The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett XX
[0] We've been set up to fail.
[1] AI didn't do that, people did that.
[2] Now here's a tool for us to solve our problems ourself now.
[3] Here we go.
[4] We're a producer, singer, rapper, this man does it all.
[5] Seven -time Grammy winner.
[6] One of the industries of the biggest names.
[7] Man, that's lyrical way.
[8] And we started the Black IPs.
[9] No one believed in us.
[10] Now we're playing Super Bowls, World Cups, Grammys.
[11] You have to be hyper -creative.
[12] You can't grow anything without it.
[13] But there's a cost of creativity, right?
[14] What's it like to be in your head?
[15] I'm always thinking, analyzing everything.
[16] Get it, get it, go, go, make it, make it.
[17] That's not good.
[18] That's not healthy.
[19] Why?
[20] You make errors, you hurt people.
[21] I remember I got into like a dark period when I felt something that I've never felt before.
[22] It's like distortion.
[23] People want you to fail.
[24] But the anxiety comes when you're worried about what people think.
[25] When it's things that are happening, that you didn't control.
[26] You have to be optimistic.
[27] You have to arm yourself with optimism and purpose.
[28] That's what it's about.
[29] That path was the hardest path in my life.
[30] This is a window into the mind of a creative, a divergent, an entrepreneur, artist, and visionary, someone we all know.
[31] But at the same time, someone we don't really know at all.
[32] If you're a creative, an artist, an entrepreneur, or someone with big ideas for the future, or just someone that's struggling to balance your professional ambitions with your personal pursuits.
[33] This conversation was meant to find you.
[34] Enjoy.
[35] Will, I am fascinated with people.
[36] That is why I started doing this many years ago, because I have come to learn about myself that I have a real desire to understand people, because from that, I think I can understand myself.
[37] Because I think at the kind of foundational level, we're all quite similar as human beings because we're all related if we go back far enough.
[38] So in a pursuit to understand you, I guess my first question is, what is the context of Will that I need to know to understand the man that sat here in front of me today, the earliest context?
[39] The kind of kitchen that Will was conceived in, was cooked in at the earliest age.
[40] you write songs no i don't i write a lot but i don't write a lot because you like i get interviewed a lot but very rarely do you get interviewed by wordsmiths um the kitchen i was stood in cooked in pretty uh i like the visual of that um because the chef would be my mom and the kitchen will be the ghettos of east los angeles boil heights specifically And that was encouragement, acknowledgement of our individual, when I say our, my family, like we all have our little superpower.
[41] And my superpower was creativity.
[42] And creativity has always been my currency when I had no money.
[43] I clearly was like, oh, look, Ma, look what I made.
[44] Willie, that's really good.
[45] You really like that, Ma?
[46] Yeah.
[47] And she would, encouragement goes a long way.
[48] And then that type of encouragement from my mom that helped create self -belief, fearlessness to express, to share, to go in class and solve problems or raise my hand.
[49] I got the answer to that.
[50] That's really what fueled me is my mom.
[51] Let Willie solve it.
[52] Will he try to fix that.
[53] You know, this radio is broken.
[54] Try to fix it.
[55] that type of stuff my mom salute did she know that you were creative or was she just um putting wind in whatever sale you'd pulled up my mom was creative my mom still is creative she had her sewing machine she would make her clothes to go to school that's why most of the clothes i make is still um you know one -offs two of two -offs i like wearing things that no one has because that's how i grew up We would go to the thrift store, buy dollar clothes or 50 cents shirts.
[56] There will always be too big for me. My mom would fix them and turn old into new.
[57] That's how we lived, you know.
[58] Will he go to the store, take this food stamp, buy me a 25 cents bubble gum, get 75 cents back?
[59] And then you go to different stores, do the same thing.
[60] So now my mom has coins that she could go and buy other things with food stamps.
[61] because with food stamps, you only could buy food.
[62] You can't buy needles.
[63] You can't buy thread.
[64] You can't buy fabric.
[65] You can't buy appliances.
[66] You only could buy food.
[67] So take this dollar, give me 25 cents gum, which is food, 75 cents chains back.
[68] Go to different stores and do that.
[69] Now let's go and buy other things.
[70] And so she'll buy those other things and she'll make stuff for us.
[71] So my mom has always been like super, ultra creative.
[72] So my mom is my biggest inspo.
[73] I've heard you referred to her as being your mom and your dad in your household.
[74] So when you grow up in a household, where there's only a mom, I'm like, every father's day, happy father's day, ma 'am.
[75] Thank you, Willie, and happy Mother's Day, mom.
[76] In those contexts, it's easy for a kid to go one of two ways, though.
[77] And I think that's what people often don't realize is when you're in a context where outside of the house, there's a lot of temptations either way.
[78] But inside the house, it takes a really, really strong mother, if she is a single mother, to make sure she creates her own universe so that those kids can end up in a different place.
[79] And that's what I kind of read from a lot of the stories of your mother is that rigor and discipline and those values.
