Blue Pill or Red Pill: Customize your life and the American dream

Episode Transcript

What up? This is your host, Tim Travis Herman. And, uh, welcome to another meta episode. Where are we about to take the inner thoughts of Herman Watson, Herman Brady Watson and break them down? Herman Watson. Ladies, open them up, turn them around, flip it and make it make sense, and then challenge your psychic You’ve been thinking a lot lately, Player?

Uh, yeah. Just to have a lot of toilet time. The best ideas happen in the bathroom, man. Yeah, I think a lot. Or is that a conspiracy theory? Oh, boy, I don’t know, man. We’re about to find out. All right, So your episode title is the idea of America is based in customization. Now, this is a new term that Herman has developed, and we’re going to break it down, and it really we’ll see, we’ll see if we can break it down. So yeah. So I was just thinking the other idea about, I don’t know, just like politics and what everybody’s like upset about and what just politicians go back on forth on.

And I was thinking about like, uh, shopping and how hard it is to make a decision because there’s so many choices. Right? And so options. Right, Right, Right. So it’s like we want all the options to to create certain I like to create a certain identity to customize your life exactly right. So I’m like, at a personal level, it’s like we’re always focused on how we can be independent, individual, like we customize our lives. And I was just thinking about America broadly. And I’m like, Dude, there’s this constant just argument on the customization of America, and I’ve never seen anybody really presented like that.

So I thought it might be relevant to discuss, because if you look at America throughout time, it has been customizable every every age, every year. Like and as we’ve gone on in time, the options have widened. Right? You think about asking, Wifey, honey, what do you wanna eat? Name? Obviously she’s gonna say, I don’t care. I don’t know. I don’t know. But whatever you want in your head, right, Fourth Street now hates 54th Street, but then in your head, it’s like, All right, well, what’s the decision tree that I need to go down in order to pick the right thing that I want that she will live with, Is it?

You know, do you start with genre, right? Alright. Is it Chinese Mexican sushi? All right, let’s do Mexican. All right. Is it chew ease or, you know, Taco Bell. All right. Well, if it’s Taco Bell, then it means I’m gonna be in the bathroom. No, not get early. If It’s chewy cheese, then. Well, we have to consider all these factors. So maybe we just, um you know what are out. Or maybe we go to Chinese because that’s easier. And we have all these options. I mean, you think about food.

You think about shopping, right? Like shoes. How many brands? How many colours? And then, you know what size of my is it wide? Is it? You know, narrow. Like, what am I doing with these shoes? I got 10 different shoes now. I got golf shoes, which I just told you about. I got running shoes, I got workout shoes. I got basketball shoes that have dust on them. I got my work shoes. Which in covid. Now, my work shoes are my running shoes Slip. From the food standpoint, my life changed the day that, uh, Burger King told me I could have it.

That was a turning point. And that was subliminal customization of America that has been pumped into your head and gave you the idea that you know what I can take This passed through food and I can customize any part of my life who knew I had such freedom. Okay, First of all, this is completely unrelated. But did you know you can get Big Mac sauce on a quarter pounder? Anybody that’s listening game changers. So anybody who’s wrong with me for years knows how I used to make Big Macs back in the day.

So back in the day when I was broke as a college student, right, I would go to, uh, actually, it was even after college. But, uh, last month I would go to, uh, McDonald’s, and I’d be like, Can I get a double cheeseburger? Hold the ketchup, hold the mustard, add pickles, add lettuce and big Big Mac sauce, and then bam for a dollar that for a dollar 29. I have a Big Mac and the only thing I don’t have is that middle bun. But that’s just carbon. No sesame seeds, no middle bun.

But that’s how you make a Big Mac. But I had a loaf of bread at the crib. That’s a whole That’s a whole nother episode, man. Let me show you how to do this. So you have to save money so bad. Uh, that’s ridiculous. Number one. Number two, you took a stand up paddle But that’s customization. And that’s the thing. So does our ability to customize everything we want in our identity and our everyday lives lead us to be entitled towards the America that they were living in.

Or that, you know, like I just feel like people fight really, really hard. For this, America is, like, never not constantly changed. And America, that’s never not changed the double negative and then passing the future. Okay, I get it. Negative subject with double negatives. Uh, yeah. No, I feel you. I get it. I got it. It’s it’s so clear to me. I think we’re done with this episode. I mean, alright. So from, you know, talk about we talked about the personal choices that we have to make on a daily basis.

And I know we could talk about that all day, right? You know, buying cars like the purchasing decision, Um, and you think about customization or like what that actually means. And, uh, when you look in marketing or brand building or product development, uh, we’ve talked about segmenting and, you know, um, the your interests. Right? So a company will look and say All right, this is the product we want to make. This is the audience that has the problem that we’re solving. How do we customize it to fix their problem?

