Books That Changed My Life: Malik Scott & Into The Wild

[Music] my father was a hero to me sometimes you could love someone so much that any mishaps they may have you don't even notice it because you're just an all of this person I think that's what how I felt about my father how old were you when he was [Music] incarcerated Our Guest today is Malik Scott former profess professional heavyweight boxer he's trained Deontay Wilder and and many more he's a student of Life he's a father he's an entrepreneur the book that changed his life and had an impact on him in a very early age is Into the Wild [Music] try that and see how you uh see went off the rip the brand of the ginger beer is usually a Telltale with L one more and we don't scale of one to 10 correct considering the presentation all of the lime on I'm very big on details of lime pan and is served in the MU cup that's everything the Vintage with your boots mixing my vision I'm going go with a 10 plus The Taste oh very much that's awesome that's a high that's High Praise yes it's very good what do you think of the library so far I'm impressed with it coming from a standpoint of the Vintage look um the artistic look it comes across yeah there's tons of books in here but it's more than a library feel it comes across as more of a historian feel more of a artsy feel um um and it has this uh spooky but fun feel as well it reminds me of the library on another one of my favorite books of the never ending story when the kid he hit up in the attic library on top of the school and this actually that's what it put me in a m up the library from the movie um that never end the story is that do you think because you wouldn't expect this to be here when you're outside well the first thing that was very impressive pink is my favorite color and y'all have two big doors that's pink that's right there so the entur right off the rip is very impressive just for the for put a big Taste of things that I like that would may be consider small fathers but I'm very impressed thus far who are some designers that you like designers or artists but that you appreciate I'm going to go with genres from all across right so we'll say um I'm very big on Shakespeare I I consider Shakespeare artist so do you understand King leer uh pieces but there's also I'm very big on um um we'll say that that the Artistry of Picasso but what I'm very big on about Picasso is you have to be so in tune with his work and notice how he will actually put things together to express his work so it's like um his paintings like if you just look at it with your naked eye someone will look at it Picasso P say especially modern day humans was say ah I don't like that but when you get the story behind it and you notice little scribbles and things like that that he was piecing together to explain the art and make you have a lot more appreciation for it and that goes down to music My Love for Marvin Gay my love for Lana Del re my love for sha day and then I could hop right over to Rolling Stones and I can hop right down to the doors and go back up to Miles Davis so like there's so there's so many things artistically that I love in this world that has to do with entertainment but in some things like this library is what I would consider like the settle things in life that has a lot of meaningful to it yeah and I would contend that it's just books without the interaction and the human connection in the learning that's what makes a library absolutely otherwise it's just yes but I would say to piggy back off with you said I would say that um the first Library I could remember myself being in was Richard all right Library it's a middle school in Philadelphia Elementary or Middle School in Philadelphia and it was very very standard and if kids was used to just ripping and running in playgrounds and W to recess that wasn't the library to really make you gravitate to it you weren't sneaking in there at Lun no you was not not all you you're rather go somewhere else than that library but even those kind of libraries me coming up as a kid if was tons of books and um I I I would go searching to see if anything could find me like you notice if a book could find me because I'm very big on like reading books that that gravitate to me like you know I mean I may be looking for one book but then I end up falling for something another type of read over here and usually that's the read that I I I gravitate to the one that I accidentally stumbled upon the question was posed to you like what is a book that affected you and you know has a deep meaning yes and into the wild is the the book that you picked yeah how old were you when you discovered this 1997 it was the year of the Junior Olympics was I 16117 I believe something like that so pretty pretty young yeah definitely a teenager definitely how the book comes into your life do you believe that that's uh some sort of higher power is it by chance I believe like like we'll just say for the sake of uh spirituality I believe that um God I believe that the Universe at times put things in your path that's for you that's to inspire you that's to strengthen you that's to um make you believe that whatever it is you're going through there's people that come from different walks of life that make possibly going through them same things and I'm someone that I thrive off of seeing people win I thrive off of watching The Underdogs get on top I thrive off of people going through trials and tribulation and still smiling through a tough day and my connection with that book during that time was Christopher MCAS this kid at at this age he was 24 23 24 but he was in a time where Temptation was at an all-time high and he came from a a good home and when I say good home I mean financially but him and his dad and his mom they had a very rocky relationship and usually it's uh when you say a kid have problems with his parents it's just one or something like that he had issues with both of his parents but he had a good relationship with his sister and his parents love him so much still even though they had the the issues in house and things that he would see that they actually gave him $25,000 to start college for his um just to get started with his college routine and he was so against things being given to him he was so against believing in that once you done High School you just have to go to college and do things the so-called quote unquote Society American way that he end up giving that whole check to a charity and he did this on his mission when he was getting rid of any money that he had so we'll say his last days his last cash was like $124 he has pictures of it when he literally is burning the money he has pictures of it when he got rid of all of his ID he this kid really um this wasn't like this this trip that he took and this journey that he went on it wasn't some cheap thrill like nowadays a cheap thrill to me would be something like people love the Bundy jump and they have this thing of a Odyssey that they like to go about they they have a thing it's like a rights of Passage that is in all cultures and you find kids and you find older some even older adults they like to do things to make themselves feel like if I could do this one thing this would make up for anything that I may have couldn't do in the rest of my life with other things and at that time in my life I've never won a national tournament I never traveled anywhere and did things on my own with no help besides the actual thing the actual craft that I was doing which is boxing so at that at that point in 16 what is your relationship with your parents my at that point of 16 my relationship with my parents was good but at the same time my father was incarcerated but we had a relationship from home to Penitentiary phone calls and my mom mom she was always when he was gone a single mother that loved us but obviously she couldn't be our mom and father but she did her best how old were you when he was incarcerated oh he was in and out the penitentiary my whole life he did a nine-year run he can't