well because a socialistic uh country is one that like the Department of Motor Vehicles is running everything you have these giant bureaucracies you don't have the entrepreneurs that are being creative and Innovative they're not they don't have the power to do it any longer you've got bureaucrats telling everybody What to do like when you go get your driver's license renewed that's what socialism's like across everything you get in lines

to get your food you get in lines to do everything and you have some you have these government officials determining everything and you no longer have the entrepreneurs you no longer have Innovation you no longer have creativity you no longer have this upward flow because we've damped it all down so is there any countries that are Doing it well or semi well right now doing what well like soci socially you know no communities or no there's no successes ever really so the ones that are usually held out are the Scandinavian countries but have you ever

heard you hear about like their happiness levels are way higher and things like that because but those are not social none of those Scandinavian countries are socialist really yeah Sweden was back in the 60s but if you Look at the economic freedom index which measures economic freedom all the Nordic countries are in the top 25 and three of them have more economic freedom than the United States does Denmark um Sweden and Iceland all have higher degrees of economic freedom than the United States does now remember when the covid lockdown occurred Sweden didn't even lock down

they were open exactly yeah they were lives people say we ought to Be more like those Nordic countries and I say you're right we should be do you know what the you know what the corporate tax rates are in Sweden uhuh 21% lower than it is in the United States wow did you know that in school school school choices Sweden has 100% school choice every parent gets to pick what school their kids go to really yes there's so much more freedom in Scandinavia Than People realize so they're they're thinking about the wrong Things they're thinking

now they do they have lower corporate taxes they do have higher income taxes on the average people and that's what they're focusing on but you know what i' take the higher income taxes if you'll if you'll do the rest of it too you can't just cherry-pick it and take take the one part that you want higher taxes on those rich people people sure but get rid of um of the the school choice get rid of the um lower corporate taxes get lower Get rid of Health Care stuff probably yeah yeah the heal well the health

care stuff is is what those High personal taxes are paying for yeah it's it's a longer fi to talk about the Scandinavian countries they're just not socialistic although they have a social welfare state that's more developed than ours wow okay so what's the what it was pillar number one the second pillar is that all stakeholders matter and the stakeholders Are the ones that are that have a stake in the business right but there's I always say there's two Tis of stakeholders they're the ones that have not only a stake in the business but are also

trading with the business so like customers are trading with the business employees are trading with the business suppliers are trading with the business investors are trading with the business and communities are trading with the business but say other stakeholders like Uh critics journalists government officials um uh possibly labor unions they may not be trading with the business but they do still have a stake in it so you have to so all stakeholders matter they don't all matter equally they're not all equally important but once you see that the stakeholders matter and that they're somewhat in

they are interdependent they're connected together you begin to manage the business more consciously It's like I'm creating value for not just of our not just for our investors I'm creating value for these customers for our employees employees for our suppliers for the communities that we're part of they're interdependent and then you begin to think about it differently I asked the question what's the win-win-win solution yes what's good for every stakeholder and what's the strategy where all can win um and uh if if you have a Stakeholder that's losing it's not a good strategy it'll actually

it'll come back to bite you down the road right you've set up a negative feedback loop pillar number three um that uh leaders that the leaders should be more conscious and by that I mean they should be conscious of the higher purpose they should be in service to the higher purpose and to all the stakeholders instead of just lining their pockets right I mean you see some Sometimes people spend years going up the corporate ladder and they get to finally get to be the CEO for five to seven years and all they can think about

is how do I get as much money as possible that's not conscious leadership that's not what conscious capitalism is about it's about people that are more servant leaders that are serving the organization serving all the stakeholders serving um the higher purpose of the business and finally this It's culture conscious culture human beings should flourish we should working for a business should be something where humans uh everybody that's encounters the business should should be touched in a positive way business can be this amazing Force for good in the world when it's managed in a more conscious

way and everybody it connects with feel feels better about about everything because the business is and so that's a culture so it's purpose stakeholders leadership And culture all done more consciously that's conscious capitalism when did you start to feel like you were earning more in abundance financially like what season of the business were you like wow I'm all this energy and effort and this this level of service and love and being there for stakeholders and team and customers and everyone involved like it's actually I'm seeing the fruits of my labor financially as well and so

