The Kanye Episode

Sam Parr (@TheSamParr) and Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) talk about Netflix's recent Kanye West documentary, Jeen-Yuhs, and what lessons they learned from watching it. ----- Links: * Jeen-Yuhs on Netflix - https://www.netflix.com/title/81426972 * Do you love MFM and want to see Sam and Shaan's smiling faces? Subscribe to our Youtube channel. * Want more insights like MFM? Check out Shaan's newsletter. ----- Show Notes: (01:30) - Thoughts on the Kanye Doc (21:30) - Being yourself and being obsessed with your craft (23:30) - Summary of lessons learned (28:30) - Weirdly obsessed people ----- Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. ----- Additional episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Sam Parr?

  Dude, it just comes with the territory. That's when you're when you're creative, man, you're gonna be crazy. You gotta accept the craziness.

• 0:14Sam Parr?

  Do you want to talk about Kanye?

• 0:16Shaan Puri?

  I do want to talk about Kanye.

• 0:18Sam Parr?

  Yeah, so I only watched the first episode because I have this rule. I've got two rules. The the first rule is if there's a movie that involves animals as the protagonists protagonists.

• 0:30Shaan Puri?

  I don't know where you're going with this.

• 0:33Sam Parr?

  I don't watch it. I don't watch. I don't watch. The animals always die. So I don't watch it. I have a rule. I don't like if there's a war movie and it's set in a period where they had horses like Braveheart or the or the Patriot and the horses die in the war. I don't watch it. I just it's too much for me. I don't like seeing horses die. I don't like seeing the line get trampled. I don't watch that shit. The second thing is if it's generally either scary or sad, I don't watch that either. I'm not paying money to get freaked out. Right? I'm paying money to be happy. Yeah, like my life sucks sometimes. Anyway, I don't need to like I want to pay money to like make it not suck. So I knew that in episode two, that was when his mom died. So I was like, nope, I'm not gonna watch that. So I only watched episode one.

• 1:18Shaan Puri?

  But by the way, I've I've watched his mom doesn't die yet that that part. So

• 1:23Sam Parr?

  They made it. I thought they made it. They were playing the song Hey Mama like over the preview.

• 1:27Shaan Puri?

  So you haven't seen any of the scenes with his mom because those are the best scenes.

• 1:31Sam Parr?

  Though, yeah, where she's like, he's like, I bought a she's like, you don't own a house, but you bought this chain. And she goes, okay.

• 1:38Shaan Puri?

  I like the chain Kanye. It's nice. This is nice Kanye.

• 1:42Sam Parr?

  Yeah, she was very supportive of him. Yeah, so I did.

• 1:46Shaan Puri?

  So, um, dude, okay, so let's talk about the mom. All right. So this Kanye documentary is frankly great, and I'm kind of mad. More friends didn't tell me you got to watch this. Like, I can see why maybe some people don't like it, but this is like, this is up my alley. This is this is my alley.

• 2:01Sam Parr?

  Did you see the idea about how they're basically it was just a guy? Because you ask yourself, why is this?

• 2:07Shaan Puri?

  Where's this footage from?

• 2:08Sam Parr?

  Why is this guy just? Walking around like he's got a cam. It's like a camcorder on his shoulder. Why is this guy with Kanye when he's like on the street? And basically this guy was like, I saw, I forget the movie that he saw. It was called like, there's a movie where, yeah, Hoop Dreams. It follows four young, like, high schooler kids or eighth grade kids. He's like, let's see if they're gonna make it to the NBA. And he's like, I was inspired by that. And I thought Kanye was gonna be famous. And so I just decided to follow him around. And this is before YouTube was around. So it was weird that a guy was with like a shoulder camcorder.

• 2:39Shaan Puri?

  Totally weird. What, what luck for all of us that that guy, so shout out to Cudi, the guy who did it. He basically, and by the way, I think they explained this more later. I haven't seen the whole thing. So I might not know something that's like said in the documentary, but like I've only watched the first couple of parts. So he basically sees Kanye. He's like, this guy's cool. And then drops everything and is like, I'm gonna film this guy. I'm gonna film this random guy from Chicago. Who wears a retainer and is trying to be a rapper. He's like a cool producer. But like, you know, who knows, right? Like, you know, most people don't make it. As Kanye says in the documentary, he goes, yeah, where I grew up, there's a whole bunch of guys who were,

• 3:21Shaan Puri?

  who were just finna get signed. And guess what? They're still finna get signed. They're just, they're always finna get signed. And so like, you know, that seemed like the, the most likely path. But like, that's amazing. So this documentary is amazing because he's got footage from before everything. When he, when he's, when he's got nothing, when nobody believes in him and he's like, you know, trying to make it. And because, because of that, he's got all this footage and other people also view it as harmless. It's like, oh, I don't know, why's this guy got a camera? What are you doing with a camera out? It's like, oh, I'm filming a documentary for Kanye. Alright, that's weird. Alright, but I guess come on in. Like, who knows? And so you see Jay-Z, you see Pharrell, you see all these like legends in the game early on because, and in studio because they just have this footage. It's amazing.

• 4:07Sam Parr?

  That it was awesome. I love this documentary. It was cool that he looked up to a couple of guys like most deaf and common. And now those folks aren't even in the same stratosphere as what he is now.

• 4:19Shaan Puri?

  Exactly. He's, he's, he surpassed them. They asked for his honor.

• 4:22Sam Parr?

