Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You can probably hear all the noise outside because people just like to drive around with speakers on their trucks, and whether they're selling something or they're picking up appliances or whatever they're doing.
[00:00:16] Today is Grito de la Independencia in Mexico, where I currently am. And that'll be fun. Noisy, crazy. This evening, I want to talk about something I saw, though, that relates to the things that I'm building, relates to just life in general, and that's Tom Cruise.
[00:00:49] There's a bunch of interviews that are just all over social media now, and the algorithm is feeding them.
[00:00:55] So anytime that I see a message or whatever, I open social media. Like this interview GQ with Tom Cruise promoting some new movie, I'm sure. But I watched a few of them because it's Tom Cruise, just out of curiosity.
[00:01:12] And it's interesting how much he talks about dreams, how he has dreams. And he always had dreams since a young age, but he.
[00:01:22] He kept them hidden. He wrote things on a board, but he never told anybody. And how wise Counsel when he was younger told him, hey, don't tell your dreams to anybody.
[00:01:34] I think it's really interesting because I remember growing up and having dreams now. I see you learn as you grow up, like a goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline. Right?
[00:01:48] That's. That's a great way to shift from, okay, I got a dream to have a goal.
[00:01:56] Now I have something tangible, structure that I can work towards.
[00:02:01] But it's just interesting, the disconnect to me, and there really, truly is a disconnect from.
[00:02:15] Talking about dreams in the theoretical and then talking about dreams in the practical reality of life and how much disconnect there is. Like, if you talk about Martin Luther King, I have a dream.
[00:02:38] That speech, right.
[00:02:43] It's so famous and it was so powerful and impactful on culture and society, and we recognize that.
[00:02:54] But if you go to your buddies or to your family, you say, hey, I have a dream. This is my dream, is the response going to be the same as it was for mlk? Well, I mean, other than what happened, but just like the response in general, like, he has a dream. It's amazing. That's powerful. Like, that's inspiring.
[00:03:15] Or is it going to be like negative, cynical, condescending mockery, maybe even, oh, you have a dream. Oh, you're such a dreamer.
[00:03:29] I got that a lot when I was younger, until I learned the same. Like, Tom Cruise is talking about to shut up.
[00:03:37] Like, you shut up about your dreams. You don't tell anybody your dreams.
[00:03:41] Because you're gonna be mocked for that.
[00:03:44] Now you can look at the psychology of why that is. Why would someone mock someone else's dream? Probably because they've given up on their dreams and they hate themselves for giving up on their dreams. And so it's the crabs in a bucket thing, whatever term framework you want to put to it. But it's. It's a sad tragedy of humanity that we put others down who have positivity and dreams and belief in themselves to go further and to do more.
[00:04:21] If we ourselves are struggling, I shouldn't say we, because that's not the opposite of that. That's something that I'll proudly proclaim that, like, I'll encourage a random stranger and I don't like people.
[00:04:35] But some random homeless guy tells me he's got a dream while we're riding on the train, like, I'm gonna encourage him to go work for that dream. Like, my senior quote in high school actually was mocked so badly.
[00:04:51] But like, the video, we all did a video. And I was like, I think it was my quote also. But I talked about it in the video. Dream big and work to accomplish those dreams. I think that was what I said.
[00:05:02] Everyone just, like, ripped on that. And it's like, I didn't have a support system that could really explain why people were doing that and how to handle that and how to channel the energy into pursuing those things.
[00:05:22] It's just funny to hear someone like Tom Cruise, of all people.
[00:05:29] You know, we can argue, debate, statistics, whatever.
[00:05:33] I would say Tom Cruise is arguably the biggest movie star of our generation of the last 30 years or so in terms of box office, in terms of fame, maybe there's no way to quantify that, but he's one of, for sure the top 10 of the last, like, 50 years.
[00:06:01] And for that guy to be like, yeah, I don't tell anybody my dreams.
[00:06:05] What. What is wrong with humanity?
[00:06:10] And so thinking about this, because part of the Sovereign Hub platform, and actually this predates the Sovereign Hub platform. The first thing that I wanted to build for Ventropoli in terms of tech was like a life dashboard.
