SPEAKER_00: 0:03

the more I started learning about what this platform is about, and I was trying to help out young men navigate the world through our failures, is that a lot of these people don't have perfect conditions. They're actually the opposite of perfect. They're going through a lot of things that can't be explained in one YouTube video that's seven minutes long with the top five tips. Yo, Rich, so I got to meet the family. I got to meet your lady. I got to meet your newborn baby.

SPEAKER_01: 0:27

Yeah, yeah. That was dope. So I had some pull-ups in New York. Um... caught you watching your niece's softball game, who's very, very talented. I think ranked third in the state. Yeah. Top

SPEAKER_00: 0:41

five across the board in New Jersey. She's playing in the state tournament. Actually, her championship is this week for the number one spot. Her name is Destiny Duran. Catch her. She's incredible. That's amazing, bro.

SPEAKER_01: 0:52

How does it feel as an uncle to watch when your nieces kind of reach high potential? Damn. That's a loaded question,

SPEAKER_00: 1:01

bro. Definitely a loaded question. I guess this is the platform to get me in a vulnerable moment. Yeah, man, it's beautiful, bro. This is a very personal thing I'm going to say, which this is what we created the platform for, but I just told my brother, man, I don't necessarily believe that people are limited based on skill or potential. A lot of it is based off of just family sticking together and raising a child. And two parents can really do a lot for someone. That sensitivity that comes from mom and that strength and persistence and more grounded energy that comes from a dad, especially if you're a boy. And then the dual income from both families. If you have one parent making$30,000 and your dad is gone, it makes it really tough for the one person that's only making$30,000 to raise a a kid or multiple kids. And then like schooling system, a lot of stuff that goes into just those one little decisions that families make to, and to each his own, you know, if you're not having the best relationship, I don't, I don't think anyone should be in a fucked up relationship, but there is something to be said about destiny being the oldest daughter that my brother has. And then my brother has four other kids. Envy was pretty much, you know what? This actually might relate to you. Cause I met your daughter yesterday. And she's getting the luxury of being raised by a more mature rich and more experienced rich. And when the time comes to have my kid, I'm sure they're going to benefit from me at 39 versus me at 18. Anyway, I say that to say, I think my niece is the first person in our family on the Duran side and the Noel side, my mom's side. They got the luxury of a stable household, two parents, joint income, two really smart parents. And, um, My brother had four kids before her, so he got a lot of reps in. And she's incredibly stoic. She's determined. She has all the things you would want from somebody that is going to play a fucking boring sport like baseball. You know what I mean? Where it requires you to be very disciplined, get 500 at bats. You got to be calm. You got to be disciplined. You got to be very controlled when you play baseball. It's one of those sports that's more mental than anything else. And I think she deserves a lot of credit. She's an absolute rock star. But when all those variables add up, you usually get somebody that is really good at what they do. And she's a kid still. She's 17 turning 18. She got a full scholarship, a D1 school. She's going to compete year after year for the college softball world series for women. But when you speak to her, she's smart. She's chill. She's calm. She's not like overhyped. You could tell that she was raised right. And- I think the same goes for all of us and anybody in our community. Sometimes your table only has two legs or three legs and you're missing one and you got to work in life to fill that fourth leg. So no excuses. I don't think we live in a world of excuses, both you and I, Rich. I know you didn't grow up with your father. My pops and my moms, they separated when I was young. So I don't believe in excuses. I think you can figure it out, but it does show what the potential of my DNA is in my family's bloodline when there is stability. So I give a lot of credit to my, my brother and his lady for that. Um, she's the product of some good parenting. I mean, it's a good stability and you know, my brother, he's super fucking intense, but even you've known him my whole life. So you've seen how he's matured, you know, and envy is a product of that, you know? And again, she deserves a lot of credit. I wouldn't want her to think anything else, but you know, I'm sure you can imagine. What's all the stuff you know now versus back then when you were raising Jensen? Yeah. Do you see it? They're like, can you actually see it when you're raising your daughter now? You're like, damn, I didn't even know any of this when I had my son.

SPEAKER_01: 5:04

Yeah, but I think certainly patience. You learn a lot more patience. I mean, there's a difference between raising a son to be a man and raising a daughter. So this is a lot more newer for me. And, um, I'm, I'm starting to see like her personality and her different emotions and, and, and being sensitive to those emotions when they come and, you know, calming her down. So she's definitely brought a much softer side out of me than just like, bro, go clean your room. Go.

SPEAKER_00: 5:39

Wait, so you're telling me that's real. Cause people always tell me that when you have a daughter, I think that's real,

SPEAKER_01: 5:44

bro. I think that's real. You're already, how old is she? She's a, she's 10 months. Just turned 10 months, yeah. So you're already feeling that effect. Yeah, yeah, bro. She's, I don't even know how to explain it. I wish I had words to explain it, but there's something about when you have a daughter, bro, that you just view the world differently. Definitely view women differently. I mean, you're assisting in raising a future woman. So you feel the need to make sure you do everything right for that child. And it's interesting, like, I noticed how she is towards me versus her mom. And it's like night and day. She's like all about that. Just the way she looks at me, bro. Like her big eyes, glossy, like admiration. It's only 10 months. So she doesn't know what she's looking at, but she knows she's looking at an individual that she like adores. She's like, I love this person.

SPEAKER_00: 6:40

So wait, you're saying, you're saying it's for future fathers out there. Our fathers are ready to have daughters. You're saying like, that level of like locked in affection, female energy towards you. It don't matter how tough of a tough guy you want to be. It cripples you instantly. Like she, she got a hold on you.

SPEAKER_01: 7:00

An insane hold on me, bro. Wow. Yeah, bro. It's like whatever you want, what do you need? You're my princess.

SPEAKER_00: 7:09

And I mean, your son probably, yeah, your son probably knows this already, but like it's a different type. It's a different type of energy you're getting from her than you did when he was a baby.

SPEAKER_01: 7:16

Yeah. Yeah. And, and I thought initially, I mean, he's all about that too. And I thought initially like, damn, you know, I'm having a second child, um, not with his mother. And I thought there'd be some sort of like jealousy there for a long time. He was the only child, all the attention went to him. So now he has to split my attention two ways. And the way that I kind of helped him conceptualize it, it's just like, Oh, you're my only son. you know what I mean like I don't want any more children and I didn't have another son and you're my only son and he was like oh damn like that's true yeah so once I told him like you're my only son that brought him comfort that's like damn he's right you know my sibling is a girl and there's a different relationship there so he's cool with the whole you know yeah accepting a new sibling.

