Unlock Your Purpose: The 3 Questions That Changed My Life | William Rossy DSH #1262

Like, okay, I'm gonna come back. You like tea? We'll have some tea.
He's like, tea? We'll have some wine. Like, damn.
I interviewed a 101-year-old and she's like, I had a beer before wine game and I'm gonna have a cocktail when you leave. And I was like, well, why not with me? You know, why are you waiting both before I come and after I leave? That's hilarious.
All right, guys, we got William here, founder of Sprout. Thanks for joining us today, man.
Thank you for having me. Usually I'm on the other side.
Is this the first for you? No. As a guest? No, no, no.
I'm kind of a few. Which side do you prefer? I prefer mine to be...
I mean, I prefer mine just because I'm used to it. Yeah.
But I love the idea of people asking me questions.

It's always nice to have somebody asking you the question.

I'm the same.

I prefer hosting.

I think guesting is harder.

It's tough.

I mean, especially when you don't know.

Like, I ask really deep questions and some people do it as a joke to me and they'll flip it.

And I'm like, well, I love that. Yeah, you ask deep ones, especially on the elderly interviews, right?

Of course.

Because you want to get deep on those. I want to get deep with everyone, but it's harder to get deep with younger people, just like lack of experience and they're more worried about stuff.
Elder people are very reflective, so it's easier. Yeah, I feel like they're at the stage of their life where they're really thinking about how things played out, right? It's pretty crazy.
They come out with quotes or soundbites that people really get. if you look at my comments sometimes and you see like a big soundbite and for me, I'm like, wow, I could never muster up those words, put them in one sentence and it sounds so poetic.
Um, but I think they probably spend a lot of time reflecting. Yeah.
Probably after 60 or after 50 and they just know what to say. That's a big part of my life actually, not having regrets.
Okay. Because I witnessed that with my families that like my family members, I got older and I didn't want that.
What if I ended up flipping this on you? I want to know more. Well, I mean, just like, I don't want to die with regrets.
A lot of people say that, but like, it really is important for me. So I want to do what I can now.
But your family has regrets? I saw with my dad, I think, who passed away. He never made amends with his parents.
Toxic relationship, physically abused. So that was a big regret for him.
You know, not making amends, I guess. I don't want any bad blood with anyone when I'm on my deathbed.
I want everyone to be forgiven. Right.
It's all good. Yeah.
Yeah. I think people take, I mean, that's a, that's an, a crazy extreme circumstance there with whatever happened, but I think that that's the vision, right? Everybody is sort of worried about, do I, will I get to the end of my life and be happy and satisfied with the way I lived it and the way it played out? And a lot of people right now, I think the answer is no.
Agreed. So it's good that you're doing it at this point.
And you're- That's the first step. Yeah.
That awareness is the first step. Cause some people don't turn on that awareness till they're what in their fifties, sixties, seventies.
But that probably happened because of your, your dad passing. Yeah.
You know? Yeah. That made you hyper aware of maybe time or life.
I think the divorce too. They got divorced when I was in fourth grade.
I was like, what is going on? You know, that's such a young age. You're impressionable.
Yeah. So got some trauma for that for sure.
Right. Yeah.
But, um, now that I talked to successful people, they got the most trauma out of everyone. It's actually insane.
It's like a recipe for success. How do you see now with your interviews too? Yeah.
I think bad times make hardworking people. Yeah, I've understood.
There are also people who have had good times that end up being hardworking. Not as common though.
Not as common. It's interesting.
It's interesting because people take it both ways. You take a bad time, you let it get to you and it just drives you into the ground or you take a bad time, you let it motivate you.
These successful people all seem to be fueled by this and they almost like, from what I've learned, they kind of hate the world, so to speak. They're not mean people and they don't actually hate people, but they use this motivation of having whatever bad stuff happened to them.
I agree. It would be better.
Yeah. I think everyone goes through those pivotal moments.
I can remember a couple in my life where I was like, wow, I could have easily went the other way there. You know? Yeah.
I could have stayed in the life of degeneracy and partying and doing drugs and psychedelics. And I used to be a big stoner.
I could have continued down that route for much longer. Yeah.
What stopped you from doing that? doing that terrible anxiety combined with that just put me in the hospital a few times um almost died actually yeah at a near-death experience so then i was like dude no i can't smoke weed anymore i was really high when i was in the er and now when i smoke i get paranoid that's interesting i've i haven't had like, my life has been good, to be honest.

You know, if I describe my life, it's been really, really nice.

But my bad moments were, you know, different than others.

Like, I think everyone has a bad moment, which is interesting because everyone has a different story.

And it's not fair for me to. Thank you.
I honestly, it's not even fair for me to have said what I just said, like, oh, mine's not as bad as other people's. But you know, I got, I lived like the good, normal life growing up.
And when you live the good, normal life, and you grow up in that part of society, you're expected to do what is what is normal and so for me being normal was uh working in a respectable job going to a good school like the typical like american dream path go to a good school get a good job work there work your way up all that um and i just got pressured into doing that for a very long time And I hated it. I never liked the idea of doing that.
I always wanted to be my, my, an entrepreneur, run my own business, but that was what was expected and what was applauded. If you went the other way, you were not shunned, but almost shunned.
People thought down of you. So my bad time was kind of that.
It was being forced to work in a job that I wasn't happy with being in a relationship I wasn't happy with and looking at myself in the mirror and asking, and asking myself, like, are you as good as you thought you would be at this point in life? You know, it's different than, than what you're saying, your moment. I think everyone listening will have a different moment as well.
Um, but that's the interesting thing I've learned about life is that it doesn't matter how bad it is. Everybody goes through a low point and it's a question of like, how are you going to deal with that? Yeah.
Cause bad is, is relative. It's perspective, right? Yeah.
So everyone's bad can be different for sure. There's no way of comparing, like it's my experience in my life, you know? So I can't tell you that I had it easier.
I had it worse. Yeah.