  And he, yeah, and they were like, um, all right, fine, Kanye, fine. I'll, I'll, I'll come, I'll come with you to this thing. And it was awesome. And it's easy to say, like, when I watch it now, I'm like, oh, this is so obvious. This guy like has the it factor. And of course, that's easy. But there was a few, there was one scene where he was in a record label, like reception room, I think. And there was this woman just standing there. And he was like, hey, can I talk to whoever? And she kind of ignored him. And then he just started rapping. And he's like, well, let me show you my rap. And he's plays, um, he plays All Falls Down, I think. And which is like the hit of hits. And he's rapid. And she's like, get cameras up for a minute. And then eventually she just like starts making phone calls. And she's like, working. And then she's like, excuse me, like, has to walk by because there's

• 5:06Sam Parr?

  someone at the door. And he's playing All Falls Down before it like became a thing. And it made me think of two things. One, that's crazy that he kept getting after it. And two, even though All Falls Down is a total hit, I understand how if you heard it, it's just some crazy guy, you'd be like, oh, that's stupid. And it really makes me respect people, whether it's people who invest money in a product, or people who find an artist, or find art, or a trend, people who can spot something and be like, I think that's it. And if we position it in the market this way, this is going to be a home run. And it really shows you how hard that is, because that woman, and there was like, three different ladies walking around the room, were 100% fans of that song. They were like, they were like, looked like young people that were in the music industry, and they were

• 5:51Sam Parr?

  working their way up. They 100% were about that song when it came out. But then it didn't click. And that is what I try to imagine. I'm like, what, what is my All Falls Down today? Did I skip over anything today? And I found myself asking that after I saw that documentary.

• 6:05Shaan Puri?

  100%. Because you just see people who are writing them off, people who are just too busy doing their work that they missed. This absolute gold mine that's like, literally, he's putting it in your face saying, please, please, like, check me out, right? And like, and it's easy, like, when something's popular, it's easy to appreciate its greatness. When something is just some random guy in your way, it really takes someone special to spot that talent. And it made me want to be that guy, right? It made, it made me want to be that parent. So like, I wrote down a bunch of notes, which is weird, because like, who writes notes while documenting? But I was like, there were things that stood out to me that were like, real life lessons or just amazing moments that were in this. So I'll give you one. He's rapping with his mom. His mom, his mom was an English

• 6:47Shaan Puri?

  teacher. And she's like, what's that one you used to say, like, I was at the playground, and then they said, good boys came around, and then, and she's like, doing it, and he does it. And she's like, oh, I love that one, Kanye. Like, an audience of one. It's like, all he really had at that point was one fan. It's like, his mom. And she's like, that's a million dollars right there. She goes, I always used to tell you that, right? It's that's a million dollars right there. And he laughs, he goes, ain't got a million dollars yet. And like, now he's a billionaire, right? And so it's like, and she's like, no, I'm telling you, that's a million dollars. And then, he tells her some good news. He's like, mom, MTV is gonna film me for their, like, you heard it here first thing for emerging artists, like, unknown artists. Can you believe, they're gonna film a documentary. Mom, can you believe that? And she goes, I can

• 7:31Shaan Puri?

  believe it the way you are. She goes, you writing tracks, it's like watching Michael Jordan shooting free throws. And then she, and then she goes, um, she goes, you know, you, you work so hard, you kept going, you keep going up, it's bound to pay off. So yeah, believe that Kanye, for people like you, you're special Kanye. And like, and she's not saying it, there's no difference when you say something fake.

• 7:52Sam Parr?

  By the way, you're doing a really good job with this. Yeah, this is good. You've got me bought in. This is really good.

• 7:57Shaan Puri?

  And so, so she was, you know, there's a difference when somebody says something like, no, you're great. Versus like, when somebody genuinely believes in you, and they're not just trying to pump you up. And they just have a quiet confidence about him. Like, she wasn't going overboard, and wasn't saying like, don't worry, you're gonna make it. She was just saying, like, Of course, I believe it. Like, yeah, I'm not surprised.

• 8:16Sam Parr?

  And she wasn't critical. So he comes back and she goes, Kanye, when are you gonna buy a house? And she, he goes, ah, I don't know yet, but check this out. And he pulls out this chain. I don't know what was on it. But he was like, I could have bought a house, but I bought this instead. And she goes, well, that's, it's all right. It's pretty nice. Good job.

• 8:33Shaan Puri?

  I like that Kanye. Yeah.

• 8:37Shaan Puri?

  And she's like, so again, so supportive and such a believer. And that's like, you know, a thing that moms do, but it's just like, you know, that's mad respect on that. And, um, and so

• 8:47Sam Parr?

  Most moms don't do that, by the way. I don't think most moms do that.

• 8:50Shaan Puri?

  I feel like, you know, you know, like a lot of people are like, dude, I have the best mom. It's like, well, you know,

• 8:54Sam Parr?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 8:55Shaan Puri?

  Trust me, there's a lot.

• 8:55Sam Parr?

  Well, I, I, I think that there's a lot of shitty parents out there. And then I think that most parents are just, that most parents are just, are okay. It's just like a distribution, just like everything else. Uh, and she was very special and

• 9:08Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 9:08Sam Parr?

  A single mom too, right? No dad.

• 9:09Shaan Puri?

  Single mom and, uh, hey, you know, he opened up her fridge and there's like, literally like,

• 9:14Sam Parr?

  Like wine and milk.

• 9:15Shaan Puri?

  There's a wine, there's a quart of milk and a, and a quarter, a quarter of rosé or something like that, white Zinfandel. And then like, he's, and then he uses that like in his song later or whatever. And so there's a couple of other things. So, so he goes, um,

• 9:31Shaan Puri?

  he, so I'm just gonna, can I read you some of these notes? I just

• 9:33Sam Parr?

  Yeah, yeah, keep going, keep going.

• 9:34Shaan Puri?

