Is The American Dream Dead?

What if the American Dream isn’t dead… just a lot more uncomfortable than people expect?

In this episode, Gregory Vetter unpacks the reality behind the American Dream — and why it has nothing to do with the version most people are sold early on.

What starts as a chase for money, status, and recognition often turns into something much more honest: the pursuit of flexibility, freedom, and peace of mind.

But getting there isn’t clean.

It requires sacrifice.
Endurance.
Loneliness.
And the ability to keep going when there are easier off-ramps staring you in the face.

Greg shares how his own definition of success evolved over time, why comfort can quietly hold people back, and why sustainable success requires more than ambition — it requires character.

This is a conversation about what it really takes to build a life that lasts — not just one that looks good from the outside.

Because the real dream isn’t about status.

It’s about building a life you don’t need to escape from.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

In the beginning, I thought the American dream was build a business, sell it for a giant amount of money, drive around on a fucking yacht, middle finger stuff. Then you get in it and you go, okay, well, I I don't know if I actually need that. I don't even know if I want a yacht, really. I'd rather be on my farm. I'd rather have some classic cars, to be honest with you. In reality, what I think the American dream has become for me over time. It is the access of flexibility and freedom and peace of mind. Greg Venner Podcast, Maurice Taylor, aka Gogo Mo with the Brooklyn cycling hat on.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I'm gonna give more flavors. So you, you know, I'm gonna be switching it up a little bit more. Uh-huh. My next appearance.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

And but I also think it perfectly aligns with a couple other things I've written recently about the Olympics and the men's hockey team winning the gold medal, and the women's hockey team winning the gold medal, and a bunch of other people kind of winning, and then other people not winning. And what does it actually take to really accomplish your dream? And are you willing to sacrifice all of that to get the dream that you want so badly? And I think that's the big thing, is that people are not prepared for what it actually costs.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Right. You talk about in here, you talk about they'll sell you these uh books and and seminars and pamphlets on how to get the American dream. Yeah. But they don't start with uh you'll lose everything, friends, relationships. Yeah. They don't start with that. They just sell you the package, only talking to you about the flowers and the rainbows and the sunny days of all the good days. Yeah. So let's yeah. So let's dig into all that.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Well, it goes back to when I won Inc. magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year, and I was notified as I'm standing in a parking lot of a grocery store covered in olive oil with my feet swollen and tired after doing a freaking six-hour demo. And I'm like, this is what entrepreneur of the year feels like. I thought I was gonna be on a fucking yacht, not handing out samples of lettuce four days a week in every grocery store in America and hand mixing bowls and running a manufacturing plant and literally and figuratively putting out fires on a daily basis, and then everything that's required for you to even get to that point. Like at that point, we were, you know, years in. I think it was 2015 or 2016 or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Yeah. Cause you start around what? Oh, nine? Yeah, 2009.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Yeah. So it's like we had a manufacturing plant, we're national and retailers, and you do have to go into a dark, lonely place to get there. Because I think the interesting thing is um you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And I preach that to my kids day in and day out. But not everybody wants to see you be successful.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

I just seen uh the only I just seen stuff on the on uh the socials where God talked about, he said, the only info for men in general, just pertaining to men in general, the only person who wants you to be better than him is your father. 100%. That's the only person that you'll come across in your life who in your life who wants you to be better than them. Everybody else is like, oh, you're doing a good job.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

But stay below me by 10% so that I can still feel good. Yeah. And I think no one's ready for that. Because when you're nothing, everybody roots you on. Everybody loves an underdog story. Everybody loves an underdog story, right? University of Indiana football. Won the national championship against all odds, underdog story. Well, they're not an underdog now, so the haters are gonna come out next year. Right?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Like, don't you check yourself? Right. Once you get to the top, then everybody's trying to trying to knock you down. Well, you're a mirror.

