Video summary
Tom Bilyeu opens his talk with a powerful distinction between inspiration and action, asserting that humans are ultimately judged by their accomplishments rather than their intentions. He shares his personal backstory to illustrate this point, revealing how he grew up in Tacoma, Washington, within a family where success was not expected; even his mother quietly assumed he would fail at college after kicking him out of the nest. Despite having terrible SAT scores—a combined 990 that Bilyeu describes as "monkeys with feces"—he managed to get into USC film school by leveraging relationships and focusing on grades rather than test results once admitted. This experience taught him a fundamental lesson about human potential: just as scientists discovered that humans possess only 20,000 genes compared to an onion's 40,000, the concept of "junk DNA" revealed our ability to adapt through epigenetics in response to environmental stressors. Bilyeu argues that we are not pre-programmed like horses but are built for maximum flexibility, capable of becoming anything based on where we allocate our time and attention. The core tactical reality of this adaptation is the necessity of working backwards from a specific goal while being willing to pay any price required to achieve it. Bilyeu recounts his journey after failing in film school, where he pivoted to teaching filmmaking and eventually joined Quest Nutrition as a copywriter despite having no background in software or security. For six and a half years, he worked around the clock without vacations, sacrificing personal time until he became the Chief Marketing Officer with ten percent equity. However, upon reaching this peak of financial success, he realized that money could not buy happiness because his quiet moments were filled with misery due to a lack of purpose or "why." He had lost connection with his wife and business partners, realizing that without a deep personal reason for what he did, the grind was unsustainable regardless of worldly achievements. Bilyeu explains that true fulfillment differs from temporary happiness; while ice cream brings joy, lasting satisfaction comes from acquiring unique skills through suffering to serve others. This realization led him to sell his company and refocus on value creation rather than profit alone. He founded Quest Nutrition with a specific mission: not merely to sell protein bars, but to end metabolic disease by creating food that was both tasty and healthy for morbidly obese individuals like his own mother and sister. The difficulty of this goal is underscored by anecdotes such as waking up at night from cramping hands caused by the physical strain of making bars by hand in Compton's rough neighborhoods, where he had to outwork rival gangs to succeed. He emphasizes that goals must be incredibly specific—his aim was to cure metabolic disease, not just sell products—and this clarity allowed him and his team to make difficult choices regarding ingredients and manufacturing processes without wavering from their vision. Ultimately, the talk concludes with a spiritual consideration of how one spends their time, urging listeners to find a deep "why" that transcends daily tasks to generate the energy needed for long-term success. Bilyeu highlights the importance of connecting with others on an emotional level so they feel inspired and willing to fight alongside you, noting that he hired ex-convicts because he showed them it didn't matter who they were today but only who they could become if they paid the necessary price. He references Robert Kiyosaki's concept of "minding the gap" between current reality and future potential, stating that this internal fire is what drives adaptation and growth. By aligning actions with a specific goal rooted in serving others, individuals can unlock limitless human potential, transforming their lives from scrounging for gas money to building billion-dollar businesses while positively impacting countless other lives along the way.
