Will.i.am Opens Up About His Guilt, Depression, Creativity & ADHD!

we've been set up to fail AI didn't do that people did that here's a tool for us to solve our problems ourselves now here we go get the producer singer rapper this man does it all seven time Grammy winner one of the industries's biggest names man that's lyrical and we started the Black Eyed Peas no one believed in US now we're playing Super Bowls World Cups Grammys you have to be hyper creative you can't grow anything without it but there's a cost to creativity right what's it like to be in your head are you always thinking analyzing everything get it get it go go make it make it that's not good that's not healthy why you make errors you hurt people I remember I got into like a a dark period when I felt something that I've never felt before just like distortion people want you to fail but the anxiety comes when you're worried about what people think when it's things that are happening that you didn't control you have to be optimistic you have to arm yourself with optimism and purpose [Music] that's what it's about that path was the hardest path in my life [Music] this is a window into the mind of a creative a Divergent an entrepreneur artist and visionary someone we all know but at the same time someone we don't really know at all if you're a creative an artist an entrepreneur or someone with big ideas for the future or just someone that's struggling to balance your professional Ambitions with your personal Pursuits this conversation was meant to find you enjoy [Music] I am fascinated with people that is why I started doing this many years ago because I have I've come to learn about myself that I have a real desire to understand people because from that I think I can understand myself because I think at the kind of foundational level we're all quite similar as human beings because we're all related if we go back far enough so in a pursuit to understand you I guess my first question is um what is what is the context of will that I need to know to understand the man that sat here in front of me today the earliest context the kind of kitchen that Will was um was was conceived in was was cooked in at the earliest age you write songs no I don't I write a lot but I don't write because you like uh I get interviewed a lot but very rarely do you get interviewed by wordsmiths um the kitchen I was stewed in I cooked in it's pretty uh I like the visual of that um because the chef would be my mom and the kitchen will be the ghettos of East Los Angeles Boyle Heights specifically and that was encouragement acknowledgment of our individual I say our my family like we all have our little superpower and my superpower was creativity and creativity has always been my currency when I had no money I clearly was like oh look Ma look what I made Willy that's really good you really like that mod yeah and I would she would encouragement goes a long way and then that type of encouragement from a mom that helped create self-belief fearlessness to express to share to go in class and solve problems or raise my hand I got the answer to that um that's really what fueled fueled me is my mom let Willy solve it will he try to fix that you know this radio is broken try to fix it that type of stuff my mom salute did she know that you were creative or was she just um putting wind in whatever so you'd pulled up my mom was creative my mom still is creative she had her sewing machine she would make her clothes to go to school that's why most of the clothes I make is still um you know one-offs two of two offs I like wearing things that no one has because that's how I grew up we would go to the thrift store buy dollar clothes or 50 Cent shirts there will always be too big for me my mom would fix them and turn old into new that's that's how we lived you know will he go to the store take this food stamp buy me a 25 cents bubble gum um get 75 cents back um and then you go to different stores do the same thing so now my mom has coins that she could go and buy other things with food stamps because with food stamps you only could buy food you can't buy needles you can't buy thread you can't buy fabric you can't buy appliances you only could buy food so take this dollar give me 25 cents gum which is food 75 cents chains back go to different stores and do that now let's go and buy other things and so she'll buy those other things and she'll make stuff for us so my mom has always been like super ultra creative so my mom is my biggest inspo I've heard you refer to her as being your mum and your dad yeah in your household so when you when you grew up in a in a household whether there's only the mom I'm like every Father's Day Happy Father's Day Mom thank you Willie and happy Mother's Day Mom in those contexts it's easy for a kid to go one of two ways though and I think that's what people often don't realize is when you're in a context where outside of the house there's a lot of Temptations either way but inside the house it takes a really really strong mother if she is a single mother to make sure she creates her own universe so that those kids can end up in a different place and that's what I kind of read from a lot of the stories of your mother is that rigor and discipline and those values yeah there was a we had this next door neighbor in the projects and she couldn't read or write and then people used to make fun of her and my mom was like now if we all went to Japan and we had to go out there and survive are we not smart yes we're smart could we survive out there yes we could can we raise kids and raise families to go out and do awesome things in Japan in Japan yes we could but we will all go to Japan not being able to read or write so the stigma that we put on folks that can't read and write could they read people yep can they write a path to raise folks to go out into the world to do awesome things yes so we value my mom always valued Humanity at its purest and people's intents um and the things they want to accomplish before like you know cliche setbacks or and it's it was awesome that we were raising all Mexican neighborhood right so most people didn't redirect which was beautiful it was beautiful you know I love I love being raised in in East L.A and uh We've we fit we fit it in is that right fit it in we because I was going to say fat in it's like it's a fit there you go there it goes read it right for me no I'm joking what was your your yourself yourself story at that age like what did will think of will who did you think you were and where did you think you were going in life when you were like 14 oh 14 it was said yeah 14 I wanted to do music I had these wraps that I used to write and I had these demos that I used to make and I would go to school and I would give my demos to my my friends uh one of my friends his name is Stefan Gordy his dad was Barry Gordy from Old Town and I'm like yo give this to your dad check out my demo my sister had Teddy Ruxpin it's like this little teddy bear that had a cassette in its belly and my mom gave that to my sister for Christmas and for me she gave me like a boombox it to play the cassettes and she got herself a stereo and that stereo had two cassettes and came with headphones and so I got my mom's records and I had a record player and two tape debts and a headphone and I don't know what told me to take the headphone put it in the microphone Jack take my sister's Barbie rockers tape put tape over the left side of the cassette tape record over it get my mom's record play the favorite part press unpause record pause it when my favorite part was over play it again and make a loop put the tape and the play put another sisters um my sister's Teddy Ruxpin tape put it in there do the same thing record