In this solo episode of the Uncommon Moments podcast, host Liam Applegate reflects on three striking quotes he encountered in unlikely sources and uses them to explore themes of mortality, entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, and the creative process. He begins with a quote from a book on Edinburgh graveyards – “the dead are not simply our past, they are also our present and future” – to discuss how awareness of death can sharpen focus on making the most of one’s limited time. He then examines a line from Jane Austen’s Emma – “There are some people that the more that you do for them, the less that they do for themselves” – to argue that helping others can sometimes enable dependency, urging personal agency and the need to avoid victimhood mindsets. Next, he highlights Isidore Sharp’s maxim “Intensity is the price of excellence” (also phrased as “Excellence is the capacity to take pain”), linking it to his own disciplined work habits, such as recording late at night and staying consistent with his podcast and documentary projects. He reinforces this with Dietrich Mateschitz’s “The journey is the destination,” emphasizing that the process of creation, not just the end result, builds character. Throughout, Liam stresses the value of learning from diverse, even obscure, sources (history books, classic literature) to uncover ideas that can spark entrepreneurial ventures, the importance of intense focus, and the joy of “golden moments” in creative work, illustrated by his documentary Balance: The Man Who Became Human and references to Rick Rubin’s creative magic. He concludes by urging listeners to embrace intensity, accept pain as part of excellence, and cherish the journey itself while previewing upcoming editing work on Netflix part 3.
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So in today's uncommon moment, I wanted to go through only 2 quotes. And these quotes were quotes that should not have been in any book that was for the podcast. And these quotes are so random, uh, or not random. They actually relate a lot to entrepreneurship, but they're not in like entrepreneurship books. And this is what I want to talk about in today's episode, uh, just this short moment. About these 2 quotes because it's so random, so out there, but yet it reminds us of our own mortality and also entrepreneurship at the same time. This one is really interesting. So I was just in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I picked up a book about graveyards and cemeteries. So this one's actually called The Graveyards and Cemeteries of Edinburgh. And I think it was by like a college over there, probably. I don't know what college. But it was done by a college over there, and I was reading it. And you know, you have like they're telling you about gravestones, and they're telling you about all these little things about like you know grave robbers at night and thieves. And they would literally have to have a guard out with a lamp, and then they finally built a tower because people would steal bodies. I know this is getting kind of out there for this podcast episode, but there was this quote that I was coming upon. Uh, that I came upon, and you know, this is probably 30 pages in, and it says, the dead are not simply our past, they are also our present and future. What does that mean? The dead are not simply our past, they are also our present and future. The thing is, it's like the people that have passed away not only have like made up our history, but we are making history right now and in the future. You know, the thing is, death does not escape anyone. Death is a human trait. We all die at some point. And so people have died in the past. People die this, you know, people die. I don't want to say every minute, but people die rapidly, you know, every single day. And also, people are going to be dying in the future. It's not something that we can escape. And this goes back to the Marcus Aurelius quote. Of, um, you know, it's not— basically the essence of that quote is not that we have like 500 years to live, but that we live fully in those years, um, in the short time that we have. And this just is a reminder of like mortality, like what does it mean to die? And, um, I thought this was just a really interesting quote because it's like the dead are not simply our past, they are also our present and future. And you're reading about these people And you realize how fleeting everything is. Like, there are some people that they've done incredible things in their lifetime, but no one remembers them. You have to read a book about cemeteries or graveyards and figure out, oh, this person was a shoemaker, or this person— especially back in the 1700s or whenever this was. Some, some of these date back to like the 1500s, where you're looking back at all these people and it's like you have to reread about the history about these people because In their day, they might have been something, but now we don't really remember them. And so one, it's like learning about these people, understanding, you know, who were the big movers of their day, like who was, you know, prominent, but also like they left a heritage for us. And so it's our responsibility to learn about them, but it's also a reminder for us that like we have a short, limited space on this, like on this planet, and we got to make the most out of it because if we don't, You'll blink and you'll be 20 years older than you are already. And even