And how do we may be upgraded or customize it more to charge them more so within corporate America within the, um, the economy that the capitalistic society that we’re in customization customization is wildly crazy, right? Like that’s That’s one of the reasons why everything is so customized when you have so many choices to make on a daily basis. Capitalism. Um, how else does this, uh, enter into our lives? So Herman Watson thoughts. Uh, so you just see the fury in which people fight over things that are so small, so, like Texas, right?

And just our conversation is around the middle, right? And we’ve talked before about, like, raising Texas lowering Texas. What does that mean? You have somebody that works for a big conglomerate? Um, you know, right to work. Like do we do right to work? Do we give people the option to to fight for higher pay, or do we fight against that? I know that somebody sitting across the table from me that was told a story that it would destroy America probably for over a decade, is like no man.

Right to work is a big dude, anyway. That’s the that’s the America the T Bone wants is to fire people at any time for any reason. But a business owner, he doesn’t get it. I do get it. Don’t I do truly, Don’t man. It’s because he’s been on the other side of that table and it’s like, Why the hell did I just get fired? I’m the smartest motherfucker in the room, not the allegedly it’s not. It’s just just be back to conspiracy theory. No, no, no, no, no.

You don’t have to get his ass fired. It’s just But that would be a customization. That right to work came out of the ability to control unions from being able to organize or stopping unions from organizing. Right? So, like that was a customization that was made legal at the state level. So, uh, unions were a customization to begin with. So my thing is like, there’s this crossover between, like, what we want that could be successful versus what we get and, like, how? Like why you gotta take everything.

Political man now. Now the question is like, Who is who or what is driving or building the America that you want that the American people need? And it’s basically red versus blue and moving in the future. Maybe there’s a couple other parties, Uh, but it’s, you know, it’s who who who is going to build the America that I want, that I need And then you know, what are those customization they’re going to make for the life that I want to live? And you know, it comes out like health and healthcare and human rights and civil rights and taxes and all the politics and capitalism and philanthropy and global expansion and, you know, socialism and separatists and all this is it’s political, man.

It’s individualistic, right? Like that’s what most people are focused on, building the best America for me and mine. The question I’m asking you, Herman, is Why is that a negative thought? Or why would that be a problem? We have a very relevant instance that’s going on with Wall Street and Robin Hood and, um, the hedge funds and shorting stocks with AMC and Gamestop, and it is absolutely ridiculous, right? The fact that billionaires have been getting rich and richer and richer. I think they added, like $1. 2 trillion to their net worth during the pandemic.

And they’ve been shorting stocks, betting on companies to lose and making billions off of it. And the people of the commoners came together to put a stop to it and put these billion dollar hedge funds out of business, billions of dollars in debt. And you know what the billionaires did? They stopped it. They stopped your access to be able to be independent and customized the market to fit you, to suit you because they were getting hurt. Everybody’s trying to customize for their own one or gain or goals, you know, or vision for the future that they want to have for themselves and their kids and their kids.

I mean, it’s it’s and whether it’s selfish or whether it’s wholesome, whatever the motivation is, it goes back and forth. And there’s always two sides, right? Yes, but at the end of the day, it’s rooted and what really isn’t fair point blank period. So it’s funny because all the people that got wealthy by being able to sort of stock and make you know, 5, 10, 100 times your money on, you know, money that you’re not actually holding. Um, now they’re like, Oh, shit. You know, we should probably regulate were for regulations.

When it comes to us and what affects us negatively, that is, that’s everything. When it hits home, it hits home. So when it hits home, then there’s actions or reactions. And that is what’s happened to those who are wealthy. But people miss the true beauty or the irony. And all of this, an app called Robin Hood stole from the rich and give to the poor Dude like the rich had to shut it down. Yeah, I’m not gonna let you. You always cool when you just make a little 10 minutes. 3500.

His account playing around Ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun, bro. It’s so hypocritical. It’s so fitting for the country that we live in. It’s, you know, it is systematic oppression at its greatest. We’ve talked about it. Oh, now we understand what’s been happening in this whole time. Like it now, it has seen the light of day, and I am very curious to what’s going to happen next? Is this a turning point? A tipping point? Or will the rich win and stay in, you know, stay in power?

Or can we? You know, they will. They will they will listen to when you’re, in the words of, uh, um someone on how to be a player When you busted, you adapt, right, like so and that’s what they’ll do. Um, I wouldn’t sit there and continue to take losses. I mean, they’ll change the game and they’ll come back. That’s how they got. What? They still have other billions of dollars to help them do that. Yeah. So I’m like, you know, let me hold something. But that’s the thing.

