- What's up everybody? Coach David here.
- What's up, I'm not sure. I didn't know where I was for a second, we're going live on like, five different platforms.
- You got a lot of different cameras, you know, there's this one app that you can actually like, rotate, it will change so that it's looking at us then it will automatically switch gears between. I'ma look at this one.
- Okay.
- I can scan I suppose.
- All right.
- I can scan. You know, how you doing today Professor?
- Doing awesome, amazing.
- Great. So, we got questions.
- All right.
- And you're excited about the first one.
- Yeah, I really am.
- Okay. I need to know, so the first question is, what are your thoughts on medical marijuana, and then a followup is alcohol. So which one are you excited about?
- The topic of marijuana.
- Okay, okay.
- Yeah, I'm really excited about that one.
- Okay, well then you're clearly more excited than I am so why don't you start.
- All right, so I mean, I think marijuana is commonly associated with Jiu-Jitsu. At least today, it's way more commonly associated with Jiu-Jitsu about smoking before you go to class. Do you agree? I think it's common.
- I think if you smoke marijuana, you smoke marijuana every day all day. Like, I don't, the people, it's not, I feel like gone are the days of people who are like, yeah, I smoke marijuana once on Friday night every week. No, they just stay high.
- Yeah.
- Like they just, especially now in Michigan, it's legal. You know, I was like, I literally didn't realize 'til two months ago that the people smoking vape pens were likely smoking pot.
- Oh yeah.
- I didn't know this.
- Yeah.
- This is witchcraft, I didn't know. So I just thought everyone was like. I just thought it was, I just thought everyone was smoking like, a digital version of hookah or whatever with so much smoke, I had no idea. So now I'm like, I see people driving their cars and I was like, oh well I didn't know. So I think, I don't, yeah, I mean, there's more like, I would say I do feel like there's more marijuana users in Jiu-Jitsu, than, maybe they're just more, they don't care, they're more vocal about it. 'Cause I guarantee a lot-
- Yeah, yeah.
- I guarantee a lot of NFL players use it but like, it's just, NFL doesn't want the rap of smoking marijuana.
- Yeah, Megatron, one of the best receivers ever to come out of the NFL, who played for the Detroit Lions, a couple years after he retired, which was just two weeks ago came out and said he used to smoke for recovery after practices and after games.
- Yeah, yeah see. Right, after he was retired.
- After he was retired-
- Yeah, he came-
- He came out and said that.
- Yeah, I know people like Craig Jones and you know, those Jiu-Jitsu guys they're pro at obviously, Eddie Bravo, but they're very pro-marijuana but clearly they don't care what that looks like for the sport you know, to me it looks like, if you're gonna take one of the top five and they use it that regularly.
- Yeah.
- You know? I don't know if you could paint, I don't know if you could paint it like that. Like, you think half? To me, let me just preface this with I believe that half the population smokes pot. I'm just confident that half the population's walking around high. That's what it seems like, especially in Detroit. So that being said, to say that half the population of Jiu-Jitsu practitioners smoke pot, I don't know if that's the case-
- Well when you say Detroit, metro Detroit area-
- Wayne County.
- Yeah, Wayne County.
- Wayne County.
- Yeah, we're live all over the country right now.
- Monroe County, Wayne County.
- Detroit, we're from Detroit, the Detroit suburbs. Yeah, you know what? There is like, I mean, these medical marijuana cards are so easy to get. So easy to get now.
- Yeah.
- You know, if your head hurts, your back hurts, you don't feel good today, you can go get a medical marijuana card.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So here's my opinion about... I'm not even gonna say medical marijuana, 'cause I believe that's fake. You want to talk about witchcraft, that's fake. Medical marijuana is a legal right to smoke weed. Do some people use it to feel better or because they have issues? Absolutely, I think there's a lot of people. But I believe this whole medical marijuana thing is a way to legalize and tax a drug that wasn't being taxed you know, 20, 30 years ago.