in— this isn't a message of like, you can easily change it around, right? You can easily change it around right now. And that's the key. It's like you can change that around and you could live— like, it is better to live 5 full years, right, than it is to not have ever turned around at all, right? So it does, like, no matter how old you are, you can always turn around and make the most out of the life that you've been given. Right. And some people don't realize that until later. And I thought that was just a really interesting quote in the most like random book that I was reading just because I was there. And then this next quote is really interesting. And this is something that's really stuck with me. I've talked about it in previous podcast episodes, but it's There are some people that the more that you do for them, the less that they do for themselves. This is actually from Jane Austen's book Emma. I believe I listened to it. And this was something like, because I'm trying to branch out in terms of what I'm listening to and reading. I'm trying to read classics. I'm trying to read business books, biographies. I just finished Arnold Schwarzenegger's book Total Recall. It was like almost 24 hours. And I'm like listening to all these different books, but I went on to listening Jane Austen and I came across this book and this was like the one line that was like, this doesn't like it doesn't matter if you're reading fantasy fiction business like this could apply to real life business. It could literally apply to entrepreneurship. It's like and just human nature in general. It's like this is so true, and I don't even think she meant this to be like a universal quote, but it's like. The idea that there are some people that like you could help someone and you could just keep helping them and you don't understand why they don't change, why they don't see it your way, or why they're not like, you know, changing their life because you're giving them so much. And the thing is, it's like the more that you do for some people, like these are, it's a certain group of people, the less that they do for themselves. That's a really interesting quote. That's super fascinating because it's like, You can do so much for someone, especially someone that you love or a close friend. But I think the really interesting part about this quote is not that you know you shouldn't help people. It's actually the opposite. It's like yes, help people, but realize there are some people that you know. And a great like example of this is people that fall into a victimhood type of way way of thinking. Arnold talked about this where it's like you know if your parents give you like. A bad lifestyle or they give you bad habits, don't blame your parents. Like, actually get out of it. And that's something that's really interesting. It's like, at some point, it's up to you. You are the person that needs to make the change. So if you're on the other side of this, you know, instead of the person helping others, if you're on the side of this where you aren't doing enough for your— like, you're not helping yourself and people are pouring into you, you need to turn that around and do something. You need to do something. And it doesn't matter if it's good, it doesn't matter if it's bad. It's like, just do it and try to get better at what you're doing, whether it's in your job, whether it's starting something new, whatever it is, just get better at that. And then this last quote, because I do want to add another quote. I was looking at, I was thinking, you know, do I have one more quote for the end of this episode? And I would just say, This this quote: Intensity is the price of excellence. Another another way of saying this is excellence is the capacity to take pain. That was from Isidore Sharp. He's the founder of Four Seasons. I did five episodes on him. I believe it's like episode six through ten or five through ten. I I've done basically three hours on him. I read his book. I did three hours of episodes. You can go listen to it. That's also really great. But this this specific quote: Intensity is the price of excellence. Is Founders number 281. So Founders Podcast by David Senra. He reads a bunch of books, pretty much a book a week, and then he just does like quick analysis on it and pulls out certain themes. And what I do is I do more in-depth, and then I also do these uncommon moments where just basically these are just a bunch of quotes or notes that I really want to highlight. But the reason why I'm highlighting this is actually more for myself and anyone listening because Intensity is the price of excellence. There's a reason why I'm recording this at 10 o'clock at night. It's because I want to stay consistent. I want to be successful with this podcast. And what that means is starting with me, you know, even though, even though this is a short episode, I want to make sure that I am making the best podcast episodes there are and that I'm consistent with that. And so that's why, you know, I really want to highlight this quote. Excellence is the capacity to take pain It'd be a lot easier just to like you know do something else, but really sitting down and taking the time just to go through a couple quotes that I you know barely that like books that have like barely anything to do with what I'm studying, but something that I found really interesting and like you know whether it's the Jane Austen like that one quote out of like all the books