Alex Honnold: I GIve A Third of My Income to Charities | Forward Progress

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0:31Hey, it's Graham. It's Thursday. And that means we're offering you another positive piece of a past interview. Each week, our team digs through the archives to find our strongest feel-good stories to present to you in podcast form. This week, Alex Honnold.

0:50How do you view fame? I view fame as like a means to an end.

0:55Alex Honnold:And the end is to be able to climb my whole life without having to work and fame is like a very useful way to do that. How do you view media and sponsors? I don't know I mean yeah media and sponsors are all just like part of the whole game I mean I don't know I mean I love being able to go climbing all the time and sponsorship and media and like you know making films and writing books and all those kinds of things all just sort of tie into like enabling this lifestyle and to be able to share the lifestyle with people which has never been like my goal but it is nice to be able to like inspire other people and to like, I mean, throughout my life, I've gotten a lot of inspiration from like seeing climbing films and like reading people's books and like reading climbing magazines and like, you know, I've taken a lot from the climbing community and that's like really inspired me to like go and push myself.

1:38Alex Honnold:And so it's nice to be able to contribute to that whole culture a little bit. Generally, why do you think it's so difficult for most climbers to be able to earn a living from the sport? I mean, generally climbing just isn't that big a sport, so there's not much money in it so there's not that much to go around i mean it's hard to like make a living from sponsorship but that's changing a little bit though because climbing is growing so quickly and gyms are taking off and like i mean the sport of climbing is wildly different now than it was 10 years ago what do you think has allowed it to become financially lucrative for you i mean financially lucrative might be overstating it because it's well i mean you know like the top climbers in the world are like getting paid less than a dentist right i mean i was gonna say we Featured Shaq, who's making$20 million a year.

2:21So it is all relative, but I mean, if you're...

2:23Alex Honnold:I mean, I read some stats about the NFL, and it was talking about, like, the base salary or something for, like, basically you can be the worst player in the entire league, and you're still making, like, easily twice as much as any of the climbers in the world. Yeah, but the difference is, too, the average lifespan of somebody in the NFL is three, four years, and then most are... Yeah, climbing is, like, 20 years. A couple years. Well, it's because they don't save properly. Right, that's true. It's because they buy a tiger or whatever. They have to feed it all the time. We interviewed Mike Tyson too before.

2:49Alex Honnold:Yeah, I know, I saw that. I mean, it is obviously all relative, but making a couple hundred grand a year or whatever it is, I mean, that's a good living and definitely better than most, and it's doing what you love. So, I mean, what do you think is allowed? I think I've been lucky with the sponsorship stuff because the type of climbing that I like doing the most, the soloing and everything, is also like the easiest to understand for a general audience. It's like the most visually appealing. even though it's not nearly as difficult as something like the Dawn Wall, let's say. But so like the things that I'm doing, you can just show like one image and you're like, that's amazing, that's so beautiful, that looks so cool.

3:24Alex Honnold:And so like it's easy to sell, you know. What do you, and you've been open about this before, what do you live off of annually now? And when you were living off the, you know, there was a point where you were living off very little and probably more now. Yeah, well, it's been published that I was living off like a grand a month or less or something. I mean, when I first started traveling, it was probably less than that because it was just food and gas. And I was like shopping at like Walmart and like terrible places, you know, just buying like the cheapest pasta. And it's like, oh, 68 cents for dinner.

3:55Alex Honnold:That's perfect. You know, and now obviously I spend a lot more on food. When you did not have or when you had very little money, what did that teach you about, you know, savings and all of that? I mean, the thing is, I've always lived the same way. Like, I only buy things if I need them, and I still just, like, don't spend money frivolously. I don't, like, I don't have any things, you know? But the difference then versus now is you're able to have money to sort of plan for... Yeah, yeah. Now it's awesome to be able to, like, save money. And also, I have a foundation now, and so I've been giving probably a third of my income to charity, like environmental nonprofits and stuff, which is pretty sweet to be able to, like, try to do something positive like that.

4:41Which is pretty substantial, too, because, I mean, you do well, but a third of, it's easier for a billionaire to get a third of their savings.

4:55Alex Honnold:Yeah, but my living expenses are still super low. And I'm saving enough that I feel comfortable with being okay. And, yeah, I feel like that's the appropriate level. One quick favor before you leave. please consider giving the podcast a rating and review. Those go a long way in helping us reach new listeners. Thanks for your support.