he would come home then stay home for a year then leave then go but the real peculiar thing about that is um it never left me with a bitter sense of feel inside um if anything me and him continue to get close closer even if it was through letters even if it was through visits my father was a a Street gangster and at the same time fortunately unfortunately he was like a hero to me he was someone that I could talk to he the only person I ever trusted he was my best friend and when he passed away as I got older I realized like certain things I went without I was blind to because my actual love for him like you get what I mean by that sometimes you could love someone so much and I want to say idolize but you could just love them so much that any mishaps they may have you don't even notice it because you're just an all of this person I think that's what how I felt about my father um I loved him so much that any mishaps he had that caused him to go to the penitentiary you know being a gangster I didn't think nothing of it I was just happy to see him happy to talk to him happy that I had someone to trust and that's something Christopher mcandless never had in the book Into the Wild he his relationship with his parents even though they're present yes is disconnected yes even though your father is incarcerated you had a closer relationship or a more intimate relationship with your father absolutely a strong one that's beautiful yeah very very beautiful how how do you avoid not following in his footsteps We Come From The Trenches in North Philadelphia but coming from the trenches don't mean you come from absolutely nothing like you know know what I mean my mom my grandma my aunt my uncles they did a very good job making sure I knew the difference between right and wrong and um things that I may have to learn on my own I could just say like um it never was I I God truly was with me because there's so many Avenues I could have went that I didn't go but I almost went those wrong routes coming up in North Philadelphia which is easy and would be very understandable for anyone to understand how Temptation for a young black man can get caught up in into things but I found boxing you know uh be boxing came before my love for my dad boxing is at what age 12 years old so you're 12 and you start boxing yeah are you naturally good at it absolutely not do you have like a coach that that engages you and encourages you yes I met his name was Fred Jenkins when my father was going he was my father um the the routes that I just explained to you that I almost went being thinking I was going to be a street Punk at times this is a man that would get out of his bed at 2:00 in the morning leave his own family when my mom didn't know where I was at I would be just running the streets and he would come and get me throw me in his van and take me home and say I want to see you at the gym at 3 p.m. and if this happen again I'm going to do more than grip you up and bring you home you going to have to really deal with me in a physical manner whenever whatever I would have to deal with from your family I have to deal with but you're going to do the right thing in life how do you process that when you're 12 being of the fact I came from a form of righteousness with a mother with a grandmother that was a Christian and another grandmother that was a Buddhist and another my mom was uh Islamic at the time that she had me I come from knowing the difference between right and wrong and when he told me that I got on board because he also gave me a promise he said if whatever it is we doing in a year or two you're not National Champion you don't get no big name or nothing he was like you can go do whatever you want and before a year was up I won my first tournament then after that it just became more and more and more and I just stuck to it so he kind of breaks your your pattern yes you he manufactured some success for you in a sense that gives you self-esteem and confidence besides the actual being of saying uh I'm a city kid I'm tough confidence has to come past that when you're going to compete proof right you to Pro you have to win some fights absolutely and he made sure not just that he was teaching me how to fight he made sure that he was teaching me how to teach he was making sure he taught me how to go about things in life it it it's you want to know what's funny is because uh things in my life different lessons remind me so much of this book and I say that to say like the things that I had that Christopher mckenas didn't have like I had a Fred Jenkins I believe if Christopher mckenas had a Fred Jenkins a childhood training like I have I don't think he probably would have been into going taking these Journeys and feeling extremely lonely a lot a lot like he had no one to understand him Fred Jenkins kind of was the one to do that with me coming up and he made me believe in myself so much not just when I was around him like when I would go mes and mes out of different states and he he would literally just let me go and just represent the gym and I and I did pretty well and it worked out good because boxing what I noticed has became the tool for so many other avenues I've been able to walk in life it was the it's it's the tool to so many relationships that I have in life it's the tool on why I'm able to give my kids jewels and gems on how to to carry those gems in life to know how to you know um you could say carry themselves through this tough world because it's it's tough and and you have to have a backpack of armor and prayer is one of the weapons you have to have that could be to your gu that could be to the universe but you have to have some form of spirituality getting through these times you just have to and that's something that I knew after Fred jenin mixed in with my grandmother always praying for me mixing with my grandma going always chaned for me Buddhism and mixing with I come from a Muslim town and everything Islam lake andam so I've always had people praying for me and things you know really really went my way you know I'm extremely grateful for how far I got especially with the mindset that I have on this journey of mine well I mean it's an incredible uh thing to have access to buddh is all of that Christianity being so young it could be a bit confusing too because you know I mean you have my grandmother was I mean four times a week at church she would come get me during the weekends my grandmother was always at the altar you can say and chanting and everything I did when my friends would come over to the house they would what's your grandma I'm back doing back there she's chanting I'm your whole ring Cano I'm your whole ring Cano Nam your whole ring Cano and that's the spirituality that she took on and she passed that on to not just myself even I have a son that's 19 years old and before she passed last year she even had him at the Buddhist uh Center and he chants now and he has his own spirituality that he goes about with his walk in life so these gems been passed on and when I sit back and look at it um I wouldn't trade my life for not one life that I've ever came across in this world and I came across some beautiful people some rich people some people that's extremely rich in spirit but I believe my life was set up perfectly I give all glory to God for that for the kind of person that I am everything that come my way I can handle it and on my awful days I still find a way to smile and that's that to me that's all you really can ask of not just of any man but any human because we all in this after the same thing and that's trying to be better than we was the day before none of us is better than each other we all just trying to be better than the person we was the day before do you think that that that sort of Outlook that I would consider healthy and you know kind of um positive in nature comes from being good at sports early and H and having something that you were good at it became a part of your identity and then having a mentor that gave you responsibility yeah and um do you