Speaker 1: You think of emotion, you think you either have to
Speaker 1: suppress it or you have to embrace it. And I
Speaker 1: think there's a way in which you can experience it internally,
Speaker 1: but you don't have to express it externally. We think
Speaker 1: through it, we process it, and then we say and
Speaker 1: do what we intend to do, not what we are
Speaker 1: doing in terms of a reaction. And I think like,
Speaker 1: if you control your emotions, you're very powerful. If you're
Speaker 1: controlled by your emotions, you're not as powerful. Hey, everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast
Speaker 1: in the world. Thanks to each and every single one
Speaker 1: of you who come back every week to listen, learn
Speaker 1: and grow. Now you know that I'm always out to
Speaker 1: find interesting people, fascinating stories, people who you may or
Speaker 1: may not know, but have made really interesting, powerful decisions
Speaker 1: that we can all learn from. And today's guest is
Speaker 1: a friend of mine, someone that I bumped into very
Speaker 1: recently and we just connected instantly, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: he's had years of experience as an entrepreneur. I'm speaking
Speaker 1: about none other than Adam Goldston, who's the co founder
Speaker 1: of LA based Athletic Propulsion Labs or APL as they're known,
Speaker 1: and he and his twin brother, Ryan, who were former
Speaker 1: sport collegiate athletes, played both basketball and football at the
Speaker 1: University of Southern California, and then envisioned creating a company
Speaker 1: that would provide revolutionary products symbolizing the ultimate intersection and
Speaker 1: this is what I love of luxury and performance. Today,
Speaker 1: Adam and Ryan are recognized as accomplished inventors with numerous
Speaker 1: US and foreign patents, including APL's revolutionary load and launch technology,
Speaker 1: and recently they were named two of the hundred most
Speaker 1: Intriguing Entrepreneurs of twenty twenty by Goldman Sax. Please welcome
Speaker 1: to the show, my friend and amazing entrepreneur, Adam Galston. Adam,
Speaker 1: thank you for being here. Man Jay, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: I'm super excited. I've been a long time listener. Obviously
Speaker 1: we're friends. But it's funny because I like your podcast
Speaker 1: is one of the only ones that I really listened
Speaker 1: to and where I think like where I actively listen,
Speaker 1: because I think there's a difference between passively listening to
Speaker 1: something actively listening. And it's so funny that so many
Speaker 1: of the people big and smaller or like not smaller,
Speaker 1: but like famous and just more specialized in their avenue
Speaker 1: and people that have been important to my personal journey.
Speaker 1: So like when I listened, I listened to the Robert
Speaker 1: Green one and the first book is in my i'd say,
Speaker 1: like adult life that I ever for like real intention
Speaker 1: into reading was forty eight Laws and Power. And I
Speaker 1: read it in a moment like I think, like one
Speaker 1: of the key things in my personal stories that like
Speaker 1: I have gotten lucky at key specific moments of my
Speaker 1: life through it as that I made and I was
Speaker 1: sick wh pneumonia and I read Robert Green's forty eight
Speaker 1: Loss of Power, and there wouldn't have been another moment
Speaker 1: where I would have been again at home and had
Speaker 1: the ability to dive into something in such a deep level.
Speaker 1: And I think the way he talks about power and
Speaker 1: like just in the past, as people think of it
Speaker 1: as a negative thing, but there's positive there's definite positives
Speaker 1: if you use it to not only help yourself but
Speaker 1: help others. And so that was what my takeaway was,
Speaker 1: and it was again this was years ago, but that
Speaker 1: was what my takeaway was. And so I just started
Speaker 1: being more active, more intentional in the way I was
Speaker 1: thinking about things. And so when I saw that you
Speaker 1: had him, and then you've had other key people that
Speaker 1: I've definitely taken pieces of their journey and applied it
Speaker 1: to mine. Like I just I love that because you
Speaker 1: are like the company that you keep. So I think
Speaker 1: that that was like that was cool for me to
Speaker 1: see the other day. I'm so grateful man. And you know,
Speaker 1: we've had so many mutual friends over the last few years.
Speaker 1: You've tried to connect us, and last year in finding happened,
Speaker 1: it was like deep because it was trying to connect
Speaker 1: us and then order we was trying to connect us,
Speaker 1: and it finally happened and we ended up last year
Speaker 1: at a pumpkin patch I think it was just before
Speaker 1: Halloween or something like that, and we just had like
Speaker 1: the best conversation. I walked away going, I need to
Speaker 1: spend a lot more time with that guy. So I'm
Speaker 1: so glad that you know we're getting to do this
Speaker 1: and that we get to mind your mind today and
Speaker 1: really get inside there. And I want to start with actually,
Speaker 1: I watched your short film with Rolls Royce, and what
Speaker 1: stood out for me was when you guys talked about
Speaker 1: how the journey is what defines greatness and not the
Speaker 1: destination Now, that's an idea that we're told and we've
Speaker 1: heard again and again and again. But when you said it,
Speaker 1: not only did I believe it, I also understood that
Speaker 1: you're applying it. And I'd love to hear how you've
Speaker 1: been trying to apply that in your journey as you're
Speaker 1: still growing towards an incredible destination. So I think that
Speaker 1: one of the key things is it wasn't always. That
Speaker 1: wasn't always my thought, and that wasn't always Ryan and
Speaker 1: I thought. So. I think it's it's something that we've
Speaker 1: learned along the journey. And I mean to backtrack a
Speaker 1: little bit. I think when you're starting anything, especially when
Speaker 1: you started at a younger age as Ryan and I did.
Speaker 1: We started apl when we were in college, you focus
Speaker 1: a lot on where you want to end up. You
Speaker 1: don't necessarily always think about enjoying the ride and enjoying
Speaker 1: the journey to get there. And I think that again,
Speaker 1: like listening to your podcast and in the things and
Speaker 1: the intentions that you think that you think about, that's
Speaker 1: been really important to the way that Ryan and I were.
Speaker 1: So when we started off on our journey, you have
Speaker 1: these goals, these grand ambitions. We all do, whether it's
Speaker 1: it's your day to day life or your personal life,
Speaker 1: or what you're doing in your profession, you will have
Speaker 1: these milestones that you're hoping for, that you're wishing for,
Speaker 1: that you believe can happen. And a lot of times
Speaker 1: you don't think about what you're doing day in and
Speaker 1: day out and appreciating what you're doing day in and
Speaker 1: day out and how those will get you to where
Speaker 1: you want to go. And so I think that as
Speaker 1: Ryan and I started to achieve more, as we really
Speaker 1: started to go further in this journey, a lot of
Speaker 1: it was happening really quickly, even though we were years
Speaker 1: in and we didn't take it for granted, but we
Speaker 1: took the achievements, took the successes, not just like financial
Speaker 1: but just successes us as a business, as a Brandon individually,
Speaker 1: and we said, we need to use us to get
Speaker 1: to the next thing. We need to use us to
Speaker 1: get to the next thing. I think there was a
Speaker 1: moment in time, probably twenty sixteen, where Ryan and I
Speaker 1: we had got this big award we were named Forbes
Speaker 1: thirty under thirty is is There's a lot of other
Speaker 1: things that started going our way, And one thing we
Speaker 1: hadn't been great at was celebrating the small daily victories
Speaker 1: and giving ourselves and our team the momentum to go
Speaker 1: to the next thing instead of focusing on moving to
Speaker 1: the next point. And so I think we had to
Speaker 1: have that realization where we were doing so many things,
Speaker 1: we were achieving so much, but we didn't have the
Speaker 1: internal appreciation for what was happening every single day. It
Speaker 1: just became so consistent that it became normal. And I
Speaker 1: think that's that's that's not positive. I think you need
Speaker 1: to appreciate your daily journey. You need to appreciate the
Speaker 1: people around you what they're contributing to it. And I
Speaker 1: think that that was a key change for us. And
Speaker 1: so at that moment in time, Ryan and I and
Speaker 1: again keep people around us. We made a clear decision
Speaker 1: that we are going to appreciate what we're doing every
Speaker 1: single day. We're going to stay inspired by what we
Speaker 1: want to do in the future. But if you there
Speaker 1: is a way to exist mentally in the current plane
Speaker 1: and in the future plane, and I think there's there's
Speaker 1: a delicate balance. And I think for us we had
Speaker 1: in the beginning, we didn't have that many victories and
Speaker 1: so you had to constantly put in the work, put
Speaker 1: in the repetition to get that one. But then one
Speaker 1: of the other key aspects of my story is compounding,
Speaker 1: and as you as you get one thing, the next
Speaker 1: thing comes typically quicker than the next one comes quicker
Speaker 1: than next one comes quicker. And so for us, we
Speaker 1: tried to slow down the focus on the ultimate endpoint
Speaker 1: because you are probably going to get there regardless of
Speaker 1: what your goals are. If you put in the effort,
Speaker 1: you put in the work, and you get lucky, you
Speaker 1: will end up reaching these points. But if you're only
Speaker 1: focus on that one moment in time that's so finite,
Speaker 1: and you're not appreciating the longer term, which is actually
Speaker 1: the day to day in the journey. It's not going
Speaker 1: to be a win. It's just going to be another
Speaker 1: accomplishment or milestone, but it won't feel the same. And
Speaker 1: I think that when we decided to put happiness before
Speaker 1: success in a measurement for success, and that daily happiness
Speaker 1: and I know you can't be happy one hundred percent
Speaker 1: of the time every single day, and the ups and
Speaker 1: downs do make those other things feel greater. But if
Speaker 1: you can think every day that I want to appreciate
Speaker 1: this journey and what I'm doing today will get me
Speaker 1: to where I'm going tomorrow. And if I appreciate it today,
Speaker 1: I will appreciate it tomorrow. And you make those clear,
Speaker 1: conscious decisions, you will feel much better about your journey
Speaker 1: and you will feel much better about your destination. But
Speaker 1: you spend much more time on the journey than you
Speaker 1: do at the destination. So if you can appreciate the
Speaker 1: longer part, the part at the end will feel even better.