Read the full video transcript
all right what's up everybody
[Applause]
all right you guys ready we're gonna
have some fun we're gonna take the
energy get a little bit crazy I want to
make sure that you guys end this on a
high note
and honestly I will be wildly
disappointed in myself if all I managed
to do in this is inspire or motivate you
at the end of this talk I will consider
myself a failure if that's all that
happens I will consider it a win on the
other hand if you guys go out and
actually take action and at the end of
the day all of us were not judged by our
intentions we are judged by what we
actually accomplish and your
accomplishments are going to be entirely
determined by what you actually do and
my talk is going to be about that how to
take action exactly what action is made
up of and why it's critical to recognize
that humans lead with belief and so at
the end of this talk hopefully I will
get you guys to understand why right now
you have everything that you need
already to believe in yourself to be
capable to do something that is truly
extraordinary and we're gonna walk
through that path but for my talk to
make any sense I'm gonna have to give
you guys a little bit of my backstory
not that I can see a whole lot but does
anybody familiar with me prior to seven
seconds ago when you learned that I wake
up Wow well I'm completely shocked by
that thank you by the way
so to give those of you who don't know a
little bit of background my story goes
like this
growing up I did not show any signs of
success my parents taught me to be a
good employee which I'll like into the
slaves mentality to keep my head down do
as little work as possible and avoid
punishment at all costs and that's how I
started I grew up in a family in Tacoma
Washington the teeter between
blue-collar and white-collar and I was
being trained to be a good employee and
when I left for college my own mother
who's always been my biggest cheerleader
I think that's important to recognize
just quietly assumed I was going to fail
and every day since I left by the way my
mom all but forced me to go to college
kicked me out of the nest was only one
of I think two people to leave the state
for my graduating class everybody else
stayed home I wanted to stay home and my
mom said you need to go chase your
dreams but then every moment since then
my mom has done everything she can to
get me to move
to Tacoma and so finally one day I asked
her and I said mom I really don't get it
like why you were the one that pushed me
you were the one that kicked me out so
why are you working so hard to get me
back and she said with no malice in her
heart I just assumed you were going to
fail I assumed you were gonna fail and
come home but I never wanted you to ask
what if I have the chills on my face
remembering that because that's the
human condition there is something
inside of us that we all recognize it
says we could do more we could be more
we are capable of becoming something but
it's that path to becoming that we don't
really understand and it's that path to
becoming that I want to talk about today
I love the theme of this event pivot
making a change while keeping your
Center that to me really is what life is
all about but that's that's the height
now how do we get into the tactical
realities of that and to explain that
I'm going to walk you through some of my
story so my story starts when I go to
film school USC film school
statistically speaking is harder to get
into than Harvard Law and I managed to
get in I had taken one of the teachers
out who was on the acceptance committee
and I said look I have really terrible
SAT scores I got a 990 on my SATs by the
way I took it twice that is my combined
score monkeys with feces just rubbing it
on their get better scores than that and
I was mortified I went to the committee
to find out what I needed to do to get
into film school which was my dream the
thing that I most wanted in this world
and they said hey as long as you've got
good grades and you have a 1,300 on your
SATs no problem and I was devastated
because I was so far from that so I took
one of the teachers out and I said look
I have a confession I got really bad SAT
scores
I took it twice look I'm just not good
on testing law the whole story and he
was like oh who cares he was like
there's two points of acceptance once as
an incoming freshman we're yeah we look
at your SAT scores but the other is as
an incoming junior and then we don't
care about your SAT scores which are
merely meant to tell us how well you do
in college so I'm just gonna look your
raids so if you get good grades I'm not
even gonna look at the rest of your
application cool so I locked myself in
my dorm room for two years I didn't date
I didn't drink a drop of alcohol I
didn't go to a party all I did day and
night was work and I studied because my
problem was my mom was right I did show
signs of early success people that were
looking at me expecting me to fail that
moment but what they didn't understand
about me what they didn't understand
about the human animal is our ability to
adapt grow and get better the most
fascinating thing to come out of science
in a long time was when they sequenced
the human genome and they realized and
by the way they thought they were gonna
solve everything they thought they were
gonna cure cancer they thought this was
gonna be the end of chronic aging like
all of the diseases that we struggle
