SYLVESTER STALLONE: “I Wasn’t Stupid. I Was Just Misunderstood.”

Jay sits down with Sylvester Stallone to trace the extraordinary journey from a painful, unwanted childhood to the creation of Rocky, and the $360,000 offer he turned down rather than compromise his self-respect. Stallone reflects on the decades of rejection, health struggles, and career setbacks that shaped the man behind the legend. He opens up about his mother’s emotional distance, his father’s advice on his deathbed, and the life philosophy he discovered only after letting go of the need to constantly fight. With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty Mazda crafts cars for people who do more than simply move. Visit Mazdausa.com to learn more. Consumer reports does not endorse products or services. JAY'S DAILY WISDOM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX Join 900,000+ readers discovering how small daily shifts create big life change with my free newsletter. Subscribe here: https://news.jayshetty.me/subscribe Check out our Apple subscription to unlock bonus content of On Purpose! https://lnk.to/JayShettyPodcast What We Discuss: 00:00 Introduction 01:09 The Steps 01:48 The Fortune Teller Who Predicted His Future 03:39 The Power of Writing Your Thoughts Down 05:10 The Regret of Not Meeting Elvis Presley 05:55 Overcoming His Fear of Public Speaking 08:30 Birth Complications & Childhood Hardships 10:00 Queens Boarding House 11:40 Cinema As Sanctuary 13:23 The Words That Left Internal Scars 14:54 Making Peace With Rejection & "Mirror Therapy" 19:15 Writing About Edgar Allan Poe & Creating Rocky 20:27 Using Cruel Labels As Motivation 24:25 The Hells Angels Story 27:59 Turning Down $360,000 To Sell Rocky 31:35 Imposter Syndrome & Stepping Into Rocky's Shoes 33:29 Channeling Real-Life Pain In Acting 38:00 Rocky As A Love Story 41:26 The Painful Relationship With His Mother 49:45 Parents' Final Days 53:47 Learning To Let Go of Anger 56:12 An 8-Year Career Slump & The Return Of Rocky 59:06 Health Battles, Borrowed Time & Aging Gracefully 01:02:20 What Makes A Good Friend? 01:03:25 The Key To 29 Years of Marriage 01:07:30 Life Before Vs. After 40 01:13:20 The Power Of Dreams & Concrete Vision 01:16:38 Finally Getting His Father's Apology 01:19:35 Sylvester Stallone On Final 5 Episode Resources: The Steps | https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-steps-sylvester-stallone Website | https://sylvesterstallone.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/officialslystallone Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/share/1FMjtjkWJA/?mibextid=wwXIfr Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

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• 0:43Jay Shetty?

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• 1:27Jay Shetty?

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• 1:58Jay Shetty?

  So, one of my best memories growing up, and I don't have a lot of those, was actually watching Rocky with my dad. And my dad introduced me to the franchise, and I know this for sure. I've watched the Rocky franchise, including Five and Baobab after that, more than I've watched any other franchise in my lifetime. Uh, so I watch it back every year. There's only, there's only two things I watch to get motivated every year, and one of them is Rocky.

• 2:21Speaker 01

  Appreciate it. I thought you were gonna ask for a refund. Okay, great.

• 2:25Jay Shetty?

  Hey, it's Jay. I don't know what your day's been like, but I was just thinking about you for a minute. And I hope you're being a little patient with yourself because you deserve it. And yeah, I'll talk to you soon.

• 2:48Jay Shetty?

  Sylvester Stallone, welcome to One Purpose.

• 2:51Speaker 01

  Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

• 2:52Jay Shetty?

  I want to start off by saying, I don't get to start every interview this way. I've had the fortune of interviewing lots of incredible people, people who've achieved amazing things, done amazing things. But it's rare that you get to sit down with one of your personal heroes. I wanted to ask you, you start this book telling us about the fortune teller. And I wanted to know why you start there. Why do you tell us what's about to happen?

• 3:15Speaker 01

  I just think there's more things happening in the universe than we tend to take, give credit to. And I was at the very lowest level. I'm at that age where everyone's trying to find themselves in. And I think we have about three or four major crossroads that we have. And that's one that comes around 21 years old, 20, that you go, what am I going to do? What am I going to be? How do I find the right path? What's gonna trigger my journey? And as I was walking down this gravel road in the mountains, I see like, I said, it looked like the sign of a gypsy or something like fortune. You saw a hand, there's some lines up here. It's either a bathroom to wash your hands, or it's a gypsy, one of the two.

• 4:01Speaker 01

  So I went in there, sure enough, it was like a real gypsy, and she spoke broken English. And she said things that came true years later, and I went, oh my God. So I've always believed from that moment on, even though I was born Catholic, and I went through the whole process of theology. But sometimes as you get older, you bring in the question, you know, what is God? What is the future? What is this? What is that? Yet, well, listen to a fortune teller, yeah, but sometimes you, ah, we don't believe in the church, but we'll believe in some person in a little shack. Well, I did at that time, and I wrote down everything, and I would say 80% came true.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  I to the, to the T, they said, well, one thing is, don't do comedy. They were right about that. But also, a woman will bring you into the circle of attention. And that was a woman named Jane Oliver, who picked me out of this. For some odd reason, I had nothing going for me, but she says, you have it. I goes, I know, because I felt I, I've met people like Dustin Hoffman, whatever, and I, some people just have this thing. And then also you will be famed by 1975, 76, which is what Rocky came.

• 5:26Speaker 01

  And so on and so forth. So there's many of these situations that came about from her talking to me in the mountains. But luckily, I was writing everything down at that time, which I think is important. I think if people jot down their thoughts when they're very early and reflect back on them 20 or 30, 40 years later, they'll be quite astounded at how astute they were back then. Because I think when you're young, you're just, you're a sponge. And you're looking for some kind of pathway, doorway, a key, uh, something that triggers a, a pathway. And that's what happened with me. It was just a thing that triggered it, and I never looked back.

• 6:08Jay Shetty?

  What was the 20% that didn't come true?

• 6:10Speaker 01

  Well, it said, be married three times. I go, how do you know? I mean, that's a pretty bold statement. They said, you were protected by some actor from beyond who had dark hair. I'm going, that's just about everybody. So I couldn't take that one too seriously. I would say just about, they all came true. Even said, always remember that, uh, number two and four will be your lucky numbers. And sure enough, everything, even what I use on my, on my Instagram or whatever, it's, it's like 22, 20. It's whatever that number I see. When I go to a hotel, it's always room 22. I'm like, whoa, this is good and bad.

• 6:54Speaker 01

  Next time I see 22, I hope it's not on like, you know, uh, like a bad omen. But yeah, there's certain things that just seem to, to trail people around.

• 7:04Jay Shetty?

  Everyone's gonna want the number of this fortune teller now.

• 7:07Speaker 01

  Oh my God, it's 50 years ago.

• 7:09Jay Shetty?

  Did you ever get back in touch with that during?

• 7:10Speaker 01

  No, no, I should. You know, I should. There's a few things like that that I truly regret. Like not meeting certain people like Charlie Chaplin or Elvis, and I was invited, and I was too shy.

• 7:23Jay Shetty?

  Wow.

• 7:23Speaker 01

  I was too shy to meet Elvis. Can you imagine?

• 7:25Jay Shetty?

  Wow, when did that happen?

• 7:27Speaker 01

  1976, when Rocky came out, he invited me to Tennessee, to his home, and to go to a local theater and watch Rocky with him alone.

• 7:37Jay Shetty?

  That's incredible.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  And that's unbelievable. And so I go, people, please don't live with these regrets that I live with. When opportunity like this, even though you may, oh, I have a head cold, go. I don't care if you're not feeling well, go.

• 7:52Jay Shetty?

  That surprises me though, because when we read your book, we see you be someone who is always trying, always pushing. What was it about that particularly that made you shy?

• 8:01Speaker 01

  What was I going to say to Elvis? Would I be tongue tied? And I know I wouldn't be. Once I got there, like, I feel very at ease right now, much to your credit, thank you. But back then, I just felt like whenever I would meet Muhammad Ali, whatever, I'd go, ah, now they don't want to talk to me. And then I end up becoming great friends with him. I even used his house in Rocky III. That was his home, his furniture, his everything. That was when I hadn't conquered fear. You know, the embarrassment. They say that perhaps one of the most, I'm using the word forbidding, but the things that people are so afraid of is public speaking.

• 8:45Speaker 01

  Worse than spiders, it's public speaking. And I've been through that, but I found once I got up there, I go, what am I hiding from? We're all basically made of the same element. No one's better than anyone else. Their, their, their experiences may be, but primarily we're consist of the same elements, you know, flesh and blood. So what makes me afraid of that person when he hasn't threatened me or anything else? Why not just go out there and sure enough, once you let it out, it's kind of like boxing. And it's true. I've sparred a few times and soon as you get hit one time, your fear goes out the window.

• 9:27Speaker 01

  And now survival comes in, you know, play, you sort of adapt at that moment. Same thing is once you walk out there, you go, this is not so bad after all.

• 9:38Jay Shetty?

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• 10:24Jay Shetty?

