How to Use Pain to Become the Best In the World | Rodney Mullen on Impact Theory

everybody's got their stuff whatever it is everybody has a unique set of variables that they can put in place and express their individual identity in a form of Pawlik greatness that's something to be remembered that's what you look for everybody welcome to impact Theory our goal with this show and company is to introduce you to the people and ideas that will help you actually execute on your dreams all right today's guest is widely recognized as the most influential street skater in the history of the sport he invented many if not most of the tricks used today including the street ollie kickflip 360 flip impossible and many many others he began skating at the age of 8 against his father's wishes and had little more than the garage on the family farm to practice in and yet he would end up becoming the most dominant competitor the sport has ever seen he won his first championship at the age of 14 and over the next decade he won 34 out of 35 freestyle contests his impact on the art and industry of skating simply cannot be overstated and that's why he's known today as the Godfather of modern Street skating the Tony Hawk pro skater franchise showed their reverence by featuring his character for nearly a decade additionally an acknowledgement of his unparalleled level of innovation the Smithsonian now hangs his board on display and he was chosen for one of their coveted professional fellowships in addition to his contributions to the craft of skating he's been just as influential on the business side of things he holds two patents for his revolutionary skateboard and truck designs and his current company almost skateboards which he co-founded in 2003 has been thriving for 15 years already prior to that he had co-founded World Industries the most successful skate company of the 90s his insights into the nature of progression itself has made him one of the most sought-after speakers on the topics of innovation mindset and the staggering drive that it takes to be great so please help me in welcoming the two-time TEDx speaker and member of the legendary Bones Brigade the Godfather himself rodney Mullen good to see you thank you so much for being here wow that was an intro that that is a well-earned intro man and as somebody who's been watching you since I was a kid and desperately wanting to be able to do the kinds of things that you do but couldn't and wasn't able to break through the things that hold me back I want to start with an idea that I heard you talk about which is the barrier of disbelief what is it that holds people back one thing that happens all the time is skateboarding and the four-minute mile aside it often happens best dudes around the world can be striving after wind particular trick finally one guy does it and then the rest just come like lemming rarely is it a question of talent or technique at those levels it's just one of the belief and the concomitant will to kind of do something that either no one's done before or even more I think the crack opened the barriers that people considered impossible or undoable and that kind of belief I think is rarer than Talent talent is it's around and to having both of those levels there's only a few people that they really have that I think in the history they're the ones that have really changed things so how can you build that sense of belief that's the thing that I find so fascinating about your story is I get it when when you become part of Bones Brigade and you're around all these other guys and they're all pushing and innovating I get how you guys get better but all of them say that you were the one that progressed the fastest but you were the one that was almost always isolated so how in that isolation on the farm in Florida how are you able to create that belief in yourself it is easy to say and I think it's smothering to say and often there's a culture of saying that if if it cannot be proven it must not be possible in the big takeaway from that theorem is that there's lots of things that cannot be proven though they are correct and I think that this idea too is scaling that cuz we see things so often in front of us the way that it should be done and it imposes a kind of barrier through what people know and see familiarity but maybe you can change something within you that can be just outside a new set of axioms some new skill set they will take you further and I think that's the history of development certainly when it's gaining yeah I want to talk about when you sew freestyle essentially dies becomes uncool which I want to talk about the emotional loss of that in a minute but for right now you decide that you're gonna become a street skater you're gonna reinvent yourself and one what does that process look like and then to how did you come up with the idea to become formless where do I begin with that freestyle was never cool and when I made the turn it rode into the ground I won so when you were in a contest that's good feels good especially the first time after that you are protecting this sort of only second place actually there is no second place there's only losing so contests were a big thing in a number by your name that was important so once you're on that treadmill you're on it and it it militated against progression because it forced me into a pattern of consistency do this best-in-show again and again and again and again make this to me that's never what drove me it's interesting how getting what you think you want can end up being the force that pushes you in to paint yourself into a corner pushes you into a groove there's something terrible to be taught the mountain I'm the best I'm the king guarding it under the Nietzsche quote right what's left for you when you make it at the top but lightning you know so knowing that that grain of sand by grain of sand progress is so brutally difficult and it's hard in anything but in skateboarding it comes with broken limbs and pain and I'm just an ungodly amount of repetition people said used to practice nine hours a day so what drove you enough to keep pushing I'm easily used you know when you're looking at everything it's such a gift to be able to look it's something and to love it for the sake of it in nurturing and maintaining that is one of the hardest tests of any pro much less for anyone to find right what is the Beethoven who never found his piano or