Ryan Holiday ON: Eliminating Fear From Your Life & Push Past Them This Year
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Jay Shetty talks to Ryan Holiday about why being too comfortable won’t help you grow. When you take risks, you prepare yourself to be mentally and emotionally present and be ready for what may happen. Taking risks without fearing what might happen is the foundation that allows us to evolve for better even when constraints are present and some things are just out of our control.
Ryan is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, book store owner, public-relations strategist, and host of the podcast The Daily Stoic. Some of his best selling books are The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is the Enemy, Stillness is the Key, and The Daily Stoic. He owns and operates Painted Porch Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Bastrop, Texas. He lives on a 40-acre ranch in Bastrop County, Texas with his wife and two sons.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 04:42 It takes 10,000 hours to get to mastery
- 05:45 Opening a bookstore during the pandemic
- 10:27 How do you know which books to read?
- 17:36 What courage truly means
- 20:37 We’re all self-interested people but we value other people’s opinion
- 26:17 If you’re in a place where you identify with external results, you become vulnerable
- 30:34 Cultivating the ability to push through your fear
- 33:55 Being too comfortable makes you afraid to take risks
- 40:25 Deciding not to see the world as a zero sum place
- 45:00 When you make trade offs that aren’t worth it
- 46:07 Just how much is out of your control?
- 48:54 Positive changes out of situational constraints
- 51:17 What is heroism?
- 55:58 Ryan on Fast Five
Episode Resources
- Ryan Holiday | Website
- Ryan Holiday | Twitter
- Ryan Holiday | Facebook
- Ryan Holiday | Instagram
- Ryan Holiday | Books
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Speaker 1: And I think if you can get to a place
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Speaker 1: where you're not identifying with the love or the mistreatment,
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Speaker 1: you're just like, here's who I am. Here's the intention,
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Speaker 1: the motivation that I know I'm acting on and that
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Speaker 1: I know that's coming from a good place. And So
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Speaker 1: whether they're saying Jay, You're amazing, or they're saying Jay,
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Speaker 1: you're the you know you're awful, you're screwing this up,
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Speaker 1: you suck, You're just like, I'm gonna do what I
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Speaker 1: have to do as long as I'm able to do it. Hey, everyone,
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Speaker 1: Welcome back to un Purposed, the number one health podcast
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Speaker 1: in the world. Thanks to each and every single one
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Speaker 1: of you that come back every week to listen, learn
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Speaker 1: and grow. Now, today's guest is someone that I've interviewed,
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Speaker 1: not once, not twice, not three times, But this is
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Speaker 1: the fourth time we're sitting down together. The first time
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Speaker 1: was at half Post back in like twenty sixteen, when
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Speaker 1: I was just starting a lot of my online work.
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Speaker 1: Then we did in Nazadac Reads probably around twenty seventeen,
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Speaker 1: maybe twenty eighteen, and then I got to sit down
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Speaker 1: with him on the podcast. You've already loved him on
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Speaker 1: the show just last year. I think it was just
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Speaker 1: before the pandemic, and then now we are having our
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Speaker 1: fourth ever interview. I'm talking about the one and only
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Speaker 1: Ryan Holiday. Ryan Holiday is one of the world's best
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Speaker 1: selling living philosophers. His books like The Obstacle Is the Way,
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Speaker 1: Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic I have all
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Speaker 1: reached number one New York Times best seller status, and
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Speaker 1: Stillness Is the Key appears in more than forty languages,
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Speaker 1: and all of his books have sold more than four
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Speaker 1: million copies. Together. They've spent over three hundred weeks three
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Speaker 1: hundred weeks on the best seller lists. He lives outside
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Speaker 1: Austin with his wife and two boys and a small
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Speaker 1: herd of cows and donkeys and goats. And he also
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Speaker 1: opened up his own bookstore, which I love. The Painted
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Speaker 1: Porch sits on the historic main street in Bastard, Texas.
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Speaker 1: And his new book, The Courage Is Calling already in
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Speaker 1: New York Times Bestseller. If you haven't read it, I
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Speaker 1: highly recommend that you go and grab it. Ryan, like
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Speaker 1: you did for so many others, you opened up our
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Speaker 1: minds and lives to the teachings of the Stoics, which
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Speaker 1: I am eternally grateful for because I think you've broughte
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Speaker 1: so much wisdom through that we would have missed out on.
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Speaker 1: And you also in many ways inspired me to think
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Speaker 1: about how I could do something similar for Vedic philosophers
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Speaker 1: and thoughts. So thank you from a personal level, a
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Speaker 1: collective level, societal level for I've seen you do a
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Speaker 1: lot of activism work too. But Ryan, welcome back to
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Speaker 1: the show now. Thanks for having me. And it's crazy
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Speaker 1: we do go way back, and I think both of
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Speaker 1: us had somewhat circuitous journeys to where we are now.
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Speaker 1: Like you interviewed me on two different shows before you
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Speaker 1: had your own show. I did a bunch of stuff
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Speaker 1: before I was a writer. To me, I in case
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Speaker 1: people don't pick up on what that means, is like
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Speaker 1: just because you're not like very rarely does anyone just
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Speaker 1: get to start like by having their own platform or
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Speaker 1: putting out their own thing, and you have to take
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Speaker 1: jobs or do things get to work your way there.
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Speaker 1: And I think people who are in the middle of
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Speaker 1: that sometimes you don't know where it's going to end up.
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Speaker 1: You can kind of lose faith. But I think in
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Speaker 1: both of our cases, like we put in the work,
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Speaker 1: paid our dues, and we did get there, and I
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Speaker 1: hope that's encouraging to people because it's amazing. It always
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Speaker 1: takes longer than you think it should, but eventually you
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Speaker 1: get there. Absolutely. Yeah. I remember talking to you about like,
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Speaker 1: you know, you started in marketing, and you know, you
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Speaker 1: talk about your time that American apparel, And then I
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Speaker 1: also remember talking to you about how you're the Leonardo
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Speaker 1: DiCaprio right is where you've written all these amazing books
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Speaker 1: that were epic and you were waiting for this, you know,
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Speaker 1: the arbitrary idea of ranking on the list, and I
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Speaker 1: you know, I think we were talking about that last
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Speaker 1: time when we were messaging, and I was like, you know,
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Speaker 1: Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated for an Oscar seven tons
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Speaker 1: and only one once and that's pretty much the same
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Speaker 1: as you. And it's just one of those amazing things
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Speaker 1: that all your journey has brought you to this pace.
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Speaker 1: And now when you look back at your beautiful portfolio
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Speaker 1: of books and I know that Courage is Calling is
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Speaker 1: the part of a new set of four books. I
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Speaker 1: really like that you started with that point that we've
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Speaker 1: known each other through a lot of different faces, a
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Speaker 1: lot of different names, a lot of different banners, And
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Speaker 1: you know, today it's beautiful to sit with you and
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Speaker 1: do this again. But you know it started very differently.
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Speaker 1: But I have to be honest, I've had fun with
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Speaker 1: you since day one, so I'm expecting this to be
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Speaker 1: no different. Well, you know people talk about like ten
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Speaker 1: thousand hours, right, it takes ten thousand hours to get
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Speaker 1: to mastery. I think two things are easy to miss.
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Speaker 1: Their number one, it's not ten thousand hours of terrible,
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Speaker 1: grinding labor. It should be fun. And I had a
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Speaker 1: ton of fun along the way too. Just because it
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Speaker 1: might take ten thousand hours or it could take twenty
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Speaker 1: thousand hours or one hundred thousand hours to actually get
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Speaker 1: to the place where you've really truly mastered it, that
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Speaker 1: doesn't mean that you can't make a great living between
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Speaker 1: now and then, and that you can't do work that
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Speaker 1: you're proud of that stands up like I'm this is
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Speaker 1: my I think twelfth book. I'm proud of all the
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Speaker 1: books in between, but the twelfth book is only possible
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Speaker 1: because of the eleventh and the tenth, and the ninth
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Speaker 1: and the eighth. And the idea should be that you're
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Speaker 1: on this journey and that you're getting better as you go,
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Speaker 1: even though you are, you know, not ideally where you
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Speaker 1: want to be, but you're you're having fun along the way,
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Speaker 1: as you said, absolutely, And I wanted to start off
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Speaker 1: somewhere before we dive into all the wisdom and the
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Speaker 1: insight and the practice is I wanted to know what
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Speaker 1: does it feel like as an author during the pandemic
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Speaker 1: to have opened your own bookstore called the Painted Points
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Speaker 1: like that it seems like a really it's like being
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Speaker 1: an artist and then opening your own art gallery, right
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Speaker 1: and with other people's art in it as well as
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Speaker 1: yours of course, Tell what does that feel like? Well,
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Speaker 1: it was very exciting at first. I think right around
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Speaker 1: the time I saw you last that was when I
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Speaker 1: was thinking about doing it, and we'd sort of made
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Speaker 1: some of the initial decisions to do it. And then
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Speaker 1: I believe we'd hired our first employee in February of
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Speaker 1: twenty twenty, so it was all very exciting, and then
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Speaker 1: it got very terrifying and very real and very overwhelming
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Speaker 1: quickly because the whole world shut down, and you know,
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Speaker 1: I think we thought it would be a project that
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Speaker 1: would take a year, and it took two years, and
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Speaker 1: that was obviously more expensive than intended and scarier than intended,
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Speaker 1: but it also was an opportunity to take it slow,
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Speaker 1: to do it right, to really think about why we
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Speaker 1: were doing it and how we wanted to do it,
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Speaker 1: And then it gave us a whole other sense of
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Speaker 1: what the meaning of it was. Right, so, you know,
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Speaker 1: you're thinking, hey, bookstores are important because it's a place
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Speaker 1: people go. You can be around other people, you can
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Speaker 1: talk about things. And then when you when we were
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Speaker 1: looking at a world where that was not possible, you
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Speaker 1: suddenly realize what those things mean to you and you
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Speaker 1: don't take them so much for granted anymore. So it
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Speaker 1: was really it was a very trying and challenging experience,
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Speaker 1: to be sure, but the upside was it made the
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Speaker 1: rewards of it so far, you know, much more compelling
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Speaker 1: and meaningful. I think, yeah, I love that. It's wonderful.
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Speaker 1: It's wonderful hearing that you know you've got through and
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Speaker 1: you've figured it out, and I'm sure it's been harder
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Speaker 1: than it needed to be, but it sounds wonderful, and
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Speaker 1: I hope I get a visit, so I really look
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Speaker 1: forward to actually going now I've never been never been
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Speaker 1: able to go to a bookstore and say, my friend,
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Speaker 1: my friend owns this and he's a writer. It's cool.
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Speaker 1: So I really loved I mean, books are such an
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Speaker 1: amazing thing. Like if you think about what a book is, right,
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Speaker 1: like a book is ten years or a lifetime of
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Speaker 1: work and understanding bound between two covers for like twenty dollars,
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Speaker 1: Like it's this incredible piece of technology that's you know,
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Speaker 1: now endured for thousands of years. That I just books
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Speaker 1: have been so important in my life. Obviously, there's there's
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Speaker 1: different businesses I would open if what I was interested
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Speaker 1: in is making more money a bookstore in twenty twenty one,
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Speaker 1: let alone during a pandemic is you know, like not
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Speaker 1: not the best. But I think, you know, I have
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Speaker 1: a podcast too, and there's something amazing about reaching millions
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Speaker 1: of people at scale digitally throughout the world. But there
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Speaker 1: is also something special about holding things and having a space,
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Speaker 1: and so I just it. My wife and I were
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Speaker 1: just thinking, like, you know, we've been so blessed, We've
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Speaker 1: got to do so many cool things. What is something
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Speaker 1: that could be fun could also be a business opportunity,
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Speaker 1: But you know, I think improve the community in which
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Speaker 1: we live. And that that's kind of what I've just
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Speaker 1: been thinking about out more lately, is like, not everything
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Speaker 1: has to be like how do I reach as many
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Speaker 1: people as possible? It could also be like how do
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Speaker 1: you really reach the people the smaller amount of people
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Speaker 1: that you are reaching? Yeah, I count agree with you more.
