I have no clue who Larry King is.
Never heard of him.
Up until I watched this interview by Lewis Howes though.
“I feel like I don’t need to introduce today’s guest on The School of Greatness.” That’s what the first sentence on Lewis’ blog post promoting the interview says. Well, this might be true for the rest of the world. But I don’t know shit about what’s going on out there because I read no newspapers, watch no TV and hide at home all day long.
So, yeah…
Here are my take-aways from the interview:
1) Everyone is fucking scared
Larry King nearly shit himself in his first LIVE radio broadcast. He couldn’t sleep the whole weekend before his first day at work in his new profession on Monday morning. When the show started at 9 AM he couldn’t find the courage to open his mouth. He just couldn’t get any words out.
But then his boss gave him a kick in the butt and eventually he manned up. He told himself: “Look Larry, you are here, doing the exact thing you ALWAYS wanted to do in your life. Now you got a chance and you can’t do it because you are too scared?”
Eventually he overcame his fear and opened his first broadcast with: “Good morning, this is Larry King. All my life I wanted to be in broadcasting and this is my first day ever on the air, and I am scared to death. So please, bare with me…”
People loved it. Because people love to relate to other people. And Larry made himself VERY relatable with this first opening statement. Because everyone can recall experiences in their own life where they were scared to death going for something new.
But people also admire the ones who overcome this fear. It’s true courage. We love witnessing this act of bravery in others so much because it makes us believe we can do it too.
We can ALSO stop being scared.
And become brave and courageous.
2) Comedians see the world in a brighter light
And because everyone is scared to death of all the things which MIGHT HAPPEN VERY SOON!!!1111 we are looking for distractions, fixes and some form of security.
Laughing is a great way to feel OK again. We just don’t do it very often. And that’s why I admire comedians. Because they allow me to see the fun, when I tell myself that there is none.
When I get depressed, I watch Louis C.K.
There is something magical comedians seem to have which allows them to see things in a different light. A lighter light, if you will. They find fun and humour in tragic everyday events, disappointments and failures.
They are masters of seeing the good side of EVERYTHING and turn shitty events into funny bits for their next standup.
We should all learn from them.
3) You can’t prepare for life
Larry King walked in circles the weekend before his first live broadcast. He practiced in the mirror in his apartment the day before and couldn’t sleep. He was awake the whole night, panicking. And then still he messed it up and couldn’t get one word out when it really mattered.
But eventually he figured out that you just have to suck it up. And you just do the best you can (at the given times). And get it over with.
Over time you’ll become better at it all by itself. You’ll get some routine and experience and things get “easier”. Fear and being scared shitless will never go away, but you’ll learn to handle it better.
You will always find yourself in challenging situations, feeling overwhelmed or confused. And you won’t be able to prepare for it in advance. You just learn to deal with it a tiny bit better each new time.
And eventually you’ll cultivate a deep-seated faith into yourself being able to handle the next challenge as good as you did before.
4) People won’t shake their beliefs and you can’t make them to either
Some people belief in the afterlife. Others don’t. Some are religious, others believe in Trump as their next president. There are also some people who believed in Hitler. Just saying.
I belief in angels. And muses. And a divine consciousness connecting everything in the universe to a higher power. And the idea of tapping into this immense wisdom at any time, allowing yourself to create something bigger and better than yourself.
Other’s again don’t share these beliefs. But that’s OK. Because I can’t make you change your beliefs. And you can’t make me change mine as well.
5) They either like you or they don’t
You just have to do your work. For the work’s sake. You can’t force people to like you for it. Or watch your stuff. Or make them read your awesome blog post and share it with their friends on social media…
*wink*
They either like you or they don’t.
But either way is fine for you, because at some point you stopped doing it for THEM. You do it for them. But not for their approval.
6) Being blind can be an improvement
Larry tells a story about a man who is blind since his birth. Larry interviewed him and this guy always says that he DOESN’T even want to see. How fucked up does this sound to normal seeing people like you and me?