  Consumer Reports does not endorse products or services. I want to go backwards before we go forwards. Your life almost started with difficulty immediately. I mean, there were complications when you were born.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:35Jay Shetty?

  Speak to us about that. When you talk about in the book, that was something I wasn't as aware of with your story. And when I read about that, I was thinking, wow. And there's a part where you literally say, you go, this is what happened. This is how it felt. So be it. And kind of like, let's move on. And I was like, wow, that's, that's really tough stuff. Can you walk us through what you experienced?

• 10:53Speaker 01

  Well, at a very early age, I think I was born to parents that really were not qualified to be parents. Because I think when you fully understand that this is now going to be your project forever is you're responsible for these people and the way they grow up and the way they perceive the world and how, how they adapt to the way you teach them. They are basically, as I've said it before, it's kind of like wet clay. You mold them. And if you mold them badly, that shape never quite evaporates. They have those dents and indentations and malshapings forever. And so I, I grew up in that kind of situation where I was

• 11:40Speaker 01

  not wanted, not really appreciated. And I was looked at as a burden. And also I believe, and they actually said it to my face, where you impeded on our life. You cost us our destiny. Our destiny would have been something else if you hadn't come along. And I go, that's probably quite true. And they somehow tried to eliminate that factor by moving me into different areas. Like I lived in a boarding house. I didn't live with them for a while. They just moved me to this area in Queens, New York, where it was a transient house where a salesman came in and this and that.

• 12:23Speaker 01

  So I was raised around adult people. And so I didn't really grow up around children. I've never been able to mingle well with people my own age. At least up until, of course, as an adult, I was able to, but I never knew what plane was. And plane is actually more, it's another word for exploration. And I didn't explore. So I, I, I developed very late in life. And I think I still maintain that immaturity to this day, which I now welcome. You know what I mean? You know, the older I get, the more immature I get. There's an old saying where, you know, aging gracefully. Really? You ever seen a hundred year old stripper? That's not aging gracefully.

• 13:08Speaker 01

  Or you know what I mean? It's a, a fifty year old boxer. It's not a pretty thing to see. So I covet the fact that I never became overly mature at an early age. I, I had a, a world that revolved around fantasy and make believe and of your own doing, of your own invention. And that's where, I, I don't know where the writing came from. We'll talk about that later, but it was a lifesaver. But I think that all came from being immature and being lost in the world of make believe. And I, I felt more comfortable. Reality to me was too real.

• 13:49Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 13:49Speaker 01

  I didn't like, my reality at home was very painful, very offsetting. Um, and also made me very aggressive. Like I thought that this is the way you treat people. You smack them around or you get smacked and you hit back. So I was a very physical, physical person, really physical. And, you know, and I grew up in a neighborhood called Hell's Kitchen, which was about as physical as its name. So that was almost the language people related physically rather than verbally. In other words, it was your toughness and your boldness that was your calling card. Not your intellect.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  That's something that came as we moved on, hopefully. And I tell, you know, anyone can build muscles. Your brain is what your, your IQ, that's what you're born with. If you go to the finest school, you have a ninety-five IQ. It's going to be ninety-five when you graduate. That's it. It's not all of a sudden, you're not going to be Einstein. It doesn't work that way. And I found that out, you know, the, the hard way, um, that I was very physical, very combative. But I was also very, um, I just didn't want to deal with reality. So movies, cinema

• 15:13Speaker 01

  became my church. That's where I worshipped. And it paid off.

• 15:19Jay Shetty?

  When you look back, do you feel hearing those things growing up about your worth, your value? You talk about even almost having to apologize for being unplanned in the book. And I think, how much of that do you look back and feel that really affected my confidence? It affected my self-worth? Or was the fight and the anger helping you break through at the time?

• 15:44Speaker 01

  I think that comes with more or less analytical endeavor. When you, as you get older, you, you become a bit more aware of that. But I think 100% it affects you. See, people that words sticks in stone will break my bones. Words, yes, they will. Words are literally verbal bullets that will penetrate you, pierce you, scar your interior forever. You tell some kid, like you, a, a young girl, young boy about their physical look when they're eight years old. Oh my God. They'll never forget that. When they're eighty, they'll quote you.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  They won't quote the other things, but they'll remember that because it, it just, your self-esteem is very, very fragile. They say like, um, like a woman's reputation, uh, is, is so fragile that once broken, it's never reparable. You know, you just cannot put it back together. Well, I think that goes for all people. It's not just women. It's just all men. Where there's very, as tough as we can be, I've seen, and I've been that way too. There's somewhere, if someone says the right thing, it hits a fragile spot that you thought was gone. You say, oh my God, I didn't think that would affect me anymore.

• 17:07Speaker 01

  It's there forever. The fact that I was treated so badly and so, it made me tough. That made me be able to stand up to what I was going to face at twenty-two, twenty-three, a complete rejection. I took rejection like as motivation. I didn't take it as setting me back. I said, I, I know who I am. More importantly, I know my faults. And that's why I think a lot of people don't, they know, oh yeah, I'm really strong. But you, if you know your weaknesses, then you're really strong. A strong person knows his weaknesses. That's, that's the ultimate in survival.

• 17:45Speaker 01

  I knew that early on because I was made aware of all my flaws or assumed flaws from a child, an early child.

• 17:54Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I see you as an expert in rejection.

• 17:56Speaker 01

  I am.

• 17:56Jay Shetty?

  I'm like, you are an expert in rejection. You, you write beautifully in the book. You say, one of my favorite quotes I pulled out, rejection is your shadow at every step in this business. You have to find a way to make peace with it. And I was thinking about that and I was wondering, when you're such an expert at rejection.

• 18:15Jay Shetty?

  How do you make peace with being rejected? I feel it's probably the biggest challenge of today that everyone's facing, whether you're young, old. I feel like the world's moving at the fastest pace it ever has. People are experiencing rejection, chasing their passions, their dreams. When someone's going through that, how do they become an expert in rejection like you? And how do they make peace with it?

• 18:35Speaker 01

  I use a, I guess you might say, a strategy called mirror therapy. I would actually talk to myself when, because I had so much time alone and I spent so much time alone, that I would try to look at myself. And actually, when you're looking at yourself in the mirror, you're trying to find clarity in your eyes. And I finally felt as though I knew, I was like talking to myself, giving myself my own therapy, which I thought was extraordinary. Well, you should seek other people to garner therapy from them. But if you learn to analyze yourself, then I made peace with it

• 19:18Speaker 01

  because I realized I knew my strengths and I knew my weaknesses. So I realized why I would get rejected, okay? I didn't fit that image. You know, when you go in for an audition, within 10 seconds, that person goes, hmm, he's, yeah, he's the right one, he's not the right one. Already you're, you've been judged. And so you, I realized that, oh yeah, I'm going in for a cowboy who's six foot four. You know, it's not gonna work. So I go in there with the preparation that 99% of the time, they're not going to choose me because they have a preconceived notion of what they want.

• 20:03Speaker 01

  So don't be so hard on yourself. You were not right for that part, but there will be one that you will connect with. And guess what? That didn't happen either. So I go, then you have to go to plan B. And sometimes failure is the greatest motivator. You gotta have it inside. I mean, you gotta have something inside. I don't know if everyone has it, but it's a combativeness. Like, I know I can do this. I'm gonna be terrible in the beginning. And I'm speaking about writing, which I find the most difficult of all the arts to perform.

• 20:43Speaker 01

  It's the most revealing and the most painful and, and perhaps the least gratifying because quite often you read what you've done and you go, this is horrible. But it felt like real brilliant at the time. But that failure forced me, meaning acting. I just was a type that was not present at that time. That were, people were not really interested in my type. So I said, I gotta do something on my own and began to investigate writing. And then I started developing other characters. But still, I didn't know how to write very well until I wrote about Edgar Allan Poe. Because what happened is you keep writing about yourself.

• 21:28Speaker 01

  Enough already. And it's like, it gets repetitive. So when you start writing about someone else, now you're focusing on that person's personality. Once I did that, then I realized I'm ready to create a character from scratch. And that was called Rocky. Like literally, I know everyone saw me as a bully, as a thug, as this, as not a very, he doesn't look smart, so he must not be smart. And everyone was judging everyone, because we do, we judge people. Soon as they walk into a room, we do a primary personality, I guess, readout of them. Primary impressions are very, very strong. But you're wrong. You don't know what's ticking in that body.

• 22:12Speaker 01

  They can be genius, but because they don't look like a genius, they don't, they're not smoking a pipe and they have a certain ascot on. Oh my God, they're so sophisticated. That's superficial. When I wrote about Rocky, I wrote about a guy on the outside that's considered a complete loser and a thug, but inside he's gentle. He really is gentle. And the only thing that brings out his ferocity is being underestimated. Like, if you call me just about any name in the world, I could bounce it off. I was like, I was pretty, pretty immune to it. But if you call me stupid, now you push my button.

• 22:53Jay Shetty?

  Why was that?

• 22:53Speaker 01

  I don't know, because that goes back to my father and my parents. You're stupid, you're stupid, you're stupid, you're dumb. That's why you can't get anywhere. Why can't you be like that person who's got some brains? You got no brains. And I went, oh my God. That one never went away. But then again, that was motivation for proving I wasn't stupid by actually writing a screenplay that other people could understand and, and identify with. So I wasn't stupid. I was just misunderstood.

