You think of emotion, you think you either have to suppress it or you have to embrace it. And I think there's a way in which you can experience it internally, but you don't have to express it externally. We think through it, we process it, and then we say and do what we intend to do, not what we are doing in terms of a reaction. And I think like, if you control your emotions, you're very powerful. If you're
controlled by your emotions, you're not as powerful. Hey, everyone, welcome back to On Purpose, the number one health podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every single one of you who come back every week to listen, learn and grow. Now you know that I'm always out to find interesting people, fascinating stories, people who you may or may not know, but have made really interesting, powerful decisions
that we can all learn from. And today's guest is a friend of mine, someone that I bumped into very recently and we just connected instantly, but at the same time,
he's had years of experience as an entrepreneur. I'm speaking about none other than Adam Goldston, who's the co founder of LA based Athletic Propulsion Labs or APL as they're known, and he and his twin brother, Ryan, who were former sport collegiate athletes, played both basketball and football at the University of Southern California, and then envisioned creating a company that would provide revolutionary products symbolizing the ultimate intersection and
this is what I love of luxury and performance. Today, Adam and Ryan are recognized as accomplished inventors with numerous US and foreign patents, including APL's revolutionary load and launch technology, and recently they were named two of the hundred most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of twenty twenty by Goldman Sax. Please welcome to the show, my friend and amazing entrepreneur, Adam Galston. Adam, thank you for being here. Man Jay, thanks for having me.
I'm super excited. I've been a long time listener. Obviously we're friends. But it's funny because I like your podcast is one of the only ones that I really listened to and where I think like where I actively listen, because I think there's a difference between passively listening to
something actively listening. And it's so funny that so many of the people big and smaller or like not smaller, but like famous and just more specialized in their avenue and people that have been important to my personal journey. So like when I listened, I listened to the Robert Green one and the first book is in my i'd say, like adult life that I ever for like real intention
into reading was forty eight Laws and Power. And I read it in a moment like I think, like one of the key things in my personal stories that like I have gotten lucky at key specific moments of my life through it as that I made and I was sick wh pneumonia and I read Robert Green's forty eight Loss of Power, and there wouldn't have been another moment where I would have been again at home and had the ability to dive into something in such a deep level.
And I think the way he talks about power and like just in the past, as people think of it as a negative thing, but there's positive there's definite positives if you use it to not only help yourself but help others. And so that was what my takeaway was, and it was again this was years ago, but that was what my takeaway was. And so I just started being more active, more intentional in the way I was
thinking about things. And so when I saw that you had him, and then you've had other key people that I've definitely taken pieces of their journey and applied it to mine. Like I just I love that because you are like the company that you keep. So I think that that was like that was cool for me to see the other day. I'm so grateful man. And you know, we've had so many mutual friends over the last few years.
You've tried to connect us, and last year in finding happened, it was like deep because it was trying to connect us and then order we was trying to connect us, and it finally happened and we ended up last year at a pumpkin patch I think it was just before Halloween or something like that, and we just had like the best conversation. I walked away going, I need to spend a lot more time with that guy. So I'm so glad that you know we're getting to do this and that we get to mind your mind today and
really get inside there. And I want to start with actually, I watched your short film with Rolls Royce, and what stood out for me was when you guys talked about how the journey is what defines greatness and not the destination Now, that's an idea that we're told and we've heard again and again and again. But when you said it, not only did I believe it, I also understood that you're applying it. And I'd love to hear how you've been trying to apply that in your journey as you're
still growing towards an incredible destination. So I think that one of the key things is it wasn't always. That wasn't always my thought, and that wasn't always Ryan and I thought. So. I think it's it's something that we've learned along the journey. And I mean to backtrack a little bit. I think when you're starting anything, especially when you started at a younger age as Ryan and I did. We started apl when we were in college, you focus
a lot on where you want to end up. You don't necessarily always think about enjoying the ride and enjoying the journey to get there. And I think that again, like listening to your podcast and in the things and the intentions that you think that you think about, that's been really important to the way that Ryan and I were. So when we started off on our journey, you have
these goals, these grand ambitions. We all do, whether it's it's your day to day life or your personal life, or what you're doing in your profession, you will have these milestones that you're hoping for, that you're wishing for, that you believe can happen. And a lot of times you don't think about what you're doing day in and day out and appreciating what you're doing day in and day out and how those will get you to where
you want to go. And so I think that as Ryan and I started to achieve more, as we really started to go further in this journey, a lot of it was happening really quickly, even though we were years in and we didn't take it for granted, but we took the achievements, took the successes, not just like financial but just successes us as a business, as a Brandon individually, and we said, we need to use us to get to the next thing. We need to use us to
get to the next thing. I think there was a moment in time, probably twenty sixteen, where Ryan and I we had got this big award we were named Forbes thirty under thirty is is There's a lot of other things that started going our way, And one thing we hadn't been great at was celebrating the small daily victories and giving ourselves and our team the momentum to go to the next thing instead of focusing on moving to
the next point. And so I think we had to have that realization where we were doing so many things, we were achieving so much, but we didn't have the internal appreciation for what was happening every single day. It just became so consistent that it became normal. And I think that's that's that's not positive. I think you need to appreciate your daily journey. You need to appreciate the people around you what they're contributing to it. And I
think that that was a key change for us. And so at that moment in time, Ryan and I and again keep people around us. We made a clear decision that we are going to appreciate what we're doing every single day. We're going to stay inspired by what we want to do in the future. But if you there is a way to exist mentally in the current plane and in the future plane, and I think there's there's
a delicate balance. And I think for us we had in the beginning, we didn't have that many victories and so you had to constantly put in the work, put in the repetition to get that one. But then one of the other key aspects of my story is compounding, and as you as you get one thing, the next thing comes typically quicker than the next one comes quicker
than next one comes quicker. And so for us, we tried to slow down the focus on the ultimate endpoint because you are probably going to get there regardless of what your goals are. If you put in the effort, you put in the work, and you get lucky, you will end up reaching these points. But if you're only focus on that one moment in time that's so finite, and you're not appreciating the longer term, which is actually the day to day in the journey. It's not going
to be a win. It's just going to be another accomplishment or milestone, but it won't feel the same. And I think that when we decided to put happiness before success in a measurement for success, and that daily happiness and I know you can't be happy one hundred percent of the time every single day, and the ups and downs do make those other things feel greater. But if you can think every day that I want to appreciate this journey and what I'm doing today will get me
to where I'm going tomorrow. And if I appreciate it today, I will appreciate it tomorrow. And you make those clear, conscious decisions, you will feel much better about your journey and you will feel much better about your destination. But you spend much more time on the journey than you do at the destination. So if you can appreciate the longer part, the part at the end will feel even better. And I think the only way that we were able
to realize that was by not realizing that earlier. And so, but it's like anything, it's it's you learn as you go, and if you keep an open mind and you can take feedback and you can look at others and see that you're inspired by what they're doing, what they've learned, and then how can I take little pieces that and
apply it to what I'm doing. And I saw other people that were enjoying simpler things than I was, and I appreciate it, and so I said, there's a way that I need to implement that into my day life, as did Ryan and the rest of the team. And I mean, we feel great about what we do, and I think that's the most important thing, and that's the key to enjoying the journey, which helps you enjoy the
destination even more. I think that that was such a comprehensive answer, because, like I said, it's a statement we've heard. It's a statement we've seen. But I really appreciate your interpretation of that and how practical you've made it because I feel the same way I always say to people, like winning the award or getting the title, that's one percent of the journey. Like that amount of time you spend on stage is like thirty seconds long. Yeah, and
there was thirty seconds. It took like three years, thirty years, you know to get to that three seconds or thirty seconds of time that you spent receiving an award and your spot on Like, if you don't feel passionate when you wake up every morning to do what you're doing, can you take me back at him? I want to go back. What I love about this conversation is I'm
discovering you. I think the world is discovering you. I know, me and my friends are massive fans of apl I had a ton of your shoes before I even knew you. Not only are they comfortable, they look fantastic. The store at the Grove is one of my favorite stores just generally to walk into, which was where I was first introduced to apl But let's go back to your childhood. I'm intrigued by can you think about a pivotal moment that happened while you were young that has framed who
you are today. Was there a particular experience maybe with a parent, with a friend, anyone in your life, something someone said, something someone did that has created part of who you are today that you feel has been so integral in your life, positive or negative, or you know, healthy or unhealthy. I mean, I think, I think there's a lot of things, so it's hard to point to one.