So I’m like, you know, when it comes to how much money hedge funds have like, yeah, you’re hedging a bet and you lost a ton of money. It’s interesting because it’s the way they lost the money, right? Like what happened was the Bernie Sanders approach of we raised however much money off of less than $10 donations from 50 million people. So one interesting thing is like people have a lot of power. We just haven’t had a way of flexing it. But when you think about Robin Hood itself, you can buy whatever stock you want for you or for whatever outcome you want.

If it’s making money, whatever it is, like the whole idea of these tools that are built for we’ll just say everyone are kind of based with some level of fairness in mind. Uh, and it’s just weird that as like, I feel like every well, I feel like most people at the personal level would want that because then you have ownership. You have this control, you can customize your portfolio and this is just in finance. But then it’s like there’s always this push and pull with the powers that be.

And I’m like, Well, is it worth the fight? Is it worth the fight like this? America? Experiments always going to change the dynamics of finance will always change. Like how do the people actually win? How What’s the alternative? Communism. No. Well, I’m not getting into political systems. I like capitalism like, you know, But it also I just don’t the risks that come with so much choice, right? Like, how much time do we spend trying to decide on just I don’t know so many things where the end goal is like, you’re gonna be stifled anyway, which goes into, like, you’re trying to be an individual.

But, you know, everybody on Reddit did the same thing. So will you be stifled, though I don’t think that’s an absolute that you’ll be stifled. I mean, I think that as you customize your experience No, you’re not know, Pinky, you’re not gonna be able to take over the world. But I think at the same time, you’ll be able to maximize your experience. And that’s what customization is all about is you know, how can I maximize my experience and whatever I’m trying to customers? So this is the thing with customization of America.

We do want to maximize that, right? So you break down barriers, we take the next step forward. But then new barriers are lifted every step of the way, which is where we find people fighting all of the time. Which would be like, hey, civil rights act, boom. Look at black people able to do this. And then they were like But the barrier is that little black girl can’t walk into school. She better bring the National Guard, but barriers just require more energy, and then eventually you’ll break down barriers.

And that’s kind of the beauty of life is as we continue to evolve and we have these different hurdles that we have to jump, You know, you have to get creative and innovative and trying to figure out ways to to break down these walls or to move the needle or to, um, carry the torch or any other cliches that I can throw at you right now. So I think that it’s, uh but it just requires more energy. And that’s where people, that’s where we get our innovation, which makes us special, right, 100% which is why I like capitalism.

But, you know, it also has its flaws. Absolutely. And I think just to piggyback on what what teeth just said like, it takes a lot of energy to break down these barriers for these systems that have been oppressing different people for hundreds of years, and eventually you get tired and you get worn out and you stop, and that’s what the system is betting on. The system is betting on us running out of energy it thinks it can withstand any brute force that comes towards it. And and now, instead of you pushing to customize your life, you’re just accepting whatever customization have been made for you.

Um, you know, you think of marketing from a push and pull method, uh, you know, to go back to a random story that really has nothing to do what we’re talking about. But I’m gonna say it anyway, uh, you know, backing my pharmaceutical sales days, I sold Viagra number one erectile dysfunction, drugs up, hard market. Uh, well, you know, black Kid 22 with an NBA walking into a physician’s office in Hoboken, new jersey, saying, Hey, doctor, do you have patients to come in and say they direct their Their erection is not rigid enough.

Like this was my script. Was the pitch? Yeah. What? Viagra can increase around here. Flaccid, flaccid rigidity like these were words in my pitch, bro. This is why I left the Because I don’t I don’t think I can walk in and be like, you know, Doc. God, you know, my direction is just isn’t rigid enough. Uh, something to help me with my rigidity. You want to customize. But here’s the thing. Here’s the thing. Right. So when Viagra hit and took the market by storm, which it was originally, it was actually not made for erectile dysfunction that just popped up overnight.

Uh, yeah. I mean, I think it was like a high blood pressure medicine. And then in the clinical trials, uh, the guys weren’t given the medicine back. They found out why. Because the wife he was happy. It was real solid. So All right, so here’s your thing. Right when when Viagra hit the market, it was the only erectile dysfunction pill, and then the competitors came right. But before that, people were asking for Viagra, right? They saw the commercials. Um, then the competitors came out, and, you know, I don’t know if you remember this, but Cialis had the two old white, the old white couple in the tubs sitting, looking out in the sunrise. Whatever.

And there was, you know, simulating that they just had sex and separate, you know, balding, claw tub sitting out. And, you know, whatever Sanoma California or whatever. But people saw these commercials and they started asking for the competitive drugs, right? So that is the push pull Method Farmers Sales Guy going in there day in and day out. And I was competing with blonde bombshells from the Bachelor New York episode or whatever. Like talking to the doctors. And they were outselling me because, you know, they were taking the doctors to lunch and, you know, all these old Jewish guys were loving it.