• 23:28Jay Shetty?

  That's really powerful. I feel like you, you have two choices. You either prove them right or you disprove them.

• 23:33Speaker 01

  That's it.

• 23:34Jay Shetty?

  And you disprove them by doing something that proved to yourself

• 23:38Speaker 01

  Right.

• 23:38Jay Shetty?

  that you weren't stupid, that you were misunderstood.

• 23:40Speaker 01

  That's it.

• 23:41Jay Shetty?

  You don't do it by fighting for it, defending yourself.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  No.

• 23:44Jay Shetty?

  It's actually doing the thing.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  You gotta do the thing.

• 23:46Jay Shetty?

  That proves to you.

• 23:47Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 23:47Jay Shetty?

  I genuinely, as I'm reading the book, I found it fascinating how you didn't take so much of this personally, whether it's from your parents or whether from

• 23:55Speaker 01

  Oh, did you, really?

• 23:56Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I'm just like, when you're meeting the agents and they're telling you, oh, you're more of an intimidating kind of guy, or you're more like this person, or you're not good looking enough. And I was, I just couldn't believe how many times you heard the same thing. And it's almost like if you hear the same thing, you start to believe it. So you must have been saying something else to yourself.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  I was at that bridge or at that crossroad. I said, either you're right or they're right. If you believe them, go home. It's over. And that's why I spent all this time, I'm telling you, talking to myself, looking in the mirror, thinking, could I be this big a fool? Am I this delusional to actually believe I could be a famous actor? Am I that far gone? Or do you really believe it? And I really believed it. I really believed somewhere, somehow. I didn't, I never ever, and I swear to you, I never thought I would be here, ever. I just wanted to be adequate.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  You know, like, okay, I just want to like get a C, grade C. Okay, I'm average, good, average actor. That's where it was at. But I triggered on something that I think the majority of the world at times questions. What is it all about? What is my real worth? And why am I not getting the opportunity? If I just had an opportunity to fail, what do you mean? I want an opportunity to fail. I know I'm not gonna succeed. I probably won't. I'm never gonna be the best basketball player, this and it. But I just wanna try to see how good I can be. And then I could go to my grave going, I had an opportunity.

• 25:40Speaker 01

  The lack of opportunity, I think, is what drives people absolutely nuts and, and forces them, well, I start drinking and this and that, because it hurts. It's like, I'm never gonna get a chance to really show my worth because the opportunity didn't present itself. And it really doesn't. No one's gonna go, hey, show me how good you are. See if you can lift that hundred pounds and then I'll give you a job. Those opportunities are very, very, very rare. And that's why I think that Rocky touched so many sensitive nerves because of that situation and not being allowed to show if you got it or you don't.

• 26:21Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  I remember there's this, a guy came into the gym and there was a fella at a training. His name was Jerry Cooney. He was a big, tough, ranked heavyweight. And the guy came in, was even bigger than him and tougher looking. He was the head of the Hells Angels in Boston. And he comes in, he goes, everyone, I could kick everyone's ass. I'm the baddest of the bad. I think I could be heavyweight champion of the world. He goes, I wanna spar you around. So Jerry goes, yeah, get into the ring. Guy gets in, you know, he's about 290 pounds, he's huge. I would say the fight lasted 11 seconds, including the count. However, long it took him to walk across the ring and throw one left hook,

• 27:07Speaker 01

  knocked the guy out. But here's what, here's what I took away from it. He goes, thank you. Now I know I made the right decision. You completely proved me that I, yes, I should have been a biker. I am a biker. I'm a very successful biker. I might be the scourge of the earth, but I'm successful at it. I never would have been. So, so a lot of the time, to be able to have your dream even pop, like, oh, thank you. God, now I know I can go back to doing my other jobs.

• 27:40Jay Shetty?

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• 28:23Jay Shetty?

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• 29:06Jay Shetty?

  That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This episode is brought to you by Apple Watch. If you're like me, constantly trying to better understand your body, you should check out the new Apple Watch Series 12. The vitals app puts your key daytime and overnight health metrics right on your wrist, including HRV, which is heart rate variability, a signal of how your body's handling stress and bouncing back from it. And it's now backed by the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable, so you can trust what it's telling you. Visit apple.com/AppleWatchSeries12 to learn more. iPhone 11 or later required.

• 29:47Jay Shetty?

  The vitals app is for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. Heart rate accuracy based on Apple conducted study, August 2026. Visit apple.com/hraccuracy. This episode is brought to you by Mazda. The best habits are the ones we hardly notice, the ones that quietly shape the way we move through life, giving us the confidence to focus on what really matters. That's Mazda's approach to safety. Every Mazda is designed with proactive safety features that help keep you more aware, more connected, and more engaged with your drive, so you can stay present behind the wheel. That commitment has earned Mazda recognition as Consumer Reports' safest new car brand. And as of July 2026,

• 30:28Jay Shetty?

  Mazda has won more 2026 IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus awards than any other car brand. Visit www.iihs.org to learn more. A lot can happen when an accident doesn't. Mazda, more of what matters to you. Visit MazdaUSA.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse products or services.

• 30:50Speaker 01

  Saying I made the right choice.

• 30:52Jay Shetty?

  I think that's what differentiates you as I'm listening to you, is that you were happy to start at being bad at what you did. Like you were okay at starting from a place of, this may work, it may not work. I want to give it a go. I just want an opportunity. And I feel like that's what we're missing today because I think nowadays everyone thinks, oh, you've got to launch something that's worth a billion dollars, or you've got to launch something that goes to the number one on the box office. Like there's such a pressure to be the best at everything, that you're not happy being the worst or the first. And so you never start.

• 31:24Speaker 01

  No.

• 31:25Jay Shetty?

  And then if you never start, then you're never going to get to be the best. There's that famous Zig Ziglar quote of, you don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

• 31:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's so true.

• 31:35Jay Shetty?

  And you were willing to start at the bottom, wherever someone gave you a shot.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  Right. You know, I guess it's in the Bible, never put false gods before me. I never, and this will sound very egotistical, I never said, oh, God, I want to be him. I, that person, I coveted whatever. I said, no, you just got to be you and the best you can be. And if you're mediocre, so be it. That's that you're mediocre, or if you have something unusual. But I just never caught on to like, oh, wow, I want to be exactly like this person and talk like him and dress like him. No.

• 32:17Jay Shetty?

  And that helped you? Not having someone you were chasing actually helped you because there was no pressure?

• 32:22Speaker 01

  I think so. I'm always shocked to, oh, yeah, I love this rock and roll singer. I've gone to 30 of his concerts. I go, why? Just buy the album, man. What are you, like, you trying to absorb him in a way? Are you trying to morph into him? I never quite got that. And I don't know if that's a plus or a negative, but don't try to be someone you're not. I mean, you're not going to be that person ever anyway. You're just not. And so I just tried to follow my own, you know, stick with my weaknesses, like make them stronger, not try to be that dude up there who's already made it. So how dare you presume? Like you're on that same path. You're not.

• 33:07Jay Shetty?

  You were offered $360,000 to not play Rocky, but you were adamant that you had to play Rocky. That's a lot of money.

• 33:15Speaker 01

  That's a lot of money.

• 33:16Jay Shetty?

  Why were you so adamant that you had to play Rocky?

• 33:19Speaker 01

  I had been told no, so many times, rejected so many times. I never really ever fathomed being rich. I knew what it was like to be poor. I had mastered poorness. I got that down to a sinus, so I was able to live on nothing. But I knew, no matter how much, if this was going to be my gateway to heaven, if I sold it for money, I'm going to hell. I'm, this is exactly what the story was about is not being bribed.

• 34:00Speaker 01

  I almost looked at it as a bribe, but I know it sounds egotistical, but I said, they didn't want me, so they continued to pay me. So are you bribing me to like, and I go, I just knew in my heart, if I sold this and this thing became successful, and this was what I had been building up to my whole life, I deserved the most miserable life. And I would have been miserable my whole life. I would have hated myself. I would have never understood the word, the meaning of happiness because I had sold out. Even today, to sit there and imagine,

• 34:42Speaker 01

  we're imagining right now, I'm watching TV and there is actor number X doing a great job at it. And that could have been you. That's what you were built for. I mean, you're, this whole trial and tribulation, going this route and this and that, and taking all these crazy challenges. They were leading up to this moment of will you or will you not crumble? Under the temptation of money. And it would have been a complete disaster.

• 35:15Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. What an experience to be writing about a character who's not distracted by temptation. And then to actually have to live it in your own life.

• 35:23Speaker 01

  It's a whole other book, isn't it? Yeah, that's a bad one.

• 35:26Jay Shetty?

  Was there ever in your life where you feel you did give in to temptation and it didn't?

• 35:29Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. No, no question. So I understood temptation and I got it, believe me. And sometimes I would, I would have to take, like when I was in movies, taking tickets at a movie theater because I'm making $34 a week. And, you know, if you could pick up an extra $10, $15, well, you're living big. You can actually have half a chicken for this week, something like that. So I understood temptation, but I knew when the chips are down, this was more than temptation. This was that crossroad. And this was crossroad number two. And the other one would be marriage and perhaps then birth of a child. Those are the four major crossroads, I think.

