Part 1: How Hasan Minhaj Disrupted the Status Quo

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explain a little bit of uh you know what the purpose of this is for but I you

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know just me and you are just going to uh Vibe um you know for the people in the audience

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um youall know my my feeling about the world and and uh the idea that uh you

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know we create boxes for people so ultimately what we're going to talk about is your um not fitting that box

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initially and really your inability to ever be in a box ever again which is which I I love that about I'm breaking

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out of a box right now yeah right exactly exactly so so but let before we

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you know officially start so you you went to the fight last night yes I went to the ti so just for context we are

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talking today is Saturday October 16th Friday October 15th I was at the Tyson

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Jake Paul fight and you recovered you look great I recovered I'm good yeah yeah so

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how was that I mean that's kind of iconic Mike is just a you know he's just

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yeah just iconic for the sport and everything so how did that iconic fight but also going to a fight you know to

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me and I'm not the first one to say this but Rick Ruben was one of the first the great hip-hop producer Rick Rubin where

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he where he said you can learn a lot about society and life um not not through politics not through governance

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not through you know even uh media through wrestling professional wrestling

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but I actually think the sport of boxing even kind of predates what

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wrestling is but when you go to a fight like that and it was at AT&T Stadium

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right 80,000 people like in the arena here's how big it was there was

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the Jumbotron then there was the jumbo Jumbotron like there's another screen to

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convey what was happening but you just get a a look at

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what America is you know what I mean no I get it I

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get it so it is it's extremely egalitarian it's multi-racial

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multiethnic wow you do you know what I'm saying also all income classes too of

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just like yeah Charlie Thon is there but so is you know a a a Puerto Rican

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immigrant family that wants to see sorrano fight Taylor wow do you see what

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I'm saying you're blowing my mind the the the the whole breath of America yes

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yeah you have dudes in top hats and fur coats like like his American Gangster but then you'll have like a family just

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have like a father and a son dudes in cowboy hats sitting next to a Fortune 500

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CEO wild wildly different economic and social strata here to kind of basically

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see proper Gladiator fighting I mean it really is it is quite literally that I'm

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not into UFC per se I've never been to a UFC match but I could imagine that that idea is similar and the same sort

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of you don't have to know a lot about the rules when the body blows and the

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right stuff happen yeah people are on their feet and they're feeling wow the atmosphere so is that part of it for me

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just as a social experiment was very fascinating so you were you were up

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in the nose bleeds or yeah it was no I'm kidding I'm kidding no I got great SE and it was and I by the way I

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didn't pay this is one of the few benefits of like this is one of the few times where you know you don't I I don't pay I I wasn't going to pay but Netflix

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was nice enough to have me be a part of it but I really got to see

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everybody there and also in a positive way man what what's really really cool

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is I got to see the love of what I think are like our modern for lack of a better word folk

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Heroes yeah sha was there yeah beloved Lennox Lewis was there beloved Holyfield

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was there beloved Sugar Ray Leonard beloved you know people are like yo thank you for your service thank you for

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what you've done that was really cool that's awesome that's very very cool to see and you and you um you know we've

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talked before about sports I mean you know I'm you know I kind of tell people

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um when it comes to being a former athlete I'm more former than athlete um and so but but I love what you know what

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sports did for me personally you know on this you know CEO Journey um has been so amazing but I mean Sports in general I

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mean you talk about the Gladiator thousands of years of sport bringing

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lessons and learnings and you know solving conflicts and and and I think I

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I heard you talk about that before because you're a sports fan in general yeah and I love playing sports growing

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up failed a lot in humiliating fashion talk about that we talk about at sports

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but what's beautiful about it and what it helped me transition to in terms of my journey from that to my I'll I'll

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call it like my lifelong quest of being an artist a professional artist like

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that is what I do and my craft is comedy it really is an exploration of

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the self wow and and when I talk to people who didn't play sports and it's

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very clear who did and did not play organized Sports growing

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up a lot of the conflicts that you deal with in day-to-day just business life

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I'm talking about W2 W9 you got to deal with Carol from accounting life we're

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talking about LinkedIn life right is so so much about like uh obviously IQ

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EQ teamwork like pushing yourself like

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dealing with criticism and doubt layoffs failure there no different bro it's the

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same thing as being cut from JV like this is the same thing you come in there's a pool of you we're going to

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have performance reviews there tryy outs yes right yes yes what were you working on hey were you practicing during the

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summer new variables have entered right like oh the football players join basketball triy outs late [ __ ] not as

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built as the football oh maybe I'll out skill them like these are all this this is not new and those things you learning

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those things at 14 15 16 to me at the time you know those I

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mean bro it's heartbreaking you know this is someone who played in college to wear the Jersey to wear the

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warm-ups to have the ter ways to be a part of the Arena it's everything it's

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not just like and you know this Athena your daughter she's playing at the Collegiate level yeah every game has

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that narrative in her mind with time and distance though you realize you're like it's not even about the game this thing

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is going to reveal things about myself that's going to prepare me for age 40 55

