Disney Animator Shares How To Find MEANING And PURPOSE In Your Life | Saul Blinkoff

It's about meaning. And where does meaning come from? Waking up with the goal to take responsibility for the world. Boom. That's the message I want to leave everybody with.

You probably have the most unique spin on searching out greatness or creating greatness that I've ever heard. So I'm curious, if I'm an audience member right now and I'm searching for my own greatness, how do I find it?

Wow. That's the billion dollar question. A million dollars isn't a lot anymore. You got to say a billion. Well, okay, so, I mean, I could answer that question for the next four hours. So let me try to distill. In my humble opinion, greatness is not eating nobu sushi. Greatness is not getting six championship rings on your finger. Even though I am a huge Michael Jordan fan, greatness is not looking at your bank statement and seeing the numbers that Jeff Bezos sees. To me, greatness is.

Who do I become along the way. Greatness is not what do I accomplish. It's who do I become along the way? And hopefully I can look back at my life or my family or people that knew me can look back at our lives and who we were and know that we try to become better people. It was a beautiful quote I once heard. It's, we're not human beings. We're human becomings. We grow, we evolve. And hopefully that we're going through life searching for that taste, that taste of greatness or that taste of meaning. That's what I'm going for.

Yeah.

I love it, man.

Well, look, you know, how important is a resilient spirit or thus this element of never giving up or discovery? How important is that into becoming great at anything?

I mean, that's everything. I mean, look. Are you a father, Steven?

I am. My son actually gets married Friday.

Wow, that's awesome. Congrats, man. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. That's awesome. So anybody here who's a parent, you will relate to what I'm about to say. But even if you're not a parent, you have achieved exactly what I'm going to speak about. At least 99.9% of us all went from people who crawled to walked. Right? We all transitioned into that. And you just asked about, well, how important is it to be resilient? What does that really mean? You know, it really means that when we fall down, do we get back up? And every single one of us, most of us who ever learned to walk, crawled, stood up, had a vision. Like, you know what I really want to be Doing what everyone else around me is doing. They're all. They're all reaching high. And I'm down here. I want to get up there where all the adults are, my older siblings are, the other kids are. And you stand up, you take that step or two, and you fall down on your butt. And you know what every kid does? They get back up again, and they get back up again. And the truth is, do they have the ability to walk when they take those first steps? No, they don't. They don't have the agility yet. They don't have the coordination. All they have the ability to do is to try. That's it. Because if a kid was really being logical at that moment, you'd be like, dude, you can't walk. I don't know why you're even trying. Maybe you can't walk right now, but guess what? Keep that up. Keep that falling down and getting back up. And you know what will happen in two weeks, you'll take your first step. So we do have to have resilience. To do what? To achieve anything after we fall. Anything that takes difficulty anywhere in life, there is a challenge. We're going to need resilience, you know, Look, I'm married 20 years, Steven. 20 years this month. Yeah. I have, thank God, an incredible marriage only because of one thing. I'm lucky that I married my best friend. And she and I are the kind of people that work at our relationship. Boom. That's it. If anyone listening? If you think right now about this couple you may know, or this family, think they have a perfect relationship, a great marriage, the only thing that makes it great is that they work at it. That's it. If you're raised. You said your son's getting married. How old is he?

He's 20.

Okay.

He is young, but he's been dating the same girl for five years.

That's awesome.

And on long distance, that's great. And they make each other better people.

Wow. There you go. Okay, so I'm going to ask you a question, Steven. Was it easy raising your son?

No, not at all.

There you go. Steven didn't even have to think about the answer to that question. If you're raising a teenager and you think it's easy, you're probably doing a bad job. Yeah. Because the great relationships of life take work, the great careers at life take. Or how many times do I have one of my kids say this sentence to me, oh, dad, I'm about to try that. Do you think it's easy? And I say to Them the same thing every time. If you want to be great at anything, it's never easy. You want to be average at something. Yeah, it might be easy. You want to be good at something, sure. Yeah, it could be easy. But you want to be great at it. It will never be easy. Yeah.

You talk about Michael Jordan earlier. I mean, even him.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

You know, he's known for being the. One of the most amazing basketball players on the planet and a very, very successful entrepreneur, I might add.

Oh, yeah, he is.

Look, he owns half of North Carolina.

So does he. Look, he no doubt is, I mean, in my humble opinion, one of not the top greatest athletes that ever lived. Okay. In my humble opinion, he is the goat of basketball. You know, my son has to go to school sometimes and defend Michael Jordan to his friends who think it's LeBron. But you know why those kids think it's LeBron? Because their dads may think it's LeBron. It's really dads versus dads. But through our children sometimes, right? It's my. It's our dad's ego. So. But look, Michael Jordan was my hero growing up in the 90s. And. And there's a true story told of Michael. Freshman year in the NBA. You know, first year, rookie year in the NBA. A critic comes up to Michael after a game and says, michael, you're a scoring machine. It was a sports writer said, you're a scoring machine. No doubt you can do things in the air that we've never seen anyone do. But you know what? Your defense, it's really not that strong. And, you know, Michael could have said to the guy, dude, I just made a million dollars playing basketball. You're probably wearing my Air Jordan sneakers. Your kid probably has my Michael Jordan posters all over as well. I'm going to listen to you. But Jordan said years later in an interview, when that sports critic said, mike, you have no defensive game, Michael heard one thing. Something I'm doing is giving that guy the perception that I don't have a defensive game. I guess they better work harder on defense. And he did. And next year in the NBA, one player was named defensive player of the year. Number 23, Michael Jordan. Because if we want to be great in life, we need to know what it is we do well. We all know what it is we do well. You know what else we need to know what it is we don't do well. And in that place that we don't do something well, in that place where we find weakness, a crack in our vessel that's the place we need to put all our effort and hopefully turn our weaknesses into our strengths. That's what makes greatness. Don't shy away from the things that we don't do well. You know, I work in animation, Stephen, right. I work at DreamWorks. I spent most of my career at the Disney studios, but today I work at DreamWorks Animation. And two years ago, I hired a storyboard artist. Those you don't know, storyboard artists basically draw out in a comic strip fashion, panel by panel. The animated show before you go into animation so you can see if the story's working. You get. You kind of look at it that way. And this woman was like 22 years old, incredible artist. And we were sitting, eating one day and I said to her, why did you choose to work on the show Spirit? It was the show she'd worked on right before my show, Spirits. A show that's like filled with horses, the Old west and all this.

Yeah.

