Many believe that if a person is successful in one area that means one must sacrifice success in another, but this is not true. However, it is rare. I have worked with hundreds of extremely successful people from CEOs of Billion Dollar institutions to the top scientists of their field and world champion athletes. In my experience, if I find an individual who is wealthy, this person often sacrifices health from lack of exercise or poor diet. If I find an individual who is very healthy, sometimes this person does not work hard enough on their career. If I find a person who is healthy and wealthy, sometimes this person does not spend enough time with family. Dr. Rob Wilson is one of those rare individuals that possess pig-headed determination to be successful in several areas of life. Here is a brief synopsis of his accomplishments.

a. 1% of 10% of 1% – Less than 1% of people have a Ph. D. or M.D. degree. Of all medical doctors, around 10% become surgeons. Of all surgeons, less than 1% work at a world class hospital. Dr. Rob is an orthopedic surgeon who works at Cedar-Sinai Hospital which is one the best medical facilities on Earth.

Association of American Medical Colleges
b. You might think this has interfered with Dr. Rob having other activities, but you would be mistaken. He won the 2005 World Brazilian Jiujitsu Championship in the Master Black Belt Division. Getting a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu takes an average of over 10 years. Becoming World Class is another game altogether. At the gym, he is known as the Cyborg. He is nearly 60 years old and still beats nearly all of the younger athletes. He also competes in sail boating, climbs mountains and travels the world.

c. He has four amazing children and is a great father and husband.

d. His financially quite successful and owns his own company and works independently with Cedar-Sinai on his own terms.

e. He is generous. Giving everyone who meets him his personal cell phone number and helping out with their medical needs as much as he can. He volunteers and coaches at his child’s school and is involved with charity work.

The above is not to endorse this doctor as I have no financial relationship with Dr. Rob. It is to demonstrate that cross-sectional success is very possible. I have known Dr. Rob for over 15 years, and I decided to interview him for this book. We discussed many philosophies that have been covered already in this book. For instance, in regards to sleep, he spoke about that during the time he was doing his surgical residency, he was lucky if he would work for 36 hours and have 12 hours to rest and sleep. Sometimes this schedule was worse. He mentioned that four doctors died during this surgical residency either by suicide or overdose. The first chapter clearly covers how lack of sleep can cause extreme stress and has traumatic effects on the brain. Dr. Rob figured out how to take power in his own schedule his time so accurately that he was able to get things done more quickly the other doctors and at least get some rest that allowed him to survive. He further spoke how his mindset was different than many of the residents. He stated that most of the people he worked with were very concentrated on getting into medical school or getting accepted into a surgical residency. Dr. Rob’s mindset was not getting accepted any particular program, but rather he was concentrating on becoming a very good doctor. He clearly saw that the people around him had exhausted themselves with their efforts getting into a particular medical program and when they were actually accepted, they basically had no gas left in the tank. This led me to ask him about how he won the world championship in Brazilian Jiujitsu. I have always believed that how a person fights very much demonstrates their philosophy of life. Dr. Rob stated that he understood that if he tried to take his opponent down to the ground with 100% effort that this would put him in danger in two ways. First, this would make you more vulnerable to be flipped or reversed on his back and his opponent. Second, this would cause him to become more exhausted very early in the fight and he knew that he had to reserve his energy. Instead of going at a 100% effort for each takedown attempt, he decided to go at 80%. This mathmatically make sense. It is true that if a fighter would attempt a technique only at 100%, it is more likely that the spider will be successful thing going at 80% just want one time. However, by going at 80% effort, a fighter can attempt multiple techniques because he is going at a more steady pace. Look at the mathematical formula below.

One technique at 100% = 50% chance of success but 50% chance of exhaustion

One technique at 80% = 20% chance of success and only 20% chance of exhaustion

Solution – 5 techniques at 80% = nearly 100% chance of success and 50% chance of exhaustion

You might think that doing five techniques at 80% would cause exhaustion. This is not the case. By only going 80% in being properly conditioned and prepared for the fight, an athlete can go at 80% multiple times and still have gas left in the tank. It was clear that Dr. Rob his use this philosophy either consciously or subconsciously throughout his life. For instance, he was slightly older when he entered medical school as he had traveled the world for two years before entering into a medical education. Traveling the world or travel in general is one the most educational things a person can do. It gave Dr. Rob a more unique perspective on life and how to approach work. He always looked at the end result and not simply the immediate process. He mentioned to me that the majority of people who die trying to climb Mount Everest do not die on their way up but perish coming down. This is because they did not understand the 80/100 rule. Many climbers are so concentrated on reaching the top of the first that they do not plan properly that they need to also come down. By the time they reached the top of this great mountain, they are so exhausted that they make mistakes and try to get back down to civilization. Dr. Rob climbed Mount Whitney successfully. He passed for people on his way up and heard later that these individuals had to be rescued and suffered from frostbite.

Dr. Rob finally mentioned his concentration. He has an ability to create extreme focus on whatever it is that he is doing. I mentioned to Dr. Rob that years ago that once I broke my thumb training. Dr. Rob generously gave me immediate appointment and did not charge me the deductible on my insurance. He put a cast on my thumb until mid I could continue to train in jujitsu but just simply mentioned to my competitors to not grab my thumb. The next day I went to jujitsu practice and Dr. Rob was there. The coach told us to wrestle each other. As soon as we began Dr. Rob grabbed my broken thumb. I stopped him and said Dr. Rob, you are a doctor, you fixed my thumb yesterday, remember? He looked a bit frazzled and said oh yeah. We began again and once again Dr. Rob grabbed my thumb. Before any of you believe that Dr. Rob is evil, trust me when I tell you that he is not. As a psychologist, it was extremely clear to me that he was so focused and didn’t even hear what I was telling him. He truly had forgotten in his very focused state about my thumb. He was simply doing the technique that he has always done in Brazilian Jiujitsu, and it was clear that he was no longer a doctor but a fighter. This extreme focus and the ability to filter out any other thoughts other than what exactly it is that he was doing has been a key aspect to his success.