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The three are still standing on the Spanish Steps when three women pull up in scooters. Mr. Riley directs the artist and the entrepreneur to each hop on one of the scooters, and they follow him out past the city limits to an out-of-the-way location. There, they get off the scooters and follow Riley into the catacombs. As they are down there in the dark, a shadowy figure emerges. After an initial fright, the three discover that the mysterious person is the Spellbinder himself. As the group makes small talk, Mr. Riley notices the entrepreneur is wearing an engagement ring given to her by the artist. After congratulating the couple, Mr. Riley offers to host their celebration at his compound, and then he once again begins to heave and cough. The Spellbinder quickly changes the focus away from Riley’s coughing fit and leans into the lesson for the day, which he summarizes by stating, “What makes genius-level performance is a delicate balance between the mastery of your morning routine and the optimization of your nightly ritual” (229). He discusses the biochemical benefits of sleep, including a process he refers to as a kind of brain cleansing and an increase in human growth hormone that humans benefit from while sleeping.
He discusses research that shows optimal sleep to be approximately seven hours a night and suggests that too much sleep is not good and can lead to a shortened lifespan. Additionally, the Spellbinder insists that one should not keep digital devices in their bedrooms and should have a cut-off time for when these devices should be turned off. He introduces a diagram, the title of which is “The Pre-sleep Ritual of Iconic Producers: Deconstruction” (232). The diagram breaks down healthy pre-sleep habits, appropriate to the time of evening/night, and ideas for execution of the rituals.
Following the Spellbinder’s lesson, Mr. Riley once again begins coughing, which disturbs the Spellbinder, who says goodbye and leaves the group promising to meet Riley for dinner later that evening. Riley escorts his student to Villa Borghese, where he brings a drone right to where they are standing. The drone is carrying a wooden box, inside of which is a piece of glass inscribed with a “detailed step-by-step game plan for an amazing day” (236). He explains the symbolic significance of bringing the artist and the entrepreneur to the Spanish Steps, noting that “sustained joy and boundless inner peace really is a step-by-step game” (237). Finally, Mr. Riley hugs his friends, and as he is doing so, he begins to shed tears.
The trio is now in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the artist and the entrepreneur will be having their wedding. The entrepreneur decided to have it in Brazil to honor her father’s heritage. The narrative indicates that it is three weeks since the trio was in Rome, and during that time, the entrepreneur was applying the lessons they learned from Mr. Riley with life-changing results, two of which were her increased fitness and her creative output.
As the trio drives through Sao Paulo, they hear a gunshot ring out and realize their vehicle was shot up. Two men forcefully beckon the driver to open the doors, which he does. The men start threatening the entrepreneur, reminding her of the threat that she would die if she did not relinquish control of her company. Another vehicle pulls up, and more people disembark, which coincides with the arrival of Riley’s security team. There is fighting in the streets with knives and guns. Riley is briskly escorted out of danger to an awaiting helicopter. He orders his security team to save his two friends. The team is able to safely remove the entrepreneur, but the artist is nowhere to be found. Refusing to follow the orders of the security team, the entrepreneur proceeds on a frantic search to find the artist. She notices a trail of blood, follows it, and locates the artist, who is being held at gunpoint. As she tries speaking to the assailant, the gun is turned on her instead. Calmly yet bravely, she continues to urge the man to not shoot, mentioning she knows he does not want to do such a thing. Eventually, she persuades him, and he runs off. The artist’s life is spared.
The next day, the couple reunites with Mr. Riley, who commends the entrepreneur for her actions. He also informs her that he bought all the equity in her company, which means the investors that were trying to push her out now have no say. Mr. Riley is still showing evident signs of some health ailment as he again starts coughing. Riley waves his hands in the air, and an assistant appears with a painting, which Riley presents to the couple as a wedding gift. He commissioned the piece from a highly respected and retired painter, noting its monetary value. On the back of the painting is written “The 10 Tactics of Lifelong Genius.” Accompanying this is a diagram that illustrates what the tactics are: “The Tight Bubble of Focus,” “The 90/90/1 Rule,” “The 60/10 Method,” “The Daily 5 Concept,” “The Second Wind Workout,” “The 2 Massage Protocol,” “Traffic University,” “The Dream Team Technique,” “The Weekly Design System,” and “The 60 Minute Student.” Riley then provides an overview of each of the tactics and an approach to how one should apply them.
After Riley’s lesson on the 10 tactics, he gives the couple another wedding gift and recites a poem by Spencer Michael Free that he memorized for his own wife, Vanessa. After Riley finishes reciting the poem, the artist reads a poem of his own creation for his bride-to-be, which makes Mr. Riley cry aloud.