I go, why'd you choose to work on that show? I was just curious. Listen to her answer, Steven. Unbelievable for a 22 year old. She says, you know why I wanted to work on Spirit? Because I was terrible at drawing horses. Boom. I looked at her, I'm like, are you kidding me? Do you know how many people would have woke up and been like, you know, I'm not good at drawing horses. I guess I won't work on Spirit. She had the mindset of, if I'm terrible at drawing horses, I'll go work on Spirits. So guess what will happen? I'll get good at drawing horses. That's the mindset. And I can tell you, for me, the first time that I ever saw that mindset was from an art teacher I had in high school. Let's go back. Let's go back a long time. I was in high school and I loved drawing as a kid. And my parents got this art teacher to come to my home because my high school art program was not so strong. And she taught me to draw from life. And she said, saul, drawing is about seeing. You have to develop your eye to look at the world a certain way. And I was terrible at drawing drawing hands. And she said, okay, you're terrible at drawing hands. Draw your hand from a different position every single night before you go to bed. And you know, it'll happen in six months. You'll get good at drawing hands. And she was the first one that really taught me to turn my weakness into my strengths. And now as I draw hands, you know, 30, whatever years later, 40 years later, I always think about that. I always think that that used to be that thing that made me uncomfortable. Now it's one of my greatest pleasures.

I love it. I love it. You know, it's so good, too, because in both of those instances, you know, I think even let me go back to Michael Jordan for a second. You know, one of the things that I most about. We. We used to have a video that we played our live events to kick off the live. It's called Famous Failures. And Michael Jordan would always be in the. In that batch.

Oh, yeah.

And, you know, we all. It always has, like, a little blurb before we show who the person is to, like, you know, create a little mystery. Right.

I love that.

And the little blurb was something along the lines of got cut from his high school basketball team, went into his bedroom and cried for days, came out and mastered the game of basketball. Michael Jordan.

Boom.

Right? I don't know about you, but there's been several times in my career where.

It would have been. It would have been easier to quit or give up. And for some reason, in that moment, I was able to make a shift. In fact, there were times that I actually quit only to be called back towards the thing that I wanted to quit to begin with. And I know that's something you and I share in common. How do we help people not quit? Like, what kind of evidence can we give, you know, why you shouldn't quit?

Wow. I love it. I mean, that's another. We could do two hours on that. Well, let me. Let me say, first of all, I just think I'm so admiring you and your energy and the fact that you're doing this podcast because you're speaking from a very sincere place. I can tell when you speak that you've experienced this stuff and you feel it. And it's just wonderful that you're giving this to your audience. So congrats to you and to your audience for tuning in to this incredible podcaster. Stephen is an amazing guy, so it's awesome to meet you, let me tell you. You know, let me. Let me go back again to my own personal life for a moment. When I was in high school, I wanted to see. Actually, When I was 11, I saw the movie E.T. that made me want to be a filmmaker. I grew up in New York, Right. I didn't know any filmmakers. I didn't even know that was something movie. Yeah. So I see that movie, and the credits are rolling, and I remember tapping my mom, and I'm like, mom, that's what I'm going to do someday. And she's like, what? You want to leave planet Earth in a spaceship? I'm like, no, Mom, I want to make movies. And like I said, I didn't know anything about moviemaking. So I go to the library. I got books on cameras, lenses, storyboarding. I found out the director of ET Is Steven Spielberg. And every weekend, Spielberg was my age. He used to make home movies with kids in the neighborhood and his sisters. I grabbed my twin sister, my older brother, kids in the neighborhood, and I'm making murder movies and monster movies. I remember we tied my sister up to a tree. My twin sister. We made this kidnapped movie. Afterwards, we go into the house to watch the movie. My mom's like, I like the movie, but where's your sister? I said, well, she's still tied to the tree. What's wrong? So, like, I was. She doesn't like when I tell that story, so I have to tell it anyway. So I was going to be. I was going to be a filmmaker. And then I get to high school, and somebody says to me in high school one day, what are you going to do when you get out of high school? And go, I want to be a filmmaker. I want to be a director. Like, no, you don't. I'm like, no, I really do. They go, no, you don't. Because if you want to be a director, you're going to have to move out to Hollywood. And Hollywood is filled with weirdos. And they looked at me and said, you don't want to end up a weirdo, do you? And I said, no, I don't want to end up a weirdo. And I'm telling you, right then and there, I gave up on my dream because one person told me I would end up a weirdo. And of course, you know, today I do live in Hollywood. My four kids would tell you, you know, their dad is a weirdo. So, so much for that. But I bring it up because it's so often in life we are on a trajectory. We do have a goal, we do have clarity of something we want to accomplish or who we want to become along the way. And somebody says something to us and it can derail us. It is incredible how often we give other people the ability to control how we feel about ourselves.

That is so good.

Now listen to that carefully. And don't think it is just for kids. Don't think it is just for high school kids. We do it.

Yeah.

Never ever. And this is really something I teach my kids. And I Try to teach myself and remind myself, don't ever let anybody define how you feel about yourself. Boom. That's a mantra. That's something you want to write down. By the way, if you're listening to this podcast and you hear things, if you listen to anybody's podcast, a TED Talk, anything, a book, if you're reading and something speaks to you, you need to write it down. Because so often we hear something and it's inspirational one moment, and 10 minutes later you're like, what did the person say? You know, it's easy to be inspired. It's much more difficult to live inspired. How do you do that? You need tools. So when you hear things that Steven's going to throw down, or I'm going to throw down, or you hear from anybody in your world, any wisdom from anybody, write it down and go back to it again and again, because we're prone to forget. And anyway, so when I was at that age, I gave up on my dream of wanting to be a filmmaker because this person derailed my belief in myself.

So my parents said, so, what are you going to do? I go, I'll go back to being an artist. So they got me that art teacher that came to the house, taught me about hands. And then I went to the movies and saw another movie that changed my life. I saw the movie the Little Mermaid. You remember that one, Stephen? Yeah, absolutely. Right. So. Right. Ariel. I want to be where the people are.

I was a pretty big fan of the lobster myself, but, you know.

Oh, yeah, Sebastian the crab. Yeah, he called him a lobster. I like that.

Lobster, to me.

Crab, lobster, whatever.

He had pinchers, right?

He had pinchers. I love it.

I love it.

Yeah, that was. Yeah. The seaweed is always green. It's. Yeah, I love that. You know, one of my kids says to me, like, dad, if you go on a podcast, you're not going to tell your story, are you? I'm like, I might tell part of it. Like, you're not going to sing, are you? I'm like, why would that embarrass you, honey? Yeah. Then I'm like, then I'm definitely going to.

I'm hearing the Lion King before this is over.