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75 like this is preparing me for the whole the the game that's so much longer than 40 8 minutes you know what so so

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it's funny you you you always you you always every time we talk you have some deep deep lessons for me it's

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interesting like you're my friend I mean obviously but yeah yeah you've had M me

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before yeah yeah yeah you know but you uh I respect the thing you said about being an artist is so true and I think

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like uh the respect I have for you to take a genre like we always focus on the genre comedy you

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know whatever it is but the idea of being an artist and painting you know sort of painting your portrait within

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that genre right is is absolutely what we we learn from Sports we we had a

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picture of you uh I know you're I I kind of figured and learn that you were Sacramento Kings fan so we got some we

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got a picture of you and this is hard to come by yeah right exactly we got a picture of you uh of course yeah that's

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being my lady yeah that's being my wife yeah so I know I know huge Kings fan yeah yeah you're you're you're you're

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and that's not the easiest thing no it's been a painful journey and that too is an allegory for Life pain suffering

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ridicule right right how do you stand T toes down as people make fun of your city and still stay locked in stay

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locked in yeah and I actually I actually wear it as a badge of Pride awesome the

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pain and suffering I've been through versus a Patriots fan right you have no idea not even close you have no idea you

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have no idea yeah so so you know I I um you know in in in my book book that's

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coming out in January I write about being an unlikely CEO like I was not like you you know me you know I'm always

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in you know always always look like I'm running to the airport as he said you know so I'm I'm not I I did you know I

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felt like I never fit the mold sure um and actually was told by a lot of people that you know this is not the right

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thing for you but here I am right you are um in some ways you're unlikely

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comedian if that's such a thing right I mean you you you knew um but as these

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boxes are being painted for you as you're growing up yeah how how do you I mean how did you go through that what I

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what I call less than 1% moments when you when you actually decide to break out of the box

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that everybody else has built for you so that you can pursue the thing and be authentically who you can be in the

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world I mean I I'll kind of flip it back on you and then I can get to my story you ever have that those moments where

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you were watching something you're watching someone speak uh

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a CEO a business leader and not to be disrespectful but you I you go I I could

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do that right I think I could do that right um there was a couple moments like that where I think it was two things

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happening at once which was the Confluence of like uh I knew I had a

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particular gift or skill set Steve Harvey has this great story about not following your passion but following

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your gift where he's like I'm passionate about basketball I'm passionate about golf I'm not not a good not a good gol

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but I'm passionate I'm very passionate but he's like I got this gift of Gap I got this gift of Performing and he's

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like your gift again shout out to Steve your gift is something that you

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have a natural Affinity or alacrity too in other words and this is going to sound weird to say CU you know we got

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kids we don't want to tell them this hey what are you good at even when you're being lazy M like when you you know how

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me you're late for class you stumbled out of bed your hair's all m M up I mean my hair's I got hair problems but my hair's

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you don't got to worry about that but your hair's all messed up and you come in you're coming into chemistry class you're and and and and you AC the test

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right and you didn't study and you actually didn't even even eat breakfast so you're actually just running on like

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a Mountain Dew and just adrenaline and you get a 98 on the Chem test that's your gift that's your gift like

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everybody's like I got a dunk I got a that's actually you you have to be acutely attuned into your and your gift

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could be anything you could be that person that walks into the room and you're like godam everybody thinks I'm

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you're the funniest or the most Charming or the silliest it it's like these little things but you really got to be

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attuned into what your gift is and and I'm not trying to get spiritual about it

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but like yeah Destiny God Kismet Yahweh Allah lot he is going to show you that

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you just got to be aware and I don't know I just got

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to the way you organize a spreadsheet you're like dude you you're going to be the p&l guy you know this like right

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that's your special that's your specialty or you have a sibling that like you're like godamn I used to have this

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roommate David shout out David I just saw the way he hung his ties and I was like man this bro you're

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going to be an amazing business leader and he turned out to be that he's that dude just lauro Piana suit I mean like

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the the the peak of his lapel is perfect the way his tie lies is perfect I'm like bro

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you are this is your gift this is your gift this this is and now you you keep going into that vein right and the path

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will unfold I told you this about Athena when you told me about her her work ethic I'm like bro basketball is you

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know it could be the ninth thing that she's messed at when you talked about how like your daughter God bless her is

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is you're like she's ferocious she's tenacious she's dialed her work ethics

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crazy like I was like oh so she could work at Blackstone Black Rock investment

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she could do whatever she wants to do like but her grit her that's her that

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might that might be her gift yes you know I don't I didn't get the pleasure to meet her yet but as someone with two

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children six and four I'm I'm still trying to discover that like hey what's your what's your thing like what's

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what's that gift that was like that you have and I can help put put you in

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places where that where that that can come out but so to this is the long-winded answer of

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so I I saw early on I kind of had this Gift of Gab of argu

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arguing sometimes when I'd be with my friends and we'd get in trouble a teacher would come in or a parent would

