3 Success Understandings We Didn’t Learn In School (2376)

The fundamentals matter more than talent. In today’s episode, hosts Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros break down the success skills school rarely teaches but life demands every day. From self-awareness and discipline to time management, financial literacy, and long-term growth, this conversation focuses on the principles that quietly shape your results.

If you’ve been working hard but still feel behind, this episode may help you identify what’s been missing. It’s practical, honest, and built for people who want depth over empty motivation. Press play before life keeps handing out tests in subjects nobody taught well.

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Book Alan’s Business Breakthrough Session. Your first 30-minute coaching call is FREE. Learn how to prioritize success and let your quality of life become the byproduct - https://calendly.com/alanlazaros/30-minute-breakthrough-session

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NLU is not just a podcast; it’s a gateway to a wealth of resources designed to help you achieve your goals and dreams. From our Next Level Dreamliner to our Group Coaching, we offer a variety of tools and communities to support your personal development journey.

For more information, check out our website and socials using the links below. 👇

Website: http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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Email:
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Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

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Show notes:
(2:19) Why self-awareness comes first
(4:47) Time management requires clear goals
(7:47) Why financial literacy should be basic
(14:45) The life skills school never taught
(15:21) Why habits decide your future
(18:02) Outro

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Transcript

Kevin Palmieri

(0:00) One of my favorite classes in high school was psychology and law, and we watched a lot of movies, and I learned a lot, but honestly I don't think I learned almost anything about what it actually takes to be successful. (0:13) Maybe a successful director, but that is not the pursuit I endeavored on. (0:19) What you'll never learn in school but desperately need to know was my old tagline for Alan Lazarus LLC 11 years ago, and here we are.(0:27) Welcome to Next Level University. (0:29) I'm your host Kevin Palmieri, and I'm your co-host Alan Lazarus. (0:35) At NLU, we believe in a heart-driven but no BS approach to holistic self-improvement for dream chasers.(0:41) Our goal with every episode is to help you level up your life, love, health, and wealth. (0:48) We bring you a new episode every single day on topics like confidence, self-belief, self-worth, self-awareness, relationships, boundaries, consistency, habits, and defining your own unique version of success. (1:04) Self-improvement, in your pocket, every day, from anywhere, completely free.(1:10) Welcome to Next Level University. (1:16) Next Level Nation today for episode number 2,376, three success understandings we didn't learn in school. (1:24) Go.(1:24) Okay. (1:26) What you'll never learn in school but desperately need to know. (1:30) Yes.(1:31) Alan Lazarus LLC. (1:32) You are 36 years old.

Alan Lazaros

(1:36) I am.

Kevin Palmieri

(1:36) And you are someone who didn't take school super seriously. (1:41) Okay. (1:43) Now you are a successful man.(1:46) Top 1% successful man. (1:48) Sure. (1:49) Globally.(1:49) Not necessarily in the US because it's higher, but globally. (1:53) Although I think you're there. (1:55) You understand success.(1:58) We study success. (1:59) We teach success. (2:00) We podcast about success.(2:01) We coach on success. (2:03) We do group coaching programs. (2:05) You have studied success and personal development and personal growth and self-improvement a ton because that's what we do for a living now.(2:13) All right. (2:14) What do you think should have been taught in school that was not? (2:19) One for me is self-awareness.(2:21) You know that. (2:22) You always go there? (2:23) Okay.(2:23) You know that. (2:24) That's one for sure. (2:25) I would say because nobody, they teach you how to learn about things, but nobody really- Imagine a self-awareness course.(2:32) Oh, it'd be the best. (2:33) I think Mama Z is doing that. (2:35) Agreed.(2:37) I think Mama Z- She'd probably give context to who that is. (2:39) Yes. (2:41) I dated her daughter for a long time.(2:43) She was our health teacher in middle school. (2:46) Sex ed. (2:47) Yeah.(2:47) She said, does anybody know what condoms are made of? (2:48) And I raised my hand and said, latex. (2:50) Of course, I know what condoms are made of.(2:52) And then I went on to date her daughter for many years, and it was weird the first time seeing her. (2:56) We also had her on the podcast. (2:57) We had her on the podcast twice.(2:59) Twice. (3:00) I think I had her on before you the first time. (3:04) Yep.(3:04) Great. (3:04) She's a teacher at our hometown. (3:07) Awesome.(3:07) Awesome human doing awesome things in the world. (3:09) So yeah, self-awareness because at the end of the day, I think success without awareness and fulfillment is very empty. (3:18) And the only way to really know what fulfills you and core values and core beliefs and all that stuff is to have self-awareness.(3:24) What would that self-awareness course include? (3:28) You're the teacher. (3:29) Oh, God.(3:30) Kevin is teaching a high school course in this hypothetical universe on self-awareness. (3:36) Go. (3:37) Oh, man.