with now they thought they were all just
gonna go away once we sequence the human
genome that was gonna be it it was gonna
be like a map to Xanadu was gonna be
amazing and then they did it and what
they discovered was humans only have
20,000 genes and some onions have 40,000
so they're literally looking at the data
going are we really meant to believe
that an onion is more genetically
complex than a human being how can this
be possible
oh and by the way they were ignoring all
of this stuff that they were calling
junk DNA now it didn't take them long to
realize that that junk DNA plays a role
we are without question the most
dominant species this world has ever
seen we're an apex predator unlike
anything you can find us in the Marianas
Trench which is the deepest part of the
ocean you can find this in the Arctic we
have literally sent human beings to the
moon and what that junk DNA really is is
epigenetics now it's just a fancy word
for we respond to our environment
and more aptly we respond to stress in
our environment anybody ever seen a
professional bodybuilder no okay a
professional bodybuilder how it looks
human to me they are
it's unbelievable what they're able to
do but they show in a very real and
tangible way what you can do to the
human body when you understand how to
put it under stress now if you've ever
been to the gym you know that the real
money is in tearing the muscle down not
building it up you actually build up the
muscle while you're sleeping based on
what you've eaten so the act of
bodybuilding of actually going into the
gym is an act of tearing down so they
can create the stress so that your body
can respond now if you remember nothing
else from my talk remember this humans
are the ultimate adaptation machine just
by being human each and every one of you
is capable of great change who you are
today does not predict who you can
become who you can become is the answer
to a very simple question what do you
want and what price are you willing to
pay to get there what do you want and
what price are you willing to pay to get
there Kobe Bryant one of the greatest
athletes of our time would show up on
game day and if he saw anybody else at
the gym as early as him even though he
was always the first on the court he
would end up practicing longer than that
person and I had the honor of
interviewing one of those people one
time and he said I went up in ask OB
Kobe we have a game in an hour like what
are you doing out here practicing so
long and Kobe said I needed you to know
that I was willing to outwork you and in
that game they ended up winning and that
lesson stuck with that guy forever when
you're willing to put in the work when
you're willing to take control of your
environment and put yourself through the
stressors we're
acquired for adaptation you literally
can become anything and my life is proof
of that
so I stand here as one of the founders
of a company company called quest
nutrition that we took from not existing
to being valued over a billion dollars
five years later thank you that was the
guy whose mother not too long before
that just quietly assumed he was going
to fail at college but what I began to
understand is that I could harness that
ability to adapt that we can learn in
any direction Nature has to make a
choice with any species option number
one pre program everything think of a
horse when a horse is born it comes out
it can already run jump take care of
itself and then option to be built for
maximum flexibility be able to adapt to
your environment a horse is a horse no
matter where you put it but a human
depending on when and where it's born
depending on what it allocates its
resources to its time and attention it
can turn into a basketball player a
neuro physicist a parent a coach a
hairstylist you literally get to choose
you get to decide what it is that you
want to be good at and I want you to
think about the first time that you
picked up a pair of scissors you didn't
know what you were doing it didn't feel
like it was an extension of your hand
but now when you step into that role
when you show up the way that everything
feels the way that you set it around
your station it's all like it was meant
to be it flows you know right where
things are how to cut somebody's hair
depending on the texture of the hair the
length the quality the age of the person
what they've done to it you know it all
you know how to mix colors all of that
stuff is from training but the irony is
people don't stop and think about hey I
got this far in this thing simply by
allocating the time
energy where else could I go could I
pivot and the answer to that question is
yes the human-animal is designed to
adapt that is literally what we are
sculpted to do for me the piece of
advice that I always give to somebody
whether it's an entrepreneur or somebody
who wants to be the greatest parent of
all time what is your goal you've got to
start with your goal
everything works backwards from that for
me I wanted to get rich and the irony is
when I started on my entrepreneurial
journey I was literally saying that's
people I want to get rich I just want to
make a bunch of money and so I started
as a copywriter in a technology company
because I had failed to make it in film
school I actually ended up doing
horrific lis and I at the end of film
school I felt broken embarrassed lost I
had no idea where I was going but I
started teaching filmmaking and as I was
