Ben Wilson facing stage 4 lung cancer with calm dignity, a 365-day journal, and excitement to meet his maker demonstrates the difference between achieving greatness and being great — response to the worst thing on Earth in the most dignified way possible.
Shawn shares that their former producer Ben Wilson was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer 6 weeks ago. Despite having never smoked, Ben has responded with extraordinary calm — moving homes, raising $400K, keeping a 'zero to 365' journal, and saying he's 'excited' about the journey. Sam distinguishes this from the podcast's usual theme of 'achieving greatness' (conquest, wealth), calling this 'being great' — a fundamentally different, more profound quality. ✦ AI generated
Shawn · My First Million · 2026-07-31 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 36:05
6 weeks ago he found out that he has stage four lung cancer uh where the odds are not in his favor, but he's got like the best doctors in the world. [He has] a journal where I'm going to document every single day, and my goal is to fill this whole thing out. It may not happen, but I'm going to work my hardest to fill this out and make it 365 days, and I pray that there's a sequel to this journal so my kids can like read this. But if I can't do it and I meet my maker sooner than I intend to or I want to, I'm going to be really excited about it. [Seeing] how much dignity and integrity and bravery this guy is facing this. [I was] like, 'I'm seeing like a great man be great in real time and respond to like the worst thing on Earth in the most dignified, wise, and like the best way I've ever seen.' [Sam:] His podcast is about Napoleon and Caesar and these complicated men who achieve, who conquered. I think, you know, it's how to take over the world. It's about conquerors. It's about the the world shapers. And there's a big difference between achieving greatness and being great. What Ben is doing right now is greatness, but it's being great, not achieving something. And I think there's a huge difference and I think for myself and most people that we don't really split those out. [Shawn:] We talk about like being rich here and we try to say a rich life and we try hard to like let people know that this isn't just about money. It's just It's It's about defining what life is um worth living and how it how it can be rich for you. And I just want to reiterate that like the million in My First Million doesn't necessarily mean dollars, but it means like the first like unit of richness that you can have in your life.
verbatim transcript · starts at 36:05
35:46you've done?" Or I ask a lot about their parents. And like they start opening up. But like I had to like learn how to like have small talk. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, everybody needs to, I think. Okay, I like that. That's a cool That's a cool story. Can I um can I take it a totally different direction? >> All right, I could talk to you. Let me
36:05talk to you about something. Um it it's going to sound sad, and it is sad, but I think it's like really interesting. And uh I I have permission to talk about this, but I think it's cool. So, you and I had a producer named Ben Wilson. Ben Wilson uh was our producer for My First Million for a long time. And he now has a podcast called How to
36:24Take Over the World. Uh he's got four kids under the age of 5 years old. It's crazy. And 6 weeks ago he found out that he has stage four lung cancer uh where the odds are not in his favor, but he's got like the best doctors in the world. So, like some crazy things might happen. He's very optimistic. But, I went and met with him yesterday. He he's in New
36:45York to see a doctor. And I wanted to talk about my experience getting to like like talk to him cuz this is like a very like interesting predicament that he's in. Think about this. 6 weeks ago he found this out. So, in the 6 weeks he moved his house. He sold his home and got a new home closer to the doctor that he's going. Uh he did like a $400,000 fundraiser,
37:05which was amazing. He like got his will and all of his estate stuff together. And he's gone to like all these um like doctors' appointments, like so many of them. And I remember like talking to him yesterday. And I was like, "Dude, you've gone through so much. Like this is so heavy." And I And he was telling me a little bit about it. And I My initial reaction when I heard all this,
37:27I felt like extreme sadness. Partially because Ben's a Mormon. So, Ben has lung cancer and it's in his spine and in his brain. But, it started as lung cancer. And he has never smoked. He has never drank. He has really never done anything bad in his life. Uh and I felt like I felt like uh like we have an agreement with the universe where we put good in and we should get
37:47good out. And I was like, "This agreement has been broken." And I felt like pretty like pissed about it. And I Yeah, I felt very angry. But, then like I started like seeing how he was reacting to all this stuff. And like I would put myself in that shoes. I'm like, "All right. 6 weeks ago in June I find out that I have this illness. Like how do I react?" And I was
38:07like, "I would be I would go insane. I I would be so sad. I'd be so depressed." It was just like crazy how calm he was. And what's interesting is that Ben has a podcast called How to Take Over the World, which is about like how great leaders become great. And I was thinking about that. And he had this uh journal with him. And it was on the title of this journal was zero to
- ·Diagnosed 6 weeks ago, stage 4 lung cancer, never smoked
- ·Moved homes, raised $400K, started a 365-day journal
- ·Says he's 'excited' about the journey, even if no sequel
- ·Podcast is about conquerors who 'achieve greatness'
- ·Ben's response is 'being great' — a different quality
- ·Shawn: his million means richness of life, not dollars