So they were They were prescribing their stuff and then they had commercials. Old white men were coming in and asking for it. So push and pull on both sides, right? And that’s kind of where where we go to this customization piece is like we’re trying to customize our life, right? But also America and the powers that be they’re trying to customize it for us. And so we we find ourselves in the middle not knowing how we got here, because there are so many options and so many factors that play a part in this customization of our life to make it better for us and our loved ones.

Yeah, and I think that it’s so there. T bone. Did you have something to say so much? I’ll let you go ahead, brother, when I’ll go ahead. I will. Just very interesting that we started talking about brute force and went to via Graham and then pushing and pulling the sexiest episode. So immature. Go ahead. Uh, before we go, I grew up playing Super Mario, so I wouldn’t want a mushroom if you Oh, go ahead, man. Man. Oh, man. Anyway, back to the script, back to the script.

So, you know, I just, you know, pushing and pulling anyway. But who is customizing? Right? And that is the thing. So, like, I think it’s just interesting that people fight so hard in their day to day lives for things that are just so far out of our control. Like, I don’t understand why everybody is just I don’t know, man. I just don’t I don’t know. I just Fuck, I don’t. Lots of whole train of thought is this episode. I don’t know what this episode is about anymore.

Pushing and pulling. That is where we ended. No, it’s about customization. And to the point of us is, you know, we think we can have it our way. What we get into a difficult spot is that you have so many people fighting for their agenda. So you may have overarching agendas, but everybody’s got their own personal spin on it and you’re not gonna get change. Um, ultimately or the ability to customize America the way you want until you are influential enough to get people on your bandwagon. Absolutely.

But it’s weird because like, it doesn’t matter which way you customize. It’s going to hurt somebody. You can’t do customization so independently that it doesn’t have a negative impact or an overarching impact on some group that feels disenfranchised. Or some people that feel like, well, you know, it’s not turning out the way that I want. So I’m about to, you know, do what I gotta do to to make it, not knowing that if they win, then that affect somebody else. So I’m like, you know, So do you think this is a bad thing?

Uh, because he said this earlier, I think right, this the What’s the word I’m looking for? This conflict spurs innovation, right? How do I innovate? Two. Push my side further, stronger, smarter so that you know, we take the lead versus the other side, and then it creates factions right that compete against each other. Whether we’re talking about capitalism, you know companies or countries or political parties, there’s always opposing sides, and that’s free. Will the free economy, right? You know, with an open market creates competitiveness, which creates, you know, lowers prices and, you know, promotes ingenuity.

So it’s it’s what America was built on. So it’s positive, right, because it made us the most wealthiest country in the world. But it’s negative because it was built on the backs of black and brown people. Whether we’re talking about working in the tobacco fields, the cotton fields, building, the railroads, whatever it is, damn, do we just turn again into a systematic oppression? I think bigger than the race, though, is just It’s just the natural human nature. Everybody elbow and fighting for their piece of the pie or elbow and fighting for an agenda.

So I mean, it looks like, you know, chaos. It’s almost like you’re running downhill. And, you know, I think there’s some event in Europe where they, you know, they throw something down. Everybody just takes off after it, and you’re just kind of elbow and and that’s what you get is a ton of infighting now, what’s evolved is that these this infighting has now become either political or racial. And that’s the tone of that’s the tone of 2020. And the problem is 2020. We are far, so we’ve spiraled so far that I can’t fathom in America where we can all be on the same page.

So when you talk about trying to have, you’re gonna have somebody who’s not happy and somebody who is happy, that’s just what it’s going to be. We’re in this constant game of tug of war, and nobody is pulling to the point of defeat. You’re just pulling back and forth for years middle and every 4 to 8 years you’re pulling back and forth, and it’s really about. Do you have someone who is strong enough to beat the incumbent when you’re talking about politics, when you’re talking about just general principle, take it through business interests.

Take it to whatever. It’s just literally this big tug of war where we’re going back and forth and there’s no real traction being made in the grand scheme of things. There are there is a ton of advancements being made and you know how we’re making the sausage nowadays, but there’s not a ton of overall change. That’s where I was kind of kind of go. Is that, you know, with the ebb and flow of the outcomes of the stuff that is built and as much choice as you think you get the I think the thing that everybody wants is like to grow stronger and smarter and things to be better.

And but what actually happens is like no growth, no change. It’s almost no sense. And if that is like if that is going to be our pathway for the next, however long until more people can come together and just, like, understand, like all right, we’re gonna customize it in this way for this long, it’s probably gonna have this impact and then we’ll change. So you’re talking about the big picture of customization like everybody trying to fight for their vision of what’s right, wrong or indifferent or like, maybe it’s not upsetting if you know that it’s going to be temporary, so like, you know, raising Texas.

