The Power of Perspective: Are You Taking Life for Granted?

He ran two hours to school and two hours home because education was the only way forward. That single detail reframed everything: comfort, gratitude, discipline, even how we argue about politics. In a ride back to the airport after a keynote in Dallas, we met a driver from Ethiopia whose childhood miles turned movement into necessity and resilience into culture—and his story became a mirror for our own soft habits and hard excuses.

We dig into how scarcity can sharpen appreciation, from the joy of a simple book to the luxury of a plain cup of coffee. I share how prison taught me to act my gratitude, not talk it—to show it in the way I train, work, listen, and lead. We explore why East African runners often dominate long distance, how daily life can build endurance without a training plan, and what it means to choose hardship when your environment does not demand it. That choice—signing up for a marathon, a triathlon, or a tough personal goal—can turn a stagnant routine into a life with pull and purpose.

We also widen the lens with a grounded look at governance. The driver contrasts real dictatorships—coups, corruption, rule by force—with the messy but vital checks and balances many of us take for granted. Perspective shrinks outrage and grows agency. When you see what others endure, your opportunities feel larger, your excuses feel smaller, and your next step becomes obvious: move, build, and be grateful.

If you’ve felt stuck or numb, this conversation offers a practical path back to meaning: choose a worthy struggle, meet it with discipline, and let the work change you. If any part of this reframe hits home, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs perspective, and leave a quick review to help more people find it. What hard thing will you choose next?

Chapters

• 0:00 Two Hours To School
• 1:03 Uber Story From Dallas
• 2:02 Why East Africans Run So Well
• 3:05 Perspective On Opportunity
• 4:16 Gratitude Born From Less
• 6:02 Culture, Hard Times, Strong People
• 7:17 Second Chances And Daily Purpose
• 9:05 Real Dictatorships Versus Checks And Balances
• 10:26 Stop Complaining, Seek Hard Things
• 11:35 Endurance As A Path To Depth
• 12:37 A Challenge To Choose Gratitude

