Shadowing Practice: 5 Lessons My Mentors Taught Me | Robin Sharma - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hi, it's Robin Sharma, author of The Leader Who Had No Title, founder of the Titan Academy, and I'm so pleased to welcome you to this Mastery Session.
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This Mastery Session is all about five leadership lessons my mentors have taught me.
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I think it was the mathematician Newton who once said, if I have seen more than others it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.
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And I don't know if you have a mentor, but if you don't have a mentor, you want to get a mentor as swiftly as possible.
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Because we become our influences.
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We become our conversations.
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We think like and we perform like the people we surround ourselves with in our orbit.
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And one of the things that has served me
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so well is populating my professional life and my personal life with people who are at a higher level than I'm at, and they are called mentors.
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When I was 21 years old, I lived in a relatively small city on the east coast of Canada,
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and I was very blessed to be associated with a mentor who was a financial epic performer.
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He was doing very, very well in the capital markets.
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And I just looked at his lifestyle, and I looked at his belief system, and we used to go for these long, wonderful walks in the forest that was also along the seaside on the east coast of Canada.
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And one day, it was a sunny day in the summer, and he said something to me I still remember to this day.
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He said, Robin, run your own race.
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And that's really the first lesson I learned from one of my mentors.
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Run your own race.
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Stay in your own lane.
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You know, you have no competition if you are in your own division.
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And what I mean by that is simply this, It's so easy to get swept off your game, swept off your vision, swept off your values,
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swept off your focus when you're measuring your success
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and your performance by your so -called peers in your industry or your competition within your craft.
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And that first lesson was so profound.
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He simply said, run your own race.
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You know, come up with your ambition, come up with your vision and have this singular focus and the character discipline to say,
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I'm just going to put these blinders on and stay true to myself, true to my values, true to my vision.
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So the first thing, run your own race, stay in your own lane.
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Measure success by how close you're getting to your mountaintop versus the mountaintop of your competition or your neighbors.
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The second leadership lesson I learned from my mentors is be willing to be eccentric.
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You know, you can be like the 95 % or you can play in rare air.
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You can't do both.
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And if you are going to play in rare air, then that means you're going to shift from the belief system and the mindsets and the heart sets of the majority.
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And that's going to be unpopular.
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And you're going to feel confused.
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One pundit said it so well.
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He said, if you are confused, celebrate it.
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It means you are still free.
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You know, it's the people who are asleep.
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The people who are coasting through their lives.
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You know, that silent majority, the 95%, watching too much TV, self -medicating with too much gossip,
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being busy, being busy, no juice within them they've lost the fire in their belly
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and they're in this silent pain of potential unexpressed going through life and they think it's okay.
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And what I'm suggesting to you on this second leadership lesson
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I've learned from my mentors is as you shift from the herd
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and rise to the rare air of that 5 % or the top 0 .0001%, you're going to have to think differently.
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You're going to have to feel differently.
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You're going to have to install different rituals.
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You're going to have to perform in different habits.
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You're going to have to be eccentric.
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And what I'm encouraging you is develop the character power to get good with being strange.
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Develop the interior bravery to be comfortable being eccentric.
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And if people ridicule you, and if they laugh at you, and if they don't understand you, please remember every great leader,
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every bold genius was misunderstood.
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The third leadership lesson that I've learned from my mentors is stand for world class.
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I look around the world right now and it's not judgment, it's simply reporting.
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But in business, I spent most of my life, whether it's at my annual flagship event, the Titan Summit, or whether it's working with the Fortune 500,
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or whether it's being a private advisor to a lot of celebrity billionaires,
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what I'm noticing in business right now is what I call the collective deprofessionalization of business.
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You see people who are at work, let's say on the shop floor, or maybe it's a runway outside of an airplane, or maybe it's at a hotel or in a restaurant,
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and rather than having a laser -like focus to doing world -class work.
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they're checking their mobile devices or they're chit -chatting or they're gossiping, you know.