I think one thing I realized early on, and I know this isn't applicable to most because they aren't twins, but and so I'll choose one that's more applicable to other people. But I realized early on, as did my brother, that we had a unique competitive advantage, that there was two of us with almost identical points of view, but
with unique characteristics that complement one another. So we realize that really early on, And again, like a lot of times with kids, peer pressure is something that becomes really really difficult. And because there was two of us and there's typically one other person, we could not be pressured to move one way. So I think like that played
a role in terms of like building internal character. But I think something that that was key to my journey is I've always believed always now as an adult, but I think this because of a kid, was that you can turn a negative situation into a positive if you change your perspective on the negative and tried skew it more positive. And so I guess one real important example is when I was a kid, I didn't do great in school. And I was always an incredible athlete, but
I did not do the greatest in school. And it wasn't because I didn't have the intellect, but it's because I wasn't in the right It wasn't important to me in the situation that I was in. So I was at this one school and I was not doing very well. I was doing great sports, but I wasn't doing very well as a student, and I felt like the environment wasn't the right one for me because it just it it was too small. I need I needed to be
able to become more of myself. I always had this like a nagging self confidence that I knew where if I trusted myself and I listened to myself, I can make the most of it. And so middle of my ninth grade year, my parents basically gave me the opportunity to transfer to a school that wasn't as good of a school, but it was it was it was it was more diverse, it had a greater opportunity for educational
and athletic success. And I changed my environment. And again, like one thing that's been important to our journey is changing your environment when you believe you need to. And so that gave me the ability to go to a school at a different part of the city, in a different environment, and I was able to learn at a
better rate. I was able to do sports at a much higher level, and I believed in myself because it's it's hard switching schools in the middle of the year, making trying to make all new friends and things of that nature. And so I think like the key learning point from that is like if you get out of your comfort zone and you become comfortable with the uncomfortable, you may discover something in yourself that you never knew you could do, or take it to a level that
you that you didn't think was possible. And so for me, that was a really big one and I think it was if that doesn't happen, I'm not here today. And so I think that movement in the middle of my ninth a year, I was a young man. I'm fourteen, fifteen years old, but that gave me the confidence to try uncomfortable situations, make the most of it, and then they may actually end up being benefiting you much more
than you ever could have thought. So that was I think I as a kid, something that went a really,
really really long way. Yeah, that's such a great insight because you almost don't get to reap the rewards of that up until now, like much later on, and in that moment, you're just like, this is the worst thing that could have ever happened to me, right, and I and I really do love that you reflected on that moment in that way because I find that anytime I ask someone that question, rarely do they pick something good
that happened. Right. It's like people never say, oh, when I was fifteen, I had the best thing, you know. It's it's always like, well, this went wrong or this changed and this shifted. And I think it's fascinating to hear that in your journey too, now when you and your brother and I by the way, I love the twins answer. I love the twins as it doesn't matter
that we can't relate. We all want to relate, Like we're like, oh, that's so cool, Like you know, that's that's how I felt when you have this idea for apl and I want to talk about the idea. But what I'm really interested by is also how lots of people start stuff at college or at school and it kind of fizzles out by the time you graduate, and then you go on to get a real job and you get real responsibilities and you wear a real suit, right, Like that kind of becomes the journey that most people
go on. What I'm fascinated by is when you when you come up with this idea, what did it take to go from this is cool to this is real?
And what was that journey? Like, so tell us about the ideation, but then tell us about how this went from like this is cool, we're doing something interesting too, this is actually real and this is what we're going to commit time to So I think I think one of the important things about Ryan and I is that if somebody tells us we're not able to do something, that's essentially just gasoline to what we have to do. So I think Ryan used apl as his business plan
in school, and he didn't even get top ten. So I don't remember what the great is. He still has it, but like he didn't even get top ten. They didn't believe in it. And it's not because they didn't think it was a good idea. It's because they didn't think that we could execute on the vision the way that
we did. And so I think one of the things I used to have as as a kid then when I was in college, I don't have it anymore because it's more so like a running talent that I keep in my mind is I would have this list of things that we had to do and that I wanted to do. Top thing on my list I ever achieved, which was making an NBA everything else I've done since then.
But I think, when thinking about the idea and execution, one thing I heard, and again I think one of the parts of my story that's important is I've heard important things at the right moment in time, and I've listened to it and I heard the easiest way to get where you're going is one step at a time.