Just that's what I had.

I had some of that too,

since I'm half Asian actually,

you know, academics was super important.

Right.

And I never, never fit in with a,

was it, was it half important or?

Just never got that 4.0, man.

I remember applying to colleges.

I lied about being Asian because I wouldn't have gotten in, dude.

Oh, interesting.

You know, because they base it off the race, which they should stop doing't have gotten in, dude. Oh, interesting.
You know,

because they base it off the race,

which they should stop doing,

by the way.

But it's like,

if you're Asian,

you got to compete

with the average Asian scores

of SATs and the GPA.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, I didn't know that.

I'm Middle Eastern.

Not the same story,

but growing up,

if you had the tab

of like, what are you?

Middle Eastern was never

an option on the tab.

So I always put like white. So recently, the last few years, I've been telling people like, yeah, us white people, like our white people, everyone's like, you're not white, bro.
You're Middle Eastern. And I'm just realizing like, oh, wow.
It's interesting how these constraints, they define you. Yeah.
Like, I grew up believing like, I guess I'm Caucasian, right? because i got no place to put middle eastern on the tab wow i'm gonna start a petition for that i mean there's enough of us yeah there's a lot of that's surprising so you either had to do white or i guess other no other never works never works yeah how do you there's no it was just other and they didn't ask you to specify i didn't want to be other yeah crazy times man but yeah they just box us into these labels i'm not a fan of that everything in life everything's a box everything's a label you have to figure out in life that there are no boxes and there are no labels um that's the hardest part i think super hard took me a while actually i was in public school which is a box right i think it is at least the whole thing is a box yeah i've lived in public was in public school, which is a box, right? I think it is, at least. The whole thing is a box.
Yeah, I've lived in public school and in college. Probably college is a box.
Yeah, I didn't really start questioning it until college. Your job is a box.
This is a box. We are literally a box right now.
Yeah, this is a box. Yeah, this is literally a box.
You go on social media, though, and you think you're doing stuff to be free. Then you realize there's a box.
box there's an algorithm there's a respectable way to post or not to post there's a way to get views or not to get views i mean everything's a box so it's kind of up to us to figure out the fact that there aren't actually boxes just do what you want to do that's the hard part wow and that's like living off the grid type stuff not really i mean I mean, I don't want to take this, like make it super deep, but like living off the grid of what's expected, you know, not literally living off the grid, like a middle of nowhere. Yeah.
Yeah. But just, you know, there is no right way to live life.
Agreed. I grew up thinking like back to my story that if I worked at the bank and I worked in this job and I made this much money, then that was how I should have lived.
That was the right way to live. But then you realize that you travel, for example, and you realize that people don't think that like that, that way I was taught to go to this good school and get this specific job and work in this job.
I mean, those people in Thailand and in Japan, or maybe not Japan, but in, whatnot, they don't think that. They don't feel that.
They weren't told to do that. So if everybody's being told to do something a different way, is there even a right way? That is interesting.
Yeah. Because you're right.
The US is definitely capitalistic, right? They teach us to make money, become a doctor, lawyer, typical high paying jobs. But in other countries, they're not teaching their citizens that.
Well, and then exactly. And the stress comes from that.
It's like, oh my God, I'm 25, I'm 27. I haven't done this.
I'm not making this much money. I haven't achieved all these kinds of things.
And then if you actually branch out, you realize it's just a path that marketers are telling you. It's like keto diet.

It's like the carnivore diet.

It's like any diet.

I mean, it's like anything.

Should I be working out just my upper body, my full body,

just arms, bodybuilding, CrossFit?

Yeah.

If you actually think about it,

then I'll have to make everybody listening be like, oh no.

But it's just a matter of picking what you feel is best.

And people have a hard time picking what is best. They don't know how to choose for themselves.
They don't know who they are. Why do you think that is? You think it's programming or just not taking the time to learn about yourself? Programming is part of it.
You know, we are being programmed, which is good for the programmers. That's how it works.
But we aren't learning how to think for ourselves. When I was in university, we kept getting emails every week about like opportunities for working at investment banks.
And I was like, oh, wow, this is so cool how my university is setting us up with these big investment banks in the US. And we're getting exclusive networking opportunities like, wow, I really picked the right universe.
And then when I left, I thought about it and I learned that it's partnerships. So the investment bank and the university have a partnership.
You, like we pay you, you give us networking opportunities so we can get closer to your student, your students, we can hire them. Interesting.
So then I was like, oh, that's interesting. I'm just part of the game.
I'm just a piece of the game. I'm just a pawn.
And if they had taught us in university to think about who we are and what we want for ourselves, most people would not have wanted to go to that, you know? But we were taught that we should be going down this specific path. And then we were pushed down that path.
I remember my teachers were like, I will grade you better if you get an investment banking job. I was like, that can't be, that can't be legal, but that's what it was.
And that's how it went. That's nuts, man.
So I know you've traveled a lot. Have you seen this way of thinking in other areas or is this something you kind of came up with on your own? The way of learning about yourself and everything yeah you've been all over 40 countries right yeah more or less um i think 40 actually is the number but uh it's different everywhere i mean thinking about who you are and what you want i think most people don't know that regardless i don't think most people think about it you obviously go to places that are more introspective but i like, like I've been, I've interviewed the Dalai Lama.