I'm just saying, that's coming. Circle of life is coming. So I go see the Little Mermaid, and I'm enthralled. I'm watching the animation on the screen, and I remember the credits rolling, and I tap my mom, and I was like, mom, that's what I'm going to do someday. She's like, What? You're going to fall in love with a fish? I don't get it. I'm like, no, mom, I want to be a Disney animator. So there I was. I was a junior in high school, and I had my dream, Steve. My dream was to be a Disney animator. And it combined my two passions. My love of drawing, my love of filmmaking, putting together animation. And plus, I found out Disney has a studio in Orlando, Florida. I don't have to go out to la. So there I was.

You can avoid being a weirdo.

That's right. So there I was, junior in high school, and I had my dream. I wanted to be a Disney animator. Long story a little shorter. My mom took me on a trip to Disney World to find out how I could become an animator. This is before the Internet, right? Today you want to be an animator? Type in Google. You'll find out. So she took me to Disney World. We're walking around, we find out there's a certain building that they hire all their cast members from. We go there, I have an interview. They say, look, we don't hire Disney animators here, but here's a list of eight schools, eight art schools that Disney recruits their artists from. And this woman at Disney said to me, if you want to be a Disney animator, you need to go to one of these schools. Boom. That was it. That was the equation I had in my head. You know, it was sol plus, go to one of these schools will equal dream. So my mom took me on a trip to each of these schools to see which would be a good fit for me. And I end up in one school in Columbus, Ohio, the Columbus College of Art and Design, incredible art school. And the first week in school, I'm in the auditorium and a Disney representative comes from the Disney Animation Studios. His name was Bill Matthews. He must have been in the 70s, was one of the original animators on Sleeping beauty from the 50s. To hang out with Walt Disney. I was going to say he used.

To hang out with him.

I had to.

Yeah, that's awesome.

He's the real guy. And he stands up on this stage, Stephen, and he looks out to the auditorium and there are 750 students. Every freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. And he looks out to us and he says, before we begin, let me ask all of you, how many of you would like to be Disney animators? Every hand went up. And he looks out to us and says, just so you know, out of the 750 of you, maybe just maybe four of you will ever work there. That's how competitive it is. I remember when he said that, I thought, I wonder who the other three are going to be. Because in life, we either believe in ourselves that we can accomplish or we don't. And I'm telling you, at that point in my life, I believed in myself. Then he says, if you want to get into Disney, you got to get the internship. In order to get that internship, you need a portfolio filled with drawings of humans and animals from life. No cartoon characters, no drawings of Mickey Mouse. All figure drawing life. Drawing humans and animals from life. So I get figure drawing classes, and I go to the zoo. And I'm just working on my portfolio. My best drawings I put together in a case sophomore year, I sent him to Disney. And I wait, and I got a rejection letter. I didn't make it. You know what? I wasn't even discouraged. Even I didn't expect to get in the first time. As a matter of fact, I remember I had a letter. It was my rejection letter from Disney. And the envelope had my name typed on it with the Disney gold leaf. Mickey Mouse, right? People were coming into my dorm room, like, wow, blink off. The Disney company knows you're alive. They wrote your name, they typed your. I thought that was pretty cool, right?

It's like getting verified nowadays.

It's verified, right? So I take that rejection letter, put it up over my desk, and another year goes by, and me and my best friend Andy. And Andy was just the best artist in the school. I mean, even as a young artist in the school, even as a freshman, he was the best. The guy never stopped drawing. And I can tell you, just hanging out with someone like that made me a better artist. Because who we choose to be friends with actually affects who we become, right? Their values become our values. We have to pick, choose our friends really carefully. We tell our kids that, but we got to do the same thing. So Andy and I send our portfolios in, and we wait. And a couple weeks later, I get a call. And Andy tells me he just got a call from Disney that he got the internship. I was like, oh, my gosh, Congratulations, man. He's like, but you didn't hear anything yet. I'm like, no, but they could be trying to call me right now. We gotta hang out. We didn't have call waiting back then, right? So I hang up the phone, and they're not calling me. And I'm, like, pacing back and forth. I get on the phone, my mom. My mom's like, honey. I'm like, mom, Disney called Andy. She's like, oh, they're gonna call you any minute. Just wait. I'm like, well, you have to say that you're my mom. My mom. Yeah, right. She's doing her job. Anyway, they never called. And I soon found out that I didn't get in the second time. I got rejected. And you ask about giving up, and that's what you asked about. What do we do to not give up? Well, at that point in my life, I gave up on my entire dream. Because, you see, Andy, my best friend, got in. He's going to Disney World, the happiest place on Earth. And I'm going back to Ohio in the wintertime, freezing, bitter cold. And my mind shifted from I believe in myself to who did I think I was to even think I could accomplish something like that? You know, each one of us, I don't care who you are, every single one of us has that shoulder angel and that shoulder devil. That shoulder angel that tells us you can aspire to greatness, you can accomplish, you can become great. And that shoulder devil telling us constantly, who do you think you are? Get back into bed, sleep, hit the snooze button again. You're not going to achieve anything great. You're not going to change the world. And there's that duality fighting. Well, at that point in my life, I let reality set in, and Andy was awesome, and I was just average. And I gave up on my dream. And I felt like I let my parents down, I let my friends down, and I let myself down. A week later, a buddy calls me up and says, saul, I got tickets to go see a movie. You want to go? I'm like, no. He's like, but they're free. I'm like, okay, I'll go.

So you ever see a movie, right? And it just talks to you for what you're going through in life.

That's why I love movies in general, right?

I mean, Shawshank Redemption, right? That's a heck of a movie, right? Andy Dufresne standing there with his hands up in the water, the rain coming down like, we love that movie. We want that feeling. Well, I go to the movies and I see this movie. It's a true story about a guy who wants to play football at Notre Dame. He's not athletic. He's short. What movie is it? Rudy. Boom.

Got a buddy of mine that actually baptized him. Yeah.

That's awesome. Is that right?

Yeah.

He baptized Rudy Rudiger.

Yeah, he did.

That's amazing. That's amazing. So this is a true story. And if you were friends with Rudy Rudiger, and he told you his dream was to play football, Notre Dame, as his friend, you know what you would have told him? Dude, I love you. Get a new dream. You gotta do something. You're short. Yeah. You're not even athletic. And Rudy Rudiger's like, oh, yeah? Well, we'll just see about that. And he tries to get into Notre Dame. Rejected. Tries a second time, rejected. But third time rejected, but fourth time. You know, if you look at the movie poster for the movie Rudy, it says, when people tell you dreams don't come true, tell them about Rudy. And he gets in. And I'm telling you, Steven, I'm sitting in the movies watching this story.

