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Speaker 1: What Up. It's Dramas and this is the Street Stoic Podcast,

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Speaker 1: bringing you your daily dose of timeless Stoic philosophy remixed

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Speaker 1: for the hip hop generation. Now, with that in mind,

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Speaker 1: let's get things started with your daily shot of inspiration. Now. Today,

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Speaker 1: we're gonna be focusing on the Stoic principle of persistence

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Speaker 1: and resistance. Right, It's all about progress, not perfection. And

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Speaker 1: that's the idea that we're going to kind of be

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Speaker 1: basing today's show. All around is this idea of getting

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Speaker 1: rid of the over perfectionists in all of us and

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Speaker 1: recognizing that there is no perfect way or perfect thing.

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Speaker 1: It is all about progress. And I want to I

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Speaker 1: want to first start with a Stoic quote, and this

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Speaker 1: comes to us from Epictetus, and he says, if anyone

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Speaker 1: would take these two words to heart and use them

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Speaker 1: for his own guidance and regulation, he will be almost

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Speaker 1: without sin and will lead a very peaceful life. These

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Speaker 1: two words he said are persist and resist. And I

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Speaker 1: especially love that last word right there, resists, right, because

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Speaker 1: that's something I feel like isn't often spoken about, right,

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Speaker 1: especially when you're talking about in the world of personal

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Speaker 1: growth or motivation, self help, whatever you want to call it.

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Speaker 1: We talk about persistence and consistency and hard work and dedication,

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Speaker 1: all these different things, right, but there's also an amount

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Speaker 1: of resistance that you have to be able to build up,

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Speaker 1: that you have to develop in your life. Because think

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Speaker 1: about all that we're taught as kids, you know, be its, society,

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Speaker 1: being culture, our parents. They all have certain ideas that

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Speaker 1: oftentimes in still fear in us to try new things right,

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Speaker 1: things that are outside of the norm, that are different,

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Speaker 1: And it's up to us to resist that fear and

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Speaker 1: resist the self doubt that all of these things instill

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Speaker 1: in us and continue on our path towards what is

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Speaker 1: instinctually calling our name and kind of bringing this this altogether,

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Speaker 1: you know, I want to I want to bring in

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Speaker 1: a quote from jay Z, you know, and this one

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Speaker 1: isn't as obviously connected to this quote, but but to me,

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Speaker 1: it speaks to this concept of progress over perfection, right,

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Speaker 1: not valuing perfection but instead valuing what you can do

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Speaker 1: right now. Jay says on the song what more can

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Speaker 1: I say? He goes far from a Harvard student, just

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Speaker 1: had the balls to do it, And I love that

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Speaker 1: right there, repeat it far from a Harvard student just

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Speaker 1: had the balls to do it right. And he's and

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Speaker 1: he's saying, you know, he didn't have that that because

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Speaker 1: she lifestyle, he didn't have that Ivy League education. What

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Speaker 1: he had was the guts to actually go out there

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Speaker 1: and do something. I love this because to me, that

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Speaker 1: brings us back to this idea of perfection that we

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Speaker 1: all often get paralyzed by, right, and we don't realize

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Speaker 1: that there's no such things as the perfect anything right,

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Speaker 1: And just because you don't come from the perfect situation

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Speaker 1: or or you don't have certain credentials, it doesn't mean

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Speaker 1: that you shouldn't try. Feeling unqualified is another example of

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Speaker 1: perfectionism that holds us back. We often think, you know,

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Speaker 1: what background do I have? What experience do I have?

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Speaker 1: You know? Or what things do do I have that

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Speaker 1: somebody else doesn't have? Right? We we often think, and

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Speaker 1: we're taught when we talk about ideas or new inventions,

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Speaker 1: and we're saying to ourselves, well, if it was such

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Speaker 1: a great idea, why hadn't somebody else thought of it? Right?

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Speaker 1: And I've heard that so many times throughout the course

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Speaker 1: of my life, And if you really break it down,

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Speaker 1: it's such a ridiculous statement, right, because every single thing

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Speaker 1: that's a part of our life right now, from men

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Speaker 1: are iPhones, to the internet, to our air pods, everything, right,

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Speaker 1: at one point in time, these things did not exist,

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Speaker 1: and and they were simply just an idea in somebody's head,

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Speaker 1: and somebody had to actually go out and do the

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Speaker 1: work and progress towards creating them and bringing them to life. Right.