SPEAKER_00: 8:18

Wait, did you notice it at first? Or is this something

SPEAKER_01: 8:22

that y'all spoke about before? I thought it was something that it would just come just knowing his personality and knowing how much attention he seeks from me. I'm like, man, and this is a thing in parenting. You see it all over online where it's like, I forgot what they do, but most parents, what they do for the first child is they get them a gift. Almost like a, hey, I know this new baby is arriving, but don't think we forgot about you. So they get them like a, there's a proper term for it, but they get them like a small gift. Like, oh, here's a gift. We haven't forgot about you. But this new baby is like a little bit more of a priority right now just because it's a new baby and it needs a lot of attention. You know, there's 12 year separation between my son and my daughter. So I haven't had to do a lot of that. But I did have to talk to him and let him know, like, hey, if I'm busy or if you think we're not giving you attention, just let me know.

SPEAKER_00: 9:23

Yeah, we might as well stay right here because I like where this conversation is going. And there is something you told me last week, which we did want to put into the show, which was we had discussed invisible influence. Sometimes men don't realize that when they're living their lives and they're carving a path for themselves and they're on their individual road to wherever they're trying to go, the level of influence you can have on people without even knowing it. And that sort of cuts both ways, right? If I think about my father, Macho Duran, there is influence that he had on me that I still carry to today that I know I would not be remotely as successful as I am in my business if I didn't pull these, whether it's nature or nurture skills that my dad had, soft skills, his personability, his salesmanship, his ability to read a room and get what he wants out of that room. I mean, you met my father. I obviously have that from him. I didn't learn that at Rutgers University. And then there's negative, there's dark traits that he has that I personally always paid attention to and I can every now and then dip back into that. So This discussion that you and I had, Rich, which we thought would be great for failures, was invisible influence. A man doesn't realize that while he's carving his name into the cement, the level of influence that comes from people that you're not even thinking about. And there was a story you told me about two people that were very influenced by you, and you didn't even realize it. So like, Let people know that story and how much it shocked you and why it shocked you. Because obviously, you know, you're a good dude. You live in a good lifestyle.

SPEAKER_01: 11:13

Yeah. So my son is 13 now. And about a couple of weeks back, I asked him, I said, hey, you know, high school goes by fast. It's a really short four years. You should start thinking about what colleges you're thinking about going to, whether it's out of state, in state, and, you know, kind of just start to plant that seed. And without hesitation, his reaction was, uh, dad, I want to go to Montclair state university. And I'm like, why do you want to go there? He's like, Oh, cause that's where you went. I'm like, Oh, okay. That's, that's interesting. Like, you know, but it's my son. So it's like, I kind of expected it. It's like, Oh, what do you want to do when you grow up? Oh, whatever my dad does. You know what I mean? So I was like, all right, cool. I guess that'd be cool. Right. For my son to go to the same college I went to and sort of, uh, keep the lineage going. And a few weeks after that, I had the family over for dinner and my nephew is 15. I think he's a sophomore in high school and I asked him the same question. And without hesitation, he said, Montclair State University. And I was like, I was kind of taken back. I was like, well, wait a minute. I'm like, So I asked him the same question, like, why do you want to go there? He's like, oh, I saw you go there and I saw the pictures and it looks like a beautiful school and I want to stay in New Jersey and get all these reasons. And it dawned on me, I'm like, wow, I never pushed this particular college to these two individuals, my son and my nephew, but somehow through, you know, invisible influence, they saw first of all, I was the only college graduate in my family. Right. So someone had to break the mold to let these, the younger generation know, like, Hey, uncle did it. Like, why can't we do it? Right. So I think I was that for them. Yep. And that was just me operating. Like I didn't go to college thinking, you know, you know, the next layer, the next generation of Sanchez's are going to follow my footsteps. But I think just naturally, them trying to navigate, uh, the world and saying, all right, which route I'm going to take, you know, they, they look at their immediate family, right? Uncle, dad, mom, friends, whoever. And they start to pick like their influences essentially. Right. And I'm, I'm, I'm happy. I'm proud that I could be that for them. But what took me back was I didn't tell them to go there. You know what I mean? I didn't even offer that as an option. I didn't say, oh, have you thought of Montclair State? They just so happened to just do their own due diligence, see me go through it, and kind of want to follow my path. So I thought that was beautiful.

SPEAKER_00: 14:05

But really think about it. I know you personally. The failures platform, people are going to start understanding who you are, the dynamic between our relationship. I'm definitely way louder, more flamboyant, We've always been like that. I mentioned it in one of the earlier episodes we did. I've always admired you because you've always got it done from a more chill, calm, not so braggadocious perspective, but you've gotten way more done in one lifetime than most people I know. You never were the most loudest person in the room. I think you are an example of the theory that you don't have to be the loudest to lead. The theme of this this question or the reason why we wanted to talk about it is like, you weren't loud. You didn't push it on your kids. You don't even push it on your family. You just kind of did it yourself and they're copying you. You know, even if you didn't intend for them to follow your blueprint, you laid a blueprint and you did it in a way that they wanted to follow it. So you're the example. They're watching you. Like, I think that was the thing that took you away a little bit. You're like, damn, You know, talk about that because you hit me about it. And you're typically not like that. You know, they're following you. They're watching you. You led without being the loudest in the room.

SPEAKER_01: 15:27

Yeah. I mean, it's interesting because you don't really think about the decisions you make as affecting or influencing others, but they do, right? And once it's kind of like when you identify that you have a set of influence on people, especially people that you love, It's like you take a step back because you're like, oh, wait a minute. Like, I got to be extra cautious now of what I say, what I do, how I move. Because I got followers. You know

SPEAKER_00: 15:57

what I mean? Like, you have no idea who's watching you.

SPEAKER_01: 16:00

You have no idea who's watching you.

SPEAKER_00: 16:01

And was it your cousin? I mean, I'm sorry, your nephew that caught you by surprise? Because you, like, what is your relationship with him? Did you even

SPEAKER_01: 16:07

see him? Yeah, I

SPEAKER_00: 16:08

mean,

SPEAKER_01: 16:08

yeah. Like, you know, I see him every time we have dinners, maybe once a month. But, you know, we don't speak daily, right? I have limited influence on what he wants to do. So I thought it was interesting that that's the path he chose to go down. And I have one more. My girlfriend's sister's son, she asked him, she was like, oh, what do you want to be when you grow up? He's in first grade. So that's like a typical question you ask a kindergarten or first grade. And he goes, I want to be like Uncle Rich. And she was like, Uncle Rich, why do you want to be like Uncle Rich? He was like, because he gets a lot of money and he works from home. I

SPEAKER_00: 16:55

love that. It's either you or Kai Sanat. In his mind, you're a fucking streamer. You just chill at home all

SPEAKER_01: 17:04

day. I have no idea what I do. He's just like, I just know he has money and he works from his house. He doesn't have to go to a job. But to add to the examples, it's another example of this child is six, seven years old. I'm not teaching him anything. He walks in, he sees my four monitors in my home office. And in his brain, he's conceptualizing like, oh, my uncle must do something very important, right? oh, he has a house, so therefore he has money. Whatever he's doing, it's working, and I want to be that. And he's seven years old, right? This is why I love when you and I have conversations like this, because I'll share something, and you'll be like, oh, yeah, bro, that's called invisible influence. Like, I didn't even know that was a term. And then you hit me with, like, five different videos that you saw on the concept, and I always love when we could go back and forth, because, like, When I share this, you make it seem like, oh, this is a real thing. This is the name. You know what I mean? You should actually