Alan Lazaros

(3:37) Give me three.

Kevin Palmieri

(3:38) Three act structure here. (3:40) One would be, let's take a look at your past. (3:43) Let's take a look.(3:43) I know you're young. (3:44) You're in your teens still, but let's take a look at what has gotten you to where you are today. (3:49) That would be one.(3:50) Got to teach the drive to five. (3:52) So self-belief, self-worth, got to teach that. (3:56) And then man, probably core values or paradigms.(4:03) Those are like simple to start. (4:07) And for people listening, paradigms. (4:09) Paradigm, your view of the way the world is.(4:14) Like a religious paradigm is somebody who goes to paradigm. (4:20) You believe family is the most important thing. (4:22) You probably spend a lot of time with your family.(4:24) Growth paradigm. (4:25) You're reading books all the time. (4:27) You're learning.(4:28) Fitness paradigm. (4:29) You're probably in really good shape. (4:31) So what is the center of your world for lack of better phrasing?(4:35) Yeah. (4:35) What's the unconscious and subconscious belief that you believe? (4:39) What's the point of life?(4:40) What's the point? (4:41) Yeah. (4:42) What's yours?(4:43) Okay. (4:43) So self-awareness would be one for me. (4:47) One of them has got to be time management.(4:50) Yeah. (4:50) Time management slash productivity. (4:53) I don't know which you prefer.(4:54) Productivity or time management. (4:55) What do you think is a better title? (4:58) Probably time management because I think it's more open.(5:01) When you say we didn't learn in school, are you thinking just like what? (5:05) You're thinking elementary, middle, and high school, not college?

Alan Lazaros

(5:09) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(5:09) Formal education. (5:10) Yeah. (5:11) So, and again, it depends where you grow up, but things you never learned in school, formal education.(5:18) Okay. (5:20) Yeah. (5:22) You really don't learn these things in corporate either.(5:25) I assume you probably learned something about time management, right? (5:28) Business school? (5:29) Very little.(5:30) Yeah. (5:30) That's wild. (5:31) Yeah.(5:31) Very little, brother. (5:32) Yeah. (5:33) Not enough.(5:35) Yeah. (5:35) Very little. (5:36) Productivity and time management was not taught.(5:39) Yeah. (5:39) And I got a master's degree. (5:45) What would that course be?(5:50) It would be, the first one would be just understanding how much time you actually have. (5:55) 168 hours a week, 112 waking hours if you sleep 56, sleep eight hours a night, which it's, you need nine in bed in order to get eight hours of sleep. (6:05) No one ever taught that, right?(6:08) It's like time, you know, aura tracks time in bed versus hours of actually sleeping. (6:12) Yeah. (6:12) So, it's almost like if you want nine hours, you got to put 10 in bed.(6:17) If you want eight hours, you got to put nine in bed. (6:20) So, probably that, just time in general, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, quarters, years, decades, lifetime, like average life expectancy. (6:30) Because I joke, if average life expectancy was 40, I'd be playing a very different game right now.(6:35) Yeah. (6:36) Right? (6:36) Because I'm 37.(6:37) Yeah. (6:38) If I had four years left, ice cream for every meal, probably. (6:40) I think, you know, I've already lived 90% of my life.(6:44) Like, what are we doing here? (6:44) Let's just celebrate. (6:45) Let's just live it up.(6:46) That's interesting. (6:48) Uh, Pareto, would you teach Pareto? (6:50) Yeah.(6:50) You got to teach Pareto. (6:52) 20% of effort produces 80% of results. (6:55) And then you can't really have time management without goal setting.(6:59) So, you have to put some goal setting in there. (7:02) Because what's the point of time management without a goal, right? (7:06) So, there's got to be goal setting, Pareto, understanding time, how much you have, longevity, average life expectancy, days, weeks, months, all that kind of stuff.(7:18) That, yeah, cool. (7:19) All right. (7:19) So, that's time management.(7:21) Let's come up with a couple more. (7:22) So, you and I are high school teachers. (7:23) We have our own high school, metaphorical universe.(7:26) It's called Next Level University High School.

