I Asked a 93 Year Old Billionaire for Life Advice and he Blew My Mind

I'm willing to give it everything I've got to make it succeed. We've been 3.2 billion. Next thing I know, we're in the middle of 9-11. Biggest mistake I've made. I say I've done a terrible job. Terrible job. In making the world a better place. You really want to get there. There's only one way. Today, we sit down with 93-year-old billionaire Larry Silverstein, the man who owns the World Trade Center in New York City. Larry's story of success is a perfect example of what we should all be striving for. He spent over 60 years building his business, has been married to the same woman for 68 years, and has lived way past the average lifespan, and is still working to this day. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I retired. This video is one of the funniest and most impactful that I've ever filmed. And Larry's advice that you're about to hear is worth listening to over and over again. So without further ado, let's jump into it. How old are you? 93. Moving aggressively toward 94. What does it feel like to be 93 moving aggressively towards 94? I'm just 93 and having a good time being 93. Would you say you feel your age? It's impossible to be 93 without feeling your age. A lot of people don't reach the age that you're at, right? 93 is way above the average in the U.S. What would you say you've done in your life to get to 93 and still be doing what you're doing? Work my tail off. I find work is my life. I've done it all my life and I've had an interesting time doing it. So for example, here at the Trade Center, I meet all kinds of fascinating people like yourself. Thank you. You get different perspectives, different value structures. It's a fascination. A lot of people would have retired by this age. You know, you're plenty busy. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I retired. People want to be rich fast, successful fast, get abs fast, you know, everything fast. For you, it's been a long journey, right? The successes have kind of come and come and come. So I guess it's a matter of patience as well. It's not only patience. It's a willingness to invest a significant amount of time, effort, energy, and money. I look back on my life. Whatever I accomplished brick by brick by brick by brick, year by year by year by year. Fast? No way. I couldn't do it. So what do you say to someone who is always thinking fast? I tell them good luck. Simple. I know I couldn't do it. It took me, it took me 15 or 60, 65 years of hard work. If you didn't come in on Sunday, don't bother coming in on Monday. I mean, you had to work. There was no other way. If you're looking back, what is one thing that you spent a lot of time worrying about when you were younger? And as you got older, you realized it wasn't actually that important. I look back and I realize stress is supposed to be a terrible thing for you. All kinds of medical things tell you stress is bad. I live my life on stress. Stress all the time. I look up, I say to people, doctors tell me stress is bad. I said, I'm 93. I live my life with stress. I said, how can I account for it? They said, well, you're different. I think the things that gave me the most stress, a tough stress, health issues within the family. When someone gets sick, stuff really begins to happen. That's the most critical issue, illness within the family. Of course, then everything else stops. You focus together on how to make this better. What's the most important decision you're going to make in your life? Well, before you hear the answer, I just want to give you a free gift for being here. After interviewing a thousand of the highest achievers in the world, like Larry, about how to achieve your biggest goals in life, we've created a free five-day goal-setting masterclass that will give you a step-by-step plan to turn your biggest dreams into your current reality. This is the best way not to just listen to this advice, but take action on it. So if you want that free guide, click the link below and download it now for free. The link expires in 24 hours. What's the most important decision you're going to make in your life? What do you think it is? Who you marry? The spouse. The most important decision you make in your entire life is the spouse, because the wrong one is a disaster. The right one is fantastic. I've had the right one for 68 years. Everything we've done together, we've done together as a team. It's been wonderful. I couldn't ask for a better relationship than I have with my wife. It's been fabulous. When it came to buying the Trade Center, I sat with her one day and I said, sweetheart, this is what I think I'd like to do and why. And she said, it sounds interesting. Is there risk? I said, yes, there's plenty of risk. I had to know what the risk was. Plenty of downside. Is there upsides? A ton of upside. Otherwise, I wouldn't buy it. She said, can we handle the downside if it happens? I said, yes. Will it affect the family adversely to the point where we really have problems? I said, no. They should go ahead and try to get it done. We've been 3.2 billion. That's a wonderful way of risk assessment. Very important. When it came time to 9-11, she saw me getting dressed. She said, where are you going? I said, I'm going down to work. She said, but you can't go. I said, why can't I go? She said, you've got light skin, light color hair. You've got a problem. You've got to go to the dermatologist. I said, okay, I'll go next month. She said, no, you canceled the last one. You canceled the month before. You cannot cancel. You must go to the... She got upset. She said, yes, dear. I'll do whatever you want, but don't get upset. Don't get excited. Next thing I know, we're in the middle of 9-11. Days and weeks and months that followed. This is probably the most tense time in my life. The pressures were huge. By that time, I was 70 years of age. Had a lot of experience in the business. If I didn't have that experience, I couldn't have done it. But with that experience, I was able to do it. So you've been together since you were my age. I'm 25. Yes. Can you define the word love? With great difficulty. The feeling you have for each other. The appreciation you have of each other. The respect, the positive attitude you carry to each other. Being there for each other without any equivocation whatsoever. There's never an issue. Should I, shouldn't I? If it's something that is important for the family or important to yourself, you do it. Simple. Love is a conglomeration of attitudes, feelings. I mean, there's just so much that's part of it. It's a loaded question. It's almost impossible to define. Yeah. Make sure you marry the right spouse. Nothing more important than your entire life. There's not that many people who've achieved the success that you have. A lot of those people, let's say the billionaires, they have entered turmoil in their love life or certain parts of their life. But your relationship has stayed regardless of the success that you've achieved. It seems like the success never got to your head, right? You're stuck with the same person your whole life. When you get to be my age, you look back. So what's obvious to me is that your accomplishments in terms of monetary issues, meaningless. Number of buildings you owned, you operated to build, meaningless. Number of books you wrote, meaningless. Your net worth, forget about it. What's the most important thing you've gotten in your life besides your spouse? Your family. That's where everything is. Your family. Nothing more important in your life than your family. It's provided a dimension in life that's been spectacular. Because when you get involved where you can make a difference, where you can affect people in a positive fashion, you can make the world a better place. That's your obligation, right? We're here for a purpose. Make the world a better place. Right now, I look back and I say, I say, I've done a terrible job, terrible job in making the world a better place. I think you've done pretty well. I would have much preferred at 93 years of age that the world could be at peace. It's anything but at peace. It's a tough time. If you could go back in time knowing what you know today and give your younger self, let's say your 25-year-old self, one piece of advice, what would you say to him? Be prepared for whatever it is you'd like to do or you want to do with your life. Make sure you focus on it properly. Make sure you get the time and attention it deserves to enable you to say, this is with confidence and intelligence, this is what I want to do, and this is how I expect to do it. And then be prepared to say to yourself, I'm willing to give it everything I got to make it succeed. Because you can't do life halfway. It doesn't work. If you really want to get, you really want to accomplish, you really want to get there, there's only one way. Give it everything you got, work your tail off to make it happen. But the most important thing is your family. Thank you so much. You're very welcome. Thank you so much for watching this video. If you haven't had a chance yet to grab a copy of our goal-setting journal, which is based on advice, strategies, and formulas on living a more fulfilling life, from Larry and over a thousand other strangers and self-development experts around the world, click the link in the description to get started. Thanks for watching and we'll see you in the next one.