Yeah.

I've been to the Dalai Lama's monastery.

I've interviewed monks and you would say monks are probably the most introspective people.

I would still say that monks deal with their own stuff, you know, and yes, they learn how

to deal with themselves quite well and their emotions, but in other aspects of life, they

don't, they don't experience certain things. So I think everybody is kind of missing a piece, but the most important is who am I? What do I want? You know, like, can I journal about that? Can I think about that? Can I sit down with myself alone? Whereas, you know, if I get alone time, not me, but anybody that scroll on their phone and you're always occupied mindlessly scrolling out.
Yeah. So, I mean I've traveled a lot.
What I've learned from traveling is what I said before, that there is no right way of thinking. It doesn't mean that people know how to think anywhere.
I think just generally there's a problem with that. So that's kind of why I do what I do.
That's how I started my brand because I kept seeing so many good people, people I grew up with, people I really liked that I think have amazing potential, but they got sucked into their path, the path that they didn't want to. And they never left.
Like it's been five years since I, maybe six years since I left my job. And you had a six figure job, right? Yeah.
So you were set for life. You just stayed in that.
Yeah, I guess so. You know, I always think about it now.
And I think like, are you really? Just question everything. Questioning everything is something I do quite often, but.
Yeah, because you could have, a million things could have happened, I guess. Well, I mean, if you're working a job and all you know is the skills, the technical skills of your job.
Yeah. I mean, if AI replaces you, if something happens and your whole department gets fired and then you have no job, I mean, you have no skills in life other than what you've been doing, crunching numbers for six years.
So, I mean, was I set for life? Maybe financially, yeah. Maybe I'm making a good amount of money.
But I think from everything else, probably not.

But I might not have realized it.

So maybe.

Maybe.

Yeah.

Do you believe everything happens for a reason?

Yeah, for sure.

You were meant to leave that job for a reason?

I think so.

I'll look at what you're doing.

I mean, my friends told me in high school I was going to be a motivational speaker.

Really?

Yeah.

Wow.

Most likely to be a motivational speaker.

And I just went the opposite way for quite a few years. And then when be a motivational speaker.
And, uh, and I just went the opposite

way for, for quite a few years. And then when I came back down this path, I was like, Oh, that's,

I thought about it last year. I'm like, I guess I'm a, you know, I'm not, I guess I'm a motivational

speaker. You are, right.
You are, you're interviewing people that are motivating people

in the way you are. Right.
Yeah. So I think everything does happen for a reason.
I mean,

there's so many instances in life where you wonder like, how could that have possibly happened? But