Alan Lazaros

(7:29) Okay.

Kevin Palmieri

(7:29) All right. (7:30) And we're the professors, the teachers. (7:32) And you're teaching, down the hall, kids, there's self-awareness with, uh, Mr. Professor Paul Mary.

Alan Lazaros

(7:39) Professor Kevin.

Kevin Palmieri

(7:39) Professor Paul Mary. (7:41) And, uh, get out of here because I don't have the time, time management. (7:46) What are you thinking?(7:47) I honestly think investing should have been one. (7:50) Yeah, it's good. (7:52) It's a good one.(7:53) Way to go. (7:53) Because I think most people, that's the weird thing, like entrepreneurs tend to win in investing just because they are patient and they have long-term perspective. (8:02) I think they win because they have no choice.(8:05) Well, yeah, yeah. (8:06) If you go into an entrepreneurship endeavor without an investor's mindset, you're going to get destroyed.

Alan Lazaros

(8:11) It's a necessity.

Kevin Palmieri

(8:12) That's the thing is like most investors, or most entrepreneurs are investors because in order to be an entrepreneur, you kind of have to be one. (8:20) But that's a great way for like anybody who has a nine to five, which is the vast majority of people, to like take care of their future selves. (8:30) But you also have to understand that like you just put money away and you just don't touch it for 20 years.(8:34) You just, you just put it in there and you have to keep putting it in there. (8:37) Like that concept, I don't know. (8:41) I wish I learned that.(8:42) I learned how to balance a checkbook, but like you don't have to do that anymore. (8:47) You know, like there's apps for that. (8:48) So I wish I learned more about that.(8:50) Finance. (8:52) Finance in general. (8:53) Yeah.(8:53) Not just investing, but finance. (8:56) Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. (8:57) Dude, dumbest, that's got to be one of the dumbest things ever is that we don't have a finance course in high school.(9:04) What the fuck is that? (9:05) Do you do other places? (9:07) I mean, you've talked to a lot of people.(9:08) Again, our school is terrible. (9:09) Our school wasn't like great, but it's not common. (9:13) No, it's not common.(9:16) Which is alarming. (9:18) I have a receipt, right? (9:19) Taryn went to Trader Joe's and I was like, Hey, give me that receipt.(9:23) Hand that receipt over to me so I can track this. (9:25) You know how much, I need to know how much money we spent. (9:27) Every day, baby.(9:30) People don't, we aren't taught the difference between physical cash, difference in a savings account and checking account, difference between gross income and net income, difference between interest rates, 3% fee versus a 6% versus an interest rates versus fees. (9:52) Because one of them compounds, the other one doesn't. (9:55) We've gotten business loans with a fee that I like because it's a flat fee.(9:59) It's like, Hey, pay me eight grand, boom, instead of accumulating it. (10:04) So we aren't taught these things. (10:07) Yeah, finance for sure.(10:10) We use money every day. (10:11) Everyone uses money every day. (10:15) Even kids use money.(10:18) How do you make that? (10:20) Were you in my class where we invested in stocks? (10:23) No.(10:24) With Hutch? (10:25) No. (10:26) I invested in, I don't remember.(10:28) I didn't know what I was doing. (10:28) Garmin. (10:30) Great.(10:31) Crushed it. (10:32) Garmin GPS was crushing it at the time. (10:35) If you kept it and held it, you'd have lost all your money.(10:37) Yeah, I lost all my money. (10:39) Because overnight, mobile phones had everything Garmin, yeah. (10:43) I think we were exposed to a little bit of it.(10:47) But here's the question. (10:48) How do you get somebody to learn unsexy fundamentals? (10:56) You get them to set a goal that requires it.(10:59) And then you help them understand and connect it. (11:02) So I was with a client yesterday and I said, try to provide the stage, the context for this. (11:15) Tucker got a little sick last week and he puked in my office.(11:23) And we have this new food for him that if you keep it out too long, it gets nasty. (11:30) And I said, we have to make sure that we put the food away almost right away. (11:34) Because this is really, really, really good dog food.