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come in and they go what happened and all my boys would be like yo don't let hussen say what happened cuz he's going

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to he's going to make it sound crazier than what it really was right which is comedy like comedy is all about

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exaggerating how old were you when you when you figur I I was 14 15 I was 14 or 15 years old 8th nth grade so you know

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like if anyone was 14 15 and you're hanging out with the boys with the Z that that's that's Peak sleepover eight

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you're going to a friend's house you guys are staying up all night you're playing video games get getting into

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just your rough housing your wrestling you know you got the parent what's going on down there and then a parent comes

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down and you're telling the break you know I told you guys not to do this and

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this this masassa vase that I got from Costco whatever 16 years ago is broken

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what happened and I would tell these insane stories and then this happened and then

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he did and you know they'd be like that's not what that's not what happened you know but I realized like that was at

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the time I didn't know what it was I thought it was just [ __ ] uh but that's comedy that's yeah that's that's what it takes to

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write a great scene yeah hey paint a picture make it extremely entertaining and moving and

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I'm laughing one minute now I'm sad now how are we you know and that's

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performance I just didn't know what it was so there was that part of it and

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then just at a young age and and maybe you had this we all have these kind of

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like for whatever per whatever you want to call it your superhero origin story

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mhm but I remember at a very very young age I realized talking to adults there were certain adults and

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teachers where I had a group of friends that like believed what Mrs lettington

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was saying and then I was part of that small group of people I was almost like a

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young conspiracy theorist in that way where I'm like I think the the adults in charge don't have any idea what they're

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doing right and that kind of that little seed of like irreverence that little

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seed of uh putting on your [ __ ] detector goggles I had that at a young age I just

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didn't know that that was actually necessary for comedy that's all what satire is like pointing out the Absurd

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right that's that's all comedy is yeah isn't it weird that you wear and then you do this on a PL like that's all it

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is you know so you you it's just [ __ ] to goggles an example I was on

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the plane coming out for the fight there's now this new thing you you got the lap band right when they they tell

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you but now they ask you to do the the cross yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah again

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[ __ ] goggles I oh so this word this is going to save me right this joint in the past plane goes down everybody dies

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but now that we got the cross strap that Malaysian Airline that went down everybody would have clearly been saved

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if they had just horizontal horizontal that's the key so it's like that yeah

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whereas like when I was in first or second grade everybody was like well miss lington says we have to cross it here right right it was my mind to be

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like you're in a plane that's CRA we're all dead right there there's nothing I'm

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going to change it so that's like the beginning of a bit or like a yeah is is determining and pointing out some sort

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of hypocrisy or some sort of uh part of my French some [ __ ] doesn't make

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sense it's not adding up so you're you're seeing these gifts you know I I kind of call them superpowers you like

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superhero origin story you you have um so you're you're seeing these gifts but

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there's no where to place them right so that's what I'm saying so there all these little like boxes if you will that

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you're trying to figure out yes if you should belong into right I mean there's obviously there's a smart kid box and

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then there's the athlete box and there's the you know um future uh you know

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future going to be in prison box and all the stuff as you're seeing those boxes knowing those gifts may not allow you to

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fit into those boxes how are you navigating that that's that's got to be I mean almost like disconcerting and sad

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in a way yeah but I think in a weird way I didn't know this at the time but

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everybody's going through it yeah wow that's the thing but you know being 14

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15 16 17 and also we don't talk about this enough just being a young man yeah

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being in your early 20s you're basically just trying to figure what's my purpose m m without there's all this emotion

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around it and you have you have older children now too A lot of the behavior the whiling out really what it is is

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like if you actually get through all that underbrush and get to the you're just like look bro what am I what am I

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doing yeah who am I in the world and what it is that I'm supposed to do yeah like where am I special where do I

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belong where where am I a value wow you know what I mean strong and and and where can like you know real talk where

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can the people who love me or that I want to be seen by see me yeah yeah and

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if you're the athlete there's all these systems in place you know coach

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Gutierrez is like that's right moo hell of a tackle you know so you're getting that feedback at ninth grade you're

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getting that feedback at like I remember being um actually never told this I've

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told a story before but um I remember my high school graduation 20 3 I graduated

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high school in 2003 and I remember um you know you're sitting in you know generic football field in any Town

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America everybody had a high school graduation like this they did this thing about the top 10 kids at the school so

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the principal gets up there and they go so Ben Davis attending Harvard University and everyone's like clapping

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so and so attending Cornell and everyone yeah I I can kind of see that and then I can see the crowd reacting and then like

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so and so attending Stanford University and then I like I was like he's good and then the audience is like confirming

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that he's good yeah and you know I grew up in Davis I graduated from Davis High and then I went to UC Davis so I was

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staying at home and I I'll never forget that like that June summer evening and

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the Sun is setting it's my senior year of high school and I'm I'm like watching

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these kids these like 15 kids and they get to walk the stage first and my ass is like I got to go

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back upstairs to my childhood bedroom and sleep underneath my Scotty Pippen poster and I'm like so this dude's about