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And even personally, I mean, I was in a hotel the other day and I saw a guest in the lobby
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laying on the couch like it was his bedroom or like his living room.
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He had no shoes on.
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His feet were like up on the arm of the sofa.
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And I've noticed that.
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Like it's this collective deprofessionalization in business where people are forgetting that when you are at work at showtime.
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Bring on your A -game.
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And I'm seeing even in society as large as I crisscross the planet, people are treating public spaces like it's their home.
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You know, even yesterday, it was a lovely summer's day, and I went to this park, and it was the end of my work day, and it was a really long day.
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And I just wanted to sort of soak in the beauty
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of the moment before I went home to spend time with my loved ones.
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And there were some people around me, and their phones were going off, and they didn't have the courtesy to turn it on to low or on to vibrate.
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And then they also had it on, what do you call it, where you actually can hear the speaker.
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The speaker was on.
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And all I'm saying is, if you want to live your best life, If you want to own your game in your industry,
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if you want to live a life that makes history, raise your standards.
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Raise your standards of how you live.
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Raise your standards to world class in terms of the work you do.
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Raise your standards in terms of your conversations.
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Raise your standards in terms of the friends you have.
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Raise the standards to world class in terms of the food you eat.
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Raise your standards in terms of your daily rituals
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because genius is less about inherited genetics and much more about your installed habits.
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Raise your standards about your beliefs.
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Raise your standards about the way you interact with your customers.
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You know, go the extra mile.
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Every moment in front of a customer is a moment of truth.
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You can stand for the highest of values or you can just be average like so many performers out there.
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So I really want you to dial into.
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Are you living at a level that is world -class in terms of the standards right across the board?
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The third thing I learned from one of my mentors,
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he had been a very iconic lawyer and he simply taught me the importance of rigor and depth.
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And so the fourth leadership lesson is be deep versus be Be light, be deep.
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I mean, this is a gorgeous opportunity to build a monopoly of mastery within your industry.
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I mean, you wanna be so good at what you do that when we watch you in action, tears come to our eyes.
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People rise to their feet and applaud you.
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And how do you do that?
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Well, you separate yourself from the way most people operate in business and in life.
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You go deep.
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We live in a world that is really suffering from the cult of superficiality.
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Everything is fast, everything is quick, everything is light.
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Imagine you resolve today, I will be deep.
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When I do work, when I work on a project, when I build a client relationship, when I work with a personal relationship, when I install a new habit, it's not gonna be light.
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I'm not gonna be superficial, I'm gonna go deep.
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I'm gonna bring rigor to my game.
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Let's say you're installing a new habit but let's say it's my famous 5 a .m club.
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You start reading all the literature on the neurobiology of early rising.
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You actually read all of the books on habit installation.
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You actually find a coach, let's say, to help you install the 5 a .m.
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routine.
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You actually build out a protocol to mark your progress.
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I'm just saying, could you imagine, rather than going very wide in your work or very wide in your personal life,
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you dial it in with a monomaniacal focus to be genius level at just a few things, that's rigor.
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And rigor is really an approach.
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I was in Luzern, Switzerland a few months ago, and I was working on my new book, and someone delivered some tea,
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and I'd asked for some fresh lemon, and what I noticed is whoever had sliced the lemons took the time to de -seed the lemon wedges
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and that's really your metaphor for this podcast you know that's
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what you know this lesson is all about the fourth leadership
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lesson be deep versus be light it's about de -seeding the lemon wedges on the areas of focus
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that are most important to you anyone can just cut the lemon wedges
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and hand them to you but this producer had the discipline the bravery the acumen the commitment the devotion
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to actually take the time to de -seed the lemon wedges.
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And then the final thing I'm gonna leave you with, the fifth leadership lesson my mentors have taught me. Be kind.
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One mentor in particular comes to my mind.