(11:38) And the reason I can tell, and again, this is me being a nerd for a second here. (11:43) If you leave your food out on the counter, and there's a few exceptions, like an orange, it has protection from bacteria and stuff. (11:50) But you know how salad goes bad really fast?(11:54) Okay, the reason why is if bacteria doesn't want to eat it, you probably shouldn't. (11:59) And like a Twinkie, you can leave on the counter for 20 years and it's fine. (12:02) It's because of all the preservatives and shit.(12:03) So that's sort of the funny metaphor. (12:05) It's like if bacteria doesn't want to eat it. (12:07) So what's my point of all this?(12:08) Why are we talking about bacteria? (12:09) I had a client who didn't know the difference between viruses and bacteria. (12:14) I don't know if I do.(12:15) Viruses spread, bacteria doesn't. (12:17) Our viruses are, hold on, hold on. (12:18) Viruses are exponential.(12:20) No, bacteria is exponential too, for sure. (12:22) Hold on. (12:22) It's one of them.(12:23) You want to keep going? (12:24) No, I think I've made it long enough. (12:26) I don't want to waste anyone's time.(12:28) Viruses require a living host. (12:30) Ah, there it is. (12:31) Bacteria can eat, you know, dead things, right?(12:35) And again, there's more to it than that. (12:37) But anyways, the point is, is the problem with knowledge is you don't know what knowledge you need to know. (12:43) And I told Emilia, I said, we just, why do you think a freezer is a freezer?(12:47) It's like bacteria needs oxygen, heat, and food in order to grow. (12:56) And food could be, you know, dog food or salad or whatever, whatever rots. (13:01) The point that I'm making, though, is that's why we have freezers.(13:04) Freezers are cold, so bacteria can't grow, right? (13:07) That's, that's why the certain malaria, for example, can't be in the northeast, because it can't survive in the northeast, right? (13:16) So again, don't quote me on that necessarily.(13:19) I haven't studied malaria specifically. (13:21) All right, I'm going to get some fucking DM from somebody. (13:23) Well, malaria could, you know, it's like the actual M3 strain.(13:27) I believe the etymology of malaria is, there's been six proven cases. (13:32) It's like, listen, shut the fuck up. (13:35) I got nothing else for you.(13:36) Like, get a life, right? (13:38) So, but the truth is, is we don't know. (13:42) I told Emilia, like, we need to study more biology, like chemistry.(13:47) She took Mandarin instead of chemistry. (13:48) I thought that was a huge mistake. (13:50) And nobody, but no one knows why chemistry matters, especially if you don't know chemistry.

Alan Lazaros

(13:55) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(13:56) Right? (13:56) So it's almost like the people who know are the people who know the value of it. (14:04) And the people who don't know are like, oh.(14:06) So, for example, I don't really know, what's something I've never studied? (14:11) Botany. (14:12) I didn't know a ton about botany.(14:13) Okay, I don't know why that's bad. (14:17) Right. (14:17) Like, what am I leaving on the table?(14:18) I have no fucking clue. (14:21) And so, as I've been coaching over the years, I've realized that I'm definitely an overly curious learner. (14:27) And I know we got to go here in a second.(14:28) But there's very little that I don't have curiosity to at least understand the components of. (14:37) And I think in high school, we should have set people up, not just high school, but middle school, elementary school, high school, college, corporate. (14:45) Like, we didn't set people up for success, dude.(14:48) Like, for sure. (14:50) Finance? (14:52) Nutrition?(14:53) Sleep? (14:54) Self-awareness? (14:56) Courage, humility, vulnerability?(14:57) Character, virtue? (15:00) What did I even learn in health class? (15:02) I don't even remember.(15:03) That's what I'm saying. (15:06) Most guys don't know much about female anatomy, right? (15:12) I think personal development, that's why I'm so passionate about it.(15:15) These books are so important because they're habits. (15:18) We didn't take a course on habits. (15:19) Nothing.(15:21) Dude, nothing on habits. (15:24) Now, you and me, I know you got to go. (15:27) If you don't have good habits and you don't know how to build good habits and you don't know how to sustain good habits, I'm not betting on you.