I was crying. I don't know about you. I'm crying like a baby.

Oh, yeah. Tears are streaming down my. I'm crying like, that's the movie that can make a grown man cry, right?

Yeah.

My kids are like, dad, what is that salty discharge coming out of your eyes? You know, it's tears. Okay? So, yeah, I watched that movie. And I remember as tears were streaming down my face, I remember thinking, you know what? If an unathletic kid could get into Notre Dame because he worked insanely hard, then I could get into Disney if I worked insanely hard. And I decided to never give up again. And then I go see a professor of mine the next day, and I asked him a question. Any advice for what I could do? And he said, saul, let me ask you a question. Can you control whether Disney says yes or no? I said, no. He says, can you control how good any other artist is that you're competing with? I said, no. So he looks at me and goes, so, what is it that you can control? I said, well, I can control how good I am as an artist. He goes, no, you can't. He says, the only thing you can control is how hard you work. That's it. The only thing we can control in our lives is the investment we make. The outcome. It's not up to us. You know, Michael Jordan became Michael Jordan because he took 800 jump shots every single day before breakfast. The thing that we control is the investment we make. And the truth is, when we invest ourselves, when we work hard towards something, it's energizing, it's motivating to continue the fight. And eventually, I got new drawings together and put a portfolio together. I remember, actually, I went to the zoo one day. Actually, before the second time, I tried. I remember one day, Andy and I went to the zoo it was a freezing cold day, and we had to draw animals, elephants. When you go to the zoo and you find an animal walking back and forth, doing the same thing over and over again, that's like the greatest thing for an animator because you're seeing that movement repeat itself. And it was a freezing, freezing, bitter cold day. Andy and I go to the zoo with, like, 12 other students, right? When we get to the zoo, everybody goes to the cafe and gets hot chocolate and coffee because it's freezing. Andy and I go out there and we're drawing this elephant. Just walk back and forth. And after about an hour of freezing and drawing sketchbooks filled with elephants, we go back on the bus and Andy and I are sharing each other's drawings. I'm like, he good drawing you did. And I've asked one of the other guys, I'm like, dude, we never saw any of you at the elephants. What animals were you drawing?

Yeah.

And this guy looks at me and goes, well, none of us ever went out to draw any animals. I'm like, why not? He goes, because we couldn't. I said, why? He goes, because it was too cold. I'm like, what?

Kidding me?

He goes, yeah, it was too cold. We couldn't go out there. And I'm telling you, Stephen, at that moment, I knew that someday I would get in. Because, you know, if anyone listening, if you watch a Netflix documentary or you read an inspiring book about anybody that's achieved any level of greatness, you know what they all have in common? They push through the pain. Not only do they push through the pain, there's expectations that there will be struggle before you even start. It's the same thing with relationships. You know, if you're. If you're. You said your son's getting married. You know, one of the greatest pieces of advice I'm sure you will give your son is don't think it's going to be easy. Yeah, right. Don't think after you stand under that wedding canopy, it's like the end of a Disney movie, you know, Cinderella and Prince Charming, whatever, go off into the sunset. You know, Belle and the Beast are in the ballroom dancing. Guess what? The next day they got to go pick a place to live. And they're going to pick. Have a different opinion on dishes and, you know, reality sets that they're going to get into a fight. You know, he's going to leave a hairball in the bathroom.

And he was the play too much video games or.

Right. Whatever. Right? But that's the thing that everyone has in common is anyone that achieves any level of greatness. They have to not only not give up, but they have to have the expectations that it's going to be a difficult road. Yeah, that's really the secret, I think.

Yeah. No, I love that, you know, there's. There's so many things come back to my memory. So first of all, I'm thinking about, you know, my father. Without going too much detail, my audience has heard a lot of the story. The story with him before, solid guy now, not a great guy. Growing up is essentially the short version of that. But I'll never forget the. He came to me the day I was going to start my business and he's like, you have, you know, you don't have any money, you don't have this, you don't have that, you don't have this. How are you going to do that? And like, I don't know. I'm just going to figure it out. He's like, figure it out. Like, how do you. So we started building stuff out of the trash piles. Right. And started, you know, getting the information, the stuff I needed together to build a business. So that gives me that. That's one person. And then contrast that. I've got a guy named Steve Myrick that was instrumental in my life and kickstarting me, you know, believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. And the thing that I love about many of the things that I've heard you say about your and Andy's relationship reminds me so much of me and Steve. Because it was Steve that stretched me. Like, because Steve was so good at what he was doing.

Yeah.

Even just to hang out with him, I constantly had to be improving.

Wow. Right? Isn't that amazing, Dude, I love it.

So talk to me a little bit about the surrounding of people. How do we surround ourselves with those right people rather than the naysayers?

Yeah. You know, it's true. I mean, because we do let people impact us, whether we realize it or not. And if you're a parent listening, you know, we're so careful. We want our kids hanging out with the right kids, the right crowd, but it's the same thing for us. And I think the thing that guides me simply isn't. Isn't like, do we have the same movie taste? You know, if I'm meeting someone, I'm like, maybe we'll be friends, you know, Isn't it. It's not like, do we like the same sports team? Do we like the same kind of food? It's what are their values? What are their values? You know? And how do you know someone's value? Just ask them, what is it that you value? You know, And I'll give you an example like that I have a goal, that I want to become a humble person. I want to live a life of integrity. I want to live a life of sensitivity to how others feel. That's how I want my kids to live. And I want the same for me. And so when I'm looking to spend time with anybody, or my wife and I are looking, you know, sometimes you meet another couple, you're like, hey, maybe we'll be friends with them. But the first thing we're asking is, are they giving people? Yeah. Are they waking up every day and it's all about them? Or they. Are they the kind of people that are giving and sensitive to other people? You know, just a couple of weeks ago, my daughter. I mean, thank God, I. Four wonderful children, and one of my daughters, Leo, she's 15. And this girl wakes up every day and gets so much pleasure out of impacting other people. And she comes home and tells us stories every day. Like, just the other day, she told us some story about, like, oh, they all made frozen drinks that she's in high school. Then all the girls made frozen drinks, whatever. And she's like, dad, you know what I did? I went down to the security guard at the school and I offered him a drink. Now, she won't say this to the other kids, oh, guess what? I did. But she knows it. When she comes home, she could tell us a little bit about how she feels good about helping other people. And I just love that she did that. I love that she woke up and was like, how can I make today great for other people? And that's the kind of people I think we want to spend our time with and surround ourselves with. Because the truth is, like, you said, perfectly, Stephen, it was beautiful. You said, your bunny makes you a better person. Right? It's that great line. And as good as it gets. I think Jack Nicholson says to Helen Hunt, you make me want to be a better man.