harpsichord or right enlike so for me I had an intuitive yearning that skating was for me and when I found these movements and the little subtle things that no one was pointing me telling them what to do because I have such a visceral push against being told what to do especially for this you know for the joy of what I'm doing you're gonna tell me what to do I struggle with that there's days you want to go out at her to you're sore or you just suck you're not making progress you're running into the and you feel defeated like sometimes after filming tricks it would be everything I could not the morning turn my car off into that you know what I mean like you take it that personal but that's that's the nature of love you know it's got hate in there you know it's got pain in there and it draws you to it that's the magnetism that's what I guess I I have that I've nurtured it in my life I see people with talent with all those things but the one thing they don't have is that just love for doing it for the sake of it in the sense of obligation to do something with what you're given you know there's something to there it's important I think getting what you want quenches the fire that got you there often unless is something replaced by something more minute which becomes more intangible I think the successes of winning right you want to be the best in the neighborhood and then win the local contest and then whatever whatever its it just keeps going up and then by the time you get there you can have a stadium screaming your name it's actually happened a couple of times to me and there is a visceral exhilaration to it there is I've experienced that I know what that's like you land a trick in theirs it just lights up it's crazy but the same time it's Harlow its Hollow that's not the thing that can drive you at least not for long it's being able to say oh I had that I had a model or I had people are there or whatever all of these honors eventually that stuff phased to just static and you're left with you and your board and if you decide that that's what you love that's what you're doing then your days are numbered so the trick is to always peel back of why am I doing this in the first place oh yeah I still like I'm still that kid on the farm you know and I cling to that even the things that hurt like the things that I grew up with the things that still like I got issues you know but i nurture them that's what gets me out every night that's interesting tell me more about that what do you nurture that's funny you know I things were great inside the house at home everybody's got a story mine's not more severe than the next guy everything's relative I'm not saying I'm different but there are things that fractured something in there and for whatever it is I got I need to get away and I got some stuff that I need to work out and skateboarding has always been that sort of meditation and it's a meditation you know like where you know I'm on a Mars like like some of the death metal you know what's the only thing that sounds like music right I get to heaven I expect that to be played at the pearly gates because somehow it connects with something in my soul or some of the like stiff little fingers or the things that there's tumult in there because that's what's resonant for what's inside and so I stay in tune with that I nurture that because that's part of what fuels me it's probably not healthy it's not healthy we're not something I gonna do with it why do you say it's not healthy that a lot of people would agree with you on that yeah but why do you say it's not healthy and then nurture it in yourself I think because it leads people to do a lot of stupid stuff like drink too much or take drugs or fight or smash something you know does it lead some people to be the greatest of all time absolutely it probably more than anything else like everybody's got their stuff whatever it is an ability to see patterns or some genuine like there are guys like I know not only guys like they do the big rails and I'm fascinated by it some guys have scared to death and they overcome it anyway I guess you would call that courage and for the life of me they're at least a couple that their eyes don't dilate they just know I know one guy in particular so I go okay this would you very robotic clay does it commits first try it's nuts different skill sets do things for different people put being is the beauty of skating of all things all shapes sizes for the most part it's this admixture it's everybody has a unique set of variables that they can put in place and express their individual identity in a form of call it greatness that's something to be remembered that's what you look for no question one thing that I want to talk about is so over time you had these injuries where your femur was grinding into your hip and basically they just said wanted to hang it up and now is the time but instead of doing that you spent years if I'm not mistaken breaking the scar tissue apart and insanely painful fashion walk us through that what was that what was the process how long did you stick at it yeah that was heavy you know I remember I used to talk to Tony a lot because we're you know he's close he's a Tony Hawk at hot yeah he's good as people come isolde smart and I had scar tissue that somehow got around the joint and so every time he'd flex muscles and the biggest ones in your body it would pull the femur into the socket and it would grind maybe 20 times a day turnover when you're sleeping whatever again brake to accelerator you'd feel a little and it was worse and worse to the point where you couldn't fall unroll and she can't fall and rolled and what do you get you can't escape and I went to the doc and flew me to East Coast a couple pictures friend and he said with his eyes what he wouldn't say in words because he cared for me so much it gave me this little tool basically they can't cut you open because there's so much that generates more so what do you do this is what retires people scar tissue and you've got to the point what's gonna grind off the head and any bones grinding it'll calcify and stick right so that's what was happening and I remember when it stopped moving like a ball-and-socket to more of a stick shift so I'm hobbling around and things are pretty dark for me and if you're a champ if your whole identity is expressed through what you do and then it's gone will you become a mess a lot of