when was that Season starting for you that was a gradual thing uhuh so I mean like again this is the book gets into some detail about this but when Renee and I started out we were so poor that we we we moved out of the co-op yeah and we moved into the store which we weren't wasn't legal for us to live there it wasn't zoned for that we lived it was an old house and we lived on the third floor of this house it was an office we didn't have a shower or bathtub or anything

we actually took Showers in the Hobart dishwasher come on yeah wow well I mean you know we were young awesome exactly adventure and we took $200 a month out of the business so we were probably getting you know we're working 70 80 hours a week so we're make far less than a dollar an hour and and um uh but we didn't you know it was fun we loving it yeah it was Adventure exactly and I remember when I when I when we got when we got we moved saferway to Whole Foods and and the new

Store was successful I we started getting paid $800 each a month 800 a month like wow and I was thinking oh my God I'm so rich rich and I you know I was getting by on a on a on a little moped I I'm G to buy a car now buy a car bought this used RX7 and um and I felt so wealthy making $800 a month but then what happened is the business continued to grow and um and I suppose I didn't really I didn't really feel super I felt wealthy when in 1992 14

years after we started the business Whole Foods did an IPO we went public and I I you know I didn't have that many shares uh because I didn't have any money when we got started but I had a little bit and I did the math on the first day of the IPO and I was now worth $7 million really I thought oh my God I'm a millionaire this is unbelievable on paper right so I think that was the first time I became conscious of the fact that wow I'm I'm I Probably don't ever have to

I'm going to keep working because I love it but I probably don't have to if I didn't want to wow and then you know and and then the big change for me was in 2006 when I decided I have enough I'll never have to worry about money ever again I have enough generational wealth and uh I just stopped taking any compensation then I never taken any I've never taken as CEO you stopped stopped taking any money at all and my stock were you taking stock Still or no the stock options that I would have received

were donated to the art our foundations wow I had enough and uh it's been that way ever since there's this um interview I saw with Jim Carrey I think it was a year or two ago where he was promoting I think his last movie and he said it was a virtual interview he said um I think I'm retiring and the interviewer said no like you're too great we need you like we'll we'll miss you and he goes You know I'm going to say something that I don't think any celebrity is willing to say and that

is I've done enough I have enough and I am enough love it and so when you said that it kind of reminded me of him you know his message and he's like I I love my spiritual life I love my art making art every day and he's like unless there's some script that really pulls me that I really want to explore in the future I think I'm done And I think it's interesting because in a world where so many people want constantly want more right and when things are hot and they're building it's like you

can keep stacking the chips and saving for a rainy day even if you have generational wealth you could keep earning more and you're Justified to as the leader and the Visionary and the CEO to receive compensation for the service and the value you're creating in the world yes that's interesting that you Decided not to I guess for the last 12 to 14 years right since 2006 so that'd be 18 years 18 years yeah so but the thing was that um for me that was one of my clearest demonstrations of of that servant leadership and I'm

serving the organization I'm serving the mission I'm serving the purpose so there's a great story and I'm going to tell you in the audience that some will have heard it but it's such a great story so the two Great writers um Kirk vut and Joseph heler were invited to this billionaire hedge fund party and uh they're they're around there and vut always being a little bit of provocator he's kind of needling um hel because hel wrote Catch 22 and he says so Joe this guy makes more money every day than you will make for all

the books you've ever sold or ever will sell he makes it every day what do you think about that heler thinks about it and he says you know What Kurt I one thing he'll never have and and Kurt says what's uh what's on he says I have enough wow yeah wow why do you think so many people feel like they don't have enough um I think that that that's that the that ring of power the the it's the Hungry Ghost it's the ego you can never have enough of what you don't really want I mean

you think you want this you think wealth will lead to happiness or if You're more famous people will love you if you have more power you can get your way these are very seductive things when what we really want is we want more love in our lives we want more connection and those other things are distractions from them you can view them as tools if you understand what they are and they're not the master we think by having those things will feel more loved yes but you know what you often times have if you have

a Lot more money is you people Envy you you don't have more love in fact you have more people hate you because you're wealthy right uh if you have more uh Fame people want to be you and they you may they may want your autograph and whatnot but in general a lot of people don't like you because you know you have more Fame than they do you're you're in this competitive relationship whether you you may not intend it but that's how they often times see interesting so what We want is if we want that more