SPEAKER_02 5:10

You're a mirror to their own life of the decisions they're either making or not making. And you're a mirror to a lot of your friends.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Yeah, especially if you come from the from the same place. Because I've seen either, you know, I see again on the socials, a lot of people talk about you'll get more support from people in different states or people who aren't from where you're from, yeah, than you get, you know, from support from the people or your peers who you ever went to school with from high school or anything like that. You can't be a prophet. Not as a whole, you know. Some of you, you're close, tight, tight boys, you know, they'd be like, yeah, let's get this. Maybe. If you're if you're blessed, I'm blessed. If you're blessed, I'm blessed. You got a couple that succeed.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Yeah, but not everybody. No. Yeah. You can't be a prophet in your own village, you know, and that's in reference to Jesus. Like, he goes back to his original village and they're making fun of him because he sucks at playing, you know, some ball game. This motherfucker is literally the son of God walking on fucking water. They're like, hey, let's play that game, you suck at loser.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

But that got, you know, that might just be that that, you know, you always got those those friends who just pluck, pluck your nerves. And sometimes you want to go back to that in a sense just to feel regular again. If you get so high, if you can go back and those friends still treat you just like you're the same person who you ran ball with or play some two-hand touch football out in the parking lot. You know, sometimes you want to get back to the-intentions are true.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

I'm not talking about banter. Yeah. Because we love talking shit. Brian Vetters once said, If I fuck with you, I fuck with you. You know, if I fuck with you, I like you. Yeah. And that's that's the beauty of having brothers, and it's the beauty of being an athlete and having locker room environments where you just fucking bust people's chops about everything all day, every day. It toughens up your skin, keeps you quick on your toes. Um, but light, for the most part, is not like that. And when you start outshining people, they they don't they don't want that. Because again, you're a mirror to their lack of effort or discipline or inadequacies or whatever it is. Like, I'm not special. I'm not, I wasn't fucking, you know, blessed with some unbelievable business knowledge of the future and a trust fund and money and connections. I said, I want a different life. I'm willing to do anything for it, I'm willing to sacrifice anything for it. This is before I had kids. Now that's not true. Right. And I'm gonna go. And it's really hard. And I think so often the reason so many businesses fail and so many people quit is they're just that they can't endure. Fortitude dine vincimos, by endurance we conquer. If you can endure, you can do anything. I was talking to Brian Fitzpatrick earlier today, shout out to Navy Athletics, strength and conditioning, and he was just speaking to St. Mary's High School, giving him a motivational speech. And the quote was centered around this is from Nietzsche, he who has a why to live can bear almost any how. Okay. So he who has a why can bear almost any how. And I think that that's that's really interesting, and it's true because it's about endurance. The American dream. Anything worth doing. It is about the ability to endure and stay focused and put your blinders on and stay aligned with your calling and not be distracted with bullshit. And we saw that in the Olympics. Right? Like these the fucking men's hockey team, the dude who ends up scoring the game-winning goal in overtime, ten minutes prior, got all his fucking teeth knocked out, didn't leave the game, looks down, sees all his teeth on the ground, goes in the fucking game again, grinds until the end, they go into overtime, he scores the game-winning goal. He's got no teeth. He endured, he endured. And I think the other thing is like there's so many off-ramps where you can just get off with a really logical, reasonable excuse. Dude, you just got all your teeth knocked out. Like, don't go back in the game. Like, come on, come on, buddy. And he was like, No, I'm gonna fucking score the game winner.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

And I think those are the tests you get, you get those tests, and they don't I think you just get those tests in general, because that goes back to how bad you want it, and they will give you those logical off-ramps, but like heck. Here's 200,000 a year, and you can just chill. Yeah. And I was just hearing that you can have this 200,000 a year, you can chill, you can have a work, perfect work-bound schedule, you can hang out with your kids, all that, you can do all that. Just get off right here, and this is what you can have for the rest until you go to the next level of life. Yep. And you can get off here.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

And sometimes that's very, very intriguing. Very intriguing. When you're dealing with all hell breaking loose, and you're dealing with creditors and suppliers and manufacturing plants and people and this and that and this, it's like, man, I really wish I could just have it easy. But then you have it easy for like a month, and you're like, this is worthless. I have no purpose. This is not what I was built for. This is not why I went through all these obstacles to become this man that I wanted to become. I am him now. I now need to continue to put that man to good use.