And so when I was in college and when Ryan and I were and we were thinking through the idea, one of the things, again back to the journey aspect, is you think of where you want to go, but you don't necessarily usually think of the steps you need to take in the intern to get there. And so Ryan was lucky enough that when he was in this program and people were telling us this wasn't a good idea, it's not going to work, we had to think deeper
through the idea, deeper through the execution. And I mean we started as a direct to consumer brand in two and ten, so it's like in two ten people were not going direct to consumer, but we didn't have the resources. And I think one of the things that a lot of people think when they're creating something is everybody's paying attention to me. If I fail, everyone's going to see it. But most of the time, everybody else is focused on
themselves and they're not really concerned what you're doing. So if you focus on yourself, you focus on what you're doing and you try something. If you mess up, there's a way to recover it, and there's a way to keep moving forward. You learn from it, you won't make the same mistake again. And so for us, like we spent so much time working on this technology, we wanted
to build a shoe around it. And one thing we did, and I think this is what helped us be successful and go from idea to execution, is again, most people, when they're creating something, they are scared to ask for help typically, and they don't go to the highest level of help. They try to go to the lowest level because they think somebody that's close to me will help me,
not somebody at the top somewhere. And so what Ryan and I believe is if we went to the largest people possible and said we have this amazing idea, it's remarkable, we can execute on this. We will put the work and do it. Can you help us? And they said yes. We went to sneaker factory that had no business saying yes to us, but they thought they loved the idea,
they thought it was unique. And so from there we were able to implement what we wanted to do, be able to develop things that typically you would not be able to And so I think, again, like the nugget of our journey, because we make shoes, so most people
aren't going to make shoes. And that's the part that's different is that we believe that if you ask people for help and you're willing to accept their help, and you go to somebody that typically you wouldn't think would say yes, and you give them the opportunity to help you, people inherently want to help. And so I think when you were thinking about executing something, you shouldn't you have to think big. You can alway. It's easier to work your way down than is to work your way out.
And so that was the way that we looked at it. And again it's just we had an idea of how we wanted to execute it. We asked the right questions to people, and we didn't have this idea of you have to have a specific mentor. We believe that you could have specific mentors for specific So if I needed help with production, I would ask a production person. If I needed help with logistics, I would ask a logistics person. If I needed help with counting, I would ask an
accounting person. But there's not an end all be all for each thing. So that was really what a point of difference for us was we were able to ask help. We had amazing people that were around us when in that moment in time, and we just had pure determination like we were. We were obsessed with taking this idea and executing it and we were going to do whatever it took. And since we didn't have any investors, we
had to do it ourselves. And so I think and we weren't scared to fail like that's That's another thing is that there's there's a real difference between fear and danger, and and when you're starting the idea, most it's all fear. It's not it's not dangerous, it's you're scared of it. So you just have to conquer that emotion and you can learn most things if you ask questions to the right people. Out of you were just drop dropping wisdom everywhere. I mean, there's so many things in that that I
need to now break down. So first of all, everyone's listening. You need to get your notebook out right now and write stuff that Adam is saying down because there are so many things or you're gonna have to listen to this episode twice, So it's up to you. You either listen to episode twice or you get a notebook out right now, the idea that there's a difference between fear and danger, what a great way to clarify how we
experience it. That is that's just brilliant, Like I've never heard it been put in that way before, and I think that that is such great language to help us realize we react as if we're in danger, but actually we're in fear and that's where that's where things start
to go wrong. So I thought that was brilliant. The other thing that you mentioned that I really am resonating with and it was kind of in there, and I think it's an underrated part of entrepreneurship is that you were trying and you have, of course now, but at the time you were trying to create technology, like there was an engineering aspect. It wasn't just we want to make cool staff and Frindy stuff and fatty stuff. It
was like, no, we're actually working on something. And I find that one of the most underrated things about entrepreneurship is people with deep skill sets and having a skill whether it's innovation, technology, engineering, speaking, marketing, whatever it may be, talk to me a bit about where did you learn about technology when it comes to athletics, because that, to me is a really different way to look at product creation as opposed to just saying we want to make
stuff that looks good. So back to I think a unique competitive advantage. And since we don't have ten hours, I didn't want to give you the full background. But as a kid, my dad worked in the footwear industry and he actually helped, like one of the key parts to my stories, he helped create the La gear lighted shoes, and so my brother and I were the first product
testers ever for the La gear lighted shoes. And he brought him home and he gave him to us, and that day we gave him feedback on and we're five years old, give feedback on how to try to make the shoes better. And obviously it's we're not giving them technical feedback at five, but we're telling them you should move the lights from the back to the side of
the shoes so we can see our lights. But the technical aspect of it is from a very very very young age, my dad would bring us to the office and would bring us into the technology line reviews would bring us into the innovation area and we would see how to engineer specific footwear product. So I think again, it wasn't that Ryan and I woke up one day and decided that we wanted to engineer a technology that
would instantly make you jump higher. We have been obsessed with footwear specific technology since we were five years old. And again, when you're talking, you asked earlier about key moments in my childhood. My dad, as a kid showed me what was possible, not saying come here and look
at this, but through ideas. And I think like that's the greatest type of inspiration you can get for anybody, not just from a parent, but from anyone is showing somebody that something is possible through their own ideas and executions. So we took an interest to developing footwear technologies from an age of five years old. Obviously there was a lot of knowledge that needed to come afterwards and took years to get and we weren't eight year old whiz kids.
We were eight year old with ideas. But as you become older, as you become smarter, you focus on the things that are important to you, and sports and technology and specifically footwear based technologies were things that were always
important to us. So I think that the learning point about that for entrepreneurs is that everybody, regardless of what you do, has a predisposition to a specific thing that they care about, that they're passionate about, and they could focus on if you can learn enough information, you can figure out how to make something better. And is basically the basis for how we did it is that we believe that we could make a shoe, that we're in a technology that would do what we wanted to do.
We just had to learn the basis behind the fundamentals, and that's what we did, and that's how we focus on it. That's how we learned it. And to this day, I continue to learn so much, not only from our own exploration into footwear, but from other people what they teach us and things they bring to the table. And I think that I learned at a really, really young age, and I think it's again it's the fact that my dad and the team listened to our idea and then
I saw it actually coming to life. And so I think seeing what's possible and knowing that if you're passionate about something, you don't have to be a scientist to necessarily figure it out, you just have to be a creative engineer. And I think like that's a lot of really successful entrepreneurs. It's not that they know something about everything, it's that they know a lot about a specific area.
And for us, it's always been our passion. We've always loved technology, and we've always loved innovation and pushing what's possible. And I think that regardless of what your atvenue is, even if you're not creating product, if you're creating content, if you're creating anything, like, there's a way to be innovative in it, and there's a way to push it
to as far as you possibly can. Yeah, I'm so glad you shared that detail because to me, that's the part that I love my community really getting close to Because when you've been that close to something since you're five years old and you've taken an interest, that closeness has turned into a passion and then it's turned into your own cause that's what it takes, like that, that's what it takes, Like it takes that obsession, that absorption
that you're immersed in this whole world. It's not like one day you wake up and you have a random idea to go and create something, right, And I think often we don't give ourselves the time to get close to something and deeply immerse in it and experience it, and we we're looking for like I don't know what I'm passionate about, Like I don't know what my purpose is. I don't know what I'm excited about. But that's because we're trying to hope that it's just going to miraculously appear.