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He was in his 80s
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and one of the things I got right was I made
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sure I put it onto my agenda earlier this year to get on an airplane
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and to carve out a morning where I spent a few hours with this vast mentor who had shaped my life.
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This was a man when I was in my early 20s, I was blessed to work with him.
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And from him, I learned excellence.
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And from him, I learned great humility.
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And from him, I learned a gentleness of spirit.
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And from him, I learned so much about what it takes to be a true leader, what it takes to be a legendary person, what it takes to build great relationships,
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what it takes to be an instrument of service in the world
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and he was in his twilight when i met him on
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that um early spring morning and he blessed me with two hours of his day
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and i used that opportunity to be grateful
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because i think gratitude is a great way to go through life
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and when i left him i asked him i said um you know what's most important And he said,
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Robin, be kind.
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And he sort of leaned back while he still looked at him, and he said, Robin, oh, that's so important. Be kind.
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And then he reached over, and he hugged me, and he said, I love you.
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And about four months later, I received news that he had passed away.
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But I've never forgotten the importance of that simple idea, which is simply profound. Be kind.
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Thank you, and I hope this podcast has been of service to you.
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Hi, this is Robin Sharma.
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I hope you received great value from this Mastery Session.
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If you'd like to receive potent training videos, blog posts, learning tools, and information on my two live events,
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Personal Mastery Academy, me and my flagship four -day experience, the Titan Summit, go ahead and visit RobinCharmer .com.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “5 Lessons My Mentors Taught Me”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: mentor, lesson, standards, raise, learned. This video has 150 sentences and 2076 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:36. The speaker talks at a natural 165 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| mentor noun | /ˈmɛn.tɔː/ | A wise and trusted counselor or teacher. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| lemon noun | /ˈlɛmən/ | A yellowish citrus fruit. |
| habit noun | /ˈhæb.ɪt/ | An action performed on a regular basis. |
| mastery noun | /ˈmæs.tɚ.i/ | The position or authority of a master; dominion; command; supremacy; superiority. |
| install verb | /ɪnˈstɔl/ | To connect, set up or prepare something for use |
| sweep verb | /swiːp/ | To clean (a surface) by means of a stroking motion of a broom or brush. |
| wedge noun | /wɛd͡ʒ/ | One of the simple machines; a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow… |
| belief noun | /bɪˈliːf/ | Mental acceptance of a claim as true. |
| genius noun | /ˈd͡ʒin.jəs/ | Someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill; especially somebody who has demonstrated this by a creative or original work in science, music, art… |
| versus | /ˈvɝsəs/ | Against; in opposition to. |
| bless verb | /blɛs/ | To make something holy by religious rite, sanctify. |
| eccentric adjective | /ɪkˈsɛntɹɪk/ | Not at or in the centre; away from the centre. |
| confused adjective | /kənˈfjuːzd/ | unable to think clearly or understand |
| silent adjective | /ˈsaɪ̯lənt/ | Free from sound or noise; absolutely still; perfectly quiet. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| build out verb | To develop or expand (a system, structure, project, etc.). | |
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| go off verb | To explode. | |
| look around verb | To inspect a building or area. | |
| pass away verb | To die. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You know, it's the people who are asleep.
- You're going to have to feel differently.
- You're going to have to install different rituals.
- You're going to have to perform in different habits.
- You're going to have to be eccentric.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have taught · have seen · has served |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who are · idea, which is |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are called · be associated · was blessed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 45 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, gonna. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: flagship /ˈflæɡʃɪp/, shoe /ˈʃu/, installation /ˌɪn.stəˈleɪ.ʃən/, ambition /æmˈbɪʃ.ən/, devotion /dɪˈvoʊʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, celebrity /səˈlɛb.ɹɪ.ɾi/, legendary /ˈlɛd͡ʒ.ənˌdɛɹ.i/, installation /ˌɪn.stəˈleɪ.ʃən/, monopoly /məˈnɑpəli/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like mentor, lesson, lemon.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.