0:06 In order to find out who you truly are,
0:08 you need to put yourself in positions
0:10 that are testing you. What do I mean by
0:13 that? Everybody in theory likes to
0:14 believe that, you know, they're a good
0:17 person. They're they're morally and ethically
0:18 ethically
0:21 a sound person. They're confident.
0:22 They're capable. They're all these good
0:24 things, right? In theory. And most of
0:27 them have never been put to the test,
0:29 myself included, until I was probably 20
0:30 years old. I always thought that I was
0:32 like, "Oh my gosh, like I would always
0:34 help a person in need. I would always be
0:36 able to get through hard times if I was
0:40 put in them, you know, and yet I'd never
0:43 been stood I never stood on trial." And
0:46 the truth is is that if you want to
0:48 actually find out who you are, you want
0:49 to figure out your identity, which
0:52 shapes your entire life, you have to not
0:55 be [music] afraid to face the cruelties
0:59 of life. And you know, for me, I'll get
1:00 into that a little bit later in the
1:02 video what it was, but [music]
1:04 I found out that I wasn't as strong as I
1:07 thought that I was, but I was given the opportunity
1:09 opportunity
1:13 to become and build a better version of
1:16 myself by going through the trenches.
1:18 And [music] what do I mean by that? It's
1:20 like you need to find out what your
1:22 identity is, but then you can also build
1:23 your identity when you're going through
1:25 the struggle. Now, you can't build your
1:28 identity when you have everything handed
1:30 to you. When you've already made a bunch
1:32 of money, when you have a bunch of
1:34 friends that were just sort of
1:35 convenient that popped into your life,
1:38 when people just highly regard you
1:39 because of the status that you were born
1:41 into, right? All these things are just
1:43 sort of given to you. So, it's like,
1:46 hey, would you actually be uh, you know,
1:48 as successful as you think you are if
1:50 you weren't just sort of born in this
1:51 situation? And the only way you can
1:53 figure out who you are is by having your
1:56 back against the wall, right? And so I
1:58 always encourage people, don't shy away
2:01 from the idea of taking on hardships in
2:03 life. There's a quote by an ancient
2:06 stoic, I'm forgetting who, that says,
2:08 "Your environment doesn't shape you. It
2:10 just shows you who you are." And what
2:12 this quote means, it's like a lot of
2:14 people are born into really bad
2:17 situations. And they become, for lack of
2:19 better terms, losers because of it. they
2:20 don't really accomplish anything and
2:22 then they blame their situation [music]
2:24 as to why they became the person that
2:27 they are. But the truth is is that their
2:30 situation nearly merely exposed who they
2:33 were. Okay? So the hardships were just
2:34 showing them that they really weren't as
2:36 tough as they thought that they were.
2:38 Now people that don't have hardships,
2:40 never experience hardships, sort of live
2:44 in this illusion of, you know, like I
2:45 said at the beginning of this video,
2:46 like they think that they're, you know,
2:48 all these amazing things. they're a good
2:50 person, that they're [music] capable,
2:53 smart, and you know, are are really
2:56 go-getters. But it's [music] like what
2:59 is making you believe that? And the
3:01 reason that your identity is so
3:03 important to establish, and I think the
3:05 main point I want to get across with
3:07 this video is because on a long enough
3:09 timeline, everything regresses to the
3:12 mean. And your mean is your identity. So
3:14 what I'm trying to say is like maybe not
3:17 now, maybe not next year, but eventually
3:19 after a long enough time, if you are a
3:21 confident person, if you're a capable
3:23 person, you will be successful. I mean,
3:24 it's literally that simple. If that's
3:28 actually your identity, eventually luck
3:30 will be ruled out on a long enough
3:32 timeline. And the opposite of that can
3:34 be true as well. It's like maybe you get
3:35 a little bit of luck now, but if you're
3:37 not really that guy, if you're not
3:40 really, you know, viciously aggressive
3:41 about pursuing the things you want in
3:43 life, maybe you won the lottery, but
3:45 eventually that's going to fade and
3:47 you're going to be left with this, you
3:49 know, insecurity of like, I'm not the
3:51 guy that I think that I am. And, you
3:55 know, your reality is going to fade.
3:57 You're going to be these illusions that
3:58 you've built the foundation of your life
4:00 off of will eventually crack and
4:04 crumble. So, building your identity is
4:06 an absolute necessity.