SPEAKER_00: 18:16

research this a little bit deeper. Obviously, you guys know I don't have a family yet. Rich does have a family. But Rich and I have been friends since the beginning of time. And we were very different in personality. But the one thing we did share is that we would read a lot of self-development books. And this is... This is still very true. And I love that we've grown up, that we can tell the story. Me and Rich used to share an Audible account. Same password, same login. We weren't even doing business together. We just worked together. I think we had run a few plays at that time. Like we had sold, this is not a plastic bag, tote bags from Whole Foods. We like, we stole, we didn't steal. We finessed like 50 bags and we won. They were like$15 bags and we found out online they were selling for like, 400 a pop and me and Rich made a cool$5,000 as high school kids going to college, community college. So I say all that to say me and Rich were always, we came from the same hood and there wasn't a lot of information and people that were successful around us, but I think we always had a thirst for a little bit more knowledge that was beyond our immediate community. And I always got into the habit of just reading self-development books because I always felt like it gave me an edge on a lot of my competition and whoever that competition was at any phase of my life. And now what I've gotten into the habit was, which I think we're going to do a segment on a little bit later, which is like habits that really change your life and you wish you would have learned sooner, was now I spend a lot of my time whenever I have free time listening to audio books or actually reading books on like some of the most successful people that have lived hundreds and hundreds of years before us. That's why I told you I got into like alexander the great and his father francis the great and like learning all these traits of people who actually lived and then seeing in 2025 even though we're in the ai revolution and the live streaming revolution and everything's digital and me and rich are able to host a high-res podcast across the country history repeats itself but more than history repeating itself human behavior repeats itself And I love studying first-generation millionaires or first-generation billionaires or immigrants who changed the trajectory of their whole families because I can relate to some of the things they're going through currently in the lives that we're living. And I'll pull things from a lot of the pressure and the stress and a lot of the untimely deaths a lot of these people had because Again, history repeats itself, but more than history repeating itself, human nature repeats itself. So one thing that I share with Rich when he told me that story was like, oh yeah, that's the burden of somebody who breaks the curse of generational poverty. Being at the poverty line or being slightly below it is something that my family experienced and your family experienced. Obviously, your family came from the Dominican Republic. My parents lived in New York, but my grandparents came from Puerto Rico. So they didn't come here with the plan to be investing all their ancillary funds in 401ks and cryptos and EFTs. That wasn't their plan. Their plan was just to get here and give us an opportunity, give your parents an opportunity, give my parents an opportunity. And I think, like I said, it's funny, it's become a full circle. Envy, who's my niece... She's the beneficiary of all the energy and time that went into everything that got us here. So you're the beneficiary of what came before you. You just expedited it. And the one thing that a lot of great people suffer from is this imposter syndrome because they don't believe that the success they're getting is truly deserved. So what happens is they try to downplay it. They try to minimalize it. They don't want bragging in front of their parents because they don't want their parents to feel lesser than. And obviously, we've talked about that a lot. But a byproduct of that is you're trying to shrink yourself for the older people so they can still relate to you. But you don't realize a lot of the younger people are paying attention to you. And they're looking for examples of people who've made it and in their mind are living different than the people that they know. So yeah, the internet's incredible because you can find people that are living a life that you've never lived. Right now, if I wanted to see what Singapore looked like, I could see it in HDs, and theoretically, I went on vacation to Singapore. But the truth is, there's a big difference between map and terrain. Map is a piece of paper. You can see where you're going. Terrain is actually being on the ground. A hill looks very different on a map than in person. You know what I mean? A waterfall is very different in a map than in person. And you are the terrain. You're a real-life example. You rich, you're a real-life example. And part of that invisible influence is kind of the wind for a lot of great people's sails because they realize, oh, shit, I've been living a smaller life because I don't want to stand out too much in front of my family or the people that I know. I think there's a British saying, it's like the tallest poppy gets cut, meaning people who brag usually get taken down. And that's something that we kind of have a little bit of us in us. Anyway, so a lot of these books I've read about very important people is they start realizing the influence they have and passing information and giving information back. But it was my idea to do a podcast about giving information back to younger men. You would have never thought of that because I think you're a more humble version. You're chill. You're just like, whoever learns from me, they learn from me. If not, I'm just going to set the example. So the one thing I give you a lot of credit for is that you lead silently. You have invisible influences, which means you're not always banging your chest saying, oh, everybody should be like me because I'm living better than you. Nah, bro, you're healthy. You got a happy family. Your house is always in order. You own your home. You know what I mean? Even though your first relationship wasn't an ideal one, you had a kid young, you rebounded. And I think whether you know it or not, you're the Jay-Z to your family. You're the, you're the, you're the only person in real life. That's not a map, but it's more terrain that they can see on the day to day. And, you know, again, I, I admire you very much as a friend. So you're a living example of what can be done when the world is pushing back against you. So that, I think that's incredible that you're, you know, not only your son, the son is a kind of expected, the wild card is that you're influencing your brother's kids and your family's kids. That's incredible. Like, did you even realize you were setting the tone for your whole family until they told you? No, no. And I think that's, that's what set me back. And, um, does it even feel, it probably even feels crazy that I'm saying that to you. That's it. You're setting the tone for your family.

SPEAKER_01: 25:08

Yeah. It feels good, bro. And you know, And hearing you, which, by the way, thank you for speaking so beautifully about me. It's a fact. Nah, I appreciate it, bro. And it's likewise on this side. I think that's interesting, right? Like, one of the things that is super important when you're operating, you know, when you're influencing, right, is it's one thing to tell someone what to do and how to do it. And it's another thing when they've seen you do it, right? When you're observing someone who's reached something that you want to obtain, it's like, oh, wait, that's achievable.

SPEAKER_02: 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 25:51

They did it. And that's a family member of mine. We got the same last name, right? Versus, and I think that's the interesting dynamic between the role that I play as sort of like a silent influencer in the family and my brother, right? Who's the father who was like,

SPEAKER_00: 26:09

nah, you got to do this. You got to do that. I know that from being an uncle. I definitely, that's a luxury for being an uncle.

SPEAKER_01: 26:15

Yeah. Yeah. But he hasn't done it himself. Right. So he's like, all right, cool pops. Like I'm gonna listen to you. But my uncle's already done what you're telling me I need

SPEAKER_00: 26:25

to do. And that's your younger brother. So he still has time too.

SPEAKER_01: 26:28

Yeah. No, for sure. No, not my brother. I love my brother. He's doing very well for himself, but there's a different level of influence there. Right. Which is dope. And I think, see, with great power comes great responsibility, right? Like, now that I've put some information out there and I've received some

SPEAKER_00: 26:48

feedback, yeah, now I feel like it's a little bit of a burden. Yeah, if you smoke a cigarette, now you're like, fuck. You're flicking it.