And I love that idea that actually, well, no, this has been a part of our life now when we talk about technology, your load and launch technology became the first band shoe in the NBA history, right, And that is just so like that is I don't know if there's anything cooler than that, like to get I don't know if it's better to get into the NBA we get to get in and get banned, but like to get banned by the NBA. To me, that sounds like the coolest story ever. But as a company, it can
also be difficult. I want to hear what was that like to find out like what was that like as an experience, because that's not common, Like I don't hear stories like that all the time. So I think the unique part about that is that, so to this day, we've never raised a dollar ab outside capital one hundred percent of the business, and at that moment in time, we had zero, zero dollars and what I mean zero,
We had zero dollars for marketing. And so we looked at it as the NBA is the greatest basketball organization in the world. It's top tier, and when you think about leagues, it's top tier. And so the dream when you're creating a product for a specific sport is you want it to be at the top tier with the
best people. And the fact that the NBA said that it's too good because it provides away with an undue competitive advantage that sounds really positive when you frame it that way, but if you look at it from the other side of the cortin saying the best basketball players in the world can't wear your product, that sounds negative.
And so the way that we looked at is that this is a very unique opportunity where we can wholeheartedly embrace it or we can fight it with everything that we have, which wasn't much at the time, and we said, let's embrace this, let's turn this negative into a positive. Let's say, banned by the NBA. The reason is it instantly makes you jump higher, and they can't wear it because it's so good. And so there's a way to again, you change your perspective on something. You take a negative,
you make it a positive. Ends up becoming the best thing that ever happened to us when it happened, number one news store in the world, number two, three, and seventeen most search terms on Google, over a million articles written or posted about it. Within ten days. We sold nine months worth of inventory in three days, which is important because we're self finance, no outside investors, and there's three of us in a room that's sixty square feet
when we find this out. So we basically find out that the world leading basketball organization isn't allowing our product because it provides awar with an undue competitive advantage. So I think at first there's that huge shock like, oh man, this is insane, like what do we do? And then instantly we thought, we need to lean into this, we need to embrace this. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We can make this negative feel positive. That's
exactly what we did. And again I think one thing that made it special too, is that if we would have fought it, I think the NBA would have fought us, but the fact that we embraced it made them embrace us. Like even like David Stern's passed away, but he went on a show I think like that night and said that we're looking into the show that didn't sleely makes you jumpire it might even make me dunk, And like the way that he said it, it was it was playful even though this was it was a very serious
thing that they weren't allowing people to wear it. But I think the fact that we leaned into it and we embraced this thing that could have been negative changed the perspective. It made it positive, and it made the people that were essentially saying no lean into it embrace it as well. So it ended up being a huge
win for all of us. I actually think it was the only time, obviously it's changed since that the NBA was a number one trending topic on Twitter when there wasn't like a number one trending sports organization on Twitter, when there wasn't another thing. So I think that they saw that there was value in the social equity that came along with it. We leaned into a negative, made it positive, We felt positive about it, We reaped the benefits of it because we sold the product, and then
the NBA also got the reward from it. So I think all in all, it was just it was a tremendous experience and it literally laid the groundwork for where we are today. And if that doesn't happen again, I mean, one of the key things I'm sorry is that doesn't happen, I don't know where we end up today. And we made them the most of a negative and turned it into a positive. That's a true win win win. And what I find so fascinating about it is that this is kind of like a recurring pattern in your life.
Like your superpower is the ability to transform a negative into a positive and to be able to pivot, Like that's really a superpower because even today you don't make basketball shoes, even that's what you started making, Like, there's just another pivot, right, there's expansion, there's growth, Like I find that that's sometimes the hardest thing to do. And going back to what you said before is the only thing you never got to do was making the NBA.
There's another pivot there as well. Now, Adam, tell me how good were you? How serious were you, and how close were you? Well, so, I mean I was a Division one athlete. I played basketball at USC. I think I had a route awakening when I got to college that I wasn't going to make the NBA because a few of my teammates didn't make the NBA, and I realized that they were much better than I was and that I wasn't going to be able to get there.
But I think to one of the points that you were just making, and it's important to our journey, is that typically when you think of emotions and like this turning negatives into positives, you think of emotion, you think you either have to suppress it or you have to embrace it. And I think there's a way in which you can experience it internally, but you don't have to
express it externally. And so I think that what we've done in these negative situations is we think through it, we process it, and then we say and do what we intend to do what we are doing in terms of a reaction. And I think, like for me, that's been super important to my journey. It's been super important for Ryan I and something that again, it became a superpower because if you control your emotions, you're very powerful. If you're controlled by your emotions, you're not as powerful.
And so I think like that was something that we learned really early on. But to your basketball question, I wish I would it could have been six foot ten and had had a different journey in terms of that. But everything works out the way that it's supposed to. So if I would have made the NBA, I probably wouldn't be on your podcast. Cha. So I'm I'm thankful for the journey that I've had. Oh yeah, No, I mean maybe you would. Maybe we've had some I'm trying to think now, who if we had from the NBA.
We've had You had Dwayne weight On. I know that I just viewed Dwayne, who was amazing. We had Dennis Rodman on a couple of years ago, which was just fascinating conversation. Obviously, thankful to have had the opportunity to sit with Kobe Bryant. So so maybe out of maybe maybe it would have happened that way too. It would we would have been brought we would have been brought
together either way. But no, I really appreciate this message, this pattern that's coming out through your whole journey of pivoting, of looking for being able to turn a situation something that looks like a failure or looks like a rejection
and being able to turn that into a win. And sure it's easy to celebrate that now, but you know, you can only imagine when the news is the biggest organization in the world that is your target market to help promote and propel this brand is saying you're not allowed. And that as as a product creator can be really really challenging. You know, when you think about it's almost like saying, you know, this company is not going to stock your thing, or we're not going to allow you know.