Speaker 1: And I think the only way that we were able
Speaker 1: to realize that was by not realizing that earlier. And so,
Speaker 1: but it's like anything, it's it's you learn as you go,
Speaker 1: and if you keep an open mind and you can
Speaker 1: take feedback and you can look at others and see
Speaker 1: that you're inspired by what they're doing, what they've learned,
Speaker 1: and then how can I take little pieces that and
Speaker 1: apply it to what I'm doing. And I saw other
Speaker 1: people that were enjoying simpler things than I was, and
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, and so I said, there's a way
Speaker 1: that I need to implement that into my day life,
Speaker 1: as did Ryan and the rest of the team. And
Speaker 1: I mean, we feel great about what we do, and
Speaker 1: I think that's the most important thing, and that's the
Speaker 1: key to enjoying the journey, which helps you enjoy the
Speaker 1: destination even more. I think that that was such a
Speaker 1: comprehensive answer, because, like I said, it's a statement we've heard.
Speaker 1: It's a statement we've seen. But I really appreciate your
Speaker 1: interpretation of that and how practical you've made it because
Speaker 1: I feel the same way I always say to people,
Speaker 1: like winning the award or getting the title, that's one
Speaker 1: percent of the journey. Like that amount of time you
Speaker 1: spend on stage is like thirty seconds long. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: there was thirty seconds. It took like three years, thirty years,
Speaker 1: you know to get to that three seconds or thirty
Speaker 1: seconds of time that you spent receiving an award and
Speaker 1: your spot on Like, if you don't feel passionate when
Speaker 1: you wake up every morning to do what you're doing,
Speaker 1: can you take me back at him? I want to
Speaker 1: go back. What I love about this conversation is I'm
Speaker 1: discovering you. I think the world is discovering you. I know,
Speaker 1: me and my friends are massive fans of apl I
Speaker 1: had a ton of your shoes before I even knew you.
Speaker 1: Not only are they comfortable, they look fantastic. The store
Speaker 1: at the Grove is one of my favorite stores just
Speaker 1: generally to walk into, which was where I was first
Speaker 1: introduced to apl But let's go back to your childhood.
Speaker 1: I'm intrigued by can you think about a pivotal moment
Speaker 1: that happened while you were young that has framed who
Speaker 1: you are today. Was there a particular experience maybe with
Speaker 1: a parent, with a friend, anyone in your life, something
Speaker 1: someone said, something someone did that has created part of
Speaker 1: who you are today that you feel has been so
Speaker 1: integral in your life, positive or negative, or you know,
Speaker 1: healthy or unhealthy. I mean, I think, I think there's
Speaker 1: a lot of things, so it's hard to point to one.
Speaker 1: I think one thing I realized early on, and I
Speaker 1: know this isn't applicable to most because they aren't twins,
Speaker 1: but and so I'll choose one that's more applicable to
Speaker 1: other people. But I realized early on, as did my brother,
Speaker 1: that we had a unique competitive advantage, that there was
Speaker 1: two of us with almost identical points of view, but
Speaker 1: with unique characteristics that complement one another. So we realize
Speaker 1: that really early on, And again, like a lot of
Speaker 1: times with kids, peer pressure is something that becomes really
Speaker 1: really difficult. And because there was two of us and
Speaker 1: there's typically one other person, we could not be pressured
Speaker 1: to move one way. So I think like that played
Speaker 1: a role in terms of like building internal character. But
Speaker 1: I think something that that was key to my journey
Speaker 1: is I've always believed always now as an adult, but
Speaker 1: I think this because of a kid, was that you
Speaker 1: can turn a negative situation into a positive if you
Speaker 1: change your perspective on the negative and tried skew it
Speaker 1: more positive. And so I guess one real important example
Speaker 1: is when I was a kid, I didn't do great
Speaker 1: in school. And I was always an incredible athlete, but
Speaker 1: I did not do the greatest in school. And it
Speaker 1: wasn't because I didn't have the intellect, but it's because
Speaker 1: I wasn't in the right It wasn't important to me
Speaker 1: in the situation that I was in. So I was
Speaker 1: at this one school and I was not doing very well.
Speaker 1: I was doing great sports, but I wasn't doing very
Speaker 1: well as a student, and I felt like the environment
Speaker 1: wasn't the right one for me because it just it
Speaker 1: it was too small. I need I needed to be
Speaker 1: able to become more of myself. I always had this
Speaker 1: like a nagging self confidence that I knew where if
Speaker 1: I trusted myself and I listened to myself, I can
Speaker 1: make the most of it. And so middle of my
Speaker 1: ninth grade year, my parents basically gave me the opportunity
Speaker 1: to transfer to a school that wasn't as good of
Speaker 1: a school, but it was it was it was it
Speaker 1: was more diverse, it had a greater opportunity for educational
Speaker 1: and athletic success. And I changed my environment. And again,
Speaker 1: like one thing that's been important to our journey is
Speaker 1: changing your environment when you believe you need to. And
Speaker 1: so that gave me the ability to go to a
Speaker 1: school at a different part of the city, in a
Speaker 1: different environment, and I was able to learn at a
Speaker 1: better rate. I was able to do sports at a
Speaker 1: much higher level, and I believed in myself because it's
Speaker 1: it's hard switching schools in the middle of the year,
Speaker 1: making trying to make all new friends and things of
Speaker 1: that nature. And so I think like the key learning
Speaker 1: point from that is like if you get out of
Speaker 1: your comfort zone and you become comfortable with the uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: you may discover something in yourself that you never knew
Speaker 1: you could do, or take it to a level that
Speaker 1: you that you didn't think was possible. And so for me,
Speaker 1: that was a really big one and I think it
Speaker 1: was if that doesn't happen, I'm not here today. And
Speaker 1: so I think that movement in the middle of my
Speaker 1: ninth a year, I was a young man. I'm fourteen,
Speaker 1: fifteen years old, but that gave me the confidence to
Speaker 1: try uncomfortable situations, make the most of it, and then
Speaker 1: they may actually end up being benefiting you much more
Speaker 1: than you ever could have thought. So that was I
Speaker 1: think I as a kid, something that went a really,
Speaker 1: really really long way. Yeah, that's such a great insight
Speaker 1: because you almost don't get to reap the rewards of
Speaker 1: that up until now, like much later on, and in
Speaker 1: that moment, you're just like, this is the worst thing
Speaker 1: that could have ever happened to me, right, and I
Speaker 1: and I really do love that you reflected on that
Speaker 1: moment in that way because I find that anytime I
Speaker 1: ask someone that question, rarely do they pick something good
Speaker 1: that happened. Right. It's like people never say, oh, when
Speaker 1: I was fifteen, I had the best thing, you know.
Speaker 1: It's it's always like, well, this went wrong or this
Speaker 1: changed and this shifted. And I think it's fascinating to
Speaker 1: hear that in your journey too, now when you and
Speaker 1: your brother and I by the way, I love the
Speaker 1: twins answer. I love the twins as it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: that we can't relate. We all want to relate, Like
Speaker 1: we're like, oh, that's so cool, Like you know, that's
Speaker 1: that's how I felt when you have this idea for
Speaker 1: apl and I want to talk about the idea. But
Speaker 1: what I'm really interested by is also how lots of
Speaker 1: people start stuff at college or at school and it
Speaker 1: kind of fizzles out by the time you graduate, and
Speaker 1: then you go on to get a real job and
Speaker 1: you get real responsibilities and you wear a real suit, right,
Speaker 1: Like that kind of becomes the journey that most people
Speaker 1: go on. What I'm fascinated by is when you when
Speaker 1: you come up with this idea, what did it take
Speaker 1: to go from this is cool to this is real?
Speaker 1: And what was that journey? Like, so tell us about
Speaker 1: the ideation, but then tell us about how this went
Speaker 1: from like this is cool, we're doing something interesting too,
Speaker 1: this is actually real and this is what we're going
Speaker 1: to commit time to So I think I think one
Speaker 1: of the important things about Ryan and I is that
Speaker 1: if somebody tells us we're not able to do something,
Speaker 1: that's essentially just gasoline to what we have to do.
Speaker 1: So I think Ryan used apl as his business plan
Speaker 1: in school, and he didn't even get top ten. So
Speaker 1: I don't remember what the great is. He still has it,
Speaker 1: but like he didn't even get top ten. They didn't
Speaker 1: believe in it. And it's not because they didn't think
Speaker 1: it was a good idea. It's because they didn't think
Speaker 1: that we could execute on the vision the way that
Speaker 1: we did. And so I think one of the things
Speaker 1: I used to have as as a kid then when
Speaker 1: I was in college, I don't have it anymore because
Speaker 1: it's more so like a running talent that I keep
Speaker 1: in my mind is I would have this list of
Speaker 1: things that we had to do and that I wanted
Speaker 1: to do. Top thing on my list I ever achieved,
Speaker 1: which was making an NBA everything else I've done since then.
Speaker 1: But I think, when thinking about the idea and execution,
Speaker 1: one thing I heard, and again I think one of
Speaker 1: the parts of my story that's important is I've heard
Speaker 1: important things at the right moment in time, and I've
Speaker 1: listened to it and I heard the easiest way to
Speaker 1: get where you're going is one step at a time.
Speaker 1: And so when I was in college and when Ryan
Speaker 1: and I were and we were thinking through the idea,
Speaker 1: one of the things, again back to the journey aspect,
Speaker 1: is you think of where you want to go, but
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily usually think of the steps you need
Speaker 1: to take in the intern to get there. And so
Speaker 1: Ryan was lucky enough that when he was in this
Speaker 1: program and people were telling us this wasn't a good idea,
Speaker 1: it's not going to work, we had to think deeper
Speaker 1: through the idea, deeper through the execution. And I mean
Speaker 1: we started as a direct to consumer brand in two
Speaker 1: and ten, so it's like in two ten people were
Speaker 1: not going direct to consumer, but we didn't have the resources.
Speaker 1: And I think one of the things that a lot
Speaker 1: of people think when they're creating something is everybody's paying
Speaker 1: attention to me. If I fail, everyone's going to see it.