SPEAKER_01: 26:56

Yeah, yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 26:56

your nephew's going to be like, you smoke? I want to smoke. You're going to be like, nah, I

SPEAKER_01: 26:59

can't. No, no, no, but this is good. This is new information for me, right? Like, now I'm like, wow, I really have the ability to influence the next generation of my last name. And I put, I asked a question, I got some feedback and I know they'll watch it. So now it's, now it's fun. Now it's like, all right, what could I do? You know what I mean? Like, do I get another certification and just show them like all the, all the planks up there, right? Like, do I, uh, you know, buy another property and show them like, Hey, you can invest in multiple things, right? Like, That was fun because it's like the more I obtain, the more I achieve, the more they think that it's attainable for them as they should. Right. But it's to your point, it's breaking the lineage of like that. I think one time we spoke about the flea in the jar. It's like the flea will only jump as high as it thinks it can jump. Uh, when, when it's, there's a jar on top, but then when you take the jar out, it still only jumps as high as the, the height of the jar. They don't know how far they can jump until they see someone in close proximity jumping higher than what they thought possible.

SPEAKER_00: 28:12

I mean, that's a great analogy. And not to get too pseudo-political, but the fact that we're even seen as fleas is a whole other, you know what I mean? Certain animals are just left behind because they're insignificant. You only matter to the world until you matter to the world, you know? Like, you only matter to women until you're beneficial to women. You only matter to your employer until you can do something that's of service to the greater mission, which is the person who owns the company needs your services. And the same goes for being an invisible influence on your family. You only matter to the world until you matter to the world. You could think you matter, you could want to matter, but you have to actually do something that contributes to the greater village, so... Yeah, bro. I mean, I don't know if Damien is on. I don't know if he ever made it on. And if he didn't make it on, it's a knock on my mentorship. He's just not consistent

SPEAKER_01: 29:12

enough. What would be your piece of advice to someone who's like 17 or 18 and has like a seven or eight-year-old brother and is navigating high school and they are giving off that, invisible influence to their younger sibling, but they just don't know? Like, what would be something that, sort of like a piece of advice that you would give them?

SPEAKER_00: 29:39

Yeah, you know, I actually have that exact setup, but my brother's eight years older than me, so I got to see it firsthand. The one thing that I will say to answer that question is the invisible influence that I was able to gather in my family came from authenticity. And I love that we're creating our own platform because I try to, as a marketing expert and somebody that tries to understand different categories and media and then see where the gaps are at and how we could fill in those gaps authentically, I'm going to give our competition a cheat code. One glaring gap that's in the market in self-improvement and older guys trying to help our younger men navigate their lives and just kind of basically doing what we're talking about, the influence that we have on our family, but just for our broader community online. is that a lot of people give advice, but the advice is based on the conditions being perfect. A lot of the advice that's shared is almost as if you are starting in a family with two parents, dual income, no trauma, family who speaks English, everybody speaking. You're in a country where everybody speaks your language. There's not crime and violence outside. Media hasn't decayed. your family's habits, dietary, fucking just a family that only eats pork, fried food, McDonald's, takeout, hasn't already given the older people in your family diabetes. There's a lot of pressure that comes with wanting to contribute to society. And we both know that the people that came before us that had that burden their conditions weren't perfect. And I believe that the more I started learning about what this platform is about, and I was trying to help out young men navigate the world through our failures, is that a lot of these people don't have perfect conditions. They're actually the opposite of perfect. They're going through a lot of things that can't be explained in one YouTube video that's seven minutes long with the top five tips. There is a subreddit that I've gotten really into, which is like kids that come from families that have younger siblings that are so handicapped, like physically handicapped, and there's a list of mental diseases, physical issues, that they get pushed to the side to the point where they don't even exist because the parents obviously have to care to this younger sibling in a way that is not normal. You literally have to give more attention to someone that's handicapped. Yeah. And even I read those and my heart bleeds for those young men because it's like, man, they're in a fucked up spot because they can't even be critical of the situation they're in because then that'll mean that they're deflecting what they want onto their sibling who obviously needs more of it. And I say all that to say my older brother is far from the perfect role model. Have you ever seen Sopranos? My father is Tony Soprano. In terms of how he conducted himself outside and what he had to do to survive the outside given his situation, And who he was to me and my brother and my family inside. He was a very caring, loving, he was just like a regular father. But those worlds blend and merge and a lot of that negative energy from the outside came into my household. And I think my brother was a product of that as well because he wasn't too far removed from what my father did for a living. So... I always measure mentorship with a grain of salt. And then you learn, as I've been doing, studying some of the greatest people in history, 99.9% of the most incredible people who've achieved some of the most unthinkable things that you and I benefit from today. Talking about people who invented the light bulb. I just read the biography on Enzo Ferrari, like most beautiful car ever invented that could travel at lightning speed. If you watch his biopic, it's like a movie that's only an hour and a half long. He was a piece of shit, like straight up a piece of shit. He had multiple families. He was burnt out, bro. Walt Disney was burnt out. These people have given us the greatest things in the world, but when you zoom into their family lives, they're not great people. Modern day, Bill Belichick, not the best person in the world, the greatest coach of all time. Modern day, Tom Thibodeau, coach of the Knicks. You know I love the Knicks. This dude sacrificed his whole family just for basketball. Never been married, never had a kid, never been in a long-term relationship. It depends on what lens you're looking at these people through to qualify whether they are or are not good people. But what is good? Good is what's necessary in the moment. So if we're talking about me and Rich, we stand on the shoulders of the people that came before us. If we're talking about my brother, he came before me. So he's just standing on the shoulders of my father, my grandfather. So everything comes with a grain of salt. I think you have to be the best example to yourself in that moment, given the tools and the resources and the information and the knowledge you have in that moment. And be a good example with your actions. Sometimes, I mean, as you know, most of our families don't have college degrees. Hold on. I'm pretty sure no one in your family older than you has a college degree. Yeah, I know. Same for me. No one. What can we really measure them? We're going to measure them based on intellectualism, you know, like college education. No, you got to measure them on their actions, what they were willing and able to do given their circumstances. So my brother's my greatest hero. I mean, shit, I could read all the books in the world on some of the greatest humans.