teaching that class I realized wow I
don't know enough to teach these
students I need to like research at
night and practice to be able to come in
and present this material and a weird
thing happened as I started doing that I
was actually learning a lot more and so
I was able to convey that to the
students and I was able to help the
students make their films better and it
made me realize whoa there's this weird
reciprocal loop the harder I work over
here then go and explain it they
actually can take that knowledge and put
it to use building skill sets getting
better at something and I started
thinking is that something that I could
do for myself and at that moment these
two very successful entrepreneurs walk
into my class and at that time I was
obsessed with two things I wanted to get
rich and I wanted six-pack ABS
now I grew up in a morbidly obese family
so for me that was real man and I used
to be 60 pounds heavier than I am now
and I wanted those six-pack ABS man I
just had no idea I was gonna get it and
I remember the first time that somebody
told me I think you already have abs
it's just under the fat and I thought
what like that doesn't make sense
because I had done like a bunch of
crunches and I'm like I still don't see
them so I don't know what the problem is
maybe it was all the licorice I had a
thing so these two guys walk in very
accomplished entrepreneurs ripped six
pack AB bodybuilder types and they said
hey you're coming to the world with your
hand out if you want to control your art
you have to control your resources so if
you want to get back in the saddle and
actually become a filmmaker you're going
to have to learn to control the
resources so come with us be a
copywriter but understand this is a
startup you can have any role in the
company that you want you just have to
become the right person for that job and
so I took them at their word and I
pivoted and I left my teaching career
which had safety and I looked to my wife
and I said this may fail but I've got to
at least give it a shot and my wife said
the words have become famous for me
which is I bet on you thank you
now what my wife was betting on wasn't
that I already knew how to do what they
wanted me to do because she knew I
didn't what she was betting on in me is
the same thing that each and every one
of you have which is the ability to
learn and so I went into it knowing I
was not the right person for any job in
that company I never been in a company
like that before I've been totally
focused on film this was software it was
security software it was nothing that I
had any interest in but I wanted to get
rich and so I did it and for six and a
half years I put my head down like those
early days in my dorm room and I worked
my ass off around the clock I didn't
take vacations meaning if I went
somewhere I would literally guys this is
real I would take a camera so that I can
watch what was going on back at the
facility I was always working around the
clock and at six and a half years I was
so different than where I started I had
worked my way up I was now the chief
marketing officer of the company they
had given me ten percent equity in the
company I was now on paper a
multi-millionaire I had done what I set
out to do I was capable of things that I
never would have believed that I could
do running a team building a website
online advertising marketing all things
that I didn't know I didn't even know
when I started the difference between
sales and marketing I had no idea what
the difference was but here I was now
the chief marketing officer of a company
that was winning awards it was making
money standing in this beautiful
conference room overlooking the Pacific
Ocean and I realized I'm miserable and
I've been miserable for a long time and
I learned a really powerful lesson that
I want you guys all to think about right
now
the goal that I had did not take me
where I wanted to go I was living the
cliche of money can't buy happiness and
I began to realize the game were all
playing it's not success it's not money
it's brain chemistry to sum it up in the
simplest way possible the only thing in
this life that
matters the only thing in this life that
matters is what you think about in your
most quiet moments about yourself when
you're all alone and the only thing you
have are your thoughts if in that moment
regardless of your worldly success you
feel good about who you are you feel
good about what you've done and how
you've touched other people's lives you
feel good about what you're striving for
and trying to accomplish you feel good
that in the times when it got hard if it
mattered to you you pushed through that
matters that matters a lot
but the money doesn't matter and so I
quit and I realized I was just not
interested in living a life no matter
how much money there was were in my
quiet moments I felt like I was wasting
my life I felt like I wasn't helping
people I felt like I wasn't connected I
wasn't connected to my wife I'd been
ignoring her for years I felt like I
wasn't connected to my business partners
anymore it was all just about the money
I didn't have a why who knows simon
Sinek they get out for Simon
all right Simon and I did a video that
essentially broke the internet about
Millennials somebody watched it what got
Simon on the world stage is this whole
concept of why you've got to know why
you're doing what you're doing if you're
just showing up every day to cut and dye