[80] Yeah, there was a, we had this next door neighbor in the projects, and she couldn't read her right.
[81] And then people used to make fun of her.
[82] And my mom was like, like now if we all went to Japan and we had to go out there and survive are we not smart yes we're smart could we survive out there yes we could can we raise kids and raise families to go out and do awesome things in Japan in Japan yes we could but we will all go to Japan not being able to read or write so the stigma that we put on folks can't read and write, could they read people?
[83] Yep.
[84] Can they write a path to raise folks to go out into the world to do awesome things?
[85] Yes.
[86] So we value, my mom always valued humanity at its purest and people's intents and the things they want to accomplish before like, you know, cliche setbacks or, and it was awesome that we were raised in an all Mexican neighborhood, right?
[87] So most people didn't redirect by their head, which was beautiful.
[88] It was beautiful, you know.
[89] I love, I love being raised in East L .A. And we, we fit, we fit it in.
[90] Is that right?
[91] Fitted in.
[92] Because I was going to say FAD in.
[93] It's like, pass it to fit.
[94] There goes, read it arrived for me. No, I'm joking.
[95] What was your, your, your, your, your self, Your self -story at that age.
[96] Like, what did Will think of Will?
[97] Who did you think you were and where did you think you were going in life when you were like 14?
[98] Oh, 14.
[99] It was set.
[100] Really?
[101] Yeah, 14.
[102] I wanted to do music.
[103] I had these raps that I used to write and I had these demos that I used to make and I would go to school and I would give my demos to my friends.
[104] And one of my friends, his name is Stefan Gordy.
[105] His dad was Barry Gordy from O -Town.
[106] I'm like, yo, give this to your dad.
[107] Check out my demo.
[108] my sister had Teddy Rexman it's like this little teddy bear that had a cassette in its belly and my mom gave that to my sister for Christmas and for me she gave me like a boombox it two played the cassettes and she got herself a stereo and that stereo had two cassettes and came with headphones and so I got my mom's records and I had a record player and two tape debts and a headphone.
[109] And I don't know what told me to take the headphone, put it in the microphone, Jack, take my sister's Barbie Rocker's tape, put tape over the left side of the cassette tape, the record record over it.
[110] Get my mom's record, play the favorite part, press, unpause, record, pause it when my favorite part was over, play it again and make a loop.
[111] Put the tape and the play, put another sister's my sister's Teddy Ruxpin tape put it in there do the same thing record over it now press play on my loop that's for three minutes and wrap over it take the Taddy Ruxpin tape with my newly formed song over loops stereo loops put it in Teddy Ruxpin press play and make Teddy Ruxpan rap so my mom was like you did that boy I'm like yeah mom look she was like you should take got to class for your for a show and tell they were like wow william uh at that point in time i was william wow william that's really cool you did that yeah i did that the song was whatever um for a 10 year old um so then you graduate sixth grade at 12 so from from 10 11 12 it was clearer that my elementary school, I had like a different level of creativity.
[112] So when I went to junior high school, it was clear what my superpower was.
[113] I was creative and I wanted to express myself in that, in that realm.
[114] Were you confident, whatever, however you define that?
[115] And I guess what I mean by confident is like securing oneself and confident in their abilities and social value, I guess.
[116] It happened in three steps.
[117] I didn't know we were poor.
[118] And then I found out we were poor.
[119] And I found out we were poor when one year my teacher, Miss Rich, she said, you got to come to school with canned food and box food so we could give to the poor families.
[120] And I come home.
[121] I'm like, ma, my homework assignment tonight is to go to school.
[122] I got to pick through the cupboards and give canned food.
[123] foods and box foods for my homework assignment tomorrow.
[124] She's like, well, you ain't going to school with no food.
[125] I'm like, Mom, but I'm going to fail the class.
[126] I'm going to get a fail on my grade.
[127] I have to turn this in.
[128] Well, I guess you're going to get a fail because you ain't leaving this house with no food.
[129] So when I go to school, empty -handed, I don't, you know, complete the assignment.
[130] Then I see my, the rich white kids coming up, the corridor.
[131] I'm like, hey, what up, Brett?
[132] What up, Brad?
[133] What are you guys doing here?
[134] Yeah, we came here to bring the food to the poor family.
[135] I'm like, oh, really?
[136] So I started walking with them.
[137] And we go to my house.
[138] I'm like, wait, that food's for us?
[139] We qualified.
[140] And the school gave us that food.
[141] That's when I realized we were poor.
[142] So I go back to school and they made fun of me for a couple of days.
[143] William, he's, William's poor.
[144] We dropped the food off in his house.
[145] This one girl comes up to me, she's like, William, are you poor?
[146] How can you be poor if you always wear suits to school?
[147] Because my mom used to make us wear suits.
[148] So it wasn't like a uniform school.
[149] It was like dressed the way you want to dress.
[150] But my mom put me in suits every day.
[151] And so the kids were like, why do you always wear suits to school?
[152] How could you be poor?