over it now press play on my Loop that's for three minutes and wrap over it take the the Teddy Ruxpin tape with my newly formed song over Loops stereo Loops put it in Teddy Ruxpin press play and make Teddy Ruxpin rap so my mom was like you did that boy I'm like yeah Ma look she was like you should take that to class for your for a show and tell they were like wow William uh at that point in time I was William wow William that's really cool you did that yeah I did that the song was whatever um for a 10 year old um so then you graduate sixth grade at 12. so from from 10 11 12 it was clear that my elementary school I had like a different level of creativity so when I went to Junior High School um it was clear what my superpower was I was creative and I wanted I wanted to uh express myself in that in that realm were you confident whatever however you define that and what I guess what I mean by confident is like securing oneself and confident in their abilities and social um value I guess it happened in in three steps I didn't know we were poor and then I found out we were poor and I found out we were poor when one year my teacher Miss Rich she said you got to come to school with canned food and box food so we could give to the poor families and I come home I'm like Mom my homework assignment this tonight is to go to school I gotta pick through the cupboards and give canned foods and boxed foods from a homework assignment tomorrow she's like well you ain't going to school with no food like Mom but I'm I'm gonna fail the class I'm gonna I'm gonna get a fail on my on my grade I have to turn this in well I guess you gonna get a fail because you ain't leaving this house with no food so I go to school empty-handed I don't you know complete the assignment then I see my the rich white kids coming up the corridor I'm like hey what's up Brent what up Brad what you guys doing here yeah we came here to bring the food to the poor family I'm like oh really so I started walking with them and we go to my house make weight that food's for us we qualified and the school gave us that food and that's when I realized we were poor so I go back to school and they made fun of me for a couple of days William he's William's poor we dropped the food off in his house this one girl comes up to me she's like William are you poor how can you be poor if you always wear suits to school because my mom used to make us wear suits so it wasn't like a uniform school it was like dressed the way you want to dress but my mom put me in suits every day and so the kids were like why do you always wear suits to school how could you be poor and my mom would say you ain't going to school with no play clothes you're going you ain't going to school to play you're going to school to learn so you put on these like you go to church to learn about God you're going to church to learn about you know life and so put the suit on so although there were like four or five people that were saying I was the poor kid that got the food but then the rest of the kids were like no William's not poor look if you always wear suits to school you guys are lying that became my cloth to express yourself because that that drape that attire um separated me from the gang separated me from your poor you're not you're you're part of the have-nots um and uh expression just wanted to express sometimes mom used to say uh Willie what you doing nothing get your butt over here what's wrong ma what did I say about saying the word nothing even if you sit there breathing say I'm breathing or you're thinking about something you don't got no business saying you doing nothing so we would have to say what we were doing we couldn't say nothing because you're never doing nothing even if you're breathing even if you're hard speeding whatever you're thinking of you know what you thinking about nothing well you need to start thinking about something we could she didn't settle for that you know so let's talk about creativity then because this is what you're really I mean this is one of the many things you're really really known for so is it possible to become more creative and how does that happen okay let's say it's 1983. yeah let's go to the past now I was minus nine or if you're 1993 okay I was one if you're in 1993 and you're a musician the way to be more creative is to look at Prince look at Prince because Prince was like the ultimate creative Force and the way Prince became creative is he looked at Stevie Wonder he's like wait he plays the keyboards the drums the bass he writes the songs okay and Stevie Wonder was Ultra creative because he looked at Marvin Gaye he looked at Ray Charles but looking from a different perspective obviously because Stevie Wonder can't see but he he uh felt he was inspired by he was motivated by so if you want to be creative more creative you have to one compete you have to be super analytical on yourself and who you're competing against you have to be elevated you have to take yourself from where you are now and position yourself and see the terrain you have to be curious humble and a predator all at the same time you have to do all those things to be ultra hyper creative you have to be humble till you walk in the room and you attract because nobody wants a freaking sin you know perspectives to a dick to an arrogant ass no at some point in time if you're too arrogant people stop sending you information people don't they want to see you they want you to fail and they start sending you information for you to fail when you're arrogant so you got to get rid of that be humble you have to be you have to be a predator you have to walk into a room ready to eat but but you can't eat everything because then you have to be selective on what you eat what about hard work hard work hard work is relative because to some well this is not hard work this is just what I do my pinky to my lung my pinky thinks my lung is working hard because I have to tell my pinky when to move my mind my mind ain't have has no control over my lungs my lungs are working involuntarily if I tell my lungs to stop I could do that but then it's gonna kick in on its own my heart is even more involuntary I can't will like okay okay stop stop now stop you've been beaten for freaking 48 years I mean you need to take a break that's what it does you cannot yeah you can meditate you could slow your heart rate down but you can't make it stop bro so hard work is relative to watch Oregon or who or what environment you're working in and then there's tools what tools do you need to be hyper creative you need humble heart you need a fierce competitive Predator type of um Vibe as well you have to be disciplined because you can't eat everything you have to be elevated you have to see everything and you have to be magnetic you have to attract everything what about failure and then also the goals of creativity because one of the things I think the two things are kind of linked to fear failure and then what is the goal of creativity because if I if my if I set myself I've just started learning to DJ about a year ago and if my goal is to become the biggest DJ in the world that might make me fearful it's a huge mountain to climb and that might make me scared of failures so I might not start but real creative scenes from what I've observed they don't seem to really give much of a [ __ ] about the outcome as much as other people do and I've so what is that you know what is the right goal for creativity and how does what role does fear and failure play in being a good creative the reason why you're fearful is because you're worried about what people think it's true and if you're worried about what people think then maybe true creative is not what you are you just got the costume