hair to keep your lights on you're gonna
have far less energy to make it through
the hard times than somebody who is
there to help transform somebody to help
make somebody their best to help them
feel their best and I hope that you guys
saw that video not too long ago of the
hairdresser that went around and he was
doing makeovers on homeless people right
man it was incredible it was so
beautiful the look on their face at that
moment where they see themselves for the
first time in front of the mirror and
they are seeing something totally new
they're seeing a version of themselves
that they did not know
there and the ability to give that gift
like it is so easy to get lost in the
day-to-day grind of what you do what any
of us do but if at the core Ivan Yu is a
deep and unending why for what you're
doing you've got something now you've
got a chance to transcend what you're
doing and the way that happens is very
tactical it has nothing to do with like
whoo being on the air it's none of that
you're gonna have the energy that you
need to fight through people always ask
me how I generate energy there's two
ways number one take care of your body
there's just no way around that at the
end of the day it's a biological thing
that's going on the production of ATP
and the second thing is you need to be
excited about the future that you're
trying to create and when I went in and
quit even though I had millions of
dollars in equity and I was making more
than I'd ever made I quit because I
didn't have a why I didn't have anything
that gave me the energy to keep pushing
I didn't have excitement for what I was
doing anymore
my partners were stunned totally took
him by surprise
I'm driving home I called my wife and I
say I did it
I quit like we're actually we were gonna
move to Greece we're gonna live for
cheap on some beach somewhere and I was
gonna write and that was gonna be that
and then I am pulling into the driveway
of my condo and my phone rings and it's
my partners and out of love and respect
I take it I say hey baby give me a
second I'm gonna take this they're
calling and they said come out to dinner
with us and I went out and they said
look we could do this without you but we
don't want to and that was all I needed
to reconnect to something other than
money
and I remembered for a minute these were
guys that I loved these were people that
I had gotten to know through good times
through bad times through the hard times
to the excitement of the company growing
and in connecting to something other
than the money I was finally able to
really see and understand what it wasn't
motivated me and I confessed to them
that money was not my highest priority
in business my highest priority was
camaraderie
I wanted to connect I wanted to bring
something of value to the customer I
wanted to think about the customer I
wanted to be myself and I wanted to
market in a way that was inclusive and
created a community and in that
community we could do something more
than just sell products and so we
decided to sell that company because
they felt the same and they wanted to do
something based on passion they wanted
to have the energy and excitement to see
things through and for three very
different reasons we decide to form
quest nutrition now as I mentioned I
grew up in a morbidly obese family so
for me I was never gonna chase money
again and I told them that I was only
gonna focus on value creation and it had
to be something that I had a deep and
personal connection to so for me I
started thinking every day about saving
my mom and my sister my mom and my
sister both morbidly obese and have been
essentially my entire life and I knew
that I was going to lose them too soon
if I couldn't solve the problem of how
they ended up there I wanted to give
them food that they could choose based
on taste and it happened to be good for
them now that doesn't sound hard let me
assure you that it is very hard and
there was one point in my life while we
were making the bars by hand and it was
so hard and so painful that I would wake
up this is a true story I would wake up
in the middle of the night with my hands
cramping closed that's a weird way to
wake up let me just say right now but I
wanted it that bad now we started
producing the bars in Compton and on the
line this is another true story on the
line we had Bloods and Crips
and in the middle of it you got the
crazy white guy now the reason that
worked was because I was prepared to
outwork everybody else I knew exactly
what I wanted
I had my why I had my goal and it was
very specific and this is the thing
about goals they have to be incredibly
specific and my goal was to end
metabolic disease not sell a lot of
protein bars that was not the goal I
wanted to end metabolic disease and that
informed every choice that we made as
entrepreneurs every time that we had to
answer a hard question one that might
impact profitability or how late we are
gonna have to work or what we were gonna
have to do and it almost always was
difficult including by the way we had to
become our own manufacturers which we
did not want to do we wanted to
outsource it we just wanted to be
marketers but nobody would make the bar
for us or they would but they said that
we had to add sugar to it and we asked a
simple question will that help and
metabolic disease yes or no if yes we'll
do it if no we won't
and it wouldn't so we didn't it starts