think that's where that comes from I think everything with me comes from my embracement for strangers I truly truly believe that I truly believe that everything I am is because of the way I embrace strangers I have a non-judgmental mindset I'm always trying to learn um I'm infatuated with the homeless man on the corner if he know how to talk straight I could have just as much as a good conversation with him as I can sitting here with you and I believe me just having an open mind and um under having a feeling understanding and having compassion that my way is not the only way that's right or wrong your way is not the only way that's right or wrong but if we share different perspectives of our walks in life then I think we both could leave a conversation a lot better than we came so it even goes back to what I just said before it's all about a lot of times I think a lot of us on this journey of life we're always indirectly in competition with you can say one another when the real to me secret to spirituality is most of us are in competition with ourselves we don't even know it we mask it through making it seem like well he or she got that I need to have that I look at it like most of us are in competition with ourselves I'm just I don't have mirror issues and I know the man or the person or human being I'm in competition with the most and is me I'm always trying to make myself proud more than anybody and that that that come with selfishness too I I have a lot of selfish ways in that aspect I'm always trying to make myself proud I'm always into not worrying about what you could say haters I have so many people that is Believers of me too so I'm always trying to make them proud as well it's very rarely that I entertain negativity and it's because I have so much positive to focus on you make that a priority it doesn't happen by chance no that's a huge priority and I make it my business every day I come from a world and I live in a type of bubble where I could be ridiculed I could be judged and I made a decision to take this journey and know this what comes with it so it's almost like I don't throw stones in hi my hands I'm a professional for perform professional high level boxer and now I'm a world reown boxing trainer and I'm a big personality and all of the all of these things come with being judged it comes with the territory and I wouldn't trade it for the world I wouldn't trade it for the world I love my life even with the ups and downs and it's cuz I have a sense of a good feel of gratefulness of knowing that I didn't have to wake up this morning when you say like uh most people approach things like it's a competition I find that there's kind of two parts to that for me that I've observed I'm curious what you think one is that most of the time people look at things like a competition interactions conversations and the outcome of that is somebody has to lose for somebody to win yes the true meaning of of life I think is all the stuff in between not the winning and the losing but the collaboration and the understanding in between and not judging people on the symptoms because you know somebody might have had a hard time and the the symptoms or what they're portraying in the world is maybe not that attractive but behind all that is a real person and they have a story and they got there somehow but if you cannot judge on the you know the spikes that they're putting out as a protection mechanism exactly what I'm saying don't react to the symptom try to understand try to understand the person and I'm I'm very big on that I believe everyone has a story I believe that everyone has a reason I'mma share something I have this um I don't want to say addiction I have this um love you can say for insane logic is what I like to call it so we'll say like I'm a huge ID disc Discovery Channel type of guy I'm huge on Forensic Files I'm huge on horror flicks on I'm huge on um I'm not huge on serial killers but I'm huge on the stories and the plots of how people have did certain things and it's not even about them getting caught or getting captured the insane logic how someone can go about doing something that's extremely treacherous that's ex that's a whole disaster but in their mind they have a reason for this whatever that se is I I've always had a huge huge uh you could say interest in it if I ever was a boxer I'm sure I would have been something like uh not a psychiatrist but what is it called when you could say like when Charles Manson he went to the penitentiary they would have people come in and he would tell them exactly I mean he would really released to these people exactly how they would feel they wasn't cops they wasn't detective they they was like correspondents you can say I believe my Avenue would have been something like that not because I want to catch these bad people and put them in jail because that's the law job to do that but it's just to hear they point on things because all this start as a seed you could show me the meanest person in the world that did the most treacherous acts I know for sure that when he was born he was an innocent baby just like I was when I was born these things build up on people and whatever this this buildup IS I've always had a huge interest for like always we all kind of start like a blank slate how did this how how does just get there and I'm even like that in boxing that's the way I teach so we'll say most people and especially today we're we're live we're we are in at an ultimate high of an instant gratification time so that mean most people aren't into at the actual Sports they enter the highlights it's the reals I've always been the kind of person that I could see an incredible knockout in the sixth round I would have to go back and watch round one through five to see how it was done because that build up to that especially if you dealing with a systematic fighter somebody that's very surgical no that was set up and how you learn in boxing into in Combat Sports is not being into the Highlight you learn by seeing what set up this knockout that you keep rewinding the lesson is not in The Knockout the lesson is in how did this set up what what system was used I need to go back to listen to what his trainer was saying to him in the corner I need to go see how he gravitated to the information I need to go see how he was fainting before he knocked out I need to see how many times he just missed that punch that finally landed there's a there's a parallel there between your your views on not judging in a sense yeah they're trying to cuz The Knockout is the symptom or the end but what was the what was the story that got why what was the how and the process you know the takeaway is we're not doing enough for these kids yes like these kids are helpless yes and and and that right there is the accountability part on you could say the system the law or whoever because the real fact is if the help is given before the seed is actually even grown into that those type of things may not happen if you're keeping your right hand up when you're going to your right side then you won't get hit with a left hook when you're going to that side you won't be a highlight room if you hold yourself accountable defensively kind of like how Combat Sports is especially boxing the way you train the the way the accountability you hold of yourself especially defensively it it it plays all the way out the most successful ful boxer of all time is Floyd Mayweather but at the same time they call him the most defensive fighter like it's it's been Fighters way more entertaining but haven't been as successful because I believe it's much more accountability in defense making sure something don't happen to you than it is on being gung-ho on on you doing something to somebody offense is always going to be there but you have to defend yourself to get good offense going on yeah that's that's incredible okay so let's go back so you're 16 mhm how how do you come come across the book Into the Wild how does it come into your life I went to um um ironically I went to a high