of creative on because creativity when you're creating and it's like a a rinse whether the rents a sponge absorbs and eventually you got to rinse it out so it can absorb more do you think a sponge is like oh man I don't want people to judge how I'm rinsing myself out oh I'm gonna make a mess sponge ain't thinking about that people like are you talking about SpongeBob well like no bro I'm talking about just like the metaphor of absorbing and rinsing or let's say vomiting it's powerful you can't control it and that's creativity and some people would be like yeah that's right will you'll the stuff you make is like vomit you make me no if that's what you think I don't care I have to let it out it's like [ __ ] now people could say yeah well I am your [ __ ] is like [ __ ] but I'm gonna ask you which farmer does not need manure to grow and cultivate you need it you cannot Farm without it you can't grow anything without it it's like cycles of life and creativity is that the more the moment you start worried about people's opinion then you definitely by default are not a creative you're doing it for the wrong reasons what is the right reasons to let it out to rinse yourself it's like you absorb you rinse nothing you said is about the impact it then has on the world or others well no that's a different tool right and then once you once you really once you master it like I absorbed I rinse and that becomes therapeutic and you see in how that helps you then you're like wow wait if it's helping me well then I can be strategic and I could do something to help others first it has to help you you make sense of the world and whatever it is you're doing whether you're painting you're cooking you're teaching you're tutoring you're making songs you're making dance you're writing films you're doing journals whatever it is you're doing you would have absorbed the world and rinsed and contributed in some way that brings progress to yourself and others quick one before we get back to this episode just give me 30 seconds of your time two things I wanted to say the first thing is a huge thank you for listening and tuning in to the show week after week means the world to all of us and this really is a dream that we absolutely never had and couldn't have imagined getting to this place secondly it's a dream where we feel like we're only just getting started and if you enjoy what we do here please join the 24 of people who watch this channel regularly and have hit that subscribe button means more than I can say and if you hit that subscribe button here's a promise I'm going to make to you I'm gonna do everything in my power to make this show as good as I can now and into the future we're going to deliver the guests that you want me to speak to and we're going to continue to keep doing all of the things you love about the show thank you thank you so much back to the episode relationships what role do you because I I didn't get into relationship until I was like really until I was like 28. again I thought it was a hindrance on my chances of professional success and then at some point I felt lonely I didn't know what loneliness really was but I just could feel something what's the point you know when you have this Mission I'm I'm Mission driven I'm like what are we trying to accomplish what am I trying to accomplish 10 years from now what's my Five-Year Plan was my ten year plan how did I do my last five year tenure and uh if there's someone that can help you that you could relate to to help you ship this vision from the in your mind to the Future I have a different understanding of relationship It's like because you want to relate with someone that you could ship things with whether you're shipping in a PCU to the Future or you're shipping a piece of you to the Future and if you could relate to that person and help you on your journey that's awesome it all depends on what you're shipping what's it like to be in your head I know that's hard because you've never been in someone else's but you know you probably figured out from conversations that you think in a different way yeah so thinking a lot I think a lot I'm always thinking not about nothing I'm always thinking about something like it's very rare that I'm just sitting around like oh wow look at that Chandelier I'm thinking like I wonder how they made how much that weigh what a material is that like I'm always thinking and analyzing everything I'm like a scanner every time every moment and that can be overbearing to somebody you're in a relationship that could close them up that can like wait wait that that's not good That's not healthy and uh and I realized that took a long time for me to realize that where I gotta turn that off I didn't know there was an off switch is that one no there's not an off switch but there is like a volume nah volume number okay um but uh I don't know how to not like wait that say that again I don't know how to just take especially with somebody you're in a relationship with I don't know how to take like oh we're just we're just at the beach the whole time you don't want to go down to explore to see how deep this ocean is you just want to chill here on the beach I can't listen let's go down to the let's go to try to find the crevices let's go down deep deep deep and that's saying no let's just sunbathe it's just stay on the beach and that's cool if I'm not a beach guy I'm a deep diver I'm a freaking I like the abyss I like to be like yo look what in the what look at that I like that I like to freaking explore I like to research I like to explain microwave this doesn't make any sense at all let's try to make sense of it all let's try to make sense of it like I like that I love that you have ADHD right you've referred to it as the gift of ADHD it's funny because I'm trying to figure out your relationship with Stillness and silence doesn't seem I mean from what you said we're assuming that an electron and a proton and a neutron all have the same tasks and goals so the electron that I am the concept of Stillness and silence is you have no purpose because the whole purpose of an electron is to do that does it close to that though that seems exhausting the cost of that if you're coming from the perspective of the proton looking at the electron was around it but you got to know who you are in the equation I'm the electron that's cool you kick it there Neutron State it's cool you still but the proton has something the electron doesn't have in the Pro and the electron has something the protein doesn't approach yeah have but they're not supposed to do the same thing and they both have costs and like they have a good like a light side and a DOT or a cost and a gift do they so I think of like I've been I'm I would say I'm more whizzing around electron generally so I'm just playing devil's advocate here because when I've when I've come into my girlfriend's proton world where things may be a little bit Stiller there has been gifts to that there's been gifts to that and I hear everything you're saying about to be in a relationship you need to be able to lay on the beach I can't lay on the beach but I know that's what my girlfriend wants of me she wants me to be present with her and not to think about the future and to think about where we are right now yeah but there's a way to do it from an electronic perspective how um is to really look at the word relationship and relate even though you can't relate you have to uh have empathy understanding of what their contribution is and support and and be there so it from the perspective of the electron it is still for the electron you think the electrons like man I'm tired I'm tired of whizzing around you the whole time that's not what what's going on in the electron's mind yeah