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Speaker 1: For me as well, it's always been about scale and depth,
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Speaker 1: scale and depth, and it's like, you know you have scale,
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Speaker 1: but how can you go deep with that scale? But
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Speaker 1: then also how can you scale down and take people
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Speaker 1: even on a more meaningful and deeper journey more personally.
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Speaker 1: And I was able to do that even digitally during
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Speaker 1: the pandemic. We a lot of me and my private
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Speaker 1: coaching clients, people that I work with one on one,
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Speaker 1: we started this like small meditation communities for them and
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Speaker 1: their families or them and their friends on zoom and
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Speaker 1: I was teaching I'm used to teaching, you know, meditation
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Speaker 1: on Instagram live, to you know, hundreds of thousands or
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Speaker 1: millions of people after people watch it on the replay,
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Speaker 1: and to actually just sit on a zoom which is
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Speaker 1: ten faces every single week was beautiful, Like it's it's
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Speaker 1: been some of the most meaningful work I've ever done,
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Speaker 1: and you're spot on, So I get that. Now I
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Speaker 1: want to start. I've got so many questions to ask
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Speaker 1: you run so, and we've just been chatting so and
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Speaker 1: to like, actually, everyone's gonna be like, what are you
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Speaker 1: guys doing? Jays just having a conversation, which is partly
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Speaker 1: what I'm doing. But I want to find out you
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Speaker 1: introduced stoicism to the world in a huge way, massively,
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Speaker 1: like you know, really brought it out beyond where I
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Speaker 1: think it had been at least from my knowledge, at
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Speaker 1: least for me definitely, And I wanted to understand, like,
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Speaker 1: can you tell us the story of how you discovered
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Speaker 1: stoicism and how that first moment made you feel and
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Speaker 1: why you felt compelled to share with the rest of
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Speaker 1: the world. I think a lot of what we're doing,
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Speaker 1: you and I are doing is sort of paying it forward, right,
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Speaker 1: Somebody introduced you to the ideas and they hit you,
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Speaker 1: and you had this amazing sort of life changing transformation
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Speaker 1: because of that, and then there's this kind of moment
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Speaker 1: where you go, could I do that for someone else?
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Speaker 1: And then we're talking about skill earlier, how did I
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Speaker 1: do that? Like even better? How could I do that
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Speaker 1: to How could I take what I experienced and not
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Speaker 1: just do it to the people that I physically interact with,
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Speaker 1: but millions of people. So I was in college and
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Speaker 1: I went to this conference in West Hollywood and the
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Speaker 1: speaker was doctor Drew from from HLN and from love Line.
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Speaker 1: Now he has a wonderful podcast as well, and he
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Speaker 1: was speaking and I had grown up listening to love Line,
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Speaker 1: and so I remember at that age I would whenever
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Speaker 1: I would meet smart people that I admired or that
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Speaker 1: I had some you know, random circumstances to me, I'd
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Speaker 1: be like, what books do you recommend? Because I was
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Speaker 1: just just thinking, there's so many books out in the world.
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Speaker 1: How do you know which ones to read? And if
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Speaker 1: you just I was thinking, if I just read the
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Speaker 1: ones that really smart people that I admire have read,
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Speaker 1: I'll be like skipping all the stuff that you know.
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Speaker 1: It'd be like a It's like getting you know, notes
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Speaker 1: from from from people ahead of you. And so um
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Speaker 1: I asked him, and he told me he was reading
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Speaker 1: the writings of Epictetus, who is this Roman slave. And
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Speaker 1: I went back to my hotel room and I bought
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Speaker 1: Epictetus and I bought Marcus Surrealius because I'd seen the
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Speaker 1: movie Gladiator and h and these two books arrived and
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Speaker 1: they they hit me. I read Marcus Arelius first. Actually here,
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Speaker 1: let me grab this is mine now, fifteen year old
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Speaker 1: copy of Meditations. I've had to retape the cover on
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Speaker 1: because I've read it so many times. But but you know,
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Speaker 1: you read Meditations, and it just it hit me. It
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Speaker 1: hit me like a million bricks. I mean, in the
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Speaker 1: in the first line of Meditations, he says, and this
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Speaker 1: is like one of my he says, when you awake
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Speaker 1: in the morning, tell yourself. The people I will deal
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Speaker 1: with today will be meddling, ungrateful, arrogant, dishonest, jealous, and surly.
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Speaker 1: And he says they are like this because they can't
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Speaker 1: tell good from evil. And then but he goes, but
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Speaker 1: they can't implicate me in ugliness. Nor can I feel
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Speaker 1: angry at my relative or hate him. We were born
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Speaker 1: to work together, like feet and hands and eyes. To
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Speaker 1: feel anger at someone, to turn your back on him,
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Speaker 1: these are obstructions. And I I just remember being hit
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Speaker 1: by that, going like the Emperor of Rome wrote this,
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Speaker 1: like he just wrote a note to himself about how
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Speaker 1: frustrating and annoying people are going to be, but that
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Speaker 1: he couldn't let this change him or make him angry,
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Speaker 1: and that he had this obligation to work together with them.
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Speaker 1: And I remember I was taking philosophy classes at the time,
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Speaker 1: but it was nothing like this, Like when you read Aristotle.
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Speaker 1: I mean, there's definitely good parts in it, but you're
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Speaker 1: also like, what is he talking about, right, Like he's
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Speaker 1: explaining the universe or something He's not saying like this
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Speaker 1: is how you deal with a jerk in traffic, or
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Speaker 1: you know, this is how you deal with your obnoxious roommate, right, Like.
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Speaker 1: I just love that Marcus rus was being so real
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Speaker 1: and so practical, but at the same time trying to
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Speaker 1: be great, like trying to be decent and good and
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Speaker 1: patient and just that was transformative for me. And eventually,
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Speaker 1: you know, got to a place where I thought maybe
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Speaker 1: I could write stuff like this, or I could write
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Speaker 1: about stuff like this, And that's been the journey for
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Speaker 1: me now for a decade and a half. Yeah, I
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Speaker 1: love that. Thank you for sharing that so much, and
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Speaker 1: I love so much about what you just said. So
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Speaker 1: first of all, I want to point out to everyone
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Speaker 1: who's listening. I love that you went up to someone
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Speaker 1: and asked, what books do you recommend? Because that's such
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Speaker 1: a great question because ninety nine percent of people don't
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Speaker 1: go up, and the one percent of people that do
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Speaker 1: go up, they go up and say, how can I
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Speaker 1: spend more time with you? Or how can I connect
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Speaker 1: with you? Or how can how can we have dinner
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Speaker 1: or lunch or whatever it may be, And the answer
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Speaker 1: ninet nine percent of the time is I don't think
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Speaker 1: I have time for that, Like I'm not sure that's
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Speaker 1: going to happen. I'd love to, but it's it's not possible.
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Speaker 1: And so by asking them what books they're reading, you're
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Speaker 1: tapping into their mindset for days, weeks, months, years. You
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Speaker 1: would never get time and access to someone that inspires
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Speaker 1: you in that way. And thank you for so much
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Speaker 1: for reading the first one. I mean, anyone who listens
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Speaker 1: to that, you're just like, I want to live like that, right,
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Speaker 1: Like that's how you feel. Straight away you go, I
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Speaker 1: want to live like that. I want to share with
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Speaker 1: you the biggest news of the year. How many of
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Speaker 1: you want to meditate? I can see your heads nodding,
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Speaker 1: I can see you raising your hands, I can see
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Speaker 1: you saying, yes, Jay, I really want to learn to meditate.
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Speaker 1: How many of you would like to learn to meditate
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Speaker 1: with me? Every single day? Now? I already know what
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Speaker 1: the answer is because I know how many messages DMS
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Speaker 1: reviews notes that I get saying Jay, I'd love to
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Speaker 1: meditate with you. Last year, we took meditation to Instagram
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Speaker 1: and I meditated for around forty days live and twenty
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Speaker 1: million of you tuned in. Now I am taking that
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Speaker 1: same focus, that same presence to Calm. I've partnered up
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Speaker 1: with Calm to release a new series called The Daily
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Speaker 1: J where you can meditate with me every single day
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Speaker 1: for seven minutes to make it a real habit. I
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Speaker 1: would love for you to come and join me and
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Speaker 1: take part in building a really powerful meditation practice. And
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Speaker 1: guess what we're going to do it together? Head over
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Speaker 1: right Nowtcalm dot com forward slash J to get forty
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Speaker 1: percent off a premium membership. That's Calm dot com Forward
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Speaker 1: slash J. Well, the crazy thing about the book question
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Speaker 1: is so like even today, you know, I got a
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Speaker 1: bunch of emails from random people which saw very nice.
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Speaker 1: I'm not going to be able to respond to all
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Speaker 1: of them. But somebody was like, Hey, I'm struggling with depression,
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Speaker 1: what's a book you would recommend? And I would like
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Speaker 1: took me two seconds to reply, right, And like that,
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Speaker 1: of all the emails today, that's the one that I
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Speaker 1: responded to because I love books and if that's an
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Speaker 1: easy way I can help a person. But the crazy
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Speaker 1: thing about the doctor Drew story was like three months later,
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Speaker 1: I went to a different conference and he was there again.
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Speaker 1: I don't know how, I don't know how the odds
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Speaker 1: of it worked, but I went up to him and
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Speaker 1: I was like, you probably don't remember me, but I
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Speaker 1: read those books, right, And he was like, I do
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Speaker 1: remember you, but I did not think you were going
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Speaker 1: to read those books. And he and I are friends now,
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Speaker 1: like twenty years later, fifteen years later, we still know
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Speaker 1: each other because I didn't just get the recommendation, but
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Speaker 1: then I actually did the work, like I read the book,
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Speaker 1: and now he and I have this connection forever. And
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Speaker 1: I think the amount of people that like asked me
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Speaker 1: for recommendation versus the amount of people I hear back
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Speaker 1: from who have actually taken the time to read the book.
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Speaker 1: You know, it's it's a small percentage of a small percentage.
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Speaker 1: And so these books are out there, these books that
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Speaker 1: have changed people's lives, people have been through the exact
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Speaker 1: same thing that you've been through. They're there, but no
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Speaker 1: one can read them for you. Yeah really, well, I said,
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Speaker 1: And this leads us nicely to courage is calling that
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Speaker 1: you know, the new book because to me, you know,
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Speaker 1: we have this perception that to have a great life
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Speaker 1: we need to be brave, we need to be courageous.
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Speaker 1: But you actually start the book at fear, And I
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Speaker 1: think what's fascinating about that is a lot of people
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Speaker 1: have the fear, or we think we lack the courage
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Speaker 1: to go up to someone and ask a question. Then
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Speaker 1: we fear taking the step of ordering the books because
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Speaker 1: we're thinking, oh, well, when will I get time to
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Speaker 1: read them, and they're just going to become a doorstopper,
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Speaker 1: and then maybe I'll feel worse about myself or maybe
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Speaker 1: we get beyond that, and we order them and then
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Speaker 1: we fear reading them. We go, oh, no, well, that
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Speaker 1: may need me to change, or that may need me
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Speaker 1: to shift, or I may have to give up some
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Speaker 1: luxury or some comfort that I'm used to. There's fear
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Speaker 1: at every single step walk us through how fear can
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Speaker 1: be something that is necessary, but it's also just Will
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Speaker 1: you make an important point about courage which I really
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Speaker 1: tried to build a book around, which is that courage
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Speaker 1: is not just running into battle or a burning building
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Speaker 1: or jumping out of an airplane or you know, it's
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Speaker 1: not just physical danger, and it's not always dramatic. Right,
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Speaker 1: So there's physical courage and moral courage. Moral courage is
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Speaker 1: also the courage of a whistleblower or a truth teller
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Speaker 1: or a transgressive artist. But it's also just the courage
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Speaker 1: to like walk up and talk to a stranger, or
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Speaker 1: a courage to start your own podcast, or the courage
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Speaker 1: to put yourself out there or to you have this,
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Speaker 1: like I don't know, the decision to cut your hair
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Speaker 1: a certain way and not give a shit what anyone thinks, right, Like,
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Speaker 1: there's also this really small day to day courage. It
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Speaker 1: doesn't it's not always this dramatic, glorious thing. And I
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Speaker 1: think you're right, Like a lot of a lot of
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Speaker 1: really basic things in our life come down to a
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Speaker 1: failure of courage. Even even you think about people who
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Speaker 1: are afraid to true try something, not because they're afraid
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Speaker 1: of failing, which they probably are, but also just afraid
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Speaker 1: of of success, right, like a afraid of what changes
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Speaker 1: would be demanded or what it would mean to then
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Speaker 1: have to wrestle with this thing. And so it's it's
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Speaker 1: not that we don't know what we should do, it's
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Speaker 1: that we have a million reasons why we shouldn't do
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Speaker 1: it right, right, That's what fear is. Fear is the
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Speaker 1: thing that gets in the way what Stephen Presfield calls
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Speaker 1: the resistance between you know, what we can be and
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Speaker 1: where we are. So it's not that courageous people do
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Speaker 1: not feel those fears, it's that they push past them. Right.