school it was agriculture high school and in the morning I used to ride they used to have me walk the horses ride the horses clean up pigs milk cows and everything but the library to that spot was pretty cool now also I lived on 26 in Montgomery during this time in North Philly and we had a book store in the neighborhood but it was so crowded I mean crowded with books so you ever been like in these small book spots crowded and I came across this book in there but I didn't have no money to buy it so I was looking at the book and then in my lot when I went to school I went to school and asked the teacher that they have the book in the library and it was actually in the library so I start reading there and I'm trying to think was it 16 or 17 which every year because it was 96 97 from there on I start reading it during the do you check it out do you take the book home yes but I kep I kept it you never yeah I never returned you know how much you owe I know it has stacked up yes it's probably like it stacked up especially by now right yeah that's funny um so you take the book home do you start reading it at home or at school or when I started reading it at school in between when I would um walk horses and things like that did you preview it in the bookstore I previewed in the bookstore you read the first chapter or what did you do no I just read the back of it and then I skimm through pictures and what about it interested you because I read a paragraph in it and it said that he was doing like a lot of small kills to survive and that mean that he didn't even know what he was doing for he didn't even know how to hunt big but he would kill like things like squirrels and after he would take kill the squirrels he would take pictures of them it was something about that that made me believe this is somebody that is using what they got to get what they want and I always been very very big on you can say that type of attitude that type of way of life whatever selfmade yes yes and that right there when I went to the library in the school the next day I asked for and the I never forget what was it the the librarian said it just got there like two weeks ago cuz at this time it's new John cracker had just put this book out in '96 and this is 97 when when I first got it so I'm reading it every morning and the first time I read I'm like oh this is good but I wanted to read it again I read the book probably now 16 17 times 30 years come by now sea pen who was probably now I'm going to say one of my favorite actors but he was an actor that I was very familiar with coming up as a kid I'm looking at TV and Sean pen is doing a movie about this book that I was reading when I was a kid the movie was that's it was perfect for me because now the pictures like the the mental Cinema that I was doing when I was reading it using my imagination Sean pen he hit it directly on the button and that this kid was like I said he wasn't looking for a cheap thrill he had everything that one man or one kid could want he had $25,000 scholarship money from his parents he he he he came from a home that was financially set it was disturbing as far as arguments and things like that between his parents but no one in his position as a kid would have chose to do that especially during that time he really wanted to um not get a cheap thrill he wanted to find out soulfully who he really was and what he really can do and and he thought that to do that he would isolate himself he would strip himself of of everything that Society say we all need to to live and survive think like have you ever had the feeling that you w to you want to go live in uh in isolation somewhere oh absolutely yes yes yes yes absolutely through that that used to that actually I did a lot of traveling as a kid coming up and my favorite part has always been like okay so I'm not going to be at where I'm from I'm going to be somewhere else where I know nobody so the the blessings in that is I get to spend a lot of time alone and anybody that I meet that is new they coming from different walks of life they're not from my city they're not uh from my gym they they have news stories they have uh in some places different type of cultures but isn't you're describing like going to a different place he's there's nobody to talk to right yeah do you like being alone I do but not for long periods of time I'm I'm very what's your figure what's your time frame of being alone can you be somewhere for 3 weeks by yourself I mean I could but I don't know that I would manufacture that I got you okay I could but I would probably start to feel disconnected I mean I don't want to put for me personally I don't I don't need to put too much validity into me like I yes what I'm not that special like you know what I mean like I probably get more out of contributing than I would understand I can only talk about myself so much right right right you look at it like I'm not even worth right understand yeah I'm way more interested in other people and so I could do it I'm very comfortable by myself and my own thoughts and I enjoy that like I enjoy being by myself sometimes I enjoy reading some people absolutely do not like being alone and I do not understand how you can live like that like I I don't well most of the time that comes from other places yes it's a they're chasing something and if if the chaos stops they they uh you know like I always say that about people that screw me over or whatever I'm like it's fine they wake up every day and that's who they are yes because the yeah the punishment really is within that's who you are you do this like and you have to go to sleep knowing you're that kind of person yeah I understand well and I would contend that the reason why they had to win and I had to lose was their feeding a monster that can't be fed and kind of to what you were saying before is it's real you know real relationships are about collaboration they're not about winning or losing no it's about the the process so if I have to lose in a situation and somebody feels good about that okay but they're going to keep doing that and eventually cuz that's who they are yeah right that's a good way of looking at that but I'm not I don't need to win I don't need to be right like right I want to understand I want to understand and uh I know I kind of have a good sense of what right and wrong is in situation or what a good deal is and a bad deal and but I don't know I'm not perfect have you ever felt misunderstood in your life oh I think I walk around feeling misunderstood are you okay with that I only feel bad about that when it affects other people when they're confused like I we I was talking about this earlier today like people uh meet me and they uh they want to put me in a category so like what do you do well I do a lot of stuff like I own businesses I have art I write I uh have a library I'm uh I don't know do I have to be a do I have to be a thing for this to be something you want me to say I'm a chef you want me to say I'm a whatever and I don't uh how do you answer that well I mean it's hard to answer it because when you start to answer it people just are like listen this this is the real thing that's happening underneath that nobody says is this is small talk I only asked you what you do as a formality I didn't really want to know and I didn't know I was going to get all this on me and that's when I feel bad and so I just try to assess the situation and give an answer that that makes everybody comfortable like I don't like like I don't know how to meet someone in one of the first questions I ask and well what is it that you do cuz I think like that's inevitable I'm more Curious how you think than what you do absolutely I'm way more curious about your mindset and how what do you know and what have you learned what do you interest what do you see that I don't see m yes me too and then oh oh you know very quickly you're like oh you you uh you have some things you got to work out like yeah and maybe maybe I've had those same things and I can you know tell you from a point