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to go to Boston to go to Harvard to be classmates with Mark

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Zuckerberg and change the world and they're they're going to make an Aaron sorin movie about his time you know what

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I'm saying right right and my loser ass is going to be upstairs while my

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mom's calling me be come get your food that's my life and I was like man I wish

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I could be that person like I've never heard people really say that but I spent a lot of time in my life being like man

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I wish I could be you I I wish I cut my finger off to live your life but really

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what I was just seeking was like man I just want I just want that yeah yeah I want someone to say my name and I want

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them to I want my my parents to look at that way and say that's my son or he's him he's worthwhile yeah so he's worth

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something he's he's worthy of being here yeah you I mean lots lots lots in there

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there's a lot in that I'm Lots in there so so I mean there's there's so much of but I was really seeking that for real

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for real and probably still and probably still seeking maybe not the moment but the ability to have impact with your

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superpower sure yeah yeah yeah and and I know at its core seeking that in and of itself and

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I've achieved a lot and I've gotten a version of that of hey you walk out on stage and look people are clapping for

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you right but the further you go down that path too it's also like it can't be about

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that in and of itself yeah and I have to prove that I deserve to to be here right

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like you saw the fight last night they obviously interviewed Mike I don't know

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I don't think enough people are talking about it but um they asked him I think

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um the the broadcaster announced or asked Mike Tyson I'm I'm paraphrasing here but you

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know hey did you did you feel like you had to prove anything to anyone and he goes I didn't have to it was about

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proving it to myself MH meaning like hey man this is this has nothing to do with yeah the 120 million people watching

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this on Netflix this about like I want the distance for me wow you know what I mean which is and and like I'm watching

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him say it and I'm like I I I believe he believes what he sang yes yes especially

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Mike especially Mike right I mean he doesn't say a whole lot that he so that's pretty that's quite Zen wow of

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him to say that you know you did you see that Viral clip of him with the little girl no oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I me

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bro this is the most Buddhist yeah we are all just nothing but yeah you know

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dust and time you know it was like heavy kind of crazy to share with like a 12-year-old but yeah pretty morbid but

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it was pretty powerful you know his whole thing that Viral clip about Legacy no I think you you 100% we've talked

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about this before and in respect to both my my journey your journey we talked

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about our kids and their Journeys and really what what is ultimately you know what the highs and lows of being a

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parent cuz I I think we have a picture here of your family beautiful family amazing amazing family except except

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except we we got to we got to worry a little bit about your boy I mean he's he's he's brooding in that picture oh

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yeah he's he's straight up mugging the camera yeah yeah but you know I think um

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I think the highs and lows of parenting and and I think to your point and I I

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took that counsel from you and you you rocked me that night I don't know if you were trying to but you rocked me that

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night cuz I I bounce you know I'm super high when Athena does well Orion does well you know and whatever with school

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of basketball or whatever right and I'm super low when they when they have a struggle and like like this was the

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night of the fundraiser that I or yes the night before the fundraiser yeah you remember we we talked that night we were

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just vibing and you just you you like you literally cut me I left that night

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and I was I couldn't sleep because I'm like really yeah because you you were right like my highs and lows were about

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that moment and that that thing they did or they did or they didn't do and how

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you how I felt frankly which is not that important but how I felt about what they did or didn't do and I wasn't really

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focused on their gift and and and and and how that thing that that that it

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wasn't that moment that they're learning about that gift that they need to use forever to to your point about Athena is

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just she's ferocious you know Orion is like Mr gentleman like all of those

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things that they have as their their superhero their superpower yeah doesn't

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lend itself to winning every opportunity at first throughout life or losing every

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opportunity there going to be times where that gift does not line up and and I I had to sit back and say okay the

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times I'm unhappy about a loss yeah I mean maybe I shouldn't be in the times I'm happy about a win maybe I shouldn't

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be right like you mean yeah precisely yeah I mean look luck has a lot to do

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with it too let me I'll give you let me give you nine examples of you know and

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there's all these whatever you want to call Steve Jobs stories Michael Jordan stories Kobe stories of like it was my

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grit and determination that got sure let me give examples of just like hey man something is going my way momentum is

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going my way I don't even deserve it but it's happening so you catch good ones that

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you don't deserve and you also catch bad ones you don't deserve sometimes if you're playing a sport and you're like

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God our star shooting guard just blows out his knee you don't it's not part of

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the plan there's no amount of carbs or sugar or protein intake that could SA save you

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from that we're at that age now man where loved ones are getting cancer stage four

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you terminal esophageal cancer pancreatic cancer and you know this as a physician you're just like what age 49

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where's this coming from what what bad decision did you make that made you deserve that no there's no you didn't

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you don't deserve that the long answer is you you don't deserve that I have friends that have their parents have

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died of cancer they have never smoked a cigarette throat cancer never smoked a cigarette in their life so there's times

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where it's just like hey man you caught a bad one you know we we're basketball fans you happen to play for a franchise