love we want more connection with people those things can be tools or they can be addictions most people get addicted they can't get they can't get enough Fame they can't have enough money they can't have enough power you see it happen all the time and it's one of the things that you see in all the movies and television shows it's a billionaire that's trying to get another billion I've seen I've T I'm not going to name anybody I've I've Known plent ion billionaires and I've and I'm not they even close to one and these guys

uh they compare themselves to each other it's that Forbes list and they might be worth five or six billion dollars and they're but they're not they're comparing themselves to people that have you know 20 or 30 or 100 Mill billion they're like I got to get there yes exactly and in they're not satisfied they're not happy they don't have enough and I've and think about how you Have all these famous actors and celebrities and constantly trying to get more celebrity more Fame uh they date each other not just fake fake relationships get more Fame yes

exactly and um it it doesn't satisfy the soul and what if you what end up happening like if you have so much money you have to now have to have security guards because your kids might get kidnapped or you might you know you you're not even free any longer now you have to have Some bodyguards around you all the time or if you get Super Famous same thing people are always asking you for autographs asking you to sign this or do this or and you start to lose your freedom uh and power is not any

different so those things past a certain point don't enrich our lives but they trap us they create more problems they create more problems as you started to become more famous as a an an entrepreneur a CEO as Whole Foods brand Became more famous and more well known around the world um and you started to put out more more content and books and all these different things and speaking Etc and and become connected to famous people and and famous billionaires and powerful people what was the biggest I guess challenge you had to overcome in your rise

to fame success how did I resist those Temptations so to speak um because I remembered who I am and I remembered who everybody else is we're All there's utter Equity because we're all the same being we're all part of the one self and so I'm not better or more important than anyone else I'm just on this different path I'm I'm waking up my job is not to become more famous or rich or more powerful my job is is to extend more love in the world and help other people to connect to their hearts and they

extend more love that's that's the game I'm playing now and that's what and that's what my New business love life's about I might add is to is to help people be the healthiest kindest most loving versions of themselves if if someone's watching and listening right now and they're saying you know what I really want to generate more Financial Freedom from our life M and if you could give them one piece of advice on creating Financial Freedom from your perspective what would that be create more value for other people And people don't understand that money is

you get money by creating value for others and then they trade with you yeah and and so if if one of the challenges in business I'm always putting to my team is like asking this question again and again and again and again how do we create more value what are we not giving our members or our customers that would enrich their lives and make them happier make them more fulfilled and and and so as long as you're thinking about and You're constantly improving your offering to create more value then you're going to become wealthier those

go together and people separate those out and then they forget yeah and it's almost like you're going to become wealthier maybe not financially right away but you'll feel more enriched right away well you also become more financially wealthy over time if you're true creating True Value exactly young people ask me this kind of question all The time and I said well how are you going to create more value for other people because that's where the money comes from it's not about doing the bare minimum and doing the least amount it's how can I add the

most value to someone and that never ends even when you're creating value you're still asking the question how can I create even more value as long as you're focused and think about that you're making other people's lives better and you're Becoming wealthy doing it yes that is a winwin win game yes but a lot of people don't want to put it feels like work for people feels like that's hard work you have to do this for years until it pays off I don't see the results right away well that's a bad attitude I know but

that's the way a lot of people think they want the money now they want the freedom now well nobody the world does not owe you a living uh you that you will create wealth by giving to others That's what it's really about you create value for others and then they trade with you if you're not willing to do that well then you're never going to have very much money and how much how important is having a a positive attitude towards generating wealth does that help you it's Inc yes of course it does absolutely I mean

some people hold themselves back because they have guilt about money have you ever felt that guilt about earning money no well um When you see people that have a lot less or struggle or friends family or Society members to be to be uh completely honest this is something I struggled about when I was younger um and and until I really saw that the wealth that I was creating was something because I was creating value for other people and I didn't have to feel guilty about it anymore it was it was so you did feel guilty

in the beginning a little bit well yeah I took on the the values the culture has that If you have wealth that you know maybe you stole it maybe you you had you took too big a piece of somebody else's pie and I had to get my own thinking squired around that I wasn't stealing from anybody else I wasn't a crook I wasn't greedy I wasn't stealing I was creating value for people and they were exchanging with me and yeah and so they were getting they were getting better and I was getting better and and