Speaker 1: But most of the time, everybody else is focused on
Speaker 1: themselves and they're not really concerned what you're doing. So
Speaker 1: if you focus on yourself, you focus on what you're
Speaker 1: doing and you try something. If you mess up, there's
Speaker 1: a way to recover it, and there's a way to
Speaker 1: keep moving forward. You learn from it, you won't make
Speaker 1: the same mistake again. And so for us, like we
Speaker 1: spent so much time working on this technology, we wanted
Speaker 1: to build a shoe around it. And one thing we did,
Speaker 1: and I think this is what helped us be successful
Speaker 1: and go from idea to execution, is again, most people,
Speaker 1: when they're creating something, they are scared to ask for
Speaker 1: help typically, and they don't go to the highest level
Speaker 1: of help. They try to go to the lowest level
Speaker 1: because they think somebody that's close to me will help me,
Speaker 1: not somebody at the top somewhere. And so what Ryan
Speaker 1: and I believe is if we went to the largest
Speaker 1: people possible and said we have this amazing idea, it's remarkable,
Speaker 1: we can execute on this. We will put the work
Speaker 1: and do it. Can you help us? And they said yes.
Speaker 1: We went to sneaker factory that had no business saying
Speaker 1: yes to us, but they thought they loved the idea,
Speaker 1: they thought it was unique. And so from there we
Speaker 1: were able to implement what we wanted to do, be
Speaker 1: able to develop things that typically you would not be
Speaker 1: able to And so I think, again, like the nugget
Speaker 1: of our journey, because we make shoes, so most people
Speaker 1: aren't going to make shoes. And that's the part that's
Speaker 1: different is that we believe that if you ask people
Speaker 1: for help and you're willing to accept their help, and
Speaker 1: you go to somebody that typically you wouldn't think would
Speaker 1: say yes, and you give them the opportunity to help you,
Speaker 1: people inherently want to help. And so I think when
Speaker 1: you were thinking about executing something, you shouldn't you have
Speaker 1: to think big. You can alway. It's easier to work
Speaker 1: your way down than is to work your way out.
Speaker 1: And so that was the way that we looked at it.
Speaker 1: And again it's just we had an idea of how
Speaker 1: we wanted to execute it. We asked the right questions
Speaker 1: to people, and we didn't have this idea of you
Speaker 1: have to have a specific mentor. We believe that you
Speaker 1: could have specific mentors for specific So if I needed
Speaker 1: help with production, I would ask a production person. If
Speaker 1: I needed help with logistics, I would ask a logistics person.
Speaker 1: If I needed help with counting, I would ask an
Speaker 1: accounting person. But there's not an end all be all
Speaker 1: for each thing. So that was really what a point
Speaker 1: of difference for us was we were able to ask help.
Speaker 1: We had amazing people that were around us when in
Speaker 1: that moment in time, and we just had pure determination
Speaker 1: like we were. We were obsessed with taking this idea
Speaker 1: and executing it and we were going to do whatever
Speaker 1: it took. And since we didn't have any investors, we
Speaker 1: had to do it ourselves. And so I think and
Speaker 1: we weren't scared to fail like that's That's another thing
Speaker 1: is that there's there's a real difference between fear and danger,
Speaker 1: and and when you're starting the idea, most it's all fear.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not dangerous, it's you're scared of it.
Speaker 1: So you just have to conquer that emotion and you
Speaker 1: can learn most things if you ask questions to the
Speaker 1: right people. Out of you were just drop dropping wisdom everywhere.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many things in that that I
Speaker 1: need to now break down. So first of all, everyone's listening.
Speaker 1: You need to get your notebook out right now and
Speaker 1: write stuff that Adam is saying down because there are
Speaker 1: so many things or you're gonna have to listen to
Speaker 1: this episode twice, So it's up to you. You either
Speaker 1: listen to episode twice or you get a notebook out
Speaker 1: right now, the idea that there's a difference between fear
Speaker 1: and danger, what a great way to clarify how we
Speaker 1: experience it. That is that's just brilliant, Like I've never
Speaker 1: heard it been put in that way before, and I
Speaker 1: think that that is such great language to help us
Speaker 1: realize we react as if we're in danger, but actually
Speaker 1: we're in fear and that's where that's where things start
Speaker 1: to go wrong. So I thought that was brilliant. The
Speaker 1: other thing that you mentioned that I really am resonating
Speaker 1: with and it was kind of in there, and I
Speaker 1: think it's an underrated part of entrepreneurship is that you
Speaker 1: were trying and you have, of course now, but at
Speaker 1: the time you were trying to create technology, like there
Speaker 1: was an engineering aspect. It wasn't just we want to
Speaker 1: make cool staff and Frindy stuff and fatty stuff. It
Speaker 1: was like, no, we're actually working on something. And I
Speaker 1: find that one of the most underrated things about entrepreneurship
Speaker 1: is people with deep skill sets and having a skill
Speaker 1: whether it's innovation, technology, engineering, speaking, marketing, whatever it may be,
Speaker 1: talk to me a bit about where did you learn
Speaker 1: about technology when it comes to athletics, because that, to
Speaker 1: me is a really different way to look at product
Speaker 1: creation as opposed to just saying we want to make
Speaker 1: stuff that looks good. So back to I think a
Speaker 1: unique competitive advantage. And since we don't have ten hours,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to give you the full background. But
Speaker 1: as a kid, my dad worked in the footwear industry
Speaker 1: and he actually helped, like one of the key parts
Speaker 1: to my stories, he helped create the La gear lighted shoes,
Speaker 1: and so my brother and I were the first product
Speaker 1: testers ever for the La gear lighted shoes. And he
Speaker 1: brought him home and he gave him to us, and
Speaker 1: that day we gave him feedback on and we're five
Speaker 1: years old, give feedback on how to try to make
Speaker 1: the shoes better. And obviously it's we're not giving them
Speaker 1: technical feedback at five, but we're telling them you should
Speaker 1: move the lights from the back to the side of
Speaker 1: the shoes so we can see our lights. But the
Speaker 1: technical aspect of it is from a very very very
Speaker 1: young age, my dad would bring us to the office
Speaker 1: and would bring us into the technology line reviews would
Speaker 1: bring us into the innovation area and we would see
Speaker 1: how to engineer specific footwear product. So I think again,
Speaker 1: it wasn't that Ryan and I woke up one day
Speaker 1: and decided that we wanted to engineer a technology that
Speaker 1: would instantly make you jump higher. We have been obsessed
Speaker 1: with footwear specific technology since we were five years old.
Speaker 1: And again, when you're talking, you asked earlier about key
Speaker 1: moments in my childhood. My dad, as a kid showed
Speaker 1: me what was possible, not saying come here and look
Speaker 1: at this, but through ideas. And I think like that's
Speaker 1: the greatest type of inspiration you can get for anybody,
Speaker 1: not just from a parent, but from anyone is showing
Speaker 1: somebody that something is possible through their own ideas and executions.
Speaker 1: So we took an interest to developing footwear technologies from
Speaker 1: an age of five years old. Obviously there was a
Speaker 1: lot of knowledge that needed to come afterwards and took
Speaker 1: years to get and we weren't eight year old whiz kids.
Speaker 1: We were eight year old with ideas. But as you
Speaker 1: become older, as you become smarter, you focus on the
Speaker 1: things that are important to you, and sports and technology
Speaker 1: and specifically footwear based technologies were things that were always
Speaker 1: important to us. So I think that the learning point
Speaker 1: about that for entrepreneurs is that everybody, regardless of what
Speaker 1: you do, has a predisposition to a specific thing that
Speaker 1: they care about, that they're passionate about, and they could
Speaker 1: focus on if you can learn enough information, you can
Speaker 1: figure out how to make something better. And is basically
Speaker 1: the basis for how we did it is that we
Speaker 1: believe that we could make a shoe, that we're in
Speaker 1: a technology that would do what we wanted to do.
Speaker 1: We just had to learn the basis behind the fundamentals,
Speaker 1: and that's what we did, and that's how we focus
Speaker 1: on it. That's how we learned it. And to this day,
Speaker 1: I continue to learn so much, not only from our
Speaker 1: own exploration into footwear, but from other people what they
Speaker 1: teach us and things they bring to the table. And
Speaker 1: I think that I learned at a really, really young age,
Speaker 1: and I think it's again it's the fact that my
Speaker 1: dad and the team listened to our idea and then
Speaker 1: I saw it actually coming to life. And so I
Speaker 1: think seeing what's possible and knowing that if you're passionate
Speaker 1: about something, you don't have to be a scientist to
Speaker 1: necessarily figure it out, you just have to be a
Speaker 1: creative engineer. And I think like that's a lot of
Speaker 1: really successful entrepreneurs. It's not that they know something about everything,
Speaker 1: it's that they know a lot about a specific area.
Speaker 1: And for us, it's always been our passion. We've always
Speaker 1: loved technology, and we've always loved innovation and pushing what's possible.
Speaker 1: And I think that regardless of what your atvenue is,
Speaker 1: even if you're not creating product, if you're creating content,
Speaker 1: if you're creating anything, like, there's a way to be
Speaker 1: innovative in it, and there's a way to push it
Speaker 1: to as far as you possibly can. Yeah, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad you shared that detail because to me, that's the
Speaker 1: part that I love my community really getting close to
Speaker 1: Because when you've been that close to something since you're
Speaker 1: five years old and you've taken an interest, that closeness
Speaker 1: has turned into a passion and then it's turned into
Speaker 1: your own cause that's what it takes, like that, that's
Speaker 1: what it takes, Like it takes that obsession, that absorption
Speaker 1: that you're immersed in this whole world. It's not like
Speaker 1: one day you wake up and you have a random
Speaker 1: idea to go and create something, right, And I think
Speaker 1: often we don't give ourselves the time to get close
Speaker 1: to something and deeply immerse in it and experience it,
Speaker 1: and we we're looking for like I don't know what
Speaker 1: I'm passionate about, Like I don't know what my purpose is.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I'm excited about. But that's because
Speaker 1: we're trying to hope that it's just going to miraculously appear.