  So there's one scene where he's, he's, um, or no, she goes, she's trying to warn him. And so she goes, you have this confidence that Kanye, like, um, you know, but I want you to make sure you stay humble. And, and like, obviously that's, you know, been a challenge for Kanye over time as he's like, I am Jesus now. And so, and she's like, remember, a giant looks in the mirror and sees nothing. And like, I still to this point, I don't know what that meant. And Kanye clearly also didn't know what that meant in the moment. And then she tries to explain, she goes, she goes, don't, she goes, don't make yourself less of a star. A star is gonna look like a star. You can't be a star and then say, I'm not a star. You can't have, you, she goes, you gotta have some oomph about you. And I just love that. Like,

• 10:16Shaan Puri?

  that's a, there's a, that's a phrase to live by. It's like, I have some oomph about me. Like, that can mean anything in any situation and it's the right thing. And then she goes, she goes, don't just go to the mirror and say, no, I'm not all that. Thank you very much. I'm, I'm not all that. I'm not a star. Like, yeah, you be a star, but be humble at the same time. And she goes, you, and he goes, you saying I don't do a good job of that? She goes, no, you do a good job of that, but you gotta make sure you could keep doing a good job of that. And like, those are like, you know, kind of like, that's a seed that's been planted, right?

• 10:43Sam Parr?

  And so Gosh, he's great.

• 10:45Shaan Puri?

  So there's that one. Then there was like, all these moments where, all right, the importance of identity, right? So he says from the, so at the time, he's known as a great producer. He produces the beats that Jay-Z uses on his big blueprint album and people know him as that. Everyone loves him as a producer. Everybody wants him as a producer, but he wants to be a rapper.

• 11:03Sam Parr?

  Yeah, he was upset about that.

• 11:04Shaan Puri?

  He was upset. And so he goes into this one, he's in the hallway at the record label.

• 11:07Sam Parr?

  Which, which by the way, a lot of people forget, do you realize how much he produced before he actually got famous?

• 11:12Shaan Puri?

  No, that's kind of crazy.

• 11:13Sam Parr?

  Artist, it's pretty crazy. Like, the big one was H to the Izzo.

• 11:17Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 11:17Sam Parr?

  And there was like, there's like dozens more. I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but there was dozen more where you like, wait, you did that? And he did it before he had his own thing.

• 11:25Shaan Puri?

  Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And he was great at it. And then he's like, he talks about, he's like, yeah, people want my beats. Oh, oh, I want, okay, can I get one? Can I get, I need a beat, give me a beat. He's like, and then they, then they hear my songs, like, yo, I hadn't heard this. Where'd you get this? He goes, that's my shit. I use that for me. And he's like, he's like trying to like, on one hand, he needs to sell beats to pay for life. But every time he does, it's a step away from where he wants to be in a way, like to be a rapper. And so he's in this hallway and this guy's trying to hype him up because he's like, oh, you got the documentary crew? So he puts his arm around him. It's like the, the managing director at Rockefeller Records and he's like, you know, this right here, Kanye West, he's the best rapper producer in the game. Best rapper producer in the game, period. And then Kanye's like, kind of like upset. And he's like, what? And he goes, why you

• 12:09Shaan Puri?

  gotta say that, man? It's like saying I'm the best kid rapper in the game. He's like, what? Man, I said you're the best rapper producer in the game. He goes, I'm just a rapper. If I'm the 50th best rapper, just say, he's the 50th best rapper. Don't call me the best rapper producer in the game. That's whack. All them are whack. I'm not that. I'm a rapper. And like, think about what's going on in that moment, right? He's like fighting to get a record deal where most people are in desperation mode. Like, they'll take what they can get. And instead, he's got this identity and the whole world is trying to pull him to just be a producer because that's what's in it for them. Like, that's proven and that helps, you know, helps them make hits. And, you know, why aren't you just happy? Pat you on your head and say you're a great producer. And he had this identity in his head so strong that I think 99 people out of 100 in his position.

• 12:52Shaan Puri?

  Would just become a producer because the whole world is pulling him in that direction. It was a faster, clearer path to success. And the money was there and the success was there and he didn't have to grind as hard as he did to try to prove himself as a rapper. But he had it in his head, no, I'm a rapper. And if I'm the 50th best rapper, I'd rather be the 50th best rapper than the best rapper producer. And I just, it was such an example to me of like, people will stay consistent with their identity. And so you kind of got to ask yourself like, what is my identity? Like if I said, Sam, are you, what's your job, Sam? What do you do?

• 13:27Sam Parr?

  Uh, right now, my job is I do podcasts.

• 13:29Shaan Puri?

  If I just say, what, like, who are you? What do you do for work? What do you do for a living?

• 13:32Sam Parr?

  I'm a business person.

• 13:34Shaan Puri?

  Okay. You're a business person. So if all of a sudden I, it doesn't matter what HubSpot offers you, right? Like, okay, you're vesting out your deal. You, you, that's great. But let's say any company comes to you and say, Sam, we'd like to make you the vice president of marketing operations at biggest company in the world and you're going to get this and that. You're not going to do it because it's not consistent with your identity. You're like, I'm a business person.

• 13:54Sam Parr?

  I'm an entrepreneur, yeah.

• 13:56Shaan Puri?

  So entrepreneur, I can't be an employee if I'm an entrepreneur. There's just not, they're two separate things. And like in the same way, you know, if you're not going to do heroin because you're not, you're somebody who doesn't do heroin. You don't even have to weigh the pros and cons of it. It's just really not a discussion for you. It's not part of who you are. It's not like, I'm trying not to do it. It's no, I just, I don't do that. I do do this and I don't do that. And so those lines you draw for yourself are so important on identity.

• 14:22Sam Parr?

  And I would argue, so there's this book called 48 Laws of Power. Have you read it?

• 14:26Shaan Puri?

  No, but I've heard of it.

• 14:27Sam Parr?