people do we see it right child actor first thing in mind what is it and they showed me that you can like a masseuses elbow the fascia fasciae the pressure on is the only thing to deactivate it so you can pull a little bit so I started sticking this little plastic thing I started breaking on pasta curves which are awesome I would realize that it's relaxing stuff and I can get my leg around particularly fire hydrants because then they have those they have the separate stems and you could put them in you and they can reach over and stretch and then get leverage because I'm not that strong and so then you can use your body weight as leverage to pull things and then you start to get to discern over this is an hour to it a day and you use your skating is like a micrometer when you're walking you don't know your bounce but if you're on a board or a tightrope you know you're about and so I would pull pull pull and I would find there are strings you can tell it's not you you know I I gradually pull this is after hundreds of hours you get more courage and you become everything you need to know has already been said right it is desperate people do desperate things and necessity is the mother of all invention all you need to know I was desperate and I needed to break free and so I just ratcheted it up and it takes a while to get used to the pain but you keep it's like all those karate guys kick in bamboo you get tougher doesn't make you tough but you get tougher do that that is a crazy example of how driven you are and how much this means to you and how much it's become a part of you I mean literally when I think about you hanging upside down on the truck and that this searing pain becomes a moment of joy for you it makes me ask one simple question why'd you throw away your trophies hmm a couple of reasons it's no disrespect to people to have the trophy rooms you know like I get that I do this is all like my issues growing up the way I did I never wanted to look at those dusty things and say that's what I was good to ever have the inclination to have point other people do it say hey look what I was I am what I am you know because ultimately look at what kids do now that stuff is irrelevant cool you did a kickflip everywhere I look they're doing it you know I need kickflip Brooke you know and look I'm all honored people give me those respect but but but that stuff moves on and I'm honored it's unfortunate that I came in with those a blank canvas and so I'm given credit I thank you I appreciate it I do but the joy I get that I could create some of the vocabulary for others to express themselves that gives me a connectedness I think a lot of skaters are kind of outsiders I think a lot of us are outsiders even at least in some way right you can always find something and so that just means when you find a connection with someone it means something right because they don't come easily so I'm privileged that I created I created I started a few some tricks and then other people's have taken it more and that's turned into a vocabulary for us to express themselves that to me is like a living trophy because everywhere I look I see I feel that but as for those things you're number one number one for that like most of those contests I didn't even give all I had I just played it safe those are representative of me being conservative not doing what I could have done because I just want to win because I was afraid I looked at trophies like that have you broken out of that desire to just play it safe and win that helped me I can't say that I'm cured he would have been secure him all these things you know what I mean put me in a new arena and you know what I mean like that's human nature were always fighting I don't think anyone ever gets to the top mountain and kind hovers you know oh I'm enlightened you know but I'm better I'm not as tethered what lights you on fire outside of skating a lot of things again the gift to be easily amused when I couldn't skate I went back because I have some math background by methylation earring whatever through chemical and it's like how do I put this analytic stuff I have it I didn't have to study as much for some of the courses they're more analytic then and I fell in love I love puzzles skating is a puzzle I started just building computers and playing around and I was actually never fond of computers but then we start building and meriting out and that that's cool but then that's just Legos and and then I discovered Linux different operating systems it's all rogue it's all open source hacker community doesn't make you evil it's just knowing something so well they could use it in ways it was never intended to be used and create something new in the process I think well that's true skating the whole time this culture kind of rogue it's got some dark spaces but it's got a lot of light and it's greedy and it's Underground and I connected with it and I fell in love with that community and and yeah I I still I think that stuff's cool you know I do but there's lots of things you know ultimately just people with character I try to surround myself more with age you spent so much time focusing on being good at one thing in the business that takes a lot of time and then the friends you develop through what you do if it's through sports sports something that requires a strong body that is it ticking time-bomb then when you don't do that the friends that you love and share this experience in love it's a rare experience and there is a brotherhood to an extent overhyped in other ways but when you're not skating with them you don't see each other it's so finding friends of similar character and heart that's important to me I strive for that you know the greatest thing that's ever happened I think most humbling to make a wish if you get called up a great great foundation some poor dumb kid for whatever specs by all the metrics of modern science it's probably not going to make it and so he gets a wish a lot of kids are really young they don't know if they're asking for one of the ladies told me that one kid wanted to be a superhero so they dressed him up took around the city he saw the crime they brought him in the City Council meeting it you know what I mean like the kids and when you get the call from them then hey this is some kid wants to meet you because dude it's a reckoning because whatever you think you've done that's cool in that light you realize