Speaker 1: And I love that idea that actually, well, no, this
Speaker 1: has been a part of our life now when we
Speaker 1: talk about technology, your load and launch technology became the
Speaker 1: first band shoe in the NBA history, right, And that
Speaker 1: is just so like that is I don't know if
Speaker 1: there's anything cooler than that, like to get I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's better to get into the NBA we
Speaker 1: get to get in and get banned, but like to
Speaker 1: get banned by the NBA. To me, that sounds like
Speaker 1: the coolest story ever. But as a company, it can
Speaker 1: also be difficult. I want to hear what was that
Speaker 1: like to find out like what was that like as
Speaker 1: an experience, because that's not common, Like I don't hear
Speaker 1: stories like that all the time. So I think the
Speaker 1: unique part about that is that, so to this day,
Speaker 1: we've never raised a dollar ab outside capital one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of the business, and at that moment in time,
Speaker 1: we had zero, zero dollars and what I mean zero,
Speaker 1: We had zero dollars for marketing. And so we looked
Speaker 1: at it as the NBA is the greatest basketball organization
Speaker 1: in the world. It's top tier, and when you think
Speaker 1: about leagues, it's top tier. And so the dream when
Speaker 1: you're creating a product for a specific sport is you
Speaker 1: want it to be at the top tier with the
Speaker 1: best people. And the fact that the NBA said that
Speaker 1: it's too good because it provides away with an undue
Speaker 1: competitive advantage that sounds really positive when you frame it
Speaker 1: that way, but if you look at it from the
Speaker 1: other side of the cortin saying the best basketball players
Speaker 1: in the world can't wear your product, that sounds negative.
Speaker 1: And so the way that we looked at is that
Speaker 1: this is a very unique opportunity where we can wholeheartedly
Speaker 1: embrace it or we can fight it with everything that
Speaker 1: we have, which wasn't much at the time, and we said,
Speaker 1: let's embrace this, let's turn this negative into a positive.
Speaker 1: Let's say, banned by the NBA. The reason is it
Speaker 1: instantly makes you jump higher, and they can't wear it
Speaker 1: because it's so good. And so there's a way to again,
Speaker 1: you change your perspective on something. You take a negative,
Speaker 1: you make it a positive. Ends up becoming the best
Speaker 1: thing that ever happened to us when it happened, number
Speaker 1: one news store in the world, number two, three, and
Speaker 1: seventeen most search terms on Google, over a million articles
Speaker 1: written or posted about it. Within ten days. We sold
Speaker 1: nine months worth of inventory in three days, which is
Speaker 1: important because we're self finance, no outside investors, and there's
Speaker 1: three of us in a room that's sixty square feet
Speaker 1: when we find this out. So we basically find out
Speaker 1: that the world leading basketball organization isn't allowing our product
Speaker 1: because it provides awar with an undue competitive advantage. So
Speaker 1: I think at first there's that huge shock like, oh man,
Speaker 1: this is insane, like what do we do? And then
Speaker 1: instantly we thought, we need to lean into this, we
Speaker 1: need to embrace this. This is a once in a
Speaker 1: lifetime opportunity. We can make this negative feel positive. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what we did. And again I think one thing
Speaker 1: that made it special too, is that if we would
Speaker 1: have fought it, I think the NBA would have fought us,
Speaker 1: but the fact that we embraced it made them embrace us.
Speaker 1: Like even like David Stern's passed away, but he went
Speaker 1: on a show I think like that night and said
Speaker 1: that we're looking into the show that didn't sleely makes
Speaker 1: you jumpire it might even make me dunk, And like
Speaker 1: the way that he said it, it was it was
Speaker 1: playful even though this was it was a very serious
Speaker 1: thing that they weren't allowing people to wear it. But
Speaker 1: I think the fact that we leaned into it and
Speaker 1: we embraced this thing that could have been negative changed
Speaker 1: the perspective. It made it positive, and it made the
Speaker 1: people that were essentially saying no lean into it embrace
Speaker 1: it as well. So it ended up being a huge
Speaker 1: win for all of us. I actually think it was
Speaker 1: the only time, obviously it's changed since that the NBA
Speaker 1: was a number one trending topic on Twitter when there
Speaker 1: wasn't like a number one trending sports organization on Twitter,
Speaker 1: when there wasn't another thing. So I think that they
Speaker 1: saw that there was value in the social equity that
Speaker 1: came along with it. We leaned into a negative, made
Speaker 1: it positive, We felt positive about it, We reaped the
Speaker 1: benefits of it because we sold the product, and then
Speaker 1: the NBA also got the reward from it. So I
Speaker 1: think all in all, it was just it was a
Speaker 1: tremendous experience and it literally laid the groundwork for where
Speaker 1: we are today. And if that doesn't happen again, I mean,
Speaker 1: one of the key things I'm sorry is that doesn't happen,
Speaker 1: I don't know where we end up today. And we
Speaker 1: made them the most of a negative and turned it
Speaker 1: into a positive. That's a true win win win. And
Speaker 1: what I find so fascinating about it is that this
Speaker 1: is kind of like a recurring pattern in your life.
Speaker 1: Like your superpower is the ability to transform a negative
Speaker 1: into a positive and to be able to pivot, Like
Speaker 1: that's really a superpower because even today you don't make
Speaker 1: basketball shoes, even that's what you started making, Like, there's
Speaker 1: just another pivot, right, there's expansion, there's growth, Like I
Speaker 1: find that that's sometimes the hardest thing to do. And
Speaker 1: going back to what you said before is the only
Speaker 1: thing you never got to do was making the NBA.
Speaker 1: There's another pivot there as well. Now, Adam, tell me
Speaker 1: how good were you? How serious were you, and how
Speaker 1: close were you? Well, so, I mean I was a
Speaker 1: Division one athlete. I played basketball at USC. I think
Speaker 1: I had a route awakening when I got to college
Speaker 1: that I wasn't going to make the NBA because a
Speaker 1: few of my teammates didn't make the NBA, and I
Speaker 1: realized that they were much better than I was and
Speaker 1: that I wasn't going to be able to get there.
Speaker 1: But I think to one of the points that you
Speaker 1: were just making, and it's important to our journey, is
Speaker 1: that typically when you think of emotions and like this
Speaker 1: turning negatives into positives, you think of emotion, you think
Speaker 1: you either have to suppress it or you have to
Speaker 1: embrace it. And I think there's a way in which
Speaker 1: you can experience it internally, but you don't have to
Speaker 1: express it externally. And so I think that what we've
Speaker 1: done in these negative situations is we think through it,
Speaker 1: we process it, and then we say and do what
Speaker 1: we intend to do what we are doing in terms
Speaker 1: of a reaction. And I think, like for me, that's
Speaker 1: been super important to my journey. It's been super important
Speaker 1: for Ryan I and something that again, it became a
Speaker 1: superpower because if you control your emotions, you're very powerful.
Speaker 1: If you're controlled by your emotions, you're not as powerful.
Speaker 1: And so I think like that was something that we
Speaker 1: learned really early on. But to your basketball question, I
Speaker 1: wish I would it could have been six foot ten
Speaker 1: and had had a different journey in terms of that.
Speaker 1: But everything works out the way that it's supposed to.
Speaker 1: So if I would have made the NBA, I probably
Speaker 1: wouldn't be on your podcast. Cha. So I'm I'm thankful
Speaker 1: for the journey that I've had. Oh yeah, No, I
Speaker 1: mean maybe you would. Maybe we've had some I'm trying
Speaker 1: to think now, who if we had from the NBA.
Speaker 1: We've had You had Dwayne weight On. I know that
Speaker 1: I just viewed Dwayne, who was amazing. We had Dennis
Speaker 1: Rodman on a couple of years ago, which was just
Speaker 1: fascinating conversation. Obviously, thankful to have had the opportunity to
Speaker 1: sit with Kobe Bryant. So so maybe out of maybe
Speaker 1: maybe it would have happened that way too. It would
Speaker 1: we would have been brought we would have been brought
Speaker 1: together either way. But no, I really appreciate this message,
Speaker 1: this pattern that's coming out through your whole journey of pivoting,
Speaker 1: of looking for being able to turn a situation something
Speaker 1: that looks like a failure or looks like a rejection
Speaker 1: and being able to turn that into a win. And
Speaker 1: sure it's easy to celebrate that now, but you know,
Speaker 1: you can only imagine when the news is the biggest
Speaker 1: organization in the world that is your target market to
Speaker 1: help promote and propel this brand is saying you're not allowed.
Speaker 1: And that as as a product creator can be really
Speaker 1: really challenging. You know, when you think about it's almost
Speaker 1: like saying, you know, this company is not going to
Speaker 1: stock your thing, or we're not going to allow you know.
Speaker 1: And so I love the way that I'm hearing this
Speaker 1: through your journey and how it's constantly shifted. I want
Speaker 1: to hear how do you and your brother make decisions?
Speaker 1: Have you created? Like? Because when I even met you,
Speaker 1: I what I experienced from you is your very methodical, strategic,
Speaker 1: very thoughtful. It's not you know, it's not random. This
Speaker 1: isn't just some random luck story. And I really appreciate
Speaker 1: that because I really admire conscious, intentional thinkers. Can you
Speaker 1: walk me through how you and your brother make decisions
Speaker 1: when it comes to the business, and then diving into
Speaker 1: things like recruitment and leadership, any of those areas that
Speaker 1: you want to dive into in stories you want to
Speaker 1: share of how have you made good decisions and what
Speaker 1: is your decision making process. So I think again to
Speaker 1: one of the speaking to the podcast when you had
Speaker 1: Ray dally on, I mean, the key to his entire
Speaker 1: successes is principles. And I think that a lot of
Speaker 1: times when you think back, think back on the things
Speaker 1: that you love the most, your most amazing journeys, your
Speaker 1: best experiences, they're usually spontaneous things. And the best of
Speaker 1: ability to be spontaneous is when you have a clear
Speaker 1: and methodical approach to how you make decisions, because it
Speaker 1: gives you a lot of room to be spontaneous because
Speaker 1: you know you can stay within this realm. And so
Speaker 1: for Ryan and I, when we think about how we're
Speaker 1: making decisions, we anchor them in clear deliverables that we
Speaker 1: have to achieve. And so I think like a lot
Speaker 1: of times when people want to make decisions, they try
Speaker 1: to make something for the moment, but they don't think
Speaker 1: of where that's going to lead them. And so back
Speaker 1: to thinking of the entire journey and the destination. I
Speaker 1: think you need to know when you're making this is
Speaker 1: a key decisions, not like the daily what you're going
Speaker 1: to have for breakfast, but like key long term decisions.
Speaker 1: Is you need to know where does this lead you?