to the electron I'm still and I am still going around it's all the perspective of the word steel there's Steel and then there's constant still which still are you are you the one that's still and you're just like Steel s-t-e-e-l and your Steel or are you still and that is still moving still at in it no matter how you look at it it's still still because from the perspective and the empathy of that electron moving it is still from the from the POV of what who's viewing it it's moving but the electron I am still and I will still be moving and gravitating around you and I could still think and add to your life as I do the things that I do to add to life but the moment you stop doing what you're doing then it's no longer a relationship because they can't relate to what you're doing and what you're adding and now you're conforming and changing when Maybe that's not what you're supposed to do or maybe you didn't you weren't candid and forthcoming enough to make true understanding to stand under the circumference and know the ledge of what it is you do together you speak of almost like a recent Epiphany when you say like realizing that there was this off button even though you don't think the offense necessarily there where do you sit now with the concept of finding like a life partner and getting married and having kids and all that stuff and is there work to be done is it finding the right person or is it an inward piece of work that needs to be done in your view and is it something you you want I want to have kids I I'm I'm going to be an awesome dad if you were to ask me this uh 10 years ago I would have a different answer really why has it changed and what is it now and what was it then that you don't do a family until you completed the ultimate or my version of ultimate my my version of ultimate is to be able to be of assistance and help and provide and service folks that resemble the lifestyle that I live the hardships that I lived without having to ever raise money ever again 10 years ago yeah yeah what I know now I would have had a kid you would have had a kid 10 years ago if I know what I know now yes why I was moving too fast and I thought the only way to get up the mountain is to move the way I moved when I was at the foothill to get to the middle of the mountain and now that I'm up the mountain you're thinking that I'm doing I'm gonna do it by myself still and the purpose of me getting up the mountain was to take care of my mom and that was my motivation that was my guess that was my electricity that was my energy to take care of my family hunter-gatherer to go out and bring back to the Village I didn't know what I didn't know then now that I know would I be able to get up the mountain with family and Offspring to take the information that I have and pass it on have knowledge here have knowledge of my DNA who do I pass it to if something were to happen to me like it's like different type of knowledge that you just don't say someone it's like it's in me it store to me somebody gave me this your mom and my grandma and my Grandma's Grandma and my grandmother's grandma that person had a different life my grandma was born in 1920. my Grandma's Grandma was born in 18 something that means it hadn't wow that person was working in the field in somebody's Factory in some unknown company but in America just called it slavery like that wasn't that long ago so but that information was passed on to me passed on to me resilience tolerance hope living in a different world so your Offspring can have a different life I'm a recipient of that but when you're hustling and bustling you think that oh no I gotta wait to the ultimate was I wrong now that I can look back at my he was wrong but I was right still wrong would I be a would I be further along in my journey a little bit more organized yes why because something would have forced me to be organized it's not just for myself now even though it was never for myself it was always for my mom and my family I would have had even more regiment I would have even more streamlined aerodynamics so that could you know you know cut through corners you know and uh make tighter turns keep the downwinds it would be a little bit more aerodynamic had I you know so yeah nothing will stop you if you have kids probably just going to motivate you more but I couldn't see that back then um but I'm gonna be an uh awesome dad when I'm when I'm a dad but I want to be a full-time dad and I realize that I don't have to be the the the the the the juggler um anymore before I had to do it all because no one really believed and so I always had to prove I had to like be the creative understand business sit in the business meetings co-manage come up with the artwork execute the artwork learn illustrator learn Photoshop do the album artwork hand it off to somebody else to fine tune what you sketched up um plan the tour with your man like I had to do it all but probably because a part of me didn't trust that someone cared as much as I cared but now I don't have to do it like that anymore I've got to a point where now I could assemble teams and fun teams now I'm the financier I don't have to worry about somebody's financing me that's a different that's like that's an exhale and so with that exhale if I when I'm a dad I could be a I could be um a full-time dad as my understanding of full-time which I'll still be I'll still be working just not working the way I'm working now I don't know I don't I don't want to work the way I used to work why uh not anymore not anymore I was a proton for the planet and just going around the planet um the longest I've been home since 1998. was all of the majority of 2002. and then the majority of 2020 like everyone else outside of those two years the longest that I've been in one place it's been two months since 1998 oh gotta go oh I'm here for two months see you later be back two weeks gotta go got and I've been doing that since night like I don't want to do that no more so you're speaking to a change perspective and I'm wondering because for me in my life there had to be a symptom there had to be something I noticed where I go do you know what I'm doing something not right here so for me I talked about it being that kind of almost this feeling of loneliness that I didn't realize was the feeling of loneliness it was this emptiness in my chest when you go to the office seven days a week and then you look at your phone and go who are my friends like who is my partner like tuning out of survival mode tuning out of that and tuning into like Thrive like how do I thrive as a human being is what made me shift so really I'm curious about the symptoms that you notice in your life that made you go I don't want to do that anymore no but I never had that really what's your explain no I had my best friends that I grew up with and we lived our Dream to the highest level imaginable kids that were broke Apple my best friend who came from the Philippines who I Started Black Eyed Peas with he comes from a province in the Philippines where he pumped water out the ground he washed his clothes on the riverbed he farmed rice with his pet bison he did he experienced a different level of poverty taboo single mom his dad was in the gangs and we started the Black Eyed Peas and we live the what wait how how do we do this guys no one believed in US now we're playing Super Bowls World Cups multiple Grammys taking care of our families no bro like this is the biggest blessing one could imagine loneliness how can I be lonely I'm with my best friends so why change because I live 10 years from now I've always seen 10 years from now always I don't know what it was but when I was 13 I'm like I'm gonna buy you a house how old was I when I bought my mama house