Alright, well, taxes are going to be higher for four years, but if you’re on the wrong side, but it is upsetting if you know that taxes will be lower and you’ll be good. And but, you know, in four years that she’s probably gonna change. It’s difficult for you to be altruistic. That’s what it comes down Absolutely. And all right, so let let me look back out a little bit, right? So all these options, right? And we go to back to food. I got all these choices, and we’ll just say that the powers that be have given me these choices.

So I feel like I’m in power. But you you could choose, uh, you can choose what protein you want to eat. You can choose what genre food you want to eat. You could even choose whether or not to eat meat. You can choose where you go plant based, but you cannot choose whether or not you’re going to eat right. At some point, your options are limited and you really don’t have a choice. And that’s science. Putting that limitation on your choice. What your choices. But if you think about the politics or the systems that be like, yeah, you can you can have all these options.

But if you break it down, you really don’t have an option. And Herman hits this all the time When he talks about the the advancement of blacks and civil rights and how you know you you have the option to go to all these schools. But really, you don’t You cannot choose not to go to school and still get an education. Yeah, no, that that is exactly right. And so you know that it just makes me think of where do we put our energy to fight? What is worth fighting for And what are we going to get, right?

Like so we think that if we fight for love, love is the answer. If we fight for love Uh uh, that was a battle that happened. Hashtag love wins seriously, like it’s kind of depressing when you think about it. You can control only to an extent, but in order to change. And the predators, you know, kind of showed us a glimpse of changing the system. Right? If you tax the system and you break it, it may be there will be changed. But in the back of your head, you just think you know the billionaire is going to come back and they’ll have some secret law or loophole or something that will continue to make them rich and will continue to be oppressed.

And this is a socio economical, you know, perspective. But that drives a lot of the world that we live in, right, so, you know, let me take a step back. So when I was when I was thinking about this episode on just, you know, taking our day to day customization as a as a factor in like, I don’t know, like, do we have too much choice? What does it mean to have too much choice? But really, it’s like maybe on the front side. If you understand that America is always going to change, it’s never not changed.

Then maybe you can take a step back and just, like, be happier or, like, you know, I don’t know, like, I like the American experiment. So you’d want less change if the no, no, no, no, no. I think that people need to sit with the expectation and understanding that whatever it is today, No, it’s going to be different tomorrow. It might be in your favor. It might not be in your favor, but my guess is at some point it will be Is it really different tomorrow? I don’t think it really is.

I think he’s using tomorrow. Tomorrow is the metaphor. You know, Sam Cooke. Change don’t come. But I don’t think that I don’t. I would question whether or not anything is really different tomorrow. I I think that if people had an expectation that, like, you know, so people are like, you raise my taxes, I’m ready to go to war. But it’s like, Well, if you’re if I plan on living for 100 years and I know that my taxes are going to go up 4% for the next four years. But hypothetically, somebody could get in there and lower them 10% for the next eight.

Like it’s going to be an ebb and flow bro. Like, you don’t have to be that upset. People lower my taxes. Yeah, just Lord, my Texas Most people don’t know how taxation works when they’re like I’m in Texas. 50%. It’s complex by complex. Yeah. So this reminds me of my conversation with my financial planner. Um, Okay, So I’ve been putting in money into, uh, for one day and was you know, we market dive, So I went heavy into it and, you know, got as many shares as I could.

And, you know, I’m trying to do this investing thing, Pay myself first, blah, blah, blah, and And what? And you know, a 41 K is it goes in tax free, right? But you can’t text when you pull it out. And I’m like, All right, cool. So I can take this money and know how to pay tax on it. Great. So it lowers your taxable income now, but when you pull it out, the chances are that tax, the interest rate or the tax rate is going to be much higher than it is today.

And so I had to. So I switched to a Roth four Oh, one k where I pay taxes now and I can pull it out tax free later with the hopes that the taxes are lower now than they will be. And I never really thought about that as an adult like that concept, and it makes so much sense. That’s the funny thing. So that’s the thing where people fight so hard against higher taxes, lower taxes, but at the end of the day in the customization of our American tools and systems.

Number one, the government’s going to get their money. But number two, there are capitalism. Creates these vessels to kind of at least give you some control over what that looks like. I have a choice exactly. So I have a choice to pay taxes now or pay taxes later. But I don’t have a choice whether or not to pay tax. Exactly. So that’s why I’m like, But people will argue till they’re blue in the face about the text. Just let it ride, right, you know. So I’m like, Hey, that’s going to be a thing that ebbs and flows just like gas.

So my thing is like in this awesome experiment of customization like you should be happier with your ability to have some control. Some stuff is absolute, right? Like pre civil rights was a different time, right? There was no, you know, freedoms. And yeah, you know well, And as you say that I start to think about the aggregate, right, So if you think about just America as a whole, you think about Russia as a whole in China as a whole. All these customization is aggregate up to create the brand, the customized country, the lifestyle, the experience or experiment as you keep calling it.