Speaker 1: And where do you want it to lead you? What's
Speaker 1: the intention behind making this decision? And so I think
Speaker 1: that for us has been something that's been really really
Speaker 1: important is that Michael Burke, who's the CEO of Believe Theton,
Speaker 1: he gave me some of the best advice that I
Speaker 1: ever had, and which is you need to think about
Speaker 1: do you want to do something for the moment or
Speaker 1: do you want to do something to be dynastic. And
Speaker 1: he took it again. He gave this advice to us
Speaker 1: at the right moment in time. We heard it. And
Speaker 1: this is back I think twenty sixteen and Ryan and
Speaker 1: I always wanted to build something dynastic. And so if
Speaker 1: you want to build something dynastic and you want to
Speaker 1: bring people along for that journey, you have to make
Speaker 1: decisions and have the approach for the long term. You
Speaker 1: can't do it for the immediate. And so all of
Speaker 1: the decisions that we make are based on building essentially
Speaker 1: this house. If you want to build a house, you
Speaker 1: have to have a solid foundation. If you don't have
Speaker 1: a solid foundation, it doesn't matter what you put on
Speaker 1: top of it, because it won't last. And so the
Speaker 1: way that we look at is every decision we make
Speaker 1: is another brick in building this house. And so if
Speaker 1: you have one bad brick, you can replace it. But
Speaker 1: if you're constantly laying bad bricks and you're saying, oh,
Speaker 1: these are the best ones that I can get right now,
Speaker 1: but it may not last for a long term, but
Speaker 1: you're going to have to eventually replace it. And so
Speaker 1: the way that Ryan and I look at it is
Speaker 1: make fewer decisions, but make better decisions and take more time.
Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with saying no, like you say
Speaker 1: no ninety nine times, so that you can say yes
Speaker 1: the hundredth time, and that one hundredth time is worth
Speaker 1: more than one hundred acts, which you did if you
Speaker 1: would have said yes all of those other times. So
Speaker 1: when we're thinking about decisions, it's really keeping that at
Speaker 1: the heart of it is that where are we trying
Speaker 1: to go? Why are we trying to go? Here? How
Speaker 1: are we going to get there? And why should we
Speaker 1: say yes to this? And like, if you do that
Speaker 1: and you stand behind each of your decisions, you'll be
Speaker 1: proud of your decisions, and then you will typically make
Speaker 1: the right ones for yourself. You can't be right one
Speaker 1: hundred percent of time, and you shouldn't hold yourself to
Speaker 1: that standard, and it's irrational to do so. But if
Speaker 1: you feel confident in your decisions, the intention was right,
Speaker 1: and the people around you feel great about it, you
Speaker 1: will typically make the right decision. And I think like
Speaker 1: one of the things that Ryan I've always tried to
Speaker 1: do is make difficult things as simple as possible, which
Speaker 1: means move the excess you're thinking about a really challenging situation.
Speaker 1: Should I go here? Should I do this? In large
Speaker 1: scenarios and take away all of the excess from the decision.
Speaker 1: What's at the core of the problem, what's at the
Speaker 1: core of why you want to do this, and then
Speaker 1: evaluate that and be transparent and honest with yourself. Like
Speaker 1: a lot of times people don't want to be honest
Speaker 1: with themselves. They build up these other things and they
Speaker 1: take on these external factors and say, like, I'm doing
Speaker 1: this for other people and they're not really being transparent
Speaker 1: with themselves. But you inherently know what you should do,
Speaker 1: and you're going to make some wrong decisions along the road.
Speaker 1: And it's okay to make a wrong decision if the
Speaker 1: intention was right, but you don't want to make intentional
Speaker 1: wrong decisions. And like people do that all the time
Speaker 1: and they don't talk about it. And so I think, again,
Speaker 1: that's something we discovered early on in the thought making
Speaker 1: process and the decision processes. If we feel confident in
Speaker 1: it and the intention is right and it's for the
Speaker 1: long term, it's in line with the dynastic approach, and
Speaker 1: the people around us will embrace it, and that's the
Speaker 1: right decision. And sometimes it's simple. It's much more simple
Speaker 1: than you think it is. And I mean, we're complex creatures,
Speaker 1: so we can make any simple idea very complex. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've listened to enough of your podcasts and other people
Speaker 1: that are leaders in the space, and it's like the
Speaker 1: whole goal with whether it's meditation or anything else that
Speaker 1: you're doing, is you want to try and simplify the
Speaker 1: experience because that's when you get most of your clarity.
Speaker 1: And so when you're thinking through the decision making process.
Speaker 1: That's what you try to do is try to make
Speaker 1: it as clear as possible. The easiest way to do
Speaker 1: so is to make it as simple as possible. Adam
Speaker 1: master Class and decision Making right there. I mean, that
Speaker 1: was brilliant. I love this because you know it's these
Speaker 1: things you're just thrown around, and I can tell that
Speaker 1: how much grappling you've done with the idea and how
Speaker 1: you've simplified the idea for yourself, and you're so right
Speaker 1: that the reason why decision making often feels so hard
Speaker 1: is we're allowing noise in and distractions, and then we're
Speaker 1: not really asking the right questions, We're not asking the
Speaker 1: right people, We're looking at it from the wrong direction.
Speaker 1: I loved something you said that You said that people
Speaker 1: sometimes make intentionally wrong decisions. Can you explain and expand
Speaker 1: on that a little bit more about how we do that.
Speaker 1: I read an amazing book when I was like, I
Speaker 1: think I was only sixteen seventeen years old, and I
Speaker 1: read a book called Predictably Irrational by Dan O'Riley is
Speaker 1: one of my favorite authors, and he wrote a book
Speaker 1: talking about how humans make predictably irrational decisions. All the time,
Speaker 1: and I read that book and I was like, no way,
Speaker 1: I thought I was smart. And then you read that
Speaker 1: book and you realize, wait a minute, you're not as
Speaker 1: smart as you think you are, because so many decisions
Speaker 1: are the way things are presented. And what you miss
Speaker 1: taught me about what you meant when you said we
Speaker 1: make tentionally wrong decisions and how we end up that
Speaker 1: because sometimes I think we're not good at making the
Speaker 1: right decisions because we don't know where we go wrong. Well,
Speaker 1: so I think a lot of times it's you don't
Speaker 1: know why you are making the decisions. So most of
Speaker 1: the time people can be pressured. And again this is
Speaker 1: back to like a peer pressure situation, is that you
Speaker 1: can be pressured into making a decision and you at
Speaker 1: your core and know that this is not the right decision,
Speaker 1: but you believe that you need to make this decision,
Speaker 1: and so in every instance you can't make the right decisions.
Speaker 1: So that's not what I'm trying to say. But there's
Speaker 1: we can all point to moments in our lives and
Speaker 1: we've done it where we said yes to something, or
Speaker 1: we do something knowing we should not do it. There's
Speaker 1: so many things that happened because of that, and there's
Speaker 1: so many results of that the compound and become worse
Speaker 1: and worse and worse because we do these things that
Speaker 1: we don't truthfully believe in and know that they're not
Speaker 1: right for us to do. And so I think a
Speaker 1: lot of times, think back to your worst decisions, or
Speaker 1: the decisions that people make that they're not necessarily proud of,
Speaker 1: or even just the wrong decision. They knew what the
Speaker 1: right one was, they intentionally ignored it because they thought
Speaker 1: so somebody might be upset if I say yes, or
Speaker 1: it's usually they're making it for someone else or not
Speaker 1: making it for themselves, so they don't put themselves at
Speaker 1: the center of this decision. They're putting others there. And
Speaker 1: you can't help other people if you can't help yourself.
Speaker 1: And so I know it's a difficult thing and you
Speaker 1: can't apply to every situation, but I learned, really I'd
Speaker 1: say early on that if I'm in a place of
Speaker 1: strength and I'm in a place of support, I can
Speaker 1: help you much better than if I'm intentionally just trying
Speaker 1: to help you. And I know I'm going to be
Speaker 1: at a disadvantage. I'm not going to be able to
Speaker 1: help you. I can help someone much better from a
Speaker 1: position of power than I can a position of weakness.
Speaker 1: And that's like using power as a positive, not as
Speaker 1: a negative. And so I think that when people are
Speaker 1: making these intentional wrong decisions, a lot of times they're
Speaker 1: not coming from a bad place. They're coming from a
Speaker 1: place or they think they need to do it to
Speaker 1: help others, but they're they're not going to be in
Speaker 1: a position to do it. So I think that I
Speaker 1: identify that relatively early on because I felt that when
Speaker 1: I felt the best, I could help more people and
Speaker 1: I can make better decisions. And again, it's back to
Speaker 1: like happiness as the core of success. Right. If you're
Speaker 1: happy and you have that energy, and you have that charisma,
Speaker 1: and you have all of the things that resonate from you,
Speaker 1: people will gravitate towards you. But if you're pushing out
Speaker 1: negative and it's and people don't feel good about being
Speaker 1: around you, they're intentionally making bad decisions. You should not
Speaker 1: go around somebody like that. And so I think that
Speaker 1: a lot of times it doesn't come from a place
Speaker 1: of negativity or or something that's bad. It comes from
Speaker 1: that you're trying to help somebody, and you're intentionally making
Speaker 1: the wrong decision and you end up hurting everybody instead
Speaker 1: of helping them. So I think that again, it's not
Speaker 1: being selfish, it's taking care of yourself so that you
Speaker 1: can help others. And I think, like again, when you
Speaker 1: think of intention, you think of like purpose. If you
Speaker 1: do it from a positive place, and you do it
Speaker 1: from a place where you think you can help yourself,
Speaker 1: you can help others, you're gonna make the right decisions.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's that's how you avoid those
Speaker 1: intentional bad decisions that are intentional wrong decisions, because they
Speaker 1: don't lead to too much for anybody, They just end
Speaker 1: up hurting it. If someone right now is listening and
Speaker 1: they want to start a business side hustle, really build something,
Speaker 1: what's the first three things they should be thinking about.