Right?

You know, just like. Just like that, right? Or Rocky, hey, you make me want to be better. You know, I don't think he said that. But the point is, you know, we hopefully will grow because of the people around us. Do we want to grow up or do we want to grow down? You know, because either way, they're going to affect us, you know? So, yeah, that's. That's definitely something that I Try to live by.

No, I love that, dude. You know, it's. It's another thing that I've, you know, you mentioned at the very beginning of the show is this relationship with your wife and how, you know, how intentional you have to have that. And I think that goes for anyone who's even in a dating relationship, either an intentional about the relationship or you're not. Obviously, when you get into a covenant of marriage and you're, you know, you're. You're pledging a whole lot more than just, you know, being a good person to one another. I heard you give us a talk that can be found on YouTube, and you were explaining.

In a Judaic mindset what help mate meant or what help mate means in a marriage. And it was so. It was so pivotal for me to hear it. Like, I would love for you to share as much as you can about that, because I literally. I got lost in it. I totally got lost in it.

Wow. Okay, first of all, everyone listening, you can forget everything I've said up until now. If you walk away remembering some of these concepts that I share now, it will change your relationships, your marriages, relationships to everyone, your business partners. And everything I'm sharing with you comes right out of the Bible. So that's how you know there's truth there. This isn't coming from Saul. All I'm doing is sharing you, sharing with you what's right in the Bible. And if you're listening to this and you're not a Bible person, that's fine, too, right? And I will just say it, right? It still works. And you know what? You should know that the Bible is a best seller. I think there's people around it that have read this book. It's a pretty big book, right? It's a best seller, so you should check it out. Anyway, so listen how beautiful this is. In the Bible, it says, in Genesis, it says, God says it is not good for man to be alone, Period. Listen to that for a second. God says it's not good for man to be alone. And if God is creating the world and he says it's not good for you to be alone, I think you should probably listen, right? Because he knows, I mean, he did create the world. He says not good for man to be alone. The next sentence he says is, so I will create for him a helpmate that goes against him. Now, you may listen to this and open up your Bible and you may see many different translations of these words right here. But the translations are all of the original Hebrew because that's what the Old Testament Bible or Torah was written in Hebrew. So the actual Hebrew words there are, I will create for him an azer kinegdo. Those Hebrew words mean help me. That goes against or opposite. Wow. Now let's focus on these two.

And every man just said, oh my gosh, I did exactly what God wanted.

That's right, that's right. Now look, single people listening. If I tell you I got this girl for you, I got this guy for you, and they're going to help you, do you want their number? Of course you do. Or if I have a business partner for you, they're going to help you, do you want their number? Of course you do. But hold on a second. They're going to go against you. You want their number? No. Could you give the number to my roommate, please? Right, yeah. We don't want people to go against us. We need people to go against us. Because only when they go against us and challenge us will we actually grow.

In any relationship, if two people. My father in law said this to me once, I never forgot it. He said, in any relationship, if two people always have the same point of view, one person is useless. Listen to that. If two people always have the same point of view, one person is useless. How many times I can tell you in 20 years of marriage did my wife and I have a conversation about something that was difficult? What school to send our kids to, where to live, what job to take. I mean, the big decisions of life, we make those decisions together. And you know what? We challenge each other. It's only when we challenge each other that we get the opportunity to come up with something that's great. You know Steve Jobs, when he created the iPhone, I guarantee after he created that first iPhone, he probably sat his people around and said, you like it? Congratulations, we did it. Tell me how we're going to make it better, because that's how we can make the next version better. Well, that's what God wants from us. He's like, I want you to have great lives. You're going to need a helpmate that goes against you. But the story's not over yet. Check this out. Are you ready?

Let's go.

Are you ready? Let's go there, let's go now. Now check this out. First of all, you know, years ago I was leading a men's trip to Israel, a dad's trip. I took about 100 dads, all between the ages of 30 and 50, to Israel. And it was just like an exploratory, you know, Go through the hikes and the waterfalls and just this, men. You eat meat and talk about wisd. And it was like a boot camp for dads. It was a dad's trip. And as we're hiking in this one place, this one dad comes up to me and he says, saul, after this trip, my wife is going to ask me for a divorce. I said, oh, I'm sorry. And I go, how do you feel about that? He says, well, I don't want a divorce. He goes, do you have any advice? I'm like, look, I'm not a marriage counselor, but let me ask you a question. If I were to ask your wife two things that you should change, two things that her husband should change, what would she say about you? He goes, well, that's easy. She would say we should spend more time together and the time we spend should be more quality time. I said, oh, then that's easy. When you get home from Israel, take your wife out to dinner at least once a week, you know, have a date night. And when you're with her, put your phone away, expend more time with her. And do you know what will happen if you do that in four years? You know what will happen in four years? You will resent your wife because the only reason you're taking her out is because that's what she wants. And the only reason you're putting your phone away is because that's what she wants. Wouldn't it be awesome if you took her out because you actually wanted to spend time with her? And wouldn't it be awesome if you put your phone away because it was you that wanted to investigate how her day was? You see, you know what your wife really wants? She wants you to care about her. She wants you to crave her. She wants you not to want her. She wants you to need her. And then I asked him a question. Why'd you get married at all? Why did you get married at all? Because you were 20 something years old and that's what your dad did. And you have this mental checklist that this is what men do. You know, to be successful in life, you got to have money and a job and a car and a wife. That's why you got married. Why get married at all? And number two is, why did you marry her? What qualities did she have that you just had to have? You know, if you look in the Torah, Bible, Old Testament, when God says, it's not good for man to be alone, I will create for him a helpmate that goes against him. You Think the next sentence would be, I'd like you to meet your wife, Eve. Here she is. But that's not. There's something so strange. God says, it's not good for man to be alone. I will create for him a helpmate that goes against him. Now, Adam, I want you to do me a favor. Go through the garden. Go through the Garden of Eden and go name the animals. Like, what does that have to do with what we're talking about? But that's the next sentence. People that have your Bibles, go check it out. Yeah. So Adam starts walking through the garden. He starts naming animals. This one's called an elephant. This is called a lizard. And he starts pairing them together. Oh, this one goes with this one. This one goes with that one. And then in the Bible, it says, but for Adam, he did not find for himself a helpmate that goes against him. Boom. Then God put him to sleep, took out his rib, and created his wife. So what happened there? You see? Imagine your parent says to you. Imagine you, Steven says to your son. What's your son's name?