and that's how the whole society advances That's how progress is yeah wow now the tricky thing there sometimes is it's sometimes we create we give give people what they want but it's not good for them that that is that brings us into a whole another E ethical plane right give me an example uh like if you make if you make money and you build Financial wealth giving people what they want but it's not good for them what what happens to you uh good question I'm not not sure I Have the answer for that one I

have to think about it but it it it I would say it stains you a little bit particularly for cons maybe a little bit so I mean there's good examples I mean tobacco is the best example people want tobacco it apparently makes them feel good but it destroys their health and so if you're in that business you're giving people what they want they're trading with you voluntarily but you're destroying their long-term Health yeah so uh that would Be a business I would not want to be in yeah uh but then you could say the same

thing concur with junk food for example of course or alcohol or you know whatever yes people people off or any kind of drug that that is addicting and uh people do want it and they trade with you I mean pizza for me it's like I want pizza but I know it's not the best thing for me it's like you know I could eat it every day though if I wanted it right but it's not going to make me healthy Yes unless there's some you know really healthy pizza then it's not pizza anymore it's some but

people are going to keep eating pizza of course by the way there there are ways there are healthier pizzas out there sure sure yeah yeah um so um uh that's that's the tricky thing I think it's a fair question you have to ask ethically um you know my very first store for example was a vegetarian store and it didn't sell coffee and it didn't sell alcohol And it didn't sell meat it didn't sell sugar it didn't sell meat no cheese no cheese well we did sell cheese we were we were lacto oval vegetarian um but

we did almost no business yeah because the market wasn't big enough and when we when Whole Foods when we move from safer way to Whole Foods merg with another company another small business like ours and started to sell meat started to sell seafood started to sell um alcohol coffee uh uh and some sugar um the Business took off wow and so it was like you it's the the tricky thing is is that man this is challenging you have to meet the market kind of where you find it but then Whole Foods was always trying to

urge people to to healthier options the healthier options maybe you can have give me some advice on this because for 11 years of running this show uh I've turned down so much money um I don't know if for good or if it's just stupidity but because I don't drink Alcohol I've never been drunk and it's not I'll have like a a Bailey on ice for Christmas right it's like just sip on it that's about it yeah but I don't believe in promoting something that I know is more harmful than it is good for most people

don't do it so we've never had advertisers that sell alcohol and they want to give a ton of money sure they do so it's they want they want they want you to bless it of course and you know it's like different stuff like that or You know other gambling things or whatever it might be it's like I'm trying not to endorse something that that I want to use but like you said there's a market for alcohol meat cheese processed box Foods at your your stores that maybe you didn't have originally on but it's like is

that a bad thing is it a good thing is it like you're still serving and adding value but it's the value really serving people's Souls if they're making certain choices is our Choice to to decide for them you know how do you grapple with that if it's against your values but not your customer's values well so first of all you you did phrase all that perfectly well and then by the way there's not a right answer I can't give you the right answer you have to find that answer within your own within your own soul

and and be uh and and be okay with it so I think that it's you know you know within yourself um when it's appropriate when It's not appropriate and you have to you have to come to terms with your own values and where you'll make exceptions yes and and if those exceptions are Justified it's hard to be completely pure in in this make money and make money well that's try to a certain extent that's true true so but you can you know they'll be a priest right I so this is a this is some of

I I wrestle with these questions all the time with you know I had the safer way Than Whole Foods and and uh um it's I have another saying that you should remember this one because it's a it's a cliche but it's very true the perfect is the enemy of the good perfect is the enemy of good yes you have to sometimes ask is there more net good that comes from this because if you're perfect but nobody does business with you then you haven't done any good either yeah and you can't you have thousands of employees

that you're helping their Their livelihoods and you want to be able to ser jobs and opportunities in a happy place if you weren't able to sell these things one of the reasons business is judged all the time is because business is more pragmatic it does it makes compromises to serve customers remember we're trying to create value for customers and they're trading with us and exchanging and they want things from us that may not be good for them but they so I'm I'm Trying not to force my values on everyone else if someone want you know