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Speaker 1: The things we want in life are on the other
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Speaker 1: side of that fear, Like all good things in life
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Speaker 1: require courage. I would imagine there's very little that anyone
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Speaker 1: listening could think of in their own life that they're
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Speaker 1: proud of that did not some triumph over fear. Certainly,
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Speaker 1: everything that I'm proud of in my life was something
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Speaker 1: that I had to push myself out of my comfort
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Speaker 1: zone to get. Yeah. Absolutely, no, I think you're spot on.
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Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, when I'm thinking about that right now,
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Speaker 1: and I hope everyone who's listening or watching is thinking
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Speaker 1: about that too. I can't think of I can barely
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Speaker 1: think of anything, if anything at all. And so you
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Speaker 1: know that aligns very strongly, and I like you know.
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Speaker 1: In the book, there's the part that you wrote that says,
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Speaker 1: and there has never ever been a time when the
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Speaker 1: average opinion of faceless, unaccountable strangers should be valued over
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Speaker 1: our own judgment. And I love that because I think
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Speaker 1: we're living at a time when faceless, unaccountable strangers dictate
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Speaker 1: everything in our lives, whether it's a comment, whether it's
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Speaker 1: a DM, whether it's a you know, a message and email.
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Speaker 1: Walk us through why is it that we take unaccountable
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Speaker 1: facing the stranger is so seriously that why does that exist? Look,
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00:22:03,800 --> 00:22:07,160
Speaker 1: it's not like this just some modern thing. Right. In Meditations,
416
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:10,240
Speaker 1: Mark Surreali says, the crazy thing is we all love
417
00:22:10,280 --> 00:22:14,200
Speaker 1: ourselves more than other people. We're all self interested, selfish people.
418
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:16,600
Speaker 1: It's a certain degree, right, And he says, and yet
419
00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:20,240
Speaker 1: we value other people's opinions more than our own. Right.
420
00:22:20,280 --> 00:22:23,120
Speaker 1: You see this sweatshirt you like, and you buy it
421
00:22:23,320 --> 00:22:25,520
Speaker 1: and then someone's like what's that. You're like, Oh, you
422
00:22:25,520 --> 00:22:28,040
Speaker 1: don't like it. I shouldn't like you know, like or
423
00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:30,720
Speaker 1: you spend on the other end of the spectrum. You know,
424
00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:33,640
Speaker 1: you spend two years writing a book and then you go.
425
00:22:33,920 --> 00:22:36,880
Speaker 1: But but did the critics accept me? Did the publisher
426
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,439
Speaker 1: like it? You know, you can even find yourself is
427
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,480
Speaker 1: it any good? And it's like, who is this person
428
00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:44,800
Speaker 1: to decide that it's any good? You're the way, you know,
429
00:22:45,040 --> 00:22:47,640
Speaker 1: this is why you do what you do, and yet
430
00:22:47,680 --> 00:22:52,439
Speaker 1: we hand over approval success to other people, and like,
431
00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:54,560
Speaker 1: look when when the obstacle is the way it came
432
00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:58,239
Speaker 1: out to just to sort of illustrate this idea that
433
00:22:58,280 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: nobody knows anything. The publisher offered me half what they'd
434
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:06,720
Speaker 1: offered me for my first book for what was my
435
00:23:06,800 --> 00:23:09,040
Speaker 1: second book. So right out of the gate, I had
436
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,680
Speaker 1: the idea for the Obstacles the Way, and the publisher
437
00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:15,320
Speaker 1: said that idea is half as good as your last idea.
438
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:18,760
Speaker 1: They like, they did not believe in it. Look, they
439
00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:20,880
Speaker 1: believed in it enough to purchase it, but they did
440
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:23,600
Speaker 1: not have high hopes. A close friend of mine I
441
00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,760
Speaker 1: found out later predicted that it would sell five thousand
442
00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:30,080
Speaker 1: copies right it came out. It didn't hit the best
443
00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:33,200
Speaker 1: seller list. The weekly came out, it sold like maybe
444
00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:36,600
Speaker 1: thirty thousand copies in the first six months, maybe sixty
445
00:23:36,640 --> 00:23:39,600
Speaker 1: thousand in the first year, did not hit a best
446
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:43,600
Speaker 1: seller list for the first five years of its existence,
447
00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:46,320
Speaker 1: and then ultimately has gone on to sell, you know,
448
00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:50,639
Speaker 1: about a million and a half copies. So the success
449
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,240
Speaker 1: of that book, if I was judging it based on
450
00:23:54,359 --> 00:23:58,000
Speaker 1: what other people said, would have been a failure, would
451
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:02,879
Speaker 1: have been a disappointment, would have been and mediocre at best.
452
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,920
Speaker 1: But what I knew is that it was one something
453
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:09,800
Speaker 1: was really important to me. Two, I knew it was
454
00:24:09,840 --> 00:24:12,080
Speaker 1: something that because it had been so important to me,
455
00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:15,280
Speaker 1: that with time it would resonate with people. And then
456
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:20,040
Speaker 1: three it was pleasurable and exciting and rewarding for me
457
00:24:20,119 --> 00:24:23,840
Speaker 1: to do, and so kind of everything beyond that was
458
00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:28,720
Speaker 1: extra and I moved on to other projects and let
459
00:24:28,760 --> 00:24:30,480
Speaker 1: it do what it did. So the fact that it's
460
00:24:30,560 --> 00:24:33,119
Speaker 1: now had all this success is one is a wonderful
461
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:36,960
Speaker 1: bonus on top. But that that wasn't why I did it,
462
00:24:37,280 --> 00:24:39,879
Speaker 1: Because if it was why, if that was what had
463
00:24:39,920 --> 00:24:42,240
Speaker 1: been motivating me from the beginning, I never would have
464
00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:45,320
Speaker 1: done it because it would have been killed the second
465
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:48,120
Speaker 1: the offer came back from the publisher and they said,
466
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,600
Speaker 1: you know, and that is how it works in life. There.
467
00:24:51,640 --> 00:24:55,800
Speaker 1: You know, people are often worried about somebody stealing your idea.
468
00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:58,320
Speaker 1: And there's a great line from a physicist whose name
469
00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:00,760
Speaker 1: I'm forgetting, but he said, don't worry about that. He says,
470
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,359
Speaker 1: if it's an original idea, you're gonna have to ram
471
00:25:03,359 --> 00:25:06,440
Speaker 1: it down people's throats because people aren't going to get
472
00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:11,440
Speaker 1: it at first. Everything that's new, exciting, innovative, important was
473
00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:16,159
Speaker 1: unappreciated or outright despised when it came out. So you
474
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:18,879
Speaker 1: have to be able to cultivate this sense of why
475
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,960
Speaker 1: you're doing what you're doing, why it's valuable, why it's important,
476
00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:25,440
Speaker 1: what it means to you. And you have to get
477
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 1: to a place where you're a little bit indifferent, which
478
00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:32,040
Speaker 1: is a stoic term, meaning that if people love it, great,
479
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,679
Speaker 1: If they hate it, that's okay too, but you have
480
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,439
Speaker 1: your own sense of it and that's what allows you
481
00:25:39,480 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 1: to sort of ignore both of those things. Yeah. No,
482
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 1: that indifference I find so fascinating because when you first
483
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:52,240
Speaker 1: hear it, it sounds like there's no fun, and it
484
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,919
Speaker 1: sounds like there's no joy, but actually when you live it,
485
00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 1: it's liberating, and I find that there's something really fascinating.
486
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 1: I remember first coming across that when I was around
487
00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:07,560
Speaker 1: probably like twenty years old. I was the president of
488
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: a youth organization back in London, and I took on
489
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,719
Speaker 1: this role at about eighteen years old. I was given it.
490
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:16,119
Speaker 1: I didn't audition for d didn't apply for it. I
491
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:19,399
Speaker 1: was given it. And for two years my life was
492
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,199
Speaker 1: held because everything I did was massively criticized because it
493
00:26:22,240 --> 00:26:25,679
Speaker 1: wasn't as good as the previous president and so. And
494
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:28,639
Speaker 1: I didn't knew nothing about leadership. I mean, you know,
495
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:33,960
Speaker 1: leadership is a really big, complex, conscious, thoughtful thing. I
496
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 1: was eighteen, didn't know anything anyway. For two years, everything
497
00:26:36,800 --> 00:26:39,720
Speaker 1: I did was criticized, it was really cuted, it was compared,
498
00:26:40,320 --> 00:26:43,159
Speaker 1: and I started to feel really bad about myself. But
499
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:47,280
Speaker 1: the one thing I held onto was that everyone's criticizing
500
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 1: me for my management, but not for who I am.
501
00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:52,440
Speaker 1: And I held on to that very closely. I was like, Okay,
502
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:54,400
Speaker 1: I'm a bad manager, I'm a bad leader. I'll take
503
00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 1: that all day. No one said I'm a bad person.
504
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:58,920
Speaker 1: I'm going to hold onto that. And then something really
505
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:01,840
Speaker 1: fascinating happened. We had a fundraiser when I was about
506
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:05,680
Speaker 1: twenty years old, and that fundraiser, I like outperformed where
507
00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:08,160
Speaker 1: I've raised lots of money for this really important foundation
508
00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:09,960
Speaker 1: and all this, and all of a sudden, the same
509
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:11,879
Speaker 1: people were like, Oh my god, Jay, You're like the
510
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,119
Speaker 1: best thing in the world and you're incredible. And it
511
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:17,160
Speaker 1: was that day that I promised myself that I would
512
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:20,320
Speaker 1: remain indifferent. And I promised myself, I remember it's still
513
00:27:20,320 --> 00:27:22,560
Speaker 1: now to anyone promising myself going I am not going
514
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:25,200
Speaker 1: to let the opinions of other people make me feel
515
00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: good or bad. And that doesn't stop me from feeling
516
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:32,359
Speaker 1: joy because I get to feel good for myself when
517
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:34,560
Speaker 1: I feel like I've done something right. Does that Does
518
00:27:34,560 --> 00:27:37,080
Speaker 1: that feel right? Yeah? Totally. It's kind of similar to
519
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:41,879
Speaker 1: in meditation, Right, you have these thoughts and you realize
520
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,560
Speaker 1: you don't have to identify with the thoughts. They can
521
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:48,320
Speaker 1: just exist, right, like a cloud exists and it's there
522
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:50,679
Speaker 1: in your view and then it drifts off and you
523
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:52,840
Speaker 1: don't really know what happens to it, right, And I
524
00:27:52,880 --> 00:27:55,160
Speaker 1: think this is where we want to get with success
525
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: as well as criticism or failure or worse, right, like
526
00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:04,280
Speaker 1: being attacked undeservedly. Marxurrealiz talks about being able to accept
527
00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:09,320
Speaker 1: success without arrogance and let the rest go with indifference.