[153] and my mom would say you ain't going to school with no play clothes you're going you ain't going to school to play you're going to school to learn so you put on these like you go to church to learn about god you're going to church to learn about you know life and so put this suit on so although there were like four or five people that were saying i was the poor kid that got the food but then the rest of the kids were like no william's not poor look he always wears suits to school you guys are lying that became my cloth to express yourself because that drape, that attire separated me from the gang, separated me from, you're poor, you're not, you're part of the have -nots.
[154] And expression, just wanting to express.
[155] Sometimes my mom used to say, Willie, what you doing?
[156] Nothing.
[157] Get your butt over here.
[158] What's wrong, ma 'amah?
[159] What did I say about saying the word, nothing?
[160] Even if you sit in there breathing, say I'm breathing.
[161] Or you're thinking about something.
[162] You don't got no business saying you're doing nothing.
[163] So we would have to say what we were doing.
[164] We couldn't say nothing because you're never doing nothing.
[165] Even if you're breathing, even if you're heart speeding, whatever you're thinking of.
[166] You know, what you're thinking about, nothing?
[167] Well, you need to start thinking about something.
[168] She didn't settle for that.
[169] You know?
[170] So let's talk about creativity then because this is what you're really, I mean, this is one of the many things you'll really, really know.
[171] for.
[172] So is it possible to become more creative?
[173] And how does that happen?
[174] Okay.
[175] Let's say it's 1983.
[176] Yeah.
[177] Let's go to the past now.
[178] I was minus nine.
[179] Or if you're in 1993.
[180] Okay, I was one.
[181] If you're in 1993 and you're a musician, the way to be more creative is to look at prince look at prince because prince was like the ultimate creative force and the way prince became creative is he looked at stevie wonder he's like wait he plays the keyboards the drums the bass he writes the songs okay and stevie wonder was ultra creative because he looked at marvin gay he looked at ray charles but looking from a different perspective obviously because stevie wonder can't see but he felt he was inspired by he was motivated by so if you want to be creative more creative you have to one compete you have to be super analytical on yourself and who you're competing against you have to be elevated you have to take yourself from where you are now and position yourself and see the terrain you have to be curious, humble, and a predator all at the same time.
[182] You have to do all those things to be ultra, a hyper -creative.
[183] You have to be humble until you walk in the room and you attract.
[184] Because nobody wants to freaking send, you know, perspectives to a dick, to an arrogant ass.
[185] At some point in time, if you're too arrogant, people stop sitting in your information.
[186] people don't they want to see you they want you to fail and they start sending you information for you to fail when you're arrogant so you got to get rid of that be humble you have to be you have to be a predator you have to walk into a room ready to eat but but you can't eat everything because then you have to be selective on what you eat what about hard work hard work hard work hard work is relative because to some well this is not hard work this is just what i do my pinky to my lung my pinky thinks my lung is working hard because i have to tell my pinky when to move my mind my mind ain't have has no control over my lungs my lungs are working involuntarily if i tell my lungs to stop.
[187] I could do that.
[188] But then it's just going to kick in on its honor.
[189] My heart's even more involuntary.
[190] I can't well like, okay, okay, stop.
[191] Stop.
[192] Stop.
[193] You've been beaten for 48 years.
[194] I mean, you need to take a break.
[195] It's what it does.
[196] You cannot.
[197] Yeah, you can meditate.
[198] You can slow your heart rate down, but you can't make it stop, bro.
[199] So hard work is relative to what's Oregon or who or what environment you're working in.
[200] And then there is tools.
[201] what tools do you need to be hyper -creative you need a humble heart you need a fierce competitive predator type of vibe as well you have to be disciplined because you can't eat everything you have to be elevated you have to see everything and you have to be magnetic you have to attract everything what about failure and then also the goals of creativity because one of the I think the two things are kind of linked, so fear, failure, and then what is the goal of creativity?
[202] Because if I, if my, if I set myself, I've just started learning to DJ about a year ago.
[203] And if my goal is to become the biggest DJ in the world, that might make me fearful.
[204] It's a huge mountain to climb.
[205] And that might make me scared of failure, so I might not start.
[206] But real creatives seem to, from what I've observed, they don't seem to really give much of a fuck about the outcome as much as other people do.
[207] And I, so what is the, you know, what is the right goal for creativity and how does what role does fear and failure play in being a good creative?
[208] The reason why you're fearful is because you're worried about what people think.
[209] It's true.
[210] And if you're worried about what people think, then maybe true creative is not what you are.
[211] You just got the costume of creative on.
[212] Because creativity, when you're creating and it's like a rinse, whether the rinse, a sponge absorbs and eventually you got to rinse it out so it can absorb more.
[213] Do you think a sponge is like, oh, man, I don't want people to judge how I'm rinsing myself out or I'm going to make a mess?
[214] You know what I'm saying?
[215] A sponge ain't thinking about that.
[216] People are like, are you talking about Spongeball?
[217] Well, like, no, bro.