a little off I was 20 6. I wanted to do it well I still did it well then 10 years from there I was like Ma how about everyone else in the list we still our aunts our uncles and our niece or my Grandma we're still at the projects we're still going back to the projects on holidays we need we need to do a whole Exodus she was like that's what you want to do twink moved everybody out um and when I got everyone else out I'm like well I gotta go back to the neighborhood because there's people that we grew up with and they have kids now let's start a robotics program there start a computer science program there so that when they in a college prep program so that when they graduate college they have skills that are needed not just send kids to college so that when they graduate they have debt at a diploma so we did that and there's purpose so I want to be purposeful so if I could see 10 years from now okay at some point in time my tenure looking around the corner one day I'll be 70. one day I'll be Tom Jones age I'll be 80. I'm like I I just stopped I don't pass it on that's what happens here no that's not responsible you know it's not it's not that's not a responsible thing to do so you gotta pass on knowledge you got to pass on gifts for me it's a gift the little kid on the bike you know have good intentions I wanted it's all for the good um and I wanna I wanna pass it on you said you're living 10 years in the future of five years in the future there must be a cost to that when people talk and you know spiritual people talk about what pieces and happiness is they talk about presence you strike me as someone from what you've said that is my struggle with the concept of being present when you're five years in the future and this kind of leads into a point where people talk about the tortured creative that is like very you know cognitively um active how does how does one square being a creative that's living five years in the future with peace happiness presence and calm and and what's your story in that regard like I said we're assuming that a proton a neutron an electron all should have the same role to make an atom in actuality they all have different roles and the moment an electron acts like a proton then an atom's not an atom anymore so I got out of my predicament because I didn't live in my current reality had I lived in my current reality I would still be in my reality that was constructed for me so I had to live in this realm that was dreamed of and my whole premise was to manifest that dream with strategy so I had to I had to live as if it was real I had to live like I already moved my mom out to projects I had to live like this gang doesn't want me I'm no use for this gang why even get initiated in being and live that gang life let me just keep wearing these suits because these suits that my mom made me I was my attire for the world that I'm going to be living in you have to live you if you living in some place that you know that you don't belong you know you don't belong there why are you stuck in that so in my mind I have to always been that way unfortunately I can't change how my makeup is so I'm constantly if it got me out of that it's gonna get me out of this and where we are right now my people that live in communities that reflect where I come from are still in some version of that so in 2008 I started my Foundation started with 65 students and I and my gut was like yo let me surround them with robotics and computer science skill sets so I went out in the world absorbed these these skill sets these tools met um Jack dangerman from esri met Dean Cayman from uh Deca and first robotics Lorraine Powell jobs from college track my vision was to take these three independent entities duct tape them together to make a cluster to give a new type of project-based learning to kids 65 kids that's 65 kids from 2008 to now now we serve 15 almost 15 000 students in Los Angeles we've sent kids to Dartmouth to Brown to Stanford to Georgetown because in 2008 I was living right now I knew that because the way technology was going that kids in the inner cities are going to be super um conflicted with the way the world's going and the amount of jobs that are going to disappear I thought I was just going to be like blue collar jobs I don't think it's gonna be white collar jobs I don't think kids in the suburbs were going to be you know impacted by you know this nude this new digital age like we've seen the last one but this generative stuff yo bro thank God we were doing what we're doing in 2008. thank God we have you know a fleet um a herd of amazing Engineers out of the out of you know the inner cities of LA and now we want to scale that so 2030 yeah I'm living there right now because there's still work to do I was listening to one of your songs um before you arrived here and it was very curious man that's just literally it was something I think this one was called be nice oh yeah it's called be nice and when I started looking into the song Looking about what you'd said around that song you said I was on a dip in the low part of a roller coaster and you wrote that song because it helped you to change your vibration but also to help other people change their vibrations the dip on the low part of a roller coaster what are the things in in your life that have caused that dip in the lower part of the roller coaster I think men but particularly black men we don't always talk about are mental health or the dip in the low part of the roller coaster so I was super I thought it was wonderful that you um you've made a song about that but also you were speaking so openly about that oh I was reflecting all night in my 1993 18 year old so fat fat uh that path was the hardest path that I've in my life 18. 18 was the hardest because it was uh 30 years ago this time 30 years ago it was March when I had like a it was March of 1993 when I felt something that I've never felt before just like distortion I felt uh that's a perfect word for it dis-ease and disease vibrationally is this is like a disease on a vibrational level like the word disease is really dis-ease of molecular cellular where you're vibrating um there's no Harmony or since of your vibrational field no matter how you look at it and in this case you have a vibration and thought and I was vibrating off and when you're vibrating off you're dark you're vibrating off you panic inks you're hypertension your hyperactivity is um off tilt um and so from March till about August was a very very turbulent time for me when I was 18. and there's nothing wrong with being emotional and when you're creative you're always sensitive like you're hyper sensitive that's a part of creativity like you feel you feel too much um and I feel too much I empathize hardcore um I'm the guy in the aloe vera that talks to strangers I'm the guy that's like some I was walking down the street came out of Tesco somebody's like well I am I'm like hey what's up oh I don't mean to bug you I'm like that's cool but straight up conversation for like 30 minutes with random strangers I like that because I don't I don't ever want to ignore folks that I could shed light on or they could shed light to me you never know what little nuggets that you give or receive um so that song that lyric was just remembering reminding myself of like what that what that period was like for me it was a very very like coming of age I was and I didn't have a a man in my life but do a father in my life to guide me through that my mom did that which probably made me even Ultra feminine which is no I have no shame of being super feminine you know I remember in the 90s we we don't have to support in the LGBT community like now than we did then so growing up in the 90s we're like are you gay