Thank you. are motivating people yeah in the way you are right yeah so i think everything does happen for a reason i mean there's so many instances in life where you wonder like how could that have possibly happened but the takeaway from that was important you just got to be willing to um when it happens you got to be willing to actually take advantage of it and recognize that things happen for a reason yeah does your thought process your way of thinking interfere with religion at all i don't think think so.
Does it interfere with religion in what way? Just a lot of people follow these rules of religion, whether it's the Bible, the Quran, whatever. And that in a way is not a form of free thinking.
You know what I mean? So you find that clashes with your philosophy. I don't think so.
I mean, you can be from like, especially our audience is really diverse. They come from all over the world, practice our religions.
Um, mine is just understanding what you want. You know, you could be any religion.
Um, but are you fulfilled? You know, I'm not telling you that there's like, this is the exact way to live. I'm not your guru, but I'm just giving you the freedom of understanding mentally.
Think about yourself a little bit more. Think about what you want.
Think about why you're here, why you're doing doing what you want to do think about what makes you happier and uh i mean it's different in all religions i can't speak to the religions that i'm not um because i don't know how they operate but i've never heard any pushback i've never heard anyone say like i'm muslim and i don't i don't agree with what you're saying that's cool yeah we try to build a very positive space too so i'm not sure like maybe yeah i guess you're you're providing the framework so it's not really a conflict. Yeah, because I don't agree with what you're saying.
That's cool. Yeah.
We try to build a very positive space too. So I'm not sure.
Yeah. I guess you're providing the framework.
So it's not really a conflict. Yeah.
Because I don't like the idea of telling somebody that this is exactly what you need to do. I would rather you tell me what is bothering you and I tell you if I can help you.
And then I'm cool with it. Then like, let me guide you.
Right. But if you didn't come to me sharing what you struggle and I didn't align with that, I don't feel comfortable telling you that I have the right path for you because I'm so mad at other people for having done it to me, telling me that this was the right path.
I don't want to tell people what the right path is. I want them to figure out what the right path is.
That's like, that's what Sprout is all about. Yeah.
So you said you you were mad do you still have that resentment towards those people i told you to go down a certain path no you forgave fun yeah it's fun no it's okay yeah same with me i had some some bad advice for sure growing up but and i used to like you know hate on them but it's it's not healthy to do that over time how can you be mad though to be honest like if if you think about it it know better. They don't know better.
It's okay. I mean, they're operating under what they know and you have to respect that.
It's like when people get mad at their parents and say like, oh, my parents were so strict on me growing up. And yeah.
Um, you know, my, my sister has had that. Are you, I had that.
Yeah. No, I had it with my mother.
I was referencing her. We used to clash ads a lot.
How are you, but are you an only child? Only child, yeah. Okay, so I'm middle of three.
And my sister is always like, oh, the first child always has the hardest. And my mom and dad were so hard on me and this and that.
And I'm like, it's not like they knew what they were doing. You know, they didn't have, they'd never been a parent before.
They're two adults that decided to have a kid and they're figuring it out. So whatever they did to you was, you know, they love you so much, but they didn't know what they were doing.
And I take it, I take it that way with everybody. It's like, they don't know what they're doing.
They're not telling me this because they know me and they know what's best and their experience and whatever. They're just operating under their set of beliefs.
So how can you be mad at that? Yeah. And, and it's not good to have resentment.
Like you said, you don't want to have regrets. Like, I don't think you want to have resentment either.
It's the same for me, yeah. Now she watches every episode.
Shout out to my mom. Or shout out, super close now.
But man, we used to butt heads every day. I say something nice to her.
Mom, I love you. So the crazy part about this is I didn't tell my mom I loved her until I was probably 20 something, 25.
Okay. That's not long ago.
Yeah. Not long ago.
And the first time I said it, it like felt so uncomfortable. I was like, I had to like jump around and like, you know, but now I say every time I call her, um, but I had to get over that.
Same with my dad, dude. When I moved to LA from Jersey, he gave me a hug and it was like the first time ever.
How did that feel? Dude, insane. I was holding back tears.
He was crying. I was holding back, trying to look tough.
I wish I just let it loose at that moment, but that was special to me. I never got that physical love as a kid.
So that's something that I'm very grateful for from my life. I always got that.
Um, my parents always, always, always like say like five, 10 times, but I'm also middle Eastern. So like, it's, it's, I think it's more in our nature to be expressive.
Um, but I always got it. And I think that was a big she code for me.
I started this brand with no experience being introverted, never made a video in my life. Everyone thought I was an idiot.
Everyone was talking down about me when I started. Like I said, I brushed off being a financial analyst, investment banker.
So everyone thought I was stupid. The only way for me to be able to do this and get it to where it is now is out of self-confidence.
And I would say it all came from my parents. Wow.
Just being super loving, super sweet. Like, I think if somebody tells you something enough, you believe it, right? So if someone says to you that you're not good enough, eventually you'll believe it.
But if someone says that you're good enough, you'll also believe it. So you just believe what you hear a lot.
And my parents growing up always said that I'm good enough, that I can do it, that they believe in me and that I should believe in myself. So I was like, wow, if I go down this path, I think I can do it.
There's nothing that, there's no proof that I can do it. There's no proof that I can't.
And my parents taught me to believe that I should go with the second one. No proof that you can't do i love it yeah so they support you yeah they at the beginning there was like a little pushback because it's again middle eastern so parents like like you said half asian is still traditional with everything um but they trusted me they saw that i was passionate about what i was doing and they're like all right we believe in him we think he's gonna do it so we'll see what happens i love them or do it take off right away or do it take some time no took three years three years yeah yeah i guess it's all relative by what when i say take off i mean just generate revenue i guess i mean generating revenue i was doing like little gigs to to get by so i was like a freelance writer um i would do videos for corporate more corporate stuff so that i could make a bit of money um but no i made videos for three years that never got any views wow it took me it took me three years to go from zero to 20k on youtube it took me two months to go from 20k to 200k holy crap and it And it took me two years to go from a hundred to a million.
Damn. Yeah.
So it's like exponential growth at the end. Yeah.
When it hit, it hit, which is when I started interviewing. I wasn't interviewing for five years.
I was interviewing like you've been doing it for two years. Yeah.
Doing it for two years as well. Oh, got it.
And, uh, let me see. We both, we both found it at the same time.
Yeah. Cause you can leverage their audience to grow.
People are searching for the people you're interviewing. But that was not how I did it though.
Because I've interviewed strangers. I interview people on the street.
I mean, now we interview some more notable people. That's I would say the last six months.
But I've interviewed 1,200 people on the streets of 35 different countries. These are random people that you'll never hear from.
You don't know their names. You don't know anything about them except their age and what they look like.
And I thought it was cool because these are topics I was researching on Reddit before I go to bed when I was mad in my job and in my relationship and I was unsatisfied with my life. And then eventually after all this content I made that didn't work, I was like, what if I bring all of my interest to life? And I actually asked the questions that I've been looking up because I want, I partially, partially it's, it's selfish.
Like, I want the answer. But at the same time, I believe the world needs this.
And this aligns with the message I'm trying to spread. So I've been talking to strangers.

So honestly, my stuff is not like,

I didn't interview a notable guest and then their audience came to mind.

It was the first interview I ever did blew up.

So I can't really say exactly what I did,

but we just made a lot of valuable stuff.

Wow, the first one, huh?

Yeah, that's cool.

That's what happened to me too.

The first one?