[00:06:25] And I still have all of my original mockups and everything from 2016, when I designed everything in Photoshop. And I was like, this is what I want. I want. I want to, like, a dashboard to manage my life.
[00:06:39] I want to connect investment accounts. I want to connect businesses and payment processing. I want to connect my big picture goals, like, my little goals. I'm going to connect like a dream board.
[00:06:55] My daily tasks, all that Stuff I want to like encapsulate into, into one single dashboard so I can just see my life at a glance and how I'm doing, keep myself consistent.
[00:07:07] Some of the ideas from that, that app Brainstorm have worked their way into the sovereign hub platform, but a lot of it is still in that app.
[00:07:19] So this is so funny because I was at the time working on an event for an investment group and it was going to be like a combination of adventure and then investment pitches and stuff in Southeast Asia.
[00:07:40] So there's a lot of high net worth individuals, people that ran funds, etc.
[00:07:47] And I thought that the app would be cool. Like, I was like, this is, I think everyone could benefit from this. Like, why wouldn't you want to see your life at a glance?
[00:07:58] Why wouldn't you want to be able to have all these things in one screen to where you can like connect everything, really see how you're, all your businesses are doing for you. Just very, very private, secure. To really have like a snapshot, high level of your own life, financially, relationally, all your hobbies, the way you're spending your time and how that time balances. Like, one of the features was tracking the time for the different areas of your life and then how that was related, relating to happiness, fulfillment and revenue. So if you're spending like 80% of your time on something that's only bringing in like a small percentage of revenue and joy, then you probably should stop doing that and focus your time somewhere else. So like a dashboard to, to kind of encapsulate all of that and, and to be able to track it.
[00:08:54] So I remember I had some conversations with some people who are wealthy and they thought it was kind of interesting. They thought it was cool to be able to, you know, have something like that.
[00:09:03] So I went, this was 2016. So I went to Fiverr and Upwork, I think it was, and started interviewing devs and like seeing what we could do. Because I had the whole plan very, very specifically written out, had a bunch of screenshots I'd mocked up in Photoshop. It was ready to go.
[00:09:25] Most of the quotes were like just astronomical at that time. Really expensive to build something like that beyond the budget that I had for him.
[00:09:33] And I remember this one guy though, who, the response was so vicious that I'll just never forget it because he was just, he's like, you, you're an idiot. Like, why would you want to build something like this? There's no market for this. Wealthy people don't need to like have dreams and all this goal setting shit. And like, wealthy people don't need any kind of dashboard like this. Like, they would never use something like this. Like, who do you think you are that you're gonna build something stupid for rich people? They don't. Like, only a broke ass person would think that this was a cool idea.
[00:10:19] Whoa, dude. Like you could just say, no, you're not interested in developing the app or give me some astronomical price.
[00:10:26] Like just the, the vitriol that came back from just a random stranger about this app was like, jeez, who hurt you?
[00:10:39] So I was thinking about that when I saw these clips of Tom Cruise talking about dreams. Talking about dreams, talking about dreams and how he always has dreams. Like since he. And he's like in his 60s now. He's like, I still have dreams that I want to accomplish in my life, but I don't tell anybody.
[00:10:56] Like, what have we become as humans?
[00:11:02] It's just all fake because everyone has dreams and everyone has things that they would love to do.
[00:11:13] And I think that the, the issue is when you, when you take it seriously, that threatens people.
[00:11:21] It scares people.
[00:11:22] It makes them think about their own dreams that they've given up.
[00:11:26] And so when someone is a dreamer and especially if they're willing to like, like Tom Cruise. This is so interesting because, okay, I'm not like a fan or anything, but I just, I really related to the clips that I saw where he's talking about dreams and he's like, and my thing was always, I'm gonna be the hardest worker. I'm gonna outwork anybody. I'm gonna get there before everybody. Like, I will outwork you because this is what I want to accomplish. And then I want to surround myself with people that also want to do that.
[00:11:58] Like, that's awesome. Like, I respect that.