4:10 And what's hard in our society is I
4:11 people of all ages are going to be
4:14 watching this video. Um, but I feel like
4:15 a lot of you guys are probably young
4:19 like me. You know, I'm 22 and I I I
4:20 already get people calling me. That's
4:23 kind of a side note. But, you know, I
4:25 think that
4:26 you have to the earlier that you figure
4:28 out your identity, the better because
4:30 everything's going to be based off that.
4:32 And also let's say your identity is not
4:34 the best, right? Like I was mentioning
4:36 earlier, you can build your identity up
4:37 when you know your just because you're
4:39 not confident now doesn't mean you can't
4:40 be confident in the future, right?
4:42 [music] And so it's important to
4:44 establish and understand what your
4:46 identity is so you can try to improve
4:48 upon that, right? But if you just always
4:50 think you're this certain person and
4:52 you're not really, then life is going to
4:54 kick you in the butt later down the line
4:55 and it's going to be a lot harder to
4:58 pick yourself up when you're 40 years
5:00 old now, right? It's not not to say it's
5:01 impossible. You can absolutely change
5:04 your life around at any time, but it's
5:06 going to be a lot more beneficial the
5:08 younger that you are to establish this.
5:10 And that's why I always tell people,
5:12 don't be afraid to get a little bit
5:13 dirty. Go through the struggle.
5:16 Experience hardships in [music] life.
5:19 You know, I was I've taken a lot of
5:21 different jobs in my life. I would say
5:22 like almost all of them I hated.
5:24 Probably like 95% of the jobs that I've
5:27 taken I've just not enjoyed at all. And
5:30 my family kept asking me like, "Why are
5:32 you [music] working so hard when it's
5:33 you don't need to work as long of hours,
5:35 you're already fully enrolled in school,
5:38 stuff like that." And I didn't really
5:40 understand why myself. It just made
5:41 sense in my head. But now, in
5:44 retrospect, I think the whole reason I
5:45 did it was because I was discovering who
5:48 I was, right? Was I willing to
5:50 consistently show up like I promised I
5:53 would when it actually when push came to
5:55 shove, when my back was actually against
5:57 the wall, right? for example, with the
5:59 social media stuff that I'm doing. Um,
6:01 you know, I I've set out a goal. So, I
6:03 started taking it like seriously and
6:06 posting on on October 9th, so around 2
6:08 months ago. And I said I was going to
6:11 post 10 videos every single day until I
6:14 hit 100,000 followers. And then I did that
6:16 that
6:17 and then I was like, you know what? I'm
6:18 just going to keep going. And now it's
6:20 like until I hit 100K on Instagram,
6:23 which is going to be in a few days here
6:26 hopefully. Um, and I didn't weather away
6:29 from that, you know? I I figured out who
6:31 I was. You know how many nights that I
6:35 didn't want to record videos like like I
6:37 back in the day I used to watch TV shows
6:38 and stuff like that. Since I started
6:40 pursuing, you know, building a brand
6:42 around philosophy or my ideas of life or
6:44 you know, my my personal brand. Since I
6:46 started doing that, I've completely
6:48 given up all of my free time. And that's
6:50 not an exaggeration. Like I used to love
6:52 the TV show Stranger Things for example.
6:54 The new season just came out. I'm I
6:56 [music] have like I'm not even looking
6:58 into it at all. Right. I'd rather be
7:01 recording videos and and creating art
7:02 for the world. And I know some of you
7:04 guys might think that's a little bit,
7:05 you know, exaggerated. Creating art?
7:06 Like, what are you talking about? You're
7:08 just talking. Well, I feel like I'm
7:09 expressing my views, which is a form of
7:12 art. But
7:13 I think the point that I'm trying to say
7:16 here is I didn't weather away from what
7:18 I said I was going to do. And I do think
7:22 there is value to that. And you guys as
7:23 the viewer right now could be
7:25 implementing the same thing in whatever
7:28 pursuit you're doing in life. You have
7:31 to make the time to
7:34 challenge yourself to
7:36 make yourself face the realities so that
7:39 you know that you're not living a life
7:40 based off of some illusion that you
7:44 have. You have to go and pursue what you
7:46 want in life. And the only way you can
7:49 do that is by establishing an identity,
7:51 right? And it's like for me it's like
7:54 hey it ended up the the social media
7:56 thing it ended up actually working out.