I I actually gave up alcohol too and a half years ago because of my Apple watch I was because I have an app called Auto sleep and I noticed I started to I wanted to get better sleep so I when I got a good night's sleep I looked at everything and went into it and first thing I discovered was exercise you want to sleep well get a lot of exercise that's going to give you deep sleep Longer sleep next thing I I I realized is that um if I eat too late it interferes with my

sleep if I eat too much and eat too late so for me for me I need to eat early and not as much at dinner lighter lighter dinners but the third thing was alcohol anytime I had even one drink of alcohol my deep sleep went to zero I got none and instead of getting like seven and a half hours of sleep I got six hours of sleep and the next day I didn't feel as good so then I Started I did this experiment costly because you know I didn't I I kind of like drinking it

was fun to do with uh friends and stuff conviviality but the facts were clear if I want to sleep well I'm not going to have any alcohol I haven't had a drink since wow and but I reserve the right that someday I may sacrifice a good night's sleep sure but so far I'd rather have a good night's sleep than have a drink what's going to impact your long-term health and your Lifespan and your health span and your energy levels and your memory also true Everything absolutely you're going to become more conscious you're going to become

more loving It's probably hard to wake up with less sleep and and be more forgiving and loving when you're exhausted is if you feel bad it's harder to be loving and forgiving you get you're more impatient you're more snappish wow that's interesting so you've had to I guess would you say You've had to make certain compromises over the years or would they not be called compromises I mean these are really good questions I'm trying I'm trying to bring it for you John so um again I don't think there's a right answer there's the an the

right answer for you wherever you're at and what if you're going to feel terrible about something don't do it it's not worth it and so and so the money It's not people will but people have to draw that line yeah and you know one of the things that because I I I you know I'm been a vegan for 21 years and PE people are always apologizing and sorry I need meet at this dinner I always say that listen I don't you eat whatever you feel is appropriate for you I'm not going to judge you because

you eat differently than I do and that you know um so our judgments are the problem and if You're going to judge yourself I said that about alcohol with people too I'll be out where people are drinking and it's like I'm not going to judge you but I'm not going to be out all night while people are drinking also I'll leave eventually you I'll tell you I'll tell you a funny story on the Alcohol because my wife she doesn't drink she's never drank anything never had alcohol in her life and I used to ask her

I said Deborah how come you don't you don't Ever want to hang out with my friends you know and she said well John it's because your friends all drink and you know you guys think you're getting funnier but actually you're getting stupider it's boring yes after a period of time it becomes boring and and she says you don't notice it because you're right along with them but when I stopped drinking I started hanging out with them I had to come home one night and I said you know you're Right true all my friends they think

they're funny and clever but they're stupid and when they're drinking yeah after two drinks the the person I'm talking with usually doesn't become funnier it becomes more exhausting and like okay they're like it's just too much so it's like if you're going to have dinner and someone's having a couple glasses of one cool but at that point all right let's let's leave let's go home let's go I've gotten to your Place it took took me a long time I wish I in fact I wish I'd stopped drinking many many years ago it was it was

part of my family all drank it in culture culture culture culture John this has been powerful and um loving all these stories I'm curious you've mentioned your wife a few times what has been the greatest lesson she's taught you about love and business so I I I in the book I get into some detail about my wife and and and from the very first day I met Her on a blind date I had a little voice tell me that she was more conscious than me and my ego freaked out about that I said n no

way I'm older I I've had more experience in this way but and then as the date first date we on it became increasingly clear I'd never been with anybody that was this conscious before and this loving well she didn't drink so that was a to right there that's right exactly I didn't drink that night either so um and so when end up you know we we We got together and although I can tell you the story in the book is very much worth reading I call this the woman in the dream because I had had

a repeat dream about her and I um you know the thing that she has taught me about love she has a she has a saying that I practice or try to practice and it's very powerful she says John don't over complicate this it's not as complicated as you think it is it's really simple just love everyone all the time wow what About people that wrong you or hurt you don't differentiate those people wow just love them too just love everybody but don't you have to create boundaries sometimes people yeah sure you do okay it doesn't

mean you don't love them right I mean it's people make this mistake that if you're they think love if you're loved you're weak people going to take advantage of you that you know you got to be tough and hard and somehow there love is this is this has been um Love is powerful love is strong you can you can be very powerful and strong fully masculine fully power powerful and loving and nobody has to take advantage of you you you you do draw your boundaries like no I don't think that would be appropriate I mean