The trio is now in South Africa, and they are enjoying a mountain bike ride. Mr. Riley is in a contemplative state of mind, also feeling gratitude and appreciation, revealing his pure joy at being alive. Additionally, his illness appears to be worsening, and while the artist and entrepreneur notice this, they overlook it. The narrator points out that they will likely come to regret not addressing their concern later on.
They take a break from bike riding, and Riley presents them with another learning model, this one entitled “The Twin Cycles of Elite Performance” (267). The model teaches that striking a proper balance between work and leisure is paramount. It also emphasizes the importance of rest. Riley uses the analogy of fitness training, noting that muscle growth happens after it is partially broken down and during the rest phase, a process known as “supercompensation” (268). Striking a proper balance between work and rest is essential to growth. He further explains the learning model and analyzes the connection to the five assets of genius: mental focus, physical energy, personal willpower, original talent, and one’s daily time (270). Riley reiterates the importance of challenge and that stress is not always a bad thing. Sometimes stress is what provides the adversity that can make people stronger in the end. However, it then becomes essential that one knows how to effectively recognize when rest is necessary.
Riley discusses his younger days when he was obsessive about his work and the effect this had on his life. He credits the Spellbinder with saving his life because he learned the value of rest from his mentor. Riley also contends that allowing for proper rest actually increases productivity because it maximizes efficiency. With adequate rest, people are fully charged and are able to work with much more focus and mental energy compared to when they do not get enough rest.
Mr. Riley then begins discussing how heaven is a state of mind, resulting in his students noticing a more mystical change in his tone and in the content of his discourse. Riley becomes contemplative and talks enthusiastically of the joy he feels in just being alive and immersed in nature. He speaks about the wonders of childhood and how adults stray too far from it as they seek to carve out their positions in the world. Riley sees this as a mistake and urges his students to consider returning to the spirit of their childhood. He then draws another diagram in the dirt, this one entitled “Joy as a GPS” (280). This one has a three-part structure, “people fuel, pursuit fuel, place fuel” (280), and the diagram is a pie chart. Each of these three parts is proportionally equal, highlighting the importance of balance.
After analyzing this as a GPS learning model, Mr. Riley escorts the artist and the entrepreneur to a field where a box is located. The narrative takes a mystical turn as Mr. Riley levitates the box without touching it. The contents of the box are a series of 11 letters, each with a designated object meant to symbolically correspond to the main idea, or maxim, of the letter. For example, the title of the first letter is “To create magic in the world, own the magic in yourself” (283). The corresponding object is a small mirror. These letters serve as a summation of Mr. Riley’s teachings and an intended source of perpetual inspiration. All throughout his lesson, Riley periodically suffers bouts of coughing and appears to wince in pain. As the chapter concludes, he hugs his friends goodbye and says, “I’ll really miss you” (297).
Still in South Africa, the trio is taken by helicopter to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. The weather is not ideal, and though the trip is short, it is bumpy. While in flight, the artist and entrepreneur discover that the pilot is none other than the Spellbinder himself. Upon landing at Robben Island, security personnel descend on the visitors and confront them, ordering them to leave. As it turns out, the Spellbinder is known to one of the tour directors, and he is able to convince the director to allow the trio to visit the island and see for themselves what it might have been like for Mandela to live there. The tour director escorts them through various places where Mandela was forced to perform prison labor and where he was treated inhumanely. The tour guide also offers commentary on how Mandela, once set free from prison, went about living his life, deciding not to allow his imprisonment to affect his overall outlook on humanity in general.
The Spellbinder reveals another learning model, this one entitled “The Heroic Human Circle,” which contains “7 Virtues of World-Changers” (308). These seven virtues are bravery, forgiveness, integrity, understanding, sincerity, politeness, and humility. The Spellbinder then asks Riley, the artist, the entrepreneur, and the tour guide to circle around a table on which the diagram is placed. He discusses the way in which exceptional people of the world throughout history, such as Nelson Mandela, have demonstrated these virtues and, in so doing, have ascended into a territory called “Legacy” (310). He then encourages the artist and the entrepreneur to become leaders in their own right. He also reminds his audience they must seize the day and not take for granted the gifts they have been given. The chapter concludes with all of the group members reciting the phrase “Own your morning. Elevate your life” in unison (311).
The narrator updates the reader on the characters of the story, beginning with Mr. Riley, who died five months after the Robben Island visit from an undisclosed, incurable illness. He bequeathed his property in Mauritius to the artist and the entrepreneur. The reader also learns for the first time that Riley had a daughter who, along with the Spellbinder, was beside him when he died.