528
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:11,560
Speaker 1: And I think if you can get to a place
529
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:17,280
Speaker 1: where you're not identifying with the love or the mistreatment,
530
00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:21,080
Speaker 1: You're just like, here's who I am. Here's the intention,
531
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:25,680
Speaker 1: the motivation that I know I'm acting on and that
532
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:28,320
Speaker 1: I know that's coming from a good place. And so
533
00:28:28,359 --> 00:28:31,640
Speaker 1: whether they're saying Jay, You're amazing, or they're saying Jay,
534
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,439
Speaker 1: you're the you know you're awful, you're screwing this up,
535
00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:37,560
Speaker 1: you suck. You're just like, I'm going to do what
536
00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:39,800
Speaker 1: I have to do as long as I'm able to
537
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:42,920
Speaker 1: do it, and I'm not gonna identify either way. And
538
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,040
Speaker 1: I think, you know, people sort of nod their head
539
00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:48,840
Speaker 1: along with this. It's easy to identify with the success
540
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:51,960
Speaker 1: on the way up. But then what happens to those
541
00:28:52,040 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 1: people is what happens when you inevitably screw up, run
542
00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:00,200
Speaker 1: into bad luck, or whatever you think about an athlete,
543
00:28:59,520 --> 00:29:04,080
Speaker 1: if it is identifying with the hot streak that they're on, well,
544
00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 1: statistically that's just not gonna last, right, And so you
545
00:29:08,680 --> 00:29:11,440
Speaker 1: have to become you have to understand that you're gonna lose,
546
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:14,400
Speaker 1: that you're gonna miss, you're gonna screw up, and you
547
00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 1: if you're in a place where you identify with those
548
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 1: external results, you're you're really really vulnerable and you're going
549
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:26,680
Speaker 1: to be really unhappy, especially in those dark, those dark,
550
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,520
Speaker 1: dark moments. Yeah, so Ryan, then what do we do
551
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:32,320
Speaker 1: with fear? If everyone's listening and watching that they're going
552
00:29:32,360 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 1: through the fears that we know that they are, what
553
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 1: do we do with fear? I feel like it's such
554
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 1: a we're almost scared of the emotion in and of itself,
555
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:43,760
Speaker 1: and then we panic. Well, the Stoics obviously believe in
556
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,400
Speaker 1: the power of reason, right, and a lot of fear
557
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 1: you can say is unreasonable, right, Like you think about failure. Right,
558
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:54,959
Speaker 1: Let's say you're putting out a book. I'm putting out
559
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:59,600
Speaker 1: a book and you're like, what if it doesn't do well? Right,
560
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,200
Speaker 1: and you're sort of scared of this? What the Stokes
561
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:06,000
Speaker 1: would say is what if that happens? Like, what does
562
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:09,680
Speaker 1: it actually mean? Right? Not like oh this this vague,
563
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:13,520
Speaker 1: unpleasant thing, but what does that look like? Well, you
564
00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 1: already got paid for it, you already did the thing, right,
565
00:30:16,920 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 1: Like actually it failing is nothing. It doesn't matter at all, right,
566
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:23,320
Speaker 1: Like it's not what you would choose, but you're not
567
00:30:23,320 --> 00:30:25,560
Speaker 1: going to end up under a bridge. They're not going
568
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 1: to tar and feather you or something, right, Like, there's
569
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 1: there's no consequences, and so this is a really important thing.
570
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:34,280
Speaker 1: I remember when I was dropping out of college, I
571
00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 1: was so scared about it, and I was so convinced
572
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,479
Speaker 1: that I shouldn't do it because I was afraid of
573
00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:44,440
Speaker 1: what might happen. And I remember one of my mentors goes,
574
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:47,760
Speaker 1: you know, he says, like when I when I was
575
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:50,240
Speaker 1: in college, I got sick for a year and I
576
00:30:50,320 --> 00:30:52,800
Speaker 1: spent he spent a year in the hospital. And I
577
00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 1: was like, and what happened? And he was like, it's
578
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:57,280
Speaker 1: literally not come up once in my life. He's like,
579
00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,880
Speaker 1: I graduated in five years instead of four years. He's like,
580
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:03,280
Speaker 1: the worst thing that could happen here is that you
581
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:05,840
Speaker 1: just go back to school and you have to make
582
00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 1: up for the time that you missed. And that was
583
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:12,520
Speaker 1: really important, right, to break down the thing that you're
584
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,440
Speaker 1: afraid of, to really think about the worst case scenario. Right,
585
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 1: people are afraid of that. I have stage fright, right,
586
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:21,960
Speaker 1: I don't like talking in front of crowds. Literally, what
587
00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:23,800
Speaker 1: is the worst thing that could happen? A bunch of
588
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:27,200
Speaker 1: strangers you'll never meet again, don't like you, Like, You'll
589
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:30,000
Speaker 1: be totally fine. And so part of what we should
590
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,960
Speaker 1: do with fear is really break it down, because sometimes, hey,
591
00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 1: I'm peering over this cliff that someone's telling me to
592
00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 1: jump off of. Maybe that's a really bad idea. Right,
593
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,600
Speaker 1: Sometimes you use the power of reason and it reminds you, oh,
594
00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,440
Speaker 1: this is a bad idea. I can't afford to lose this.
595
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,920
Speaker 1: But most of the time we break those fears down,
596
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:54,200
Speaker 1: and then we're better able to manage that fear because
597
00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:57,360
Speaker 1: we have a rational understanding of it instead of this
598
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:01,120
Speaker 1: sort of irrational emotional understand standing of it. Yeah, and
599
00:32:01,120 --> 00:32:05,440
Speaker 1: it's incredible once you break through that fear. How now
600
00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:07,200
Speaker 1: you're looking at it and you're like, I can't believe
601
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:09,440
Speaker 1: I was ever scared of that, right, isn't Isn't that
602
00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:12,080
Speaker 1: just such a fascinating trick of the mind that as
603
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:16,360
Speaker 1: soon as you break something that felt insurmountable, now when
604
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: you've overcome it, you're almost laughing at yourself, like, how
605
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:22,239
Speaker 1: was that the thing that he would be back. Well,
606
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:24,880
Speaker 1: so each time you do something that you were afraid of,
607
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:28,360
Speaker 1: you push through. You have more confidence, right, You have
608
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,160
Speaker 1: a like dropping out of college made it easier for
609
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,640
Speaker 1: me to then leave my corporate life later to become
610
00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:37,080
Speaker 1: a writer, right because it was like, oh, I could
611
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:38,960
Speaker 1: just go get another job, or I could get the
612
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,120
Speaker 1: same job again. Right, And so you not only get
613
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:45,240
Speaker 1: a certain amount of confidence from it, but you also
614
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:48,959
Speaker 1: get a better understanding of how things work. The problem
615
00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:51,400
Speaker 1: is when you give into fear, not only do not
616
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:55,160
Speaker 1: do the thing now, you actually have less information about
617
00:32:55,200 --> 00:32:57,800
Speaker 1: how the world works. And so you know, there's that
618
00:32:57,960 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 1: sort of cliche about do one thing free day that
619
00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:03,760
Speaker 1: scares you. It's actually pretty good advice. Right, You're sort
620
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:08,240
Speaker 1: of building the muscle, You're building that ability to override
621
00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 1: the This seems scary, but I'm going to do it anyway.
622
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,640
Speaker 1: I think cultivating that ability to sort of push through
623
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 1: that fear is really important. And I think again, these
624
00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 1: sometimes can be very pedestrian fears. It's like, I remember
625
00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:27,320
Speaker 1: the decision for Daily Stoic, which is one of the
626
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:31,480
Speaker 1: things I do, the decision to like make videos, right, Like,
627
00:33:31,560 --> 00:33:33,520
Speaker 1: and I remember talking to you about this. It's like
628
00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:38,760
Speaker 1: I was very comfortable writing things, I was very comfortable
629
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:43,720
Speaker 1: being on stage, but the idea of making a video, like,
630
00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: I was just scared it would be bad. I would
631
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:48,200
Speaker 1: I think I was really scared of being uncomfortable in
632
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:52,680
Speaker 1: a new thing, and but pushing past that, it's opened
633
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,840
Speaker 1: up this sort of whole avenue for us. But then also,
634
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,080
Speaker 1: you know, the decision to make sort of long form
635
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:01,320
Speaker 1: videos also made it easier to be like, oh, TikTok's
636
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:04,640
Speaker 1: this thing now I can You know, what you're cultivating
637
00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 1: is the ability to be comfortable being uncomfortable and knowing
638
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 1: that you'll figure it out and eventually get comfortable again. Yeah.
639
00:34:15,120 --> 00:34:17,439
Speaker 1: And what I find so fascinating about what you just said, Ryan,
640
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:21,359
Speaker 1: is that even when we make big leaps, or we
641
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:24,920
Speaker 1: break through, or we find the courage, it's so easy
642
00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:28,120
Speaker 1: to get comfortable again. Like, it's fascinating, isn't it. Like
643
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 1: I remember when so when I went off to become
644
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:32,759
Speaker 1: a monk, obviously I broke that barrier completely. I was like,
645
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 1: I don't care if I get a job, it doesn't matter.
646
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:37,480
Speaker 1: So I felt extremely confident and courageous, Not that I
647
00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 1: use those words, but that's what I would have felt
648
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:41,879
Speaker 1: at the time. And then when I left being a monk,
649
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:43,640
Speaker 1: it was a tough time, but again that was a
650
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 1: tough decision, so that built more courage and confidence. Then
651
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:49,680
Speaker 1: I found a job. But as soon as I got
652
00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 1: into a job, I remember leaving that job. I mean
653
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,879
Speaker 1: I left it within two years. But it's like there
654
00:34:55,920 --> 00:34:59,040
Speaker 1: was a moment that that comfort started to feel really safe.
655
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:04,320
Speaker 1: And comfort is like really alluring, It's it's really mesmerizing,
656
00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:09,520
Speaker 1: and I find that comfort really convinces you that this
657
00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:12,800
Speaker 1: is it settled for this it's safer, it's better, it's happier.
658
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:15,319
Speaker 1: What are the things that you do to build that
659
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:17,480
Speaker 1: courage muscle every day, or do something out of your
660
00:35:17,480 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 1: comfort zone so that you don't get comfortable. Is there
661
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:22,400
Speaker 1: something that you've been working on or something that you've
662
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:25,359
Speaker 1: seen others do that you've spoken to on your podcast. Well,
663
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:28,160
Speaker 1: this is the paradox, right We tell ourselves like, I
664
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,080
Speaker 1: can't do it now. I'm gonna wait till I'm more
665
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:34,160
Speaker 1: financially successful, and wait till I'm more well known. Nona,
666
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:36,560
Speaker 1: wait till I put in more years, or then I'll
667
00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:38,960
Speaker 1: speak up. Then I'll put myself out there then I'll
668
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,400
Speaker 1: take this risk. It'd be wonderful if it worked that way,
669
00:35:42,560 --> 00:35:47,080
Speaker 1: But in fact it's the exact opposite. Right. You think, oh,
670
00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:50,120
Speaker 1: after I've put ten years into this company, then I'll
671
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:52,759
Speaker 1: put out this new idea. Then I'll but no, now,
672
00:35:52,880 --> 00:35:55,319
Speaker 1: you don't want to lose ten years of work, Right.
673
00:35:55,360 --> 00:35:58,480
Speaker 1: You'd think that financially the financially successful people would be
674
00:35:58,520 --> 00:36:03,239
Speaker 1: the most comfortable taking the risks. But they have the luxury,
675
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: the privilege of knowing exactly what it might cost them, right,
676
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:09,480
Speaker 1: and they know how hard they had to work to
677
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:11,960
Speaker 1: get there. And so this is why people are afraid
678
00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:14,240
Speaker 1: to be politically active. This is why people are afraid
679
00:36:14,239 --> 00:36:16,960
Speaker 1: to voice unpopular opinions. I'm sure you and I both
680
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:19,439
Speaker 1: know people with platforms that have really strong opinions about
681
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:21,319
Speaker 1: things that are happening in the world, but they just
682
00:36:21,320 --> 00:36:24,120
Speaker 1: don't want to get involved because they know how hard
683
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:26,799
Speaker 1: it was to get where they are and they don't
684
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:28,719
Speaker 1: want to lose that. And so you do have to
685
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:31,640
Speaker 1: cultivate again to go to this kind of indifference. Like, look,
686
00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:35,719
Speaker 1: it's wonderful to have the audience, it's wonderful to have
687
00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:40,239
Speaker 1: the fancy stuff, but you didn't Like I say this
688
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,399
Speaker 1: to people who sometimes get mad about things I say,
689
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,480
Speaker 1: They're like, how could you say that? Didn't you understand you?