unknown 12:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

I developed the character required. Now it's time to put it to work.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

But I also think you just develop new things that you want to do. I think which keeps you, which keeps you going. You always come up with different ideas, different businesses, different things, and you just you push them until you like, okay. Uh let me push that to the side. Let me let me let me hop on this one.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Let me do this a little bit. Oh, this one's working well. Okay, well, let's keep on going here. So I think you you you you get laser focus, as you say, on certain things. And then I guess I don't know how you lose your focus. I don't know how you know when to transition to something else. I just hear them after you know, hey, Mo, I've been thinking what you think about this. Yeah. How you feel about this?

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Well, it's like it's also almost like a stand-up comedian. You can sit in your office and write the funniest joke in the entire world and walk out on stage and no one laughs. Okay, maybe that joke fucking sucked. I thought it was hilarious. And right? And that's how I kind of, you know, we have these great ideas all the time, and we execute most of them, but if no one's laughing, all right, I'm gonna move on to a different joke. It's water off a duck's back. This is part of the process, this is part of the game. I'm trying to develop the life and the character to accomplish great things, and these are this is just a part of the process, it's a it's a part of the creative process.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

So, how do you know when you reach the American dream? I don't think the American Dream has one set standard. No, I think for me specifically, it totally changed. I mean, what's the point of the state of the state? So, yeah, let's talk about it. Let's talk about that. So, has your American dream changed through your seasons? Yes, 100%.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Um in the beginning, I thought the American dream was build a business, sell it for a giant amount of money, drive around on a fucking yacht, middle fingers up. Like when I was like 23, 24, before we actually got into it.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

How much was that uh persuaded by TV and well, it was everything that's like every magazine, film, movies, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Every book about success. This is this guy, this is what he does. You look him up, you see what he's doing, you see his net worth. Holy fuck. Like, I want to do something like that. Then you get in it, and you go, okay, well, I I don't know if I actually need that. I don't even know if I want a yacht, really. Like, I'll go on one. I'll rent one. Yeah, I'll rent one. I don't know if I want to own one. Um, I'd rather be on my farm. I'd rather have some classic cars, to be honest with you. Fucking rip those things down a highway. Um, but in reality, what I think the American dream has become for me over time it is the access of flexibility and freedom and peace of mind. So flexibility, freedom, peace of mind, flexibility and schedules and time and and uh creative pursuits. I can get behind that, right? Like I want to be able to do things that I want to do, I want to bring things to life that I want to bring to life. I want to develop products, I want to write books, I want to do podcasts, I want to, you know, design funny ass swag and everything else for our businesses. I want that flexibility to do all of that stuff at my at my leisure. Now, we obviously have to make it successful because flexibility is great. You know who's super flexible? Homeless people. So that's not only it.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Yeah, you're right. Because I'm pretty sure they would like to do nothing and have money.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

That would be the best. I mean, I think that's the American dream. Uh well, yes. Have money and do whatever you want to do. I think every everybody in the world I can go for and say, hey, what do you want to do? Would you like to have$50 million in a bank and be able to do whatever you want to do? Yeah. And that's the say, let's just say that's the American dream. But first, to achieve that, we got to get that$50 million first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Well, and again, I I think you get it when you're prepared to accept it.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

What, the$50 million? Yeah. Okay, let's talk about that. All right. Well. How do you get it when you prepare to accept it? You still gotta work for it.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

You gotta work for it. Um, but I think so often when you see these like kind of flashes of brilliance of people that rise really quick and then have just some Herculean downfall. And they lose it all. And they lose it all. They weren't prepared. They touched it, they saw it, they smelled it, they got to experience it, and they fucked it up. Too much too fake. So when we talk about the American dream, we're talking about that sustainably. We want peace sustainably, we want flexibility sustainably, we want the ability and the freedom to pursue our efforts and build businesses and have an impact on the world. We want to do that over a long period of time on our clock. We don't want it in a year and then lose everything. That's not the American dream, in my opinion. Yeah, you know, you don't you want to keep it. I want to fucking build it and I want to keep it. And so to be able to keep it, you've got to develop the character and the behaviors and habits so when you receive it, you then are prepared to do what you're supposed to do with it.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