First one blew up. Much different industry.
What was your first one? You that's cool that's what happened to me too the first one first one blew up much different industry what was your first one you really want to know so it was a kind of it was a female barber she sits on you while she cuts your hair and she has a she has a fat ass so like we angled the camera at like her back and i was interviewing her while she cut my friend's hair was Was she sitting on you? She was sitting on my friend. I have a fiance, so hell no, she was not on that.
But yeah, I got like 20 million views on TikTok. Wow.
Yeah, and that was my first one. Were your videos doing well before? No, that was my first video on TikTok.
Okay. Yeah.
That's the good thing about social media these days. If you got good content, you don't need followers.
Like Instagram with their new trials feature, you could go viral without followers. So yeah.
I mean, I think people are just so stuck up in the whole algorithm and making what pleases the algorithm thing. Like what you, what you did is just good content.
Like it's interesting. Yeah.
Like when would you ever see that? So no one's ever done it. No, no one's ever done it.
Exactly. And that's what I was thinking.
I was like, I've been making videos for three years that people have seen before. What if I just do what I want to do and I make it the way I think the world needs it? And no one had ever seen that before.
I mean, there was, I don't, I don't know, but there's nobody who's interviewed strangers on the street asking about advice, especially older people. I think you basically, do you remember humans in New York, that Instagram page? You basically took that, but made it like in video format and better.
And that was a vision. So I'm glad that it resonated in that regard.
Yeah. Cause I remember that page, that page used to get a lot of views.
I don't know if it still does, but it was really interesting to read those stories. I don't know if he posts that much, but I mean, yeah, he was, if when photos were a big thing, he was was the thing and that's the thing you got to adapt to the times now it's content like short form and long form for you but i think he didn't uh i mean it's hard he could have built a brand on that he could have switched a video right away and he could have been the biggest one did he never switch to video i don't think so wow that's a missed out i don't want want to speak on anything.
I don't think so, but I haven't seen.

I've seen a lot of photos from them.

Okay.

And there's that one YouTube interview series

that's in black and white.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

The thumbnail is always a black and white image.

Soft white underbunny.

Yeah, that's a good one too.

That one's amazing.

Yeah, they take the craziest stories.

His story is crazy as well.

I forget his name.

I don't know his name.

The founder, but I think he used to work at Apple.

Oh, really?

And yeah, as a designer or creative author, something like that.

Might be misspeaking.

But his story is interesting.

It's weird how people get into these things.

I mean, we all have a story.

The interviewer is an interesting character that I've learned. As being an interview.
It's like, we learn a lot about other people from you and me, but how often do we learn about the person actually speaking? That's true. It's like, what motivated you to go into this job? What motivated you to ask this person questions? Like, why did you bring me? Why did you bring your other guests? That like shapes your personality.
Like, I'm learning a a lot about you and i don't know how often you share the stories that you've shared so far but not too often yeah anybody listening gets to bit by bit piece that with you but it's also because i'm i'm like the same kind of head yeah i want to ask you questions i want people to learn about you as well i want to learn about you i do that when i go on as a guest too. It's a bad habit of my show.
The host probably hate it too. The host is like, I don't mind, I don't mind.
But on my show, I try to do an 80-20 rule. Okay.
So I try to have the guest have 80% of the time. That's good.
Yeah. Because I want the spotlight to be on the guest.
It's nice that you take 20 though. 20 is not bad, man.
When you're doing five a day, that's 100. know i'll take it yeah yeah um i want to talk about dude some of your interviews are you interviewed a hundred what 102 year old was that the oldest one 103 103 yeah what was that like that is interesting we've interviewed two one that i haven't released yet one that I have.
The one you're talking about is Gladys. And she passed away.
So that's her. Yeah.
That's fair. We probably were the last interview.
I think she did. Wow.
I'm not mistaken. 103-year-olds are interesting.
Because you're way past the age that you should have lived. Way past.
So you like oh my god i'm 93 like i'm alive you're average age 103 that's like 30 years past average age yeah you're i think u.s is 81 maybe oh is it i thought it was less maybe canada's 81 okay i thought u.s male was 71 and u.s female was 75 no i could be off higher we'll have to have someone fat yeah oh higher higher we're too developed for for 71 it's not well that's a whole nother podcast because of pain on that yeah the western medical system yeah no but i but like i actually i think it's higher um she is interesting the most positive person i've interviewed probably wow i think when you get to like gladys was amazing because she was with it. She was doing podcasts.
She was knitting. Like she had a purpose.
She had written a book at 93, I think. Dang.
And she has seen so much. Like you're talking to people and the other 103 year old I interviewed that we haven't released yet is, it'll probably be out by the time that we talked about this and this is released, but he's a World War II veteran.
He's British. He was a soldier at 18.
He was captured by the Japanese and he was a prisoner of war for four years. Holy crap.
If you think about being drafted into the army at 18, you have to be 103 years old right now to be alive. Wow.
So he might be the last survivor. Yeah.
How many more people are you going to get that are surviving? So like the most interesting thing for me is these two people, I asked the question, what were you doing at the end of World War II? Like, I think of how insane that is. It's a personal question.
Like I'm sitting across from somebody. What were you doing on the day that World War II ended? And they know.
They remember. They know exactly where they were.
So for me, it's very purposeful because you're uncovering a part of history from a personal experience, not from a book, but from somebody's actual memory. And that's why I loved it.
And among everything else, they were also the most positive people like the 103 year old World War II veteran was he's like, I got so many photos. Like, I got to show you these later.
And I'm like, OK, I'm going to come back. You like tea? We'll have some tea.
He's like, tea? We'll have some wine. Like, damn.
And I interviewed a 101 year old and she's like, I had a beer before. Why came? And I'm going to have a cocktail when you leave.
And I'm like, damn. And I interviewed a 101-year-old and she's like, I had a beer before.
Why? I came and I'm going to have a cocktail when you leave. And I was like, well, why not with me? Why are you waiting both before I come and after I leave? That's hilarious.
So the interesting thing about them is they're just there. And from an interview standpoint, it's the easiest thing because they're just there.
It's not like I have an agenda, promote my book, promote my movie. Like, yo, I got to make sure my hair looks good because they're just there it's not like i have an agenda promote my book promote my movie like yo like i gotta make sure my hair looks good they're just like sure what do you want to talk about that's so cool yeah has your view of death changed from interviewing these elderly people i still don't want to die uh i definitely don't want to i used to fear death even as a young kid like really fear death.
I got that as well. My grandfather passed when I was young.
My dad almost died a few times when I was young. So those were like, that's probably honestly why I'm how I am at this point.
I'm 25. So I'm, everyone thinks I'm like 40.
Is that good or bad? 40 is bad. I mean, you know, 29 is...