[00:12:02] But it's so funny that someone like that, one of the world's most successful artists, let's say creators of the past four decades longer, probably would have to like hide his dreams and goals because of the responses of everyone else and how out everyone's gonna on that. Like, what is wrong with humans? Why are we like that? Why do we not support each other? Why do we not draw energy from people who have goals?
[00:12:42] People who have say, this is my dream. And it's not just like, oh, like, I want to go to Antarctica, I want to go to see the Eiffel Tower, I want to go on a safari in Africa. Like, everyone gets say, like, oh, I want to sail around the world.
[00:12:57] And it's like, oh yeah, Me too.
[00:12:59] But when someone's like, I have a dream, I want to be like Tom Cruise, I want to be in movies, I want to make movies.
[00:13:08] Then it's like a serious thing where people like, oh, well, who do you think you are? Like, you're going to make movies? Like, who are you? You're some nobody from Kentucky or wherever you from.
[00:13:20] Like, why do we do that as people, as humans? It's so, so weird to me.
[00:13:26] So I ended up not building this dashboard because I'm just a budget concern and I didn't have the understanding of programming or whatever in 2016 to build it.
[00:13:37] But this year, like, when I've had some extra time, I've been messing around with first with Lovable, and then I use Perplexity Computer in like January or February when that came out and completely redid it. And then from there I used cloud code. And obviously it's completely different app now. It's much, much better, but it works. And it's like almost the colors are different, but it's almost exactly like the. The whole setup that I had designed in 2016. And I've. There's lots of life dashboard type of productivity and goal tracking and dream board apps and stuff, but I've never found anything that's like what I wanted. So I just built it for myself.
[00:14:19] But I think it's cool and it connects with the Sovereign Hub because I still. Well, it's going to connect a lot of the ideas about the. The company side of things from your daily dashboard and tasks and all that stuff that has moved into Sovereign Hub so that it can be tracked with a contribution trail and people can follow what's going on with the company if people are interested in working together or investing or whatever.
[00:14:50] But the personal side stays personal.
[00:14:53] So there's. I'm gonna have a bridge between the two apps, basically, so it'll become sort of one system to where once there is revenue in the projects and the companies for Sovereign Hub, then that can be brought in automatically to your dashboard, which was the whole purpose of the dashboard initially 10 years ago.
[00:15:16] So you can really see what you're doing, where you're spending your time, where your revenue is coming from, and how you're spending your personal time as well, for health and nutrition, for family relationships, all of those things.
[00:15:33] And then also that you have.
[00:15:37] There's sort of two sections. One is like the dreams section where you can put in and say, like, these are my. My dreams, like a dream board digital.
[00:15:50] But then you can connect those to goals so you don't have to. But then when you're ready to say, okay, this is a goal now, then there's a bunch of other stuff that like gives it structure for a goal is a dream with a plan and a deadline. So then you give yourself a deadline, you give yourself a plan. Suddenly it goes into the tasks.
[00:16:10] You could even turn it into a project or a company or whatever that goes into Sovereign Hub and really track things that way. Or you can just keep private.
[00:16:18] So it's kind of another side. Like I haven't put anything really out there about this and I'm not sure if I even will because of what happened a decade ago. And just like the.
[00:16:31] How horrible that response was and how much it made me question.
[00:16:37] And it shouldn't. I, I understand it shouldn't.
[00:16:42] And maybe it just struck insecurities or, or things in me that have been deep since I was young. Of like saying that you're a creator and you love to create. Oh, Mr. Creator here. Oh, the creator of everything. Like, well, yeah, I like to create. Like, why is that bad?
[00:17:05] I said that.
[00:17:07] I don't even know.
[00:17:09] Something else that's more normal. Said I wanted to be an office worker. Like, you wouldn't mock that. In reality you should. Like, if you think about how we spend our finite days on this planet and what is acceptable. Like if you really describe a 40 hour work week and then working for 30 or 40 years and then retiring when you're old to actually get to find yourself and enjoy life like that would sound insane to any other species.
[00:17:39] Right?
[00:17:40] And yet that's how we.
[00:17:43] No one's gonna mock that. But if someone's like, I have a dream, I have a big dream.