people ask me for favors all the time and I just very lovingly and kindly say yeah no I don't think I can be able to do that I'm sorry I mean you still stay in your heart it's about where your Consciousness is at it's not and is as my wife has said many times he said you know John you can just you can be kind to people you can be loving to people while being firm and saying no those are it's not weakness to to to say it's not a weakness to say you're not saying

no or drawing boundaries does not mean you're not being in your heart or being right yeah you can still be loving and strong yes yeah in fact if you're not strong I question how loving you Really are yeah you got a lot of great stories in here it's called the whole story of adventures and love life and capitalism uh I want people to go grab a copy of this book give it to a friend check it out um excited about this you also have a a new vision Endeavor that you've been working on called love

life love.if if they want to go the website and check it out I looked at it today and I was like man I wish this was closer to my home because this is like The Ultimate Health Sanctuary it seems like can you share a little bit more about that too yeah I'm so excited about love life it's it's kind of the continuation of my my own higher purpose my own life dream uh so to speak and um it's it's we've open opening up our we've opened it but it's a soft opening it's here in in

the LA area it's in El Segundo and our our grand opening is going to be August 10th and 11th you ought to stop stop by them awesome it's When about the first 20 years that we had Whole Foods Market leis um people don't know how bad grocery stores used to be and so they' come into Whole Foods they'd say gosh this is amazing I never been in a place like this before and whole food has had this effect over time on other grocery stores they be they've began to copy us in many many ways we

had a we had a uh just changed the grocery industry we really did so when people go into love life like I've been Touring people around and friends have come by and and they go in it's like wow never been in a place like this this is incredible why has no one ever done this before I think that's what people are going to say for me many years to come the first time they going into love life and it'll also be obvious and they'll last that question this is such a good idea why isn't happen

so what's the what's the vision behind it and what is it so what is it is that we have this we Took over an old Best Buy it's very it's large it's 45,000 Square F feet wow located next next to a Whole Foods Market that is one of their best stores in Southern California wow that's cool I had this advantage of knowing all the best stores in Whole Food yes you can get to real estate the right places exactly so it's uh you come in and we have a healthy restaurant it's not a plant-based restaurant

it is but it's what we call plant forward so you can Have bowls and salads and you deci you basically decide what kind of protein you want on the on the bowl or the salad or the handheld or whatever uh that's open to the public but members will get a little discount in the restaurant and then we have uh then you then we have you check in we have this state-of-the-art fitness center we've got we're kind of into biohacking we got a lot of bio hacks in the in the through built throughout here with the

type of Equipment we're using the way it can accelerate workouts from Power plates to uh all kinds of different recovery modalities for exercise for cryotherapy we have six cold plunges set at 40 50 and 60 degrees depending on where you're at we've got um hyperbaric oxygen Chambers we've got pulsing electronic microcurrents we got lymphatic uh massage suits people can wear we've got a huge sauna huge steam room five infrared saunas we got all These recovery modalities we have three indoor pickle ball courts which are I think kind of state-of-the-art we've got a um pilat Studio

we got yoga studio we got a physical therapy Studio everything that has to do with wellness and thriving we're going to do we're going to do acupuncture Chiropractic wow um Artic medicine uh and then we have a state-of-the-art spa where you can get massages or you can get raled or you can get a facial or You can get a exfoliant scrub or whatever it's not a medical spa so you can't get BOTOX there for example right right and then we have a medical center and that's kind of the most important part of what we're doing

leis when do most people go see a doctor when they're sick exactly not preventative exactly our vision is the doctor's job is so that you never have to see a doctor you don't get these chronic people don't realize the things that kill Americans Heart disease is number one cancer is number two then you have a stroke and autoimmune diseases infectious diseases are way down the list yeah I mean Co spiked it up for a little while but but now you know it's it's tuberculosis is not a big killer any longer the flu uh pneumonia these

are still Killers but they're not you know they're usually not in even the top seven or eight for Killers so it's chronic diseases and it takes a long time for chronic diseases To develop but if you can catch it early and prevent it yes so it starts out the idea being you'll come in you'll become a member of love life and then we'll start out with a battery of test on you we need to get we need to get your Baseline established we need we're all on a health Journey we could all be healthier than