And so I love the way that I'm hearing this through your journey and how it's constantly shifted. I want to hear how do you and your brother make decisions? Have you created? Like? Because when I even met you, I what I experienced from you is your very methodical, strategic, very thoughtful. It's not you know, it's not random. This isn't just some random luck story. And I really appreciate
that because I really admire conscious, intentional thinkers. Can you walk me through how you and your brother make decisions when it comes to the business, and then diving into things like recruitment and leadership, any of those areas that you want to dive into in stories you want to share of how have you made good decisions and what is your decision making process. So I think again to one of the speaking to the podcast when you had Ray dally on, I mean, the key to his entire
successes is principles. And I think that a lot of times when you think back, think back on the things that you love the most, your most amazing journeys, your best experiences, they're usually spontaneous things. And the best of ability to be spontaneous is when you have a clear and methodical approach to how you make decisions, because it gives you a lot of room to be spontaneous because
you know you can stay within this realm. And so for Ryan and I, when we think about how we're making decisions, we anchor them in clear deliverables that we have to achieve. And so I think like a lot of times when people want to make decisions, they try to make something for the moment, but they don't think of where that's going to lead them. And so back
to thinking of the entire journey and the destination. I think you need to know when you're making this is a key decisions, not like the daily what you're going to have for breakfast, but like key long term decisions. Is you need to know where does this lead you? And where do you want it to lead you? What's
the intention behind making this decision? And so I think that for us has been something that's been really really important is that Michael Burke, who's the CEO of Believe Theton, he gave me some of the best advice that I ever had, and which is you need to think about do you want to do something for the moment or do you want to do something to be dynastic. And he took it again. He gave this advice to us
at the right moment in time. We heard it. And this is back I think twenty sixteen and Ryan and I always wanted to build something dynastic. And so if you want to build something dynastic and you want to bring people along for that journey, you have to make decisions and have the approach for the long term. You can't do it for the immediate. And so all of the decisions that we make are based on building essentially this house. If you want to build a house, you
have to have a solid foundation. If you don't have a solid foundation, it doesn't matter what you put on top of it, because it won't last. And so the way that we look at is every decision we make is another brick in building this house. And so if you have one bad brick, you can replace it. But if you're constantly laying bad bricks and you're saying, oh, these are the best ones that I can get right now, but it may not last for a long term, but
you're going to have to eventually replace it. And so the way that Ryan and I look at it is make fewer decisions, but make better decisions and take more time. And there's nothing wrong with saying no, like you say no ninety nine times, so that you can say yes the hundredth time, and that one hundredth time is worth more than one hundred acts, which you did if you
would have said yes all of those other times. So when we're thinking about decisions, it's really keeping that at the heart of it is that where are we trying to go? Why are we trying to go? Here? How are we going to get there? And why should we say yes to this? And like, if you do that and you stand behind each of your decisions, you'll be proud of your decisions, and then you will typically make
the right ones for yourself. You can't be right one hundred percent of time, and you shouldn't hold yourself to that standard, and it's irrational to do so. But if you feel confident in your decisions, the intention was right, and the people around you feel great about it, you
will typically make the right decision. And I think like one of the things that Ryan I've always tried to do is make difficult things as simple as possible, which means move the excess you're thinking about a really challenging situation. Should I go here? Should I do this? In large scenarios and take away all of the excess from the decision. What's at the core of the problem, what's at the core of why you want to do this, and then
evaluate that and be transparent and honest with yourself. Like a lot of times people don't want to be honest with themselves. They build up these other things and they take on these external factors and say, like, I'm doing this for other people and they're not really being transparent with themselves. But you inherently know what you should do, and you're going to make some wrong decisions along the road.
And it's okay to make a wrong decision if the intention was right, but you don't want to make intentional wrong decisions. And like people do that all the time and they don't talk about it. And so I think, again, that's something we discovered early on in the thought making process and the decision processes. If we feel confident in it and the intention is right and it's for the long term, it's in line with the dynastic approach, and the people around us will embrace it, and that's the
right decision. And sometimes it's simple. It's much more simple than you think it is. And I mean, we're complex creatures, so we can make any simple idea very complex. I mean, I've listened to enough of your podcasts and other people that are leaders in the space, and it's like the whole goal with whether it's meditation or anything else that you're doing, is you want to try and simplify the experience because that's when you get most of your clarity.
And so when you're thinking through the decision making process. That's what you try to do is try to make it as clear as possible. The easiest way to do so is to make it as simple as possible. Adam master Class and decision Making right there. I mean, that
was brilliant. I love this because you know it's these things you're just thrown around, and I can tell that how much grappling you've done with the idea and how you've simplified the idea for yourself, and you're so right that the reason why decision making often feels so hard is we're allowing noise in and distractions, and then we're not really asking the right questions, We're not asking the right people, We're looking at it from the wrong direction.
I loved something you said that You said that people sometimes make intentionally wrong decisions. Can you explain and expand on that a little bit more about how we do that. I read an amazing book when I was like, I think I was only sixteen seventeen years old, and I read a book called Predictably Irrational by Dan O'Riley is one of my favorite authors, and he wrote a book talking about how humans make predictably irrational decisions. All the time, and I read that book and I was like, no way,
I thought I was smart. And then you read that book and you realize, wait a minute, you're not as smart as you think you are, because so many decisions are the way things are presented. And what you miss taught me about what you meant when you said we make tentionally wrong decisions and how we end up that because sometimes I think we're not good at making the right decisions because we don't know where we go wrong. Well, so I think a lot of times it's you don't
know why you are making the decisions. So most of the time people can be pressured. And again this is back to like a peer pressure situation, is that you can be pressured into making a decision and you at your core and know that this is not the right decision, but you believe that you need to make this decision, and so in every instance you can't make the right decisions.
So that's not what I'm trying to say. But there's we can all point to moments in our lives and we've done it where we said yes to something, or we do something knowing we should not do it. There's so many things that happened because of that, and there's so many results of that the compound and become worse and worse and worse because we do these things that we don't truthfully believe in and know that they're not
right for us to do. And so I think a lot of times, think back to your worst decisions, or the decisions that people make that they're not necessarily proud of, or even just the wrong decision. They knew what the right one was, they intentionally ignored it because they thought so somebody might be upset if I say yes, or it's usually they're making it for someone else or not making it for themselves, so they don't put themselves at
the center of this decision. They're putting others there. And you can't help other people if you can't help yourself. And so I know it's a difficult thing and you can't apply to every situation, but I learned, really I'd say early on that if I'm in a place of strength and I'm in a place of support, I can help you much better than if I'm intentionally just trying to help you. And I know I'm going to be at a disadvantage. I'm not going to be able to
help you. I can help someone much better from a position of power than I can a position of weakness. And that's like using power as a positive, not as a negative. And so I think that when people are making these intentional wrong decisions, a lot of times they're not coming from a bad place. They're coming from a place or they think they need to do it to help others, but they're they're not going to be in
a position to do it. So I think that I identify that relatively early on because I felt that when I felt the best, I could help more people and I can make better decisions. And again, it's back to like happiness as the core of success. Right. If you're happy and you have that energy, and you have that charisma, and you have all of the things that resonate from you, people will gravitate towards you. But if you're pushing out negative and it's and people don't feel good about being
around you, they're intentionally making bad decisions. You should not go around somebody like that. And so I think that a lot of times it doesn't come from a place of negativity or or something that's bad. It comes from that you're trying to help somebody, and you're intentionally making the wrong decision and you end up hurting everybody instead of helping them. So I think that again, it's not being selfish, it's taking care of yourself so that you
can help others. And I think, like again, when you think of intention, you think of like purpose. If you do it from a positive place, and you do it from a place where you think you can help yourself, you can help others, you're gonna make the right decisions. And I think that that's that's how you avoid those intentional bad decisions that are intentional wrong decisions, because they don't lead to too much for anybody, They just end
up hurting it. If someone right now is listening and they want to start a business side hustle, really build something, what's the first three things they should be thinking about. If someone's listening right now, going Adam's advice is great, I have an idea I want to get started. What's the first three things that they should do? Well, I think it depends on what the type of businesses, But I think the first thing you need to do is
identify how you're going to start it. And so I think you need to know, like You can have the best idea in the world, but ideas don't matter much if you don't have execution behind it. So I think you need to figure out how are you going to execute it. Two, I think you need to figure out what you don't know in terms of where you want to go and who you can ask to help you
get there. And then three, you need to understand that it's going to be longer, harder, and more expensive than you think it will be, but it will also be more rewarding, so you have to have that same type of energy as you go through it. I think there's clear specific things that apply to different businesses, so I don't think there's generalizations more so the idea. But starting anything, the easiest way to do it is one step at a time, and you will become better every day, even
if it doesn't feel like it. But repetition leads to progress, and so I think that that's really really important when you're starting something. And again, like you have to believe in yourself, because belief is different than hope. Hoping for things won't get you very far, but belief in things will get you very very far. So I think that that's those are key underlying principles to those three things. But starting anything is the easiest way to get to
where you want to go for sure. For sure, can you, Adam, I want to shift from your mind and your ideas and the way you think to how you live. Can you take us through a day in the life of Adam, like, how does it start, how does it end? What does it look like? What's been your routine more recently? What are some things that you've changed over time that I've
actually created momentum and acceleration. So it's funny because my schedule is completely different than I'm sure yours in most in general, And I think this again, becoming comfortable with who you are. This was was a process, and I didn't have the ability early on in the journey. I do have much more of an ability of it now. But I go to sleep at on nearly four am every day and I will wake up closer to eleven am.