I feel like as a woman, that'd be bad.

But as a man, it's a compliment.

40 though?

I'm 25.

Like 40 is crazy.

But to me, I interpret it as your wise.

Like if they're calling you 40, like...

I don't know.

Take wise at 33.

Oh my God.

There is a...

40?

Oh, like 41.

Seriously?

Like you got two kids at 40 or something.

Got a mortgage.

It's like, no. But has my view on death changed? No, honestly.
Really? It's kind of the same. Oh, wow.
Life has always been finite for me. And it's just more finite the more I interview older people.
The one thing I've learned is that I feel like life is longer than it is. I used to think like, oh, I'm young.
Because, you know, everyone says, oh, you're in your twenties, you got to seize. Cause when you get older, it doesn't work as well.
And like all this, but the more older people I interview, the more I'm like, God, it works perfectly fine. Like these people are in, they just, their bodies, some of them, they didn't take care of themselves.
So their bodies aren't physically as good as it used to be. But mentally, every old person that's happy that I speak to is like, I feel like I'm your age.
I feel like I'm 25. I'm just trapped in this post-menopausal.
I was talking to a 71-year-old today. She's like, I feel like I'm your age, but I'm trapped in a post-menopausal woman's body.
I was like, that's very interesting. Yeah.
So if I just take care of myself, if I take care of my health, if I live well, my mind won't change. I still feel young and hopefully I'll be able to live longer.
But from a death standpoint, I don't think, I don't think it's changed that much. So you're still fearful of it or what's the word you would put to it? I would say, um, fearful.
Okay. Like I'm not at the point where I'm ready.
I think as you get you're you're like you accomplish things and you're more comfortable with it like you have more time to think about it like you and me are you're in your 20s yeah 28 on friday i thought you're 40 and i'm kidding i'm kidding but uh it must be all the wise years of innovation i thought that um yeah as you get older you have more time to think about it. And that's, I feel at that point, the answer will change.
But right now I'm like, man, I got, I got a whole list of things I want to do. Yeah.
I'm afraid. I don't want to die.
I don't want to jeopardize that. Like I got to tell you so much more about life.
I'm with you. I wouldn't say I'm afraid of it, but I, uh, I definitely don't want it.
If that makes sense. I don't want to go yet.
What is the difference between being afraid of it? Being afraid is like you're fearful of it. It's like an emotional thing almost.
Like you feel fear towards it, like actively. I mean, there's no active fear, I guess.
Maybe I'll try. Not active.
No, that was a bad description. I don't know.
It's hard to explain what I'm thinking right now. But when my father passed, that really taught me to be more present.
You know what I mean? Of course. Because he was 62, which I felt like was young.
Yeah. I feel like I thought I had more time than I did with him.
Yeah. You know? Yeah.
I saw some crazy stuff. When you move out of your house after college, have you seen this chart? Wait, but why? Yeah.
The wait but why yeah the tail and nuts man i almost put that in my room but then i was like that's so depressing yeah i think you put like the amount of times you eat dumplings or something there's another one it's like how many weeks do you have to live and it's like you're already like here and average is here did you take did you take that map i didn't want that one because it's like a reminder of like where you're at. That's too finite.
That's like, whoa, I'm actually, I can actually see how many years I have left. Yeah.
But the amount of Superbowls, I think what you're saying is you've lived 93% of your time with your family by the time you turn 18. Yeah.
So you only see them, like, I think they said under a hundred times before they pass away. That blows my mind.
And that's why that's like, um, I mean, my background on my phone is my parents on their wedding day. So like I put that they're both healthy and alive, but like I put that so that every time I look at my phone, I think of them, which prompts me to want to call them, which prompts me to want to see them.
And so I make it a big point. Even when I have this career where I travel all the time, I'm like, I got to go home and see my parents and my siblings, my friends and everything.
But like, I want to see my parents. So I try to balance that out.
And I think having like little reminders and cues, like your parents on your background, your screensaver makes a big difference. Yeah.
It's important, man. But yeah, my dad would always tell me growing up, I vividly remember this.
I only want to live to 60. And I to always be like no dad please i want you to live