Speaker 1: If someone's listening right now, going Adam's advice is great,
Speaker 1: I have an idea I want to get started. What's
Speaker 1: the first three things that they should do? Well, I
Speaker 1: think it depends on what the type of businesses, But
Speaker 1: I think the first thing you need to do is
Speaker 1: identify how you're going to start it. And so I
Speaker 1: think you need to know, like You can have the
Speaker 1: best idea in the world, but ideas don't matter much
Speaker 1: if you don't have execution behind it. So I think
Speaker 1: you need to figure out how are you going to
Speaker 1: execute it. Two, I think you need to figure out
Speaker 1: what you don't know in terms of where you want
Speaker 1: to go and who you can ask to help you
Speaker 1: get there. And then three, you need to understand that
Speaker 1: it's going to be longer, harder, and more expensive than
Speaker 1: you think it will be, but it will also be
Speaker 1: more rewarding, so you have to have that same type
Speaker 1: of energy as you go through it. I think there's
Speaker 1: clear specific things that apply to different businesses, so I
Speaker 1: don't think there's generalizations more so the idea. But starting anything,
Speaker 1: the easiest way to do it is one step at
Speaker 1: a time, and you will become better every day, even
Speaker 1: if it doesn't feel like it. But repetition leads to progress,
Speaker 1: and so I think that that's really really important when
Speaker 1: you're starting something. And again, like you have to believe
Speaker 1: in yourself, because belief is different than hope. Hoping for
Speaker 1: things won't get you very far, but belief in things
Speaker 1: will get you very very far. So I think that
Speaker 1: that's those are key underlying principles to those three things.
Speaker 1: But starting anything is the easiest way to get to
Speaker 1: where you want to go for sure. For sure, can you, Adam,
Speaker 1: I want to shift from your mind and your ideas
Speaker 1: and the way you think to how you live. Can
Speaker 1: you take us through a day in the life of Adam, like,
Speaker 1: how does it start, how does it end? What does
Speaker 1: it look like? What's been your routine more recently? What
Speaker 1: are some things that you've changed over time that I've
Speaker 1: actually created momentum and acceleration. So it's funny because my
Speaker 1: schedule is completely different than I'm sure yours in most
Speaker 1: in general, And I think this again, becoming comfortable with
Speaker 1: who you are. This was was a process, and I
Speaker 1: didn't have the ability early on in the journey. I
Speaker 1: do have much more of an ability of it now.
Speaker 1: But I go to sleep at on nearly four am
Speaker 1: every day and I will wake up closer to eleven am.
Speaker 1: So I think a lot of times when they think
Speaker 1: of entrepreneurs and people in my position, they think you're
Speaker 1: up at five or six am, You're beating the sun.
Speaker 1: But I'm the exact opposite. And I found that my
Speaker 1: greatest point of inspiration and joy is typically during the
Speaker 1: nighttime when there is less activity, because I can focus
Speaker 1: on where we want to go, what we want to do,
Speaker 1: and also on myself and back to inherently known who
Speaker 1: I was, and my brother as well. We've known since
Speaker 1: we were fifteen or sixteen that the night schedule worked
Speaker 1: better for us, but we didn't have an ability to
Speaker 1: implement it because we were in high school, we were
Speaker 1: in college, and then when we're starting the business, you
Speaker 1: have to be on other people's more traditional I guess,
Speaker 1: like calendar, the schedule, and so as we got to
Speaker 1: higher levels, we were able to continually shift it. And
Speaker 1: obviously we have people on our team that supplement the
Speaker 1: early mornings and whatnot. We worked the late nights. But
Speaker 1: I really embraced what my natural predisposition was for my schedules,
Speaker 1: and I knew that I would be better if I
Speaker 1: could operate on this schedule, and that just like morning
Speaker 1: people love to be up in the morning, I love
Speaker 1: to just push it as far as I can late
Speaker 1: into the night. And I think there's nothing wrong with it.
Speaker 1: In a lot of times, it doesn't get glorified because
Speaker 1: it's it's a difficult schedule. It doesn't work for everybody,
Speaker 1: it's it's not essentially normal, but for me, it's been
Speaker 1: the absolute best thing. And being able to build my
Speaker 1: schedule the way that I want, I believe is the
Speaker 1: ultimate luxury. Because again, if you can control your time
Speaker 1: and not necessarily what happens throughout your time, but to
Speaker 1: control how you allocate your time, most people would rather
Speaker 1: have ten minutes of you at one hundred percent than
Speaker 1: three hours of you at twenty percent. You can't, even
Speaker 1: though you spend more time, you can't give them all
Speaker 1: of you. And so one of the things that I
Speaker 1: identified as I was building my schedule this way and
Speaker 1: really leading into it, is I can give people one
Speaker 1: hundred percent of my effort when I'm on a schedule
Speaker 1: that aligns with when I want to go to sleep
Speaker 1: and when I want to wake up, and also when
Speaker 1: I want to work out if I can, if I
Speaker 1: can anchor those specific things, I can give everybody much
Speaker 1: more of myself in a shorter period of time. And again,
Speaker 1: like I've heard you speak about it before, and you
Speaker 1: said it beautifully, and it's true, like most of the
Speaker 1: people in your life, Jade, they would prefer for you
Speaker 1: to have beat with them for ten minutes give them
Speaker 1: one hundred percent of jade. It's an amazing experience. And
Speaker 1: for you to be sitting in the room on your phone,
Speaker 1: dozing off and not giving them the energy that not
Speaker 1: only they deserve, but that you deserve to give them.
Speaker 1: And so I think that that's something that I identify
Speaker 1: through how I built my schedule now, I mean, I
Speaker 1: work out every single day, and I think that's for me.
Speaker 1: It's a really important thing because discipline has been something
Speaker 1: that has been pivotal to our journey too, And I
Speaker 1: believe that with discipline, if you anchor yourself through specific things,
Speaker 1: it gives you more Freedom's discipline is something that opens
Speaker 1: you up and gives you more opportunities, first to be spontaneous.
Speaker 1: More freedom is because you have clear pillars, clear anchors.
Speaker 1: It's like if you're playing a video game, you get
Speaker 1: to the checkpoint, you can be more brave in your
Speaker 1: action because you know you can always go back to
Speaker 1: the checkpoint. So like that's the way I live my
Speaker 1: day to day life. I try to have specific windows
Speaker 1: where I'll do calls, but then I leave everything else
Speaker 1: essentially open because I love the chaos in a positive way,
Speaker 1: and I love the spontaneity in a positive way. And
Speaker 1: I think that if for me at least, this is
Speaker 1: the way I found my schedule, If it's two back
Speaker 1: to back to back to back and schedule it out there,
Speaker 1: there's no real opportunity for the spontaneous excitement, which I
Speaker 1: think that we all need to have in one way
Speaker 1: or another. And I don't think that it's the same
Speaker 1: for everybody, but I think that you have to leave
Speaker 1: yourself the ability to discover something, or to discover a
Speaker 1: relationship you didn't think was going to happen, or a
Speaker 1: partnership you didn't think was going to happen, or a
Speaker 1: friendship or things of that nature. And I think that
Speaker 1: being able to anchor myself and known I'm doing this
Speaker 1: these few things, that these few times, leaving this window
Speaker 1: open so that I can try things again. Like the
Speaker 1: greatest opportunities I've ever had have come from taking a
Speaker 1: chance on something and then anchoring it in the way
Speaker 1: that I live my life through my schedule. And so
Speaker 1: again it's something that I've had to work towards it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like that on day one. It's as you
Speaker 1: get further in the journey, you hone it in more.
Speaker 1: You have more opportunity to try things, and you have
Speaker 1: more control. I think, like again, one of the key
Speaker 1: things for me in terms of success is control over
Speaker 1: schedule and control over time. You don't get to you
Speaker 1: don't know how much time you have, but if you
Speaker 1: can control how you allocate that time, that's truthfully the
Speaker 1: greatest luxury. And that's something that I think is pivotal success.
Speaker 1: And I think again, when we're thinking about our teams,
Speaker 1: specifically in the headquarters, everybody has different schedules because everybody
Speaker 1: works differently, and I've seen how positive it's been for
Speaker 1: Ryan and I and so we try to translate that
Speaker 1: to the team as well. I love hearing about how
Speaker 1: different your schedule is to mind because it still represents
Speaker 1: the same thing to both of us. So you still
Speaker 1: have discipline, you still have focused, you're still prioritized around
Speaker 1: when you can be creative. It's based on self awareness
Speaker 1: and what's good for you and right for you. So
Speaker 1: the values that we're choosing our schedule on is the same. Like,
Speaker 1: there's a very similar value set and it just looks
Speaker 1: different and that's actually the beauty of life like that,
Speaker 1: And I think that's where we go wrong. Where we
Speaker 1: go you know, in a few years, people are going
Speaker 1: to be saying, oh, yeah, I need to do what
Speaker 1: Adams do. I need to sleep at four am, and
Speaker 1: you know, and it's like, well that's not really going
Speaker 1: to work. All people can be looking at again, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I need to wake up like you know, like I
Speaker 1: need to go to sleep. It when Jay doesn't wait
Speaker 1: and it's like, well, that's not really what we're saying.
Speaker 1: What we're saying is if you're self aware and you
Speaker 1: create discipline and rhythm in your life and space for spontaneity,
Speaker 1: then you've got to figure out what works for you
Speaker 1: and where it works for you. And so I love
Speaker 1: hearing how different our schedules are because it just proves
Speaker 1: that there are multiple ways that it can look, even
Speaker 1: though there's a depth of why they're created that way.