[00:17:48] And my problem was having lots of big dreams, whether it was like, I want to be professional athlete or I think that I can be a rock star or whatever, it's like you always want to strive for greatness right in whatever you're doing.
[00:18:07] But that does threaten people. That does make people think about their own dreams and goals that they've given up on or that they're just not willing to work hard enough on. And so they're going to put negativity and toxicity into what you are saying.
[00:18:28] I don't know if my wi fi just dropped, so it's weird to hear Tom Cruise saying things that I can actually relate to.
[00:18:41] And it's just tragic too, because we shouldn't be like that. We should support if someone like truly has a dream and they're willing to work their butts off for it.
[00:18:56] Like we should support that. Especially if they're like friends of family or whatever.
[00:19:03] Even if they're not like total strangers. Like, cool. You got, you had a dream and now you're working your butt off for it. Like that's awesome. Nice to meet you, a fellow person that dreams and works towards those dreams.
[00:19:19] I got a cool dashboard that can help you with that.
[00:19:23] It's a cool app that I haven't seen anywhere else that sort of encapsulates all those things, dreams and goals and work and tasks and all of the creative aspect into one.
[00:19:36] I'm not selling anything. I'm just talking about it because I thought it was funny that I've really been working on that, especially lately as I've been putting Sovereign Hub out there more and, and working on using that. Then I also want to have this back end just for myself, like, because I want to use it more to really stay consistent, track everything. And it's got a voice agent so I can just record like to dos that kind of stuff and then make sure that they get, get done.
[00:20:04] You can connect your agents to it on the back end and they can do the work for you. They can help you with keeping things organized and telling you what's like what's pending or whatever.
[00:20:19] But yeah, it is based on having a dream, having a goal, having a plan to achieve it.
[00:20:29] And the irony is that it's like has to be super secure and private because you can't share those things. So just for you to know, I'm not even sure what that implies about our species or this existence and this challenge of consciousness. Because think about it from a deeper philosophical standpoint.
[00:21:05] Whether you're religious or an atheist or you believe that this is a conscious test, consciousness simulation.
[00:21:16] Like if there's something greater and bigger and we're.
[00:21:20] We are other beings, spiritual beings, or just consciousness having this experience, the worst thing that could possibly happen is to do nothing, learn nothing, advance in no way, have no challenges whatsoever, have no growth whatsoever. If that's the worst thing that you could do as a spiritual being or as consciousness, if you are helping the divine consciousness to evolve, the worst thing you can do is nothing.
[00:22:00] And yet that is what's pulling people back, that is what's squelching people's dreams, that is what's mocking those who do have goals that they're working towards is exactly that.
[00:22:20] It's like a something that comes against growth and learning and advancement as a spiritual being or as consciousness. Sorry, I got some allergies Never had allergies in my life. But this place in Mexico, where I live, it's up in the mountains, like cloud forest when the rain's coming in. Oh, my gosh.
[00:22:45] Nothing works to fix it except for sunshine. Sunshine comes back up.
[00:22:54] But I'm sure there's something else that's underlying, that's causing that, right? Something in my vibration or in my energy that's causing the physical affliction.
[00:23:07] I'm not going to argue that.
[00:23:11] I'm not saying, like, I'm not talking about manifesting or anything like that. I'm just talking about someone like Tom Cruise.
[00:23:20] Someone like anyone. Pick an athlete or a celebrity or politician. Like, what's the point of doing anything if you're not doing it to win, if you're not doing it to reach a higher level?
[00:23:36] Not everyone can be the goat. Not everyone can be the greatest. Not everyone can be a champion.
[00:23:44] And yet everyone can reach their own full potential.
[00:23:51] Like, we're only in competition with our own best self.
[00:23:56] I'm not in competition with you or anyone else. I'm not in competition with Tom Cruise. I'm in competition with my own best self.
[00:24:03] And I have a delusional belief in what I think I'm capable of and should be achieving, that I'm not yet. And so then that leads me to say, I have a dream, and I'm going to turn that dream into a goal.