And then if you compare, you know, country to country, those customization or lack thereof, you know, create totally different experience is right. You know, um and you kind of talked about, you know, socialism versus communism versus capitalism. I mean, that’s kind of the aggregate right, And that that dictates the world that you live in, Whether you have choices or not, they’re going to pose some things as you have choices. But at the end of the day, the man still win. He does. It’s all about the man.

It’s always gonna be about the man until you come to man. Until you I mean you can. Then it’s really going to be about the man. Because you’re selfish. Customize everything to your needs. That’s the American way. Um, So you mentioned something earlier about you asked Herman. So you don’t want more choice? More options? You mentioned something earlier. Travis, you ask Herman earlier, you said it in a weird way, and I can’t repeat it. So I guess the question is, do be one more options in life, and I’ve always thought about a simpler life, you know, not the caveman life with more not actually the farmer’s life, but just a simpler life or have less choices to make on a day to day basis.

I think about my job. We have 40 clients. 60 projects could be going on at any given time. Lots of personalities, lots of emotions, lots of deadlines. And sometimes I just want to wake up. Go do one thing, do it well, clock out and go home. Now I have all these choices in these decisions to make. Or maybe I just want to leave my cell phone at home and not have to answer and respond to every ping thing and email that comes through. Um, maybe I just want to go off the grid and sit in a tropical location, and I have to worry about anything paying bills or whatever it’s like.

Yes, I do loan. You know long for that, that life that I mean, it’s a customization, but it’s a simpler approach, but in reality I can’t hit my goals or my dreams without living through this system. that has created for me took the words out of my mouth. You will never hit your objectives by with simplicity and what you offer. Yes, I will. Not unless I was in, like, this deeper state of Zen. No real talk like, you know, follow like Eastern philosophy. You know, less is more And you, you know, focus on your inner self.

Until you become with you, you become one with piece of not having to live with material things or, you know, and I don’t even think that it’s that matter which is, you know, the first time I’ll be able to say that. But I think that, you know, I think it goes back to under just understanding that, like the the choices aren’t gonna go anywhere, right? Like you still have the choices. But if you could take a step back to understand the outcomes and the elements and to be happy with the choices that you have to make, I think that that would I think that would make for a better America in a I guess that’s a healthier mental state.

Yeah, that’s kind of what I’m looking for because I’m like, dude, people are upset about shit that you have control over. You just don’t know. You have control over it like you just don’t have the information that you need to know that like, Well, if Texas go up, how do I curb? How can I hedge against that going back to Texas? Sorry, I’m just using example, because that’s what we talked about. But it’s whatever you know, it’s I guess it’s I mean, I’m going down this whole Eastern philosophy, you know, wellness, uh, mindfulness, uh, track.

It’s like you have to be okay with whatever the result is good or bad. Then you can find peace. And you don’t get stressed out about all of these choices and options and things that happen, whether they’re in your control or not, right, or at least understanding on the front side, all the things that could happen being prepared for it. So none of it’s shocking. Like I feel like a lot of things that happen shouldn’t be a shock if you understand, like, you know you’re going to the grocery store and they’re gonna be some decisions to make because there’s a gazillion different types of juice or, you know, when your house shopping like you’re going to look at 30 different houses, and so you you’re prepared to make your decisions based off of the best information.

Sununu The based off the best principle you could possibly have, right? So in both of those, um, situations, right? Like if I’m going to the store and I’m looking for something that there’s abundance of, right, The principle is either I’m going to be based on brand loyalty, or I’m gonna be based on finance, you know? And I give you one guess on which one I’m gonna choose. Actually, that is funny. That ties into the American aspect of of customization. So when you said based on the principle my, my and the grocery, uh, scenario my mind went to Am I shopping for comfort or my shopping for health and then that will, you know, direct me to the decisions that I make.

But it’s funny because I think at the end of that, whatever that shopping trip is, you end up with some things that are healthy, some things that are unhealthy. So you’re still at an at zero, right? So it’s almost like so it sounds it sounds, it sounds like customization. Being a problem is based on lack of decisiveness, I would say, and the fact that as humans, we are never satisfied. Yeah, we’re never satisfied because there’s too many options. But back in the day, they weren’t doing well, even if one, even if two options were.

You ever look at people like pictures of like this man, that’s what I’m talking about, Doug. So if one were listening to us, they would think that goal should be for simplicity and customization with the ability to have infinite possibilities, um, presents challenges that can cause mental headaches. No. And I would say that the infinite possibilities is something that I would covet and ability for me to be able to tailor fit whatever I’m feeling principally or based on my wants or needs to be able to go get. Yes.