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Speaker 1: So the reality is, you know, this notion that we

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Speaker 1: have to have some sort of credential or that our

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Speaker 1: idea isn't that great because somebody else hasn't co signed it.

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Speaker 1: All of that creates this idea of perfectionism that could

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Speaker 1: be incredibly toxic towards our growth and towards us achieving

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Speaker 1: the things that we want in this life. And for

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Speaker 1: me personally, this really hits close to home, you know,

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Speaker 1: particularly growing up with my father, you know, who's an

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Speaker 1: incredibly intelligent man and full of all kinds of different ideas,

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Speaker 1: but unfortunately, you know, wasn't instilled in him from a

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Speaker 1: young age the confidence to to go out and do

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Speaker 1: the things that he wanted to do, and that created

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Speaker 1: this mindset for him that you know, he began to

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Speaker 1: pass down on me was that everybody who was successful

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Speaker 1: must have been born into money. Right. That was his excuse.

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Speaker 1: That was his accusation that anybody that we see that

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Speaker 1: is successful must have been born into money. And the

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Speaker 1: reality is that's just a toxic mindset that again creates

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Speaker 1: this notion of you have to be born into the

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Speaker 1: perfect life and go to the perfect school and know

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Speaker 1: the perfect people in order to find success in order

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Speaker 1: to be able to chase after your dreams. And that

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Speaker 1: is just absolute nonsense, right, going back to that j quote,

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Speaker 1: just because he didn't go to Harvard didn't stop him

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Speaker 1: from chasing after his dreams and becoming a mogul, you know,

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Speaker 1: and becoming somebody who's incredibly wealthy and successful outside of

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Speaker 1: music but also in the business world, right, and growing

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Speaker 1: up in that atmosphere, you know, with my father kind

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Speaker 1: of pushing these thoughts onto me, I feel incredibly blessed

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Speaker 1: because my reaction to that was to rebel against him

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Speaker 1: and to try and prove him wrong. And I'm, you know,

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Speaker 1: incredibly lucky that that's sort of where my mind went.

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Speaker 1: I know, for a lot of people, it's easy to

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Speaker 1: succumb to your parents opinions. I've done it in various

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Speaker 1: forms of my life, but when it comes to particularly this,

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Speaker 1: you know, I sort of made it my life's mission

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Speaker 1: to prove him wrong that I can find success. I

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Speaker 1: can have a job that I love, I can work

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Speaker 1: for myself, I can run businesses on my own that

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Speaker 1: are that are successful and that provide me with the

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Speaker 1: lifestyle that that I choose, And that became sort of

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Speaker 1: my life's purpose. And it wasn't easy, right. There were

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Speaker 1: plenty of times along the way where where people did

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Speaker 1: try and check me right, where people did try and

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Speaker 1: say to me, you know, who do you think you are?

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Speaker 1: You know, to think you could be doing this right,

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Speaker 1: or try and tell me that I didn't have the

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Speaker 1: experience or the credibility to make things happen, and even

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Speaker 1: very early on, you know, not having any connections whatsoever

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Speaker 1: in the entertainment industry that I was trying to break into.

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Speaker 1: It took little steps, little by little, you know, and

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Speaker 1: they for sure, we're not perfect by any means, right,

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Speaker 1: But I focused on the progress and I wasn't afraid

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Speaker 1: to make mistakes along the way. I knew that that

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Speaker 1: was just going to be a part of my process

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Speaker 1: us forgetting what I wanted in this life, and I

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Speaker 1: always valued the progress that I was making over putting

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Speaker 1: out a perfect product. And listen, I understand we all

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Speaker 1: want to put the best thing out there. I've been

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Speaker 1: that way as well, where I've held out things for

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Speaker 1: far too long. But at the end of the day,

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Speaker 1: you can sit back and convince yourself that something's not

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Speaker 1: ready or you're not ready, but you are only holding

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Speaker 1: yourself back from taking the steps and needed in order

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Speaker 1: to move towards the goal that you want, right towards

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Speaker 1: learning the lessons that you need to make your goals

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Speaker 1: actually happen. So for me, again, that word resists that

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Speaker 1: we talked about in the first quote from Epicteitis. That's

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Speaker 1: why it reigns so true to me because I feel

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Speaker 1: like that word sort of sums up my upbringing and

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Speaker 1: my path towards trying to make my my dreams and

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Speaker 1: my goals come true. It was that the idea of

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Speaker 1: resistance that I held in my heart. Now, with that

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Speaker 1: in mind, we've talked about j We've talked about Epictitius.