Justin.

Justin. Okay. How did he meet his future wife, by the way?

He actually met her at a speaking event that he wasn't supposed to be at, where her father and I were both speaking.

Oh, that's awesome. Well, he was supposed to be there.

Well, yeah.

I mean, the creator knew that, but you.

Creator did. Yeah, for sure. But, you know, my lame brain, like, he got late for baseball and getting the car.

Okay, okay. So I. As close as I have a feeling you and your son are and have a great relationship, I have a feeling that if you had said to him years earlier, I've got a girl I'd love to introduce you to, he probably would have been like, dad, I think I can figure this out for myself. Probably.

He's very much like that still.

Yeah, exactly Right. Most of us don't want to be set up with our future spouses by our mom or our dad. We want to figure that out for ourselves. Well, it's the same thing with us in the relationship with the creator of the world. When God says, it's not good for you to be alone, I'm going to create for you a helpmate that goes against you. Basically, God's saying, I'm your dad. You should get married. I got the perfect girl for you. But if we are who we are, we're going to be like, you know what? God, Dad, I think I could figure this out for myself. See, God did not introduce him to his wife yet. Until Adam first appreciated the fact that he wanted a wife. See, only when Adam went through the garden and realized he was lonely, God's like, oh, now you know, you need a wife. Now I'll introduce you to your wife. You know, years ago, check this out, Stephen. Years ago we were in Dublin, Ireland. I was directing a Disney.

My wife lived there for three years.

Yeah. Did she really? Oh, amazing. What an amazing community. Country, Beautiful. So we get to Dublin and I was directing a Disney show called Doc McStuffins. I don't know if you know that show. I was one of the directors on that show, big Disney show. And we get to Ireland and it was Christmas, it was December 25th. That was the day we land and it was a cold day. And we get to this house that we're renting and like the next morning we're unpacking a little bit and my wife and my 17 year old daughter, who was at that time six, are getting to an argument by the door. And my wife is trying to convince my daughter to take her jacket because we're going to go take a walk as a family and go explore the streets where we live, the community. And they're getting into this fight that many people have got into the fight with their kids about whether they should take a jacket or not. And my daughter, she's sick, she's like, I don't want to take a jacket. Look, she grew up in la, you can't blame her. She doesn't know what jackets are, right?

Yeah.

So they get into this argument and they're fighting and I go over to my wife and I whisper to my wife, handoff. So my wife and I have this little thing we do, right? If one of us is engaged and we lose it emotionally, the other one taps and says, handoff. And then we switch, right?

Yeah.

So I say, handoff. My wife is very happy to step away. So I go over to my daughter and I say, meira, that's her name. I go, me, Ira. Let me ask you, honey, what's wrong? Mommy wants me to take a jacket. I'm like, so she goes, I don't want to take a jacket. I'm like, so don't take a jacket. I see my wife in the corner of the room going, honey, are you. I'm like, honey, hey, hey, I got the handoff. Remember? It's my turn now, right? And my daughter's like, by experience, right? And my daughter's like, what do you. What do you mean? I'm like, don't you don't want to take a jacket, don't wear a jacket. But do me a favor. Can you go wait outside for a couple minutes while mommy, daddy get some stuff together? And my daughter proudly, like, struts through that front door. She just defeated me, right? Exactly. She goes outside, closes the door. You could count the three. One, two, three. Door open, hand comes in, jacket taken. Do you know why? Because she experienced cold.

Yeah.

You see, to have our parent tell us what we need is one thing. For us to realize it ourselves, that's another thing. And what's the walk away tool? The tool of life is in order to appreciate anything, we need to appreciate why we need it. That goes for anything in life. God's like, I want you to be with someone. It's not good for you to be alone. Why? Because you got to grow. Each one of us has the potential to grow. And we can't grow in life if it's just us looking in the mirror and seeing our own reflection. We need to have somebody who can tell us when we do something wonderful or when we do something that needs work. Everybody listening right now. Take a tree and do a cross section of a tree. You got all the rings of a tree. And take a moment right now and think of everybody in your life who's on the outer rings of the tree. Look, if you're on Facebook, maybe you have a thousand or two thousand friends. I'm sure some of you have Facebook friends that you don't even know. You're friends with one of those people that you don't even know you're Facebook friends with someone that comes up to you in the supermarket and says, I saw you speaking last week somewhere, and you should have been more humble. I saw you do something. You weren't so nice. He'd be like, excuse me, do I know you? Could you get out of my face? I'm not going to listen to that person. I don't even know them. They're on the outer rings of the tree. But as we start to go to the center and you get to the close, the intimate people in your life, maybe you're listening and you have a best friend. If you have a best friend, imagine, you know, you just got passed up for a promotion at work and you go tell your best friend. You're like, yeah, the boss passed me up again. Such a jerk. I hate that person. Why don't they? And what if your friend's like, you know what? You didn't deserve the raise. Yeah. Excuse me. Well, you didn't what do you mean? Well, you were late three times last week. Your lunch is supposed to be an hour. And sometimes you're taking, you know, an extra five minutes. Well, that's stealing from the company. Maybe if you were on time and were a little more professional with your lunch meetings, then you might have had that promotion. And you look at your friend, you'd be like, excuse me, I thought you were my friend. Your friend would be like, well, I am your friend. I'm trying to help you. You see, if you get to the inner rungs of that tree, do you have someone in your life that can actually tell you the truth about yourself? And if we can go through the world and you have one person that you trust at that level, you're a king. You're a queen.

One person.

Look, I'm, you know, over 40 years old. My parents, they're going to call me up and tell me when I screw up in life. I'm not going to listen to them because I'm a man now, right? My parents have to walk on eggshells around me, right? Because I. Because if they don't treat me perfectly, I won't let them see their grandkids for a week. Well, actually, it's not true, because my parents know that.

Honor thy father and mother now.

That's right. And my parents know that they can stay with us as long as they want and see their kid. We FaceTime my parents, every day. Every day. And my mom knows that she can tell me when I'm screwing up in life. You know, I mean, during COVID my parents were like, you really think you should go to Hawaii right now? We've never been to Hawaii. You want to take the kids to Hawaii? I'm like, yeah, we're going to go. My mom's like, I don't think it's a good idea. I'm like, mom, I hear you. We're going to Hawaii. I made the decision. My wife and I made the decision. But at least we have that relationship where we can talk. But the essence of really, what I'm saying is we got to go through life and have that relationship with somebody that can tell us the truth about us. And not only are we open to hearing it, we beg them for it. Because only when I get that other perspective on another, from another person of me, do I end up having the ability to grow. And that's where those two words, ezer kinegdo, that helpmate that goes against us is. And by the way, if you think about it, in those relationships, that we have, whether it's a work relationship or marriage or any best friend, any friendship of any kind, hopefully that other person's perspective is one that we really trust. Because when we trust that other perspective, we get something that we can never.