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that can be extremely painful at times and that's your career Mitch Richmond you know he a lot of years he played for

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and I wish Mitch could have gotten a ring he didn't because he happened to play for this team versus had he played

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for the Spurs or he played for the Lakers you know gotten a chip I think he did get a chip with the Lakers but my point is is that that had nothing to do

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with with the amount of jumpers he was taking greater determination yeah so so there's there's

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there's that and that way then you look at I'll give you another example we're we're a little bit older here you know hopefully everybody here is tucking a

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bit away into our Roth IRAs and our 401ks as we speak right now we didn't

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know the election went a certain way and the the stock market ripped and when you check into your Vanguard account you

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look like a genius you're like look at me 22% like woo

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your boy killing you have no control over that it could have it it could have completely gone the other way too that

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you did not have any control over again I'm I'm holding say the S&P 500 those are 500 companies I don't control their

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economic performance like a dial I'm catching a good one but the things that I think I do

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give credit for and I try to remind myself of this and when I see it in my kids is like the feeling of did you give

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it your all so when you talk about a you talk about Ryan and you know this as a father when

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you see that in their eyes when they jump in the deep end of whatever that proverbial deep end is where I was like

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man you were scared but you you did that you rode that roller coaster r at Six Flags you didn't want

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to I can take great pride in that I don't know if you can take great pride in but I try I try to remind myself of

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that as I as I go along like no matter what happens I have a great show or I bomb like hey man I stuck to the stuck

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to the script I was prepared I gave it my all and I

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emptied the take and there's nobody in the comment section there's no redditor

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there's nobody in the stands that can ever make me feel less than what I've that's aw to do that's awesome [ __ ] was

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I was ready to go since 6:00 a.m. yes the suit was laid out it was already pre-pressed the set list was printed out

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I ran it x amount of times I stood on that stage sure the Lights Went Out the mic cut out but like I did what I came

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to do I don't give a [ __ ] what you have to say you know what I mean like you have

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no yeah I don't give a [ __ ] you have to say right right you like I know for a

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fact whatever your name is in the comment section or whatever you're heckling you couldn't walk couldn't walk not a minute not a minut minute not a

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minute bro your [ __ ] suit would have been crumpled your set list would have been print printed out you can't say

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[ __ ] and that level of like confidence comes from man I followed the process I

29:58

followed the program I like I stayed true to the plan and that goes for

30:04

everybody who's like from an athlete yeah to you know to people who I really feel like exhibit real courage if you go

30:11

to a hospital and you see people dying of terminal illnesses and as they're getting that chemotherapy they're like

30:17

hey I'm going to step through this and follow my plan win lose death draw like

30:23

that to me is powerful that's so and that's that is like that the real like

30:28

that's the real life yeah well you know I used to talk about um you know my

30:34

first book which no one read um I used talk about game day prep I'm getting to

30:39

it yeah yeah yeah yeah um I talk about game day prep and the idea behind game

30:46

day prep is just what you talked about it's like no matter what and people think okay obviously you're going to play in the Super Bowl you're going to

30:52

have a game day prep but if you game day prep for Saturday hanging out you know

30:58

with moo or if you game day prep for dinner you know that I think that's that's what you're like you you know

31:05

that that I love what you said they're like why am I even listening to like you know I know who I am and what I do why

31:11

am I even listening to what you have to say oh you think your breakfast is dialed in like mine you have no idea you

31:16

can walk a [ __ ] not even a mile you can walk a [ __ ] 200 meters in my shoes they're people they're people

31:23

though not not not sort of critics or or or or you know the the the the behind

31:29

the veil of of um X or behind the veil of Instagram say whatever you want to say but there's people that sure or even

31:35

at your own office right right and I'm like for me the thing that I always try to like remind yourself of is like just

31:44

remind yourself I'm him I'm her yeah down to like the details of like man look at the way my whole backpack is

31:51

organized right laptop here iPad here manila folder here boom boom boom like

31:56

and be like don't let any body and what I'm saying is the minutia of those details is a reflection of who you are

32:04

you know what I'm saying and so like if someone makes you feel and I'm you know

32:09

Athena must deal with this as an athlete I'm taller than you um I got more

32:14

natural gifts than you but I'm like you know father time will take all of those

32:20

things away from you you know I've been to a lot of Nick games and you look at guys that were giants when I was a child

32:27

Larry Johnson Patrick Ying they're they're older men now yeah they're their age last night Tyson he's a 58-year-old

32:35

man yeah but the thing they can never take away from you is your character

32:42

yeah like who you actually are mental acuity the like the spirit of who you

32:47

are um and that's why like to me my goats right now the guys that I look up

32:52

to and I'm proud to say you know they're a friend someone like JJ reic is a friend yeah we talked about that to be

32:57

like look man this guy was one of the most hated people in college people don't know this for him just to get to Duke he

33:04

came fromon o Virginia which is like yeah the just the cuts you know his

33:09

parents were too hippies like he did not come he even though he became a Duke Prodigy he did not come from like Duke