7:58 I was like okay this is uh I don't want
8:00 to say it worked out like I'm nowhere
8:02 near where I want to be and I'm and I'm
8:05 humbly grateful for what I have. But um
8:08 I think there's a not a quote a lyric
8:13 from a Frank Sinatra uh where the song
8:16 My Way where he's like he's like I
8:19 sought it through without exemption. I
8:21 freaking love that lyric, man. It's so
8:22 good. I saw it through without
8:25 exemption. Like, do things regardless of
8:26 how you feel. That's going to become
8:28 your struggle. You're not going to know
8:30 whether or not it's going to work out in
8:32 the end, but that is part of the
8:34 struggle. It's like blind faith. [music]
8:38 You need to put yourself and test
8:41 yourself in foreign waters to figure out
8:43 what you're truly made of. and it's
8:45 going to be scary, but there's like this
8:47 weird exciting aspect of it that I
8:49 really like about the fact that it's
8:51 scary. Like, as of recently, I've been
8:52 trying a lot of like things that I that
8:54 the old me wouldn't do. Okay, for I'm
8:56 going to give you guys an example. Like,
8:58 there there was a girl at the gym that I
9:02 go to, like my gym crush, and I always
9:04 am preaching that like you should go and
9:06 like talk [music] talk to pretty girls,
9:08 like do the things that no one that
9:10 you'd be scared to do because you only
9:11 have one life. And it was like I had my
9:13 eye on this girl for I don't know how
9:15 long, maybe a couple months. And you
9:16 know, I'd see her every once in a while
9:18 in the gym and I'd never go up and talk
9:19 to her just cuz I'm kind of like to
9:22 myself or whatever, a little bit shy.
9:23 And I was like, screw it, bro. I'm going
9:25 to go do it. And it like worked out
9:27 good. And I was like, wow, why did I
9:29 waste all this time like overthinking
9:31 that situation, right? Just go and try
9:33 things that that you feel uncomfortable.
9:34 Did it feel uncomfortable? Yeah. Was it
9:36 worth it? Absolutely. Like it worked out
9:39 like absolutely, [music] you know? So never
9:41 never
9:44 never sell yourself short.
9:46 Figure out what you're capable of and
9:48 then when you realize what what you're
9:50 not currently capable of that's giving
9:52 you that's giving you a pointer. Hey, I
9:53 need to work on this in life. Put
9:56 yourself in an uncomfortable situation.
9:58 Figure out how you respond. What type of
10:00 person you are. Are you fight or flight?
10:02 You know, not literally, but you get
10:04 what I'm saying. And then build off of
10:06 that information. You can never learn
10:08 who you are. You're never going to get
10:11 this vital piece of information until
10:14 you actually go out and try the thing.
10:16 I'm getting very monotonous in this
10:18 video as we as we know. So, I just want
10:20 to say, hey guys, life is going to be hard.
10:23 hard.
10:26 Make it a thrill. Make it a ride. Right.
10:30 I It's right now it's it's 5 5:05 a.m.
10:32 and I've recorded videos for the past 5
10:34 hours and I've wanted to go to sleep.
10:36 I've been super tired. I had finals. I
10:38 literally took two finals today. And I'm
10:40 not making an excuse because I want to
10:42 figure out what I'm actually made of.
10:44 Right? Struggle sometimes doesn't have
10:45 to be literally like you're broke and
10:47 [music] you have nothing going for you.
10:49 Sometimes struggle is just going through
10:50 super uncomfortable situations where you
10:52 don't want to do something [music] and
10:55 you're forcing yourself to do it. Right?
10:57 This whole week I've had finals and yet
10:59 I'm still hitting all my goals. I need
11:01 to, you know, create x amount of input
11:03 every single day and I want to make sure
11:04 that I do it. And I know, I'm telling
11:06 you guys, you can too. If you're
11:08 watching this, I am literally just like
11:10 you guys. [music]
11:12 I'm ju I'm still trying to figure it out
11:13 just like you guys. I don't know
11:15 everything just like you guys. And I
11:17 think that's kind of what makes life a
11:19 little bit fun to be honest with you is
11:21 that there there's this unknown. There's
11:23 a there's a mountain that I get to
11:25 climb. What a privilege that I get to
11:26 climb this mountain. What a privilege
11:28 that I get to go through hardships. I
11:30 You're telling me that I get to wake up
11:32 and go to the gym? There are people
11:35 that, you know, don't even have limbs
11:37 and can't go to the gym. They can't do
11:40 these things. And so,
11:42 don't complain. Embrace the hardship and
11:45 figure out who you are through it. Thank