So I think a lot of times when they think of entrepreneurs and people in my position, they think you're up at five or six am, You're beating the sun. But I'm the exact opposite. And I found that my greatest point of inspiration and joy is typically during the nighttime when there is less activity, because I can focus on where we want to go, what we want to do, and also on myself and back to inherently known who
I was, and my brother as well. We've known since we were fifteen or sixteen that the night schedule worked better for us, but we didn't have an ability to implement it because we were in high school, we were in college, and then when we're starting the business, you have to be on other people's more traditional I guess, like calendar, the schedule, and so as we got to higher levels, we were able to continually shift it. And obviously we have people on our team that supplement the
early mornings and whatnot. We worked the late nights. But I really embraced what my natural predisposition was for my schedules, and I knew that I would be better if I could operate on this schedule, and that just like morning people love to be up in the morning, I love to just push it as far as I can late into the night. And I think there's nothing wrong with it. In a lot of times, it doesn't get glorified because
it's it's a difficult schedule. It doesn't work for everybody, it's it's not essentially normal, but for me, it's been the absolute best thing. And being able to build my schedule the way that I want, I believe is the ultimate luxury. Because again, if you can control your time and not necessarily what happens throughout your time, but to control how you allocate your time, most people would rather have ten minutes of you at one hundred percent than
three hours of you at twenty percent. You can't, even though you spend more time, you can't give them all of you. And so one of the things that I identified as I was building my schedule this way and really leading into it, is I can give people one hundred percent of my effort when I'm on a schedule that aligns with when I want to go to sleep and when I want to wake up, and also when I want to work out if I can, if I can anchor those specific things, I can give everybody much
more of myself in a shorter period of time. And again, like I've heard you speak about it before, and you said it beautifully, and it's true, like most of the people in your life, Jade, they would prefer for you to have beat with them for ten minutes give them one hundred percent of jade. It's an amazing experience. And for you to be sitting in the room on your phone, dozing off and not giving them the energy that not only they deserve, but that you deserve to give them.
And so I think that that's something that I identify through how I built my schedule now, I mean, I work out every single day, and I think that's for me. It's a really important thing because discipline has been something that has been pivotal to our journey too, And I believe that with discipline, if you anchor yourself through specific things, it gives you more Freedom's discipline is something that opens you up and gives you more opportunities, first to be spontaneous.
More freedom is because you have clear pillars, clear anchors. It's like if you're playing a video game, you get to the checkpoint, you can be more brave in your action because you know you can always go back to the checkpoint. So like that's the way I live my day to day life. I try to have specific windows where I'll do calls, but then I leave everything else essentially open because I love the chaos in a positive way,
and I love the spontaneity in a positive way. And I think that if for me at least, this is the way I found my schedule, If it's two back to back to back to back and schedule it out there, there's no real opportunity for the spontaneous excitement, which I think that we all need to have in one way
or another. And I don't think that it's the same for everybody, but I think that you have to leave yourself the ability to discover something, or to discover a relationship you didn't think was going to happen, or a partnership you didn't think was going to happen, or a friendship or things of that nature. And I think that being able to anchor myself and known I'm doing this these few things, that these few times, leaving this window
open so that I can try things again. Like the greatest opportunities I've ever had have come from taking a chance on something and then anchoring it in the way that I live my life through my schedule. And so again it's something that I've had to work towards it. It wasn't like that on day one. It's as you get further in the journey, you hone it in more. You have more opportunity to try things, and you have
more control. I think, like again, one of the key things for me in terms of success is control over schedule and control over time. You don't get to you don't know how much time you have, but if you can control how you allocate that time, that's truthfully the greatest luxury. And that's something that I think is pivotal success.
And I think again, when we're thinking about our teams, specifically in the headquarters, everybody has different schedules because everybody works differently, and I've seen how positive it's been for Ryan and I and so we try to translate that to the team as well. I love hearing about how different your schedule is to mind because it still represents the same thing to both of us. So you still have discipline, you still have focused, you're still prioritized around
when you can be creative. It's based on self awareness and what's good for you and right for you. So the values that we're choosing our schedule on is the same. Like, there's a very similar value set and it just looks different and that's actually the beauty of life like that, And I think that's where we go wrong. Where we go you know, in a few years, people are going to be saying, oh, yeah, I need to do what
Adams do. I need to sleep at four am, and you know, and it's like, well that's not really going to work. All people can be looking at again, Oh yeah, I need to wake up like you know, like I need to go to sleep. It when Jay doesn't wait and it's like, well, that's not really what we're saying. What we're saying is if you're self aware and you create discipline and rhythm in your life and space for spontaneity, then you've got to figure out what works for you
and where it works for you. And so I love hearing how different our schedules are because it just proves that there are multiple ways that it can look, even though there's a depth of why they're created that way. And in addition to that, what I really appreciated you were talking about is I think we think of discipline as ease of either back to back, and we think
of laziness or spontaneity as completely free. And what you've actually said is what discipline is is that you've created a discipline where you can be what I've been thinking about a lot lately is you can be effective and efficient, and efficiency is often seen as discipline. But efficiency means you do a lot of stuff, but effectiveness means you do important stuff. And I think that's what I'm seeing is missing in so many of our lives, is that
we're trying to be efficient. We do the laundry, do the dishes, we spoke to the team, we check this off, check this off, check this off. But then you're like, well, I haven't had any creative inspiration today, haven't been effective, And so I'm really glad that you actually explain discipline to be the meeting of efficiency and effectiveness together. I mean, I think you said it in an efficient and effective way, the way that you just like illustrated what I was
trying to get across. But it's but it's true, Like I think a lot of times people think of discipline as something that lacks freedom, but discipline is the thread in the opportunity that gives you freedom. And so I think, and again, you as you become more efficient, you can become more effective. But it's hard to be effective if you're not efficient. And so I think again, you you said it in an amazing way, and you took a
complex thing and you digested it. But it's it's been a really paramount and I think it's something that is the way that my life has has gone. And again, like I think that we have the same theories you and I are in terms of what we want to accomplish from our day to day lives. We do it at a different time, Like I'm working out at midnight, you're doing things early in the morning. But it's we're
looking to get the same type of result. And I think again, when you were talking about being self aware, that is the absolute most important thing. If you tried, if I tried to work your schedule, it wouldn't do the same thing for me. If you try to do mine, it wouldn't work. But I think the fact that we've both been transparent, honest with ourselves and self aware of what makes us show up as best as we possibly can,
and then that makes us better for other people. And so I think for us, like that's that's being an incredible way to phrase it. Yeah, And I and I respect and appreciate that in you so much because I think there is a noise. I mean, I get different noise. So my noise is, hey, j why don't you hang out late? Like why don't you come to this? Why don't it right? And then your noise as well, if you're an entrepreneur whose discipline, shouldn't you be waking up earlier?
