Before he went out I said to him, “Make sure you’re done at midnight. We’ve got a long day ahead, and there’s no reason to chase the night.”

So Shogo says, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know, I know,” and heads out for the evening.

The next day, I suddenly get a text at 10:00 am on Sunday morning, right before the start to our day. It’s Shogo. He writes, “Hey, I’m running over to your hotel man! I’ve got to shower!”

And just in that text alone there was frantic, exhausted energy. You could almost read it, you know? There were a few sloppy spelling mistakes. The word “running” I think was spelled with one n instead of two. So I immediately knew that someone was out until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning.

Shogo rushes up to the hotel and goes, “Don’t say it–you’re right man. I know, I shouldn’t have been out until 5:00 in the morning.” Then he jumps in the shower and brushes his teeth in a mad frenzy to get ready on time.

I said, “Well, what’d you do so late?”

“Oh, I met up with my New York friends and they ended up dragging me from one place to the next…”

“Did anything happen?” I ask. He goes, “No. Nothing ever does.”

Here’s the deal: nothing ever happens after midnight. I personally believe nothing worthwhile ever happens after 10:00 at night. The longer you chase the night—and we’ll call it CTN—the longer you run around doing nothing, the more exhausted you are the next day, the more pissed off you are the next day because you don’t have any energy for the next day. And if you’re drinking, the longer it takes to recover the next day and the more money you’ve just wasted.

What happens here is that you really don’t accomplish anything at all. If you haven’t met a cool, great woman by 10:00 pm, you probably won’t meet her. If you continue to drink and drink the night away, your head’s just going to be more messed up the next day. You think you’re getting liquid courage for when the right woman comes along but in reality, you’re really not meeting anybody good.

And if your friends are dragging you from place to place hoping that THIS is going to be the next great place, then you need to reevaluate your past experiences. Look back at all the times you chased the night. Look back at all the nights you’ve ever spent trying to make things happen with your love life and think to yourself, “Have I really ever met a woman who was interesting or could I have met a great women somewhere else? Did I just empty my wallet and allow a bar to take all of my money?”

Stop chasing the night. When you think about it, nothing fun or productive ever happens after midnight. How many times have you run around all night, and when you finally lay down in bed, it’s 4:00 in the morning, you stare at the clock thinking about all the opportunities you missed, all 8, 9, 10 potential opportunities, and you start thinking, “Man, next week I’m going to do it differently.”

It’s that mad cycle of life. The only reason why you’re not doing it differently this time is because you’re not actually doing anything different with your life.

It’s a fun, exciting world out there. It’s time to explore other options, guys.

Anyway, there’s a new store that’s opened up on that street called “California Herbal Remedies” where you can get a 20% vanilla cake or even a 30% chocolate brownie that’s guaranteed to make your head spin for the entire day. All this can be yours if you go to a clinic, tell them you hurt your shoulder and say that Advil has stopped working to alleviate the pain.

Let me just say this: I’m all for the legalization of marijuana. I’ve never met someone who was high who acted like an asshole. On the other hand, I’ve met many a person who acted like an asshole when they were drunk. There should be a warning label on alcohol bottles that reads “Warning: Consumption of this fluid may turn you into an asshole.”

So, it was no surprise that the biggest crowd was outside California Herbal Remedies last night. It was, after all, the store with the best munchies. Big shock!

Alright, let’s talk about why people get wasted. They do it with the hopes of getting Lucky in love.

On the topic of luck, can you really get “lucky in love?” Is there a way to get lucky in love? Does getting “lucky in love” really exist?

I’m going to tell you something right now that’s going to blow your mind: You can absolutely be lucky in love! Here are five ways to ensure you will be lucky in love:

1. Hard Work Plus Opportunity Equals Luck: In order to get lucky in love, you need to put the effort into going out there and meeting people. You need to go out and talk to people. You need create the opportunity for luck to happen to you. Luck only happens when hard work meets opportunity. Thomas Jefferson said it perfectly when he said “I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.”

2. Luck In Love Finds Those Open To Love: The reason why people are lucky in love is because they’re open to love. What I mean by “open to love” is that they are out there talking to people every single day and being okay with letting people know they’re single. If you want to get lucky in love, be open to other people trying to find you love. Open yourself up a little bit, and stop being so closed off to others taking a role in creating luck in your love life. When you meet somebody and they ask you if you’re single, stop looking at it like it’s a plague or disease and say “Yes I am. Do you know of anybody great you think I should meet?” In order to get lucky in love, you need to expand your horizons.

3. Luck In Love Comes To Those Willing To Give A Bit Of The Unknown A Try: In order to get really lucky in love, you should also use the power of your network to help create that luck for you. For instance, you can use online dating in a new way to create luck in your love life. Here is a little trick that I used to use all the time when I was dating online. When I would meet someone online with whom I didn’t end up having a connection but who I thought was a great person, I’d make a suggestion. I’d say “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting sick of all these coffee dates. Why don’t we get a whole group of our friends together and see if any magic (or luck) can happen.” This is yet another way to create luck in your love life . . . and possibly in the life of someone else.