• 36:12Speaker 01

  And I go, my God, if I, if I do this, I'm going to, I can't even tell you the wrath I will feel for myself for being such a coward. And the fact that they also didn't want me really pushed my body, you know what I mean? It was like, no, you know what? This is exactly what I've been facing for years and years and years of saying you're not good enough. So I'm just going to play tough to get. That's it. I'm just going to, because I really felt I had nothing to lose.

• 36:43Jay Shetty?

  When you started playing the role and obviously you were writing, directing, you know, you're involved so much. Was there a sense of imposter syndrome? Was there a moment then where you started to lack confidence? And started to question yourself while you were actually making it?

• 36:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was that. I'll never forget, I was, it was freezing and I was not wearing my Rocky clothes, which were my real clothes and workout. I just wrote Italian style on the back, but this is the junk I used to wear. And I said, now you got everything you want. Are you really up to it? Are you, are you as good as these other actors? You're not really experienced. And then finally, then I made the guy outside. He goes, okay, Sly, we're ready. I said, Rocky, call me Rocky. From now on, I'm going to be that guy. And whenever I put those clothes on, I want, I became that guy. You know, some actors, like everyone has a different method. They really do.

• 37:42Speaker 01

  Like there's, there's no, like, how many different ways to, do you interpret a character? What is your training method? I think it's really very simple. I think Daniel Day-Lewis said, he goes, there's good acting and bad acting. There's truthful and there's not truthful. You know, something like that. And it's, that's really it. So I said, from that moment on, I'm really going to actually believe I'm this guy. And we started talking like that, you know what I'm saying? And all these like things, I'd see these other fighters, they'd always be, you know, shifting their shoulders.

• 38:17Speaker 01

  Like always imagining like they're ready to fight or just staying loose. And all these things started coming to me, what I call isms, little mannerisms. And it really was, it was quite different. I could literally remain in a character 25 hours a day. It was just, I really felt comfortable.

• 38:35Jay Shetty?

  You just saying that, the idea of being true. I think when you watch Rocky, it feels very true.

• 38:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:41Jay Shetty?

  It was very real. It feels very honest and earnest as well. Like you, you, you really feel his pain. You really feel that, what he's experiencing. And it's something you can relate to as well. I feel to me, some of the most powerful scenes were between Rocky and Mickey. What?

• 38:54Speaker 01

  Without a doubt.

• 38:55Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 38:56Speaker 01

  That scene where I, I had written a scene and I felt it was too short, too mediocre. And then I said, you know, I'm gonna play this scene like what I've wanted to say to my father. And I never did. And that scene of me, what about my life? What about, you know, each you had a prime, I had nothing. That was coming from my soul. Like, cause sometimes I know other writers will disagree with me. Some things can be beautifully written, but then they're not as truthful. In other words, you haven't lived them. You're writing about them, but you haven't gone through them. And I did that twice.

• 39:41Speaker 01

  Here's the first example. When I did First Blood, at the very end, I made sure Rambo didn't talk until at the very end. He spits out everything that's been eating him alive. It's almost like an autistic person speaking for the first time. Now, I hadn't been to Vietnam. I had not had people die in my arms. So I'm writing from other people's experiences. And Rocky, that was my experience. I was living that. So one, I was acting and one, I was like psychologically flashing back.

• 40:15Jay Shetty?

  Do you believe that Rocky helped you grieve what you never received from your parent?

• 40:18Speaker 01

  Unfortunately, no, no, no. Uh, it, it didn't, cause I, I still feel it to this day. And it's something that you never really get over completely. I, I guess that has to do with DNA and genetics and stuff that we don't even understand that bind us together with our, our, our parents. So you just try to come to terms with it. Try to do a, have a better life with your family and, and that's all you can do. But scars don't go away. You know, you just can't laser them off because they're inside. They're not out here. Oh yeah. Can you take the scarf? Hell yeah. Can you take the one off my heart?

• 41:00Speaker 01

  Sorry. That's there forever.

• 41:04Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. I appreciate the honesty because yeah, it's kind of like a romantic idea to think that you can heal those scars on the inside, but.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:12Jay Shetty?

  What you said feels real. Yeah. It feels so true. And it's such a painful experience and I've been watching this more and more, especially when I interview people who've lived decades of life. Like you have real life experience and you go, you look back at that experience and say, that made me who I am today. That made you a fighter. It drove you to this incredible life. I got to meet your beautiful family today. Everyone's like the most sweet, kind, sincere family, like so, so hospitable, so welcoming, so warm and made me feel so at home in your home. Like I feel so, I'm like, I'll move in. It's fascinating that pain has to make that. And you go, is there another way? And, and, and I don't know. I've been thinking about that. What have you seen from your years of life and friends and family and people you know?

• 41:55Jay Shetty?

  Like, is everyone who's done life well, gone through something painful?

• 41:59Speaker 01

  I think so. I think they do. And I think it's just a matter of coping with it. And, and you know, it wears its ugly head now and then. You, you might see something it reminds you of and it triggers it. But again, it'll settle down. Cause you know, I've gone through some pretty brutal things and uh, you can keep a lid on it for a while, but of course the lid does come off. And, and usually it's, hopefully you're alone when that happens. And then it settles back down and it's, I call it volcanic. It's like volcanic eruptions in your, in your soul. You have them. It erupts now and then. And, but it, it never goes away. But I'm sure you've gone through it.

• 42:42Speaker 01

  How do you go through life without being beaten up? You know, you start getting beaten up the minute you're born. It's just, this is as easy as it's ever gonna get for you right now. Okay. You're crying over a toy. Guess what? That's the easiest it's ever gonna be. It gets a lot rougher when you have to cry over serious things in life.

• 43:05Jay Shetty?

  Well, a lot of the monologues in Rocky pep talks that you gave yourself when you were younger. I know what you were just mentioning now, getting beaten up, obviously in Rocky Balboa. You're talking about the scene with Mickey channeling emotions to your father. What are other memorable moments for you that felt like you were channeling your own inner pain and emotions into a scene?

• 43:24Speaker 01

  I would have to say like, uh, when I'm speaking with my son, that, that one just came so fast. And, and a lot of people say, was that written for your son? I go, uh, the truthfully, I was writing about me. Like, are you gonna live in the shadow of your father? Are you gonna blame other people? So I was writing about literally what I had gone through as a young man and how you don't do that. It's not how winning is done. Get up, take the punches and keep going. So it was like self reflecting.

• 44:04Speaker 01

  It was almost like a, a lesson to myself, a reminder of what you have to do to get through this thing called life. You know what I mean? Just keep punching, keep punching.

• 44:15Jay Shetty?

  I love that you said that Rocky's more of a love story than it is a sports film.

• 44:20Speaker 01

  Of course.

• 44:21Jay Shetty?

  That's why I think I like it so much too. What's the, uh, what are the softer qualities of Rocky that you most identify with?

• 44:27Speaker 01

  He just is so sensitive to her feelings that, uh, like when he does say things, you know, women weaken legs and I gotta stay strong. Then he feels terribly sorry for what he said. Or when her brother starts to say terrible things about her and like you, you slept with him, we did this. And that Rocky comes over and he, he has every reason to, to really destroy this horrible guy. But he forgives him. He understands his pain. And then he goes, then he says to Adri, you, you want a roommate? Kind of, or she says, you want a roommate? That's the difference.

• 45:11Speaker 01

  He, he, he understands other people's pain because he has been so torn apart by life. Oh my God. I was gonna write so much more like about his father and about his mother and about like, no one ever realized it, but in the, in the movie, the loan shark was his brother. And they made me change it, you know? Yeah. Like that he was even working for his brother. Like he's like, even my brother, he used to be as a thug. And, and, but the brother was also, he was, he was kind to him too. There, it was just interesting, different dynamics and relationships that was, is very biographical.

• 45:55Jay Shetty?

  I mean, honestly, I, I wanna say it's just so brilliantly written as well.

• 45:58Speaker 01

  Really?

• 45:59Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, genuinely. Like, I'm not just saying that. I grew up as a massive fan of autobiographies. It's my favorite genre of books. And so I grew up reading everything from, I grew up in London, so David Beckham and all the way through to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. And so for me, I, I love reading about real life stories. And this one is just, I'm there with you. Like I can picture the scenes.

• 46:21Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you.

• 46:22Jay Shetty?

  I can experience it.

• 46:23Speaker 01

  I wasn't sure it was gonna work at all.

• 46:25Jay Shetty?

  No, it's, it's spectacular. Honestly, I mean that. It was gripping. I was there. I was just, it was so easy to read too. It's just, you're just fully there with you, following the story along. But when I was reading it, I was thinking to myself, like, one of the hardest moments was when, and you've talked about this in other places too, but like how your mom doesn't go to the Oscars with you. And, and I was thinking about, how did that feel? And did you ever feel she was proud of what you'd achieved?