Speaker 1: And in addition to that, what I really appreciated you
Speaker 1: were talking about is I think we think of discipline
Speaker 1: as ease of either back to back, and we think
Speaker 1: of laziness or spontaneity as completely free. And what you've
Speaker 1: actually said is what discipline is is that you've created
Speaker 1: a discipline where you can be what I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about a lot lately is you can be effective and efficient,
Speaker 1: and efficiency is often seen as discipline. But efficiency means
Speaker 1: you do a lot of stuff, but effectiveness means you
Speaker 1: do important stuff. And I think that's what I'm seeing
Speaker 1: is missing in so many of our lives, is that
Speaker 1: we're trying to be efficient. We do the laundry, do
Speaker 1: the dishes, we spoke to the team, we check this off,
Speaker 1: check this off, check this off. But then you're like, well,
Speaker 1: I haven't had any creative inspiration today, haven't been effective,
Speaker 1: And so I'm really glad that you actually explain discipline
Speaker 1: to be the meeting of efficiency and effectiveness together. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you said it in an efficient and effective way,
Speaker 1: the way that you just like illustrated what I was
Speaker 1: trying to get across. But it's but it's true, Like
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times people think of discipline
Speaker 1: as something that lacks freedom, but discipline is the thread
Speaker 1: in the opportunity that gives you freedom. And so I think,
Speaker 1: and again, you as you become more efficient, you can
Speaker 1: become more effective. But it's hard to be effective if
Speaker 1: you're not efficient. And so I think again, you you
Speaker 1: said it in an amazing way, and you took a
Speaker 1: complex thing and you digested it. But it's it's been
Speaker 1: a really paramount and I think it's something that is
Speaker 1: the way that my life has has gone. And again,
Speaker 1: like I think that we have the same theories you
Speaker 1: and I are in terms of what we want to
Speaker 1: accomplish from our day to day lives. We do it
Speaker 1: at a different time, Like I'm working out at midnight,
Speaker 1: you're doing things early in the morning. But it's we're
Speaker 1: looking to get the same type of result. And I
Speaker 1: think again, when you were talking about being self aware,
Speaker 1: that is the absolute most important thing. If you tried,
Speaker 1: if I tried to work your schedule, it wouldn't do
Speaker 1: the same thing for me. If you try to do mine,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't work. But I think the fact that we've
Speaker 1: both been transparent, honest with ourselves and self aware of
Speaker 1: what makes us show up as best as we possibly can,
Speaker 1: and then that makes us better for other people. And
Speaker 1: so I think for us, like that's that's being an
Speaker 1: incredible way to phrase it. Yeah, And I and I
Speaker 1: respect and appreciate that in you so much because I
Speaker 1: think there is a noise. I mean, I get different noise.
Speaker 1: So my noise is, hey, j why don't you hang
Speaker 1: out late? Like why don't you come to this? Why
Speaker 1: don't it right? And then your noise as well, if
Speaker 1: you're an entrepreneur whose discipline, shouldn't you be waking up earlier?
Speaker 1: And you know, And it's just really interesting, like, no
Speaker 1: matter what you do, there's going to be someone who
Speaker 1: disagrees with it, and that's why it has to and
Speaker 1: that's why I respect what you just shit. So I'm
Speaker 1: so happy to hear that you have this. I had
Speaker 1: no idea that that was your schedule. Now I know
Speaker 1: when to spend time with you, and you know, and
Speaker 1: I really like that because I really hope that everyone
Speaker 1: who's listening you're feeling more confidence that you're not doing
Speaker 1: it wrong, if you're doing what's right for you. But
Speaker 1: notice that Adam and I are still basing it on
Speaker 1: values of discipline, of focus, of creativity. It's not that
Speaker 1: Adam is not just saying I do whatever I want,
Speaker 1: whenever I want, and there's there's no structure. He still
Speaker 1: even has a sleep You still have a sleep routine.
Speaker 1: It sounds like when you're like, yeah, for am to eleven,
Speaker 1: am right, there's still a routine, and so that's what
Speaker 1: I find is really healthy. Adam, this has been so
Speaker 1: powerful because what I love about the way you talk
Speaker 1: about entrepreneurship is that it's strategic and intentional, but then
Speaker 1: there's the spontaneity and creativity. And I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: see what you continue to build. It's, you know, your
Speaker 1: twelve years in and I cannot wait to see you
Speaker 1: just continue to crush I mean you're already crushing it,
Speaker 1: but but for the business continue to grow and grow
Speaker 1: and grow. I wanted to ask you before we come
Speaker 1: to the final five around creativity and innovation, and you
Speaker 1: spoke about spontaneity there meeting someone random, like bumping into
Speaker 1: an idea. I love that so much. What has been
Speaker 1: your secret to creativity and innovation? Where have you continue
Speaker 1: to find that that discipline and that connection. So I
Speaker 1: think one of our I guess one of our I
Speaker 1: don't know if secrets is the right word. But again
Speaker 1: back to my brother, like the fact that there's two
Speaker 1: of us and that we're able to go through life
Speaker 1: together and we've had similar experiences. I mean, my brother
Speaker 1: like to be fully transparent, is more creative than I
Speaker 1: am and like when we're thinking of color stories and
Speaker 1: what that. Ryan's always building these beautiful color stories. Cody,
Speaker 1: who's our design directors amazing. Jake and is our content director,
Speaker 1: He's incredible. Sam who heads of social she is she's
Speaker 1: amazing as well, and just the whole team. Like it's
Speaker 1: I could go on and on. But one of the
Speaker 1: things that I discovered, and this actually came from my mom,
Speaker 1: so and you wouldn't know it based on what my
Speaker 1: life has become, but until I was twenty five years old.
Speaker 1: I'm thirty four now, so you know, maybe even older.
Speaker 1: This is like two thousand and thirteen until, but let's
Speaker 1: use twenty five is the number. Until twenty five years old,
Speaker 1: I hardly have ever left the country. I left the
Speaker 1: country one time twice. Actually I went to Mexico one time,
Speaker 1: and I went to London one time, and it's like
Speaker 1: each one was for two days. And then when I'm
Speaker 1: twenty five, my mom basically says, like, you guys need
Speaker 1: to do more and see more things. You need to
Speaker 1: discover more things because we were so laser focused on
Speaker 1: what we're going to do. So a lot of the
Speaker 1: things that I've reflected on today with Uja is things
Speaker 1: I've learned more specifically over the last six or seven
Speaker 1: years in terms of like the spontaneity, the freedom, and
Speaker 1: I've always had to scipline, but it was almost at
Speaker 1: a level that was too high. And so my mom
Speaker 1: had said you need to they were going to Hong
Speaker 1: Kong and she was and it was for this wedding.
Speaker 1: She's like, you need you need to come like an
Speaker 1: old family friend, you have to come to this wedding.
Speaker 1: And I had no intention of traveling overseas. Long story short,
Speaker 1: I end up Ryan and I end up going. It's
Speaker 1: the most incredible trip, just like going outside of the country,
Speaker 1: seeing something completely different, changing our perspective. And when we're there,
Speaker 1: we get inspired by this bridge and this bridge that
Speaker 1: never I'd never seen pictures of it anything. We get
Speaker 1: inspired by this bridge. We end up creating a shoe
Speaker 1: based on this. We end up going to another another
Speaker 1: country years later inspired by that. And so I think
Speaker 1: that travel allowed us to change our point of view,
Speaker 1: change our perspective. And you're thinking of creativity a lot
Speaker 1: of time is just things in your day to day
Speaker 1: life that when you're thinking about repetition, you don't pay
Speaker 1: attention to it because it comes almost a second aagure,
Speaker 1: it's recurring. But when you go to a new place,
Speaker 1: everything is new. You have to pay attention to your
Speaker 1: surroundings because it's uncomfortable, not necessarily negative way, but in
Speaker 1: a positive way. You get all of the stimulation through
Speaker 1: your senses. You're seeing things, you're meeting people. And so
Speaker 1: when my mom pushed me out of my comfort zone,
Speaker 1: then it completely changed the way that I was viewing
Speaker 1: the world, and it made it so that I was
Speaker 1: much more open to receiving what the world had than
Speaker 1: just pushing what I wanted to do or what the
Speaker 1: intention was. And so I think like that made it
Speaker 1: so it's kind of like I don't know if you remember,
Speaker 1: on the old cell phone signals, when you would make
Speaker 1: it a call going out with like an arrow pushing
Speaker 1: like this, but when someone sending you a message, it's
Speaker 1: going both ways. And so that's kind of what that
Speaker 1: calibration did to how we discover creativity. And now, like
Speaker 1: one of the things the greatest things that inspires me
Speaker 1: is movement, whether it's movement in cars, movement on foot,
Speaker 1: movement in the air. And so I think like movement
Speaker 1: in general, changing your surrounding. It's not necessarily going to
Speaker 1: another country or another state, but even going anywhere, just discovering.
Speaker 1: I think the opportunity for movement, that's really where the
Speaker 1: creativity came for us. And then again, I think that
Speaker 1: if you can take an idea, lean into it and
Speaker 1: see like and speak to why this makes you feel different,
Speaker 1: you'll find inspiration in it. And I think that for us,
Speaker 1: like we have an incredible team that finds inspiration in
Speaker 1: different places, and then we're able to talk about it.
Speaker 1: And the greatest thing you can do is be a
Speaker 1: great communicator, because if you can articulate what your vision
Speaker 1: is and whether that's through verbal, whether it's through art,
Speaker 1: whether it's through anything, people will understand and people will
Speaker 1: feel it. Not everybody will, but some people will. And
Speaker 1: I think like that's one of the things that's gone
Speaker 1: really really far for us is that we've been able
Speaker 1: to take these inspirational things like our Streamline shoe, which
Speaker 1: is my favorite one is inspired by Japanese Soufway pancakes
Speaker 1: from when Ryan and I were in Tokyo and like
Speaker 1: Ryan's obsessed with them, but we took that and we
Speaker 1: made it into a shoe, and so it's like you
Speaker 1: never know where the inspiration is going to come from,
Speaker 1: but if you allow yourself to receive it, you can
Speaker 1: get it. And I think like that's something that a
Speaker 1: lot of people don't think of. They think they have
Speaker 1: to put it out there and push it, but a
Speaker 1: lot of times just receiving what's around you will give
Speaker 1: you a lot of inspiration into what you should do.
Speaker 1: I am so glad to ask you that question. I
Speaker 1: was about to not ask you that question, but I'm
Speaker 1: so happy. And even though you're giving, of course, which
Speaker 1: is wonderful to hear, the credit to your team and
Speaker 1: your brother for being there, you know, creative ones, but
Speaker 1: the fact that you've been able to observe that and
Speaker 1: see that that's where it's come from, and the example
Speaker 1: from your mother too, I love that. Adam, Adam, You've
Speaker 1: just this has been phenomenal and I hope this is
Speaker 1: the first of many. I mean, I want you to
Speaker 1: I want you to come back on the show regularly
Speaker 1: and give us updates as things continue to grow for
Speaker 1: you and apl and your brother and as I said,
Speaker 1: massive fan supporter, getting to hang out with you at
Speaker 1: a pumpkin patch was the weirdest place that I ever
Speaker 1: thought me and you would meet each other. But it was.