to 80 or 100 and it happened and i think uh i believe in manifestation dude wow i think you can speak stuff into existence yeah and i saw that with him because he was he was pretty healthy it's not like you just dropped from being too unhealthy right you know wow yeah so you to be careful with what you speak into existence. Yeah.
My dad says something there too, but, uh, it goes back and forth. Sometimes he's like, he's like, yep, I'm good.
And then other times he's like, nope, I'm not good. I don't want to go.
I'm like, you gotta pick one. You gotta pick one.
Gotta be careful with that, man. I'm like, uh, I want to live to a hundred.
A hundred. I wanted the letter from the queen.
Now it's the king. It's going to be a king for a while.
It's not as exciting. Letter from the queen is...
You get a letter out of 100? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that was...
Commonwealth country? Oh, I didn't know that. So as a Canadian, I would get one.
But I don't know if I want one from the king. So now I'm like rethinking things.
Yeah. I'm kidding.
Well, health is advancing so quick. 100 would not surprise me in the future.
I think we can all there yeah you gotta take care of yourself you gotta take care of yourself um but you want good years a lot of people are focused on the number but have you heard a health span versus lifespan i have but explain so basically lifespan is like you live 100 years but health span is like how many of those years were healthy years so like a lot of people live to 80 but only like their last 10 15 years were like really bad and they were in a wheelchair or something yeah have you ever looked at the blue zones yes the blue the blue zones in italy i think came to a conclusion that you die four years earlier if you live in a retirement home or baseball law to re re say that you live four years less if you live in a retirement home and that's the norm here you get old you can't figure it out retirement home and that's like let's take everything away from you in life that makes you happy put you in a home with a bunch of other people who are old and hate their lives as well and let's just leave you there yeah that sounds horrible if you go to like i mean if you go to Japan, I love, I love Japan. I've been quite a few times and it's old people are everywhere.
People in their eighties, nineties, like doing fully functioning human things, dry, everything. And those are people that are going to live forever because they're purposeful.
They're moving. They're still like in the wild, you know? Yeah.
And, uh, here we kind of box people back in like you're old, you can't do it anymore. Yeah.
Get in the retirement mom. And then when you get in the retirement home, then you start having bad habits and it just, yeah.
Well, they've done studies on, uh, retirement too. Have you seen those? No.
Where you, um, someone retires and their brain ages much quicker. Is that true? Yeah.
We'll link it in the video.

It's fascinating. But basically you age way quicker when you retire.

So my friend's grandfather, he was telling me that his grandfather was like full of life,

everything, working his job. The second he retired, he had nothing to do.
He didn't know what to do. He was just like cleaning the house or whatever.
And yeah, he said the same thing. It'll take years, man, off your life.
So basically if if you know someone retiring, tell them to find another purpose or hobby after. But a lot of people that I've interviewed who are entrepreneurs and love what they do, never want to retire.
Like I've interviewed Larry Silverstein. Yeah.
He owns the World Trade Center, the billionaire. And he's 93.
Like he's like, he's working, you know, he's in the office every day, he's working. And he's like, I'm never going to retire.
I'm like, okay, we get it. You proved it.
Good job. But he's 93.
He's still working, putting the suit on. And I mean, there's no question why he's 93 and doing that.
As opposed to another 93 year old, if they even made it there. He's purposeful in his job and he doesn't want to leave it.
And I've spoken to a lot of entrepreneurs who never want to retire, but people who hate their job are good to retire, you know, 65,

get the pension, like it's all good. But then when you hit 65, what do you do? Now, probably two,

three years where like life is good and you enjoy and you travel. And then what, what do you do?

And I think that's what you're talking about. The study that came in there.
Yeah. I would get so bored if i ever just stopped working i think yeah but you love what you do i love it yes that's everything i love what i do i would i could do this forever and like we also kind of built businesses where we technically could you know as long as your mouth moves and you're and all that like your brain's working then it's all good yeah yeah i love what we do man having conversations's what it is.
Basically it boils down to that. Yeah.
And the world, the world craves that, which is why podcasts are doing well. I think COVID was really a big change where everyone was like, eh, no, I'm pretty lonely.
Actually. I got no one to call.
I got no one to see. I don't have that many friends.
And then they started thinking, okay, well now I'm listening to people on social media, having these conversations. I relate to these people.
I like what they're saying. I think that's why podcasts have done super well the last couple of years.
That's probably why what I've done, the street interviews have done well. Cause people are like, I just want to learn and feel heard and be seen.
You want to see somebody random on the street. That's like, I'm speaking to them and they feel good about that.
Yeah. It was interesting to see how people reacted during COVID because I was lonely a majority of my life.
So for me, it didn't impact me that much, but a lot of people went crazy. It was wild.
Yeah. It was a good and bad time though.
Good because a lot of people rethought their life and they finally had time to do stuff like journal and meditate and think about it. Bad because of people who hated their lives like it was really really in focus yeah i mean i couldn't handle that lead personally during covid that's why i moved to vegas where you were at and um canada was even worse right yeah we had a curfew yeah you guys had strict lockdowns in canada 8 p.m curfew i just had a comedian on from canada he said he couldn't even do any work for like two years.
That makes sense. Like they banned all the shows and the clubs and everything.
Yeah. I was living in Singapore when COVID started.
So it hit the US in March, but it started, or February, I forget. But it started in Asia in January.
And they handled it really well. But I was on exchange at that time.
I was still in university. And my school was like, if you don't come home, they said this in March, if you don't come home this week, we're canceling your exchange and you forfeit the semester.
I was like, nah, man, I've got to get out of school. I can't forfeit this semester.
So I came home and I think in Asia it was strict as well, but like the life is better. People were more open.
They could travel. They can move around.
Yeah. In Canada in canada we couldn't do anything and people were really really angry if i went to a different province like i would get a lot of shit on my balls just from going to a different province so yeah that must learn a different state um yeah but that's what that's actually i feel like i would have figured out my content strategy a lot faster if i didn't have COVID in my way because I couldn't make like 90% of the stuff.