SPEAKER_02: 35:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 35:27

Ask anybody who knows me, bro. I glow when I think about my brother and what he was able to do for me. Part of the reason why I created this platform, Rich, is because I know how important mentorship for my brother was to me. When I'm fucking up, I pick up the phone. He always picked up and he gave me direction. But the direction wasn't always the best. It was just what he could give me at that moment, given his circumstance and the level of knowledge he had. And I think the same goes for you with Jensen. At the time, you were a dad at that time. I bet you if you went in a time machine and seen the advice you were giving to him, you'd be like, that's terrible advice. But you know what? It's what you could give him at that time. Sure. So the one thing that Rich and I were talking about off air was like, what are some tangible things that are not so contrived and so list driven, but like we know for a fact have helped us. I'm 39 years old. My birthday was just a few days ago. Rich, how old are you now? 37. So 39 year old, 37 year old, uh, I will put Rich's failure resume on the lower third, and then we'll put my failure resume on the lower third, just so you can know we're not just two grumpy old guys speaking about bullshit. We actually have achieved things in our lives. But that's not what this show is for. This show is for to help anybody that is 10 years behind us in age or 20 years behind us in age that want some advice or want some sort of a map or roadmap to be a better person or shit, they just want some insights on people who they feel like they can trust. We are your neighborhood big brothers. So something that we didn't feel was contrived, but we definitely wanted to talk about was like, what habits you wish you learned younger that may have changed your life? And needless to say, you can't go in a time machine and get those habits back, but you know for a fact, if I wouldn't have developed that good habit, my life would have been a lot different.

SPEAKER_01: 37:13

Yeah, I got a couple that come to mind. Probably should have the first two, but One, I think is, man, just the ability to be adaptable. I think when I was early 17, 18, you kind of walk around with that complex of like, oh, I know it all. No one can tell me nothing, you know, especially like your Spanish parents who, you know, you think don't know anything. And man, that's hindered me. you know, all throughout my twenties, just having that attitude where like, no one around me is smarter than me. I think I know it all. And over time, as I've gotten older, I've realized like, and there's so much you can learn about everyone. Right. Like just, I think how much I cared about people based on how much they've accomplished and, You know, now that I'm older, I disassociate that. It's like there's people I look to for inspiration, motivation, and, you know, I take that piece of information and I apply it to myself. And then there's other people that I look for other stuff with, you know, too. I think the world has a lot more to teach you than what you think you know, right? I remember driving my son to his mom's house and I had to stop. because there was a duck it was like two adult ducks and there was three in the middle like crossing the street right I had to stop and I just thought to myself I'm like how beautiful is this like I don't know if this the first duck is a male or female this is like mom and dad but like this sense of community between these ducks and the fact that the three baby ducks are in the middle and they're like protecting them I'm like this is beautiful like Like how humans can learn from just nature. Yeah, we're animals. Bro, that was such a cool moment because I'm like, man, I hope this is a mama duck and like a father duck because even animals who are not as intelligent as human beings know to stick together. You know what I'm saying? Like mom, dad protects the ducklings.

SPEAKER_00: 39:29

And in some way you could see your family and that little duck family.

SPEAKER_01: 39:32

In some way I see how how dysfunctional humans are. It's like my pops wasn't around. So we were just the half of that

SPEAKER_00: 39:42

equation. So you're just a little baby ducks walking on the road.

SPEAKER_01: 39:45

Yeah. With the one, right? But we didn't have the other one in the back, which was either mom or dad or whoever. So I'm like, damn, even ducks got it right. That was my thought.

SPEAKER_00: 39:56

Now that's powerful, bro. That's very powerful.

SPEAKER_01: 39:58

That was my thought is like, even non-intelligent mammals, have the family hierarchy correct. Bro, 18-year-old Rich, 19-year-old Rich, 20-year-old Rich, what would you have been like? Yeah, if you were sitting in the car with yourself, I would have been honking like, get the fuck out of the way. You know what I'm saying? Bro, that's like Rich, V10, 37 years old, much more retrospective about life and Brother, there's like beauty all around us if we just

SPEAKER_00: 40:34

look, right? You know what that makes me think if I'm looking at, if I'm truly trying to figure out a solution, right? Like we're not going to be a prescription show, but there's definitely prescriptions we can offer based on a life experience. If we're asking habits that I wish I learned sooner in life, that's one that is incredible because you're saying just be more open-minded about where you can get knowledge and information from, right? It doesn't always have to be based around money. It doesn't always have to be based around fitness. It doesn't always have to be based around women's status. Younger me and younger you definitely will listen to anybody with a Rolex, diamond chain, beautiful women, and lived in a beautiful sky rise in Edgewater or, you know, right? Instantly in. You're saying at 37, the world is filled with a whole bunch of pieces of information and knowledge if you're really paying attention. My question to you is, do we really believe at 18 you have enough of life experience to even do that? Is that actually something that an 18-year-old can grasp? I don't know. I do think that you got to suffer a little bit in life and see a little bit of more life to even have that perspective, to look at some fucking ducks walking by and be like, damn, what a beautiful moment. I know I got to go pick up my son, but in some way, this little family is already together. And then the last note, which I'm sure you're not ready to get into, but we will one day. Damn, what was my pops at when I had to cross the street? Bro, that's deep. That's deep. Yeah. I mean, there's something in your subconscious that picked that up because you're on your way to pick up your son. Yeah. And this duck has his father.

SPEAKER_01: 42:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 42:18

And you're like, here I am. Road rage ass rich with no pops.

SPEAKER_01: 42:23

Nah, I think that's a great point. Um, obviously this is like a much more mature version of myself that has this different lens of life, which is why I'm able to visualize just animals walking across the street and tying that moment to like a broader concept. Yeah, it'll be, I think you're right. I think it'll be difficult for like an 18 year old to have that life experience to just realize the beauty all around them. But the bigger takeaway is

SPEAKER_00: 42:58

just- And I guess what I'm saying is you can try, but it hits different when you have life experience. Yeah. You can have depth in your thought as a young person. Yeah. But it just hits different when you've been through heartbreak. For sure. Disappointment. Hating your parents for putting you in a situation that you're in. Loving your parents for realizing that they didn't have a lot. There's a lot that you go through when you get older that gives you that depth. that makes those moments a little bit more intense. For sure. Not saying you can't at 18. No, no, no, for

SPEAKER_01: 43:30

sure. What I will say to an 18 year old is try as hard as you can to be teachable, right? Like other people, people your age, people younger, nature, the world, a boss, right? A professor, like everyone has something to teach. And if you're listening and if you're aware and if your ears are open and your eyes are open, Like you can receive that information. Right. And you know, you, you don't, I mean, I'll tie this back into, for example, Mr. P right. Like how influential was he for you in high school? Like for you to have been inspired by him, you had had to be teachable. You had had to be comfortable enough to just be aware that there's someone in that building. that could inspire you, that could teach you something, taught you how to operate a camera, taught you how to be in front of a camera, taught you a little bit of marketing, taught you how to write a script. There's a lot of things that he taught you. Had you not been teachable in that moment, you would have just been like, fuck this class. I'm just trying to get an A and keep it moving. Hey,

SPEAKER_00: 44:48

I'm trying to get a C, C-minus to get the fuck out of high school. I failed twice.