[218] I'm talking about just like the metaphor of absorbing and rinsing.
[219] Or let's say, vomiting.
[220] It's powerful.
[221] You can't control it.
[222] and that's creativity.
[223] And some people would be like, yeah, that's right, Will you, the stuff you make is like, vomit, you make me, no, if that's what you think, I don't care, I have to let it out.
[224] It's like shitting.
[225] Now, people could say, yeah, well, I am, your shit, it's like shit.
[226] But I'm going to ask you, which farmer does not need manure to grow and cultivate?
[227] You need it.
[228] You cannot farm without it.
[229] You can't grow anything without it.
[230] It's like cycles of life.
[231] And creativity is that.
[232] The moment you start worried about people's opinion, then you definitely, by default, are not a creative.
[233] You're doing it for the wrong reasons.
[234] What is the right reasons?
[235] To let it out.
[236] To rinse yourself.
[237] It's like you absorb, you rinse.
[238] Nothing you've said is about the impact.
[239] it then has on the world or others.
[240] Well, no, that's a different tool.
[241] Right.
[242] And then once you master, like, I absorbed, I rinse.
[243] And that becomes therapeutic.
[244] And you're seeing how that helps you, then you're like, wow, wait, if it's helping me, well, then I can be strategic.
[245] And I could do something to help others.
[246] First, it has to help you.
[247] you make sense of the world and whatever it is you're doing, whether you're painting, you're cooking, you're teaching, you're tutoring, you're making songs, you're making dance, you're writing films, you're doing journals, whatever it is you're doing, you would have absorbed the world and rinsed and contributed in some way that brings progress to yourself and others.
[248] Relationships.
[249] What role do you, because I didn't get into relationship until I was like, really until I was like 28.
[250] Again, I thought it was a hindrance on my chances of professional success and then at some point I felt lonely.
[251] I didn't know what loneliness really was, but I just could feel something.
[252] What's the point?
[253] You know?
[254] When you have this mission, I'm mission driven.
[255] I'm like, what are we trying to accomplish?
[256] What am I trying to accomplish 10 years from now?
[257] What's my five -year plan?
[258] What's my 10 -year plan?
[259] how did I do my last five -year tenure and if there's someone that can help you that you could relate to to help you ship this vision from the in your mind to the future I have a different understanding of relationship it's like because you want to relate with someone that you could ship things with whether you're shipping in a PCU to the future or you're shipping a PCU to the future and if you could relate to that person to help you on your journey that's awesome it all depends on what you're shipping what's it like to be in your head i know that's hard because you've never been in someone else's but you know you probably figured out from conversations that there's think in a different way.
[260] Yeah, so thinking a lot.
[261] I think a lot.
[262] I'm always thinking.
[263] Not about nothing.
[264] I'm always thinking about something.
[265] Like, it's very rare that I'm just sitting around like, oh, wow, look at that chandelier.
[266] I'm thinking, like, I wonder how they made, how much that way, what a material is at?
[267] Like, I'm always thinking and analyzing everything.
[268] like a scanner every time every moment and that can be overbearing to someone you're in a relationship that could close them up that can like wait wait that that's not good that's not healthy And, and I realized that.
[269] It took a long time for me to realize that where I got to turn that off.
[270] I didn't know there was an off switch.
[271] Is that one?
[272] No, there's not an off switch.
[273] I was going to say.
[274] But there is like a volume knob.
[275] Volume knob, okay.
[276] But I don't know how to not.
[277] Like, wait, that, say that again?
[278] I don't know how to just take, especially with somebody you're in a relationship with.
[279] I don't know how to take like, oh, we're just at the beach the whole time.
[280] You don't want to go down to explore to see how deep this ocean is.
[281] You just want to chill here on the beach.
[282] Like, y 'all, listen, let's go down to the, let's go to try to find the crevices.
[283] Let's go down deep, deep, deep, deep.
[284] deep.
[285] And they're saying, no, let's just sunbathe.
[286] It's just stay on the beach.
[287] And that's cool.
[288] If I'm not a beach guy, I'm a deep diver.
[289] I'm a freaking, I like the abyss.
[290] I like to be like, yo, look what in the what?
[291] Look at that.
[292] I like that.
[293] I like to freaking explore.
[294] I like to research.
[295] I like to explain.
[296] I'm like, oh, wait, this doesn't make any sense at all.
[297] Let's try to sense of it all.
[298] Let's try to make sense of it.
[299] Like I like that.
[300] I love that.
[301] You have ADHD, right?
[302] You've referred to it as the gift of ADHD.
[303] It's funny because I'm trying to figure out your relationship with stillness and silence.
[304] Doesn't seem, I mean, from what you've said.
[305] We're assuming that an electron and a proton and a neutron all have the same tasks and goals.
[306] So the electron that I am, the concept of stillness and silence is you have no purpose.
[307] Because the whole purpose of an electron is to do that.
[308] There's a cost of that, though.
[309] That seems exhausting.