  All right. It's awesome. So he's got this one chapter where he says, you always have to reinvent yourself. And he gives a bunch of examples about that. And the reason why you want to reinvent yourself is the person who you can't peg down typically can become the most powerful because there's something about changing yourself that it does a couple of things. First, this whole act as if thing, it's real. So if you like, act like you're going to be an expert artist or something and you work harder, you can eventually become that. But you kind of got to act as if. Second, it kind of reinforces habits. So you say like, no, I'm a healthy person. Therefore I don't do unhealthy things. And third, it gives you this aura of mystery and people who have mysteries surrounding them typically are powerful.

• 15:06Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 15:07Sam Parr?

  And and there's a ton of good examples about this, like a really interesting and easy one because she does it so clearly is Lady Gaga. So like oftentimes she'll reinvent herself. So at first she was this like kind of just normal like white lady playing on the piano. If you see her like when she's a little bit younger, then she becomes like this weirdo person where she like puts meat on her body. Then she transforms and becomes she starts playing jazz with Tony Bennett. You're like, what the heck? Lady Gaga is doing that? What the hell is that? Now she's like, just got done doing some acting and she was a great actor. So like constantly reinventing themselves. I think Arnold Schwarzenegger has done a really good job at that. Yeah, you just, you've got to reinvent yourself consistently. And Kanye has done that where he's actually changed

• 15:50Sam Parr?

  himself. And I think inventing, reinventing yourself, you actually need to make the decision. You gotta be like, I am this. Now I am this.

• 15:57Shaan Puri?

  Exactly.

• 15:58Sam Parr?

  And then

• 15:58Shaan Puri?

  You gotta choose that identity.

• 16:00Sam Parr?

  And after a while, then you could be like, all right, great. I, that season was, this season had a beginning and a middle. And now it's come to the end. What's the next season of me? And you can actually pick and choose what those inventions are. And I, when I read that when I was a little bit younger, that kind of changed my perspective on things.

• 16:16Shaan Puri?

  When I went to the Tony Robbins event, it was a perfect example of what you're talking about. So he, he tells the story. He's like, you know, he's like, yeah, there was this kid I was working with or this kid I met. And kid was overweight and he wanted to be fit. But he was talking about, oh, you know, it's hard. I'm working so hard. I don't have time to exercise, blah, blah, blah. And then he's like, he wanted to be in a relationship and we saw a woman, beautiful woman. I said, well, go talk to her then. And he didn't want to go talk to her. He said, well, why would she want a guy like me? I'm too young. She looks older than me. You know, I don't have a good job. She probably wants a guy who, you know, who's got, you know, something going for him. Look at my clothes. I don't look good. So he didn't want to go talk to her. And so he talks about all these aspects of his life, his health, his relationship, his career. It's like, what do you want to? You're, you're working as a busboy right now at a restaurant. What do you want to be going and doing? I want to be over there.

• 16:59Shaan Puri?

  I want to run that dealership over there. You know, why don't you go apply for it? Well, why would that hurt me? I got no college education, right? Like coming up with all the reasons why, like labeling himself all these identities that he's not, right? I'm overweight, no college education, too young, too dumb, too fat, too whatever, right? And people do this all the time. And so He's like, he draw, he basically talks about the turning point for this kid. He's like, he drew a line and he said, um, no experience, like no experience. What are you talking about? Yeah, no experience. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have, I'm not stuck in all the old ways like all those other motherfuckers, right? Like I got fresh ideas. I got the energy of a young stallion. I'm not like some 50 year old guy who, you know, is dragging into work every day. Yeah, I got no experience. I got the best experience, no experience,

• 17:40Shaan Puri?

  right? Or like, why would this woman want to be with me? Really? Cause I got that, you know, and he just turns it around. Like, what's the truth? Is the truth that you have no experience or the truth that you have fresh ideas and young energy? And you'll, you'll hustle harder than anybody else to prove, to prove yourself. Cause you have, this is your, your track record. Right? And so he, he does that for each one of the things. And then it's like, oh, you know, at the end, it's sort of like, you know, that kid's me. And he just shows a picture of himself before and where he was living and how he was working and how he turned himself around.

• 18:07Sam Parr?

  That's good.

• 18:07Shaan Puri?

  And he says in this thing, he goes, you know, right now you guys see me on stage and I got this, I have, I have energy and confidence. And I have all these like, this inside wisdom or all these things that people praise me for. He goes, that what people don't realize is, I created this Tony Robbins motherfucker. I created him. And, uh, like, and I just thought that was so powerful of a way of thinking like,

• 18:29Shaan Puri?

  you can create that, that thing you want to be, that, that the ideal version of you, you get to create that. And the people who've done it, they just created it. They chose that identity and then they just lived up to that day by day. And like, you know, there's a, like Kanye is like a, you know, a great example of, of like literally speaking it into existence. He says a ton of stuff on there, like people are going to know me without my last name. It'll just be Kanye at some point. And he's

• 18:51Sam Parr?

  And I, go ahead.

• 18:54Shaan Puri?

  No, no, go, go, go for it.

• 18:55Sam Parr?

  Wh- when I was watching that, it also reminded me of this other thing. And here's a really small example. So you, Sean, are, you're, you're, I don't know what you are. I, I, I don't create, creative is one word, but that's not the most effective word. I would say you're, whatever it requires to be a good like storyteller and podcast host, that's what you are. So it's like a mixture of creativity, performing and a bunch of other stuff. And what I've come to accept is like, so I always joke that Sean is always like usually two minutes late. He's usually always two minutes late to stuff. And at first that made me angry. It doesn't make me angry anymore now because what I know is in order to be good, in order for you Sean to be Sean and be good at these things,

• 19:40Sam Parr?

  that means by nature, you're gonna be the opposite of good at these other things.

• 19:44Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 19:45Sam Parr?