Speaker 1: We had a great time because we just had a
Speaker 1: much We just had a personal growth, self development, like
Speaker 1: you know, complete connection there. But Adam, these are your
Speaker 1: final five. You know the drill. It's rapid fire. Do
Speaker 1: one word to one sentence maximum. You've you've heard everyone,
Speaker 1: so you should have had enough practice by now. But
Speaker 1: Adam Galston, there is a your final five. Are you ready?
Speaker 1: I'm excited? Awesome? All right? So the first question is
Speaker 1: what is the best advice you've ever received. I have
Speaker 1: to mix two because I think it's important. The first
Speaker 1: is and they because they go together. First is when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, my dad would say, if you
Speaker 1: touch it, you can catch it. It was about sports,
Speaker 1: but I think it's applicable of the life, which is,
Speaker 1: if something's within your grass, you can get close enough,
Speaker 1: you can't make it yours, and it is possible, so
Speaker 1: you have to if it's in your sight, you can
Speaker 1: make it yours. The next thing that aligns with that
Speaker 1: is Larry Ellison, and again I heard this at the
Speaker 1: right moment in time, said, the larger the apparent risk,
Speaker 1: the fewer people that will try to go there. And
Speaker 1: so that's basically is is if it seems scary, it
Speaker 1: seems risky, but you have the deep down belief fewer
Speaker 1: people will try to do it, so you actually have
Speaker 1: a competitive advantage. And I heard that when Ryan I
Speaker 1: were thinking about starting APOL, So that kind of was
Speaker 1: all I needed to hear and it pushed us over
Speaker 1: the edge. You know, I love those answers so much
Speaker 1: because you know, I think about the things in my
Speaker 1: life as well. There are just lines that I live
Speaker 1: my life by. It it's exactly what you're saying. Like,
Speaker 1: it's not like you knew those people, or it's not
Speaker 1: like you added like a ten hour conversation with them.
Speaker 1: It was just you heard someone say something that what
Speaker 1: you said earlier. So one of Einstein's lines is if
Speaker 1: you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough.
Speaker 1: And that is what I live my life by. I'm like,
Speaker 1: if I can read as many books as I want,
Speaker 1: but if I can't explain that idea with simplicity, then
Speaker 1: what's the point. And that's kind of what I've built
Speaker 1: my life around. And then there's another beautiful thought by
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King, which is the people who love peace
Speaker 1: need to learn to organize themselves as well as those
Speaker 1: who love war. And I love that because that's kind
Speaker 1: of where I get my you know, I want to
Speaker 1: be empathetic, compassionate, loving kind, but I want to accelerate
Speaker 1: in the most strategic, focus driven way because you can't
Speaker 1: just be this fluffy woo woo kind of vibe because
Speaker 1: that doesn't make change. And so those two and those
Speaker 1: are not two that I have been familiar with, those thoughts,
Speaker 1: and I'm that one about risk. I mean, that's going
Speaker 1: to stay with me for a long time. So I
Speaker 1: really appreciate you sharing that with me. And I hope
Speaker 1: everyone who's listening can realize that you don't need to
Speaker 1: meet someone, you don't need to you don't even need
Speaker 1: to interview them. If that, you know, you could literally
Speaker 1: just hear one line and it could change your life.
Speaker 1: So love those answers, beautiful answers, All right, Adams. Second question,
Speaker 1: what's the worst advice you've ever heard or received? It
Speaker 1: was actually around the time when I heard what Larry
Speaker 1: Ellison said about risk, and it was when we were
Speaker 1: in school and Ryan was in the business program and
Speaker 1: somebody had told him, don't even try it, and the
Speaker 1: idea was like, you can't possibly do this because you
Speaker 1: don't know how to do it. But I think that
Speaker 1: if you try something and you fail, you tried it,
Speaker 1: you'll learn for the next part of the journey. But
Speaker 1: if you never try it, then you automatically fail. And
Speaker 1: so I think, like that thing, and again, I know
Speaker 1: it's it's not as much of a nugget as the
Speaker 1: other ones, but don't even try. I think so many
Speaker 1: of us hear that throughout our lives and it gets
Speaker 1: conditioning to us. So I think, flip that just try it,
Speaker 1: but don't even try it as the worst piece of
Speaker 1: advice that Eve ever question on the three top five
Speaker 1: rappers of all time because I know that this we
Speaker 1: didn't get into this, but I know that I love
Speaker 1: rap music and hip hop music too. I grew up
Speaker 1: when I know that it's a big part of your life.
Speaker 1: So let's hear your top five Nipsey Hustle, Rick Ross,
Speaker 1: jay Z, Young Jeezy and t I. Nice. Great list.
Speaker 1: Great list. We literally I literally just interviewed Lauren London
Speaker 1: earlier today, who's a dear friend of mine, and she
Speaker 1: was you know married to Nipseys. So I mean it's
Speaker 1: like not to not to get off topic, but like
Speaker 1: a lot of Nipsey's thoughts on entrepreneurship, and I mean
Speaker 1: I had a few great conversations with him when he
Speaker 1: was alive, but like the way that he looked at it,
Speaker 1: it was and we used to talk about it like
Speaker 1: it was so similar to the way that we thought
Speaker 1: about apl like in terms of building something independently from
Speaker 1: the ground up. Like I Ryan, I spoke at Harvard
Speaker 1: at the Harvard Business School and one of the things
Speaker 1: that we talked about, and this was right before Nipsey
Speaker 1: passed away, was he did this interview and he talked
Speaker 1: about taking the stairs, not the elevator. And that's been
Speaker 1: paramount to our journey. So I think, like I'm in
Speaker 1: a fan. I was a fan of his when I
Speaker 1: was in college because I went to USC's from South
Speaker 1: Central So like we were hearing it at when we're
Speaker 1: in the locker room and everything like that. But just
Speaker 1: what Nipsey did, what his thought processes an entrepreneurship, and
Speaker 1: just like building the people up around you, if you
Speaker 1: build within your community, you can help so many other people.
Speaker 1: And if you start local can take it much further.
Speaker 1: And just like not only was the incredibly talented, but
Speaker 1: like he was just like such a like he was
Speaker 1: a leader, and he was a thought provoking person and
Speaker 1: he lived what he said. And so I think, like again,
Speaker 1: like he was he was super super super inspirational in
Speaker 1: addition to being an incredible rapper. I love that man,
Speaker 1: Thank you for adding that note. That's you know, that's
Speaker 1: that's beautiful inside and I'm really glad again I asked
Speaker 1: that question because it led to an even deeper takeaway,
Speaker 1: all right, question before, how would you define your current
Speaker 1: purpose in life? I think it's maximizing each day in
Speaker 1: staying focused on the future. So I think it's being
Speaker 1: able to enjoy the present, but it's still being excited
Speaker 1: about the future. Like that that's really really important to me,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what gives you energy to keep
Speaker 1: going forward, is just enjoying today but being excited about
Speaker 1: the future. All right, Adam. In fifth and final question,
Speaker 1: what is something that you used to value but you
Speaker 1: no longer value? Probably nostalgia. I mean I think that
Speaker 1: I get so excited about what I'm doing today, where
Speaker 1: we're going in the future, and I think I've done
Speaker 1: amazing things, and we've we've done incredible things. But a
Speaker 1: lot of times we live in the past and we
Speaker 1: don't and that keeps us from enjoying the present. And
Speaker 1: so I think that I can appreciate the past, but
Speaker 1: I definitely but I definitely love the president and I'm
Speaker 1: excited about the future. And I think that that shift
Speaker 1: of perspective has been something that's really been important to
Speaker 1: my journey and also just my happiness as a person.
Speaker 1: That is such a good answer. We've never had that before.
Speaker 1: And I love that answer because I couldn't agree with
Speaker 1: you more. I you know, I always saw individuals who
Speaker 1: lived as if their best years had already gone, and
Speaker 1: that's such a hard way to live because life is
Speaker 1: so much longer than you think it is. And so
Speaker 1: that is a beautiful answer. Everyone, make sure you follow
Speaker 1: Adam across social media so you can connect. To make
Speaker 1: sure you follow apl across social media, and I want
Speaker 1: you to make sure that you tag me and Adam
Speaker 1: and APL and any insights that you gained from this episode.
Speaker 1: There are tons. Like I said, I hope you're making notes.
Speaker 1: Second of all, go listen to it. Again if you
Speaker 1: weren't making notes. Third thing, recognize that Adam is a
Speaker 1: true modern entrepreneur. Like it's highly strategic, it's highly focused,
Speaker 1: there's creativity, there's spontaneity. There are so many lessons to
Speaker 1: learn from this incredible human and Adam, I've had so
Speaker 1: much fun today. I've learned so much from you. I
Speaker 1: think there have been moments in this interview where you've
Speaker 1: said things that are going to stay with me for
Speaker 1: a very very long time, and I personally am going
Speaker 1: to make sure that I apply them in my life.
Speaker 1: So I want to thank you for those gifts. And
Speaker 1: I cannot wait to continue our friendship, to continue to
Speaker 1: see you succeed and win and continue to build. And
Speaker 1: I'm excited to be a part of the journy man.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Thank you, Jay Iman. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And I think like you've done so much to inspire
Speaker 1: so many people. And I mean, there's a reason why
Speaker 1: you have the number one health podcast in the world,
Speaker 1: and it's just people can come here, they can learn
Speaker 1: a lot, but they can be inspired. And I think,
Speaker 1: like the greatest gift you can give to someone's inspiration.
Speaker 1: And then you've got to leave it up to them
Speaker 1: to execute. But you've done a lot of amazing things
Speaker 1: for so many people, and I couldn't be happier to
Speaker 1: be a part of it. And again, like just becoming
Speaker 1: friends with you and getting to know you over like
Speaker 1: in recent time has been incredible. So I'm happy that
Speaker 1: we have this friendship. I'm happy I could be here today,
Speaker 1: and I appreciate your support. And obviously I hope that
Speaker 1: everybody listening to this just takes us as something that
Speaker 1: can help push them, even if it's just one step forward,
Speaker 1: just take something and make their lives more enriching. It
Speaker 1: definitely will, Man, it definitely will. Thank you, Adam, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for coming on the show. Thank you
Speaker 1: everyone for listening. Make sure you share this and post
Speaker 1: it on and I'll see you next time.