690
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:47,759
Speaker 1: Would you make me angry or whatever? And look, I
691
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:52,239
Speaker 1: didn't cultivate this platform to not say what I think. Right, Like,
692
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:55,680
Speaker 1: the job is not having the platform. The job is
693
00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:59,160
Speaker 1: not this or that. The job is doing the thing right.
694
00:36:59,320 --> 00:37:02,759
Speaker 1: Is the speaking the truth, saying what needs to be said,
695
00:37:03,160 --> 00:37:07,040
Speaker 1: speaking to what I think is important, and so we
696
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 1: can really lie to ourselves. We can tell ourselves later
697
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 1: I'm going to do this, right, we say, oh, I
698
00:37:12,560 --> 00:37:15,080
Speaker 1: need to make some money first, and then I'm going
699
00:37:15,120 --> 00:37:18,279
Speaker 1: to you know, write that screenplay or do that thing
700
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:20,840
Speaker 1: or whatever. You're not going to do it because then
701
00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:25,400
Speaker 1: you're gonna be too comfortable. And so you kind of
702
00:37:25,480 --> 00:37:29,200
Speaker 1: have to see that comfort that like taking it for
703
00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:34,440
Speaker 1: grantedness as the enemy, because it's it's what makes you afraid.
704
00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:37,360
Speaker 1: You don't want to lose it. Yeah, I'm so glad
705
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 1: you said that. And I went through something similar recently
706
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 1: with some of my team where I was explaining to them.
707
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 1: They were saying, Jay, don't you think that's a risk,
708
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:47,319
Speaker 1: And I was just like, well, I work this hard
709
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:49,719
Speaker 1: so that I can take more risks like I had
710
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,520
Speaker 1: to take risks to get here. And I'm only excited
711
00:37:52,520 --> 00:37:54,600
Speaker 1: if I'm able to take more risks and trying new
712
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 1: things out, because what was the point otherwise I'm already
713
00:37:57,680 --> 00:38:03,120
Speaker 1: living in bonus Land, right, like I'm ready with house money. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
714
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:05,640
Speaker 1: You're living in a space that you're just I'm so
715
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,040
Speaker 1: much more blessed than I ever thought I would be,
716
00:38:08,560 --> 00:38:11,560
Speaker 1: and so with that, I feel comes a bit more responsibility,
717
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:13,360
Speaker 1: comes a bit more desire for risk. And I'm not
718
00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 1: just talking about risk for personal growth. I mean I
719
00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:18,080
Speaker 1: mean to try things that I think are beneficial to
720
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 1: help others, to serve or do things that may be
721
00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:24,680
Speaker 1: unexpected of me, because I understand how that leads to
722
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:27,439
Speaker 1: more impact or service. Yeah. There's a great story about
723
00:38:27,480 --> 00:38:30,799
Speaker 1: Lyndon Johnson when he proposes passing the civil rights legislation
724
00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:33,960
Speaker 1: and one of his aid says, you know, maybe you
725
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,040
Speaker 1: should wait till after reelection. They say this could be bad.
726
00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:40,319
Speaker 1: You know, it's going to be risky politically, and he says,
727
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:43,520
Speaker 1: what the hell is the presidency for? Right? And it's
728
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,560
Speaker 1: important to realize that literally, the most powerful man in
729
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:51,000
Speaker 1: the world was struggling with And that's how seductive it is.
730
00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:53,480
Speaker 1: You get all the way to the top of whatever
731
00:38:53,560 --> 00:38:57,080
Speaker 1: it is that you're doing, and then there's reasons right
732
00:38:57,160 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 1: that you shouldn't do X, Y or Z, And at
733
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:02,440
Speaker 1: a certain point you have to say to yourself, what
734
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 1: was the point of all of this if I'm not
735
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:07,160
Speaker 1: going to do what I care about, what I like,
736
00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:10,040
Speaker 1: what I love, what I think needs to be done.
737
00:39:10,719 --> 00:39:13,479
Speaker 1: And that's really what courage is about, the courage to say,
738
00:39:14,200 --> 00:39:17,439
Speaker 1: I'm not going to think about those consequences. I'm going
739
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,359
Speaker 1: to do it because it is the right thing to do,
740
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:25,360
Speaker 1: come whatever may. And there's no question that things I've written,
741
00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 1: things I've said, things I've done, have cost me a
742
00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:32,600
Speaker 1: certain number of followers, let's say, which ultimately can translate financially.
743
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:35,239
Speaker 1: But I'm proud of what I said. I'm proud of
744
00:39:35,239 --> 00:39:37,000
Speaker 1: what I put out. I can look myself in the
745
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,000
Speaker 1: mirror and one of the questions I ask myself, and
746
00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:42,520
Speaker 1: I'd be curious if you think about this too, as
747
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:45,240
Speaker 1: someone who didn't create the things that I write about,
748
00:39:45,320 --> 00:39:49,960
Speaker 1: Like stoicism is this way of thinking that's existed now
749
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,720
Speaker 1: for twenty five hundred or so years and I happen
750
00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:59,000
Speaker 1: to be a well known sort of representative of that idea,
751
00:39:59,120 --> 00:40:01,839
Speaker 1: but it's not mine. And so the thing I tell
752
00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:06,000
Speaker 1: myself is the test I have is am I being
753
00:40:06,080 --> 00:40:11,600
Speaker 1: a good steward of that philosophy? And so if I'm
754
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:15,440
Speaker 1: afraid to be the same thing for the presidency, You're not.
755
00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:18,560
Speaker 1: You don't own the presidency. You're just the guys or
756
00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:21,880
Speaker 1: woman sitting in that chair right now. And the question
757
00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:25,120
Speaker 1: is are you being a good steward of the office,
758
00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 1: of the occupation of the opportunity or are you just
759
00:40:29,719 --> 00:40:33,359
Speaker 1: protecting what's good for you in the moment. And so
760
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:35,759
Speaker 1: I think about, you know, is this the right thing
761
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:38,440
Speaker 1: to do or talk about not? Is this going to
762
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:42,359
Speaker 1: win me the most friends? Yes? Yeah? Absolutely? Yeah no,
763
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:45,319
Speaker 1: And I think I ask a very similar question, Like
764
00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:48,360
Speaker 1: for me, it's you know, it is servitorship. It is
765
00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:51,520
Speaker 1: figuring out like to what degree, And a big part
766
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:53,959
Speaker 1: of that for me has always been if I see
767
00:40:54,000 --> 00:41:00,200
Speaker 1: other people helping the world, how do I view them?
768
00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:01,759
Speaker 1: And it was really interesting. I was sitting with my
769
00:41:01,800 --> 00:41:04,359
Speaker 1: team recently and like, there, you know, I think I've
770
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:05,880
Speaker 1: always been a fan of yous and you've known that
771
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:08,239
Speaker 1: from day one. But you know, it's like for me,
772
00:41:08,280 --> 00:41:11,160
Speaker 1: when I see other people who I believed to positively
773
00:41:11,239 --> 00:41:15,839
Speaker 1: impacting people's minds, I want to collaborate, connect do more
774
00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:18,640
Speaker 1: together because I feel like we need more of that.
775
00:41:18,920 --> 00:41:20,680
Speaker 1: And I was speaking to my team recently because I
776
00:41:20,760 --> 00:41:23,640
Speaker 1: was talking about collaborating with someone and they were saying, well, Jay,
777
00:41:23,719 --> 00:41:26,000
Speaker 1: you know like maybe there, you know, like maybe they
778
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 1: see as competition. And I was just like, well, why
779
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:30,560
Speaker 1: would I compete with someone who's trying, who has the
780
00:41:30,600 --> 00:41:33,080
Speaker 1: same goal as me, it seems. And I think that's
781
00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:36,440
Speaker 1: how I try and measure where my intention is because often,
782
00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:38,920
Speaker 1: you know, if I get lost in that hierarchy myself,
783
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:41,919
Speaker 1: that's when you start to recognize that your intention isn't
784
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:43,759
Speaker 1: as pure as you think it is. Well, this is
785
00:41:43,760 --> 00:41:46,040
Speaker 1: another thing. I think it requires a certain amount of
786
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:48,920
Speaker 1: courage as far as one's worldview. What you're talking about
787
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:51,319
Speaker 1: is deciding not to see the world as a zero
788
00:41:51,440 --> 00:41:54,479
Speaker 1: sum place. Right. So some people go through the world
789
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:57,080
Speaker 1: into like this is about my career, it's about my success,
790
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,560
Speaker 1: is about my family, right, it's about my business. And
791
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:04,720
Speaker 1: there's no question that attitude, because it's so singularly focused,
792
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:07,960
Speaker 1: can make you very successful, but I think it's more
793
00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:11,840
Speaker 1: enjoyable ultimately morally rooted to go through the world and
794
00:42:11,920 --> 00:42:15,239
Speaker 1: thinking about it as how does everyone win? How does
795
00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:17,640
Speaker 1: everyone get something out of this? And that was something
796
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:20,960
Speaker 1: you know. I started my first email list, not talking
797
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:24,160
Speaker 1: about my own work, but just recommending books that I've loved,
798
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:26,880
Speaker 1: and I've done that now for since I don't know,
799
00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:30,919
Speaker 1: twelve thirteen years. Like I hear just as often from
800
00:42:30,960 --> 00:42:35,480
Speaker 1: people who their lives were changed not by something I wrote,
801
00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 1: but by a book from someone else that I recommended,
802
00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:42,680
Speaker 1: And that was a big breakthrough for me realizing, oh,
803
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:46,200
Speaker 1: not only is it not zero sum, but that helping
804
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:51,279
Speaker 1: other people just being a resource period also helps you.
805
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:54,479
Speaker 1: And so I think, you know it's your podcast, like, look,
806
00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:57,880
Speaker 1: you could just make your own content every day, but
807
00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:01,320
Speaker 1: the decision to talk to and share other people's stuff
808
00:43:01,560 --> 00:43:05,000
Speaker 1: it benefits you and them. And I think the more
809
00:43:05,640 --> 00:43:10,399
Speaker 1: the more secure one can be in themselves, the more
810
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:13,640
Speaker 1: helpful they can be to other people, and then ultimately
811
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:17,600
Speaker 1: the more impact everyone can have together. Yeah. Absolutely, I
812
00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:20,319
Speaker 1: love that. Because I was sharing it someone recently, I
813
00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:22,839
Speaker 1: was like, you know, one of the and I feel,
814
00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:25,799
Speaker 1: this is what you've done with the Stoics and what
815
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:28,560
Speaker 1: you were sharing for Marcus Aurelius. But you know, for me,
816
00:43:28,640 --> 00:43:33,240
Speaker 1: I've just always been fascinated by studying people's lives, always
817
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:36,080
Speaker 1: been fascinated by studying, and I love studying people and
818
00:43:36,239 --> 00:43:40,160
Speaker 1: mindsets and decisions and choices. And I was thinking that
819
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:42,000
Speaker 1: we all have to look at people, and we all
820
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:44,880
Speaker 1: have two choices. You either study people or you envy people.
821
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 1: Those are the only practically two choices you have. If
822
00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:51,719
Speaker 1: you don't deeply study, there will be some comparison, some envy,
823
00:43:51,800 --> 00:43:55,719
Speaker 1: some criticism, some sort of unhealthy trait that comes out.
824
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:59,320
Speaker 1: And if you study someone, then you appreciate, you, admire, you, honor.