of view of I've dealt with that too and it's not easy or whatever but there's no magic or Miracle pill or right yeah and that to me that's how any we could say relationships any kind of relationship or any type of bond to me should be built from off of those type of stakes right there um not about what you do not about what can someone do for you just go through the process of getting to know what someone interest is getting to know how someone go about thinking knowing someone's culture um these are things that everyone will have interest in though like you know I mean everyone is not interested in that's something I've noticed too like um on this second half part of my life I'm 43 years old proudly 43 years Young so I noticed that like um it's almost like that's that's it's like Blasphemous almost for people to really want to get to actually know you and and separate whatever it is that you do cuz most people you'll be surprised nowadays people are dying for association off whatever they perceive to be success whatever they perceive to be success they just want to be associated with it you can be it's like an Instagram profile yeah you go it's curated you hipped on right there's a uh a really really smart uh guy that is uh well I just I've learned from him uh his name is Andrew Bustamante and he was in the CIA have you heard of him but how did you hear about it no I'm on a Google thing that name came across my radar when you said that he's very empathetic and sweet but really crazy smart and so he comes from a place similar to you where he's trying to understand but he also understands that some things just aren't right or you know and one of the things that he explained to me that uh kind of made a lot of sense was he said we have three masks we have the mask we show everybody we have the mask that only the closest friends see and then we have the mask that nobody sees and to me this middle mask is more interesting than the Instagram profile mhm um okay so back to Into the Wild the interesting thing to me is that you're comparing yourself to him at an early age and you're doing an inventory of the the things that you had that made you not go the way he did in a sense I think the difference between me and someone like Christopher MC is he's an extremeness to the core and that's that's I want to go back double back on something you said you said well sometimes I could admire someone for them living out of thought that I may have that thing you just said like being um hypothetical someone did that whether it's right or wrong sometimes I just want to get on the plane and just go yeah do I really want to do that yeah emotionally but I I really don't want to do that but what I will do is admire this person right here who I know just did it so I I can live vicariously through my thought thoughts through the person that's actually doing what I'm saying when I'm in a moment or what I'm saying when I'm in the mood and I think that right there is the connection that I feel extremely close with when it comes to Christopher mckenas like that right there because I mean we all have got in the mood sometimes I I remember even as a kid you can hear your mom and grandom and Friends saying sometimes I just want to go away and just go by myself and just have no one around and just look at trees and just stay away from everybody for a month Christoph mckeny did it for three months and he lived off the land and he did that for reasons of turning his back on the ways of society so I think like a lot of the connection not just with Christopher mckeny sometimes I admire people because they're able to live out things that I'm only saying when I'm possibly just in the mood and it's extreme and it's extreme so you admire him for actually like doing the thing that most people very few people would do it all when it comes to your relationship with books how many books do you read in a given year I know every year is probably a little different but on average I I will say I don't read so many books per year is because once I get a good book I like to read it three four five times especially if cuz once I read a book I get into the author I I I automatically I want to know the author I want to know where the author come from I want to know if the author is into anything like he's writing about or like he's explaining so if I get a good book and then I start digging the author oh I'll stay in that book for a good four or five reads do you do the same thing with music or you want to know the producer in the song Right absolutely isn't it funny that people don't they don't have any uh connection besides the actual you're hearing yeah no I I always want to know like who wrote it who produced it yeah before I was a teen early teens I knew Marvin Gay whole story like early teens I I knew how he passed I knew everything about him I knew his relationship with Barry Gordy I knew when he got signed to mtown this was a teenagers because I can't hear something that inspires me and make me become a better me because one would say well how does a song by Marvin Gay make you a better you well it may be a day I don't feel like doing nothing and I hear Inner City Blues and it make me say you know what I'mma get out there and go and get it because these lyrics that he's saying is like oh they really hitting and that's just not what Marvin Gay that's what music does to me in general music is it's like um it's beyond the inspiration it's it's it's that that shot that you need in the morning it's that enery drink is that it's that that feel of you know I refuse to be lazy I refuse to sit on this couch when I got Marvin Gay or we'll say hip hop Tupac Shakur saying whatever it is that he's saying that is saying basically be a go-getter and I've always had that and people Inspire I don't understand how someone can inspire you and you not want to know the actual person yeah it's it's uh like you got substance yes you you want the substance I want the sub to that's very important to me because then I'm very good at separating the artist from the art if you're a piece of [ __ ] person but you make great music I could say I don't dig you but I love your sound and I could have absolutely no type relationship at y because you have to know sometimes people genius are in the Artistry you know I mean you have to respect that especially if it's good and then they may not be as good as a person as as good as a musician that they are you know what I mean can you give me an example let me give you an example uh we'll say I'm well I'm going to say names so it's cool so we'll say um let me give you an actor example Billy D Williams right Billy D Williams was smooth cool Ladies Man on camera but the stories and the things that I would hear from so many different sources when I got older was like that was all this he was totally opposite behind the camera he was not like that so like we'll even say like um uh there's C there's a certain I'm not going to say her name there's a certain lady musician R&B artist that's incredible so many people love her but I hear like in person in real life she's just she's just a snob to most people like you know what I mean you hear these things not just in music but in uh that's why they say sometimes it's good to just know your heroes from from a distance the worst thing you could do sometimes is meet people that inspire you through their Artistry you know I've heard that so many times as well don't you experience that that when sometimes people meet you they already have you're like an art piece and they've already interpreted yes your meaning and put a put a meaning to it and you're like oh well that's a that's a fictional like yes so then even in that case you have to understand the artists or you have to understand the actors and those case because just because you like me for being a great gymnastic like when you see me and I don't have that same Upp spirit that I do after I do a a quadruple flip like don't judge me off of that I'm not in that place I'm not in that art right now when