  Like that's just what it, that's just what it comes with. Like, so like if you want someone like, so it's like, well, you know, you can't be this amazing athlete and have time to do all these other things. Like in order to be an amazing athlete, you gotta train all the time. So like, I just accept that, like, well, I want him to be good at this. Therefore, I accept that. Maybe sometimes I'll just, he'll just be two minutes late. And when Kanye acts like a crazy person online, and he says all this crazy shit about Kim Kardashian, and he types in all caps on Twitter and shit. People are like, this guy's crazy. Like, what's he doing? And I'm like, well, that's what we need. Being crazy is good. Like, that's why we got all this gold. And I love those crazy people. And you, and so what I've learned is like, in order to be great, you're gonna be messed up in some other, in some other categories.

• 20:25Shaan Puri?

  The, um, the Mr. Beast thing I was talking about at the beginning, he said something just like this. He goes, uh, Joe Rogan asked like, you know, what was it like? You know, what, what did your friends think or whatever? He goes, uh, he's like, at first my friends just thought it was weird. Like, nobody, that wasn't a popular thing to make videos. And then they just got sick of it because all I ever wanted to talk about was making YouTube videos. They would ask me about other stuff or try to talk to me about other stuff. I just didn't have any interest in anything else. I was just obsessed with making great videos. And it's all I wanted to think about. And, um, I remember there's a, there's an interview with Conor McGregor. It goes on BBC. It's like one of the bigger, like, it's like, not just like an MMA guy covering Conor, asking about MMA, it was like BBC World or something like that was going to interview. And they asked him some question or there was like some small talk, you know, about like, about like the news or the game.

• 21:10Shaan Puri?

  And he's like, oh yeah, you know, both teams play hard. He just said something generic and then the camera cuts and his documentary crew's filming. He goes, I have no clue who those teams are. And he's like, I don't follow any, I don't say, I don't follow sport. I don't follow news. He goes, um, I think it was, I don't know anything about anything and I don't want to know anything about anything. I just am obsessed with my, with my craft. I have lost my mind to my craft. And, um,

• 21:33Sam Parr?

  I've seen that.

• 21:33Shaan Puri?

  And so, you know, it's like this kind of inspiring thing that you see as like a common, what are the common denominators of greatness? You, I wouldn't say you have to do anything because there's many ways to win. But these, these things do show up often, right? They sort of rhyme with success is like these, this obsession, this sort of singular obsession with something or identity, seeing yourself as big, becoming something, even when the rest of the world doesn't see it. Having that one believer like your mom, right? Like, so like, if I was gonna say like the lessons from Kanye, which I think is what this episode is turning into, it's like, you know, number one is like, you know, the power of that one believer like his mom. Number two is like the power of identity. Number three is, um, is like, it, it, so he has this moment where he goes, uh, somebody,

• 22:17Shaan Puri?

  somebody said something, they go, um, they go, you know, do you think it's harder for you because you're from Chicago and because you have this background as a producer? So people don't take you seriously as a rapper? And he goes, he just goes, he goes, the way I feel is anything that anybody ever tells me is a disadvantage, I'm gonna make it my advantage. And then he basically, if you watch the documentary, that's exactly what he's doing. He's like, okay, I'm pigeonholed as a producer. Well, I'm gonna make the dopest beats for myself and I'm gonna use my beats as currency. So he's like, yeah, I supply beats to Jay-Z. Guess what? I get Jay-Z to do a hook on my first album, which he's not gonna do for like some random no name rapper, but because I build this credibility, I'm gonna, I'm gonna use that as my currency.

• 23:00Shaan Puri?

  Or like, he gets in this car accident and his jaw is wired shut. And it's like, I'm gonna turn that to my advantage. So how did he turn a disadvantage? Like for a rapper to have a jaw wired shut? Through the wire? He creates a song called Through the Wire, rapping about his time. And then, you know, the first line is like, you know, about drinking ensure, or like, you know, other people make pancakes, I just drink scissor, but you know, just the syrup because he can't eat solid foods, right? So he writes his hit song when he's got the broken jaw. And he also says this other, he goes, I was laying there, I couldn't do nothing. Back then there's no like cell phones or anything, so he didn't know the smartphones. So he's just like saying, sitting in the hospital, doing nothing for seven days. He goes, I was laying there and I decided I'm gonna be the best dressed rapper in the game.

• 23:44Shaan Puri?

  He's like, because he was watching music videos, so they, they put music videos on there, but they couldn't put the volume high. So he couldn't like bump to the music, he was just watching other rappers. So he turned the disadvantage into a revenge, which was he realized all these rappers dressed the same way and it's this one style. I'm gonna dress differently.

• 23:59Sam Parr?

  Dude, back then.

• 24:00Shaan Puri?

  And now he's a fashion billionaire, you know?

• 24:01Sam Parr?

  And back then rap fashion was horrible. It was just like, it was like a basketball jersey and like baggy jeans. Yeah, it was the worst. So he did a good job. Let me ask, let me ask you a question real quick. Don't say their names because you might have to insult them. But the three wealthiest people you know, what is, what around what do you think their net worth is each?

• 24:22Shaan Puri?

  Um, about the ones like I know, like I know well, like somebody I, not just like somebody I've met.

• 24:30Sam Parr?

  Yeah.

• 24:31Shaan Puri?

  Someone that's like a friend.

• 24:32Sam Parr?

  Who you know about some of their personality traits and their personal life?

• 24:35Shaan Puri?

  Yeah, I would say like somewhere between like 300 million and 700 million. I like, I know them, like I know about their like real life, not just like the surface level stuff.

• 24:43Sam Parr?

  Of those people, how many of them have this trait of being obsessed and, and to the point where if a normal person, a non wealthy person saw their life, they would be like, dude, you're weird or the way that you're handling this is wrong. You know, you're, how many would say something like that?

• 25:00Shaan Puri?

  100% of, um, 100% of them.

• 25:03Sam Parr?

  What are, and what are examples of, of, yeah?

• 25:06Shaan Puri?