So from a business standpoint, I remember back in 2000 and nine, Wal Mart had a new CEO. That new CEO decided to make some changes as far as the possibilities that they would offer. They try to dictate to someone what you’re going to have to deal with, right? We’re going to get rid of these brands, you’re not going to have these brands available to you. Customers decided to go elsewhere because they were wanting infinite possibilities. So other grocery store chains started to, you know, rise and throw and thrive.

And then, in a lot of cases, groceries are the gateway to other purchases. So Walmart quickly realized that my inability my drive for simplicity because we thought we could dictate to everybody how we’re gonna do things um, created these different, um, problems from a revenue stream. It causes less traffic foot traffic in the stores, which which decreased. Well, we still increase in sales, but not at the same growth pattern. It was a negative reaction. So then quickly, they learn after getting pressure. And I know like from how it impacted me was my bonus was not what it once was.

Instead of getting 99% of my bonus opportunity, I think we got like, 54 58. And that’s unacceptable to look at these people like myself, who are on the front lines trying to make your product move. It’s unacceptable to look at me and tell me that because somebody at the top decided they were gonna try to dictate to everybody what they were going to have. Um, that my financial, um, financial stability was going to be in question. And so that’s one thing that comes to mind, right? Like infinite possibilities. The ability to customize is the evolution of America.

It’s the evolution from having these small little options to us having the ability to have it our way. Where it gets tricky is you’re trying to customize a system that is not built for customization. There’s too many people involved in the art of change to make that happen, and that’s going to be just forever difficult when we talk about the tug of war is there. But as far as like the construct of everything we have to do on a day to day basis, infinite possibilities. I see that as a positive, and when you talk about too many people, I think it’s too many types of people.

And, uh, I think this goes down the path that you wanted to talk about her as far as we think, you know, individualism and everyone is unique. Quote unquote air quotes. When reality, there’s millions of people like you so many. This is what fuels the mem industry. This is why you can relate and you keep sharing it and you share it to people who you think you’re gonna like it and they like it. And then it goes viral because you’re just like everybody else. That 100% it’s just like this aggregate of all this, all this.

I don’t know. People have a lot of emotions in being an individual, and it’s like, You’re not I’m not literally living your own life. Yeah, like, you know, we’re wearing different colored church, but the end of the day, we’re, you know, like we’re there’s just so many aspects of just people are so upset about, but they’re just a part of life. And I’m like, I don’t know, like I just the blue pill or the red. Which one are you taking to you? You’re looking at me like I’m crazy.

The one question I had is, I guess, with people being individualised, can we be ever be unified? Mm, No. Because because that is You know, man, the needs are so different. The needs are so different, right? Like like rural communities versus Metropolitan areas. The needs are just different. Right? Or like how you have guns in that. Like you have a community of 800 people. How guns impact. That community is a lot different than how guns impact Chicago, you know? So I’m like, how do you set a rule that allows both people to thrive?

I don’t understand how any proposed changes in gun legislation would inhibit anybody from getting a gun. Who needs to get a gun? Anybody that wants to get a gun will get a gun. Yes. What I’m saying is, you cannot. We’re about to go to a weird place. Anyway. One of the reasons I’ve already been on we’ve been right now, is there any other place to be? Oh, man. Anyway, my answer is yes. And you look at the Wall Street example. Yeah. Game stunk, right? Like people band together and toppled the system.

They broke the system. And as a people, we’ve talked about this all the time of how black people can never come together in order to make change. Um, I was having a conversation with my mom’s last weekend, and we started talking about, you know, moving out to the summit and my ex step dad who recently he reconnected with me on Instagram and I had to let her read the messages. Um, and we started talking about, you know, being the first in the summit, and, uh, she was like, I loved it.

I hate being around too many black people, cause shit always happens. It always pops off. Something goes wrong. She likes being the only black person in her accounting firm or at the real estate agency or at the bank because she stands out and she can represent, you know, the culture by herself, you know, and put it in a good light. And I’m I’m putting words in her mouth, but and I’m putting words in your mouth because I was like, Oh, yeah, you need to be on the podcast.

We need to unpack. That just cannot wait for that episode. It took me by surprise dog. Um, so you know, when we talk about black people and coming together, we have factions and we can never agree. And you look at the Democratic Party over the past 48 years or whatever, like like that is an issue that keeps perpetuating and and going through the same cycle, we we we had a black president. But what did you do for black people like these? Are conversations happen in the black community when we should all be pro black?

No matter if you disagree or whatever, like just if it pushes the race forward, then, yes, you’re on board. But that will never happen, Which is funny, because But that’s the thing. It’s like you can’t You can’t just bring up one. Like if if black people win, all people win. Mm. No, no, no. How? Maybe in theory, yes, boom. In theory, Not in actuality, but no. I’m saying, like you did. People expect Obama to come out here and write the black law. That helps only black people know, like, absolutely did that to me, that is, that is stupid.