Get on our own.

The truth is, all of us only have our own perspective on life, period. You know, there's that expression they say, steven, try to put yourself in someone else's shoes. Well, I always say that's a disaster.

Yeah.

Don't try to put yourself in someone's shoes. Ask them what is it like to be in your shoes, go through life and try to get the other perspective from the other person. And our lives are much more complete.

Yeah. I was telling someone today I did a virtual event for some folks in Peru, of all places. Beautiful people, love them to death, had a great time.

Wow.

And they were saying, well, what's the secret sauce to life or to elevation to greatness and stuff like that. Many of the same things that you and I share, just that we just didn't share in common because we experienced them like it's. It's hard to argue with truth. Right.

You know, do this, don't do that.

Do this, don't do that. Right. Kind of thing. And I told him, I said, look, my four part framework would be grow, gain perspective. Which means you have to look at things from a completely different angle. Remove roadblocks. So figure out what's there. Let your friend tell you what you're talking about. Like let them tell you you suck. And you gotta, you know, force you to change. Organize a plan. Like think, think, think things through, like where you're going and, you know, then work your plan. Right. So I use that because it's interesting that you brought up the fact that Adam didn't get his wife until after he knew that he needed her. The reason that's interesting to me is because I got married late in life. My wife and I have been married. Right. At eight years. Wow. And it wasn't until I got to the place where I was crying on this, I felt like, now, granted, I'm weird. I feel like God talks to me. So I felt like he said, prepare for a family. So I bought a nice house and got prepared. Got the yard, got the, got the whole deal. The girl, all of a sudden, the girl I've been dating that had a daughter relationship ended almost instantaneously.

I'm like, wow, whoa.

What in the world's going on like this? And then about three or four weeks go by, my grandfather Used to have this thing he used to call the 40 Day Walk of Faith. So for 40 days, you lay down the very thing that you want. Right. Most like. And in that moment, it was dating and wife and family and stuff like that. So we did that. We spent time in prayer and reading and all kinds of stuff and meditation, all this kind of stuff, which is fantastic. But it wasn't until I got home one afternoon, this is probably day 38, day 39. I go up to the big master bath, big master bedroom that we had at the time.

Yeah.

And then I literally fall down on my knees and then quickly huddle myself over to the corner and actually cry on in the corner saying, God, I have been choosing these people all wrong. I clearly don't know what I'm doing. Will you please send me my wife? You pick her. I'll like, you pick her. You make it so stupid that even I can't miss it. And I literally. I literally went on my first date with my wife the week, the following week after that.

Oh, my gosh.

Right? So I think that's such a good thing to say because so we have.

To be open, right.

We have to like you, you know, when. And we can't just, you know, we can't live other people's lives. Right. You know, your life is your life.

Your gifts are your gifts.

Your blind spots are your blind spots. And I feel like that's where so many. So many of us can. Can go wrong, is that we're so busy trying to do what everybody else we should be doing to live our life well.

Right? Yeah. And each one of us is unique, right?

Yeah.

There's no two people that are the same. And if you think about, you know, a paintbrush and a pencil.

Right.

You know, I work in animation, so I always have these kind of things at my desk. Right. Well, if you were to make these anthropomorphic and they were animated and they could talk, Right. So if they had a conversation, they'd be like, paintbrush would be like, what do you do? The pencil would be like, well, I make art. And then the paintbrush would be like, well, I also make art. I guess we're the same. But if the pencil dipped itself into red paint and tried to do what the paintbrush did, it would not reach its potential and it would go through a life of misery. While we may have the same goal, we need to realize that each one of us needs to accomplish it uniquely. You know, there was a quote by Margaret Mead. She said to her children, don't ever forget that each one of you is created unique and special just like everyone else. You see, we think being unique and special means I have to be better than everyone else. Anytime we go through life and we see someone accomplish something, we get a twinge of jealousy for a moment. That is a huge mistake. Because the jealousy we start to think is, oh, I should have what they have. But no, no, I should have what I have. Because each one of us has a different trajectory, a different course, a different purpose. And when we realize that we're unique and that we each have a unique purpose, then we realize there is no competition because nobody else can do what it is that I do.

Yeah.

So if you're listening to this right now and you think about the mindset that you have every day and how much energy are you. Be honest for a minute. How much energy do you put into focused on what other people do and how much energy do you put onto what you do? You know, if you work for a boss, each one of us could make a list of how that boss should treat me differently if your parents are alive, you could make a list over how your parents should speak to you differently or treat you differently if you have a kid. Believe me, we could all make lists of how I wish my kids should change all that energy that we put into thinking how my wife should change, my husband, my family, my friends. How many of us are making a list over ourselves because the one person we actually can control is us. So you want to take that energy, make a list about yourself, make a list over what our strengths and our weaknesses are. You know, what life's about. It's really simple. Take that list of weaknesses and every day go through the battle of life to make it less. And take that list of strengths and every day go through the battle of life to make it less. More. That's what it means to be alive. To struggle, to go through test after test and hopefully taste that sweetness. Of what? Of growing. It's exactly what you said, Steven. We have to grow. That's what life's all about, man.

Dude, you and I could talk for days and hours and weeks on end.

And I know we're a little bit.

Over time, but, you know, the reality is I want everybody. I know everybody's got a ton from you. Solve for day for sure. Everybody. You got to go check out Saul's podcast Life of awesome. You can find it everywhere podcasts are at. Make sure you do that for sure. Where else is a good place for about to catch up with you learn more about what you're doing.

Well, before I answer that, I did promise you a little Lion King.

Oh, yeah, yeah. That's right.

So. So, okay, I got to share one quick thing on Lion King, because you brought it up. Yeah, let's go.

Let's go.