[00:24:22] I'm going to have a plan, a structure on how to get there, and I'm going to give myself a deadline so that I continue to have daily impetus to really, really. They go for it with urgency and not just wait, not just see if it happens, because it'll never happen. You got to really go for stuff.
[00:24:43] And so having a structure, having organization, having a dashboard, having that all encapsulated to where it reminds you this is the life that you say that you want.
[00:24:56] And yet the interesting thing is, so those same people that I was considering building this for back in the day, over time, as I've gotten to know many, many more people in that wider group and on the periphery, I think there's actually some truth to what the guy said, even as vicious as it was, was that especially men as we get older, like, the idea of, like, I have a dream, like, seems childish, it seems silly, it seems juvenile, immature, not developed, not manly.
[00:25:48] So God bless Tom Cruz for coming out and in GQ and saying, I have dreams still. I always had dreams. I worked, I achieved them. I still have dreams that I want to achieve, like I applaud you, Tom Cruise, that is.
[00:26:07] People need to hear that.
[00:26:09] It's not just about hustle, it's not just about grind. It's about why are you doing it. Because you have a purpose, because you have a passion, you have an obsession for something you want because it's who you are. It's first your be in my whole thing, be who you are, do the actions that you're going to take because of your be and then have and give.
[00:26:35] You will have those things based on those actions. If you're truly living your be and doing those things that connect to a higher purpose, to that quadrant of ikigai, of what you're good at, what you love, what the world needs and what you can make money.
[00:26:58] And it all comes together into something big and beautiful. And so if we can look at that through of esoterically the I and we say, oh, this Japanese belief, this Japanese phrase or this word that means this beautiful thing of purpose and connecting with, with self and talents and the needs of the world and what can make money.
[00:27:29] And I'm like, oh, let's, let's put that in a dashboard to where it tracks all things, four of those things in a, in a real tangible way. Like, okay, so who you are, your dreams, like your yourself, like your true purpose and then what you're good at. So like the actions you're going to be taking and then what the world needs. Okay, so how are you going to connect those actions to like market absences and you know, get product, market fit? How are you going to find the demographic so that you can then make money with that? And then you're gonna track the money that you're making and you're gonna track how connected that is to your bee and no, that's stupid. Like, who would want to do that?
[00:28:16] When you have something tangible like that, it makes it more real, I guess, than just this theoretical ethereal idea of ikigai is beautiful.
[00:28:30] Yeah, it's beautiful. It's awesome. So let's track it.
[00:28:34] Nah, that's stupid.
[00:28:35] Who would want to do that?
[00:28:39] So it's kind of, it's kind of funny, these ideas that.
[00:28:51] I still believe in, that I believed in back then, but like negative feedback like that makes you question.
[00:29:00] As I've gotten older, I question less and less because I'm like, no, I know I'm right on this doesn't mean that I'm going to be able to do it. That doesn't mean that I'm going to succeed at it. Whatever, hopefully, maybe But I, I know that what you're saying is wrong and what I'm saying, saying is correct.
[00:29:20] Because nobody gets to the top of anything.
[00:29:25] They think people just don't talk about it. And that is sort of the indictment on society. Like, everyone downplays it.
[00:29:35] Like, you ask a great athlete, you know, like, you want to win mvp. Nah, it's team game, team game, man. And you know, like.
[00:29:44] But then at the end of their career, it's like, how many MVPs did I have?
[00:29:48] So, like, during the season that they're winning the mvp? Ah, it's a team game. It's all my teammates, my teammates. And then their hall of Fame speech, they're like, yeah, I'm the man. It's like, well, of course you are.
[00:29:59] Like, what was the fake humility for? Just admit that you wanted to win mvp. Like, there's nothing wrong with that. That's why you won. Because you actually truly were working towards that. You were just lying to all of us.
[00:30:10] Because that's what society expects.
[00:30:15] Because then on the other extreme, I guess you have people like, this is not political. This is just. It's a person. Donald Trump, total narcissist, right? He's a delusional narcissist. I don't care what your politics are. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about personality.
[00:30:34] Like, that extreme of, I can do no wrong, I am always right. I am the best, the greatest, the hugest, the most amazing, whatever.
