Stanford GSB Last Lecture 2024 - How To Live Your Life At Full Power — Graham Weaver

Case guests get a few minutes at the end of class to offer advice to students—and I decided the next time my case was taught, I was going to use that time to talk about overcoming fear of failure. I spent 60 hours writing those five minutes, editing again and again. But it worked. Students started reaching out for coaching; I was invited to do lect... See more

Instead of waiting decades to chase my dream of teaching, hoping for a perfect readiness that would never come, I committed to throwing my energy into it right away.

In 22 years of teaching, no student has ever said, “I’m not going to do the thing I’m excited about.” But what I do hear all the time are the two most dangerous words: “Not now.” We tell ourselves we’ll go for it as soon as we pay off our loans. Then it’s after the wedding’s over. Then once the kids are older. And before you know it, “not now” has ... See more

I suggested Sarah write down what scared her about starting a company—because fears are most powerful when they’re stuck in our subconscious. Then we walked through each one. Sure enough, when we were finished, she was fired up. She said, “I want to go all in. As long as it takes.”

The second option is to ask yourself: “Which life would I choose if I knew I wouldn’t fail?” Then go do it. By telling the voice of fear to be quiet, you get in touch with your most dear dream—and I would argue that’s the path you should be on.

“The advice to follow your passion can be intimidating at best and harmful at worst.”

Instead, I recommend you follow whatever’s currently giving you energy. Imagine you have nine lives to choose from—but you can’t go back in time. They all start today. The first life is whatever you’re doing right now. The other eight are things you would jump out... See more

At other times, we know the nail exists, but we don’t pull it out because of one universal truth: Everything we want is on the other side of “worse first.” Change is uncomfortable, and moving from one plateau to the next on the mountain of life usually starts with a downward climb. But remember, you will eventually get to climb up, too. So whatever... See more

Nails can be bad habits, unresolved past experiences, self-imposed rules and assumptions, or—most often in my case—fear. I’ve had the “fear of leaving my job” nail and the “fear of leaving a relationship” nail. I’ve had to pull out the nails of alcohol and caffeine. Lately, I’ve been working on one about death and mortality. Anything that’s paralyz... See more

Energy vs. Fear

In two decades of teaching, I’ve realized there are actually two conflicting voices inside each of us. The first has been called many things: intuition, the soul, God, the universe. It’s the one I heard on that run. The other is our survival instinct. It’s the source of worry, doubt, and anxiety—where “fight or flight” comes from. I... See more