So you gotta have that$25,000 for in the bank account and have it sitting there and not touch it. And then you move up to that$50,000. It's the belief ladder. Yep, and then you move up to that$75,000.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

It's the belief ladder, dude.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

It's you've got you've got to be prepared. As the old folks used to say, boy, you letting that money, that money burn in your pocket.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

Ain't you ever used to get my grandfather? Yeah, he would say something, he was like, You spent that before it hit your wallet.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Yeah. He said, That money burn in your pocket. Every time, you know, every time you get your little allowance at the end of the week, you you want to hurry up. Can you take me to the store? Yeah, movies. Yeah, can you take me? Can I get some new shoes? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

You know who's not like that in my family is Severn. He's very he's like, saves his money, looks at prices. It's really funny. I'm like, wait, like, what do you think of these? You know, cleats, basketball shoes. I don't fucking know, but something that he needs, he's like, those are just too expensive, Dad. I can't, I can't do that.

SPEAKER_00 20:22

And I'm like, what the fuck? I got a cousin, I got a cousin like a uh very intelligent young lady, and she just she's in high school, 12th grade, ready to graduate, and she's just she's very fickle with her money. She's like interesting though, like, oh no. I'm not going. I have clothes from last year. I'm not going school shopping this year. I can wear the clothes that I had last year. That's hardwired, man.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Because like, he didn't learn that from me. His older sister's like fucking YOLOing. Right? His younger sister below him. Oh. I mean, there's a package. I don't even know how she's tapped in to buy stuff. I still haven't figured it out.

unknown 21:07

Who cares?

SPEAKER_02 21:08

What card are you using? And then Forrest doesn't give a shit, dude. He doesn't care about money, it doesn't fucking matter to him at all.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

That's I think that's my daughter, too. I'll be like, she'll leave her money in the back of the car on the floor.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

I'm like, buddy, you just worked for two days to earn this money. And he's like, Yeah, you know, I don't care, dad. I'm like, well, you're not gonna be able to like get the things you want. He's like, I got everything I need. He didn't give a shit.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

Yeah, my daughter leaves her money in the back of the car, just out on the seat. Yeah. She lost a hundred dollars one day. She's like, and every time we go out, I said, Where's your wallet? Dad, I didn't know we was going out. I didn't bring I'm like, sure you didn't know he was going out. You lost it. Yeah, I was like, So where's your money? Uh it's in the house somewhere. I don't know where I put it in. That's Forrest, dude. He just, he doesn't give a shit. When I was young, I was like, I kept it in my drawer. Dude, I had like a Velcro wallet. Oh yeah. I had that loaded up. I had a Ninja Turtle Velcro wallet.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

I had a camo one. It may have been G.I. Joe. But dude, I I saved so much money when I was a kid. I bought a Trek 930 bike when I was like in sixth grade. I put a bike on Laleway. It was so expensive. My parents wouldn't buy it for me. It was like, I don't even know how much it was. 600 bucks or something back then?

SPEAKER_00 22:46

Yeah, I think I brought my bike that I brought myself. I put it on Lailway at the uh Annapolis bike shop when it was right there off of Old Sams Island Road, I think it was. Yeah, on the right. Yep. So I put it on. I used to always go up there every day. That was my hangout spot in the summer, was the bike shop. Really? Oh yeah. Me and my friends, we hung out at the bike shop. Did I? The guy there named was uh he didn't own it, but I think at one he came to own it over years, but his name was Parker. And he used to always teach me like bike tricks in the parking lot. Man, I used to hang up there all day in the summer. So yeah, that's why you first had on. I was right, I was doing I was doing BMX biking back then. So you know, I wanted to spikes.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

You have the pegs?