I do that I'm just chilling I'm at the coffee shop and I'm with my family and I don't want to talk to nobody so I have uh here I have a pressing of Michael Jackson's Thriller on vinyl it's um think it's uh Mofi it's one of those high-end pressings of it that sounds absolutely incredible vinyl yeah and um it's when you listen to it it's like hearing Thriller for the first time and I uh I had somebody say like oh how dare you play that because of Michael in the in the in the whole thing and I uh I was like oh maybe I okay I'm sorry but you don't hear Quincy Jones you don't hear Jeff right on drums you don't hear Eddie Van Halen On guitar you missing all of that yes it's just one thing to you like it's um and I think that's uh one of the things right is it's like now that you know you're put in a box but no a lot of people not nobody a lot of people aren't looking at the whole it's bigger than just that you know yes big time Quin that's like Quincy Quincy's fingerprints are all over that from a production and uh the engineering I mean it's just sonically incredible the songw writing yes yes it's it's nuts but most people is literally hearing just the obvious and it goes back to the substance behind it most is just not into Mo I don't want to say most there's a lot of people that's into behind the curtain sub they're just not the ones that talk as much yes because they're more quiet the ones that talk to much is into just the curtain right they're quicker to judge mhm which is is funny um have you ever been judgmental yeah I think when I was younger yeah was good man um a t and I would say if if I'm honest it was a protection mechanism kind of to what we were talking about before is I was working so hard and moving so fast trying so hard to be relevant that um I didn't realize that I already was relevant it I don't right I'm trying to prove something to everybody else and really I needed to stop and look in the mirror yourself absolutely and just uh stop for a second and uh most of the things that you judge other people for you're guilty of and so it's it's a funny contradiction in the sense that when you're judging others you uh you you are usually pointing out the things that you uh might be doing yes or are yeah and I would say I'm pretty good I could be good at that i' I might have mastered that when I was younger do you think is um any good in being judgmental because how do you choose your company if you don't if you're not judging how do you choose who's allowed in your circle how do you separate clowns from substance how do you know it it that's to me another thing that Society have raised that the word judgmental it has such a bad connotation to it because it's almost like it it it it makes people feel like who is he the judge well who am I the judge let me tell you who I am the judge I'm the judge because I want to make sure I keep my circle tight I'm the judge because I don't want no poison coming into my circle I'm to judge because I don't want no nonsense around me and my family so judging being selfish all of these things is a time and place for them you just can't I'm very big on like there's nothing wrong with using people but to misuse people is extremely wrong because even myself I don't mind once again the words sometimes that throw people off and these things could sound more tragic than they are like you know what I mean it's I don't have a problem with no one using me as long as you're not misusing me or taking me for granted but if I can help you on your journey for whatever it is that you're doing that's what I'm here for I I I look at it like God put this together for a reason like and and then even saying that I think like the world a little bit should be set up like that a lot more like you know what I mean the the the the judgmental part should be taken out the um CU I think we all should help each other out to get to the next stages in in their life we all should want other people to win whether we know them or not you don't have to be my friend for me to want you to win we all should want good for each other we all should want good for each other I I agree 100% there is a variable in that though that I think uh I have learned to deal with as I get older in the sense that often times I have seen the full potential in people and I have wanted them to pursue that full potential more than them more than them yes and so I don't see it as judging I see it as assess the situation right but they have to vote for themselves and if they don't I got to get them out of my way because I don't have time yeah's if we're going to battle like let's say we're in business or somebody works for me and we're going to war every day and it's about your issues and you don't want to you don't want to put the team in any sort of priority in what we're doing and we agree to things and you don't do them and you you're creating chaos it doesn't mean that you're not a valuable person m-h but you're not voting for yourself you don't see yourself as having that and so you do have to uh curate who you're giving energy to and access and responsibility and I think that's the same thing in your in your personal life is like you know let's say you're dating somebody and that per you see that person as being incredible and having all this potential but they don't see themselves and you try to help them work through that and they don't want to they just keep coming back to they a lot of people just build a country around their their issues or their insecurities or trauma and you can't penetrate that country because it's got a mayor it's got laws and rules yes yes and um and so you if you know if you're trying to do stuff of consequence and contribute in a bigger way you you have to allow those people to do it on their time without you know it isn't a judgment that they're not valuable it's that they don't want to prioritize themselves or they don't have the same ambition well you just said a good word that we could put to soften things up for people that because some people have a a a problem with certain words they don't care about the message they like the word can sometime make them get aggressive so I think like say like you just Ed a good word that could be put in the place of judging assessing assessing yes I'm not Jud they have a vote they have a vote if they want to collaborate and they want to just like we were saying like there's certain people that have to win yes and that usually isn't isn't scalable in a team atmosphere yes right yes all the way Jordan Jordan didn't win too many championships until the triangle right and he wrecked up and I think that you know that's a choice and so people make their choices and uh we have the option of engaging or not I don't think that in any way though it's a judgment I'm not I'm not seeing people as less valuable I'm seeing them on a different Journey right and kind of how we started this out we didn't say it uh you know but what we were hinting at is that the the master appears when the student is ready and so often times they're not ready and so the master student is ready yes yes have you experienced that when you've coached somebody where there's a there's a you know a young man I think like almost every coach goes through that um literally even if they don't act on it that's that's a that's a way of thinking for them sometimes wanting people to do the right thing is letting them learn a lesson on their own so then they can make a U-turn to come back because being completely honest sometimes I had to go into traffic myself s yes who I'm talking about as well too yes so MH yeah you know it is it is the journey sometimes for people they have to do that you described it as you know you're pretty happy with the outcome of that right and so we can't begrudge them that not at all I will say though that people that are really really successful take that advice analyze it and use it yes and I've seen people do that and I one time and I'm like man I wish I would have been like that like they like explain that to me again