[310] What cost to that, if you're coming from the perspective of the proton looking at the electron whizz around it.
[311] You got to know who you are in the equation.
[312] I'm the electron.
[313] That's cool.
[314] You kick it there, neutron state.
[315] It's cool.
[316] You steal.
[317] But the proton has something the electron doesn't have and the electron has something the protein doesn't have.
[318] Yeah, but they're not supposed to do the same thing.
[319] And they both have costs and like they have a good side, like a light side and a dot or a cost and a gift.
[320] Do they?
[321] So I think of like, I've been, I'm, I would say I'm more whizzing around electron, So I'm just playing devil's advocate here because when I've, when I've come into my girlfriend's proton world where things may be a little bit stiller, there has been gifts to that.
[322] There's been gifts to that.
[323] And I hear everything you're saying about to be in a relationship, you need to be able to lay on the beach.
[324] I can't lay on the beach.
[325] But I know that's what my girlfriend wants of me. She wants me to be present with her and not to think about the future and to think about where we are right now.
[326] Yeah, but there's a way to do it from an electron perspective.
[327] How?
[328] It's to really look at the word relationship and relate.
[329] Even though you can't relate, you have to have empathy.
[330] understanding of what their contribution is and support and and be there so it from the perspective of the electron it is still for the electron you think the electron's like man I'm tired I'm tired of whizzing around you the whole time that's not what what's going on in the electron's mind yeah to the electron I'm still and I am still going around it's all the perspective of the word steel.
[331] There's steel and then there's constant steel.
[332] Which still are you?
[333] Are you the one that's still?
[334] And you're just like steel, S -T -E -E -L, and you're still?
[335] Or are you still?
[336] And that is still moving.
[337] Still at it, no matter how you look at it, it's still, still.
[338] Because from the perspective and the empathy of that electron moving, it is still.
[339] From the POV of who's viewing it, it's moving.
[340] But to the electron, I am still.
[341] And I will still be moving and gravitating around you.
[342] And I could still think and add to your life as I do the things that I do to add to life.
[343] But the moment you stop doing what you're doing, then it's no longer a relationship.
[344] because they can't relate to what you're doing and what you're adding.
[345] And now you're conforming and changing when maybe that's not what you were supposed to do.
[346] Or maybe you weren't candid and forthcoming enough to make true understanding, to stand under the circumference and know the ledge of what it is you do together.
[347] You speak of almost like a recent epiphany when you say, like, realizing that there was this off button, even though you don't think the off button's necessarily there.
[348] Where do you sit now with the concept of finding like a life partner and getting married and having kids and all that stuff?
[349] And is there work to be done?
[350] Is it finding the right person or is it an inward piece of work that needs to be done in your view?
[351] And is it something you want?
[352] I want to have kids.
[353] I'm going to be an awesome dad.
[354] If you would ask me this, uh, 10 years ago, I would have a different answer.
[355] Really?
[356] Why has it changed?
[357] And what is it now and what was it then?
[358] That you don't do a family until you completed the ultimate.
[359] Well, my version of ultimate.
[360] My version of ultimate is to be able to be of assistance and help and provide and service folks that, resemble the lifestyle that I lived, the hardships that I lived without having to ever raise money ever again.
[361] Ten years ago?
[362] What I know now, I would have had a kid.
[363] You would have had a kid 10 years ago?
[364] If I know what I know now, yes.
[365] Why?
[366] I was moving too fast and I thought the only way to get up the mountain is to move the way I moved when I was at the foothill to get to the middle of the mountain and now that I'm up the mountain you're thinking that I'm doing I'm going to do it by myself still and the purpose of me getting up the mountain was to take care of my mom and that was my motivation that was my gas that was my electricity that was my energy to take care of my family hunter gatherer to go out and bring back to the village I didn't know What I didn't know then.
[367] Now that I know, would I be able to get up to mountain with family and offspring to take the information that I have and pass it on?
[368] I have knowledge here.
[369] I have knowledge of my DNA.
[370] Who do I pass it to if something weren't happened to me?
[371] Like, it's like different type of knowledge that you just don't say to someone.
[372] It's like, it's in me. It's stored in me. Somebody gave me this.
[373] Your mom.
[374] And my grandma's grandma.
[375] And my grandma's grandma, that person had a different life.
[376] My grandma was born in 1920.
[377] My grandma's grandma was born in 18 something?
[378] That means it hadn't.
[379] Wow.
[380] That person was working in the field in somebody's factory, in some unknown company, but in America just called it slavery.
[381] That wasn't that long ago.
[382] So, but that information was passed on to me, passed on to me, resilience, tolerance, hope, living in a different world, so your offspring can have a different life.
[383] I'm a recipient of that.
[384] But when you're hustling and bustling, you think that, oh, no, I got to wait to the ultimate.
[385] Was I wrong?
[386] Now that I could look back at my, he was wrong.
[387] But I was right, but still wrong.
[388] Would I be a, what I'd be further along?