  So one of them, uh, they worked so hard on their business, they were so obsessed that like their family members used to come to the office and say, you gotta come home. Like you just, you're working too hard or afraid. And when they sold their company, like 45 days later, they had like a heart surgery because they had like worked themselves that hard during that time. Another one, I remember the day after they became worth over a hundred million dollars. I was, I knew them well. That, that same night, they were up till three in the morning, working on their like new project that had like no, no, like, you know, less than a hundred customers. And like clearly they'd already made it. And it's like for them to stay up fixing bugs in this like test flight product that

• 25:46Shaan Puri?

  was, you know, three in the morning that day, like most people would be chilling hard for, go on a bender for a year, like wired very differently. Third person? They're not just obsessed in their work life, they're obsessed with kind of anything. So they, they like, it's like if they get into like some random hobby or sport, they just take it to like a level that's not like common. Or like they're a hardcore gamer or they just like get, they're, they have an obsessive personality. It's not just an obsession with work or money. That just happens to be the game that pays out in a points called dollars. But they just get obsessed with any game that like catches their, catches their, their, their interest.

• 26:26Sam Parr?

  Yeah, that, that rings true to all the people I, that I know.

• 26:29Shaan Puri?

  Do you have an example?

• 26:30Sam Parr?

  I'm trying to.

• 26:32Sam Parr?

  Yeah, so um, our, our mutual buddy, um, um, I, I wonder if I could, I'm actually not going to say his name. So, well, I'll say it. Yeah, I could say it. Jack Smith. So.

• 26:44Shaan Puri?

  The chair.

• 26:44Sam Parr?

  Like he.

• 26:45Shaan Puri?

  The building of a chair, right? That's, that's an example.

• 26:48Sam Parr?

  Well, I'll give you a different one. So he's obsessed with, if he buys anything, he'll buy 30 of them. And at his house, I've seen it, he's got a Google spreadsheet. He tracks every item and every category of thing that he's bought and he ranks it. So if you ask him about chocolate, he actually has a spreadsheet with literally a hundred pieces of chocolate. He goes, I tested all of them. Here's the best one, um, that I think is the best. When we got married, my wedding gift from him was roughly a thousand dollars of stuff that he considered the best. And it was so weird, like the best socks, the best underwear, the best lotion. And he's so obsessed with this that Amazon multiple times has banned him from having an account. And so he has to create different credit cards just to continue getting an account.

• 27:33Sam Parr?

  And he's, so he's just obsessed with stuff.

• 27:35Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 27:36Sam Parr?

  Um, and he's, he's incredibly wealthy and he probably got, he probably got wealthy when he was 28, really young. But he's just crazy obsessed with stuff to the point where like, I, I just, I just, I just accept that's, he's just an oddball.

• 27:49Shaan Puri?

  Right.

• 27:49Sam Parr?

  So yeah, that, that's one example.

• 27:51Shaan Puri?

  Let me give you another one that I thought was kind of, uh, like one of the lessons. The lesson number, I don't know where we're on now, lesson five from Kanye. Closed mouth, don't get fed. So I don't know if you've seen this scene where he goes into, he, he kind of like, just like he, he, the, there's like a point where like the, the record label is not like paying for like the studio time. Cause like, you know, they're, they're kind of like put them on the shelf. They're like, ah, they, they weren't sure about it. They didn't want to put the money into like promoting them and getting them to record and all this stuff. So he's like. Pulling in favors some way, somehow. So he goes to like, he, he asked Jamie Foxx, who he's like made beats for before. He's like, hey, I want to come over. Oh, you got the studio in your house? Yo, you mind if I just record something real quick? And like, boom, uses the

• 28:36Shaan Puri?

  studio and then gets Jamie Foxx to do vocals and that becomes the vocals on one of his tracks.

• 28:40Sam Parr?

  Slow jams.

• 28:41Shaan Puri?

  Yeah, slow, slow jams. Then there's one with Jay-Z. He gets into the studio with Jay-Z. Jay-Z's recording and he's like, yo, you, uh, you mind if I rap for you real quick? And he's like, you know, okay, yes. You know, I'm not gonna say no. And he just freestyles on the spot with no backtrack for Jay-Z to his face, like a one-on-one, like basically just one man or writing a poem to another man. It's like kind of an amazing thing that's happening. And then Jay-Z, you see him like start to nod his head. He just starts to like, he's like, I like it. He lets him do a hook on Jay-Z's, uh, like lets him do a verse on Jay-Z's track. And then Jay-Z says out loud in the studio, he goes, I had no idea. He goes, but that's, he goes, that just shows you closed mouth, don't get fed. And like, and then they, and then they catch

• 29:22Shaan Puri?

  on the documentary, the guy, Cudi, the, the recording guy, he goes, uh, Jay-Z's like leaving and Cudi shoots his shot too. He goes, he goes, oh man, what do you think about Kanye West? And he goes, he's a Kanye West, man. He's, he's got it. He's gonna be big. And he goes, and then he goes, he goes, you think so? He goes, I'll put my money on it. Ha ha. And he walks out, does like the Jay-Z laugh and walks out the studio. And they captured that and they're like, yes, we got like basically an endorsement from Jay-Z. That's gonna help us keep going. And it's just one instance after another of like, in the moment of truth, he didn't sit around and wait. He shot his shot and like, you know, closed mouth, don't get fed. And I just think that's like-

• 30:01Sam Parr?

  How, how did, how did you remember all this? Were you literally just with a pen and paper taking notes?

• 30:06Shaan Puri?

  I would write notes. I'd just write like, I'd write like literally says closed Louth, because I misspelled it, typing fast. Closed Louth, don't get meth, don't get fed, Jay-Z. And then I, and then I thought about it, right? Like, cause, cause this-

• 30:17Sam Parr?

  This is on your, on your iPhone apps?

• 30:19Shaan Puri?

  Notes app, yeah.

• 30:20Sam Parr?