okay and they ask questions cuz you can tell they're trying to understand when they start asking questions about something and uh those are usually pretty special people they're they're the they're the one in a million I believe that's what the Mamba attitude is about I believe that's what Kobe I believe that's who Kobe Bryan was um I believe Kobe Bryan was a man that if he doesn't do this right he wants to find out how do I do this right how many times how many reps and how many times I have to show up on time until this lack in my game becomes a plus in my game it's very weird like because in boxing we'll say if you ask a boxer what's the most important punch in boxing he would say a jab you would go in the gym and see that same boxer not even working on a jab shouldn't you know how to defend a jab as well a fighter would know that and then get in the ring or get go into practice and won't even work on jab defense is that the genius of Floyd absolutely AB he's countering off of the jab yeah that's the that's the genius of Mike mcallum that's the genius of Floyd Mayweather that's the genius of Pernell Whitaker that's the genius of so many like Andre Ward is so many some athletes I believe they gravitate to whatever it is they don't do the best then you have athletes that all they do is they're into reading their own clippings and now even in they're not even concerned with what they lack in they look at it like well long as I keep doing this good you already good in that you don't want to add to your game you don't want to put some more weapons into your you know what I mean Your Arsenal that comes with it but when you caring and you love the game as much and you love Combat Sports as much as I do that's like the little Trinkle things that will probably like you could say get to me on a day-to-day basis but it it gets to me because this going to sound very strange right here I don't like seeing Fighters get hurt and it's a hurt business this is me with my backwards stuff you see that we just was talking about like people that think backwards that's how this is me doing that this is Combat Sports but I don't like to see people actually really get hurt you know what it is I don't like to see people get unnecessarily hurt I'll say that if you're getting hit a lot because your hands is down you can give a heart attack by constantly fighting with your hands down that's who I am as a person I would not understand for the sake of it why you won't get your hands up like you're comfortable getting hit you know you're getting hit cuz your hands is here and now that makes me go into oh this ain't about boxing this is about the person inside this is how this person is in life yeah you got to iron in your house but every time I see you your clothes is wrinkled why aren't you using your iron to put the like why are you making this difference difficult you're around someone that you know is a loser then you want to come to me complaining about how you're tired of being around losers you don't want to disconnect from the like you get what I'm saying it's it's crazy it's a contradiction yes yes yes and it runs parallel a lot like in Combat Sports because it's the hurt business so how people really thinks of them of themselves to me is how much they willing to protect themselves and we could say whatever it is we want about Floyd Mayweather but I know one thing for sure is that he's really into himself and you could tell that he's so humble I tell my son this all the time Floyd Mayweather is so humble that he'll say oh you're strong then I know I have to disengage from you for a few rounds and pick at you so you're not as strong or you have a good right hand I can't go to your right hand so this how humble he is in the ring which which in a sense is honest which is yeah absolutely he's not biased by his own noise looking at the situation for what it is and creating a strategy to win not to be right right and that goes back to not to be stubborn Mamba attitude yeah like whatever it is you're not good in whatever it is it take to win are you really willing to do that or for the sake of conversation you just talking just to talk you have to treat business you have to treat people you have to treat when the stakes is high you have to treat everything accordingly everything treat it as what it is if this is a mission that calls for you to work harder than you ever had in your life so you can get something you never had in your life you could take all the shortcuts you want for me Destiny sees everything so when Destiny don't reward you for what you so cly been working for that means you've been taking some shortcuts somewhere you know what I mean yeah they come out yes yes do you do you uh find that there's patterns and behavior in the sense we just give you an abstract example but it's one that I've noticed people that are late usually aren't good team players because you know if we have a meeting and there's five of us going to be there and you show up late you're you don't have a lot of empathy for everybody else that showed up on time you're saying that you're not in you you don't value yourself enough that when you say you're going to be somewhere on time you make sure you're there you're there early ready to go or even if you run in at the last minute or whatever it's all it's all related you can trace those behaviors into yes and they they're cousins mhm there's you know you you uh go to somebody's house and their bedroom's a mess you could kind of guess how they feel about themselves to some degree or or what they prioritize right it could be that they prioritize other things but yeah that sort of stuff always fascinates me with behavior someone house they have a a a a just a thinkful addition is all over the place I used to tell my son you know how I know when you ready for the things you really ask me for son I said if I could come to your room one day and you don't even know that I'm coming there to see you and I show up and all your shoes is in order your bed is made things is put to the side I said when you get to that level that's when I know you're ready for the next level of things I'm ready for you to receive and now like every time I go in my son room he's 19 years old now with wherever it is that he live everything is in order his clothes is folded his shoes is always in order his his bed is always made um and his mom have called me at times and literally told me he's like too organized like he don't even like nobody touching his stuff and that's because I planted that seed in him a long time ago it's a book called making your bed has a lot to do with something like your success level or cuz in the military this is the reason that they have or Army have the the soldiers all you you can't you get out that bed that bed have to be made the bed is the element it's not really about your bed being made but what they're doing is they building structure in these young men so the bed is just a small fragment of what they trying they using the bed as a tool because I truly believe that Clarity some people could literally get I'm talking about tons of work done in a room that's paper all over the place then you got people like me that I cannot function like that it don't have to be SP and span clean but things can't just be all over the place but then you have some people that that don't bother them at all just it's all about the individual but I have noticed the commonality in that and self-esteem like you're you're describing your son and I would assume I I would be curious that he probably has pretty good self-esteem and same thing with the military that gives you self-esteem when your shirt's tucked in you made your bed yes you know you're organized and there's chaos yes yes and so you're saying something about yourself and that thing is that I I'm coming to this and I have value yeah and it says a lot about selflove as well yes big time all connected okay summarize the the book Into the Wild don't be afraid to be misunderstood don't be afraid to go in your own