Alan Lazaros

(15:34) Yeah.

Kevin Palmieri

(15:35) You're basically on autopilot to some extent, right? (15:38) So, can you imagine if we taught kids about the habit loop and how to destroy bad habits and create good ones? (15:46) Like, dude.(15:48) We're going to do a part two on this, obviously, but I don't know. (15:51) That would be one of my habits. (15:53) At what age are you able to actually conceptualize practice and see results on that, you think?(16:00) Early. (16:00) Super early. (16:01) You think it'll lock in?(16:02) Kids can learn multiple languages, yeah. (16:03) Yeah, but you think it'll lock in? (16:04) Kids are amazing.(16:04) Lock in? (16:06) I mean, they're not going to be dialed in at level 10, but it doesn't mean you can't start. (16:12) Amy's kids are learning finance.(16:14) They have a habit tracker and a spreadsheet. (16:16) It's really quite cool, actually. (16:19) One of my clients is tutoring them.(16:21) It is super cool. (16:22) So, she'll send pictures every once in a while. (16:24) Nice to cue this.(16:25) All right, we're going to do a part two. (16:26) We'll do a part two on this because I do think... (16:30) I've always had this thought of people will be like, oh my goodness, there's this issue that's happening in the world.(16:34) It's like, well, that issue that's happening in the world is a result of something that somebody created and didn't know it was going to be an issue. (16:39) I think it'll probably get solved, as most of them ended up... (16:42) Most issues have been, but so many of them are just results of something that happened recently-ish that we just didn't know.(16:49) You know what I mean? (16:50) Yeah, like smoking on airplanes. (16:52) Well, yes, but that's not where I was going.(16:54) No, but seriously, how ignorant were we? (16:57) Super, super. (16:59) I'm thinking more like there was an island that was uninhabited.(17:04) They wanted to inhabit it. (17:06) There was mice on the island, so they released cats. (17:10) Cats did a bunch of breeding and crossbreeding, and there was some sort of virus that killed all the plants.(17:15) Well, since the plants died, all the other animals died, and now there is no life on that. (17:19) Now nobody can live there anyway, because the whole thing's fucked. (17:21) Like that.(17:23) Solutions create new problems. (17:25) That's an episode we should do at some point, too. (17:26) It's like, you have a problem, you create a solution.(17:29) That solution creates new bottlenecks. (17:31) That's constraint theory. (17:32) It's good stuff.(17:33) Well, let's do... (17:33) We'll do a part two on this, because I think this... (17:35) We could do a million episodes on this.(17:37) So what did you say? (17:37) You said finance. (17:39) Self-awareness.(17:39) Self-awareness. (17:41) I said time management habits. (17:44) So we gave you an extra.(17:46) Yeah, we'll do more. (17:48) We'll do more. (17:50) And then maybe we can do like...(17:53) What's one thing you learned in school that you still use today? (17:56) Yeah. (17:56) Not something...(17:57) I don't... (17:58) Not trigonometry. (17:59) Like, give me something good.(18:00) Yeah. (18:00) Give me something good. (18:01) All right, we gotta go.(18:02) As always, we love you. (18:03) We appreciate you. (18:03) Grateful for each and every one of you.(18:04) And if you are as committed as you say you are to getting to the next level, make sure you tune in tomorrow, because we will be here every single day to help you get there. (18:09) Keep leveling up to reach your full potential. (18:12) Next Level Nation.(18:14) Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level University. (18:18) We love connecting with the Next Level family. (18:20) We mean it when we say family.(18:22) If you ever need anything, please reach out to us directly. (18:26) Everything you need to get ahold of us is in the show notes. (18:29) Thank you again, and we will talk to you tomorrow.