  Note? And, and do you do this for all your, all things like that?

• 30:22Shaan Puri?

  Yeah, I just have notes for everything. Like I have, I have a thing called jokes and I'm like slowly building a, a stand-up comedy set over time. Like eventually I'll collect enough funny things. I'm like, oh, that could be a joke. I'll put it there.

• 30:34Sam Parr?

  God, I find that to be amazing. I, cause I watched the same thing, but you remembered so much more than I did.

• 30:39Shaan Puri?

  I was just upset. I was into it, man. I just saw so many lessons. And I remember like, there's so many moments of my life. Like, I bet you have one too, where it's just like, do you have a closed mouth, don't get fed moment? Like, does one jump to mine? Or does I'll tell you mine? And I bet you you have one.

• 30:55Sam Parr?

  I probably have a few, but I, you know, as you can expect, because I got a big mouth, I typically have always, I've done a good job of speaking up. What's yours?

• 31:06Shaan Puri?

  Like, when I was in college, I, at the time, I thought I was gonna be a doctor. So I was pretty mad. I took the MCATs. I was ready to graduate and go to med school. And just for fun, I took a blow off class. The easiest class offered on Duke campus was called Getting Rich. And obviously, that changed the direction of my life. And one of the classes, so the teacher was basically, she would bring in somebody who had made it in some world. And they would come and just talk to us. So this guy was a-

• 31:28Sam Parr?

  Was this the most popular? You told me about this. Was it the most popular class?

• 31:31Shaan Puri?

  Because it was like highest, highest rated of easiness, of fun. And like, on RateMyProfessor.com, the professor had a chili pepper next to her name. That means she's hot.

• 31:39Sam Parr?

  So she's hot.

• 31:40Shaan Puri?

  So it was like, all the high scores. So I got in and I was sitting in class one day and the guy was a hedge fund guy, I think. And he was talking about his career. He's like, all right, enough about me. Like, what about you guys? Who's doing something cool? Who's, who's, who's got a business that they're trying to, trying to, who's got a business that they're, that they're running? Or who's got a business they want to launch? And he started looking around the class. He basically scanned from left to right. He goes, pitch me. Like, that's what I do. I invest. So, so pitch me. And he looks from left to left, right. No one, it's crickets. Nobody's, you know, you've never seen a quieter group of smart people. And nobody's, nobody's a hand. I'm at the very edge of the class on the right. So I kind of had the advantage of I had a moment to like, assess the fork in the road.

• 32:19Sam Parr?

  Yeah.

• 32:20Shaan Puri?

  And the, the night before, me and my friends had had that dumb idea for, why isn't there a Chipotle for sushi? Oh, dude, we can make that. Like, there was a Chipotle on campus and we want, or there's a, there's a Subway on campus and we, we wanted to build a version of that fast casual thing for sushi. And I thought it was a funny idea. I had been pitching it the night before to my friends, where I was safe. And now here was this guy saying, pitch me an idea. And nobody's saying shit. And then I had this thing in my, like, back to identity. I had this thing which was like-

• 32:47Shaan Puri?

  You know.

• 32:47Sam Parr?

  You're the cool kid or something?

• 32:48Shaan Puri?

  Not the cool kid. I mean, I definitely wasn't a cool kid in school, but I just felt to myself like, I'll take the shot. I'll take the shot. Like in basketball terms, like if in the moment of the in the clutch moment, I'm not gonna be afraid to shoot. I might miss, but I'm not afraid to shoot. And so I did it. I raised my hand and he goes, all right, finally, what you got? And I pitched the idea and he goes, that's a terrible idea. He just like blew me off and like, but he's like, but you know, let me tell you like, he's like, even if you go and do that, and he like gave this lesson, which was like, this is America. Like it's the only country on earth where you get rewarded for failing. Like you can go fail at a business and people will give you positive credit for trying. He's like, most countries, that's just not how it works. And he goes, he goes, you know, the other thing is a lot of you guys might want to work at a hedge fund someday or investment bank or whatever. Guess what? The first three fourths of your resume is all gonna look the same.

• 33:33Shaan Puri?

  It's only the bottom, the other section that's gonna have anything different between you and the next kid who also was honor roll student, did good on the SATs and then, you know, graduated with a three, three, five GPA. So like, that's the only way that you're gonna get differentiated. So you go do your sushi restaurant. It'll lead you, you know, it, it'll help you in what you want to do, even if it fails. And that's like pretty much exactly how it played out.

• 33:54Sam Parr?

  This was a good conversation because of how much you care. I, I thoroughly enjoyed this. I just, I barely said a word, but I enjoyed it. What do you think, Ben? I, it's so evident when one of us is like incredibly passionate about the topic.

• 34:08Ben?

  Yeah. And what do you guys feel like? Is the Kanye pod in the zeitgeist? Like, do you think that most of your friends are watching it right now?

• 34:16Sam Parr?

  Well, everyone knows what it is, I think.

• 34:18Shaan Puri?

  I think a lot of people are watching it. Uh, like I, I've talked to maybe like, I don't know. It's like, you know, it's one of the big things on Netflix. It's always like, oh, you're watching the thing on Netflix? That's at the top? Yeah. Like I am.

• 34:28Sam Parr?

  Yeah. Wait, Ben, you, you haven't seen it?

• 34:30Ben?

  I have seen it. Yeah. I watched it.

• 34:32Sam Parr?

  Yeah. I think that.

• 34:33Ben?

  I'm the, I'm the only one of us who finished it. Actually, I watched the, the, the third part is, uh, is not as good as, as the first two though. So you guys.

• 34:40Sam Parr?

  The first part was great. So have you, are you guys watching Euphoria?

• 34:44Shaan Puri?

  No, but I've seen, I've seen a couple of episodes at the beginning.

• 34:47Sam Parr?