- I agree with that. Now let me just say, you know, I've got two different stances. Like, I don't know how many different ways there are to ingest and use cannabis. I don't know how many there are. I understand there's CBD, oral oil, almost like oil of oregano.
- Yeah.
- Which has no THC, THC is the, for those, that's the substance, that's the drug that actually-
- And they do have-
- Gets your brain high.
- They do actually have rubs with THC in them.
- Well that's, how does that effect your body?
- Well there's-
- Does that effect your brain?
- Yeah, there's something that helps it soak in, I forget the name of it. It helps it absorb inside your skin, and I guess it does go inside your body.
- Does it change the way you think?
- I don't know.
- See that's my thing, like that's my big thing. One, is I've got an addictive personality and it's been probably 15 years since I've touched marijuana, so I, and there was only one way to use, you smoked marijuana, like, back in the day. Not unless you had a whole lot of money and could make brownies back in the day. But there was no way to use marijuana without getting high. There wasn't like, to my knowledge there was not way to do that. If there's a way to use that now, hypothetically, let's say you smoke a THC-less whatever, vape pen, I don't know if that exists. I'm completely ignorant to it. I just know, 'cause like, with my, my mindset, anything that alters your brain.
- Yeah.
- Like, alters your decision making.
- Yeah.
- I don't know if there's a way to, I don't know if there's a way to do that. Like, so the CBD oil which I've tried that's just, that's practically worthless, it does nothing. So if anyone saw, I've never heard a good like, CBD oil. 'Cause I took it for inflammation, and it did zero, absolutely zero. But if there's top-
- It does a lot, it does wonders for a lot of people.
- Well, maybe I used the wrong stuff. 'Cause that's the thing too, is there wrong stuff, I don't know. But if there's a topical oil that I can put on my knees like an Icy Hot, that won't get me high, than I'm cool with, then that I would say is a medical form of marijuana.
- Yeah.
- I just don't, does that exist?
- I don't know-
- We're outside of our, we're clearly outside of our element.
- I don't know if you catch a buzz with the topical. But look, here's my thing on the marijuana. In Jiu-Jitsu, and I just, I gotta get this out, you don't need to be going, you don't need to be going to class or around people, and you freaking smell like a skunk.
- Yeah.
- That is annoying.
- Yeah, I agree. I agree.
- Okay, so I-
- I agree with that.
- Yeah, I mean, for my friends, and teammates who smoke weed, that's your business. Doesn't even bother me. I don't care. I don't look at anybody different, but if you went to the bar and you had like, six, seven, eight, you know, drinks and it's clearly when you, not when I'm next to you, when you walk in the door, I can smell you, like, that's unprofessional.
- Yeah.
- I don't care if you're in any kind of setting. The whole building doesn't need to smell it. With alcohol or marijuana, so yeah, my thing is, you don't need to be smelling like a cologne type marijuana.
- Yeah, yeah well and they, 'cause that was the thing-
- So that bothers me.
- One of my family, and how I found out that the vape pens were marijuana was one of my family, we were hanging out, and they were smoking a vape. To my knowledge, I thought they were smoking, they were smoking pot right next to me.
- Wow.
- And I didn't-
- Indoor or outdoor?
- It happened, it just, they just always had it so it's been both, it's been indoor and outdoor but like, it tasted like freaking cotton candy, or it smelled like cotton candy, I don't know. Like, it just smelled like hookah smoke.
- Did you hit it?
- No, well I don't really, I took, so I took, I used to smoke cigarettes, I used to smoke that stuff. So like, I'm not against smoking, I'm against the way it makes me feel.
- Yeah.
- I think, it's like, just like I'm not against sticking my head in a chimney per se, I just don't think it's the best thing for your health you know? So they, I tried when vapes first came out, a buddy of mine, he's like, "Try this." And so I tried it, man, like immediately, and he was drawing on this thing heavy. Immediately I couldn't breath, I was coughing and that was tobacco.
- Yeah.