• 46:51Speaker 01

  No, never. No, it was, it was, it's a very odd thing. She had been raised horribly too, and she was just passing that on. And I always thought that. Why would you have learned from that and like not be the same? Like have the same degenerating kind of like mentality that I'm gonna make it even worse for someone else cuz I someone was bad to me, so I'm gonna show you. She was very witty, she had, she was smart, but she never forgave me for, in her mind, destroying her opportunity. That like it's, I mean, I'll never forget, I didn't put this in the book, like,

• 47:35Speaker 01

  I was late for school as usual, and there was a plate glass window, like glass, and my mother was like, hurry up, hurry up, I don't want you to stay home today, you're gonna be late for school. And she pushed me through the window cuz I stumbled and I literally got close to sixty stitches here, I can see my bone. And the only reason I didn't bleed to death is there were workers next door building a house, and they came and took me to the hospital and like sewed me up. And it was so critical, they couldn't, at that time, give me Novocain or anything cuz it was that bad. I go, do you remember when you pushed me through the window? He goes, you tripped. I go, you pushed me.

• 48:20Speaker 01

  Now, here's what I'm, here's where I'm getting at with the story. In a lot of other ways, she just pushed and pushed and pushed me in her bone, terrible directions and, and very, very mean, mean to people around me, mean to my wife, just. And at the very end, when she was like ninety, I said, do you regret anything? And he goes, no, never. In her mind, she never made a mistake. And I'm wondering, is that, is that a gift from God that you're able to completely block out truths? That you could go to your maker with actually no guilt whatsoever?

• 49:05Speaker 01

  Or are you completely psychotic? You, you, you literally have lied to yourself so much that lying is the preferred format of how to conduct your life. I will just lie about everything until it becomes natural and I'm just, and that's what it was. She literally had never told the truth her whole life, that she became very comfortable. She never had the, a, a, a thought of, I'm actually telling a lie. No, it was, all her lies became truth. And I saw that, was that, was that a gift? Or is that a curse? I don't know. But anyway, you could see the effect has been, was, was long lasting.

• 49:46Speaker 01

  I think it even affected my brother more cuz I was able to somehow turn it into something creative. Really, I do a lot of painting and stuff like that, and it, it comes out, it just pours out.

• 50:00Jay Shetty?

  Why did you choose to leave that out of the book?

• 50:02Speaker 01

  I didn't wanna sit there and sound like I'm just whining and complaining, oh, woe is me. The truth is, everybody in this room has issues, has had moments. And if they haven't, they're really, really blessed, they really are blessed. But everyone has had to deal with this situation called dark side of life. And I, I just don't wanna say, oh, again, you're not the only one, Slade. There's people a lot off, a lot worse than you are, a lot worse. I mean, I've been literally tortured to death. And so I just thought, let me just leave it at this relatable level.

• 50:46Speaker 01

  People can relate to this, but if you go too far, it's almost, you know, cuz I could have gone, believe me.

• 50:53Jay Shetty?

  Oh, wow, really?

• 50:54Speaker 01

  Oh, trust me, oh, trust me. Oh, yeah, my, my family knows about it. It, it was, it was really quite unbelievable, yeah.

• 51:03Jay Shetty?

  Thank you for sharing that. It's, uh, for, for what it's worth, I think, you being that open about what you've been through and how much drive you had, I'm hoping that that's actually gonna help a lot of our listeners find their motivation in their life, as you said.

• 51:19Speaker 01

  It's very complicated. Cuz I'll tell you another story, it's very, very odd.

• 51:26Speaker 01

  My mother, for some reason, I, I always was still trying, always trying. And I never felt it was giving back. Then when my father, who is also a tough, tough cookie, he's dying. And he has a form of cancer, and she calls up hysterical crying, like, be nice to him, please, show love and kindness like I gave to you, I'll pass it on to him. And I was literally just sitting there, I said, do you mind if I tape this because I can't believe what I'm hearing?

• 52:03Speaker 01

  He goes, you can do whatever you want, but please, stay with your, do something for your father before he dies. And I'm thinking, this is the woman that made his life, you know, hell, and he made her life hell. And now they care about each other rather than their own children. And I thought that was quite fascinating, that when you're really at death's door,

• 52:32Speaker 01

  and how priorities shift, like, this is the man you divorced fifty years ago and hated. You used to talk about him in horrible terms, now you're shedding, I've never heard you sob, heaving, like in my life. And then when I passed the word on to him, he goes, always, please, be kind to people. And I said, do you have to be near death to feel like this? That you feel as though you should have been kind to everyone? He goes, yes. And I went, wow, you, you see all the confusion, I, it's, people are so complicated.

• 53:15Speaker 01

  And they're never gonna be, they're beyond Rubik's cubes. They're, they're made of flesh and bone, and that transitions all the time, it's always morphing. The same person you met at ten is not at twenty, and twenty is not the same at thirty, and they evolve. It takes a, a, a very erudite individual, quite perceptive, to sort of understand the machinations and, and the, the mechanics of how people will, they change. We're not, we're not furniture, we're not, oh, yeah, that antique's perfect, we're not antiques. We are, we are slowly becoming aging artifacts of the past.

• 54:01Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Mazda. Some of life's best moments happen because nothing went wrong. The drive home, the conversation that continues, the plans that stay exactly as planned. That's the feeling of safety. Every Mazda is designed with proactive safety features that help keep you more aware, more connected, and more engaged with your drive, so you can feel confident on the road. That's why Mazda has been named Consumer Reports' safest new car brand. And as of July, twenty twenty six, they've won more twenty twenty six IIHS Top Safety Pick Plus Awards than any other car brand. Visit www.iihs.org to learn more. A lot can happen when an accident doesn't.

• 54:46Jay Shetty?

  Visit MazdaUSA.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse products or services. Was it confusing to be at the moment when you were losing your parents?

• 54:57Speaker 01

  Yes, it was, it was, it was very sad. Because, you know, you go, why does it take so long to have a realization of, of, of something so profound? That my father was a very, very physical man, you know, big time. Like, like, I'm talking on the floor, let's go. And to have this revelation, I'm going, my God. Maybe he had that in him, but he just didn't know how to release it at times. So, so you start to go through all this stuff, and then, then it's like the Robert Frost poem, we all dance around in a ring and wonder,

• 55:42Speaker 01

  and the answer sits in the middle of no's. And that's what drives us, that's what drives, you know, the, all intellect is driven on curiosity of not, not knowing what it's all about. So we all develop philosophies, and, and this is my interpretation, this is my religion, this is how I see it.

• 56:03Speaker 01

  You know, and each of us have a different proportional way of dissecting their lives, going, this is the direction that works best for me, where it may work terrible for her. Like, I'm gonna be a tough son of a bitch my life, and no one's gonna hurt me, and that's my route. And that's what he did, see what I mean? Like, no one's gonna, no one's gonna crack this crust. But it did crack at the end, see? And I wonder if he blew his whole life by not being the really genuine person he could have been.

• 56:34Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 56:35Speaker 01

  You know, and I always think about that cuz I, I have traits. I have habits that reflect his. Even to this day, they come out of, I go, God, that's him. He's, he's so, you know, your parents, for better or worse, they're still alive in you. Even when they move on, there's, there's trademarks of them. It, it, it is, why you laugh, you laugh like a mother, you know, your hand gestures, it's like, drives you fucking crazy. You know what I mean? Like, what do we do about this? Like, you know, get an exterminator? No, there's nothing, an exterminator for the soul?

• 57:18Speaker 01

  No, you just, that's why it's so goddamn complex, and that's why our minds are always churning, there's, I mean, I used to study all these different kinds of theologies, and even chanting, and, you know, Tantra this, and so on and so, and you go, how do you clear out the mind? Like, it is, I think it's almost virtually impossible to be without thought.

• 57:42Jay Shetty?

  I agree.

• 57:43Speaker 01

  You know, just.

• 57:46Speaker 01

  I think it really is just to be, oh, give me one minute of no thought. Well, that's a thought right there. You don't think you don't think you're thinking that's a, it's just, it's wild. So it's how do you corral these thoughts and and try to keep them under control? Some of them are destructive. They're there to like test you. It it's really a pain in the ass. Life is a pain in the ass. It really is.

• 58:12Jay Shetty?

  I was gonna ask you, you said your your dad's, you know, version was almost like this, be this tough cross, this thick.

• 58:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:18Jay Shetty?

  You know, I'm I'm stronger. How would you define your philosophy of life?

• 58:22Speaker 01

  Oh, now you're getting deep.

• 58:25Jay Shetty?

  I feel like you're you're a philosopher in this book, your movies are philosophical, like the, everything has such an undertone of just.

• 58:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:32Jay Shetty?

  You know, life advice and everything you do, like it's, it speaks to me.

• 58:36Speaker 01

  I used to think that I'd like to confront things head on.

• 58:41Speaker 01

  And my philosophy is like, sort of not, not confront them head on because, you know, like, sometimes it's not worth the battle. For example, um, when, when I wrote Rambo, in the book, he was a homicidal maniac and and he was just running to violence, couldn't wait to kill. Because that's what he'd been trained for. When I took it over and started to rewrite it, I had him running away from everything, avoiding it, trying not not to confront his demons, just like, don't, don't.