like like a lot of people question if I was because I was feminine I'm still feminine I sit the way I sit I act the way I act my mannerisms are my mom's but it was a it was a very uh and I'm strong with my my femininity I think it's a superpower but um that and when when you know who you are when you when you love who you are how you are how you vibe that's what it's about I like girls um never was attracted to men I'm attracted to females but I'm feminine what caused that chapter in your life do you know what that that dark chapter in your life was there a clear causal Distortion is a better word distortion that chapter in your life where you had distortion what weed weed okay yeah it was the uh it's chemicals you said shame and guilt as well you said use those words yeah I was shameful because I did something that I knew hurt my mom right you know like you were smoking and that her head hanging low like did I do it what is my son out there doing you know but trouble is he getting into what is it going to lead to I saw her panic I felt her panic I felt her worry I felt her concern do you still do you still have have you had moments of distortion since it's usually when um when you make errors you hurt people indirectly um clumsily irresponsible when you when when you let people down that you love when I let people down that I love I distort is Distortion different from depression and your definition is there a difference oh yeah big difference Distortion leads to depression okay like um let's take this water right and this metal cup if I fill it up to the top um and I don't move this table the water is still no matter how I fill it up it could be straight to the top if you don't interrupt the table the water is not going to spill Distortion is when I start to shake the table and if I shake the table fast enough it could shatter the glass it could crack it if I shake this at the right frequency that doesn't disrupt the table but can mess up the object shattering the glass or or obstructing with the form of this is depression shaking the table causing it to spill is distortion have you experienced anxiety before a lot of creative speak to anxiety and when are you thinking about that shaking table it made me feel of it gave me that and the the thing that I could liken it to was anxiety unfortunately it comes with the territory of um futurist futurism you are experiencing something that hasn't happened yet because your imagination is already created plausible like realistic scenarios and you're already feeling the emotion so that unfortunately comes with the territory of having a hyper imagination and living over there does not mean that you live in anxiety Then no if you live in the future because once you're aware of that then you know that's what it is it's like the difference between the shower and the rain people run in the Wayne and stand in the shower it's the difference between bikinis and draws people go to the beach when nothing on but get afraid when you see them in their underwear expectations right it's expectations it's like once you're aware of you getting wet you ain't tripping once you wear that you're going to the beach with nothing on you're not tripping so once I'm aware that I'm thinking over there I don't have to have emotions there okay so the moment I start having a motion for future casting then I'm doing it wrong the the anxiety comes when it's things that are happening that you didn't control and you're now having emotions because your imagination is now thinking of the outcomes of things that are out of your control now when you're future casting and you're seeing stuff you are controlling looking around the corner I am purposely looking there and then putting my imagination to work on thinking what do I have to do now strategically between now 5 10. FYI FYI is world's brand new app which is launch now and the whole purpose of the FYI is to help creators organize collaborate and communicate in one place rather than having all of these different communication channels and digital assets spread across all of these different products that we might use today yeah I had this problem last night I was on like Monday over here to do list over here I'm on Google clouds over here Google Sheets here and I and when I opened up FYI this morning I can see from where we're on the road map looking into the future how having all of that in one space with AI as kind of the the agent to power a lot of the the knowledge work I guess is a really special combination um FYI is now available on the App Store I got it this morning um everybody should go and check it out and I'm really excited if you're starting here what the roadmap looks forward for the future because I can see the mission um so fyi.ai is like we're at 1.0 4.0 I do you understand how awesome of a platform FYI is going to be it's also equipped with elliptical curve cryptography methodologies because during covert nfts and blockchain told us that you know protect your assets I mean here's the key but why isn't the same type of key architecture and and product structure how come it's not for my data on Messengers why am I not given the key to our own my digital assets when my digital assets are the data itself why is it just for nfts and crypto so on FYI yes there's Messengers that are encrypted end to end but where's the key if you're not issued a key that the company itself doesn't have we ensure that your data and your stuff is your stuff what is yours is yours how you speak is how you speak and when it comes to Ai and mimic machines none of us own our face and none of us own our voice I own the publishing to my songs you could copyright and you could create ndas to protect your IP but when it comes to you every human being walking in the age of AI who owns our Essence and our likeness then why aren't we talking about that enough the Drake AIS yeah it's it's it was a buzz and it's still going to continue to buzz but shouldn't Drake own his likeness in his essence why is that legal why is it legal that Biggie Smalls is wrapping a Tupac verse that was actually about him like why is that I can't take a Nike Swoosh Nike owns a swoosh but I don't own my face in my voice Beyonce don't own her face from her voice but Adidas own stripes something's not right for people so as FYI grows that encryption key 1.0 versus 5.0 the vision that we have what we want to go how we need the community to help us get there I want to build the people's tool I want to build a company that where people own their data a hundred percent of it I am not my identity to my driver's license and my my uh social security number and my passport I'm my data on my searches I'm my freaking spell check I am my voice I am my facial unlocked with the Machine Vision I am all that stuff on my location on my address book it could predict me but why can't I have power of that why why I could say I want to weigh 194 pounds by November 24th 2024. I currently weigh 210 pounds which app would you like to use you can't do that right now there's no aspirational GPS and for aspirational GPS that means the system has to be mine not me have access to a system I have a record deal because at one point in time it was expensive to record now recording is ubiquitous everybody could do it so why do I have a record deal so what is luxury when it comes to what's premium what's the highest way of creating at some point in time making films and recording music was the highest level of creating painting for the freaking for the uh for the for the monarchy or for the church was the highest level of creating now you can just do it on your phone but the highest level of creating right now is building models to build models and compute expensive so tomorrow