For their part, the entrepreneur and the artist became successful, happy people. Each of them was finally able to conquer their past limitations and devoted themselves to a new kind of lifestyle they credit to their mentor, Mr. Riley. They also took on the responsibility of passing on the work to others who are on the brink of being defeated by their struggles. The Spellbinder is also still alive and continues to travel the world, lecturing on his methods.
The theme of Recognizing One’s Inner Self Apart From Society and Technology to Grow is prominent in this final section of the book. Much of what Mr. Riley teaches, as does the Spellbinder when he appears, centers on this theme. Because the entrepreneur and the artist have each begun dramatic transformations in their own lives, which includes becoming engaged and married to each other, the focus is more on how to continue to grow once success is achieved. As people begin to reap the rewards for their quest for self-improvement and their drive to become extraordinary, they must not allow themselves to become complacent. One should continue to follow the methods presented by Riley and the Spellbinder. One of the benefits of this is that the more acclimated people become to the methods, the more they can determine the nuances. For example, Riley says,
The way elite creatives do what they do is by understanding the power of oscillation. They structure their work cycles so that they alternate bursts of deep focus and ferocious intensity of performance with periods of real rest and full recovery. In other words, they work in a balance, and cycle awesome output with times to refuel their assets of genius so they don’t deplete them (254).
Here, Riley points out a critical component in becoming what the books calls exceptional: realizing how to balance a strong work ethic with the need for rest and leisure. He also points out that integral to this process is reflection; one must be productive but then have ample rest time in order to reflect. This is why one should exercise immediately upon waking, he argues, but then have 20 minutes of reflection time, resting after a period of productivity. Riley discusses his younger years when his work schedule essentially controlled everything he did. He points out that once he learned how to find better balance in his life, the quality of his work actually increased. For much of the book, the focus is on motivating people to adopt lifestyles that call for maximum effort; however, especially in Chapter 15, growth needs balance, and the focus becomes more inclusive of this general principle. Rest is a time to recharge, but it is also a time to reflect in order to continue being productive.
Additionally, personal growth should include getting in touch with one’s deeper nature, speaking to the theme of Reflecting, Embracing Change, and Taking Risks to Pursue One’s Goals. Riley refers to this as “Joy as a GPS” (280). While the diagram for this method shows a pie chart with proportional distributions of people fuel, pursuit fuel, and place fuel, Riley distills its meaning in the following passage: “To know ever-increasing amounts of happiness, trust what makes you feel happy. Your heart knows where you need to be. It’s so much wiser than your head. Instinct knows so much more than intellect and intuition is smarter than reason” (281). When the entrepreneur asks him for clarification, he replies, “Follow your joy…Only be around those people who fuel your joy. Only perform those pursuits that feed your bliss. Only be in those places that make you feel most alive” (281). The process of growth, especially after one has made progress toward becoming their best selves, depends on following what makes one happy. In this way, Riley advises the artist and the entrepreneur to listen to their hearts and allow themselves to be led by them, rather than by their intellects. He is not suggesting that one should not think their way through situations in life; instead, he suggests that a balance should be sought between what the heart wants and what the intellect thinks. Reflecting is crucial to this process, as reflecting will allow one to understand what their heart wants, giving them direction for change. Once one knows their direction, they can actively embrace change and understand the risks they need to take in relation to their personal hesitancies or points of contention.
Furthermore, growth depends on appreciating the gift of life at every moment, and this speaks to The Importance of Being Proactive With One’s Morning and Life. One should be proactive with life, the text argues, and embrace things immediately as they come to oneself. Part of waking up early, according to Riley, is seizing the day, so to speak: appreciating life from the moment one can wake up and being proactive in appreciating it and channeling it. When one begins to take their time on Earth for granted, Riley says, they begin to atrophy rather than grow. The Spellbinder urges,
[T]his very moment, deserves and demands your commitment to become sublimely creative, pristinely productive, decadently decent and of service to many. Please stop postponing your mastery. No longer resist your primal power. Refrain from allowing the shadow forces of fear, rejection, doubt and disappointment to dim the light of your most luminous self. This is your time. And now is your day (311).
Postponing opportunities to be one’s best self is the antithesis to personal growth. Instead, the Spellbinder implores the artist and the entrepreneur to take full advantage of the present moment all the time. It is a necessarily difficult task, but reaching to make this a permanent mindset is what leads people toward what he calls the “Territory of Legacy” (311). This is the realm where the true legends of human history, such as Nelson Mandela, whose story is briefly recounted in Chapter 17, reside, the text argues. Personal growth is the natural result of striving toward this territory. One should seize the day and be proactive with life, appreciating the world, one’s moment, and one’s inner strength, all beginning at 5:00 a.m.