4. Luck In Love Is The Product Of Persistence: If you want to get really lucky in love, you have to realize that luck is the product of persistence. You will have to put consistent effort in and be willing to be persistent in not giving up on the search for love. When you are persistent, you will be rewarded with luck in love. The truth is that you’re not going to find a four-leaf clover or a little leprechaun to help you get lucky in love. It’s really up to you. It’s really all about the power of your network. How strong is your network and how big can you build your network to become? As I said in #3 above, are you trying things that create opportunities to bring people into your life and into your network? When you do, you will be lucky in love.

5. Luck In Love Comes To Those Who Are Already In Love: This probably sounds a bit puzzling at first read, but let me tell you what I mean. In order to really be lucky in love, you need to first love yourself. You need to really believe in yourself. You need to stop letting fears and excuses keep you from being open to love. You need to stop making excuses. You need to stop saying things like “I’m a 47 year old woman and men don’t want women my age” or “I’m 20 pounds overweight and no woman is going to find me attractive.” You have to believe that you are a gift – a gift that’s worth giving and a gift worth receiving.

Howie: Here is another thing I realized: after I almost lost my life I discovered that while I was not really afraid of death, I was terrified of that last minute just before I died. In that moment, I had to run through my head all of the things I had desired in my life. Had I even attempted to achieve some of my desires?

What terrified me was that if I were to ask myself that question right then, I couldn’t live with the answer. I had put off everything that I had wanted to do, and it was such bullshit!

David: I don’t think people are afraid of death, I think that they are afraid of living. So many of us are in a coma all of the time – a self-induced coma.

Taking risks proves that you’re alive. Pushing your boundaries proves your vitality. If you haven’t pushed your personal boundaries today, then you haven’t lived.

As we’re sitting here chewing our food, I’ll ask you this: how did you live today? How did you push your boundaries? How did you force yourself to do something new? What did you do to challenge yourself today?

It’s essential to always challenge yourself no matter what you do. You’re on the path of just challenging yourself beyond belief. Chris, I think you’re the same path. You have always been on that path, you’re just starting that path and you are starting it too.

You have to start that path somewhere, somehow, sometime. But after you start that path, what are you going to do to challenge yourself further? You always have to keep challenging yourself every day.

I always tell people after they take any type of training with me to make a to-do list. We’re all so great with our to-do lists, right? We do them at work everyday. Make a to-do list. “Today I’m going to talk to five strangers. I normally eat lunch at my desk, but today I’m going to go to Whole Foods and talk to the people next to me. On the way home from work tonight, I’m going to have dinner at Baja Fresh (or whatever it is) and I’m going to talk to people. I’m going to learn how to be memorable.”

We’re all memorable. We’re most memorable when we push ourselves beyond our personal comfort levels. When you push your boundaries, you become memorable. People say, “man, that guy was so nice, he asked me great questions!”

Today we saw that guy fom the furniture store and you really connected with him. I was watching his body language and I saw a genuine smile. That’s the thing with people in retail – if you bored them in the store, they will run from you if they see you outside of the store. But this guy didn’t – he stopped and talked to you and gave you a genuine smile.

You pushed yourself beyond your boundaries. Many people truly believe that they are overstepping their boundaries if they get personal with someone. However, as human beings, we’re craving getting personal with others.

I love it when I meet somebody who is interested in what I do. I love when they are interested in me, and compliment me and make me feel good.

You got a great confirmation from that guy. You can say to yourself, wow, this guy really remembered me!

I know how this works, because I bartended for seven years. When I was bartending, I would have people come up to me on the street that had drank in my bar all of the time and I’ll have no idea who they were. They weren’t memorable.

They’d say, “hey, David, how are you?” and I’d have to play it off and say, “hey, man…” I had to call everybody ‘man!’ I’d play it off, and then we’d walk away, and the friend I was with would ask me who that was. I’d have to answer, “I have no idea.”

That night I’d go back to work and I’d see the person again and think, oh my god. This person has been coming to my bar for so long but they were never memorable. They never shared anything with me.

Now, there are two ways to be very memorable: one is to ask questions and get deeper with someone, but you also have to share something about yourself.

Whenever you leave a place, you have to 1) connect with people by asking a lot of questions and 2) leave a part of yourself with everyone you talk to.

Give them the gift of yourself. Share something with them. Maybe it’s about skiing. Whatever it might be. Your last trip to Mexico, how funny it was – whatever! It doesn’t matter.

You want to leave something behind of yourself. You want to leave part of your soul behind so that others can remember you. You don’t want to be that invisible person that walks into a bar every single night but nobody knows your name.

Just like Cheers – you want to go where everybody knows your name!