people are going to be training their own models right that's an unheard of deal right now like we we know the folks that are spinning out models of these companies but soon compute's going to come down and there's going to be new models that are going to be just as powerful as GPT some 15 year old right now it's dreaming right now when they're 25 that person is going to have his own motto and his own company and it's going to be morally sound for people in the communities because greed not not saying that the models right now are greedy I'm not saying that but watch what happens in 2023 we're going to be driven by love because the concept that we had and that we're baking it off of with Terminator that's not sustainable that's not that's fear and if you're going to base it off of movies then go Star Wars not Terminator Star Wars there's multiple models there's multiple robots they all speak different [ __ ] languages but there's Jedis and Jedi is a different yes there was a dark force yes there was siths but there's [ __ ] Jedis yeah and if this is gonna take us to where we are better humans to one another then [ __ ] bring it because we can't get any worse than we already are with one another and I'm speaking that as a black person we've seen what people can do to people it can't get any more worse so bring it the optimism bring it let's be better people let's love better let's empathize better let's freaking serve better let's care better right let's use the tool for that because if we're mimicking that's what they're fearful of people are fearful of what people do yeah people are gripped by AI at the moment um they're terrified they are excited where do you sit and if you if you were talking to those kids in the inner city about Ai and what they need to know about it um what would you be saying if I go to the inner city I'm telling kids hey our whole entire life has been set up for us to fail our investment for education has that they've undermined our investment to where other neighborhoods are getting a bigger investment for their education than us the way they've zoned our communities we have liquor stores next to check cashing next to bad food next to bad food our teachers are not being you know invested in to teach us the things that we need to learn we have no financial literacy so when we get our checks we cash our checks and then we spend it on bad stuff our understanding of money is to spend it to pay bills we're not even taught to grow it we've been set up to fail AI didn't do that people did that now here's a tool for us to solve our problems ourselves now grab it while you can and we are now our own Calvary right because the people that are afraid are not the people here we've already went through the worst and survived the worst conditions of life are these folks afraid oh oh those but the ones that are responsible for our zoning and got it okay cool now let's let's build a better world let's educate ourselves with this tool let's understand that it is a tool let's understand that there's these biases there let's try to solve those biases so that what is the ultimate dream my Ultimate Dream is like wow we all know this wave we see it coming it could be good or it could be bad it's going to be good when we're mindful of what our contributions are to prepare people for this wave we have to prepare folks and got to do information inspiration preparation motivation and um you know mentorship so that they can activate their creativity to unearth tomorrow's Industries because this wave is going to topple yesterday's Industries today's Industries if you're a lawyer and you work at a law firm and you do redlining on contracts that's not what you're doing in 2030. if you're an accountant and you're counting counting beans and penny pinching that's not what you're doing in 2030. if you're a cashier at a at a retail you're probably not doing that 2030. if you're a bus driver Uber driver taxi driver that's not what you're doing in 2030. because you're seeing the construct of what tomorrow is now you're dealing with machines that could go and pivot from subject to subject go deep to subjects in ways that people can't writing songs making pictures mid Journeys freaking crazy it's the most amazing tool that ever like yo mid Journeys nuts for people that don't know mid journey is a tool that uses um text to create generative images of whatever you type in in seconds so if you're a marketer if you're like a artist that works for a brand if you're an agency that works for brands this technology is going to give super creatives agency so why do they need agencies just the vast transformation and for hyper creatives that now they just need a new tool to help them like and just birth stuff it's a new Renaissance the ultimate the Ultimate Dream if you're preparing up a section of the world that's whose problems have always been ignored to now go out and solve those problems with this tool are you using this tool to make songs you know it's gonna make better songs than you it's Pac-Man right now we ain't even got the Halo it's we're in freaking Super Mario Brothers we even got to Call of Duty yet this thing's gonna make better songs than you soon bro the song's out already a pretty dope I've talked about that in this podcast before that Drake song with the no but the Drake song Still required somebody to sing it and then they layer a plug-in over it to make it sound like Drake oh I heard a song that didn't I heard yo this new tech out of here but more importantly I saw it in 2010 in my mind's eye I was like yo no no no if I'm in this computer that means it's compute wait what I'm in the computer making music I'm not I'm not a musician like Prince or freaking Stevie Wonder I make music because I can make the computer make music and with machine learning that means eventually the computer is going to remember how I made it to make music and eventually just make it itself maybe even publish it itself maybe even not even tell you no no no no wait like say if you're making something on Adobe you're also Pro you're making Adobe smarter at creating records so you know why does why does Adobe eventually need the person hitting the buttons or with the ideas when it can learn from a million of those and then it can also track the outcome does that become a Smash Hit and it's going okay so when they did this to me you know what I mean the film oppenheimer's into Cinemas shortly and the Oppenheimer was the guy who was in the world war was told to go out to make the nuclear bomb and that is almost what I'm scared about in this current AI race where China or Russia or another country versus the US they're all in a race to create the most powerful artificial intelligence system but also to use it for defensive purposes but also attacking purposes um offensive purposes and when an intelligence is a hundred times smarter than the smartest human that world is the world where I go are we do we realize what we're getting ourselves into is this another up and Homer moment where we create something that has the capabilities to destroy Humanity um that's what's I haven't figured out yet but for everything that we create a hammer we don't make hammers a hammer can kill how many you know a screwdriver a vehicle an airplane electricity um lights everything that we advance hmm the first caveman that found a freaking flame on a branch imagine all the folks at some point in time when they first had a branch with flame on it they were like yo you can burn the village down and some Villages burned down because that was the capacity of that weapon the capacity of this weapon is it can think for itself and take down civilization and that's the the difference is like going from the hammer