33:16

Prodigy stock yes he came from like hey I'm G to you know go on iasa Retreats

33:22

and like be a you know be a hippie and be you know then for him to go to Duke I remember when he graduated Duke I was a

33:28

person who was like man this guy's gonna be out of the league in two years he was he was in this Coach K system cut to a

33:34

15E career later and how many guys do you see then then at the next level all right now you you're done playing ah

33:40

cool you had it good good for you you eak it out and to then go into broadcasting and go like I'm going to

33:45

take that same determination Vision all that he brought that to broadcasting

33:50

within three four years and now you look at what he's doing with the Lakers again Win Lose or Draw I'm just proud to say

33:56

just as a colleague and as a friend I'm like man this guy it doesn't matter what

34:02

he's doing just the the the what's what's being exposed over

34:08

time is his character yeah yeah well that's what's being exposed over time Bonnie's on you know in the G League now

34:15

which is I mean that speak to his character I mean I think that that's a tough conversation to have I know if I was right if I my son is on the team

34:22

right you know he's playing next to me so that was that was a tough decision but your family so I just want to your

34:29

family and friend people are close to you yeah when when you think you you you let them

34:36

down or you know actually let's Jordan play play that clip I want to talk a a

34:42

little bit about uh oh my God it's me with my parents all

34:47

right here we go Mom and Dad see what was the most the time I let you down the most when I will take you to soccer

34:53

field oh man soccer game ball is going into this direction you running into this direction every parent I mean

35:00

thinks that okay that their son or daughter should be able to make a goal and score a goal and all that but you

35:06

wouldn't be able to you were disappointed that I couldn't score a goal yeah yeah really yo that's real that is

35:14

so real oh man just curious how do you go in One Direction and the ball goes in

35:20

it that is actually that's I was gift yeah that was a gift of being utterly horrible at soccer yeah

35:27

bro he was right he was right yeah yeah I was it wasn't it was I hated soccer so that a good that was a good redirection

35:33

not to not to do the soccer thing anymore hilarious yeah and he wanted me to you know growing up in India soccer

35:39

is very popular so of course he'd want me to go there you know do it but there's also I think there was also a

35:45

time where you um speaking back to your gift you know your superpower and and

35:51

getting getting you know sort of small you know nuggets of information that

35:56

that might be what what what the tool you ought to use yeah yeah but you you kind of hit it you hit it you hit it

36:03

from a lot of people which is why what tool what tool you know the tool of

36:09

being able to um seek out [ __ ] the tool that you're able to identify that

36:15

you're able to sort of debate your way use at obviously satire sarcasm sarcasm

36:21

humor tell your to tell your story you didn't just say hey this is my thing I'm doing it and actually you you

36:28

yeah let's let's play the other clip also man who really throwing a clip the

36:34

H which one was it you sort of revealed it you you on Ellen I think it was on Ellen where you uh you got caught you

36:41

got caught with your cuz you were trying to use your gifts yeah yeah and you were trying to hone your gifts right right

36:48

right and uh you want me take a look um but wait before we get to that

36:54

so when did you start and stand up and how supportive were they well I would actually mom you know this I would we

37:00

had our little secret I was in college and I would say hey I'm going to the library and then I would take the Camry

37:06

and my he you know Mom would tell Dad hey he's going to the library and um so

37:11

we lived in Davis and I would drive to the San Francisco punch line so it was about an hour yeah and one of these

37:17

nights when I was going to the library I ended up crashing the car in Vallejo which is on the way bad place to crash

37:23

your car by the way place to CR home and Mom remember you passed the phone to Dad and you're like I can't I can't cover

37:29

for you anymore and so I had my dad come to Vallejo and it was raining it was

37:35

super dramatic and he was like this is really far for the library husand oh man

37:41

and I just had this moment where I was like Dad yeah this is embarrassing I'm a stand-up

37:46

comedian and he was like why couldn't you be smoking weed like everyone

37:52

else and that's when I found out that Naji minhaj is 420 friendly so that's cool Pro drugs my dad's Pro drugs

37:59

anti-comedy what was that what was I mean what was that moment like because now you you're

38:05

gift right you're you identify this gift you're starting to hone it you're starting to let go of the boxes that

38:12

everybody else but now the Box explodes cuz now he knows you're not studying to be to go to medical school right you're

38:18

you're actually going to be a comedian yeah yeah that was um I think I'm take I feel like knowing

38:26

you yeah as my friend I feel like I'm taking you to a moment right now tot

38:32

moment yeah I did not yeah so I was like oh man we're going we're going deep deep Into the Depths

38:39

um yeah there's always the uh there there are many Crossroad

38:45

moments in your life that was a crossroad moment it was a crossroad moment really from childhood to

38:51

adulthood which is which was a little bit of a burn the boats moment so obviously I'm an undergrad I'm living at

38:57

home and it's really it was really kind of a moment of okay are you studying to

39:05

go to med school or law school or are you pursuing this insane comedy thing and that that was

