Joe Rogan - Anybody Can do What I've Done

It might be because of the overflow of love it might be difficult to appreciate More like genuine little moments of love and it's not for me No, I I spent a lot of time thinking about that and I also spent a lot of think time thinking about how Titanically bizarre my place in the world is I mean I think about it a lot and I spent a lot of time being Poor and being a loser. I mean my childhood was not the best I I went through a lot of struggle when I was young that I cling to like a safety raft You know, I don't I don't ever think there's something special about me And I try to let everybody know that you anybody could do what I've done You just have to just keep going though. It's like 99% of this thing is just Showing up and keep going keep improving keep working at things and keep going put the time in but the interesting thing is You haven't actually a couple days ago went back to your first podcast and listen to it. You haven't really changed much so you were I mean the audio got a little better and But just like the you're the genuine nature of the way you interact hasn't changed and that's fascinating Because you know fame Changes people Well, I was already famous then I just was only a different way. Yeah, I was famous I was already famous from fear factor. I was already already had stand-up comedy specials. I already had I've already been on a sitcom I wasn't as famous as I am now, but I understood what it is I'm a big believer in Adversity and struggle. I think they're very important for you. It's one of the reasons why I appreciate martial arts It's one of the reasons why I've been drawn to it as a learning tool Not just as something where it's a puzzle that I'm fascinated to try to figure out how to get better at the puzzle and Martial arts is a really good example because you're never really the best especially when there's just so many people doing it It's like you're always gonna get beat by guys And then I was never I was never putting the kind of time into it as a an adult outside of my tik-wondo competition I was never really putting all day every day into it like a lot of people that I would train would and so I'd always Get dominated by the really best guys So there's a certain amount of humility that comes from that as well But there's there's a struggle in that you're learning about yourself and your own limits and the limits of the the human mind and endurance and Just not understanding all the various interactions of techniques and that you know There's some there's humility to that in that I've always described martial arts as a vehicle for developing your own human potential But I think marathon running has similar aspects I think when you're just you figure out a way to keep pushing and push through the control of Your mind and your desire and overcoming adversity. I think overcoming adversity is critical for the human For humans we have this this These this set of reward systems that are designed to to reward us for overcoming for overcoming obstacles for overcoming relationship struggles for overcoming physical limitations and Those rewards are great and there are some of the the most amazing moments in life when you do overcome And I think this is sort of engineered into the system. So for me fame is almost like a cheat code It's like you don't really want it. Don't dwell on that man Like that is that's like a free buffet like you don't you know, you want to go hunt your own food You want to make your own fire you want to cook yourself and feel the satisfaction You don't want people feeding you grapes while you lie down What is the hardest thing? So you talk about challenge a lot. What's the hardest thing you've? When will have you been really humbled? Martial arts for sure the most humbling. Yeah from the moment I started I mean, I mean I got really good at Taekwondo But even then I'd still get the fuck beaten out of me by my friends I got training part especially when you're tired and you're doing and you're rotating partners and guys are bigger than you just It's just humbling, you know martial arts very humbling. Yes, so that I and I got to call you out on something So you talk about education system sometimes I've heard you say a little broken in high school and so on I'm not really calling you out. I Just I just want to talk about it because I think it's important and this is somebody who loves math It's he talked about your own journey was school didn't give you Passion value Well, you can maybe talk to that but I for me what I always and maybe I'm sick in the head or something But for me math was exciting the way martial arts were exciting for you because it was really hard I wanted to quit and The idea of education I have that that that seems to be flawed nowadays a little bit is that we want to make education easier That we want to make you know more accessible and so on accessible, of course is great But you kind of forget in that and that those are all good goals You forget in that that it's supposed to be also hard and like teachers Just the way you're wrestling coach if you like quit you say I can't do anymore I have to you come up with some kind of excuse your wrestling coach looks at you wants to say Get your ass back on the mat the same way. I wish math teachers did That when people say it's almost like cool now to say it's not math sucks And that's not for me or science sucks as this teacher is