- And I was like, whatever that is will be illegal in 10 years. Whatever's in that, it just, it didn't, it felt like poison going into my body. So like, the vapes, I'm not, they're just a little harsh, intense for me. So to answer your question, I didn't hit it, but that being said, I don't think if it was actual, if it was actual marijuana, I don't think I could hit it more than once, I would get high immediately.
- Yeah.
- And that's the difference between, so like, you know, the conversation between alcohol and marijuana, alcohol is by far a heavier drug. There's cases like, alcohol is a class four substance. Like, right next to heroin. In terms of addictive nature and effect on your body and how it can effect your brain, alcohol is way more powerful than marijuana, but you can have an alcoholic beverage and not have it alter your thinking.
- As bad as a hit of marijuana.
- I don't know that you can't like, if you can't, someone correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know that you can smoke marijuana without getting high.
- No, of course.
- But you can have like, you can have, depending on your tolerance, one to two drinks and not be drunk.
- Yeah.
- And so like, that's kinda my thing, is like there, marijuana like, and that's whatever new, remember back, they had fake, they were selling fake marijuana at the gas stations?
- Yeah.
- Just like five, six years ago, I'm sure they're all illegal now. But it was literally, you could sell a chemically made synthetic marijuana that teenagers were buying.
- Yeah.
- And they were selling them over the counter and making huge profit on it, and then the state police came in and they're like no, you can't. No, we're not playing this. They were getting sick.
- One of those drugs was like, making people hallucinate and do some crazy-
- Yeah, there's, yeah exactly.
- Crazy stuff. They were taking off their clothes in the street and just going crazy.
- Yeah, you can buy, I mean you go to these head shops, you can buy, there's legal shrooms which will help you hallucinate for a half hour. My thing is like, especially-
- You know where shrooms come from?
- The ground?
- No, they actually, the shrooms that make people hallucinate, I used to live in New Mexico, and they're really popular out there.
- Yeah.
- And you know, a bunch of the guys were doing shrooms, and I was like, how do mushrooms get you high? Like, they hallucinate. And they were into peyote, there were Indian reservations-
- Oh wow.
- All the way out west, they're big on the hallucination stuff.
- That makes sense.
- So I learned that the shrooms actually grow out of cow manure.
- That's the hallucinogenic property? Is this-
- The mushroom, the cow takes a dump and when moisture gets in it, mushrooms grow out of there, they pick them out of there and that's what they're eating.
- Yeah man, see like, you know, if you you, I'd rather pop a, look, I will pop several Motrin, I will pop several ibuprofen, I don't need to like, eat some shrooms that came out of cow manure to you know, get high for a couple hours, like, you know, to me like, that's not, there are, the endorphins, you said this before, the endorphins released through Jiu-Jitsu, you'll get that same feeling honestly. Like after class, your hands are vibrating a little bit, your body, like, you'll get that sort of same like, buzz.
- Yeah.
- In Jiu-Jitsu, when you train Jiu-Jitsu. That's my main thing with like, medical, and then like you said, the stench. Like, you guys-
- The stench is annoying.
- I have no issue if someone wants, in fact, there are people who smoke so much pot that like, they could just stay high and completely function.
- Yeah.
- They could stay high and who knows, they probably got way better Jiu-Jitsu than I do. When they train high. My thing is, how you like, how it makes, especially our academy smell, I don't like smelling like a dope den.
- Yeah, I mean that's my thing. I couldn't wait to talk about it. Get yourself some damn edibles.
- Edibles, or apparently the vape pens are flavorless.
- Get a vape pen, get your edibles, or brownies, or they even have drinks.
- They have a marijuana drink?
- They have a marijuana liquid, it's like an orange juice or a fruit juice or whatever, you can get it in so many different ways. But when you walk in, everybody in the building could smell you, that's disrespectful if you ask me.
- Yeah, 'cause if I walk in, and to me, if I walk into a place and it reeks like that, it says something about the establishment, you know? I know we've got several, I know we've got several, like you mentioned members.