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Yeah, I wanted to go to the X Games. I had the gyro, front and back pegs, all that. X Games was lit back then.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

That's what it was. That was next level. Yeah, but um, yeah, I saved up money, shoveled snow, raked leaves. I was a babysitter if people needed. I didn't give a shit anything for cash.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

Yeah, I was shoveling snow, all that, selling cookies. Yeah, I did everything. But to get back to the American dream, your American dream changed. Yeah, it changed. But I think just for everybody in general, is to have the freedom to do what they want when they want with an amount of money to be sustainable and not have to do a nine to five. I think that nine to five people just that what yeah, that nine to five. Well, the craziest part Can you get to the American dream in a nine doing a nine to five?

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Well, to get to where you want to be. I mean, think about how hard we worked. Like, I would have prayed for a nine to five. I mean, we were fucking 3 a.m. till 10 at night. Nobody wants that heat. Yeah. But people say 9 to 5, which means corporate job with very structured hours. So I also think getting the American dream, I think, is interesting because you have to be passionate about what you're doing because you're going to be doing it all the time. All the time. I have my computer with me in my car. So I'm waiting at my kids' practices. I whip that thing out. Answering some emails. Emails, I'm writing an article, I'm in a meeting, I'm whatever, close it, but then I'm engaged with the kids. How is practice? We're driving home, we do the deal, get home, you know, we're doing whatever we do. Okay, I gotta go do some more stuff. And again, it's this, it's this dance, but it is when you think about it, the flexibility and in the freedom side of it. I I like that. I don't want to be told, and I think this goes back to probably just my general behavioral traits. You're not gonna tell me to do something stupid. If I don't need to be there at nine o'clock and I have no reason to stay until five, I'm not fucking coming. I will be where I need to be to execute what I need to execute. If that takes me 30 minutes, it takes me 30 minutes. I'm not driving somewhere so you can fucking see me to feel good that I'm there to do something that doesn't require me to be here. That to me is insane. Which then again goes back to this whole like freedom and flexibility thing where it's I'll put in the effort and I'll do whatever's required. But it needs to be correct. I think it comes back. I'm like an efficiency freak.

unknown 26:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

It doesn't make sense to me to go sit in an office so someone can see me sitting there.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Goes back to to your, I guess once you get older, you start to get more conscious of your time. Yeah. Because we're not getting it back. Yeah, you're not getting that time back. I find myself thinking about that. I remember I was I was at home just the other day washing dishes, and then I just said, is this a good use of my time right now?

SPEAKER_02 27:17

You're on your 13th pot.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

You're like, I feel like someone else could be doing this for me. Is this a good use of my time right now? But then when you, you know, you get to that stage where you have people to cook for you, and then you have people to come and clean up your house. I remember I told that to my grandma one day. I said, Yeah, I have I have the cleaners coming to clean the house, and she looked at me. She was like, bitch.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Yeah. You're like, I'm not sure. She looked at me spotless.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Yeah. Because you know, you try to clean up and you clean up a little bit, you clean up one area, and then you turn back around. That one area that you cleaned up is already dirty again.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

Dude, I got four kids, and friends are coming over, and their cousins are coming over, and we work out of here. This place gets fucked fast.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

Fast. Fast. And I only got one kid. Yeah. My house stays clean for maybe two days. Oh, see. Maybe. Do you know? And that's a maybe.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Mine's two hours. And then it's just dirty. Yeah. So really what they're doing is like they give me the peace of mind that it was clean for a moment in time. And then you get that nice smell throughout. And then all of the corners and the crevices and all the little stuff are clean. You know, that takes longer for everybody to fuck up. Right. But going back to the sacrifices for the American dream. And why it's uncomfortable? Well, as a society, all we do is promote comfort. How do you feel? Do you feel good? How's the temperature? Is the temperature okay? Is your bed soft enough? Is your car comfortable enough? Do you have the right sweatshirt on? And luxury. Yeah, everything's luxury. This is the softest blanket that's ever been invented. Your bed will mold to your body. These shoes have never been more comfortable before. And like everything's about comfort. And don't get me wrong, I fucking love being comfortable. I wear comfortable shit.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

It's the time and place to be comfortable.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