it's not it's not you are officially a fraud I escaped I roll around I do tricks all right I do maneuvers what is that magicians and prostitutes do tricks and you go meet these kids and I'm terrified it's always the parents they see you first cuz they're waiting outside the hospital and you're like ah it's embarrassing cuz you're an adult you know that he's looking at you and go to you and I'm like your kid but it's actually not that way because they meet you with these loving eyes like I don't give a crap who you are my kid wants to see you make you wait at a hospital room there you choked up thinking about like depends sometimes cancer attacks people and they kind of seem fine depending what system it's attacking they're all gonna die for the most part one most memorable to me mom had this white blonde hair I get in and they're unplugging the kid and he's so excited he's jumping out of the bed right and the nurse is getting scared because hey what's this stuff you know and he just runs and jumps into my arms and all the anticipation of you're an idiot you're not it just goes away because ultimately what it boils down to is this was to meet you you just become like a lightning rod or something he loves 92 dad like so you talk about stupid stuff you know favorite pizza favorite tricks whatever but you share this unspoken connection and whatever he thinks you are that stuff vanishes because it becomes what you are in the moment what kind of man are you and are you able to be there and that is something that I take with me with age with success that what you do in these reflexive couplings shapes you you shape it it shapes you you don't disconnect from there you just tumble forward over time you become what you do and you find hopefully at the end of that process you're not insufferable that you actually have something to give it can be present you know so for all I've done I appreciate I don't look at it as much it's a long time ago I go out like believe me I'm going out after this I'm going out tonight and I'll go out because I have something right now I can do I'm close if I do something if I get it I'll film something and I don't mean everything to me and I will but ultimately it just goes out there it's just what you do you just become one with that I think that's been a key for me of why I've been able to sustain this fire that's so seemingly easily quenched you know so when I see people who have had success I see boredom for the most part in them and then I see a tombstone and circling back to what trophies and those things represented right Fineman great physicists said that is the Nobel Prize would be the tombstone on all great work just look at it I haven't done the study of Academy Awards right but usually when you get what you thought you wanted the fire goes away so if there's anything just find joy in what you do for the sake of it and then recognize how you're being shaped in the process and hopefully you become a better man through you know I mean that is astonishing thank you so much for sharing that before I ask my last question tell these guys where they can find you online oh I'm so addictive easily amused by nature I won't allow myself to have the apps um just I know my name it's out that he type into Rodney Instagram whatever there it's out there cuz I R I said to a manager he posed okay alright perfect we'll put links in the show notes okay my final question what's the impact that you want to have on the world I'm honored to have had the rippling impact that I have helped formulate the language of a community where others can help shape and express themselves in a process and connect that to me for people like me that doesn't come easily but ultimately I want to be a good man you know you ever hear that goofy internet thing you've found it so stupid stuff that people send you can you name the last Nobel Prize winners and Olympians right but you can name the fifth-grade teacher they had faith in you right it's the people you touch singularly that's a bigger test in a way thank you so much for coming in absolute incredible guys there are a few people that I've stalked as hard as this man to get him on the show there's something about the way that he thinks the way that he looks at the world and what he has accomplished in the past and what I think he will continue to accomplish in the future it is utterly breathtaking and the the level to which he is driven by obsession by desperation of his own admission that there are just things that he absolutely must may come true in his life and I resonate with that so much and I hope that you guys do as well and the notion of turning inward the notion of shutting out the noise and going inside of yourself to create to build something new to break through the barriers of disbelief to be able to create in your mind a willingness to believe that you can do something that is possible for me is the ultimate intoxication it's the ultimate thing that each of us should try to be chasing and then to have that wrapped inside somebody who's only finish line is to be a good man is pretty extraordinary this is one of those people I know he issues social media but go out he's done some interviews they are breathtaking read his book mutt how to learn skateboarding without killing yourself in it are life lessons there's just no other way to put it and they are extraordinarily beautifully shared raw and something that I think you will all be able to take something away from all right if you haven't be sure to subscribe and until next time my friends be legendary take care everybody thank you so much for watching and being a part of this community if you haven't already be sure to subscribe you're going to get weekly videos on building a growth mindset cultivating grit and unlocking your full potential

Channel: Tom Bilyeu

Views: 408,913

Rating: 4.9658823 out of 5

Keywords: rodney mullen, rodney, mullen, How to Use Pain to Become the Best In the World, Tom Bilyeu, Impact Theory, ImpactTheory, TomBilyeu, Inside Quest, InsideQuest, Tom Bilyou, Theory Impact, motivation, inspiration, godfather of skating, tony hawk pro skater, bones brigade, tony hawk

Id: cmA55DOJrB8

Length: 30min 52sec (1852 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 28 2018

Reddit Comments

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Rodney is a legend, I appreciate his respect for the music and love how he lives in it