we are we just really don't even know where we are so it starts out by finding our Baseline and then working with the doctor and with The wellness coach and depending on the type of path you want to go down um to create a Precision individualized plan for you and then track it with wearables and with further testing so we can see whether you're making progress or not and we're and and uh so on the medical way we have these three different paths people can go down I know which path you would go down the

first path is if you have a chronic disease or you're or you're on your way To developing one we're gonna we want to put you on the healing track we want you to we want to heal you you can you can heal heart disease you can reverse it it's not it's not a death in it you can reverse it and you can certainly prevent it um diabetes type two diabetes is can reverse it reverse it you can do it pretty quickly actually if you're willing to make dietary Lifestyle Changes um same thing with stroke and

most autoimmune diseases are also Reversible w i mean but it we now live with autoimmune diseases increasing but there are strategies to reverse those diseases um and so that's the first track healing the second track which is the one I know you'd sign up up for is maximum performance how do you get to be exactly your absolute fittest Peak strength Peak endurance do the V2 Max we'll set goals we'll increase that um the third one is for aging Baby Boomers like myself longevity how doall Play movement yes how do we how do we increase the

um the health span and the lifespan if you ask people question would you like to be live to be 100 the general answer is hell no I don't want to be decrepit right it's like well what if you aren't decrepit what if you're just as physically active as you are right now and you have clear mind would you want to be 100 then yeah sure okay that's the longevity program yes so um did I did I mention the pickle Ball I think I did didn't I so anyway we have these customized medical we have a

con urge option but the whole idea is that to help you be the healthiest version of yourselves we're also going to be doing emotional and spiritual work with people so we're going to be doing meditation we'll be doing breath workk wow and we're going to have an emotional um program as well that we're developing right now so help people to you know most people suffer from PTSD um they Just don't even know it they don't have to been in the Marines and go to Iraq or Afghanistan we had things happened when we were kids yes

that we traumas traumas and there are ways to work through those traumas that uh breath work is one way to do it if psychedelic therapy was legal we'd be doing that and it's legal in Oregon and Colorado so if we had a siners there we'd be doing it there but there are other things that we can do other modalities and we're interested in All those things so we really want to help people become great we want them to become the best version of themselves whatever that may be help them achieve their goals and their dreams

that's amazing that's love life love life and so if people go to love.if they can see what this is all about there memberships they can go explore it and yep www. love.if that's amazing are you going to be spani into other cities too or an LA to start you know we I live in Austin so the question is why are you going to the first one in LA and it's like you know what if this idea won't work here it won't work that's La is the most advanced Market probably in the world for what we're

trying to do people people want to be healthy here they want to be they want to look good and exactly this is a very very awake place so this is the best place to prove out the concept it's exciting I'm gonna check it out for sure at some point um The whole story is the book love.if is the new Venture John I have two final questions for you before I ask them John I want to I want to acknowledge you for your journey and the lessons that you're sharing here but the the way you show

up in love and in service over the last 40 plus years in your in your business in your career and in your life I just think it's really beautiful to see and experience leaders leading in a different way where most people feel Like it has to be win lose you're all about the win-win where most people are living in fear you're living in love and so I acknowledge you for living that life obviously not perfectly and I'm sure you have breakdowns but constantly remembering who you are and living in that space so I acknowledge you

John for uh the beautiful man that you are I'm grateful that you're here leis I feel feel like you're talking to a mirror there dude that's who you are thank you Appreciate it appreciate it I hope we get stay connected after this um I've got uh two final questions this one is a question called the three truths something I ask everyone at the end of the interviews hypothetical scenario okay you get to live as long as you want you know you're part of love life so you live you well into your hundreds MH um and

you get to create and be on the journey and do whatever you want for the rest of your life MH all your dreams do Come true in reality and in the lucid dreams that you have everything it all happens for you yeah um but for whatever reason in this hypothetical scenario on your last day you have to take all of your work with you this conversation is no longer here the books you create the businesses for whatever reason it's gone so we don't have access to your information or your content anymore but you get to

leave behind three lessons and this is all you get to leave behind To the world I call it the three truths what would those three truths be for you follow your heart love everyone all the time follow your higher purpose final question John what is your definition of greatness my definition of greatness is becoming the very best version of yourself there's not enough examples for young people to say well I can achieve that and be human I can achieve that and care about the people Around me I can achieve that and actually be really really

really proud um I hope that I get to represent capitalism that's evolved you know my