There's a time and place, and you don't get stronger from being comfortable. That's not how muscles work. You go to failure, and then your muscles build from that. When they say good times make weak men, which is true. Hard times make fucking hard men. Right. And I'll tell you, we are some hard motherfuckers. I don't know many people that are willing to take the risks that we have taken and endure what we have endured.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

That's another thing I was thinking in the beginning as well. You always hear you have to take risks, and we may talk about this at some point in time, but I look at just me myself personally, and I look, I want these big things, but I'm also trying to see have I taken uh the right amount of risk to achieve these big things that uh that I I'm trying to like have I risked enough to even do that? How how how I don't know how to gauge my risk.

SPEAKER_02 30:50

I don't know if I'm risking the risk reward.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Yeah, I don't know if I'm risking enough. Am I not risking enough? Should I risk a little bit more? If I should, what does that risk look like? I do not know what the risk looked like.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Yeah, well, I think you're in an interesting spot where you're not really required to take a lot of risk, but your rewards will come from the fruits of your labor.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

So is that a is that a good thing for me? I I'm not I'm not sure if that because I want to be.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

I think it is if you look at your strengths and your weaknesses for your strengths and your weaknesses, I think it's good. Because you are a focused executor. You're not great with other people's bullshit and managing other people and their nonsense. You're very good at being a creator and a creative and managing myself, and managing yourself and being able to execute the way it needs to be executed. You just say, when's it due? And then you pull it off. And that's great. And you have the schedule and the mindset to do that, and you're in a situation where when some of these businesses sell, you're gonna be rewarded for that. I think for other people that probably aren't as creative as you and can't do as many things as as you can do, um maybe they should be doing something else. Maybe they should be starting like a little something and then finding multiple versions of you that they can, you know, have work for them and they're better at talking to people and managing calendars and schedules and and stuff like that. So I think everybody's very different.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Um, sometimes you see those things. Uh if you want to do this, just jump and the net will appear. Yeah, that's a zen saying.

SPEAKER_02 33:07

Yeah, you know what I'm saying? That was on Genevieve's refrigerator in closet.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

And leap in the net will appear. Leap in the net will appear. So I've been thinking, I you know, I sometimes I think about that like, have I left yet? Like, have have I have I done that to get to where I am now, or have I just solely relied on just working hard?

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Well, I think one, we're young, and we've been working hard for a really long time, so I think we lose track of our age sometimes. Some Silicon Valley investor said the best age for entrepreneurs to launch a business is when? What age? 45. Yes, did you see that? Yeah, you fucking asshole. And I thought that that was interesting because when we I mean, I launched Tessie Mays when I was 25, and that's what I thought I was late to the game, right? Because Mark Zuckerberg had launched his shit when he was like 18. But in reality, if we're gonna end up living until we're 140, which I'm going to.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

They got science. I sent that I sent that clip. Hey man, you ready to get we ready to get biblical numbers now. I'm going 304.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

Uh, yeah, that's what I hear is you know, fasting, but I think we have to keep leaping, and we have to keep jumping. Because an object in motion stays in motion, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:49

So you so so it's like object in motion, not to cut you off. You you won't just be jumping, and the net will appear one time throughout your life. You're gonna be jumping multiple times, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Chris Cross said it best.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Jump, jump. Daddy Macamakia.

SPEAKER_02 35:05

Jump jump. Of course. Beautiful, beautiful words to live by. One of the greatest songs of all time. Come on now. I wore my overalls backwards to Rolling Knowles Elementary in tribute to Chris Cross. I had to pee. It was a fucking fight with myself in the bathroom to try and unhook these things. You're supposed to just slide those off your shoulders. I was supposed to have one, only one, right? That was the cool thing to do. Well, my fucking mom, you can't go to school with one overall.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

I'm like, And you had them on backwards before you went to school? I had to change mine around. No, she liked me wearing backwards. I had to change mine around in the bathroom. But I had a double backwards on with both of them. And they probably was tight too. They were tight.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

They were not loose. Dude, I was in a fucking strait jacket. I almost pissed my pants. I ended up getting them off. But like, can you imagine walking in? I don't know what grade I was in, maybe second.