39:13

the beginning unfortunately for a short-term period of time where Mufasa

39:19

and simbba were not talking where it was like Hey I'm going this way and there's no clear results for what that is wow

39:28

and um I'm I'm burning the boats this this whole thing called you know undergrad and being a good student and

39:35

getting into grad school I'm I'm basically I'm crashing that wow wow that

39:41

yeah that's that's an emotional moment this very tough this very tough and it's very tough um now I know this is a

39:48

parent I could totally understand where my dad's coming from because all you want it's not about you're not cuz I

39:55

feel this with my daughter and my son you're not pursu doing the the ceiling it's I'm I don't care if you know they

40:02

win the Nobel Peace Prize or not it's does my son become an astronaut or not what you're trying to do is keep raise

40:09

the floor at floor the floor is the issue for just want I just want you to be okay yes yes and and we can determine

40:16

where the floor is but I don't want you to be in abject poverty I don't want you

40:22

to Fumble the opportunities that we've buil we've built a floor that's pretty nice we're at a pretty nice floor here

40:30

yeah standup comedian aspiring stand-up comedian it can get pretty down it can get you have no idea

40:38

how far down that can go and so his concern was that which was what are the

40:43

downstream effects of this insane choice will you be able to be get married are

40:48

you going to be able to have kids you going to be able to provide for them all these sort of things now little did they know that like you you would absolutely

40:55

monster it no I was I was able to pull my wife when I was dead broke and little did they know I was able to pull a

41:02

doctor a failing stand up comic so hey that was my little like Euro Euro Step

41:08

right there that was a Euro Step yeah yeah B I see your logic and I yeah yeah yeah I evade it with my so my charm yeah

41:15

I mean and that and there's and you know being a so I'm a child of an immigrant

41:20

um my my parents moved to Canada there's that there's that pressure and then I

41:26

immigrated here yes and so my my kids are you know the child of an immigrant

41:32

yeah yeah and so there's a culture component to that gen they're a generation removed from the yeah yeah exactly you know from Jamaica and so but

41:39

there there there's there's a culture component to that I love the idea of the floor um see you've rocked me again

41:46

right it's really the it's not the heights it's not the heights that you're concerned about it's the floor but how did that there's some culture components

41:53

to you now going to do this unlikely career of being a comedian yeah so there

42:00

are some cultural components you are and you know this being a CEO and the level that you're at you are entering a room

42:07

in a paradigm that that that has not been broken very rare extremely rare you know

42:14

when you look at the number of Fortune 500 CEOs that are black men or women extremely rare that are Jamaican

42:21

extremely rare so um it's terrifying and

42:26

if you think about the statistics you might not want to pursue that simultaneously we're talking about this

42:32

off off mic about superheroes and superhero stories and all that sort of stuff in a weird way as much as you love

42:40

those movies there's a certain point you come to in your life especially as an immigrant as an and as a child of

42:45

immigrants you learn to realize I actually shouldn't be reading comic

42:52

books I have to be my own superhero story like I I'm not going to see

42:57

yes Clark Kent doesn't look like me I have to be Clark Kent or I have to be

43:02

you know that character that's what it is in a in a in a weird way you have to create this new paradigm which is

43:10

terrifying and scary you know but I don't know there was something about it

43:17

where and you must have noticed this the more you climb when I look at my parents

43:22

generation I just look at anybody who came from any part of the world

43:27

Trinidad Jamaica Guyana the Philippines Vietnam Cambodia Korea it doesn't matter

43:33

Mexico Venezuela Dominican Republic when you look at the way our parents built any of their businesses it was really

43:42

just figure it out. goo right right like they would just straight up drive by

43:48

I'll never forget this I interned for this um uncle that my my dad was a family friend of and I I'll never forget

43:48

I'll never forget this I interned for this um uncle that my my dad was a family friend of and I I'll never forget

43:54

this we were driving I was working at his firm over a summer we're driving and this is when I

44:01

learned about just real estate what is how do you own a building so we're driving one

44:06

day and we're driving past an apartment complex in downtown Sacramento the sign says I'll never forget this it says

44:13

tenth and te Apartments call now 916 789

44:18

4474 whatever and I'm looking at this guy he sees it I'm in maybe ninth or

44:24

10th grade he picks up his phone 916 hello you know who is this oh hey

44:30

it's Carl hello Carl I'm I'm interested in tenth and te apartments and um I know this sounds

44:37

like a very stupid story but what it showed me was like that's the world

44:43

that's all it is hey you there's a building there's no like Monopoly man

44:51

who owns the building I'm John D rockerfeller like you have to call me no there's some there's some guy named car

44:59

Sacramento you know what I mean he's just this is his fourth investment property he's looking to offset it

45:05

because you know his son has a crippling drug habit and doesn't want to pass it off to him in in comes this Indian

45:11

immigrant man who's a friend of my dad who has a sense of alacrity purpose and

45:18

and quite frankly frugality and can see a good deal he's just going to call that guy you're going to get on a phone he's