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

In order to go to school or get an education, you have to run to school. And he said him and these other kids in these villages would run to school for two hours in the morning just to get to class, go to school all day, and then run two hours home. I just want you to think about that real quick. You're probably listening to this in this really amazing country called the United States with endless opportunities. Not saying we're perfect, but it's a lot different than having to wake up to run to class. And I want you to think about the stuff that you're currently upset about or complaining about in your life. Thank you for tuning in, you guys. I'm out here in Galita, California, G Town, as we call it. If you're in the 805 or Santa Barbara, uh do me a favor, go ahead and drop a comment down below. Let me know who you are and where specifically you're tuning in from. Now, today I want to share with you a pretty cool story. Uh, this is something that happened to me a couple months ago when I was traveling in Dallas speaking at an event. Uh, I was in an Uber. I was driving back, actually, back to the airport. I just spoke and given a keynote at an event to some business owners. And I started talking to the driver uh in the Uber, right? And I go, you know, we're just talking, making small talk, talking about life. And he was obviously from another country from his accent. Uh, he was a black guy, his name was um um Masamba. And I said, uh, where are you from, man? He goes, I'm from Ethiopia. You know, we're just talking a little bit about life. And I go, hey, why are Ethiopians so good at running long distance? Like you see the Kenyan runners, the Ethiopian runners, they're always breaking the world record for marathons. And these are, dude, these guys are machines, these men and women, right? And he started laughing. He goes, Well, you know, the way we grow up is a lot different than here in the States. He had been in the United States for 15 years, he has kids and he has a family now. And he goes, Over there, when when you grow up, you're obvious you're oftentimes living out in the country in these different villages, away from any major cities. And in order to go to school or get an education, you have to run to school. And he said him and these other kids in these villages would run to school for two hours in the morning just to get to class, go to school all day, and then run two hours home. I just want you to think about that real quick. You're probably listening to this in this really amazing country called the United States with endless opportunities. Not saying we're perfect, but it's a lot different than having to wake up to run to class. And I want you to think about the stuff that you're currently upset about or complaining about in your life. And I want you to think about if you actually grew up out in the country and you had to run two hours every day to go to work, two hours every day growing up as a kid just to go to school. Now, he said that they ran two hours every day to go to school because getting education represented an opportunity for them. It was either that or stay in that tiny little village, do manual labor your entire life, and then you die. But if you got an education, you can get a job in the city, and maybe you can go to another country and continue to expand your career or create a better life for yourself. It's very important that we understand how good we have it. And I love looking how at how other people live throughout the world because it really puts things in perspective when it comes to the opportunities we all have. You know, a lot of people go into their lives each and every day, and they're just ungrateful and complaining and negative. And, you know, there's actually an element of like going without or not having as much in your life as other people that leads you to being more grateful. I look back on my experience of being incarcerated, and it was the most grateful I'd ever been in my entire life. Because when you don't have the simple amenities and luxuries that we have on a day-to-day basis, you start to realize just how fortunate you are for the things you have. And there's something interesting that takes place in your psychology when you have less, when you are actually struggling a little bit and deprived, it makes you that much more grateful for the things that you do have. You know, I remember when I was incarcerated being so happy the first time I was able to get a book in my cell and I could just read. But for the 20-something years before that, I never wanted to read a freaking book. You know what I mean? Like, I'd be like, I'm not gonna sit down and read. That's stupid. Or I remember when I first would get like canteen or you get your stuff, you know, um, off the commissary and being able to drink a cup of coffee, how grateful I was to have that cup of coffee. Like it was such a luxury, it was such a gift, you know? And that's something that I credit to helping me become immensely grateful in life is like going through those times where I didn't have much, going through those times of immense struggle. There's something really profound that takes place where you start to think about all the little things that you do have, and you you appreciate them more than you can ever fathom. So when I was talking to this Ethiopian Uber driver, and he was telling me about growing up uh, you know, in Africa and what it was like for him and his family, and you know, how bad he just wanted to come to the United States of America. Uh, it was it was really refreshing. You know what I mean? Because here you have somebody who they just grew up in a lifestyle where that's what you did. You ran to school. And he said it was part of their culture too. Like a lot of times, if you're going somewhere, you would just run, you would jog, like whether it was school or I don't know, on a holiday or a day you didn't have school, you're you're going somewhere and you're jogging with your friends and you're talking to them. Um, and so it kind of puts that statement or that quote that you hear a lot really in perspective. Soft times make weak men, weak men make hard times, and hard times make strong men. You know, other parts of the country, they have no choice but to be strong. Like they they have no choice but to be strong mentally, physically, spiritually. Right now, especially in developed countries, something is taking place that's detrimental, especially to young men and young people. It's that they're growing up in very soft and easy times that don't require them to develop that grit, that strength, and that resiliency that in past times or other countries is an absolute necessity. You know, and people will ask me questions about like my mindset or my discipline or Sean, how do you do this? How do you do that? And honestly, the truth is my life circumstances have required much more of me than your life circumstances have. If you don't have the discipline, if you don't have the urgency, if you don't have that why that burns deep in your heart and soul, that's