SPEAKER_00 36:11

Yeah, you thought you probably could get them off. Because once you hit the bathroom, that that that piss gets more intense because it's it senses the toilet. That's just like a poop.

SPEAKER_02 36:23

Yes, a hundred percent. And uh thank God I I never wore them backwards ever again.

unknown 36:30

Ever.

SPEAKER_02 36:30

But back to back to jumping and crisscross. Yes. Leap in the net will appear. We keep leaping. And I'm gonna keep leaping, and I'm gonna keep jumping, and we're gonna keep doing what we're doing, and we're gonna keep executing, we're gonna keep getting better, and we're gonna keep strategically improvising. And in doing that, not only are we setting ourselves up, in my opinion, for more and more success, but we're learning. We're getting smarter, we're developing character, we're building, we're overcoming obstacles, we're dealing with shit. And I will say the interesting part of our journey is like everything we experienced the first time around, we've experienced again. And I handled it way better the second time around, and I handled it even better the third time around. It does beat the fuck out of you, and it makes you kind of focus and hunker down on well, what's really, really important. And I think the interesting part is the more successful that I've become, the less shit I want, the less parties I want to go to, the less fancy clothes I want to wear. It like I keep getting more and more simplified and just focusing on these little things that I fucking give a shit about, which is my health, my kids, my wife, little experiences throughout the day, like a walk, my dogs developing cool shit, and that's it.

SPEAKER_00 38:25

I don't want anything else. So already what I'm taking from that is you're already living an American dream. Yeah, I am. Well, my version.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

And I was not the version that I had when I was 23. Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:39

Yeah, we all had different versions, especially when we were young in the 20s. We had different versions of what we thought.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

And I didn't get it because I wasn't ready to accept it.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

You're too young.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

My intentions were not true. Ah, talking about that attentions. I wanted it for the wrong reasons. Likewise. I wanted it for ego, I wanted it for look at me. Look at me, look at the social recognition, look at how smart I am, look at the magazines I'm in. That doesn't matter. That doesn't do anything.

SPEAKER_00 39:16

Nobody doesn't really, really care about that. Except for you.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

Except for you.

unknown 39:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:22

Literally, except for you. And that's again the interesting part is the closer and closer you get to your ultimate goal, the further and further away for me specifically, I've gotten away from all of the things that I thought success were when I first started. Which is crazy to think about.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

Right. So I guess, yeah, I guess in a sense you're already living the American dream, and I and I would say, me, I like what I'm doing right now. Um I'm content with doing this, but you know, you always want to do something else, which will then probably catapult you to rising up the next notch. You have to win an award. Yes. Yes, I do have to win an award. I'm still still going on winning an award. And uh I think I I will win one. We're gonna do it, but I'm taking it short. Yes. I think that's the best way to go. I've calculated that in my mind. Instead of making a whole full feature film, we're just gonna make an awesome 20 to 30 minute film. We can even go shorter than that.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

Yeah, you can do a 15-minute Kobe's fucking Oscar. His was just a letter to himself as a cartoon. And it was dope. What was it, three minutes?

SPEAKER_00 40:51

I I guess, yeah, it wasn't that long. But that was dope though.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

He has that on, or he had it on his mantle. He's dead, but and it was dope.

SPEAKER_00 40:59

It was that count for you? Yes. I feel as though I like to be very hands-on with it.

SPEAKER_02 41:11

I'm good at working in a team, but I believe if my part is a sufficient-for it to check the box, you basically gotta be north of 85%.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Yeah. I gotta be in there. You gotta be. Yeah, I gotta be in there. I wanna be, I don't care if I'm I'm doing it, I'm yeah, I gotta be in there, baby. You know what I'm saying? And that's not ego. That's just say I want to put the work in.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

I hear you. So, so let me ask you this. If you were a coach, like the defensive coordinator on a Super Bowl winning team, does that count as a Super Bowl win for you? Like for your career? Like, are you like, I'm a Super Bowl champ, but you're the defensive coordinator?