And you know, And it's just really interesting, like, no matter what you do, there's going to be someone who disagrees with it, and that's why it has to and that's why I respect what you just shit. So I'm so happy to hear that you have this. I had no idea that that was your schedule. Now I know when to spend time with you, and you know, and I really like that because I really hope that everyone who's listening you're feeling more confidence that you're not doing
it wrong, if you're doing what's right for you. But notice that Adam and I are still basing it on values of discipline, of focus, of creativity. It's not that Adam is not just saying I do whatever I want, whenever I want, and there's there's no structure. He still even has a sleep You still have a sleep routine. It sounds like when you're like, yeah, for am to eleven, am right, there's still a routine, and so that's what
I find is really healthy. Adam, this has been so powerful because what I love about the way you talk about entrepreneurship is that it's strategic and intentional, but then there's the spontaneity and creativity. And I'm so excited to see what you continue to build. It's, you know, your twelve years in and I cannot wait to see you just continue to crush I mean you're already crushing it, but but for the business continue to grow and grow
and grow. I wanted to ask you before we come to the final five around creativity and innovation, and you spoke about spontaneity there meeting someone random, like bumping into an idea. I love that so much. What has been your secret to creativity and innovation? Where have you continue to find that that discipline and that connection. So I think one of our I guess one of our I
don't know if secrets is the right word. But again back to my brother, like the fact that there's two of us and that we're able to go through life together and we've had similar experiences. I mean, my brother like to be fully transparent, is more creative than I am and like when we're thinking of color stories and what that. Ryan's always building these beautiful color stories. Cody, who's our design directors amazing. Jake and is our content director,
He's incredible. Sam who heads of social she is she's amazing as well, and just the whole team. Like it's I could go on and on. But one of the things that I discovered, and this actually came from my mom, so and you wouldn't know it based on what my life has become, but until I was twenty five years old. I'm thirty four now, so you know, maybe even older. This is like two thousand and thirteen until, but let's use twenty five is the number. Until twenty five years old,
I hardly have ever left the country. I left the country one time twice. Actually I went to Mexico one time, and I went to London one time, and it's like each one was for two days. And then when I'm twenty five, my mom basically says, like, you guys need to do more and see more things. You need to discover more things because we were so laser focused on
what we're going to do. So a lot of the things that I've reflected on today with Uja is things I've learned more specifically over the last six or seven years in terms of like the spontaneity, the freedom, and I've always had to scipline, but it was almost at a level that was too high. And so my mom had said you need to they were going to Hong Kong and she was and it was for this wedding. She's like, you need you need to come like an old family friend, you have to come to this wedding.
And I had no intention of traveling overseas. Long story short, I end up Ryan and I end up going. It's the most incredible trip, just like going outside of the country, seeing something completely different, changing our perspective. And when we're there, we get inspired by this bridge and this bridge that never I'd never seen pictures of it anything. We get inspired by this bridge. We end up creating a shoe based on this. We end up going to another another
country years later inspired by that. And so I think that travel allowed us to change our point of view, change our perspective. And you're thinking of creativity a lot of time is just things in your day to day life that when you're thinking about repetition, you don't pay attention to it because it comes almost a second aagure, it's recurring. But when you go to a new place,
everything is new. You have to pay attention to your surroundings because it's uncomfortable, not necessarily negative way, but in a positive way. You get all of the stimulation through your senses. You're seeing things, you're meeting people. And so when my mom pushed me out of my comfort zone, then it completely changed the way that I was viewing the world, and it made it so that I was much more open to receiving what the world had than just pushing what I wanted to do or what the
intention was. And so I think like that made it so it's kind of like I don't know if you remember, on the old cell phone signals, when you would make it a call going out with like an arrow pushing like this, but when someone sending you a message, it's going both ways. And so that's kind of what that calibration did to how we discover creativity. And now, like one of the things the greatest things that inspires me is movement, whether it's movement in cars, movement on foot,
movement in the air. And so I think like movement in general, changing your surrounding. It's not necessarily going to another country or another state, but even going anywhere, just discovering. I think the opportunity for movement, that's really where the creativity came for us. And then again, I think that if you can take an idea, lean into it and see like and speak to why this makes you feel different,
you'll find inspiration in it. And I think that for us, like we have an incredible team that finds inspiration in different places, and then we're able to talk about it. And the greatest thing you can do is be a great communicator, because if you can articulate what your vision is and whether that's through verbal, whether it's through art, whether it's through anything, people will understand and people will
feel it. Not everybody will, but some people will. And I think like that's one of the things that's gone really really far for us is that we've been able to take these inspirational things like our Streamline shoe, which is my favorite one is inspired by Japanese Soufway pancakes from when Ryan and I were in Tokyo and like Ryan's obsessed with them, but we took that and we made it into a shoe, and so it's like you never know where the inspiration is going to come from,
but if you allow yourself to receive it, you can get it. And I think like that's something that a lot of people don't think of. They think they have to put it out there and push it, but a lot of times just receiving what's around you will give you a lot of inspiration into what you should do. I am so glad to ask you that question. I was about to not ask you that question, but I'm
so happy. And even though you're giving, of course, which is wonderful to hear, the credit to your team and your brother for being there, you know, creative ones, but the fact that you've been able to observe that and see that that's where it's come from, and the example from your mother too, I love that. Adam, Adam, You've just this has been phenomenal and I hope this is
the first of many. I mean, I want you to I want you to come back on the show regularly and give us updates as things continue to grow for you and apl and your brother and as I said, massive fan supporter, getting to hang out with you at a pumpkin patch was the weirdest place that I ever thought me and you would meet each other. But it was. We had a great time because we just had a much We just had a personal growth, self development, like
you know, complete connection there. But Adam, these are your final five. You know the drill. It's rapid fire. Do one word to one sentence maximum. You've you've heard everyone, so you should have had enough practice by now. But Adam Galston, there is a your final five. Are you ready? I'm excited? Awesome? All right? So the first question is what is the best advice you've ever received. I have to mix two because I think it's important. The first
is and they because they go together. First is when I was a kid, my dad would say, if you touch it, you can catch it. It was about sports, but I think it's applicable of the life, which is, if something's within your grass, you can get close enough, you can't make it yours, and it is possible, so you have to if it's in your sight, you can make it yours. The next thing that aligns with that is Larry Ellison, and again I heard this at the right moment in time, said, the larger the apparent risk,