just gonna compel you to get up every day and take massive action and not waste a second, not waste a day, it's because your life circumstances are different than mine. You know, for me, I really I felt like and thought my life was over. And when God gave me a second chance and I got to get out of prison and come home, I was so grateful, but not just grateful, like I'm gonna tell you. I want to show you. I'm gonna live it out. I'm gonna exemplify what gratitude is in everything that I do. The way that I speak to you, the way that I listen, you know, the energy behind these messages, the time I spend with my family, my health, my physique, going after these dreams and my business, my career, seeking to change the lives of a million people, grow this empire that I'm building. Like I want to soak up every little drop and every moment that this life offers me. And a lot of people, they just don't feel that way. And my job is to try to get through to you with these messages, with these stories. You know, I know not every message is gonna resonate, not every story is gonna inspire you. But maybe one person listening today is gonna think about that guy in Ethiopia running to school back and forth, and he's gonna look at the fact that he's complaining about something in his life and go, damn, man, what if I was over there having to run two hours each and every day to work or to school? Or like imagine growing up in those huts without water. Like, like people in other parts of the country, they suffer. You don't know what suffering truly is. You have no idea. You think suffering is like when you don't have cell reception on your phone. Like, like suffering is like, you know, suffering to you and other people is very different. Um, and and so honestly, there's no way to change people's perspective until they experience it. That's another reason it's really good to study other cultures, travel if you can, um, get around different types of people, get out, get out of your environment because it opens your mind. And when you're open-minded and you see things differently, it can create change in your life, right? Um, so I just want to share that with you guys. I mean, another thing too is like our country's become so political over the last decade, and social media exacerbates it, the news exacerbates it, and everyone's like arguing all the time. And I asked, uh I asked Masamba, the Ethiopian Uber driver, about politics in Ethiopia, and he laughed. And he goes, as bad as you guys think it is over here, you guys like say that Trump's a dictator, this and that. He goes, in Ethiopia you have real dictators. Uh, they come in one day, they kill everyone in the government, and they take over for maybe a year, maybe 10 years, and they don't leave office until someone comes and does the same to them. And he goes, the government is so corrupt, you don't get into politics unless you're willing to die or probably go to prison, right? And he's like, they just get in the government, they steal, uh, you know, they create all this corruption until this other militia takes over and comes in with their machetes and the machine guns and executes them. And that's the way it is in a lot of these countries, especially third world countries. So I want you to think, and he goes, America's great. He goes, yeah, you have a lot of different beliefs, but you have checks and balances. He goes, and you have a system in place that creates hopefully fair elections, right? And it and it creates these um these this democracy that you don't have in other parts of the world. And I thought that was really cool to hear from somebody who grew up in a different country who came here, because a lot of times people here complain about everything and they're they're mad at one party, they're mad at this party, no one can agree on anything. Uh, and we all have to recognize we still have it really good. And I think that if we focus on the good and put out positive energy and come from a place of gratitude and seek to understand one another and recognize we have more in common than we don't, oh uh, we can still create a really great life and a really great country that's prosperous for everyone. But uh, just want to share that with you. So if you're complaining about everything, go run two miles and then wait a couple hours and then uh uh two hours. I'm sorry. He had to run two hours each way to school. I don't know if I misspoke earlier. Two hours each way to school. So if you find yourself complaining about something in your life right now, go, imagine if I had to run two hours twice a day, every single day. Like, do I want to do that? No. So maybe be grateful for what you do have. But honestly, if you did go out and run two hours every day, twice a day, you'd probably become a more grateful person. There's an element of suffering and struggle that creates gratitude that you could not have without that experience. So here's what I learned going to prison, and then when I got out, I realized the benefit of suffering. So I replicated it. I did endurance training. I'd go out and run 20 miles in the morning, I'd I'd bike ride 100 miles. I trained to do a triathlon, then a half Iron Man, then a full Iron Man where you swim 2.4 miles, you ride 110 miles on your bike, and then you run a marathon 26 miles. I would do that stuff habitually because in the midst of suffering, you create these breakthroughs about yourself and about life that you can't get anywhere else. There's something about suffering that creates more gratitude, but it also creates the ability to see life from a different vantage point. So if you are somebody who feels like life is just mediocre for you and you're stuck, you're not happy, you're not content, create some moments in your life where you struggle and you suffer. Set these big physical goals for yourself, especially if you're a man. Like, I don't know. I coach men, I work with men, I talk to men. I know a lot of women that do endurance training too, and they do marathons, and some women really love that stuff. But I don't know if they gravitate towards this type of thing as much as men do. There's something about men where we kind of like to suffer. We we are stubborn, maybe we have to go through these arduous, difficult moments of life to figure things out, at least I did. So if you're a man and you feel complacent, you're overweight, and you're being lazy and you feel like you're just a lesser version of yourself, sign up for an Iron Man or a marathon or a half marathon. Like start training for something. Give yourself a sense of purpose. Go out there and suffer a little bit, struggle. In the midst of that suffering and struggling, you'll find a depth within yourself that could change your entire life. So that's my message for you guys today. If you're complaining, think about growing up in a third world country, having to literally go and find water every day to drink or run two hours every day just to go to school to get an education to improve your life and recognize how good you have it. Take advantage of these opportunities, stop complaining and never look back.