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Speaker 1: I've given you a bit of how I relate to

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Speaker 1: this on an incredible personal you know level, I now

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Speaker 1: want to bring you into it and talk about how

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Speaker 1: you can make it your mantra for today. But first

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Speaker 1: let's take a quick break and then we'll be right back.

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Speaker 1: All right, So we've we've heard from Epic Temious, We've

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Speaker 1: heard from jay Z, you know all about this mindset

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Speaker 1: of focusing on progress not perfection, right, and and focusing

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Speaker 1: on being persistent and resisting all of the naysayers, and

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Speaker 1: and just the culture that we live in where people

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Speaker 1: tell you can't do this or you can't do that, right,

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Speaker 1: people are always equipped to be there to to give

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Speaker 1: you that unsolicited advice, right, So you have to build

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Speaker 1: up that resistance inside of you. So with all that

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Speaker 1: in mind, let's discuss how you can make this stoic

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Speaker 1: principle your mantra for today. And I think for me,

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Speaker 1: first and foremost, it begins with starting before you're ready.

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Speaker 1: That means going after the job that maybe you're not

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Speaker 1: completely qualified for, right, starting the business you know, before

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Speaker 1: you you feel like you have all of your ducks

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Speaker 1: in a row. It means going after something before you

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Speaker 1: feel ready. You have to just sometimes throw yourself into

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Speaker 1: a situation and figure it out. You know that the

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Speaker 1: reality is the perfect opportunity and the perfect time do

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Speaker 1: not exist, right, and you just have to go out

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Speaker 1: there and start without the fear of failure and be

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Speaker 1: okay with the fact that you are going to be

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Speaker 1: learning on the job, right, that is the key. I mean,

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Speaker 1: you can prepare, you can read all the books, you

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Speaker 1: can watch all the YouTube videos that you want, but

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Speaker 1: at the end of the day, the best knowledge, the

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Speaker 1: best education, comes from the on the job training right

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Speaker 1: when you're actually in there in that situation. There are

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Speaker 1: oftentimes going to be circumstances or things that happen or

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Speaker 1: don't happen that you can't completely prepare for, and you

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Speaker 1: just have to throw yourself in the water and figure

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Speaker 1: out how to swim, you know, so to speak right.

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Speaker 1: And you have to keep in mind that there are

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Speaker 1: plenty of people who came from less than perfect circumstan

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Speaker 1: answers and still found a way to make it happen.

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Speaker 1: And when we look at somebody like like jay Z,

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Speaker 1: you know from the Marcy Projects in Brooklyn and now

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Speaker 1: look where he is, right, it's because he didn't allow

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Speaker 1: his lack of credentials to stop him. Right, Like he said,

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Speaker 1: he had the balls to go out there and make

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Speaker 1: it happen. And that's why he has found the success

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Speaker 1: that he has right now. You know him and everybody

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Speaker 1: else who has figured out a way out of dire circumstances,

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Speaker 1: they have just continued to persist and resist. And that's

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Speaker 1: what I want you to keep in your mind today.

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Speaker 1: Stay persistent and continue to resist against the naysayers and

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Speaker 1: the negative people in your life who may be pushing

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Speaker 1: their own fears onto you. Resist that fear that we

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Speaker 1: all inevitly have, and push forward towards the things that

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Speaker 1: you want in this life. Now, with that said, thank

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Speaker 1: you all so much for checking out The Street Stoic Podcast.

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Speaker 1: Do your best to apply the concepts that we discussed

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Speaker 1: today into your everyday life, and I'll catch you off

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Speaker 1: next time, yea. The Street Stove Podcast is a production

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Speaker 1: of I Hearts Michael Tura Podcast Network