  Dude, that shit got me shook. You gotta watch that.

• 34:50Shaan Puri?

  Like, yeah, apparently if you're a parent, like, it's just like, yeah, nightmare scenario.

• 34:54Sam Parr?

  Well, it's this, this lady, what's her name? She's like half white, half black, Zadalia or something. Zadaya, and she just knocks it out the park, man. This girl is so freaking good. It just, it was wonderful acting. She killed it. I was really, Sarah and I both cried watching it.

• 35:14Shaan Puri?

  Wow. And that's got like a bunch of seasons, right?

• 35:17Sam Parr?

  Like two or something. Yeah, I think two. You gotta watch that. It's so good, man. This lady's such a good actor.

• 35:22Shaan Puri?

  Ben, why'd you ask if it's in the zeitgeist? You think it's not? Or why'd you ask that?

• 35:26Ben?

  Yeah, I just like, I would think that it would kind of reach like, maybe not Tiger King, because that was like a phenomenon, but I was hoping, because I loved it so much, that this documentary would be like the thing on Netflix. And I found that like a third of my friends have seen it.

• 35:43Sam Parr?

  That's true. It's not like as popular, but his craziness is pop, like the whole thing that he's doing with that, with the guy who's dating Kim, what's, what's his name? Pete Davidson?

• 35:50Ben?

  Pete Davidson.

• 35:51Sam Parr?

  That thing is like even, that's because that's kind of overshadowing it.

• 35:54Ben?

  Yeah, that could be right.

• 35:56Sam Parr?

  His crazy is coming out hard.

• 35:58Ben?

  I think part of the reason I liked it is part of the reason it's not like getting that big, which is essentially for the first episode, for the first part. He just like has old footage of Kanye and kind of just lets it run with like a little bit of narration. And it's so, it's not that much of like a narrative story arc that sucks you in. He just kind of like lets you be a fly on the wall.

• 36:17Sam Parr?

  Ben, knowing what you know, you had a podcast called Raising a Genius. Is it possible to raise a genius? Like, I didn't, I didn't like that podcast because he didn't do the best job of like, just telling me the answer. So like,

• 36:30Shaan Puri?

  I listened to that also. He did get, tell the answer, but I feel like it was too narrow. It was like the guy raised three chess champions. Okay, I get that you can raise a chess champion.

• 36:39Sam Parr?

  And he played chess, yeah.

• 36:40Shaan Puri?

  Does that mean you can raise a genius or that you can out-practice people at a game of chess, right? Like, you know? So I think those are two different things.

• 36:50Sam Parr?

  Well, so can the encouragement that Donna, whatever, Donda West, can the encouragement that she gave him be a huge factor or a small factor?

• 37:03Ben?

  I think it's a factor. The Polgar method, this guy Lazlo Polgar, had a very specific method. And I don't think it would work all that well for rapping because it is oriented towards like outcome driven, like it'd be good for raising a like a guitar player or a chess champion or a swimmer or like those kind of like very discreet, you can teach people exactly, or a tennis player would be really good. But like a rapper or something more creative, I don't know if you can like, it's almost like if it's creative, it has to come from within. You can't have someone else come out and like try and raise you.

• 37:41Sam Parr?

  But do you think that that her encouragement of him made him confident or he was born confident?

• 37:47Ben?

  I think watching that documentary, it was crazy to see some of the mannerisms that were the same between her and Kanye. And I was like, oh, there's something genetic about this. Like, yes, it was her encouragement, but it's also like whatever he has, he kind of got from her and probably would have had it anyway.

• 38:06Sam Parr?

  I read this book called The Blueprint Gene and it kind of changed my opinion where like 85% of everything is genetics. That's kind of where I am now. I'm like, even if she was rude to him, maybe he still would have killed it.

• 38:18Shaan Puri?

  Dude, when she was rapping, she was good. She was just like reciting his rap. Well, yeah, my mom would not be able to do that.

• 38:26Sam Parr?

  And she was in, she was an English teacher, right? So clearly she was interested. I mean, it's very related.

• 38:31Shaan Puri?

  And also he said he's been like making beats since like sixth or seventh grade, like 11 or 12. And so it's the same sort of thing. It's like, yeah, by the time you're 25, you're going to be really fucking good at something you've been doing for like over 15, you know, over 10 years, basically at that point.

• 38:45Shaan Puri?

  And at like a formative stage where, you know, when you're 12 and you get obsessed with something, you can kind of just like do it pretty much nonstop and get really good at something because you can pick stuff up so fast. You don't have any other things to go do.

• 38:58Sam Parr?

  Right. No, that it was a good documentary. There was it got me thinking a lot. That was a good. That was a good one. I'm just not gonna I just I couldn't watch the rest because I I knew she was gonna die and it and it was I was being it made me sad just watching them together. It made I got choked up a couple of times seeing them together.

• 39:15Shaan Puri?

  Yeah, it was.

• 39:15Sam Parr?

  She was.

• 39:16Shaan Puri?

  Like touching. Yeah.

• 39:18Sam Parr?

  Yeah, she was.

• 39:20Ben?

  The third part is like kind of interesting because it goes it's like a 20 year time jump and then goes into like a lot of stuff he's going through now and kind of the weirdness and running for president and like all that. And like, at the end, Cootie's just kind of like, yeah, man, I don't know. Pretty weird. You know, like, he doesn't really have anything to say about it. He's just like, kind of baffled as well.

• 39:40Sam Parr?

  Dude, it just comes with the territory. That's how when you're when you're creative, man, you you're gonna be crazy. You gotta accept the craziness. He's so crazy. Do you remember when he went to Trump's office to show him his version of Air Force One? Like, he's he like drew up what Air Force One should look like. He's he's a.

• 39:58Shaan Puri?

  He's a genius. He's a true genius.

• 40:02Sam Parr?

  All right, that's the episode.