Why would you think that that would possibly even be possible in that environment. Like understand, Black man became president. We thought that was important. First of all, anybody that was paying attention, which obviously they weren’t, would be like, What was he talking about? Hey, people, I’m just like you. And I would put these laws in because you’re talking about educated versus not educated. And I don’t mean that in a matriculation standpoint, I mean, just being, uh you know, abreast of what’s going on. People just talking out the side of their mouths.

That was a big word. Triple word score. Right? So, like, hook a brother up, right? Hook a brother up. Your brother gets in. A brother makes it hook. A brother he was trying to through healthcare. You don’t want that. So we got it. And it’s still here. A lot of people who thought yes, he would come in there and make changes that they could see for black people like paint the White House. So I mean, man, if I could just see them in a wave cap just one time, he smoked Newports where you want.

Where are we going from here? Her No clue. No clue. We should probably wrap up. I don’t know if this episode went wherever All I know is, uh, just yeah, I believe in the happier. I believe that society could be happier if people could understand. It’s just not that complex that the things that people are fighting for aren’t as heavy as they same. They’re just not, I mean today going forward, like obviously there’s plenty to fight for. Like when it comes to equality or access to health care.

Or, you know, there’s plenty of just, I don’t know, like if, like none of these things, you’re literally contradicting yourself, every other, every 10 words. So one of the things that one of your last statements was is that if black people win all people in oh, well, hold on, let me go back then. I mean, let’s impact that. Well, my thing is, I believe that there are win wins. This is a black lives matter. Uh, promo, right, black lives matter doesn’t mean only black lives matter. It means all lives matter.

And if black people win, then that means we’re all winning and everybody wins. One thing is I could, I guess, help wise. Like what I was saying about the difference in You know how guns are in the city’s versus the rural areas. So it’s like whatever policies helped black people would help the majority of people, because I look at that issue and some of the things that whole black is financially based, right? So like if there was something to ease the burden on a certain text group or middle class, you know, like people make an X amount of dollars and down, then that would help way more people than the rules that help the few at the top.

So there’s a lot more like there’s always gonna be winners and losers. But I’m like, You know what? We’re just asking someone else to lose. But are you in order for Yes, that’s exactly what you just said in order to even the playing field. But right, like it’s got. There’s only 100% right, right? And if they have 90 and you have 10, you can’t just pull from somewhere else. You got to pull from the get it. He’s asking a tall, tall task because you’re a legend. Task your legislators and those who find who backed the legislators are in that top 10%.

They’re not. Yes, the votes come from all but the power comes from the top and you’re asking them to give ground. So everybody else that’s very altruistic. That’s a very tall task to do. It’s a very nice thing to say. I don’t think So, socialism. First of all, switch. And that’s what you hold on What you’re asking. First of all, did I decide for that correctly? What? What is socialist? I didn’t say Raise taxes on the 1%. I didn’t say that. Okay, there’s a much more to socialism than just.

First of all, there is no purely socialistic. Are you doing your taxes right now? No, no, no. You guys took you Keep bringing up taxes, man. What’s going on in life? Did you get a tax bill recently? I don’t even know where we’re going at this point. All I know is that the the moral to the story, I think for me from what you said was, you know, we need to even the playing field. But that requires somebody to not to take a loss or sacrifice to sacrifice, get better way to say, then that is not necessary, Williams to even the playing field.

So if you have x amount of dollars, your dollars are going to make more than so many other people for the rest of 100 generations for your family, right? Whatever. So all I’m saying is that there could be an expansion, even if you didn’t change taxes, which I’m gonna say Texas now just to mess with you all. If you didn’t change Texas, you could still lower them for people making less than a certain amount, which does not affect the top. So I’m saying everybody can win. It does affect the top.

Does it? Because then more people could buy your products. If your business owners more people could rent from your house is it’s on land. You’re asking the government you’re asking the government to and take less money for the better for the betterment of the people. So the things that but then the government is not funded. I’m not saying that the government how much funding they can’t provide jobs. They can’t provide services. They can provide several things that they even know how many government contracts go out to private companies.

So that is our state of it was if the way you said that and rolled your eyes, you even know Travis because I sure don’t. I’m supposed to let me pull that. Uh, I’m just I’m just saying, like the tech are, man, I’m not gonna say Texas before. This is just I mean, and these are the predicaments that we have is that I start this episode talking about people like being easier, you know, like not getting so upset. It’s an understanding future. It’s not that complex, bro.

You have to understand the man you’re making. I’m simplifying everything you’re saying. That’s funny. Oh, man. Well, I think that in conclusion, we figured out that it doesn’t matter how many options that there are. You are always gonna fight for something, Herman. Just hit the wrap it up.