[00:30:44] That is kind of a turn off. It is kind of disgusting. It's kind of appalling when we see people act like that.
[00:30:56] You know, we, we respect people who are great, who have a little bit of humility.
[00:31:04] It's a very fine line, right? So you read Michael Jordan books about his biography and stuff, or you, you listen to Kobe Bryant talk and it's like, so inspiring and so moving, and so you understand why they were chasing greatness. And yet if you ask them a question specific to who's the greatest, immediately they're like, no, that's not a conversation that has an answer. And I don't get into that because it's ridiculous, because we stand on the shoulders of those greats who came before us and blah, blah, blah.
[00:31:42] And so people respect that.
[00:31:45] Whereas the times that LeBron's been like, I'm the goat.
[00:31:51] And statistically he is, just the fact that he said it, we don't like that.
[00:31:59] And maybe that connects to the whole thing of like, I have a dream.
[00:32:04] It shouldn't, though, because I Think there's a massive difference between, this is what I want to achieve. This is where I want to go. This is how I'm gonna get there.
[00:32:15] And I am the greatest, even when that is objectively true by many measurements.
[00:32:27] So I. I mean, no one would fault Tom Cruise probably for being like, I had a dream. I wanted to be the greatest actor of my generation.
[00:32:36] And then the interviewer would be like, well, do you think that you achieve that? And if he was like, well, yeah, box office hits, blah, blah, blah, like, fame, money, whatever, whatever. I don't know what actors use to measure themselves against each other, then we would probably be like, ew, that's kind of. That's kind of gross.
[00:32:56] But because he's just like, I still have things I want to accomplish in my life. I still have dreams.
[00:33:05] No, I'm not scared of death. I like to live on the edge. I like to have a little bit of fear. I like to have this potential for failure, keeps me alive.
[00:33:18] How can you hate on that?
[00:33:21] And yet when normal people say stuff like that, or when normal people attempt to structure their life like that, we get pushback, usually from those closest to us, perhaps because they feel the most threatened, because they think that they know you the best.
[00:33:38] And then it goes back to the whole thing of Jesus from Nazareth.
[00:33:43] Like, that guy's a Nazareth guy. I know him like I grew up with him. Who does he think he is? The son of God?
[00:33:50] Like, everyone all through history who has had an obsession with something has had to deal with that from people closest to me.
[00:34:00] So, I mean, that's just one of the challenges of being human, is that you have to learn at a younger age than what I learned, that if someone's mocking you for having a dream that says love about them and nothing about you, and that dreams are good, dreams are necessary. If you want to achieve anything in life, then you have to put some structure to it.
[00:34:36] So I'm still going to keep building my little app to put structure to my dreams and my goals.
[00:34:43] And I'm connecting it to Sovereign Hub too. So that sounds interesting to you?
[00:34:49] An app that structures your personal life, your business life, your time, all of those things into an enjoyable at a glance dashboard.
[00:35:07] Check out app.venturopoly.com and I'm not going to sell it.
[00:35:15] I mean, if I start getting hundreds of users, I probably put a cost line because it would cost me a lot of money.
[00:35:21] I just think it's cool. When I wanted to build it 10 years ago and now I actually was able to build it, really, with all the features, and even more now than what I had designed back then. So I'm pretty happy about that. I had a dream, now I built it. Now I'm gonna make the dream bigger and keep building.
[00:35:43] That's what we should be doing. So thank you, Tom Cruise. Thank you, gq, for putting that out there. Thank you, Algorithm, for shoving that in my face.
[00:35:52] Last two days.
[00:35:55] We should support people with dreams. We should still have dreams of our own.
[00:36:01] We should work our butts off towards those dreams. Because if you have a dream that's something different than just a goal.
[00:36:08] On the surface of, like, I want to do this versus, like, this is my dream for my life, then that probably comes from a deeper place in your soul, your spirit, your consciousness that really means something to you, into who you are and who you're supposed to be on this journey.
[00:36:29] And then if that's the case, you have a responsibility to the divine, to the universe, to God, however you want to phrase it, to pursue that with every ounce of your being, because that's why you're here.
[00:36:47] So go do that. Don't give up.