[389] in my journey, a little bit more organized.
[390] Yes.
[391] Why?
[392] Because something would have forced me to be organized.
[393] It's not just for myself now.
[394] Even though it was never for myself, it was always for my mom and my family.
[395] I would have had even more regiment.
[396] I would have had even more streamlined aerodynamics so that I could, you know, cut through corners.
[397] you know and uh make tighter turns keep the downwinds would be a little bit more aerodynamic had i you know so yeah nothing will stop you if you have kids probably just going to motivate you more but i couldn't see that back then um but i'm going to be an awesome dad when i'm when i'm a dad but i want to be a full -time dad and i realize that i don't have to be a full -time dad and i realize that i don't have to be the the the the the the juggler um anymore before i had to do it all because the one really believed and so i always had to prove i had to like be the creative understand business sit in the business meetings co -manage come up with the artwork execute the artwork learn illustrator, learn Photoshop, do the album artwork, hand it off to somebody else to fine -tune what you sketched up, plan the tour with your manner.
[398] I had to do it all, probably because a part of me didn't trust that someone cared as much as I cared.
[399] But now, I don't have to do it like that anymore.
[400] I've got to a point where now I could assemble teams and fund teams.
[401] Now, I'm the finance year.
[402] I don't have to worry about somebody's financing me. That's a different, it's like, that's an exhale.
[403] And so, but that exhale, when I'm a dad, I could be a, I could be a full -time dad as my understanding of full -time, which I'll still be, I'll still be working, just not working the way I'm working now.
[404] I don't know, I don't want to work the way I used to work.
[405] Not anymore Not anymore I was a proton for the planet Just going around the planet The longest that I've been home Since 1998 Was All of the majority of 2002 And then the majority of 2020 Like everyone else Outside of those two years The longest that I've been in one place.
[406] It's been two months since 1998.
[407] Got to go.
[408] I'll hear for two months.
[409] See you later.
[410] Be back two weeks.
[411] Gotta go.
[412] And I've been doing that since the night.
[413] I don't want to do that anymore.
[414] So you're speaking to a change perspective.
[415] And I'm wondering, because for me in my life, there had to be a symptom.
[416] There had to be something I noticed where I go, do you know what, I'm doing something not right here.
[417] So for me, I talked about it being that kind of almost this feeling of loneliness that I didn't realize was the feeling of loneliness.
[418] It was this emptiness in my chest and you go to the office seven days a week and then you look at your phone and go, who are my friends?
[419] Like who is my partner?
[420] Like tuning out of survival mode, tuning out of that and tuning into like thrive.
[421] Like how do I thrive as a human being is what made me shift?
[422] So really I'm curious about the symptoms that you noticed in your life that made you go, I don't want to do that anymore.
[423] Oh, but I never had that.
[424] Really?
[425] What you explained?
[426] No. I had my best friends that I grew up with and we lived our dream to the highest level imaginable kids that were broke Apple, my best friend who came from the Philippines who I started Black Eye Peas with he comes from a province in the Philippines where he pumped water out the ground he washes clothes on the riverbed he farmed rice with his pet bison he experienced a different level of poverty taboo, single mom his dad was in the gangs and we started the black IPs and we lived the what?
[427] Wait, how do we do this guys?
[428] No one believed in us?
[429] Now we're playing Super Bowls, World Cups, multiple Grammys, taking care of our families.
[430] No, bro, like this is the biggest blessing one could imagine.
[431] Loneliness.
[432] How can I be lonely?
[433] I'm with my best friends.
[434] So why change?
[435] Because I live 10 years from now.
[436] I've always seen 10 years from now.
[437] Always.
[438] I don't know what it was.
[439] But when I was 13, I'm like, I'm going to buy you a house.
[440] How old was I when I bought my mom a house?
[441] A little off.
[442] I was 26.
[443] I wanted to do it.
[444] Well, I still did it.
[445] then 10 years from there I was like ma how about everyone else and we still our aunts or uncles or my grandma were still in the projects we're still going back to the projects on holidays we need to do a whole exodus we're like that's what you want to do so we moved everybody out and when I got everyone else out I'm like well I got to go back to the neighborhood because there's people that we grew up with and they have kids now.
[446] Start a robotics program there.
[447] Start a computer science program there and a college prep program so that when they graduate college, they have skills that are needed.
[448] Not just send kids to college so that when they graduate, they have debt and a diploma.
[449] So we did that.
[450] And there's purpose.
[451] So I want to be purposeful.
[452] So if I could see 10 years from now, okay, at some point in time, my tenure looking around the corner one day I'll be 70 one day I'll be Tom Jones age I'll be 80 only I just stop I don't pass it on but that's what that's what happens here no that's not responsible you know that's not that's not a responsible thing to do so you got to pass on knowledge.
[453] You got to pass on gifts.
[454] For me, it's a gift.
[455] The little kid on the bike, you know, have good intentions.
[456] I want to, it's all for the good.
[457] And I want to, and I want to pass it on.