I've read from her, that one quote like hitting it. This is a really interesting idea in entrepreneurship or just like starting a business. It's like. Why do you read about people in history? Why do you read about people in history? Well, it's because if there is one idea, and Charlie Munger talks about this, if there is one idea in a history book that you find, like there could be a billion-dollar idea in a $30 history book. You have no idea whether it's the principle, whether it's an idea, like an actual business idea, whether it's whatever that is. You don't know what story It is until you find it. And so if you're an entrepreneur, if you want to do something great, you got to keep learning, keep growing, and fail a lot in order to get to the place that you want to be. And then once you find that idea, that's what's all that— like, that's what matters. Once you find that idea, that is what matters. And so the big, the big key is to find that idea, be intense about that, and then Another quote, actually, great products make people happy. Great products make people happy. It's like it should be intuitive to use the product and, you know, you should be addicted to using the product and you as the founder should love your product, building the product, every aspect. And I was thinking about this because I finished a documentary this time, almost this time last year. It was about 11 months ago, and the interesting thing about this was I was thinking about what does it mean? You know, what does it mean now that the documentary is out? And you can go stream on Apple and Amazon. It's called Balance: The Man Who Became Human. It's a it's a great it's a great documentary, and some people have even said it's the best documentary they've ever seen. But what like why? Why do I have this sense where, you know, like I go to— thankfully we've been able to do showings. We did a showing in LA, Austin, London, and one in Moscow, in Idaho. And what's crazy about this is like, those were all fun. But the best moment, the moment that I've had the most fun in was actually creating it. Like those nights where we were staying up late, working super hard, editing, and like just endlessly refining. Those were the moments where you really just admire and you just like wish you could relive those. And that's why I want to make more documentaries. I want to do more things like my podcast and do things that push myself to get to those moments. Rick Rubin talks about it's like that moment of magic in music. Where you're making music and then all of a sudden something clicks and it's like that moment is what makes you want to do it all over again. That's why, like, for him, making music is tough. He calls himself a lazy workaholic, but once he gets that one moment of music, that's what makes it all worth it. Like, that's why he does it. And I find that really interesting because I found that with the documentary, and I would love to make more documentaries to have that moment with music, with, with my podcast. It's like Those are the moments that are so fun. And, and it reminds me of this quote by Dietrich Mateschitz, who is the founder of Red Bull. And he says, the journey is the destination. The journey is the destination. What does that mean? The journey is something like everyone wants to reach the top, but no one wants to climb. Everyone wants to reach the top. But what they don't understand is like some of the best moments, like Some people would love to just be at the bottom and have a helicopter come pick them up and put them at the top. But what people don't realize is making— like, to build your character, to love, like, the climb means to actually climb. That's what it means. Like, you actually have to climb. You actually have to go through it to build your character. It's going to be tough, but you got to do it. That's the key. And so The journey is the destination. Yes, doing things like this is hard, but intensity is the price of excellence. Excellence is the capacity to take pain. You need to take pain in order to be excellent. And I really— I love just talking about this because this is something that is a great reminder to me when I listen to this again. And to you, the one listening to this, because this is to the, to the person listening to this, it's like, remember that intensity is the price of excellence. Excellence is the capacity to take pain, and the journey is the destination. The journey is the destination. Like when you're in a creative act or when you're doing something creative or just building a product, you're going to look back at those days and say, I wish I could relive those. Because those are like the golden days. Those are like the journey, like not the success, not the money, not all of that. It's like the journey to get there when you were unsure, when you didn't know whether you were going to make it or not. And then once you finally made it, it's like you look back and you realize, oh, you know, the journey is what was so valuable in that whole time. The, like the building of the character and hopefully you can find more challenges to continually progress. So you don't need to focus on, um, you know, like, so you can just keep going forward. That's the key. So, um, thank you guys for listening to this episode. Um, I will— I'm gonna be editing Netflix part 3. Um, so that will be the next episode out. Um, thank you guys for listening to this, and I will talk to you guys again soon.
