“Get one client and start there.”
In short: Philip McKernan is an inspirational speaker, author and filmmaker. In this short 2019 clip from his London Real interview with Brian Rose, he gives his advice to a 20-year-old: do not count on education to solve things, look at your past, experiment widely and start with one client.
Brian sets the scene: a 20-year-old growing up in a hyper-connected world where Instagram shows a hundred people living cooler lives, apparently without pain or trauma, and those people become the role models. He asks Philip what he would say to them.
Philip’s answer is direct. He questions the assumption that a degree will provide direction, points young people back to their own history, and tells them to try as many things as they can, including working at a bank or trying ayahuasca, and to expect some failure along the way.
Key takeaways
- Education will not do the work for you. Philip says too many people go to college because they do not know what else to do, then still have to face the person in the mirror.
- Look at your past. He asks people to take a deeper dive into their history to work out who they are today, because “your past has all the answers”.
- Focus less on the future. He suggests spending less energy on where you are going and more on understanding where you came from.
- Experiment widely. Try lots of different things, he says, because you will not know until you do it.
- Start with one client. When people ask how to get on a stage in front of thousands, his answer is always to get one client and begin there.
- Take the small first role. Using Trains, Planes and Automobiles as an example, he says an actor like a young Kevin Bacon should take any small part rather than fixate on stardom.
Why education is not the answer
Philip’s first piece of advice is not to assume education will be the answer. He argues that many people go to college because they are unclear about what is next, spend another four, five or six years passing time, and still return to the same questions about who they are.
His point is not that learning is worthless. It is that a degree cannot replace facing yourself.
Look at your past and experiment
He asks young people to look at their past and use it to understand who they are now, rather than obsessing over the future. Alongside that, he urges them to experiment “left, right and centre” and try lots of different things, from ayahuasca to a job at a bank, and to assume they will fail along the way.
His reasoning is simple: you are never going to know until you do it.
Get one client and start there
Philip says people often ask him how to get on a stage and speak in front of seven thousand people, and his answer is one client. When they say he has not answered the question, he replies that he has, they just did not like the answer.
He compares it to a scene at the start of Trains, Planes and Automobiles, imagining a young Kevin Bacon asking how to become a star. The advice would be to get one role, even a small one in a bad movie, rather than looking at the end game. Brian’s own show, Philip notes, started in an apartment across the road.
Who is Philip McKernan?
Philip McKernan is an inspirational speaker, author and filmmaker and public speaker. This Success Secrets clip is taken from his full London Real interview with Brian Rose, where he talks about the lessons and principles behind his own success. He mentions speaking to audiences of five to seven thousand people.
Frequently asked questions
He tells them not to assume education will be the answer, to look at their past to understand who they are, to focus less on the future and to experiment with lots of different things.
When people ask how to reach a big stage, he says to get one client and start there, the same way an actor should take any small first role rather than aiming for stardom.
He cautions against assuming a degree will solve things, saying many people go to college because they do not know what else to do and still have to face themselves afterwards.
He says your past has all the answers about who you are today, so a deeper dive into it is more useful than worrying about the future.
This page carries the Success Secrets clip, which comes from his full London Real interview with Brian Rose. The video and transcript are on this page.