• 59:21Speaker 01

  I I don't want to fight with people because I know I'm gonna get crazy and take your life. So I I felt as though I was very confrontational and I think it it wasted a lot of my life being angry. You know, that old thing, uh, they'll turn the other cheek. I never turned the other cheek. I was just the most combative and and looking for a challenge and I always felt as though I had to compete with people that weren't even competing with me. I just thought that like, I have to try to be the best, I have to try to be the best. You know, because I was always told I was not the best, so that kind of thing. And it took me until

• 1:00:05Speaker 01

  maybe seventy years old to stop doing that. To just like, let it lie, let other people have their moments, don't always be competing, don't always invent these frigging dragons that you have to slay. There are no dragons. They're only in your mind that you you just are looking for some reason to stay relevant. Irrelevant. It's like you don't have to continue to battle and be, also to be envious and jealous. That that that in my profession reigns supreme.

• 1:00:44Speaker 01

  You know, because people in my profession, when you're rejecting, you're not rejecting a product or a car you're selling or rugs you're weaving or some, you're rejecting the flesh on your bones. You are not good enough anymore. You're passe. You're you're leftovers. And actors go through that. And that's a terrible death. I've always said, you know, actors die twice. And the second one is a lot easier than the first one because you're being told that you're not valid or nobody wants you anymore. I've been told that, you know, like, when I was gonna do Rocky Six, Rocky Balboa, it's a very interesting time.

• 1:01:25Speaker 01

  My career was in a slump like for eight years. That phone, that phone had spider webs and I think it was, it was a dead, dead instrument. And I thought, wow, the only way I'm ever gonna get out of this is to write my way out of it. So I wrote Rocky Six. And the movie is about grief and it's about loss. It's not about fighting at all. It's about pain. Replacing old pain with new pain, something like this. Rocky couldn't live without his wife. And this this situation here is is something that I I knew I had to do because no one was hiring me anymore. So I said, let me write something like this. And again, the studio said,

• 1:02:11Speaker 01

  you're over and Rocky is dead. You're both are finished. And I found one person who said, all right, let's just give it a try. And it turned out to be a very big hit. And I went on to do Rocky and Rambo and Expendables. But literally, it took something like that to dig yourself out of this. It's really remarkable. Uh, when you're told, told, you're done, your character is done, you're finished in this business. Nobody wants you. I go.

• 1:02:43Jay Shetty?

  Which one was harder, being told you weren't good enough at the beginning? Or being told you were done after you'd had massive success?

• 1:02:50Speaker 01

  After, afterwards.

• 1:02:51Jay Shetty?

  Why did you, why did you believe it more that second time?

• 1:02:54Speaker 01

  Because you go, you you went through all the trials and tribulations, you were incredibly successful, you achieved all your dreams far. And then now you're, you're worthless. I go, wait a fucking minute, worthless? Now I'm back to ten years old again? I'm I'm back to reliving that whole chapter again? After I've done, we won awards, we won the Oscar, everything? You have no value anymore. So that to me was because you're a grown ass man now. You know, it's that kind of, it's like, it's so humiliating. It's one thing as a child, but as an adult

• 1:03:32Speaker 01

  and having done, they climbed to the highest peak in this industry, this be told that you're on your way to hell and there's nothing and you're gone. There's, you just don't mean anything anymore. That's a rough one. See, it's not like, oh, we don't like your product. You're the product. So I feel great empathy for performers. And I feel I feel that way all performers, writers, dancers, anyone that they feel the impending clock ticking. That's like, I always put like ninety percent of my paintings, there's always a clock in it because I feel that thing, you know, that that horrible impediment of time.

• 1:04:13Jay Shetty?

  How do you value time today?

• 1:04:14Speaker 01

  Time is more precious now than ever because I've, I've put my body through a lot. I've had nine back operations, three neck fusions, I've had heart problems, I've had everything that you, I like. Always use a stunt man. That's my motto from now on. If I can pass on any knowledge to young actors, use a stunt man. Okay. You know, I mean, because it's gonna catch up to you in the end. So I realize that I'm on borrowed time. The average age is seventy seven, seventy eight. That's when you say goodbye. I'm eighty. So I'm three years over the quota

• 1:04:52Speaker 01

  of where you should be saying sayonara to this life. So I look at it very, very important. I I mention to my wife all the time, like, you know, like, I gotta keep living, I gotta keep staying alive. I gotta, I'm enjoying my life now more than those other eighty years. And I said, Jesus, if I can just get a few more out of this, then then then then I'm gonna understand what true happiness is. Not manufactured, not semi, not partial, like full, real friends. I mean, really honoring your friends. I mean, friends are hard to come by, really, really hard to come by. And I've had one friend like for sixty five years.

• 1:05:35Speaker 01

  So you gotta covet that. That's a very rare thing. And that only comes with age and age, you know, can play tricks on you. One time you just walked in, because I I was supposed to pass away a couple of times, you know, because of just inner problems and just beating up my body so badly.

• 1:05:54Jay Shetty?

  How close did you get?

• 1:05:55Speaker 01

  Oh, I got close. I I got, um, like two heart attacks, you know, like major. And then I go, come on, God, give me a break, would you please? I will, I'll be, I'll be a nice guy. I'll be all right. I I promise I'll use my my time to the best of my ability. Also, here's what's weird. And I don't know if this is just self-delusion. And you're a young man now and you'll feel it, you know, when you, hopefully when you catch up. It would should be a long time in your case, that you're doing your best work.

• 1:06:34Speaker 01

  Now, you may not be, uh, writing your best or painting your best because I can see the generation in painter, you can say, oh, God, he was better, Picasso was better at when he's forty years old than he was at ninety, without a doubt. But I find that acting, I've had so many, uh, different.

• 1:06:58Speaker 01

  Dramas in my life and I've taken away and I've had my heart broken and I've broken hearts and I've done, in other words, you've done so many things that now when I speak, I'm not acting, I'm not just saying the words, I'm feeling the words and that's the difference in acting. Anybody can learn words, but to understand the words, you gotta have lived it.

• 1:07:21Jay Shetty?

  You're talking about friendship. How do you define a good friend?

• 1:07:24Speaker 01

  A good friend literally will show up when you don't even need him. You know, he'll, he's just there for you. If you, he can sense that when you're sad, like if a tragedy happens, God forbid, they're the first one on the phone or at your house. If you want to insult them, ask them, like, do you need some money? And they, they go crazy on you because that's not a friendship. That'll be the end of it. You know, that kind of thing that wants nothing from you, wants to give what they got.

• 1:07:55Jay Shetty?

  That's a beautiful definition. And you have a 65 year friendship, you said?

• 1:07:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, I do.

• 1:07:59Jay Shetty?

  That's unbelievable.

• 1:07:59Speaker 01

  I do.

• 1:08:00Jay Shetty?

  How often do you talk?

• 1:08:01Speaker 01

  Every other day.

• 1:08:03Jay Shetty?

  Wow.

• 1:08:03Speaker 01

  I know. Isn't it weird?

• 1:08:04Jay Shetty?

  That's incredible. No, it's great. That makes me feel, I talk to the best man from my wedding every other day.

• 1:08:08Speaker 01

  Do you really?

• 1:08:09Jay Shetty?

  My best friend, we've been best friends for 20 years.

• 1:08:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, well, keep that up, keep that up because he's gonna know things about you that no one, your parents will ever know.

• 1:08:18Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:08:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:19Jay Shetty?

  He's the only person in the world I can tell everything to.

• 1:08:22Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 1:08:22Jay Shetty?

  And he won't judge me and I don't feel embarrassed sharing something that I might feel a bit, you know?

• 1:08:27Speaker 01

  It's amazing, you know, he's active, what's on your brain, how you think, how you don't think. I mean, it's just great.

• 1:08:32Jay Shetty?

  Yeah. You've been married for 29 years with Jennifer, who I just got to meet, who's absolutely wonderful. What do you believe you had to unlearn from how your parents raised you through their marriage?

• 1:08:47Speaker 01

  The greatest asset people can have, right up there in the top three is, I've always thought patience is not a virtue. I thought impatience to me was a virtue, like, let's get it done. Well, not so. When you have someone who has patience, that is willing to ride out the storms without any shelter, just bare themselves to the volat- the volatility of your personality and all the baggage you bring, which I brought a lot, and she was so healing and the patience she showed, because I mean, well, she inherited, she inherited my parents, she inherited this whole thing.

• 1:09:30Speaker 01

  And it wasn't until, you know, they eventually moved on that I really said, this is the greatest woman ever born. This is the greatest. And I, I try to say it every day, you know? I never go to bed without saying I love you, ever, ever, ever. And that was never the case, you know, it was just, I didn't know what love was. I really didn't. Love is the most complex word there is because there's a billion different kinds of love. And then when you hit on that one, where you say, I can't live without this person, then that's it.

• 1:10:06Jay Shetty?

  That's love.

• 1:10:06Speaker 01

  That's it. You're done, done. You know, go no further, you know? It's like what Cal Hill Gaboran would say, love is the thing that can take you the highest and at the same time drive it to the lowest. It's a sword hiding within the pinions of the feathers of the angel. Like in those feathers is also be careful is the sword. So it's, I mean, let's face it, it's a one word novel. You could literally write, and people have. I mean, has there ever been a better writer than Shakespeare about love? And yet it goes on and everyone, so it, but everyone has a different interpretation. They said, will you die for this person?

