Episode 158: Start being yourself

Hello and welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am the host, Thomas Anglero, and my mission for this podcast is to share with you those private thoughts and reflections that I have being one of the top keynote speakers around the world on technology, motivation, and innovation. I hope you truly enjoy all the lessons I share, all the dots I connect that sometimes are just really difficult to get out, but it's all for you. I truly hope you enjoy this episode.

Welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I am Thomas Anglero, and you know, we go our whole lives, our whole lives thinking all the time, thinking about what we're doing, who we are, are we doing the right things, constantly reflecting. But many of us get caught up in materialistic things, collecting things, buying things. Making us happy in the moment, dropping the, the endorphins and the dopamine in the brain. All that for that instantaneous happiness. But at the end of the day, when you go to bed, when you wake up in the morning, you're still not satisfied with yourself. I have a story for you, a story that I read on this group I belong to. It's called Humans of New York. It's absolutely beautiful.. And in this group, they talk to people who they meet in New York City, and they ask them their life stories. And it's so touching, so many of them. But I read this one, and I thought I would read it on the podcast. And I apologize for being a bit long, but this gentleman summarized his entire life and the epiphany he had along the way. And I— when, as I read it, I realized that all of us can understand, and not just understand his story, but it's part of our story. But I want to— want you to listen to how he's put it all together, because in it, in his story, you will see your story. So let me begin. I was the biggest dork in the world. I went to an egghead Catholic high school. I attended the 1976 Star Trek convention with a Captain Kirk shirt and a fucking phaser. By the way, so did I. All I did was think, think, think. And since I was Catholic, I spent the rest of my time feeling guilty about thinking so much. Only way I could get out of my head was getting punched in the head. So one day I wandered into a boxing gym, and 5 years later I'm fighting at Madison Square Garden in the Golden Gloves final. I against the heavyweight champion of Sing Sing Prison. And if that fucking referee Dick McGuire hadn't stopped the fight, I'd have knocked the guy out. Boxing is all about belief. My life began to change when I started to believe a different story about myself. I trained a lot of rich kids in this gym. A lot of them are miserable and medicated because they don't believe they can live up to the hype of their own families. That's what happens when you agree to be part of someone else's story. Fuck that shit. My parents raised me to believe that our Grandma Kitty was this amazing person. Oh my God, we revered her. There was so much pressure to live up to her standards. My entire life I was made up— I was made to feel not good enough. But the whole thing was a fucking facade. Grandma Kitty was a fall-down drunk. Her kids had to carry her home from the park every afternoon. And the bullet hole in the floor that our parents said came from the time a bat got loose? And my uncle tried to shoot it. That was a lie too. There was never a fucking bat in the house. My uncle had tried to shoot our grandma Kitty. Most of our history is bullshit. How your country started, how your religion started, just stories people tell you so that you'll be part, bend the knee, and bow the head. So don't go on to 2023 and me hoping that George Washington was your great-great-grandfather. Fuck that shit. Never ever concede to being a part of anyone else's story. Make your own. I think that was so Well said by this guy who they just met on the streets of New York. Actually, they met him in a boxing gym and just asked him, what's your story? As he sat there sweating after a workout. What's your story? What false lies have people told you that you realize now? If you're very young What false lies do you see? For example, that adults aren't perfect, that some of the people in your lives, your parents, your uncles, they're not perfect either. What false lies do you see in your job, your school? There's so many false lies all around you. And how much energy have you used to live within the frames of that false lie? The neighborhood you live in, you have to have the right car, right house. You have to behave the same way. The school you go to, you have to have the right clothes. The way you talk. Have you noticed that if you change the way you talk, your dialect, your accent, is it the same one you had years ago? Look at your hair. How many times have you changed your hair? How many times have you changed your style of your clothing? How many times have you changed the way you thought? Are you thinking the way you really want to think, or are you thinking the way the pattern people have put into your head? When's the last time you really spoke your peace, spoke your voice at your volume, at your amplitude, at your frequency? How many times? And when's the last time you spoke from your heart about the things that matter most to you? Do you even speak from the heart? Do the people around you, do they know you? Have you shown them the real you? All these lies around us, all the storytelling that people are doing to constantly control your reality. You control your reality. Do not do what other people do, because then we all become the same and everything is really damn boring. But isn't the most interesting moment excitement in life are when your team wins a game. That's exciting. That's not normal. They didn't win the game up until that moment. Then when they won the game, something changed and that became exciting. When something changes, that's when an excitement in life happens. The birth of a baby, falling in love, spending a night with someone you love, doing well in the exam, singing a song. When you do Action creates excitement. Action creates moments. But following in the footsteps of someone else, joining a club and being just like everybody else and dressing like everybody else, that, that, that's, that's not you. When's the last time you just did you? When's the last time we saw you, heard you, felt you, smelled you, tasted your food? We missed you. Don't follow in the footsteps anybody else. Remember what this story— this gentleman said he was told lies. This Grandma Kitty, she was a fall-down drunk, but the whole family revered her. Oh, she's a sacred woman. The harder people make a story to be bigger, the more positive that person is, the more it's a lie. George Washington He mentioned, right, one of the founders of the United States. Not the— was he the first president? Good question. Bad history. He was a slave owner. All— everybody, everybody in history has a dark side. Everyone. There's no one perfect. And that's what you got to remember. There's no one perfect. So why don't you start with perfection with you? Just do you. Be you. Go forth and spread beauty and light. Be yourself right now. Wear clothes to work or to school that reflect who you are, what you are, what you feel, what you think. And then you will make not just your day, but everyone's day. Because society, we need you to be— we need you to be this individualistic thing. We cannot continue to be so concerned with everyone else. You cannot be so obsessed with your damn lawn looking perfect for everyone else. Whenever you think about you're doing something for other people so that they don't laugh at you, don't think of— think you're weird, anything like that, you're wrong. You should do it for you. If you're out there cutting your lawn, you're doing it for you. You're not doing it so the neighbors don't comment that you have so many weeds. You're doing it for you. You get dressed in the morning for you. You put on that certain color for you. You put your hair a certain way for you. Matter of fact, if you don't have any hair, you go bald, you did that for you. Show us you. Walk the way you want to walk. Talk the way you want to talk. I want to meet you. I want to hear you. I want to see— I want you to be all over the internet. I want you to be all over YouTube. I want you to be in the news for being you. That's the way I want you to start this day and every single day. Be proud of who you are. Let the world see who you are. I love you. I believe in you. I'm confident in you. Do not be ashamed. Do not be embarrassed. Do not feel insecure about who you are. It's just been a long time since you've done that, that you dare to be yourself. And that's okay. That's okay. Those first moments, the first time you do anything, the first time you train and lift weights, the first time you go for a run, it sucks. The first time you didn't do anything, it's horrible. But after a while, it becomes easy because it's what you're meant to do. It's who you're meant to be. Just do you. Awkwardness means you're on your way to perfection. Embrace the suck. I love that expression. Embrace the difficulty, because on the other side of difficulty is bliss. I'm Thomas Anglero. I am here for you. I believe in you. But you gotta do you.

You have to be you.

Don't spend another dollar kroner, shekel, whatever your currency is, on making anyone else happy. The only one I want you to be focused on is making you happy, because when you're happy, you become a magnet and everyone around you becomes happy. And all of a sudden, you now have changed the world by just making you happy. Now I'm happy. I love you. I believe in you. Until next time.

Thank you for listening to that episode. If you want to contact me, you can contact me on my website at anglero.com, and you can also subscribe to the newsletter, or you can find me anywhere on social media with Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you very soon.