which can probably take a couple people out can't think for itself and then you go right up to artificial intelligence where it has a propensity to be smarter than all of us and you know if programmed with malicious intent I like your optimism yeah but but at the same time like who's responsible for the people that are living in villages in Africa that are clearly living under an abundance of resources but can't benefit from those but is that hey I did that no that's humans humans at that so what you're saying it's not it's not the AI that you're afraid of 100 yes it's people the people it's the people maybe AI is to push us to love because we can't outlogic logic if Will I Am has it that's what will happen if Putin has it I'm not sure like a hammer like if you would create something dope with a hammer Putin might hit me with it like I would create something like MC Hammer yeah exactly but can't touch this but yeah we have a closing tradition on this podcast where the last guest leaves a question for the next guest not knowing who they're leaving it for and the person that's left this question for you I think you know them um the question is what would be your superpower if you were if you could be a superhero and why it feels quite somebody asked me that yeah should I say who is Rita Aura oh Rita Ora that's uh she's my fave I love Rita but she didn't know it was for you get the frick out she just writes it in the book I didn't tell her who's coming next oh wow so usually I don't tell people who's written it but I figured you might know her so yeah I've worked with her many years and recorded songs that we never released but yeah I love Rita she was sat there yesterday she's awesome it's gonna sound super like uh cheesy or corny I would be Particle Man my my superpower will be I could I can influence particles to vibrate harmoniously because that's the concept of love it's when everything's vibrating harmoniously and there's uh that would be the ultimate superpower are you vibrating harmoniously right now in life and life at the moment no um because I feel too much and when you feel it affects your vibration um and then it takes a while to make sense of what you're absorbing you rinse out and that and you repeat but in that process of absorb rinse repeat um you learn more about environments that you're in people that you're around and your curiosity my curiosity um and search for knowledge like why did I go to CERN I'm gonna go next in two weeks and then they send me emails all the time hey Will we're here you're going to be in Geneva you want to come down to CERN um just come see our you know advancements and learn more I just like to know as much as possible I don't and when you in my pursuit of knowing um causes some distortion oh there's nothing wrong with a little bit Jimi Hendrix there's nothing wrong with a little bit of distortion can't just be consumed by it sorry with amplification comes some Distortion as you amplify and to get the word out or to get the vibe out you know just got to be aware of of how you're amplifying um not turn up too loud or too fast and that's you know double entender is on turnout um but uh yeah so no I'm not um that would be my superpower is though but the name particle man's whack particles but um yeah vibration manuals I don't know Vibes man I don't know yeah um super Vibes yeah yeah super Vibes on a particle level and that will be like as soon as as soon as as soon as a [ __ ] wants to [ __ ] around and do some wow [ __ ] he just like zapping with some super Vibes and change alter the particles because that's where we're all made of that down every molecule every cell um and if you could and if you could put Consciousness on a particle level that's a uh some awesome sauce well thank you um in many respects you are super Vibes because you've created a lot of awesome stuff and you've brought um brought people's Vibes into harmony certainly mine with your with all that you've created with your art with your creativity walking through your studio your office in Los Angeles was a real trip into a decade's time it was a glimpse into the future in many respects I remember looking at some of the stuff you'd created in there the backpacks and I remember all of these dope inventions and that I saw in that space and to meet you it kind of makes sense now when you talk about living in the future with that of course comes um a disharmony I think like and that's what you you've spoken to as well I think a lot of creatives have that feeling of like dis-ease um I think it comes with wanting to bring about the future and that impatience that comes with all of that I really do hope you find the the personal Harmony that you spoke of this the the next passing it on to somebody I really do hope you find that because I think I do agree you'd make an absolutely incredible father oh thanks because you're so you're so lucky you're so built on love which I think is a Real Testament to your mother thank you thank you for being here today it's a real honor to get to spend some time with you you're someone that admire greatly for all of the creative reasons I've said but also just as a human being quick one you guys know that for years now my office is quite literally been everywhere on a plane in the back of my car in a terminal in an airport or on a train you name it I've probably worked there ever since I started my first business at 19 years old I've been working on the move all I need is Wi-Fi a desk and my headphones and I'm set and one of the places that has always had my back when I'm struggling to find an office is wework I've been using wework for years now whether it's in Manchester Chester London Manhattan or La wework is easy it literally requires no thinking there's no stress of finding the perfect working location wework does it all for you plenty of desk space meeting rooms collaboration spaces drinks snacks it's all there so for your next remote working trip away from the office or if you want a new Fresh space to work in then don't just work anywhere wework might just be your answer and you can get 25 off your first six months of rework all access by using Code CEO works that's one word CEO works and to redeem this offer visit we.com CEO Works quick one if you've been listening to this podcast for some time one of the recurring messages you've heard over and over and over again especially when we first had that conversation with Tim Spector is about the importance of Greens in our diet and a while ago I started pressing my friends at hewell to come out with a product that did exactly that allowed you to have all those greens the vitamins and minerals you need in a drink and after several several several months of iterations and processes they released this product called huel Daily Greens which is now one of my favorite products from heel because it tastes great and it fills that very important nutritional Gap that I had in my diet the problem is it launched in the U.S and it sold out straight away and became a Smash Hit for fuel for the rare reasons I've described it's now back in stock in the United States but it's not here in the UK yet so if you're a UK listener which I know a lot of you are it's not yet available so let's all attack you let's DM them everywhere we can and tell them to bring huel Daily Greens to the UK this is the product when it is available in the UK I'm going to let you know first but until then let's spam their DMs [Music] oh [Music] foreign

Channel: The Diary Of A CEO

Views: 97,123

Keywords: The Diary Of A CEO, steven bartlett steve bartlett, podcast, the diary of a CEO podcast, life lessons, CEO

Id: 1m-2QhqdlfI

Length: 80min 23sec (4823 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 31 2023