with that specific goal and then because
I had my why my hands cramping closed in
the face of doing something to save my
mom and my sister it was not a hard
choice in fact I wouldn't have been able
to look myself in the eye and say I was
not able to help them because it was
hurting my hands right it sounds
ridiculous when you say it like that but
most people don't have a personal tie to
what they're doing mother Teresa has an
amazing quote no one will act for the
many but people will act for the one and
so as you guys go into your jobs and you
think about what you're trying to do
find a way to stop making it a job find
a way to make it a calling of vocation
something that really meets that why
your desire to connect or do something
great for people which by the way when I
say that the game that you're playing is
brain chemistry what I'm talking about
is fulfillment there's a difference
between happiness and fulfillment a bowl
of ice cream brings me happiness it does
not bring me fulfillment fulfillment is
often born of suffering fulfillment is
about do
the things that are hard in fact the
Greeks have a word for it it's called
technique technique means that you
acquire a set of skills that is unique
to you the acquisition of those skills
was very difficult and here's the
important part those skills serve other
people to me I believe that the very
reason that we're all here is to see how
many skills we can acquire that have
utility and then put that utility to the
test in service of others that's gonna
be the thing that lights you will fire
the your busting your ass you're really
getting good at something you were
taking action you're moving forward
you're doing the things you need to
learn to do to learn and trigger that
adaptation response that humans have
you're putting yourself under the stress
you've identified a goal you're working
your way backwards to where you are
today
and that's the key it's what I call
minding the gap there's a gap between
who you are today and who you will need
to become in order to execute against
you'll why that thing in you that's
burning that you really care about
enough to get across the finish line
that you care about enough to keep doing
even when it's making your hands cramp
clothes that you care about enough even
when you've got to come in and work
between rival gang members it's the
thing that you care about enough that
you really will work so hard that the
rival gang members fall in line behind
you because you're leading by example
thank you
and that became my mission every day I'm
gonna show up and outwork everybody I'm
gonna be the first one here I'm gonna be
the last one to leave and most
importantly guys I really hope you were
listening to Robert JAL Dini
whose books I have read and all but
memorized the key is you want to connect
with them you want them to fall in love
with you you want them to be inspired
you want them to feel better about
themselves from there around you then
when they're not and if you can pull
that off they will go to war for you and
in the beginning when all we could do
because we didn't know production we
just had to throw human capital at it
and I needed people they're not kidding
at 2:00 a.m. on a Friday night I had a
bunch of ex-convicts in their early 20s
with the tattoos on the face the
teardrop and all that grinding it out to
make protein bars because I gave them
hope because I showed them that it
doesn't matter who they are today it
only matters who they're trying to
become and the price that they're
willing to pay to get there and so when
you guys walk out of here that's what
you've got to ask this whole theme of
pivoting this whole theme of keeping
your center is about knowing what you
want and believing you can make it a
reality but the only way to make it a
reality is to put in the work you've got
to put in the work the change is hard
the change is difficult the change will
demand everything of you but man if
inside you really believe in what you're
doing you really see how you can get to
that goal that you want if you really
see how you can serve other people doing
what you do with this skillset that
you've worked your ass off to acquire
then you can actually make change in
people's lives and that's what motivates
me getting the skills has real-world
implications it took me from scrounging
in my couch cushions to find enough
chain
to put gas in my car to building a
billion-dollar business
it is absolutely limitless what you can
accomplish now think about that if
that's really true if what I just said
is true that human potential is
limitless then how you spend your time
becomes a spiritual consideration so
when you guys part from here one stay in
touch with each other because you're
gonna need that because if you're gonna
start pushing the limits if you're gonna
show how much somebody in your position
can influence other people's lives if
you're gonna show people the power of
what you do if you're going to show
people the depths to which you can touch
another human's life if you've seen the
look on somebody's face who's been
transformed by what you've done by them
to see them transform their vision of
themselves and to watch them before your
eyes go from believing that they can't
do something to realizing that they can
but they have untapped stores of
potential that moment is so beautiful I
would say you should be willing to pay
any price so go out and do it thank you
[Applause]
[Music]