• 1:10:49Speaker 01

  Can you not live with this person? Would you literally want to follow this person into the ground? That's the person.

• 1:10:56Jay Shetty?

  You mentioned the word true happiness a few times in our interview. How do you define true happiness?

• 1:11:01Speaker 01

  Oh, when your wife's happy, that's really happy. Because if that's not working, nothing's working, trust me on that one. Because the, the woman, they transition as they move on. They become now your lover, now it's your companion, now it's your like boss, it's your mother, and it's your guy, you know, it's your woman that holds it all together. And, you know, I was just talking to my wife about that, about how the different stages. A man, not as much as a woman, because they go through birth. It's like, whoa, they're not gonna be the same after that, you know, like, and the raze all is true, that's a lot of work.

• 1:11:44Speaker 01

  So they're gonna be different than they were when you met them at, you know, 20. So as you can imagine, you have to somehow, and she brought this up recently, you have to adapt to their adaptation, because that's like, you're not the same before. No, I'm not. I was 20 years old and I was carefree and happy. Now I've had to live an entire life, support a family, support you, support this, go through tragedies, go through exaltations. I'm different.

• 1:12:13Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:14Speaker 01

  And you have to treat them different.

• 1:12:15Jay Shetty?

  You're never married to the same person you're married.

• 1:12:17Speaker 01

  You're not, you know, you're definitely not. I go, God, whatever happened to that kid? Well, you lived life and life changes you. It does. No getting around it. It's like changing your, you know, your skin sheds, well, so does your soul.

• 1:12:34Jay Shetty?

  You mentioned in your documentary, this beautiful statement that life before 40 is about addition.

• 1:12:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:12:40Jay Shetty?

  And life after 40 is about subtraction.

• 1:12:42Speaker 01

  It is.

• 1:12:43Jay Shetty?

  What have you had to learn to let go of?

• 1:12:45Speaker 01

  Well, up until 40, there's a sense of almost invulnerability, like, I'm getting there. And then I realized a lot of the relationships that I thought were good, were business relationships and any relationship based on money is not a relationship. It's commerce, okay, period. And when that commerce stops, you wonder why your phone stops ringing. It's not complicated. And then loved ones start to go. And that's, that's where the pain starts. That's where you really want to hang on to your friends if you get them, because they're going, we're on our way out. There is no maybe about this, not a guessing.

• 1:13:28Speaker 01

  People always go, oh, I wish I could live forever. No, you don't. Not if your friends are all gone, your love is gone, your wife is gone, your children are gone. You really want to be a vampire, really? Does that sound good to you? Not to me. Sounds like the worst curse there can be, you know, kind of a thing. That's when I, I really, when I wrote about Rocky, I said, this is, he's gonna undergo the worst grief a man can undergo. And it was not aging, it was his, was life, his love, you know? The reason he woke up every morning and had someone, I, I love you, that's gone.

• 1:14:12Speaker 01

  There's a pillow next to you that will never be felt. Brutal, brutal, brutal, brutal. And that's what that whole thing was. That's why I knew that to me, Rocky one and that was, was the best one, because it was so true, you know? I'd come close to that a few times. I said, nah. So right now, it's, it's the happiest, because when you get to be a certain age, you kind of figured out all the mysteries and you realize they weren't mysteries, they were common sense. But you were too stupid to realize it because you had the foible of youth, the invincibility, like, yeah, I know everything.

• 1:14:53Speaker 01

  Like, God forbid, if we had listened to our parents about, or our grandparents, they say, listen, don't do that. Fire is hot. Don't stick your hand in, maybe to you, but I'm not gonna feel it, you know what I mean? If we had just listened to some of those life lessons and avoided all those pitfalls, oh my God. How many, you know what I mean? Just especially about love and relationships. That's not gonna happen to me. Oh, yeah, it does.

• 1:15:20Jay Shetty?

  Do you have any regrets?

• 1:15:21Speaker 01

  I have so many regrets, it would literally take about another 10 hours for you. Yes, you have regrets because you took chances. And regrets are the, are the failure of taking chances. You regretted, oh God, I went for that. You know, it was romantic here. You know, I tried to become the finest, you know, athlete. And I was never, I was not good. I failed. Regret, regret, regret. But more regret is where you, where you've used your mouth in the wrong way and said the wrong words. And that is really, because you can't take them back.

• 1:16:01Speaker 01

  If someone's like willing to forgive, have patience, they understand you said that out of anger, that's not me. Well, it is you, but it's a part of you you don't want to bring out. You know, you, oh, he, he was just in a bad mood. Well, that, that bad mood came from somewhere. He's got to learn how to control it. But yeah, that's, that's all part of forgiving that, because God knows. She's forgiven me a billion times. Also, if you're.

• 1:16:32Speaker 01

  Complex, I mean, Jesus, be careful what you wish for. I want a complex person, no use. I want a person with a single track mind and like, yes, very simple. You get the complex ones, they're always questioning everything. And that's me.

• 1:16:51Jay Shetty?

  So you're the complex one, yes.

• 1:16:52Speaker 01

  Ah, yeah, yeah. She, she, she's the balanced one, the straight head, the honest one, the one that figures it out. It's really interesting. She says something all the time, it's very interesting. Math does not lie, you know, numbers don't lie. But when you're, she's pragmatic. When you're abstract, abstracts lie because you change it. You change the story, you tell the story 10 different ways. You embellish it as you get older, it gets bigger and the fish gets larger and like, it just, but when you're a pragmatic person, you just see things for black and white. And that's, that's the right way to see it, like practical.

• 1:17:37Speaker 01

  I'm impractical. Like I told you, I bought this house without looking at it. That's not practical.

• 1:17:44Jay Shetty?

  But it worked out.

• 1:17:45Speaker 01

  It worked out because she did the investigating.

• 1:17:48Jay Shetty?

  Right, so you need, it's a good balance.

• 1:17:50Speaker 01

  Oh my God, are you kidding? So many things that you just thought you needed in your life, like, why did I have to buy a bear trap? Did I really need that? Or why, so like, did you need 10 pair of red shoes? That's stupid, I mean, I'm exaggerating, but we just do things. Whereas she'll be, think about it, in a year from now, will you burn those things? Probably yes. So why are you buying this? You don't need it. You don't need 30 watches, you know, time is time, you don't need that, that kind of stuff. So it's common sense.

• 1:18:27Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Last thing I wanted to quote from your book that really stayed with me. And it said, I had to calm down, and it's this part, and convince myself that dreams are put here on this earth to comfort us through the very dark storms that rage in our souls. And that, that was really powerful, I thought. How lucky we are to dream, to have the opportunity to dream.

• 1:18:52Speaker 01

  Imagine without a dream, that means you're, you have no aspirations to go any further than where you're going. And I also said in there too, that sometimes people can get so lost in dreams, but dreams are also a cloud that will eventually dematerialize and disappear. So with that dream must come a solid vision of what you're talking about. Oh, I dream I was rich and famous. How are you gonna do that? Oh, I don't know, I'm not sure yet. That's when you need a vision.

• 1:19:37Speaker 01

  I'm gonna go here, I'm gonna do this for a year. I'm gonna work eight hours a day, no matter what. Sometimes I would sit there and I didn't feel it. And I would literally sit at that desk, put a clock there, and I wouldn't move. I say, I'm gonna torture myself. If I don't come up with something, because I don't believe totally in writer's block, I understand it, it does exist, no question about it. But how do you overcome writer's block? You block the block. You sit there and I'm gonna outlast you. And eventually your brain will go, this is so boring. Come, and it'll come up with something, something.

• 1:20:21Speaker 01

  You'll just start doodling, before you know it, it starts to come out. And that's how I would get over writer's block. It's easy to get writer's block when you're not making any money. So you're writing and no one's buying it. So what's inspiring you? Nothing. So you gotta inspire yourself.

• 1:20:39Jay Shetty?

  In your best days, how, how much are you writing? How, how many hours a day?

• 1:20:42Speaker 01

  I used to write. I'd start at 11 at night and write till like 5 in the morning. That was mainly during Poe. And it was very, very dark and nihilistic writing, the subject matter. And then I, I started doing investigation and majority of writers would write in the morning. So I would write at about, oh God, 5 in the morning till about 3 in the afternoon, which is a lot, yes, it's a lot, it is a lot. And also, if I didn't, it wasn't just, because sometimes just not rolling out, then I would go back and rewrite.

• 1:21:22Speaker 01

  So I always had something to do, because writers don't write, they rewrite, you know what I mean?

• 1:21:28Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:29Speaker 01

  They really do.

• 1:21:30Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, I can't imagine writing this book. How much, how much was it cathartic? How much was it healing? How much was it painful to revisit?

• 1:21:39Speaker 01

  Some was really painful, yeah, some was.

• 1:21:42Jay Shetty?

  What was the most painful moment to revisit and live through again?

