Let Go of Self Doubt and Start Believing in Your Potential | Adam Carolla EP 507

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

0:11Was there ever a moment in those first few years of taking the stand-up classes, the acting classes, where you're like, oh, this is too hard to learn these skills. I just need to stick to doing the carpentry stuff. I had some ebbs and some flows and some highs and some lows. Like, when I got asked to leave the groundlings at a certain point, at the end, I was, like, rudderless and fully depressed. Wow. I didn't know what to do, but I was like, look, I don't think carpentry is a viable option in that. I want to own a home one day and I might like to have kids one day and a wife and I'm going to have to like support those kids and pay a mortgage and maybe support my wife and have insurance and a credit card.

1:01Or maybe we want to go on a vacation or something. I don't have a credit card. I don't have anything. And I just can't see carpentry getting me that house and doing all that stuff. When was this, early 90s, though? Yeah, I mean, this is, the decision is probably made in, like, later 80s. Later 80s. But now into the early 90s, nothing's happening. But I'm assuming, if you're saying to yourself, I don't see this carpentry thing being able to support my vision, and you're saying, I'm going after comedy, I don't think parents or anyone else should say that's the right path to go down. If you want to buy a home, if you want to, you know.

1:40Yeah, yeah. It seems lower per se. It's like, take the safer, more surefire thing as opposed to try this comedy thing for 10 years. Maybe you make some money, you know, and figure it out. Well, I didn't have to vet it with anybody because my parents were like, look, you're, you know, you're 18. you gotta leave. And that was sort of the last career-based conversation I had with them. Whatever I was or whatever I did, just as long as I didn't ask them for money. Who are the people you looked up to or you were like, wow, that's really inspiring what they've done in their career that you actually became friends with or worked with?

2:17I always listened to the radio and I always loved the radio. And I listened to talk radio when I was younger. It didn't matter who was on. I would listen to a psychologist named David Viscott. I would listen to Dean Adele, the doctor. I'd tell Dennis Prager, still on the radio, I'd go, I would listen to Religion on the Line, your first talk show, and I'm an atheist. And I would just listen. We got a rabbi, we got a priest, and we're going to argue about religion. I'd go, good, let's hear it. And I'm not religious at all. Dr. Ruth had a show on, you know, the real estate guy, or with a financial guy, I would just listen to talk radio.

2:58Always like talk. Like when you're leaving and you think your dog's going to get lonely, so you put the radio on, so you think there's somebody probably freaked out because you think someone's trapped in a speaker. I mean, we don't really think of the downstream consequences of keeping our dogs company. But I just like voices, you know? And I would listen to morning radio because my construction hours are like morning radio hours. morning radio, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. That's the shift. And then, like, they start playing music after that. I'd be getting into my truck at 6.15, 6.20, 6 o 'clock, you know, because I had a job.

3:37Build a house in an avocado orchard in Simi Valley, you know. You got to be rolled out at 7 a.m. You got to leave at 6 or house up in the hills of Malibu on Ramla Pacifico, you know. Got to leave at 6 or downtown doing earthquake rehab, you know, sitting in traffic. Right. So I get in the car, turn on morning radio. I go right through. I get to the job sites, turn on the boom box, turn it on, finish listening. And I was like, I could do that. I could definitely do that. I'm never going to do it. I'm not going to get a chance to do it. But I can do it. And so for me, comedy is a low percentage.

4:16And carpentry is a much higher percentage gig. and so you know you were inquiring about me going I want to get a house and have a family so I'm going to do comedy. Comedy is going to get me there. Yeah it sounds low percentage. Playing in the NFL is super low percentage but it's not for Lawrence Taylor. For him it's a good it's a pretty good bet. He shouldn't work at a Home Depot. He should be coming off the weak side you know. And I felt like I had enough ability where it was like, yeah, it's one in every 2 ,000 kids who played college football gets to the pros. And you go, that's low percent.

4:56It's not low percentage for Lawrence Taylor. He's setting his own percentage. You know what I mean? He's in charge. And that's how I looked at it. Like, I'm in charge. Right. Yeah, if you take 500 guys who want to be a comedian and they go, only one of you is going to succeed. Then no, I'm not doing that. But if you let me produce or create or let me come off the weak side, then I can make the team. Or at least I could make the team. I don't know that there's any guarantees. Taze.

5:37Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

6:27Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.