825
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:01,439
Speaker 1: And I know that in my life I would rather
826
00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:04,880
Speaker 1: live with admiration on an appreciation of others than the
827
00:44:04,920 --> 00:44:07,920
Speaker 1: other stuff. And so I naturally gravitate towards how can
828
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:10,880
Speaker 1: I study someone's life? And when I see you studying
829
00:44:10,920 --> 00:44:13,200
Speaker 1: the Stoics, that's where you're doing. You're studying their life,
830
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:17,640
Speaker 1: sharing your study and your notes with us. And to me,
831
00:44:18,040 --> 00:44:20,319
Speaker 1: it's almost like thinking, oh, you know, that person just
832
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:23,520
Speaker 1: sold their house on our street for X amount of money.
833
00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:26,000
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, that house is not worth that much.
834
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:28,520
Speaker 1: It doesn't look that good. You're not realizing that the
835
00:44:28,560 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 1: whole value of the street just went up because of
836
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:33,840
Speaker 1: that house. And I think that's where people don't recognize
837
00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:38,759
Speaker 1: that that collective good is always better than individual success. Yeah,
838
00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,120
Speaker 1: there's a great joke I heard that that envy is
839
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,480
Speaker 1: the only sin that isn't any fun. Yes, right, Like
840
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:49,360
Speaker 1: sex is fun, even overeating is fun. Right, All most
841
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 1: of the deadly sins are at least fun while you're
842
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:55,160
Speaker 1: doing them. Yeah, envy sucks. No one is having less
843
00:44:55,280 --> 00:44:58,520
Speaker 1: fun than the person who is being eaten up with
844
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:02,719
Speaker 1: envy and jealousy. And so the decision, and it does
845
00:45:02,800 --> 00:45:04,640
Speaker 1: have to be a decision, because I think there's probably
846
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:09,880
Speaker 1: some evolutionary reasons why we feel envy. The decision to say, like,
847
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:12,440
Speaker 1: I'm just going to be happy for people. I'm going
848
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:14,760
Speaker 1: to help other people. I'm going to help other people
849
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:18,120
Speaker 1: and not ask for anything in return. I'm just going
850
00:45:18,160 --> 00:45:20,440
Speaker 1: to try to put good stuff out in the world.
851
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:24,200
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to use my assets to help
852
00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:26,799
Speaker 1: other people, and I hope other people do the same.
853
00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:28,560
Speaker 1: But I'm not going to be pissed off when that
854
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:34,640
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. That's a real lifestyle choice. And I've tried both,
855
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:37,319
Speaker 1: and the other one is just it's not fun and
856
00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:40,800
Speaker 1: it doesn't get you what you want, you know, being bitter,
857
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:46,719
Speaker 1: being resentful, being closed off for selfish, it's it's not
858
00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:50,640
Speaker 1: fun totally. And and if and according to your line
859
00:45:50,640 --> 00:45:53,120
Speaker 1: of thought, which I which I like, is that if
860
00:45:53,160 --> 00:45:56,600
Speaker 1: there's an evolutionary purpose of envy, one of them potentially
861
00:45:56,640 --> 00:45:59,640
Speaker 1: could be to lead us to study, right, to study
862
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:02,600
Speaker 1: what we envy. Like that that's something that could I
863
00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 1: have no idea. That's not a you know, a factual thought.
864
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:07,080
Speaker 1: It's just an idea that I'm having that. Yeah, like
865
00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:09,400
Speaker 1: envy would make you go, oh well, let me deeply
866
00:46:09,440 --> 00:46:12,239
Speaker 1: look at that, let me understand how that person got there.
867
00:46:12,320 --> 00:46:15,399
Speaker 1: Let me let me actually lead to study through that, right,
868
00:46:15,440 --> 00:46:18,120
Speaker 1: so it can be healthy and useful. Let's look at
869
00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:20,759
Speaker 1: the trade offs. Right. I think oftentimes too, the thing
870
00:46:20,880 --> 00:46:23,399
Speaker 1: the person that you're jealous of if you had to go,
871
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:27,840
Speaker 1: but it's actually fun to be them, right, Like, I
872
00:46:27,880 --> 00:46:31,040
Speaker 1: think oftentimes we'll look at something that someone has and
873
00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:33,319
Speaker 1: we'll want that thing, so we'll be jealous of them,
874
00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:36,359
Speaker 1: but we don't understand that it's impossible to separate that
875
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:39,759
Speaker 1: thing from all the other parts of them. And so
876
00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 1: it may well be that it's a bad bargain, right,
877
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:45,520
Speaker 1: and that the reason you don't have it is that
878
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:49,560
Speaker 1: you understand that those other tradeoffs they made aren't worth it,
879
00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:52,439
Speaker 1: or perhaps they're impossible for you. And so I think
880
00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:56,000
Speaker 1: just really understanding, like what you want what you have,
881
00:46:56,239 --> 00:46:58,520
Speaker 1: That's that's another big part of it. To stoves talk
882
00:46:58,520 --> 00:47:02,839
Speaker 1: about like how you would be of yourself if you
883
00:47:02,960 --> 00:47:06,479
Speaker 1: didn't have those things, right, or how sad you would
884
00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:09,439
Speaker 1: be if they went away, And so instead of being
885
00:47:09,520 --> 00:47:11,920
Speaker 1: jealous of other people, just step back and try to
886
00:47:11,960 --> 00:47:15,200
Speaker 1: practice some gratitude for what you have. These are all
887
00:47:15,239 --> 00:47:17,880
Speaker 1: ways I think of getting to a happier place. Yeah,
888
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:21,560
Speaker 1: for sure, I wonder from you, what is something currently
889
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:23,440
Speaker 1: that the two questions here, I'm gonna ask both of
890
00:47:23,480 --> 00:47:25,239
Speaker 1: them now and then you can take him. What is
891
00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:29,080
Speaker 1: the thing that you've been in the last twelve months
892
00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 1: fearing the most? Is what has been a fear that
893
00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:34,040
Speaker 1: you've been tackling with? And then second question to follow
894
00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:36,280
Speaker 1: that up with is you know, what do you think's
895
00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:40,000
Speaker 1: personally the most courageous thing that you've done recently? And
896
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:42,439
Speaker 1: it doesn't have to be huge, right, Like, that's the point.
897
00:47:42,719 --> 00:47:46,440
Speaker 1: I think I have easier time answering the first one
898
00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:48,240
Speaker 1: and the second one. But I have two young kids,
899
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:51,600
Speaker 1: and so you go through something like this pandemic, what
900
00:47:51,640 --> 00:47:55,160
Speaker 1: you're really forced to grapple with, and there's a big concept,
901
00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:58,480
Speaker 1: is like just how much is out of your control? Right?
902
00:47:58,560 --> 00:48:02,520
Speaker 1: Like you care about these people, this thing more than
903
00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:07,200
Speaker 1: anything in the world, and yet you don't control it. Right.
904
00:48:07,760 --> 00:48:10,680
Speaker 1: It's they're running around, they're outside. And so I think
905
00:48:10,920 --> 00:48:12,960
Speaker 1: one of the things I've really had to grapple with
906
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:17,839
Speaker 1: over the last eighteen months is anxiety, worry, right, a
907
00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:21,279
Speaker 1: certain amount of powerlessness, a certain amount of frustration with
908
00:48:21,480 --> 00:48:24,360
Speaker 1: just that we're in this mess as a society or
909
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:28,160
Speaker 1: as a planet. And and so I think, you know,
910
00:48:28,560 --> 00:48:32,160
Speaker 1: when we talk about parenting, I don't think we talk
911
00:48:32,239 --> 00:48:36,440
Speaker 1: about courage enough. Right, So, first off, just to be
912
00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:39,080
Speaker 1: a woman who brings a child into the world is
913
00:48:39,080 --> 00:48:42,200
Speaker 1: an insanely courageous thing to do if you just think
914
00:48:42,239 --> 00:48:46,440
Speaker 1: about Like I mean, look, women die in childbirth all
915
00:48:46,480 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 1: the time, and yet women get pregnant all the time.
916
00:48:48,760 --> 00:48:51,319
Speaker 1: Like I think we've gotten so used to it, or
917
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:55,239
Speaker 1: perhaps we just don't think about what an insanely courageous act,
918
00:48:55,280 --> 00:48:57,960
Speaker 1: it is. But then to be a parent in this
919
00:48:58,000 --> 00:49:01,640
Speaker 1: sort of crazy, messed up world. I think about all
920
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:03,920
Speaker 1: the parents that I know. I just try to think
921
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:06,120
Speaker 1: about all the parents in the world that have had
922
00:49:06,160 --> 00:49:10,920
Speaker 1: to endure this you know, insane disruptive life event that
923
00:49:10,960 --> 00:49:15,880
Speaker 1: has challenged us in so many different ways. It's been,
924
00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:18,120
Speaker 1: you know, it's been. It's been a journey. And I
925
00:49:18,120 --> 00:49:20,880
Speaker 1: think when we think about what stoicism is, when we
926
00:49:20,920 --> 00:49:24,360
Speaker 1: think about what Buddhism is, or or or any of
927
00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:30,400
Speaker 1: these philosophical schools, they were designed precisely for these kinds
928
00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:34,200
Speaker 1: of events, Like the ancient world was. You know, people
929
00:49:34,239 --> 00:49:37,360
Speaker 1: talk about things going back to normal. This is normal.
930
00:49:37,480 --> 00:49:40,319
Speaker 1: This is what life was in the ancient world. This
931
00:49:40,400 --> 00:49:43,399
Speaker 1: is what life was like in our grandparents' lives. And
932
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:45,960
Speaker 1: we're just we were just really really spoiled for a
933
00:49:46,000 --> 00:49:49,359
Speaker 1: long time, and now we're having to wrestle with Hey,
934
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:51,920
Speaker 1: the world doesn't really care about you or your plans,
935
00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:55,480
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have to figure out how to accommodate
936
00:49:55,560 --> 00:49:59,160
Speaker 1: yourself to those things and managed to be happy and
937
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:02,920
Speaker 1: productive and and you know, not a wreck inside of them. Yeah,
938
00:50:02,960 --> 00:50:05,319
Speaker 1: And do you do you genuinely believe and of you know,
939
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:09,640
Speaker 1: pandemic aside, of course, because that's a huge, huge, huge
940
00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:12,000
Speaker 1: thing that obviously affected everyone on the planet. But do
941
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:15,959
Speaker 1: you generally believe that a disruption of plans has led
942
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:22,719
Speaker 1: to better plans, results, ideas, innovation, inventions. Look, no one
943
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:25,440
Speaker 1: would say, like, hey, in America, you know seven hundred
944
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:27,719
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand people have died, that this is a
945
00:50:27,719 --> 00:50:31,759
Speaker 1: blessing in disguise, Right, that would be offensive. But we
946
00:50:31,880 --> 00:50:36,320
Speaker 1: add on top of the tragedy by refusing to change
947
00:50:36,480 --> 00:50:39,719
Speaker 1: or be changed by what's happened. Right. So, I don't
948
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:45,040
Speaker 1: know about you, but this was an enormous forced lifestyle experiment.
949
00:50:45,080 --> 00:50:48,000
Speaker 1: We had to reimagine a lot of things. We probably
950
00:50:48,040 --> 00:50:50,880
Speaker 1: wouldn't be doing this remotely, you know, if it weren't
951
00:50:50,880 --> 00:50:54,040
Speaker 1: for the pandemic. You know, there's things that you're talking about,
952
00:50:54,080 --> 00:50:57,480
Speaker 1: those meditation groups that you made, There's things you've created
953
00:50:57,719 --> 00:51:01,200
Speaker 1: as a result of the constraints of what was happening
954
00:51:01,239 --> 00:51:04,640
Speaker 1: in the world that are on net positives for you.