Odyssey to a certain level of we could say that human nature would allow um um it's okay to be misunderstood it's not the end of the world if you're misunderstood on some of the best people in the world are misunderstood sometimes your Genius is is in being misunderstood all of these things you know mine is the the genius thing but everything else that I'm saying this young man uh uh Chris MCAS he really really took his Destiny into his own hand um he really knew what he wanted to do and it wasn't about a cheap thrill he was really soul searching at the highest level without know this was a time where phones wasn't out somebody would do that now and take pictures of every town that they hit every Journey every night sleeping he didn't have none of that he just had his notebooks and last but not least if you feel as though you're living a good life and you're confident about yourself in any aspect I seriously recommend that you you should document everything because our history whatever level it is and our Legacy is whatever we leave behind you know what I mean and whatever it is you want to leave behind for yourself document it yourself no one can tell your story better than you whether you're here or gone and this young man Christopher McAn is at a young age his story it gave me goosebumps and I was heading into the Junior Olympics into the place of the unknown trying to win my first national title to make people proud to give me like a a badge of honor in a tough city of North Philadelphia and my life felt like it depended on that Christopher Mist he was soul searching and going to the the W Wilderness in Alaska and he wanted to Soul search and do something that he didn't feel he can do but he was willing to take the chance and do it alone and on that he met some good people and came across some good people from different walks of life and the lesson in that is it goes back to the not being judgmental I think the best people in the world is people that's into all cultures not one culture that's that's amazing okay there's uh there's three things that I'm going to uh send you okay so have you read The Alchemist yeah I'm I'm familiar on I didn't go all the way through it honestly the reason that I didn't because um I feel like in the time it was very heavy for me to read it but now I'm at a place where I think that I would love it how far into did you get not to two chapters yeah it starts d mhm starts very dry but it when it picks up do I come across like you think that I would like the Alchemist oh I think you would love it okay cool um and read it and then let's talk about it because there's a I think there's a deeper meaning to it too but I don't want to yes I don't want to spoil it okay so that's one I'm gonna get that for you you see the uh goat book up there yes have you ever seen that before the book on Muhammad Ali that toshan did I've seen it but I never read you see the uh the stand that it's on so Jeff Coons designed that and it's it's a tribute to Muhammad Ali but it's also a tribute to the other goat so in art uh there's kind of two two camps there's the Picasso and uh Picasso is by far one of the most successful artists ever but one of the most influential artists was damp uh Marcel and so he's saying he's he's taking a lot of Liberties Coons is MHM by putting Duchamp with Muhammad Ali and so I want to give you a documentary on Duchamp because the Judgment thing and a lot of what you believe is uh you all the way in in that huh oh yeah like that that the whole like most artists like Andy Warhol a bunch of artists that's who I was trying to say uh they do CH gave him the confidence to do what what they did like he he instilled confidence in non-judgment and so his views on judgment and what the Ural means his art piece and all that um I think you would you would uh really like and then the Bony Bear yeah oh I have a beautiful story for you do I have time yeah one day I'm at home right I'm I'm I'm a huge huge future Island fan right I tell everybody this story because it's probably one of my favorite stories of my life I'm a huge fan of these guys right music have inspired me and everything one day I'm home playing with my daughter I get a message from future Island's head guy probably one of my favorite entertainers of all time Sam Herring right the singer yes okay hey Malik how you doing brother man we love that you love the music we're in in La we love for to come to the gym wherever it is that you at I'm thinking that is somebody playing around you know they were play a prank on you I'm thinking right so I'm answering back but I'm very hesitant and not feeling very good about it cuz this is when life is magical this when I get like nervous when life do magical things for me like this so they he said yeah man just give me the address to the gym can you come tomorrow I was like can I come tomorrow I was ready to leave right there when he said that and that was the night before so I gave him a Time by the time I got to the gym the next day they was in front of the gym my favorite alternative rock band of all time so what do I get to do I get to train them give them my box boxed yeah I trained them trained them to some of my favorite tunes of them we talk about life we took pictures we kept in contact even now that was a beautiful thing that's the kind of story I wish I had about Marvin Gay them kind of like that's very very that's the only I wouldn't even say very rare that's the only time that's happened to me in my life where people that I don't know but they inspired me so much through their music that I got a Reach Out message and they was just as happy to meet me as I was to meet them now if anyone know me know that I could be extremely emotional I have no problem shedding my tears when something hit me when I got R them I had to hold that in for at least three hours when they left I got in the car and it felt so good to just release and get it out and listen to the music oh one of the best days of my life did you learn anything from him I will say this I connected with them because of music right but me and S we talking about life relationships problems and things that he was going through with his new misses and how things was on tour when he had to deal with other artists and how the struggles was coming on and some of the things that he shared with me at this time I was going through kind of the same type of issues in my very own relationship so when you ask me did I learn anything from him I would say no but what I did did learn is we all are in this thing together and what do I mean by that just cuz sometimes I could put myself in a mind frame man why am I going through this why is this happening to me another headache and here it is I'm meeting someone that inspired me from a whole different genre of Life music and now we just sharing basically stories of life and how he dealing with his trials and tribulations some of my trials and tribulations are parallel with his and we just giving each other advice and then keeping in contact then the relationship begin and this was three three years ago so instead of asking if you learn something it confirm something I know for sure you're dealing with things he she we all are dealing with things but it's very very weird guy right there is definitely dealing look at him but it feels good it feels good sometimes when people are just as brave enough to open up about so-call whatever you could say skeletons in their closet or whatever or just stories and then that way we could bounce ideas off each other and sometimes you never know a piece of advice you can give me I can carry that through life and it help me get through other oncoming trials and tribulations and that's what I shared with them that day and I and I really appreciated it man it still means a lot to me I tell a story everywhere I go I appreciate you doing this we're going to turn off the cameras and then we're going to listen to [ __ ] Brew and you're going to tell me what you think of the absolutely the system let's go okay [Music]