• 1:21:44Speaker 01

  When my father was selling me a car, a $40 piece of junk. And I was gonna drive that to California and I was driving into the unknown. And he apologized to me, like, for being a bad father and I'm sorry. And I wanted to literally attack him. I said, please don't say this, don't, don't all of a sudden change my thoughts about you and this and that. And like, I felt as though maybe I did something wrong, whatever, I was a bad son and you were, whatever it is, just don't change the way a relationship is by making me feel so sorry for you.

• 1:22:29Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? And it killed me, it killed me. Whereas I never had that with my mother. And then as an adult, it was when I wrote Rocky and they were starting to tempt me with all this money. And I needed it. I went out in the back, I'll never forget, because I almost broke my hand, my fingers, when I started pounding this baked hard rock of a backyard from the sun. Because I said, God, it's like I was saying to God, like,

• 1:23:08Speaker 01

  give me the strength not to quit, not to buckle, not to be cowardly and give in. Just let me have, fight this fight until I win. And if I don't win, it's okay, at least I have my pride. I, I'm willing to go the distance, but I don't, I feel like I don't have the strength at this moment. I need more. So I, I got the strength from somewhere to, to, because that was like $2 million today. It was like a lot. That's why in the beginning of Rocky, I start with the picture of Jesus and come down. There's a reason for that.

• 1:23:49Speaker 01

  It's like, this fella has been chosen to do something very noble for other people to see. Like he's this, this poor, broken, discarded man is going to evolve into something because he believes. And you notice he always did give thanks.

• 1:24:10Jay Shetty?

  Yes, always, yeah. Any doors run by, take the blessings before the fight.

• 1:24:14Speaker 01

  Without beating people over the head with it, you know, but just enough. Like, if I get beat up, it's not too bad.

• 1:24:21Jay Shetty?

  Do you still talk to God today?

• 1:24:23Speaker 01

  I do, I, I think it's very therapeutic and, and there's a point where you have to stop talking to yourself. Go to a higher power. So yeah, and I, and I have this beautiful sculpture on my desk. It's literally life size of Jesus. It's powerful, looking, yeah.

• 1:24:44Jay Shetty?

  Slide, the last five questions, these have to be answered in one sentence maximum. We ask these to every guest who's ever been on the show. The final five today is brought to you by State Farm. It's important to have the right people in your corner to help you live your best life. State Farm and their agents are just a call or click away to help you choose the right coverage for you. What's the best advice you've ever received?

• 1:25:05Speaker 01

  You must face life with the eye of the tiger. That's an old Indian quote. And that is what I always have. The other thing is to be loved, to love and be loved in return is the greatest gift, like the song goes, that we can have. That is the greatest gift, to love and be loved in return, period.

• 1:25:26Jay Shetty?

  Question number two, what's the worst advice you've ever had or received?

• 1:25:30Speaker 01

  You have too many flaws to make it in the world of a professional. So stick to something like physical, get a job like that. And in other words, learn to use your muscles, not your mind. That was the worst advice I ever got.

• 1:25:50Jay Shetty?

  Question number three, if someone feels down on their luck right now, what would you say to them?

• 1:25:55Speaker 01

  You gotta be very realistic about your talent. You have to be really honest with yourself. If you're down on your luck because you're trying to do something you're not equipped to do, then it's your fault. If you're down on your luck because the opportunity has presented itself, just hang in there.

• 1:26:15Speaker 01

  But the most important thing is to thy own self be true. Your ambitions should never exceed your ability.

• 1:26:23Jay Shetty?

  Hmm.

• 1:26:24Speaker 01

  Period. And it does. You know, guys think that, why am I the lead in that movie? Because you don't have the ability.

• 1:26:34Jay Shetty?

  Hmm.

• 1:26:35Speaker 01

  You're not that, you know, it's a God given thing. People ask me, what makes a star? Exactly, that's it. What you just said, yes, a mystery makes a star. It's a mystery. There is no formula.

• 1:26:50Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, well said. Uh, question number four for the book, The Steps. What are you hoping that readers will get?

• 1:26:56Speaker 01

  No, I'm hoping that readers get this, that they look at this as somewhat of a guideline of how a journey can eventually lead to a positive result. But understand a journey is all uphill. You're fighting gravity the whole way. So be strong, be tough. Your hands are gonna get bloody, but keep clawing away until you reach the top of the steps.

• 1:27:22Jay Shetty?

  That's definitely the message people are gonna get.

• 1:27:24Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 1:27:25Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, very clearly.

• 1:27:26Speaker 01

  Oh, good.

• 1:27:27Jay Shetty?

  Very clearly, yeah. While I was reading it, I was like, it was regenerating all these emotions of just like what it takes.

• 1:27:34Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you.

• 1:27:34Jay Shetty?

  I haven't, I haven't interacted with a piece of writing or film or television recently that's just like reminding you of what it takes. You know, I think, and that's so important to just remember what it takes because

• 1:27:46Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you.

• 1:27:47Jay Shetty?

  Then you'll never quit because this will remind you that this is what it takes. There's no, there's no shortcuts.

• 1:27:52Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:27:52Jay Shetty?

  There's no easy paths.

• 1:27:53Speaker 01

  Definitely no shortcuts. And if it is, it's gonna be very ephemeral and quick. Oh, someone got you the job. It's that thing and it won't last. Cause you know, it's really, I'm sure you've been asked, like, how come you made it and this guy didn't? And you know, you can be very vain and say, cause I have more talent. But maybe you worked harder. That's just that you were just hungry. You had the eye of the tiger, just something that wouldn't let you stop. But you also, you had the stuff. You had the right stuff. If you don't have it, you can't manufacture it. Like my brother said once when he's very drunk, he says, he goes, you know, you can't

• 1:28:37Speaker 01

  be better than you are. I go, you're right. You can't be better than you are.

• 1:28:45Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:45Speaker 01

  You can't really, I'm, I'm not gonna be the best basketball player. No, thank God you were drunk when you said it, cause now I'm gonna remember it. But it's so true.

• 1:28:53Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, it is.

• 1:28:54Speaker 01

  You really can't be better than you are. And some people, and some people spend their whole lives fretting over that. It's cool and I know, I know.

• 1:29:05Jay Shetty?

  Yeah, you, you just put the ladder up the wrong wall.

• 1:29:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:29:08Jay Shetty?

  Like, there's another wall that you can put your ladder up against and climb up.

• 1:29:12Speaker 01

  That one you might be able to climb, yes.

• 1:29:14Jay Shetty?

  And fifth, the final question, we ask this to every guest who's ever been on the show, if you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

• 1:29:22Speaker 01

  It's really funny, cause the, the laws of human nature, the ones that like in the Bible, whatever, they're the ones that we're most prone to do. You know? You know, thou shall not steal, thou shall not cover thy neighbors. It's all the things that you write about, you see about, you watch, you watch TV today is streaming. These are the subjects. Has anything really changed?

• 1:29:47Jay Shetty?

  No.

• 1:29:47Speaker 01

  No, not, not overall. Only yourself, only you. You, you have to be the architect of your life. You have to build it, you have to create it, and you have to live in it.

• 1:29:58Jay Shetty?

  Today's final five was brought to you by State Farm. Having people in your corner for life's biggest milestones makes all the difference. With a State Farm agent, someone is there to help you along the way. You can talk to one of their 19,000 local agents in person, over the phone, through their easily accessible app, or at statefarm.com. Whatever works for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Slade, thank you so much for writing the steps.

• 1:30:24Speaker 01

  Oh, thank you.

• 1:30:25Jay Shetty?

  For walking the steps, for, uh, giving us this pathway. I hope that this interview continues to inspire people for many, many, many years and many decades.

• 1:30:34Speaker 01

  The fact that I sat down with you, my credit's gone up a thousand percent with my daughters, my God.

• 1:30:39Jay Shetty?

  They're the best. They, we literally connected like years ago online and I'm so glad I get to meet them.

• 1:30:44Speaker 01

  Thank you so much, my friend.

• 1:30:46Speaker 02

  This episode is brought to you by Netflix's new series, East of Eden. A bold reimagining of John Steinbeck's masterpiece, following generations of the Trask family through love, betrayal, and the choices that shape humanity. Starring Mike Feist and Christopher Abbott as the Trask brothers and Florence Pugh as Kathy Ames, a complex anti-heroine determined to build the life she wants, no matter the cost. Watch East of Eden, October 1st, only on Netflix.

• 1:31:15Speaker 03

  Mr. President, my company told me of the explosion on our rig. On October 2nd. Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me. Tom Cruise is.

• 1:31:26Speaker 04

  Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:31:32Speaker 05

  What would happen if I stopped doing it? You stall, you freeze in there, that's what?

• 1:31:36Speaker 04

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:31:39Speaker 05

  I'm not the first then.

• 1:31:41Speaker 04

  Digger, see the trailer online, only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R, under 17, not a minute without parent.

• 1:31:48Speaker 06

  Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light. And slowly the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, an old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season, you create it layer by layer, until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross.

• 1:32:15Jay Shetty?

  Yes, thank you.

• 1:32:16Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:32:16Jay Shetty?

  So grateful and honored, truly. You're the best, thank you.

• 1:32:19Speaker 01

  Keep punching.

• 1:32:19Jay Shetty?

  Yeah.