Right.

Like imagine doing the street interviews, but like social distance or something.

I'd be like, all right, all right, I'll do, you know.

In the casinos here, people were wearing masks and gambling next to each other.

It was wild times looking back on it.

They're going to write about that in the history books.

For sure.

Yeah.

It's going to be like, we'll see. A time we hope doesn't happen.

A learning experience for the next generation. Yeah.
When you were in japan did you go to the blue zone i did that's cool i've always wanted to go to one uh i've been to only one actually there's one in california i heard but i was gonna go and uh and then everyone said it's it's in an area in California with the worst air quality in the whole state.

Hmm.

Uh, it's next to San Bernardino.

This is like Loma Linda.

So Loma Linda, San Bernardino, they're right next to each other.

And apparently San Bernardino is like super dangerous.

Really?

Super dangerous place to go.

Wow.

Um, I have a friend who's a sheriff there and he's like, yeah.

It's that bad?

Yeah. And that's where the blue zone is? Right next yeah wow like a 10 minute drive crazy and i was on at the time i was on the beach in uh in newport beach and i'm like am i gonna go there for a few days to film when i'm on the beach i'm like i don't know we'll find old people somewhere else yeah i waited out a little bit um but i went to the one Japan.
And again, like you want to talk boxes and like things we've been marketed and stuff. And not to give shit to the Blue Zones because I work with them and I really like the Blue Zones.
But I get there and everyone is like, all the concepts, the themes, everything they came up with, they don't abide by that in Japan. Like it's not a big deal.
have you heard of ikigai yeah ikigai is like a big thing for the blue zones and ikigai is also a book that's a bestseller but the book was written by two spanish guys i think and uh the blue zones is american in japan and ikigai is like it's nothing like ikigai is basically means like a a reason to be, a reason to live, having a purpose. And in Japan, your ikigai is like it's nothing like ikigai is basically means like a reason to be a reason to live having a purpose and in japan your ikigai could be uh gardening like that my ikigai is gardening my ikigai is shopping like and it's just it is what it is not a big thing so i learned when i went there that like we've kind of played out all of these different terms uh and they aren't really they say they are.
But I mean, you know, people are there, people are old, but people are kind of everywhere and old and living. I didn't feel it was too different.
That's how I feel about any time the media portrays any country. I'm like, okay, they're saying this message, but what's actually going on? My best friend spent five weeks in China because he does manufacturing stuff.
Yeah. Said it was some of the friendliest people he's ever met.
Wow. Safest places he's ever been to.
One of the best, like one of his, the most enjoyable countries he's ever traveled to. And if you hear about China here, all negative.
All negative. It got to the point where like, I'm half Chinese.
It's like, I don't even trust China. But then I had to take a step back and realize, let me actually go there and talk to people and see what they say about us.
I'm sure there's truth to it. I don't think it's fully made up, but at the same time.
I think it's exaggerated. I went to Vietnam and you know, the Vietnam war, obviously.
When I went to Vietnam, I went to the museum of the war, but I went to the American war museum. Because in Vietnam, it's the American war.
And that was like a big, this was five years ago that I had this experience and that blew my mind. Really? I was like, interesting.
So it's the Vietnam War in America, but it's the American War. And how did they portray it in that museum? They showed things I've never seen before.
Like the, I don't remember exactly what they dropped, but a lot of bombs with this poisonous chemicals in it that created like decades or generations, generations of diplomaties. Damn.
In the future of Vietnamese people. Holy crap.
They don't talk about that here. Well, no, because they did it.
Yeah, I'm not going to tell you. Yeah, I don't know.
We read this bad thing and I don't ever get up taught that in history class. No.
Damn. So all of these things are, it's all relative, which has been an interesting thing.
Yeah. Well, when you read history books, it's taught from the winning side.
Always. So.
The center of the world, like the way you and me see the globe, like if you look at the world as like a flat sheet. Yeah.
And where the US is positioned. But if you go to Japan and you look at the globe and where Japan is positioned, it's also in the middle.
Holy crap. They're all in the middle.
That's crazy. It's in the middle.
They're all in the middle. So I wonder where the middle actually is.
That's mind blowing, right? There isn't. I mean, well, is there? I mean, if you go from space, like, I guess it depends what angle you're looking at.
I guess. But like just from, you know, it's a position of power.
We're the center of the universe.

But the center of the universe

is different for every country.

Crazy stuff.

I wish I thought this way

when I was in history class

growing up.

I just believe everything.

You would have done terribly

in school.

Yeah, I would have failed

every test.

You would have kicked me.

Where's the center of the world?

Well, it's all relative.

They would have kicked my ass

out of there quick.

Yeah. Yeah, quickly.
Wow wow william it's been awesome uh i know you got a journal here what else you you want to close off with here man um i would say closing thought for anybody who's feeling lost in life or just thinking about how to get to the next level for me you got to figure out who you, what you want and how to get what you want. Yeah, just to self-plug my journal here, but we've made this journal.
This journal has over 1,250 interviewees, their best life advice, their strategies for living a fulfilling life. I think that if you're going through something in life, you just need a path.
And I wanted to make something that allowed people to have that path. Yeah.
So best thing to do,

who am I? What do I want? How do you get what you want? And this is stuff that we put in our journal. And yeah, if anyone wants to watch the content, it's Sprout, S-P-R-O-U-H-T on all

platforms. I love it.
Thanks for coming on, man. Thanks for having me.
Yeah.