[458] You said you're living 10 years in the future or five years in the future.
[459] There must be a cost to that.
[460] When people talk and, you know, spiritual people talk about what peace is and happiness is they talk about presence.
[461] You strike me as someone from what you've said that is my struggle with the concept of being present when you're five years in the future.
[462] And this kind of leads into a point where people talk about the tortured creative that is like very, you know, cognitively active.
[463] How does one square being a creative that's living five years in the future with peace, happiness, presence and calm?
[464] And what's your story in that regard?
[465] Like I said, we're assuming that a proton a neutron an electron all should have the same role to make an atom in actuality they all have different roles and the moment an electron acts like a proton then an atom's not an atom anymore so i got out of my predicament because i didn't live in my current reality.
[466] Had I lived in my current reality, I would still be in my reality that was constructed for me. So I had to live in this realm that was dreamt of and my whole premise was to manifest that dream with strategy.
[467] So I had to, I had to live as if it was real.
[468] I had to live like I already moved my mom out of the projects.
[469] I had to live like, this gang doesn't want me. I'm no use for this gang.
[470] Why even get initiated and be, and live that gang life?
[471] Let me just keep wearing these suits because these suits that my mom made me are my attire for the world that I'm going to be living in.
[472] You have to live, if you living in some place that you know that you don't belong, you know you don't belong there.
[473] Why are you stuck in that?
[474] So in my mind, I have to, I've always been that way.
[475] Unfortunately, I can't change how my makeup is.
[476] So I'm constantly, if it got me out of that, it's going to get me out of this.
[477] And where we are right now, my people that live in communities that reflect where I come from are still in some version of that.
[478] So in 2008, I started my foundation, started with 65 students.
[479] And my gut was like, yo, let me surround.
[480] them with robotics and computer science skill sets.
[481] So I went out in the world, absorbed these skill sets, these tools met Jack Dangerman from Esri, met Dean Kamen from DECA and First Robotics, met Lorraine Powell Jobs from college track.
[482] My vision was to take these three independent entities, ductake them together to make a cluster, to give a new type of project -based learning to kids, 65 kids.
[483] that's 65 kids from 2008 to now now we serve almost 15 ,000 students in Los Angeles.
[484] We've sent kids to Dartmouth, to Brown, to Stanford, to Georgetown, because in 2008, I was living right now.
[485] I knew that because the way technology was going, that kids in the inner cities are going to be super conflicted with the way the world's going and the amount of jobs that they're going to do.
[486] disappear.
[487] I thought I was just going to be like blue collar jobs.
[488] I don't think it's going to be white collar jobs.
[489] I don't think kids in the suburbs were going to be, you know, impacted by, you know, this new, this new digital age.
[490] Like, we've seen the last one, but this generative stuff, yo, bro.
[491] Thank God we were doing what we were doing in 2008.
[492] Thank God we have, you know, a fleet.
[493] A herd of amazing engineers out of the, out of, you know, the inner cities of L .A. And now we want to scale that.
[494] So 2030, yeah, I'm living there right now because there's still work to do.
[495] I was listening to one of your songs before you arrived here.
[496] And it was very curious.
[497] What's what my house?
[498] Man, that's just lyrical.
[499] It was a song, I think the song was called Be Nice.
[500] Oh.
[501] And when I, oh, yeah, it's called Be Nice.
[502] And when I started looking into the song, looking about what you'd said around that song, you said, I was on a dip in the low part of a roller coaster.
[503] And you wrote that song because it helped you to change your vibration, but also to help other people change their vibrations.
[504] The dip on the low part of a roller coaster.
[505] What are the things in your life that have caused that dip in the lower part of the roller coaster?
[506] I think men, but particularly black men, we don't always talk about our mental health or the dip in the low part of the roller coasters.
[507] So I was super, I thought it was wonderful that you'd made a song about that, but also you were speaking so openly about that.
[508] Oh, I was reflecting on my 1993, 18 -year -old.
[509] So that path was the hardest path that I've in my life, 18.
[510] 18 was the hardest.
[511] Because it was 30 years ago.
[512] this time 30 years ago it was March when I had like it was March of 1993 when I felt something that I've never felt before just like distortion I felt that's a perfect word for it dis -ease and dis -ease vibrational is dis -ease like a disease on a vibrational level.
[513] Like the word disease, there's really dis -ease of molecular, cellular, where you're vibrating, there's no harmony or sense of your vibrational field, no matter how you look at it.
[514] And in this case, you have a vibration and thought.
[515] And I was vibrating off.
[516] And when you're vibrating off, you're dark.
[517] You're vibrating off, you panic, angst.
[518] Your hyperactivity is off tilt.
[519] And so from March till about August was a very, very, very turbulent time for me when I was 18.
[520] And there's nothing wrong with being emotional.
[521] And when you're creative, you're always sensitive.