UNKNOWN: 44:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 44:55

Oh, yeah. Look, I do want to make it a... Yeah, exactly. Exactly. No, you're looking at the fucking king of failures. I literally got scars on my face that taught me what not to do in life. But I did want to do a top 10, but I think we're only going to get to five because we're really unpacking these, which I think unpacking and the depth is actually more important. So number one for you, Rich, I'll say is be adaptable and open-minded on where you get your inspiration and knowledge from. You're just saying... Something You Wish You Knew Sooner, A.T.O. Rich Watteau. That's number one. I'm going to do two and three because I actually think they go together. And then you could wrap it up. Yeah, yeah. Two and three, like I made my list before I sent you it. One was study great men, study great people. That has changed my life. But you had mentioned something that made me want to add an addendum to that one. So that'll be like either 2B or 2 and 3. which is reverse engineer greatness and also reverse engineer failure. Meaning, you can learn just as much from people who have done incredible things as much as you can learn from people who have tried to do incredible things but failed. Because there's a lot of education in the try and the fail because someone eventually will succeed and do it. And you can actually measure more from a failure because you can see the gap between oh, this is what I didn't do and this is how this person got it done. So this is where I fell short. That space between falling short and someone else succeeding, that space between the gold and the silver is the education that you still need. And to me, the knowledge is there because you obviously know enough to a certain point. So don't just reverse engineer success, reverse engineer failure. And on top of all that, to kind of wrap it in a nice little boas, Study people older than you. Study people who have more knowledge than you. Study people who have walked this planet longer than you have. And to your point, Rich, I think specifically in our culture, because a lot of our family comes from Spanish-speaking countries, I'm Puerto Rican, Rich is Dominican, a lot of their swag, their energy, their persona gets lost in the commute from DR to the United States because Spanish is now their second language. So a lot of the finesse and a lot of the charisma that they used to have when they were in their country is lost because they're adapting to a new world. And we tend as young kids of immigrants to look at our parents, or at least I'll speak about my grandparents. Half of it is I'm not even understanding what they're saying because I don't speak Spanish that fluently. But the other half is like, oh, you don't know anything. What's going on today in the United States? Like this is a different world we live in. And I think when you get older, you realize, oh bro, they actually do know. They know a lot more than, and sometimes it's too late before you realize it. One story that I'll tell that's kind of in point two and point three for things I wish I knew sooner was study great people, study great men, study great women. And I never had a chance to sit down with my father's mother who is my grandma Lele, born and raised in Puerto Rico, moved to Brooklyn, pretty much stood in Brooklyn, Sunset Park area most of her life. So my father was raised, my father lives now. A lot of the advice that I feel she would want to give me, I would always postpone it because that's when I was in the middle of my career at Def Jam and I was just arriving as a music executive. And a very sad moment that still lives with me today and it's one of the reasons why I put this down as things I wish I would have learned sooner was My grandmother has a house in Puerto Rico, and she would always tell me, like, Nene, like, we have to go to Puerto Rico. Like, me and you, we should go one day. Like, your job is always going to be there. I'm not always going to be here. So I want to celebrate that with you. I want to bring you to the island. And I've never been to Puerto Rico. I still have never been to Puerto Rico. So I was working Logix 1-800, and it was, like, literally the biggest moment of my life, my career for sure. He had just won a Grammy, performed at the AMAs, anybody who knows that song. knows that the song is damn near diamond, 10 times platinum. It impacted society at a level that I've never worked a record that big. And I just kept ignoring my grandmother's request to go to Puerto Rico with her. And I kept stalling her out as if she was going to be around forever. And every time we would talk, she would always tell me things that would make me curious to learn more about my family on my father's side. And she did a good job at contextualizing why my dad was the way he was. He's like a coin. Depending on what day you meet him or where you meet him, his energy could be very different and powerful in both directions. And I know I have that trait as well. Big Gemini energy. And I would always be like, damn, one day I'm going to lock in with my grandmother and I'm going to record an interview with her because I want, because she speaks Spanish fluently. Her English is not so very good. And bro, I remember I was flying to L.A., We were going to do a fan activation on top of Tower Records for Logic's follow-up album to the album that had the 1-800 song on it. And while I was on the flight, sometimes I'll take a flight and I'll just leave everything on airplane mode because it's one of the few moments in my business and entertainment where I could plausibly say like, oh, I didn't have internet. I was off the grid for four hours. So I usually, when I fly, I hope my boss doesn't see this. When I usually fly from New York to LA, LA to New York, I'll just leave my shit on airplane mode and just like enjoy the silence. There's something weird about being in a plane because it's like the compression and the, it almost feels like you're frozen in time for a second. The fresh, fresh oxygen. Yeah. So, and they also say you're more emotional when you're on a flight because the altitude and whatnot. It's the last time, this is the last time I cried, honestly, like that. The minute the internet came back on, My phone just got reception and I just got bombarded with texts from my family, my brother, my father, my mother. And it was all the same texts. Classic hood family doesn't know how to address emotional moments. They're like, yo, call me when you have a moment. But they all said the same shit. So I was like, oh, something bad happened. And then I just hit one of my titi gorda. I hit my aunt. And she was like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, baby. But grandma passed away on a flight.

SPEAKER_01: 51:23

thing

SPEAKER_00: 51:24

going to puerto rico her blood pressure she cut like i think she was on blood thinners and whatnot and she couldn't fly but every winter she would go back to the island because she because new york is fucking freezing cold and that was her deal and and they told her not to do it and she did it but she did it every year like it was quiet and i was supposed to go with her that year and i just chose to go to work and honestly bro that shit devastated me because I still think about it now. Like in my mind, my grandmother is still in a little ass apartment complex in 46th Street, Sunset, Brooklyn. And I could go visit her whenever, but she's not around no more. And what goes with her is all the memories and the knowledge that she had about what was sacrificed to put my father on and her kids on so they could be in a position to have kids in the United States so we could become what we want to become. And I think a part of me died that day because I know I can never get that back. So I guess in some weird way, I've prioritized talking to my, I think I've shown you, I have videos of my mom's mother and my grandmother who is an absolute boss and a legend. Just asking her questions about how my mother grew up and whatnot. And now I have all those videos saved. And to me, that's a mistake I would never make again. And professionally, competitively, I just read a whole bunch of biographies now on great people and people who failed. Last thing I'll say on the third point, I study failure as much as I study success because I think there's more to be gained from failure. The margin between the silver medal and the gold medal, that little space that you lost by is a space that you should be studying because that's how good you got to get in order to become a gold medalist. And you got to go beyond that. But I think there's something to be studied and that's fun for me when you fail. I've been reading Steve Jobs' autobiography on the only company that was a catastrophic failure for Steve Jobs because we like to give him a lot of credit. It's the one loss on his fucking MMA resume. And that was when he designed the company Next after he was fired from Apple. And Next was literally one of the worst projects as far as money invested versus money returned in technology history. But nobody ever talks about it because Steve Jobs, you know, Steve Jobs highlights are like Michael Jordan highlights. But that was his 45 year. He was the worst version of himself that year. He was running off of pride, ego. He had bad debt. He was just taking people's money because everybody was giving him because he was the golden child. He was cocky as fuck. He was intolerable. His product was trash. He was selling to the wrong people. Everything. I'm talking about you could do a degree based on how much could be learned from one of the greatest minds putting out one of the worst products ever. So that's something that made me think of number three for things I wish I knew sooner, which was study failure as much as you study success, because there's a lot more to be learned from what some of the most boldest and courageous people have failed from. Damn. I love that. Kind of hard to follow up. Yeah, bro. I don't, I don't, I don't know if you, I don't know if you would, um, if you would read the, the next, uh, by, oh yeah, it's really, it's everything that we, everything we don't know about Steve Jobs in that.