955
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:07,280
Speaker 1: And that's certainly been the case for me. It's forced
956
00:51:07,320 --> 00:51:10,839
Speaker 1: me to reimagine, rework a lot of what I sort
957
00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:15,239
Speaker 1: of took for granted previously, I think coming out of
958
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:18,320
Speaker 1: the pandemic, I'm not going to travel nearly as much,
959
00:51:18,560 --> 00:51:23,759
Speaker 1: not for safety reasons, but just realizing, Oh, I've been
960
00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:28,359
Speaker 1: going a mile a mile a minute for thirty odd
961
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:32,319
Speaker 1: years of my life, and I was aware of what
962
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:34,600
Speaker 1: I was getting out of it, but I was less
963
00:51:34,600 --> 00:51:38,239
Speaker 1: aware of what it was costing me or what it
964
00:51:38,280 --> 00:51:42,439
Speaker 1: was preventing me from doing. And so I think it's
965
00:51:42,440 --> 00:51:45,400
Speaker 1: not that the Stokes would say that everything terrible has
966
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:49,600
Speaker 1: something wonderful inside of it, but that by wrestling with
967
00:51:49,640 --> 00:51:52,680
Speaker 1: what's happened, by looking for what we can do inside
968
00:51:52,719 --> 00:51:56,680
Speaker 1: of what's happened, we managed to excavate little bits of
969
00:51:56,719 --> 00:52:01,920
Speaker 1: positivity or opportunity for progress. And that's what the obstacle is.
970
00:52:01,920 --> 00:52:05,719
Speaker 1: The way is really about. Yeah, beautiful, and so we've
971
00:52:05,760 --> 00:52:09,399
Speaker 1: talked about fear, we talked about courage. The third part
972
00:52:09,440 --> 00:52:12,600
Speaker 1: of the book is the heroic and I find this
973
00:52:13,280 --> 00:52:15,400
Speaker 1: and I love that it's obviously towards the end, but
974
00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:19,560
Speaker 1: it's I found this fascinating because I think everything in
975
00:52:19,640 --> 00:52:22,080
Speaker 1: society makes us want to be a hero. Like the
976
00:52:22,080 --> 00:52:24,040
Speaker 1: movies I watched made me want to be like the
977
00:52:24,120 --> 00:52:26,480
Speaker 1: guy in the movies. The adverts would make me want
978
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:29,000
Speaker 1: to be like the guy for me or you know,
979
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:32,160
Speaker 1: for people the girl or that person in the ad
980
00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:35,520
Speaker 1: in the movie, in the book, in the story. But
981
00:52:36,040 --> 00:52:38,160
Speaker 1: you know, you define what it means to be a
982
00:52:38,160 --> 00:52:40,279
Speaker 1: hero morally and physically. I want you to break that
983
00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:42,239
Speaker 1: down for us, like, how do you introduce this and
984
00:52:42,239 --> 00:52:44,360
Speaker 1: how did the stoics think about this? So if we
985
00:52:44,400 --> 00:52:47,839
Speaker 1: think of courage as the triumph over fear, maybe what
986
00:52:47,880 --> 00:52:51,040
Speaker 1: we're saying is that heroic is something beyond even that.
987
00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,640
Speaker 1: So in the book, I'm talking about Michael Jordan's decision
988
00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:58,120
Speaker 1: to leave basketball to play baseball. That's an immensely courageous
989
00:52:58,120 --> 00:53:01,840
Speaker 1: thing because it's risky. People critical of it is no idea.
990
00:53:01,880 --> 00:53:03,239
Speaker 1: If you can go from being the best in the
991
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:05,800
Speaker 1: world at one sport to starting at the bottom of
992
00:53:05,840 --> 00:53:08,560
Speaker 1: another sport, Now, that was a courageous thing to do.
993
00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:12,480
Speaker 1: But I contrast that with Maya Moore's decision, equally dominant
994
00:53:12,520 --> 00:53:15,799
Speaker 1: in the w NBA to walk away from basketball to
995
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:20,280
Speaker 1: free a man wrongly convicted in prison. Right, So she's
996
00:53:20,320 --> 00:53:24,720
Speaker 1: not just doing something courageous, she's doing something heroic because
997
00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:29,479
Speaker 1: the primary beneficiary of what's happened is not her right.
998
00:53:29,800 --> 00:53:33,560
Speaker 1: So heroism to me, or the heroic is when we
999
00:53:33,640 --> 00:53:38,600
Speaker 1: do something courageous that's well beyond our self interest or
1000
00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:42,759
Speaker 1: perhaps very much at odds with our self interest. Right,
1001
00:53:42,800 --> 00:53:46,359
Speaker 1: when we talk about the courage to start a business, uh,
1002
00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:49,560
Speaker 1: you know, what we're talking about is pushing past doubts
1003
00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:53,400
Speaker 1: or risk or whatever. But what about the courage to
1004
00:53:53,640 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 1: leave a successful business to start a nonprofit? Right, You're
1005
00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:02,400
Speaker 1: you're not putting yourself often physical danger, but you're putting
1006
00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:07,040
Speaker 1: your interests behind the interests of other people. And that's
1007
00:54:07,080 --> 00:54:10,720
Speaker 1: a very scary, difficult thing to do. And it's he wrote,
1008
00:54:10,840 --> 00:54:15,480
Speaker 1: because by by putting others above us, we're actually elevating
1009
00:54:15,600 --> 00:54:18,359
Speaker 1: all of us. And so I wanted to look at
1010
00:54:18,960 --> 00:54:22,480
Speaker 1: that because I'm really really really inspired by that, and that,
1011
00:54:22,800 --> 00:54:24,920
Speaker 1: ultimately is what I think we need more of in
1012
00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:28,120
Speaker 1: the world. Obviously we need courageous entrepreneurs, but we need
1013
00:54:28,160 --> 00:54:31,920
Speaker 1: people who are willing to do something beyond just trying
1014
00:54:31,960 --> 00:54:35,800
Speaker 1: to make something for themselves. Yeah, I deeply appreciate that definition.
1015
00:54:35,840 --> 00:54:38,880
Speaker 1: Thank you for sharing with us, because to me, that
1016
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:43,000
Speaker 1: that journey from courage to being heroic, that that is
1017
00:54:43,080 --> 00:54:48,400
Speaker 1: that purpose, that service, that that extension of oneself for others,
1018
00:54:48,480 --> 00:54:51,520
Speaker 1: and ultimately I can agree with you more. I genuinely
1019
00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:55,120
Speaker 1: believe that purpose. You know, I was saying, I suppose
1020
00:54:55,160 --> 00:54:56,839
Speaker 1: I was speaking to a friend recently. I was saying,
1021
00:54:56,840 --> 00:55:00,480
Speaker 1: how you know a dream without service is in complete,
1022
00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:02,919
Speaker 1: Like the idea is, like, you know, you can only
1023
00:55:02,960 --> 00:55:05,640
Speaker 1: build a dream so far with the desire for it
1024
00:55:05,680 --> 00:55:09,160
Speaker 1: to all be about yourself, and then it doesn't even
1025
00:55:09,239 --> 00:55:12,000
Speaker 1: do it for you anymore. And I feel like, but
1026
00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:15,360
Speaker 1: you've paved a really good path because also you can't
1027
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:18,640
Speaker 1: just jump to being heroic, because there are certain skills
1028
00:55:18,640 --> 00:55:22,120
Speaker 1: and muscles and things that you develop on the way
1029
00:55:22,160 --> 00:55:25,560
Speaker 1: by building courage first, Like, there are certain tools and
1030
00:55:26,880 --> 00:55:29,320
Speaker 1: tricks and tips and things that you pick up along
1031
00:55:29,360 --> 00:55:33,279
Speaker 1: the way that make it more powerful to be heroic. Aft. Well,
1032
00:55:33,280 --> 00:55:35,520
Speaker 1: one of the things I was inspired by, it's just
1033
00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:37,960
Speaker 1: something I ran in a small news story many years ago,
1034
00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:40,360
Speaker 1: was the decision I think maybe ten years ago, that
1035
00:55:40,480 --> 00:55:44,000
Speaker 1: CVS just decides are going to stop selling cigarettes. Now,
1036
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:47,120
Speaker 1: this is bad for CVS, this is bad for the
1037
00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:51,359
Speaker 1: shareholders of CPS, but it's obviously good for the world. Right,
1038
00:55:51,360 --> 00:55:55,760
Speaker 1: And as they find overall cigarette consumption goes down across
1039
00:55:55,800 --> 00:55:58,240
Speaker 1: the entire country because people are just like it's harder
1040
00:55:58,239 --> 00:56:02,239
Speaker 1: to get cigarettes, they just smokes, right, and so like,
1041
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:06,319
Speaker 1: obviously we love ambition, we love creativity, we love people
1042
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:09,320
Speaker 1: who are trying to be successful. But there is something
1043
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:11,480
Speaker 1: beyond that. I think we saw it during the pandemic,
1044
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:14,080
Speaker 1: the people who showed up every day for work, even
1045
00:56:14,120 --> 00:56:16,279
Speaker 1: though it must have been scary and terrifying for them,
1046
00:56:16,280 --> 00:56:19,320
Speaker 1: but they knew that other people were depending on them,
1047
00:56:19,680 --> 00:56:22,560
Speaker 1: that where would we be without those kind of people?
1048
00:56:22,600 --> 00:56:26,520
Speaker 1: And so you know, obviously the pandemic revealed some selfishness
1049
00:56:26,600 --> 00:56:31,040
Speaker 1: and indifference and all sorts of awful parts of our
1050
00:56:31,360 --> 00:56:34,600
Speaker 1: modern society, but it also revealed I think some of
1051
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:38,360
Speaker 1: the best of our society. And I wanted to celebrate
1052
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:43,080
Speaker 1: this idea of of yes, pushing through fear is important,
1053
00:56:43,360 --> 00:56:46,200
Speaker 1: but why are you doing it right? Who are you
1054
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:50,399
Speaker 1: doing it for? That really really matters? Yeah, I think
1055
00:56:50,440 --> 00:56:55,000
Speaker 1: that's beautiful man, Ryan, This has been such a wonderful conversation.
1056
00:56:55,160 --> 00:56:58,239
Speaker 1: I highly recommend everyone if you haven't read Ryan's work.
1057
00:56:58,360 --> 00:57:00,480
Speaker 1: I mean I would go and buy every single book.
1058
00:57:00,520 --> 00:57:04,080
Speaker 1: And I'm not kidding. They not only look beautiful, but
1059
00:57:04,080 --> 00:57:07,160
Speaker 1: they are beautiful and you know, obstacle is the way
1060
00:57:07,280 --> 00:57:10,759
Speaker 1: is just fantastic. Ego as the enemy. Stillness is the
1061
00:57:10,840 --> 00:57:13,839
Speaker 1: key we talked about last time, I mean, and this
1062
00:57:13,880 --> 00:57:16,680
Speaker 1: one courage is calling is what we've been talking about today. Ryan.
1063
00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:19,120
Speaker 1: We end every interview with the final five. You've done
1064
00:57:19,120 --> 00:57:22,560
Speaker 1: this before. These are the fast five. So every question
1065
00:57:22,600 --> 00:57:26,200
Speaker 1: needs to be answered in one word to one sentence maximum.
1066
00:57:26,240 --> 00:57:28,920
Speaker 1: You are the writers, so you can help me define
1067
00:57:29,080 --> 00:57:31,840
Speaker 1: what one sentence counts as, Like, how many words are
1068
00:57:31,840 --> 00:57:34,480
Speaker 1: in a sense in a good sentence? Ryan? I? As
1069
00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:38,280
Speaker 1: many or as few as there should be? Okay? All right,
1070
00:57:38,360 --> 00:57:41,800
Speaker 1: great love. I love the vagueness of that. Okay, brilliant.
1071
00:57:41,840 --> 00:57:46,439
Speaker 1: All right. So the first question for you is what
1072
00:57:46,640 --> 00:57:51,040
Speaker 1: is something you once were attracted to that has become
1073
00:57:51,120 --> 00:57:54,520
Speaker 1: less important to you? I think money, certainly money. I
1074
00:57:54,560 --> 00:57:59,200
Speaker 1: think money represented something to me early in my life.
1075
00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:02,160
Speaker 1: And the more or you get of it, the more
1076
00:58:02,240 --> 00:58:06,880
Speaker 1: you realize that it really doesn't mean anything and there's
1077
00:58:07,000 --> 00:58:10,200
Speaker 1: less to do with it than you think there is, right,
1078
00:58:10,280 --> 00:58:12,520
Speaker 1: and and did that come off to a stain amount
1079
00:58:12,560 --> 00:58:15,080
Speaker 1: of sainse success? Did that? Where did you feel like?
