The 5 am club

Man and Superman
, a four-
act drama that he produced in 1903. All I’m trying to say is this: when it
comes to fulfilling your gifts, talents, admirable ambitions and instinct to
change the world in whatever way most resonates with you, never, ever be
reasonable with yourself.”
The billionaire paused. And then did something his two students had not
seen anyone do before. He kissed the area of flesh between the index finger
and thumb of his left hand. “You gotta love yourself before you can lift the
world, by the way,” he muttered with a grin before proceeding with his
mentoring.
“Inspiring,” the artist admitted. “What George Bernard Shaw said.”
“Research proves that training yourself so your willpower becomes
maximized is one of the crowning achievements of an epic life,” the
billionaire continued. “The Welsh explorer Henry Morton Stanley observed
that self-control is more indispensable than gunpowder.”
“Definitely inspiring,” the entrepreneur echoed.
“Look,” said the billionaire. “It’s such a myth that celebrated athletes and
legendary artists and revered statesmen and stateswomen had more natural
willpower than the rest of us. That’s just a big lie. What’s real,” he declared,
“is that these exceptionalists began as ordinary people. And through relentless
practice and constant drilling to wire in excellent daily habits, their power to
manage themselves against their cravings and temptations grew stronger until

---

the culture perceived them as superhumans.”
“Small, daily, seemingly insignificant improvements, when done
consistently over time, yield staggering results,” commented the artist,
happily reciting the valuable brain tattoo that he’d embraced on this wondrous
journey.
He reached over and grasped the hand of the entrepreneur.
“That’s right,” acknowledged the billionaire. “What looks to the human
eye like invisible and infinitesimal optimizations around your willpower—
when performed daily—are what make you into a Michelangelo or a da Vinci
or a Disney or a Chopin or a Coco Chanel or a Roger Bannister or a Pelé or a
Marcus Aurelius or a Copernicus over extended periods of training. The true
geniuses all started out as ordinary people. But they practiced building up
their strength so much and so often that showing up at world-class became
automated. Here’s another brain tattoo The Spellbinder taught me: 
Legendary
performers practice being spectacular for so long that they no longer
remember how to behave in non-spectacular ways.
”
“So, practically speaking, where do we start?” the entrepreneur asked.
“Because I know both of us want a lot more self-discipline, and to have
excellent habits that last a lifetime. Especially getting up at 5 
AM
.”
“Follow me,” instructed the industrialist.
Mr. Riley led them down a corridor of the monument, past a series of dim
rooms and into a small chamber. In one corner sat a blackboard. The
billionaire picked up a piece of chalk and proceeded to draw this diagram:

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“This simple model is based on the latest studies on how habits are
formed,” he began. “Your starting point is to create some kind of a trigger. To
embed the early-rising ritual into your mornings, this could be as simple as
having an old-school alarm clock next to your bed that goes off at 5 
AM
.
When we get to Rome, I’ll explain why you shouldn’t have any technology in
your bedroom.”
“Rome?” the entrepreneur and the artist exclaimed at the same time.
The billionaire ignored them.
“Once you’ve got the trigger of your alarm clock in place, the next step—
as you can see from my diagram—is to run the routine you want to encode.”
“So, we just get out of bed, right?” queried the entrepreneur.
“Yup,” said the billionaire. “It sounds obvious, but jump straight out of
bed before your reasoning mind—the prefrontal cortex—can give you a
bunch of excuses about why you should go back to sleep. It’s in this very
moment that, by getting out of bed, you build the early-rising neural circuit in
your brain through the power of neuroplasticity. And remember: brain
pathways that fire together wire together into a potent neural highway, over
time. It’s in the very instant when you’re faced with staying on the mattress or
standing up and starting your morning in a great way that you have the chance
to make your willpower stronger. It’s uncomfortable at the start, I know.”

---

“All change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end,”
interrupted the artist, reinforcing another of The Spellbinder’s brain tattoos.
“Yes,” agreed the billionaire. “The next step of the four-part pattern to
program in a new ritual is to make sure you have a preset reward in place. The
reward is what kickstarts and then grows your drive to get the new habit done.
Always use the power of rewards for the advancement of your triumphs. So,
let’s assume you do what you know to be right instead of following what’s
easy and sprint out of bed fast—as soon as the alarm goes off. I’ll explain
exactly what to do during your Victory Hour from 5
to 6 
AM
when I walk you
through