Moment 10 - Jake Humphrey On The Building Blocks Of Success

00:03what's the what are the biggest misconceptions about you that i'm just sort of lucky to be where i am like i don't really i believe in fate and i think i was really fortunate to get that first opportunity to go to rapture tv and start my broadcasting career but i don't think that luck has really played a part in getting me to this point now you know i think i've sort of worked out the building blocks to success and i think that anyone can do it i think anyone listening to this podcast and who and obviously they are the kind of people that are minded towards success anyway because they listen to this and this is what this for me anyway this is what your podcast is all about i listen to it all the time i think it's about success no matter what you talk about for me it's about success and i think that um i honestly believe that anyone anyone can get their hands on success why is it that some people don't become successful some normal people like you that when you know crap in school why is it that those people that therefore don't become successful and why jake humphries who also was a very normal kid in school when tom to become successful that's really the point i'm trying to get to is is what's the

01:12the is it a mindset difference is it i think we have to be really careful right when we talk about this because i think we both have been successful but that doesn't mean that just because it's happened to us then then um it's something that's really simple and and it can be achieved by anybody it's almost like just because i'm just we think it's the same rule for everybody else i don't think that i don't think that success comes from expecting it to arrive i think that you can be successful if you know the trick to being successful.

01:49Does that make sense? And I think the trick, personally, I think the trick to being successful is an absolute rock-solid responsibility for every single minuscule part of your life. And I sometimes really struggle to explain this point to people. And I mean total responsibility, total, 100% responsibility for absolutely everything, even things that are not your responsibility. because I don't see any benefit with putting the blame for any part of your life onto anybody else because it's not other people's job to sort that life out, right?

02:23It's only yours. So there might be, let's take you as a prime example, right? Maybe it kind of was your fault, but let's say when you left university, right? It wasn't your fault, yeah? It's still your responsibility to deal with that. Of course. What about all the times when you were trying to get success and you're in your late teens, early twenties and you, you didn't manage it. Right. Yeah. Not necessarily your fault, but still your responsibility to keep going to the next thing.

02:50Um, and then when things do start going well, it might not be your fault that they've gone well. It might just be that the time was right. But then again, it's your responsibility to take control of that. And I just think if people can get into a mindset where absolutely everything is totally on them and on nobody else, it's almost like a door was open. And I thought, oh my goodness that's that's the thing i have to take responsibility for everything and as soon as i do that then it leaves no excuses and how you're raised it plays a huge huge role because i now you've said that i was in my head i was thinking about how much i was raised with that almost accidentally the fact that when i'd wake up in the morning my parents weren't there and when i went to sleep at night they still were at work yeah every day for about seven eight years from the age of 10 to 18 and i was explaining on a podcast yesterday that um made this connection in my mind that if I was going to have anything, it was me that was going to do it, even my pack lunch in the morning. And so I went off into the world with this mindset that because my parents created this massive void, that everything I was going to get was on me. I wasn't going to get Christmas or

03:51birthdays. I wasn't going to get two pounds in the morning for lunch. It was your responsibility. It was my responsibility to feed myself. And actually, for me, that was really liberating because it made the whole world attainable to me in a weird way. When you believe that, you know, Santa Claus is going to show up and present things under the Christmas tree. When did that moment come though? When did you... I was 14 years old, I think. I remember I went off to London to do the Junior Apprentice for the BBC and my parents didn't know I'd left the house.

04:18And I was there for a day and a half and I was 14. See, this is where you were so different to me though. Because at 14 years of age, I was still watching cartoons that were probably good for eight-year-olds. You know, I was not a smart, worldly-wise kid at 14 who would have taken myself to London to go on the apprentice and try and be on there i i was a really like super late developer but i think what i had similar to you was not just a genuine sort of work ethic for my parents but genuine rock solid foundations to start my life from and it's hard to even say exactly what they are but we talk about in my family about giving your kids roots and wings and it's about getting that balance right with giving your kids roots so they know that whenever there is a problem i mean i often say to my kids whatever and they're only little they're four and seven but one of the phrases i like to sort of instill in them is listen i'll always leave a light on in other words wherever you go whatever life does for you however far away you are from home there's a light on here and you you'll get back here if you look for that and you and you come and find it and i had that from my parents at a really young age that feeling that i've got my

05:29roots here and i think once you've got that then then it's possible to extend your wings and to go right i reckon i'm brave enough because it's quite tentative little steps when you're in your teens right i'm brave enough to go to london and do an apprentice audition because i can go i know i can come home i know i've got my roots there i know there's a light on for me sure and that's i think that's absolutely vital do you feel successful no not really um i don't feel successful and this is something that i try and explain to a lot of people you know when you say what do people think of you and I say, oh, I think they probably think I'm smug or whatever.

05:59I think that people assume that if you've done the things that I've done or the things that you've done, that it feels different, right? I feel like the same kid that grew up in Stoke Holy Cross, a little village on the outskirts of Norwich. I feel no different. I haven't had a buzz as exciting as when in 2001 I bought an MGF sports car. I paid £9,750 for it and I bought it from an old man in Colchester and I remember him still to this day turning on the light switch in his garage and the light thing flicking on and there's this green MG car I was on children's BBC at the time and it was the first thing I'd ever really bought for myself despite everything that's happened since I've never had that feeling of wow that is a real sense of achievement and it's almost like the longer it goes on it almost goes the other way have you ever seen Hamilton in the west end uh three times i've seen it twice it's the greatest musical ever and you know the song there's a million things i haven't done yeah it's almost like the more i do and the more i see the more i realize what i haven't achieved so i was watching miss americana the other day on netflix and i think my wife was watching it thinking oh this is great this is nice and i'm

07:14watching it thinking shit man how have i not been as successful as that i need how do i get there what do I do and that's I suppose why I love my job I love conversations like this because I think that you know everyone can can give you that little bit of information about what they've done in their life and that's why I like sitting with you know high achieving sports people because all I care about is that that high achieving mindset that they've had has it ever been somewhat anticlimactic things you've achieved because because they didn't you expected them to feel like euphoria and and like a finish line or a mountaintop but they they didn't quite feel that way so it felt somewhat anticlimactic yeah yeah i think you're absolutely right i what i would say is i get a real buzz out of doing my job but i really love being a tv presenter i really like the the mental challenge of hearing seven or eight voices in my ear while i'm at a big sports event with 60 or 70,000 people and I'm trying to navigate through and get us out the other side and get the best out of the pundits and come off air to the exact second.

08:20I love the challenge of that and I really enjoy the journey. But I don't think that I've ever, I think part of the problem is I don't feel like I've got to where I'm going yet. And so therefore I've never had that moment of euphoria where I think, oh my goodness, I've done it. This is amazing. This is me. Doesn't that concern you to some degree? Because it sounds like that's a place you will never arrive at. possibly but i am still enjoying the journey on the way i don't feel i've had my moment yet and i don't feel i've had that moment where i go yes that was wonderful but i absolutely live with the mantra of savor it every single minute of every day um i try and make the most of it you know