JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In 2004, a former pro baseball player started writing a self-help book. In 2009, it was published. Some 15 years later, it wasn't exactly making waves. There were more than 500,000 other books trending ahead of it on Amazon. But then this past January, millions of NFL fans saw Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown flipping through that book during a crucial game. The Eagles won that night, and they went on to win the Super Bowl. And overnight, the book jumped to the top of the charts. It's called "Inner Excellence," and it's now been republished in a major book deal. Author Jim Murphy joins me now. Hi there.
JIM MURPHY: Thanks so much for having me.
SUMMERS: I remember seeing the images of A.J. Brown reading that book everywhere on my social media. I just wonder if you can start by describing for us the night of and immediately after the Wild Card win for the Eagles. I mean, your phone must have been blowing up.
MURPHY: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. It was actually a very surreal few days for me. January 12, that day, I was walking around downtown Dallas, and it was kind of a somber time in my life. Business was kind of slow. I actually didn't pay off my credit cards in January. And my mom was dying. And a few hours before the game, I'm walking around the empty city, and I look up at this skyscraper and I see this huge building, and the thought comes to mind, would you rather own that building or rather have written this book, "The Best Possible Life" and "Inner Excellence" - like, learn what you've learned?
And then three hours later, my life changed greatly. I was sitting in my hotel room, and then I looked at my phone, and I see all these messages. And my mom died four days later. And so I thought it was messages saying my mom had died and - but instead, they were like, you need to check out this Eagles-Packers game.
SUMMERS: Well, first of all, I just want to say I'm so sorry about the loss of your mom.
MURPHY: Thank you.
SUMMERS: I mean, it sounds really surreal, the fact that this is a book you started writing in 2004, and it's hitting peak popularity now in 2025. Can you talk about that a bit?
MURPHY: People would ask me, how's the book doing? And I'd say, you know what? It's good, because I wrote it to get clients, and my career had been going great. But I think sales were slow, so eventually, I got the rights to it and self-published. But in between, I went to the desert to live a life of solitude. And yeah, I spent my life savings, spent - I was $90,000 in debt, and that actually created a lot of anxiety because, you know, we're created for relationship. And when you isolate yourself for any period of time, there's no one there to doubt your doubts and to tell you, remind you who you are and what's possible. And so I had this near mental breakdown, and then my life dramatically changed.
SUMMERS: Is there anything new or different about this new edition of the book from the original versions?
MURPHY: The concepts are very similar. What I've realized is that what I've always really wanted was to feel fully alive. Coaching pro athletes for the last decade or two, you know, they're the same as us. They have the same limiting beliefs and negative thoughts and this concern for self. What are people go to think of me if I fail? And "Inner Excellence" is really about focusing on the process of developing yourself, developing inner peace and inner strength and learning to train your heart to love most what's most empowering and not get - make what you love most something that's temporary and superficial, like some result.
SUMMERS: Just thinking about the way that you described, you know, needing to not get wrapped up and enveloped in stressing about the things we can't control, I mean, I think some people might find it challenging to find a silver lining right now. What would you say to a person who feels like they can't let it go?
MURPHY: Yeah, we really need to redefine success on things that you can control. Give the best of what you have every day and - realizing that some days you're not going to have much to give. We're going to give 100% of whatever you have, and some days it's only going to be 20- or 30%.
SUMMERS: You've said that writing this book and its overnight popularity, that was never really the point or the goal for you. So Jim Murphy, what is it all about for you?
MURPHY: Yeah, I want to live my purpose. The American dream is to be, you know, rich and famous and successful. So I realized that's what people think is amazing. But what's amazing is the impact you have on other people. And when you start thinking that you're the one that did something great, that's what leads to fear and anxiety, when you start to make your life about you. And when you can be selfless, then you can be fearless, and that's what I want the world to know.
SUMMERS: That's incredible. Jim Murphy, author of the viral book "Inner Excellence," thanks so much for speaking with us.
MURPHY: Thanks so much for having me.
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