1080
00:58:15,320 --> 00:58:17,000
Speaker 1: What made you feel that it doesn't have to be
1081
00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:20,000
Speaker 1: a statistical number. I just mean, like, what was it
1082
00:58:20,080 --> 00:58:22,320
Speaker 1: that made you feel that way. I don't know if
1083
00:58:22,320 --> 00:58:24,680
Speaker 1: there was a specific number, but I remember I had
1084
00:58:24,680 --> 00:58:27,640
Speaker 1: a conversation with Tim Ferris once and he was like,
1085
00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:29,560
Speaker 1: what do you do with your money? You know? And
1086
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:31,480
Speaker 1: he's like, what do you mean? He's like, he's like,
1087
00:58:31,520 --> 00:58:34,000
Speaker 1: do you have a speedboat? You know? Do you invest it?
1088
00:58:34,080 --> 00:58:35,760
Speaker 1: What do you And I was like, it just goes
1089
00:58:35,800 --> 00:58:38,280
Speaker 1: in the bank, right, Like I don't know. And he's like,
1090
00:58:38,880 --> 00:58:41,240
Speaker 1: so it's not important to you really, And I was like, yeah,
1091
00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:43,520
Speaker 1: I guess not. You know. He was like his point
1092
00:58:43,640 --> 00:58:47,280
Speaker 1: was if you're if you don't need the money, just
1093
00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:49,680
Speaker 1: make sure that you're not saying yes to things that
1094
00:58:49,720 --> 00:58:52,280
Speaker 1: you don't really want to do to get more money
1095
00:58:52,480 --> 00:58:54,440
Speaker 1: if you don't really want the money. And that was
1096
00:58:54,560 --> 00:58:57,760
Speaker 1: very helpful to me. Yeah, I love that. Okay. Question
1097
00:58:57,840 --> 00:59:01,760
Speaker 1: number two, what is something you affect uninterested in that
1098
00:59:01,800 --> 00:59:04,960
Speaker 1: has now become something intriguing or a curiosity? I mean,
1099
00:59:05,040 --> 00:59:07,520
Speaker 1: I think I always knew I wanted to have kids,
1100
00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:10,120
Speaker 1: but I didn't understand just how much I would love
1101
00:59:10,120 --> 00:59:13,920
Speaker 1: it and how how much it would transform my life.
1102
00:59:14,760 --> 00:59:17,840
Speaker 1: And so I would say, you know, sort of family
1103
00:59:18,480 --> 00:59:22,760
Speaker 1: being the sort of big, big thing, especially again during
1104
00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:25,600
Speaker 1: the pandemic, just it was like, Oh, this is all
1105
00:59:25,640 --> 00:59:28,840
Speaker 1: I really care about, this is all I'm going to
1106
00:59:28,920 --> 00:59:32,360
Speaker 1: focus on, So maybe family would be the big thing.
1107
00:59:32,600 --> 00:59:36,680
Speaker 1: I love that, alright. Question number three, what's the most
1108
00:59:37,040 --> 00:59:39,960
Speaker 1: used piece of Stoic wisdom that you utilize on a
1109
00:59:40,040 --> 00:59:43,440
Speaker 1: daily or more regular basis? The first Stoic exercise is
1110
00:59:43,440 --> 00:59:45,920
Speaker 1: this idea that there's things that are up to us
1111
00:59:45,960 --> 00:59:48,520
Speaker 1: and things that are not up to us, and really
1112
00:59:48,560 --> 00:59:51,480
Speaker 1: all we should focus on is what's not is what
1113
00:59:51,680 --> 00:59:55,080
Speaker 1: is yes, And that's extremely hard to do, and I
1114
00:59:55,160 --> 00:59:57,520
Speaker 1: screwed up all the time, but I find myself constantly
1115
00:59:57,560 --> 01:00:02,160
Speaker 1: reminding myself it doesn't matter. No amount of thinking about
1116
01:00:02,200 --> 01:00:05,120
Speaker 1: this will change it. Just focus on what you can
1117
01:00:05,160 --> 01:00:08,640
Speaker 1: do in response to it, or you know, inside of it.
1118
01:00:09,600 --> 01:00:13,120
Speaker 1: That's probably I love that. Ironically, the most basic thing
1119
01:00:13,320 --> 01:00:15,600
Speaker 1: is the most complex thing. Absolutely well, I was going
1120
01:00:15,680 --> 01:00:17,120
Speaker 1: to ask you that as the next question. What is
1121
01:00:17,160 --> 01:00:19,480
Speaker 1: a piece of Stoic advice that you think you're still
1122
01:00:19,480 --> 01:00:23,040
Speaker 1: wrestling or grappling with that may be counterintuitive, it may
1123
01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:25,360
Speaker 1: even be off the wall, and you may be like, Okay,
1124
01:00:25,360 --> 01:00:27,200
Speaker 1: this is one of those things that you leave out
1125
01:00:27,240 --> 01:00:30,200
Speaker 1: the book because it's just it just you know. And
1126
01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:32,479
Speaker 1: there's plenty of stuff with that in the Vedic tradition too,
1127
01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:35,160
Speaker 1: like there's some stuff that's the stuff the wall. Is
1128
01:00:35,200 --> 01:00:37,760
Speaker 1: there something like that from the that you've been reading
1129
01:00:37,800 --> 01:00:40,320
Speaker 1: recently that I mean, I think all of it to
1130
01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:42,880
Speaker 1: be perfectly honest, all of it is on a day
1131
01:00:42,880 --> 01:00:45,080
Speaker 1: to day basis. But there is a line in the
1132
01:00:45,120 --> 01:00:48,160
Speaker 1: beginning of Meditations Mark Surrealists lists all these things that
1133
01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:50,880
Speaker 1: he learned from his mentors, and I think it's from
1134
01:00:50,960 --> 01:00:54,480
Speaker 1: Sextists or Severist someone early on in his life. She
1135
01:00:54,560 --> 01:00:57,320
Speaker 1: said that I learned how to be free of passion
1136
01:00:57,760 --> 01:01:01,720
Speaker 1: but full of love. And that doesn't that that doesn't
1137
01:01:01,800 --> 01:01:05,479
Speaker 1: sound very stoic, right, Um, The idea of being full
1138
01:01:05,520 --> 01:01:08,440
Speaker 1: of love, the being free of passions sounds very stud
1139
01:01:08,480 --> 01:01:13,560
Speaker 1: but full of love sounds more Eastern and or Christian,
1140
01:01:14,360 --> 01:01:17,800
Speaker 1: a little bit of both, and I find that to
1141
01:01:17,840 --> 01:01:20,520
Speaker 1: be very beautiful. And the idea of being like, Okay,
1142
01:01:20,560 --> 01:01:22,320
Speaker 1: I'm gonna strip out some of the emotion, I'm gonna
1143
01:01:22,320 --> 01:01:25,040
Speaker 1: strip out some of the need to control blah blah
1144
01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:29,720
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, but I'm gonna replace it with like love, empathy, kindness.
1145
01:01:30,560 --> 01:01:32,960
Speaker 1: That is harder for me to do, but but something
1146
01:01:32,960 --> 01:01:35,800
Speaker 1: I'm working on. I love that. That's that's beautiful and
1147
01:01:35,880 --> 01:01:39,720
Speaker 1: sat okay. Fifth and final question, what are your top
1148
01:01:40,040 --> 01:01:44,160
Speaker 1: favorite I don't mind how many numbers, three, four, five
1149
01:01:44,280 --> 01:01:47,880
Speaker 1: books that you've read this year, so more recent or
1150
01:01:47,920 --> 01:01:49,400
Speaker 1: that you've read this year. It doesn't even see a
1151
01:01:49,480 --> 01:01:54,440
Speaker 1: recent book. Doctor Edith Inger wrote this book called The Choice.
1152
01:01:54,520 --> 01:01:58,040
Speaker 1: She's a Holocaust survivor. I loved that book. It blew
1153
01:01:58,040 --> 01:02:01,200
Speaker 1: me away. Then there's this other little book by Victor
1154
01:02:01,240 --> 01:02:04,200
Speaker 1: Frankel that they found recently called A Yes to Life.
1155
01:02:04,320 --> 01:02:07,040
Speaker 1: Oh wow, in spite of everything. That's like a collection
1156
01:02:07,080 --> 01:02:11,320
Speaker 1: of some of his lost lectures that I really really enjoyed.
1157
01:02:12,760 --> 01:02:14,440
Speaker 1: And then I read this book. It doesn't have a
1158
01:02:14,480 --> 01:02:17,880
Speaker 1: great title, but it's it's sort of changed how I've
1159
01:02:17,880 --> 01:02:20,880
Speaker 1: been thinking about things lately. It's called Indian Givers, and
1160
01:02:20,920 --> 01:02:26,479
Speaker 1: it's about what Western society owes and has learned from
1161
01:02:26,560 --> 01:02:31,080
Speaker 1: indigenous peoples over the last like five six hundred years.
1162
01:02:31,960 --> 01:02:34,400
Speaker 1: And it was an incredible book that like, it just
1163
01:02:34,440 --> 01:02:39,120
Speaker 1: didn't I just had no ideas. Isn't unfortunately, what we
1164
01:02:39,240 --> 01:02:43,040
Speaker 1: teach in schools and I've just been thinking about that
1165
01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:45,440
Speaker 1: book so much. I really really liked it. I love
1166
01:02:45,520 --> 01:02:50,480
Speaker 1: that beautiful three that I haven't read. So Produces Amason
1167
01:02:50,600 --> 01:02:53,440
Speaker 1: order those books for me right now. I need those books.
1168
01:02:54,000 --> 01:02:56,120
Speaker 1: And for everyone's been listening and watching. As you know,
1169
01:02:56,160 --> 01:02:57,720
Speaker 1: I've been talking to Ryan Holiday. I want you to
1170
01:02:57,760 --> 01:03:00,720
Speaker 1: go and grab a copy of couragees Core, and like
1171
01:03:00,840 --> 01:03:03,440
Speaker 1: I said, every other book. You can find Ryan on
1172
01:03:03,480 --> 01:03:05,080
Speaker 1: the podcast. He's one of the few guests who've been
1173
01:03:05,080 --> 01:03:08,520
Speaker 1: on the podcast twice. This is a second episode, and
1174
01:03:08,640 --> 01:03:11,160
Speaker 1: of course Ryan, it's always a joy to have you on.
1175
01:03:11,280 --> 01:03:13,040
Speaker 1: I hope we get to do many many more of these.
1176
01:03:13,360 --> 01:03:15,360
Speaker 1: I hope you get to go on many many more walks.
1177
01:03:16,080 --> 01:03:17,920
Speaker 1: I really do hope we can spend a bit more
1178
01:03:17,920 --> 01:03:20,040
Speaker 1: time together. I've never been to Austin, can you believe it?
1179
01:03:20,120 --> 01:03:23,760
Speaker 1: So I also need to come out to Austin. But
1180
01:03:24,200 --> 01:03:25,880
Speaker 1: thank you for making the time. Thank you for being
1181
01:03:25,960 --> 01:03:28,800
Speaker 1: so generous. Everyone who's been listening on watching, make sure
1182
01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:32,280
Speaker 1: you tag me and Ryan on Instagram on Twitter. Let
1183
01:03:32,400 --> 01:03:34,960
Speaker 1: us know what resonated with you, what connected with you.
1184
01:03:34,960 --> 01:03:37,240
Speaker 1: If you've read one of the books that Ryan recommended,
1185
01:03:37,600 --> 01:03:39,400
Speaker 1: come back and tell him about it. Like we want
1186
01:03:39,440 --> 01:03:42,320
Speaker 1: to hear that, and I love staying connected to this community.
1187
01:03:42,560 --> 01:03:44,880
Speaker 1: So thank you to our on purpose community. Thank you
1188
01:03:44,920 --> 01:03:48,160
Speaker 1: to Ryan Holiday. Appreciate you man, Thank you so much.
1189
01:03:48,400 --> 01:03:48,960
Speaker 1: You're the best.
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