So, you know, Lion King, first of all, Lion King is one of the biggest animated films of all time. BF before Frozen. Okay. It's the OG that's right. That's right. So Lion King, if you think about that, you know, that movie, that movie had really resonated with many people in the world. And if you ask most people in the world, what's the goal of life? I mean, if you literally walk down the street and ask people, just walk down the street, you should try this. Go to your community, go to some Starbucks. And even though people think it's weird, just ask them, what do you think the goal of life is? I guarantee 10 people out of 10 will probably answer with one word. Happy. The goal of life is to be happy. But I'm going to throw down an idea here. This might shatter some of you, that the goal of life is really not happiness. Because what makes you happy may not be what's good for you. How many times do we do something that makes us happy? Sometimes it's with food. And you eat something, right? A Happy Meal. Because McDonald's is like, that's going to make you happy. And afterwards you're like, oh, man. Right? Not so happy, right? Disney tells you Disney is the happiest place on Earth. That's the only place you could be happy. The world tells you what happiness is, and they mostly tell you happiness comes from outside experiences. You need this food to make you happy. You need to be at this place, Disney World, to be happy. You need to eat this meal to make you happy. You need to have this money to make you happy. There's something that's actually sweeter than happiness, and that is a life of meaning. Think about that for a second. A life of meaning. Let's go to Lion King for a sec. Simba. In the beginning, he thinks being a king is going to be the greatest thing in the world. He sings a song about it. Yeah. Just can't wait to be king, right? There you go. Just embarrass one of my kids again, right? He and Mufasa is like, simba, there's more to being a king than getting your way all the time. And Simba's like, there's more. Like, what could be better than that? Now something happens To Dad. I don't want to ruin it for anybody. Hopefully you've seen the movie by now. Spoiler alert. Dad dies and is a Disney. Disney movie. They always kill a parent in the opening, right? Finding Nemo Mermaid had no mother, right? Aladdin had no mother. Bambi. You know what they did to his mother, right? So that's another discussion for another episode why Disney does that to parents. So Simba, feeling guilty that his father was killed, goes off and lives in Hakuna Matata World. Member. Hakuna Matata, Right? What a wonderful.

Whenever you want, you can do whatever.

You want whenever you want. You know what it means in the Hakuna Matata World? No responsibilities. Whatever you want. And it looks like the Garden of Eden, right? It's lush, there's waterfalls, it's food. Everything you could ever want. He's hanging out in a jacuzzi, he's hanging out on a hammock. I mean, that's what we all want. How many of you listening right now wish you could be in Hawaii on a hammock in a Jacuzzi right now? We all do, because that's where life is easy. But that's not where life is real. And after hanging out with Pumbin, Timon and Hakuna Matata World, who shows up halfway? Stephen, here's your Disney trivia question for today. You remember who shows up to see him?

The batty eyelashes.

That's right. You nailed it now. And you're exactly right. She's got the eyelashes now, right? She's all grown up now. She's not the little young covenant anymore, right? Right. She's grown up and they, they see each other. They sing their song. Can you feel the love tonight? Right? And they start rolling around in the grass that the sun is setting. It's beautiful, right? And after they. There's actually that scene where they kiss or almost kiss. I was covering my kids eyes because they're like that. It's just lines, like, still not appropriate, you know? So after they roll around, tossle in the grass, she starts to talk to me. She says, simba, it's good to see you, but you got to come back with me. He's like, no, no, no. Look where I live. Hakuna matata. She's like, no, no, maybe I didn't make myself clear. Scars taken over everything. And if you don't come back with me, everyone is going to die and you are responsible. And then you know what he says? Hakuna matata. I'm staying right here. And she goes, I can't believe you. And she starts fighting with him. He goes, well, you're starting to sound like my dad. She says, at least one of us does. You know what she does? She leaves. Yeah, she leaves him. But wait a minute. A minute earlier, you were rolling around in the sunset singing. Why does she leave him? Because you know what? She is a helpmate that goes against him. Boom. The Bible is in the Lion King. You heard it here first.

And I heard you put a mezuzah in Winnie the Pooh.

Just put it. Oh, you heard about that. Okay, that's the next episode. That's right. So she leaves him. You know why she even sings about it? She says, you know, why won't he be the king? I know he is the king. I see inside. She sees his potential. He doesn't even see it in himself. She leaves him. She doesn't do what feels right. She does what is right. This is a great tool for life. Be careful in life when you're making big choices based on emotion. Because when we make decisions out of emotion, it's never right. Make decisions from our minds, our heads. You know, they'll tell you in the. In the world out there, follow your heart. Don't follow your heart, follow your head. And then put your passion into it. Afterwards, she leaves him. He's left alone there. Rafiki comes over, hits him in the head, sees Mufasa's reflection in the water. Remember who you are. Yeah. Yeah. Simba goes back. Lion King becomes the biggest animated movie of all time. After he defeats Scar, climbs Pride Rock, Lightning goes away. Sun comes out dry. Incredible. And we don't love that movie because we love movies about lions. We love that movie because it gives us a taste of what life is really about. It's not about happiness. It's about meaning. And where does meaning come from? Waking up with the goal to take responsibility for the world. Boom. That's the message I want to leave everybody with. To wake up every day and think, where do we each have the unique ability to respond? That's what responsibility is. It's the ability to respond. You know what that means? It means walking down the street and smiling at someone. Walking down the street and say, hey, can I help you with your bag? Wherever in life, I have the ability to respond, and I respond. That's a successful life. That's a life that's awesome. That's what we need to be striving for. I just wanted to share a little Lion King with you. Boom. And we got some singing and you got some singing. Maybe too much.

Dude, I've had. I've had an absolute blast.

I mean, literally, I feel like we're brothers from another mother at this point. I mean, yeah.

It's so good to meet you. Where do you live, by the way?

I'm not in North Carolina. I was actually just out in LA a couple of weeks ago.

Okay. So next time you're here, I'm there. We're going to get a coffee and get a hug in person.

Okay, let's go.

I really look forward to that. And again, I hope people do follow me. Like you asked, I have the podcast Life of Awesome, because, as I always say, you know, we don't want a life that's good. We don't want a life that's great. We want a life of awesome. And each week I share different ideas or I have interviews. Actually, the first guest I ever interviewed is the real Rudy Rudiger. So check out that episode. You got to hear him tell his story. It's incredible. And then I'm also on Instagram, so you can follow me there. Saul blinkoff, lifeofawesome. You'll see me there on Instagram, and I throw quotes. And whatever is happening in my life, I try to put it out there. And I just love to connect with people. So if anybody's listening and you want to DM me on Instagram, I always respond, or at least try to fairly quickly. And again, a pleasure to be here. A pleasure to follow you, Steven, and thanks for your impact and the energy that you're giving out there because you are living a life of awesome, man. I appreciate it.

Didn't always feel that way, but that's what. That's what. That's what the journey's for, right?

That's what the journey's for. Yeah.

All right, dude.

I love you, man. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. See you, man.

I hope you liked that video. And if you did, make sure you check out this next video right here.

I realized God gave me a certain amount of gifts and talents. Like he gives everybody their own gifts and talents might have to be what they are.

And if every day I don't show.

Up and play full out, what am I even doing?