SPEAKER_01: 54:47

Yeah. All his worst traits. I definitely seen the biography and I know about next and he lost a lot of money. And then

SPEAKER_00: 54:57

there's two of them though. Which, which one did you see? The one that was, uh, with the dude who did punk. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 55:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 55:06

Yeah, that's the one where he gets fired from Apple. Yeah, yeah. That was a good one. Damn, bro. That was really good. Well, I mean, I told you the fucking story of my grandmother. That's a real personal moment. It's a tough one to follow. I know. I know. I mean, I... Did I have a tough one? No, no. It's the first time I'm hearing it. Honestly, if you were to ask me on my deathbed what's one of your regrets, that's probably the only one that I could think of, bro. Ever. I don't regret a lot. That one... That one, that one bothers me. Cause it was like, it's like sand. I had it and it, and it went through my hands and I can't get it back.

SPEAKER_01: 55:42

Yeah. And unfortunately, man, those are one of those life experiences that you have to go through to then learn. Like you would never do that again. You know what I mean? Like,

SPEAKER_00: 55:53

see now that that's why now when I have to travel for work, I always try to like, I went back to New York and New Jersey to see my father and my mother. last week. That's why I ran into Rich and I got to meet his family. I always make a stop to stay two days in New York to see my pops and my father's side of the family. And I always spend time on Edgewater, which is where my mom lives, not too far from Manhattan. It's like a 10-minute bus ride from Manhattan. And I stay in a hotel right by the Edgewater so I could hang out with my mother and my brother and his side of the family, their side of the family. And I wasn't like that before. I was very interested in me and only me, but that shit happened when my grandma fucked me up. I don't OD on visiting family. I'm not that type of guy. I got to see them every week, but I always make time when the time presents itself.

SPEAKER_01: 56:49

That's beautiful, bro. I'm going on a vacation. next month to DR. And I was just going to go straight to the resorts. And I'm like, nah, like my family got to meet my daughter. They got to meet my girl. So I'll make, I'm making a stop at my grandma's, which is super inconvenient. Cause it's like three hours from the resort. And like, I got to enter the country with one airport leave out of another. So it's a whole much more boatload of money. It's inconvenient, but I'm like, Bro, money I could get back. I could work back whatever money I lost. I could get the time back for whatever inconvenience. What I can't get back is like my daughter meeting her great-grandmother, right? Like my girl meeting my grandmother while she's still alive, you know? Wait, I actually

SPEAKER_00: 57:41

have your number four because I know you enough that we could build off of this. Value your time spent with people you love. Don't overvalue money. Because money is money. Money, once you have it, you can do certain things with it. Like you can't fly to DR with your family without money. But what you do with the money is important. The time you spend is important. And I mean, there was a version of you that was very invested in your career and just being like only focused 10 hours, 12 hours. Yeah. I don't feel that version from you. You know, like I feel there's a balance.

SPEAKER_01: 58:13

There's definitely a balance. And I think what I've learned over time is that the number one currency is time, bro. Like, that's what we're all fighting for. You know what I mean? Like, more time with family, more great moments, right? Like, I think, not to be somber, but at 37, 39 years old, if a human being's life expectancy is 70 years, 80 years, we're probably halfway through. That's a fact. We're probably halfway through, right? So, now you're like, reevaluating, okay, this is what the last 39, 40 years were about. Hopefully I got another 40. I want these next 40 to be this type of way. Right. And I think when, when you get, it's kind of like the, what do they call it? The midlife crisis. But like, once you realize that you don't have as much time as you think you had, you start to operate a little differently and time becomes your new currency.

SPEAKER_00: 59:15

That's a

SPEAKER_01: 59:15

fact. Yeah. I think, as long as I'm doing what I love, as long as I'm around the people that I want to be around, as long as I'm learning, as long as I'm still progressing and moving forward, I've already superseded every single sort of metric that I've placed for myself, except of course, the ultimate like monetary value.

SPEAKER_00: 59:39

Yeah. I got like multimillionaire. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 59:43

I got like two of those rings. I don't know. I'm missing three more, but But you know what, bro? I'm in love. I think what I've realized, and a lot of the self-development books that we've read throughout the years talk about this, is fall in love with the process. Fall in love with the journey. The end result, the outcome, the cash out, that shit will come. But you can't want that moment to be here and not have gone through the journey that is A, through why you know what i mean like to get to the z right so in the journey we're probably you know fgm like we're halfway there right like you got money we got successful careers we have an education like you know we have properties like there's a lot of things we've already done in the last 37 39 years um but you know not now we know we got the second half of our lives and And, you know, we're falling in love with the journey. Like, in building this podcast, right, like, we've always had plays, but this is the one sort of play where we both have money, which is scary, right? Because it's like, all right, we got to throw X amount of dollars into this. All right, done.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:05

You know what I mean? Because our money is getting us our time back. We're like, go edit that. Yeah. I don't want to edit it. Go, go. I don't want to create a logo. Yeah. Yeah, right. That's valid. But that's the luxury afforded to people that put in that work on the first half of their life. I do believe that. When you start listening to old men in their 70s playing dominoes, just sitting around all day, they might be giving advice good for a 70-year-old. But in order to be comfortable, healthy, happy, house, grandkids, you set the tone for generations to come. I don't ever want to sleep on that wheel, and I would never want to misguide our community on what it is that gets you that golden blue chip status amongst your family. So when they fucking bury you and your residual income from your investments in your stock portfolio, pay for your beautiful funeral and all the money that everybody's going to get after you're gone, it really comes from the work you put in. But as you get closer to sunset and that beautiful sky, you start appreciating it more. I don't want to disagree on your points. I just want to give a caveat. Because we're talking to young people. We're not talking to people in their 40s. Yeah, yeah. Work hard. Bust your ass. Carve your name into stone. You know what I mean? Like, don't just be on some Kumbaya fucking Tim Ferriss four-hour work week shit at 18. It's like, bro, you haven't done anything. You know what I mean? Like, why do you need a vacation? I'm confused. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, sorry. It was getting too Kumbaya. I just want to be clear. Rich busts his ass to get here.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:39

For sure. For sure. Yeah. You're hearing the sort of like end result of like where we are today. Yeah. But it's funny. I was, I was on a Uber ride yesterday and, uh, I saw the dude had the Dominican flags on his key chain. So I was like, Oh, you're Dominican. He's like, no, I'm Columbia, but my wife is Dominican. So he pops off, right. He gave me this whole life story and the 10 minute ride. Um, but there was one line that stuck out to me cause he was a very, he happened to be like a professor. And he said he had kids back home, 13 and 15, and he's educating them, and he wants them to have a better life. And his advice to them, and he said it in Spanish, but I'm like, damn, that's a bar. It was like, he said, the best tasting food you ever had has always been cooked on low heat and for a long time. And I was like, damn, that's a bar.