boring I think there dish there's room for some culture where says no, no, you're not if you just put in the time and you struggle Then that opens up the universe to you like whether you become an eel digger ass Tyson or the next Fields Medal winner in mathematics I would not argue with you for one second I would also say that one of the more beautiful things about human beings is that we vary So much and that one person who is just obsessed with playing the trombone and to me I don't give a fuck about trombones, but that's okay Like I can't be obsessed about everything Some people love golf and they just want to play it all day long. I've never played golf a day in my life except miniature off and just fucking around But that doesn't it's not bad or good and I think there's there's definitely some skills that you learn from mathematics that are Hugely significant if you want to go into type of fields that you're involved in For me, it's never been appealing, but it's not that it was just difficult It's also that it just for whatever reason who I was at that time in that school with those teachers Having a life experience that I had that was not what I was drawn to what I was drawn to his literature I was drawn to reading I was drawn to stories. I was drawn to possibilities and creativity I was drawn to all those things. You're an artist of it, too Yeah, I used to be I used to want to be a comic book illustrator. That was that was a big thing when I was young I was really into comic books. I was really into It was traditional comic books and also a lot of the horror comics from the 1970s a black and white like creepy and eerie Did you ever see those things? Creepy and eerie like black and white. Yeah, they were they were a comic book series that Existed like way back in the day was all they were all horror and they were like really cool Illustrations and these wild stories, but it was comic books, but they were all black and white. That's creepy and eerie That's the actual name. Yeah eerie and creepy were the names like that was from what year was that it says September But it doesn't say what year But I used to get these when I was a little kid man I was like eight nine years old in the 70s good and evil Yeah It was they were they were my favorite like that's a cover of them and like They would have like covers that were done by like Frank Frazetta Boris Vallejo and just really cool shit And I was fat those were I loved those when I was little I was always really into horror movies and Really into like Bram like look at this werewolf one. That was one of my favorite ones That was a crazy werewolf. That was like all fours. Who's the hero usually superhero heroes? Everybody dies knows Everybody gets fucked over there's nobody that was the thing that I really liked about them Was like nobody made it out alive There was no one guy who figured it out and rescued the woman and they wrote off in the sunset Uh-huh, but you'd turn the corner and they'd be a fucking pack of wolves with glowing eyes waiting to tear everybody apart And that'd be the end of the book and I just I was just really into the illustrations. I found them fascinating I just I love those kind of horror movies and I love those kinds of illness So that's what I wanted to do and I was yeah, yeah I think the education system is probably we talked about creativity. It's probably not as good at Inspiring and feeding that creativity because I think math and Wrestling can be taught systematically. I think creativity is something well, actually I know nothing about it so I think it's harder to take somebody like you when you're young and say and Inspire you to pursue that fire whatever is inside. Well, one of the best ways to inspire people is by giving them Giving them these alternatives that are so Uninteresting like saying you're gonna get a job selling washing machines You're like fuck that I'm gonna figure out a way to not get a job selling washing machines Like what some of the best motivations that I've ever had have been terrible jobs Because you have these terrible jobs you go, okay Fuck that I'm gonna figure out a way to not do this, you know And whether you got want to call it ADD or ADHD or whatever it is. It makes kids squirm in class I didn't squirm in every class. I didn't squirm in science class. I didn't squirm in You know in interesting subjects there's things that were interesting to me that I would be locked in and completely fascinated by and there was things where I just Couldn't wait to run out of that room And I don't know what the reason is But I do know that a lot of what we call our education system is engineered for a very specific result And that result is you want to get a kid who can sit in class and learn? So they could sit in a job and perform and that for whatever reason that was just I mean I didn't have the ideal childhood. Maybe maybe if I did I would be more inclined to lean that way but I Didn't want to do Anything like that like I couldn't wait to get the fuck out of school So I didn't ever have to listen to anybody like that again. And then just a few years later, I mean You graduate from high school when you're 18 when I was 21 I was a stand-up comic and I was like I found it. This is it. I'm like good I found there's an actual job that nobody told me about where you could just make fun of shit and People go out and they pay money to hear you Create jokes and routines and bits really you weren't