SPEAKER_00 42:09

That's like the head guy of the defense, right? Yeah. But it's not 85%. That's not 85%. Um, but I guess it's different percentages for different realms of activity. What about special teams? Special teams.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

Special teams coordinator. Even less.

SPEAKER_00 42:32

Yeah. I don't know. I don't really dabble in the sports field anymore since I played my last football game at Annapolis Senior High. But yeah, I just uh I don't know, man. Maybe that's uh maybe that's just something about me. I mean, I'm an awesome team player, but I just really like to like to be in there if I want to get the ring.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

I give you an idea. And this is why you haven't done any of the ideas I've given you for for short films. I mean we just you just gave me an idea. Then you that's the reason you haven't done any of them.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

No, because I think it's a good idea. I will, because I will be the one because I've given you like five fucking hitters.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

None are done. Is it because you didn't come up with it and you're scared that it's gonna win an Oscar and then it wasn't your idea, which means that you didn't actually win it. Tell me.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

No, it's actually because you give me other work on top of that that I get paid for. I think I gotta get that done. No, but no, you it would it would count because you gave the idea. I still have to write the script. I got to put the team together and come and film it. Obviously, the idea that you Gave me, you're gonna be in it, so I'm gonna film it, and then I'm gonna be the editor, and then I'm gonna do the sound design, but then I'll pitch it out to my other guy to mix the sound, and I do the color grade, you know.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

So all that counts.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

Yeah, so I feel as though, you know, I like you said, I don't care where the idea comes from as long as it went. I'm not a strong writer, so last year I did the most short, I filmed the most shorts, just to say little scenes or anything, yeah, or anything narrative in my life. Yeah. In my lifetime. And I was so happy. None that I told you, though. You didn't give me one. You write a two-page script, two to three pages, and give it to me, and I'll get it done. I I bank you on it. Okay. You give me a two to three page script, I can find the actors. I'm gonna write some Oscar-winning shorts. All right. And you give them to me and I'll film them. I don't think I'm a good writer, but I don't stick with consistent writing. I've been writing this one script for this feature cartoon for the last nine years that I've been working on. I'm not a I'm not a strong writer, but if someone gives me a script, because that's what my friends, we got the little chat group, and they we put scripts in and they send them. I was like, oh yeah, I like that. Let's film that. But you know, so that also comes from I think I try to do too much myself. And that's why some stuff don't get done. Because I try to do everything myself.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Well, and you want everything to be the most original thing that's ever been original. Sometimes. You like want to invent a color, invent a fucking font that's never been used.

SPEAKER_00 45:53

I mean, but you're slowly getting me acclimated to just tweaking things. It's just a tweak. Yeah. So I've been doing that as well.

SPEAKER_02 46:00

It's this, but it but a tweak.

SPEAKER_00 46:02

Yeah. But nevertheless, this podcast was about the American dream. And what you're willing to sacrifice for it or not. So let's sum it up.

SPEAKER_02 46:12

Well, I think I think the biggest key to accomplishing the American dream is figuring out how to sustainably do everything that you care about in a day. Create your perfect day. Wake up early, write, read, meditate, work out, be with your family, watch a sunrise, dedicate the rest of the day to something that brings you joy with purpose that you can make money off of, have dinner with your family, coach kids' sports, watch a sunset, smile, laugh, cry tears of joy, go to bed early, create that sustainable perfect day. And if you can figure that out, and then you can do it 365 days a year without a time limit on that, and you can just do that over and over and over and over again, and it becomes a part of your habit and your routine and how your mind processes the world, you're gonna be in the American dream.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

And I think just to take the word American off the front of it, I think that applies to anybody living anywhere in the world. Right, like that's the dream. Yeah, the dream, the dream. There you go, and that, my friends, is the pamphlet or the workbook on how to live the dream. As our boy Will Farrell said, Living the dream.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

All right, close us out, big boy. This is Greg Vetter and Moe Taylor. This is the Greg Vetter Podcast. Thanks for coming. We will see you again.