UNKNOWN: 1:03:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_02: 1:03:32

damn

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:35

I love that so he was like he was telling his kids like take your time build whatever it is you want to do like figure it out but like don't rush it you know because you're going to rush it you're going to be misguided like bro take your time you want to learn whatever it is you want to learn right even when we went to college right like you can't rush your way through four years to get a degree right you got to take your time you got to take it one homework assignment at a time, one test at a time, one semester at a time, one year at a time. So that was his feedback to his kids. But the way he said it in Spanish, I was like, damn, that's a bar.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:13

Say it in Spanish. We need to hear the bars. Give me the setup and say it in Spanish.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:18

He said, la mejor comida se cocina largo y fuego lento. And you were in the

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:26

Uber.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:27

Yeah, I was like, damn, that's a bar.

UNKNOWN: 1:04:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:30

Wait, how did that come about though? Like where the conversation came from?

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:35

So it came from the key chain. I thought he was Dominican. It was his wife was Dominican. Then, you know, every Uber driver, if you pry enough, they tell you the whole life story. So he told me he had two kids in Columbia, but that even though he's not there, he still FaceTimes them. He reads them books. He teaches them about self-development. And so I thought that was beautiful. I like connected, you know, with him in that aspect. But when he said that line, which, by the way, I'm going to tie back everything to the first thing we spoke about, which was, bro, I was so open-minded enough to talk to an Uber driver, and he gave me a nugget. And I was like, damn, that's a bar. I'm going to keep that in my pocket. Old Rich would have never even spoke to him. Bro, I don't want to talk to this Uber driver. This guy's driving a taxi. What can he teach me? New Rich is like, I just learned something from an Uber driver. I didn't go to college. I didn't go to YouTube. I didn't go to an audible audio book. I didn't look at a Steve Jobs-like biography. I learned it from a random dude driving Uber.

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:46

You know what I'm saying? That's a fact, bro. Everyday people have real shit to teach, bro. Because they're living in it. They're in the water. They're trying to figure it out.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:56

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 1:05:56

yeah. I

SPEAKER_01: 1:05:57

like the low heat. He said the best tasting food you'll ever have is cooked on low heat for a long time. And it's true, bro. In Spanish culture, right? Like if you're making like a carne asada, pollo asada. Hell yeah. You put that thing on low heat or even a crock pot, bro.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:15

I bet it takes 12 fucking hours to cook. For real. How delicious is that? You're letting them flavors get acquainted with each other. They're living with each other. You're letting that pork get real tender. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:30

ribs too. Anything delicious, slow roasted, it's like...

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:35

So that's it. That's our fifth one. We'll have to do a part two to this.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:39

We'll

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:39

have to do a part two, another five. This was actually a fun one because the take your time being the number five is important. And it does relate to the other ones where you're saying like, sometimes take your AirPods off, take your headphones off, and just understand that the world around you, the people that are actually living around you, they're living in the same world you live in. And if they are not successful in your eyes, and they may seem like a failure in your eyes, somebody that doesn't have it together, there's probably more to be learned from that person than someone that was rich at 15 years old, 16 years old. YouTube star gets rich off of, gains wealth off of one crypto stock. We fall in love with these stories of child prodigies or young people that... I work in a business where a lot of young people make a lot of money quick. Obviously, you invest in a lot of things, but crypto is something that you keep your eye on. And That's another business where a lot of young people get rich quick. We both hung out in LA. You see a lot of young people driving Ferraris, Lambos, going to the nicest restaurants. But what can truly be gained from them, I'm not knocking it, you can definitely learn something. But you're saying that same level of information, if not more, can be gained from someone that is living a more simpler life, that didn't necessarily maybe achieve everything they wanted, but In that gap between the gold medal and the silver medal, which is their life, they found some truth in how to cope with it or some information they could share with you. That guy's life was obviously not everything he wanted it to be, but between the silver and the gold, he was able to give you a piece of information like, hey, I can't be everywhere at once, but you know what? I do what I can or what I have. And you know what? Some of the best food in the world that you'd have never had cooks on low, so don't try to go crazy all the time because you might not make it. And that's incredible. To me, that translates into stay low and keep firing. You know what I mean? As long as you're staying in the game, you have a possibility of winning the game. And that was another something I wish I knew sooner, which I know now, and I would love to pass on to our community, which is there's something beautiful about finding a little pocket or something that you're very, very interested in that you feel like it's pulling you towards it. And it doesn't have to be like something that is like a vanity thing or a status thing. It could just be something natural. I've always known that communicating and speaking and like being interested in either gaining knowledge or giving knowledge is something that always came very natural to my family. My dad would be gone off the, gone off the yee and alcohol. And he could sit at a table, bro, and me and my nieces and my nephews and my cousins, we would just sit and listen to my dad. He was basically like a prophet, bro, like a pastor, just teaching us about shit in life that we are like 12, 10, 9, 5 years old. We have no business listening to the real life shit that my dad is teaching us. But that level of sharing of information definitely raised me to be way more wiser than a lot of people I grew up with. shit is probably the reason why I don't drink and smoke. I never have before. Cause I, I knew from his teachings, like, Hey, even though I'm doing it type shit, like don't be like me. It's not easy being me. Don't you be yourself. You know what I mean? And to me, that level of curiosity always led me down a road, which I'm happy that I found my profession and I'm happy we're doing this. Cause I think there is something to be said about finding something you're passionate about, finding something you're interested in, and just chipping away at it daily. You know what I mean? Like low heat, but consistency. Keep firing, stay low, keep firing, show up, find your little edge, find the edge in the competitive field of a million things to do. Even for your son right now, I'm sure he's curious on what makes him him and what could it be doing and what's a career path for him or what is he curious about? Just find your edge, bro. Find your passion, something that piques your curiosity and Just stick with it, man. It's not always going to be the way it started, but it's ironic that Rich and I started with a media company. It was like the first real official business that we started in. And 20 years later, we circle every block, pursue our own careers, start our own families, live in different states across the map. And here we are, back to a media company. You get what I'm saying? Like, we didn't veer very far from what we started at. So, you know, embrace your curiosity, man, and just find a little lane to master and go at it. I love it, bro. Yeah, I think we're done here, bro.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11:36

And there you have it, Failures Podcast. We're not your gods. We don't claim to be your gurus. Just two regular guys in their late 30s dedicating a platform to help young men find their own path by learning from our failures. Follow us on all platforms at Failures Media and share this episode with anyone you know needs to hear this. All right, y'all. Peace.