[522] like you're hyper sensitive that's a part of creativity like you feel uh you feel too much um and i feel too much i empathize hardcore um i'm the guy in the olivera that talks to strangers i'm the guy that's like some i was walking down the street came out of tesco somebody's like well i am like hey what's up Oh, I don't mean to bug you.
[523] I'm like, that's cool.
[524] Straight up conversation for like 30 minutes with random strangers.
[525] I like that because I don't, I don't ever want to ignore folks that I could shed light on or they could shed light to me. You never know what little nuggets that you give or receive.
[526] So that song, that list.
[527] lyric was just remembering, reminding myself of, like, what that, what that period was like for me. It was a very, very, like, coming of age.
[528] I was, and I didn't have a man in my life, a dude, a father in my life to guide me through that.
[529] My mom did that, which probably made me even ultra feminine, which is no, I have no shame of being super feminine.
[530] You know, I, I remember, In the 90s, we don't have the support in the LGBT community like now than we did then.
[531] So growing up in the 90s, we're like, are you gay?
[532] Like a lot of people question if I was, because I was feminine.
[533] I'm still feminine.
[534] I sit the way I sit.
[535] I act the way I act.
[536] My mannerisms are my moms.
[537] but it was a it was a very uh and i'm strong with my my my femininity i think it's a superpower but um that when when you know who you are when you when you love who you are how you vibe that's what it's about i like girls um never was attracted to men i'm attracted to females, but I'm feminine.
[538] What caused that chapter in your life, do you know?
[539] What?
[540] That dark chapter in your life, was there a clear causal...
[541] Distortion is a better word.
[542] Distortion.
[543] That chapter in your life where you had distortion.
[544] What?
[545] Weed.
[546] Weed, okay.
[547] Interesting.
[548] Yeah, it was the...
[549] It's chemicals.
[550] You said shame and guilt as well.
[551] You said use those words earlier.
[552] Yeah, I was shameful because I did something that I knew hurt my mom.
[553] right you know like you were smoking and at her head hanging low like did i do a what is my son out there doing you know what trouble is he getting into what is it going to lead to i saw her panic i felt her panic i felt her worry i felt her concern do you still do you still have have you have you had moments of distortion since it's usually when um you make errors you hurt people indirectly clumsily irresponsible when you let people down that you love when I let people down that I love I distort is distortion different from depression in your definition is there a difference oh yeah big difference distortion leads to depression like let's take this water right in this metal cup if I fill it up to the top and I don't move this table the water is still no matter how I fill it up it could be straight to the top if you don't interrupt the table the water is not going to spill distortion is when I start to shake the table and if I shake the table fast enough it could shatter the glass it could crack it if I shake this at the right frequency that doesn't disrupt the table but can mess up the object shattering the glass or obstructing with the form of this is depression shaking the table causing it to spill is distortion have you experienced anxiety before a lot of creative speak to anxiety and when you're thinking about that shaking table it made me feel of it gave me that And the thing that I could liken it to was anxiety.
[554] Unfortunately, it comes with the territory of futurist, futurism.
[555] You are experiencing something that hasn't happened yet because your imagination has already created plausible, like realistic scenarios.
[556] And you're already filling the emotion.
[557] so that unfortunately comes with the territory of having a hyper imagination um and living over there doesn't that mean that you live in anxiety then no if you live in the future because once you're aware of that then you know that's what it is it's like the difference between the shower and the rain people run in the wane and stand in the shower it's a different between bikinis and draws.
[558] People go to the beach with nothing on, but get afraid when you see them in their underwear.
[559] Expectations, right?
[560] It's expectations.
[561] It's like once you're aware of you getting wet, you ain't tripping.
[562] Once you're aware that you're going to the beach with nothing on, you're not tripping.
[563] So once I'm aware that I'm thinking over there, I don't have to have emotions there.
[564] Okay.
[565] So the moment I start having emotion for future casting, then I'm doing it wrong.
[566] The anxiety comes when it's things that are happening that you didn't control.
[567] And you're now having emotions because your imagination is now thinking of the outcomes of things that are out of your control.
[568] Now, when you're future casting and you're seeing stuff, you are controlling, looking around the corner.
[569] I am purposely looking there and then putting my imagination to work on thinking, what do I have to do now strategically?
[570] Between now, 510.
[571] Got you.
[572] FY.
[573] FYI is Will's brand new app, which is launch now.
[574] And the whole purpose of FYI is to help create this organize, collaborate, and communicate in one place rather than having all of these different communication channels and digital assets spread across all of these different products that we might use today.
[575] I had this problem last night.
[576] I was on like Monday over here, to do list over here.
[577] I'm on Google Clouds over here, Google Sheets here.
[578] And when I opened up FYI this morning, I can see from where we're on the roadmap looking into the future, how having all of that in one space with AI as kind of the agent to power a lot of the knowledge work, I guess, is a really special combination.
[579] FYI is now available on the app store.
[580] I got it this morning.
[581] Everybody should go and check it out.
[582] And I'm really excited if you're starting here, what the roadmap looks forward for the future, because I can see the mission.
[583] So FYI