But then he explains that he never experienced what he is missing out in the first place. He tells Larry that he is now free to imagine how he wants things to be like. He can come up with his own idea of what the colour red looks like. He creates his own universe in a way.
Larry then also talks about another guy who lost his eyesight at a later stage in his life. And this guy wanted it back SO BAD. Other than the first blind guy, this one knew what he was missing out and wanted to have it back. He felt inferior after the accident and wanted to restore the old state.
He lacked the will to find acceptance in his new circumstances. He wanted to be somewhere other than the situation he found himself right now. And this mental gap between being somewhere and wanting to be somewhere else got bigger and bigger until it eventually ripped him apart. From the inside.
Don’t be like this guy.
7) ALL WOMEN ARE NUTS!
The lifelong blind guy from before said: “To him, all women are beautiful!” and that’s nice because it teaches us to look at the inside and beyond superficial things. Yadda yadda yadda.
But Larry also said (from his experience – and this guy is a LEGEND as I just learned a couple of minutes ago) that all women are nuts! They just act in irrational ways guided by their weird and ever-changing rollercoaster of emotions.
So they behave in ways no man would EVER act. “Oh, Susan forgot my birthday! I will never talk to that slut again!” And then they end the friendship and never call her again. Only to be STILL pissed about this minor thing when they randomly meet again years later.
What?!
Every man on earth knows this is true from first hand experience. And every women might feel offended by me saying it. But, I also don’t like to be called out on being a lazy, socially awkward nerd, yet it doesn’t change the fact that it’s true.
So deal with it women.
You are nuts.
(But we still love you!)
8) All days are sunny
The blind Daredevil guy from before said: “To me, all days are sunny.” It must be nice to feel that way and have no real evidence that you are wrong about it (aka your eyes telling you that the weather sucks ass today).
So either I need blindness, or just blind faith, good will and some patience.
(Blindness or blind faith. That’s funny…)
9) Things will work out fine
Not even Larry knows why this is true. He doesn’t know WHY things work out, but they always DO.
That’s a good point supporting my blind faith theory from before…
10) Left turn or right turn?
Larry tells another story in the interview where he met a guy who advised him to go to Miami to kickstart his broadcasting career. He said that it’s the best place to get started. So he did it. And then he broke through and became a famous broadcaster in a small studio in Miami.
But what if he would not have met this guy?
Or not have taken his advice?
Who knows.
Sometimes small (and random) events can have HUGE impacts on our lives. The only problem is we just realize their impact looking backwards.
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward.
11) You can picture your castle the way you want
Larry loves radio over TV. Because radio allows you to let your creativity flow freely. In TV everything is set in stone. How people look. What colors. What forms. The voices. The sounds. Everything is done for you. You just absorb. No creative thinking on your part.
As an example he described a long curvy road leading to a castle in the distance in great detail. Now you – as the listener – can paint the castle however you want.
The same goes for everything else in life. If you allow yourself to tap into your creativity and stop being a media-controlled sponge, you are free to paint the scenery just as you wish it to be.
12) Nothing is given to you
You have to work for what you want. Nobody owes you anything. Be grateful for everything you have and eventually receive. But never expect anyone else to fix anything FOR YOU.
And it’s better to learn this lesson early in life…
13) Don’t chase a bus!
Never chase the bus like a mad person. You’ll trip and hurt your knee. And the same applies to “rare opportunities” in life in general.
There will always be another bus.
Don’t stress yourself out about missing out. You don’t.
14) The bus was always coming
OK, that one I added myself. I read this quote in Russell Brand’s My Booky Wook: A Memoir of Sex, Drugs, and Stand-Up. But it fits the last point.
There is this little story in the book where two women are waiting for the last bus at their bus station. The bus is running late and one of the women is getting worried about not getting home anymore, being stuck here in the dark, or getting robbed.
After a long time the bus suddenly appeared at the distance and the worried woman says: “Look! The bus is finally coming! Thank God!” Clearly she was relieved and her worry disappeared.
The other woman said: “My dear, the bus was always coming.”
And there will always be another one as well.
