Finding Strength & Growth From Dark Times | Logic EP 435

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:12What was the age growing up that you feel like was the darkest for you? I got a couple of them. I mean, I just remember when my mom was locked up in a mental institution and my sisters kind of took over the house and they're like 14. And, you know, they're doing what 14-year-old kids in the hood tend to do. Yeah, so I didn't have anybody really. And they kind of looked out for me, which was cool. But then at the same time, one of my darkest and most times of feeling alone was when I was 28 years old and I had the whole world in the palm of my hands and nobody else understood what I was going through.

0:46And a majority of people, whether they were rappers, other entertainers that I would go to, would kind of be like, oh, yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's cool. You'll be all right. Because they're also don't want to deal with what they were going through at the same time. It's kind of gnarly. How old were you then at the younger age when your sisters were 14? Like nine. Nine. So nine and 28. When you were nine, what was the thing you were going through the most? What was the biggest challenge? It's funny. I knew that I wasn't like everybody else in my household. And yet because of coming up in my household, I also knew that I wasn't like all the other kids in the neighborhood or at school, which was kind of like a difficult thing.

1:25And don't get me wrong. Like I fit in. I had a group of friends and people that I would hang out with. But it was like I also didn't fit in. You know? It was a difficult thing. I just want everybody listening and watching to know, I don't say any of what I'm going to say here about my family and my childhood with any malice. I've forgiven these people for what they've done, but at the end of the day, the truth hurts. The truth hurt me as a kid, and it is what it is. Though I may be brutally honest, if they feel any type of way, they should have felt something 30 years ago before they treated a child like s**t.

2:00I just want to say that. I think it was extremely difficult. Like, my mom is religious, but like, not really. My mom's the type of woman to go, you know, don't take the Lord's name in vain, God. And whenever you ask questions or, you know, and kids ask questions, you should ask questions. But a lot of faith, which I respect and I understand it is faith. And that's why they call it faith, because you just have to have faith. But when you're a kid, you're like, yeah, but why? Exactly. And you're kind of told, you're told, no, we don't question. that was very difficult having these questions or these ideas and always just being met with because i said so um was extremely difficult it's not a good enough response for me either parents and they still do this tend to treat their kids like they're stupid you know what i mean but it's like they're the ones who should be educating them so if they're asking a question instead of because i said so why not be completely honest like my wife she's the best mom and little bobby He'll take his toy and throw it because he's like a year and a half and he'll just throw it.

3:01And she goes, no, honey, we want to be gentle. And he looks at her and he's like, because we don't want to hurt our toys. And obviously we can't hurt our toys, but we're teaching this boy to hold value in something. I saw a lot of things in those dark times and it really shaped me and has continued to help me as a father and a husband. What do you think you would say if your nine-year-old self was sitting right in front of you right now? What advice would you say to him? People have asked me that question in different ways. Like, what would you tell the younger version of yourself who's rapping or this or that?

3:34I think the rapper, I'd be like, you're never going to make it. Just to get him even more fired so he doesn't put his feet up. Yeah. And just think everything's cool. It's like, I don't really know what I would tell him. I know what he needs to hear. What's he need to hear? And I don't think that's necessarily the same thing. But he needs to hear, I love you. You're a good person. You can do anything you want in the world. You're really smart. You know, you're a good kid. Never heard that ever. No, I never heard that ever. What do you think would have happened had you have heard that consistently?

4:04Well, if I had heard that, I don't think I would have been in the house that I was in either, right? You know what I mean? It's like I would have had a completely different life, which I talk about in this book. And I say how there was times when I really wished I could be a dog in a rich family. And people would pet me and tell me they loved me and play with me. And then I'd get maybe like 12 years out of it. And it would just be way better than what I was experiencing. So I remember having thoughts like that for sure. What would you say are the three biggest lessons you learned from childhood?

4:34How not to treat a child.

4:39That your household and your upbringing actually doesn't define you. It doesn't. It has a great impact on who you will become. But there are these anomalies. I mean, myself, right? It's like I came from, you know, violence and being surrounded by drugs and alcohol and all these different things. Yet I didn't choose that path. And then you could have, you know, kids who came up in great stable families and they're like Tony Montana. And then the third thing that I learned from my childhood, I think about how much I did alone. And I wish that if I had a parent there to support my love of anime, sci-fi and all this stuff, like it would have just been so cool.

5:21I remember being 14 years old and my mom was like, you cannot watch Kill Bill. You cannot watch Kill Bill. You cannot watch. And then so I watched it. Anyway, alone, it changed my life forever. I mean, that movie literally inspired me on so many insane levels, like discovering RZA from Wu-Tang Clan and then discovering Wu-Tang Clan, which is why I started rapping in the first place. Wow. I was like, dude, a couple of years ago, yeah, I did a song called Wu-Tang Forever and I have every living member of the Wu-Tang Clan on one song. It was like this crazy, amazing milestone for me.

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6:56Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.