the fewer people that will try to go there. And so that's basically is is if it seems scary, it seems risky, but you have the deep down belief fewer people will try to do it, so you actually have a competitive advantage. And I heard that when Ryan I were thinking about starting APOL, So that kind of was all I needed to hear and it pushed us over the edge. You know, I love those answers so much because you know, I think about the things in my life as well. There are just lines that I live
my life by. It it's exactly what you're saying. Like, it's not like you knew those people, or it's not like you added like a ten hour conversation with them. It was just you heard someone say something that what you said earlier. So one of Einstein's lines is if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it well enough. And that is what I live my life by. I'm like, if I can read as many books as I want, but if I can't explain that idea with simplicity, then
what's the point. And that's kind of what I've built my life around. And then there's another beautiful thought by Martin Luther King, which is the people who love peace need to learn to organize themselves as well as those who love war. And I love that because that's kind of where I get my you know, I want to be empathetic, compassionate, loving kind, but I want to accelerate in the most strategic, focus driven way because you can't just be this fluffy woo woo kind of vibe because
that doesn't make change. And so those two and those are not two that I have been familiar with, those thoughts, and I'm that one about risk. I mean, that's going to stay with me for a long time. So I really appreciate you sharing that with me. And I hope everyone who's listening can realize that you don't need to meet someone, you don't need to you don't even need to interview them. If that, you know, you could literally just hear one line and it could change your life.
So love those answers, beautiful answers, All right, Adams. Second question, what's the worst advice you've ever heard or received? It was actually around the time when I heard what Larry Ellison said about risk, and it was when we were in school and Ryan was in the business program and somebody had told him, don't even try it, and the idea was like, you can't possibly do this because you don't know how to do it. But I think that if you try something and you fail, you tried it,
you'll learn for the next part of the journey. But if you never try it, then you automatically fail. And so I think, like that thing, and again, I know it's it's not as much of a nugget as the other ones, but don't even try. I think so many of us hear that throughout our lives and it gets
conditioning to us. So I think, flip that just try it, but don't even try it as the worst piece of advice that Eve ever question on the three top five rappers of all time because I know that this we didn't get into this, but I know that I love rap music and hip hop music too. I grew up when I know that it's a big part of your life. So let's hear your top five Nipsey Hustle, Rick Ross, jay Z, Young Jeezy and t I. Nice. Great list.
Great list. We literally I literally just interviewed Lauren London earlier today, who's a dear friend of mine, and she
was you know married to Nipseys. So I mean it's like not to not to get off topic, but like a lot of Nipsey's thoughts on entrepreneurship, and I mean I had a few great conversations with him when he was alive, but like the way that he looked at it, it was and we used to talk about it like it was so similar to the way that we thought about apl like in terms of building something independently from
the ground up. Like I Ryan, I spoke at Harvard at the Harvard Business School and one of the things that we talked about, and this was right before Nipsey passed away, was he did this interview and he talked about taking the stairs, not the elevator. And that's been paramount to our journey. So I think, like I'm in a fan. I was a fan of his when I was in college because I went to USC's from South Central So like we were hearing it at when we're
in the locker room and everything like that. But just what Nipsey did, what his thought processes an entrepreneurship, and just like building the people up around you, if you build within your community, you can help so many other people. And if you start local can take it much further. And just like not only was the incredibly talented, but like he was just like such a like he was a leader, and he was a thought provoking person and
he lived what he said. And so I think, like again, like he was he was super super super inspirational in addition to being an incredible rapper. I love that man, Thank you for adding that note. That's you know, that's that's beautiful inside and I'm really glad again I asked that question because it led to an even deeper takeaway, all right, question before, how would you define your current purpose in life? I think it's maximizing each day in
staying focused on the future. So I think it's being able to enjoy the present, but it's still being excited about the future. Like that that's really really important to me, and I think that's what gives you energy to keep going forward, is just enjoying today but being excited about the future. All right, Adam. In fifth and final question, what is something that you used to value but you
no longer value? Probably nostalgia. I mean I think that I get so excited about what I'm doing today, where we're going in the future, and I think I've done amazing things, and we've we've done incredible things. But a lot of times we live in the past and we don't and that keeps us from enjoying the present. And so I think that I can appreciate the past, but I definitely but I definitely love the president and I'm
excited about the future. And I think that that shift of perspective has been something that's really been important to my journey and also just my happiness as a person. That is such a good answer. We've never had that before. And I love that answer because I couldn't agree with you more. I you know, I always saw individuals who lived as if their best years had already gone, and that's such a hard way to live because life is so much longer than you think it is. And so
that is a beautiful answer. Everyone, make sure you follow Adam across social media so you can connect. To make sure you follow apl across social media, and I want you to make sure that you tag me and Adam and APL and any insights that you gained from this episode. There are tons. Like I said, I hope you're making notes. Second of all, go listen to it. Again if you weren't making notes. Third thing, recognize that Adam is a
true modern entrepreneur. Like it's highly strategic, it's highly focused, there's creativity, there's spontaneity. There are so many lessons to learn from this incredible human and Adam, I've had so much fun today. I've learned so much from you. I think there have been moments in this interview where you've said things that are going to stay with me for a very very long time, and I personally am going to make sure that I apply them in my life.
So I want to thank you for those gifts. And I cannot wait to continue our friendship, to continue to see you succeed and win and continue to build. And I'm excited to be a part of the journy man. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jay Iman. I appreciate it. And I think like you've done so much to inspire so many people. And I mean, there's a reason why you have the number one health podcast in the world, and it's just people can come here, they can learn
a lot, but they can be inspired. And I think, like the greatest gift you can give to someone's inspiration. And then you've got to leave it up to them to execute. But you've done a lot of amazing things for so many people, and I couldn't be happier to be a part of it. And again, like just becoming friends with you and getting to know you over like in recent time has been incredible. So I'm happy that we have this friendship. I'm happy I could be here today,
and I appreciate your support. And obviously I hope that everybody listening to this just takes us as something that can help push them, even if it's just one step forward, just take something and make their lives more enriching. It definitely will, Man, it definitely will. Thank you, Adam, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you everyone for listening. Make sure you share this and post it on and I'll see you next time.