45:26

going to call an attorney who happens to be like a friend of a you know you guys have hey I know another Jamaican

45:31

attorney family friend of ours or call him he'll do he'll do the paperwork we sign the paperwork congratulations you

45:39

now have a a commercial building in Sac downtown Sacramento California what's my

45:44

point how does this connect to Hollywood okay you want to shoot a movie

45:49

great you need a crew all right you call a line producer well what does a line producer do do they have a suit and do

45:55

they have like a little hat and a and a ear no it's just some some lady named Carol Carol then calls a bunch of PE she

46:03

puts together a budget she budgets out that tripod that camera the lav mics

46:09

this they put it together they email you a PDF it's $18,000 to rent this

46:14

equipment do you confirm yes I confirm and now it's here wow cool now we shoot it like

46:21

congratulations you are now shooting you are now shooting a television show or you're shooting a

46:27

scene for a movie so like it was this it the point of that story was is it was a

46:34

moment where I realized the world isn't this like it's

46:40

not this fixed thing it's a thing where I can like push it and move it and like

46:46

it will push back and respond back so just call Carl yeah and then that will

46:52

lead to this and this and more information will then come my way and it's not look you might call Carl he

46:59

may not call you this is an allegory for just just get to the next Monkey Bar

47:05

yeah let that information come and then make adjustments along the way pivot

47:11

Euro along the way but you figure it out does that make sense no Ian I mean I'm

47:16

thinking of but that's life hey we lived in Fresno you're here in Dallas where are we going to live oh a friend said

47:21

Plano cool all the call a couple people in Plano you meet the the the real

47:27

estate agent well this person seems like a grifter okay we'll go to another no but you shouldn't live in Plano you should live here ARL got it we're going

47:34

to let me go to do you see what I'm saying yeah that's every that's everything I mean every little DET you

47:40

know even even the work we do together with with the V cares Foundation right Magic Johnson I mean that that was a

47:46

that was a you know call oh hey Scott Becker like yeah all of a sudden I'm on stage with magic and Magic's like you

47:52

want to work together and I'm like yeah I think so you know to your point I think it's now he's he wrote your

47:57

forward yeah yeah yeah I mean go figure that's yeah but but what what are you doing there you are taking the next step

48:05

yeah success or failure is happening information is coming at you and you

48:11

know you look at my career there's some stuff that went my way there's some days there's some moments where I got [ __ ]

48:18

checked yes but in all I you know in my best moments I realize like that's just

48:24

information coming at you very fast M so like when you get punched in the

48:35

nose very quickly right right so just listen to that information and then make

48:41

your next move so so I want you to think about I want you to think about on on this on you know on this podcast what I

48:48

always do is ask people what what's their superpower so I want you to think about what your superpower while me you

48:55

talked about a lot of different things uh in your life and I think a lot of I

49:00

know for me a lot of the tenants of who I am come from the come from the tree

49:07

you know grandparents you know you go back way back when you know the parents so I want to play another clip um where

49:15

you discuss sort of the two tenants one from your mom and one from your dad oh

49:20

wow yeah and that bro you went through the crat yeah yeah we tried you know I'm a DJ at Heart Right okay the best piece

49:27

of advice it wasn't even advice it's stuff that I saw I saw from you you

49:33

really taught me to be an entrepreneur cuz I saw the way you would always make stuff happen you would make me my

49:40

Halloween costumes or you would have an idea for something and you would just come up with it and you would make it and you would do it that's how like a

49:46

lot of the stuff that I've done in my career I sort of had that entrepreneurial SP but I saw that from you and then from

49:53

Dad I learned conflict mediation you don't have a lot of enemies I care

50:00

about people and I think this is what I noticed in you too you see that you basically care about people no but I

50:06

would I would see sometimes like l i fullon fist fights in the Moss parking lot yeah and you would like be breaking

50:12

it up yeah yeah don't get mad at each other and don't try to hurt each other

50:17

so that's great that's a beautiful Cliff that's you got me tearing up man that was beautiful I watched you I watched

50:25

you no you I mean it actually is emotional for me too because I know the I you know I always joke with

50:34

beina about you right because it almost feels like we have you know there's

50:40

there's I'm not saying a connection it's not weird do get weird no we get weird but there is a there's a connection to

50:47

just you know your parents the way you know I watched on that clip we watched it about 45 times and what's the most

50:53

important thing about that clip I mean we could talk about entrepreneurship like we could talk about conflict

50:58

resolution but it's it's the way you look at him it's the way you look at him and I you know even though you're you

51:04

sort of recording this and I know there's a studio by yeah the way you're looking at them I can see into you're

51:10

you're looking into her soul right and she's explaining a small piece of what

51:16

she's what she's tried to be for youh man that's she's a lot she means a

51:24

lot to me yeah so you can't even articulate yeah it's beautiful she's she's the best very lucky very very very

51:30

lucky have an amazing mother yeah that's amazing so now that I've got

51:36

me this is the less than 1% podcast tune in to the next episode for part two