- Yeah.
- Several coaches who you know, who use it recreationally, I don't really have an issue with that.
- Neither do I.
- I don't have a, because you can, it doesn't effect your job. They crush it at what they do, and they don't, you know, a lot of, again, a lot of these people, I didn't realize that they used it 'til like, later on, I was like oh, I had no idea you know? So that's it, I'm cool with that.
- Yeah.
- This brings up an interesting topic though. What, okay Christian said, Coach Christian says, "It comes down to hygiene." Yeah, practical hygiene, like how you do anything else, right? You had mentioned, so that medical marijuana is just a way for the government to tax it. I'm completely, this isn't one of the questions, I would be entirely open if they legalized all narcotics. Be 100% okay with it. 100% okay with it.
- Just so-
- I'll explain my reason in a second.
- Okay.
- But what are your thoughts?
- Well just so, in case you're just tuning in, you're saying, David is saying you're okay if they legalize all narcotics.
- Legalize it all, legalize crack-
- Please, go ahead.
- Legalize heroin, legalize crystal meth. Because right now, what's happening, the war on drugs is a failure. It's a failure. Like, you ask anybody, it's a failure. And so-
- Well I'm gonna ask you a hard question.
- Sure.
- Let's take heroin for example.
- Okay.
- So tell me how that's gonna help.
- Well, let me ask, what is the police officer's job? The police officer's job is to protect the civilians from harm against other civilians.
- Yeah.
- Not to protect civilians from harming themselves, that's not their job. And I've, and there was, actually there's this group of law officers that's called Law Officers Against Prohibition or something and he's like, in all the years we've had family members turn in their family for murder, we've had family members turn in their own family for theft, we've had family members turn in their family for, like, they will turn in their own family for those crimes where they harm other people.
- Right.
- They've never had a family member turn in another family member for possession. And so what you're doing is you're, I believe it's a misuse of police resources, you're now, here's what happens. All of the drug war, and the gang activity that's happening, and the violence and all these other things, like I've often thought about this. Why would, like, let's say, let's say I wanted to go start using heroin tomorrow.
- Yeah.
- I don't, where do I start? Google heroin near me, I don't know. So I gotta go to a sketchy part of town, risk getting robbed and/or shot, you know, to use a drug that may or may not kill me, you know, fill in the blank. You know, that's a pretty sketchy thing. But if that's available in, you know, it's taxed, it's whatever, guess who goes out of business? All of the drug dealers and their gang activity, they just got put out of big business by big brother, and more importantly, guess what the cops aren't doing? Their resources, which are already slim now are not being spent wasted on putting, you know how many people are like, dude I went to jail for like, holding a dime bag. I was put in jail. This was years ago, before it was legal. So like, you know how many people are in jail right now for selling drugs? Using drugs? That's the thing too, possession. So we're gonna act like alcohol isn't a big drug, alcohol is a very serious drug, how many people, how many medical, how much medical bills are spent on alcohol injuries, alcoholic deaths, DUI's, what have you, you know, so alcohol is a very serious drug, we're permitting that one though, that's an acceptable drug. Why is heroin not an acceptable drug?
- Well let me just say this.
- And so because of some, and frankly, if someone wants to use heroin, and end their own life, and overdose on it, that's their own, that's their own, kinda their own choice, it's not really the police officer's job to protect someone from their own poor choices. Yes.
- So it's very clear David would like to legalize it. I would say, hell no.
- I believe-
- Hell no.
- I believe-
- Absolutely not.
- So why not? Why not?
- Bro, these drugs, they kill people.
- Sure.
- They kill people slowly.
- So does alcohol.
- Yeah, it does.
- So we should outlaw alcohol.
- You can't compare alcohol and heroin in the same sentence.
- I think they're really close.
- No, no, no.
- Alcohol, 'cause you take what the commercialized version of alcohol, you've got liqueurs, which are really, you've got beer which is 5% and then you've got like, Bacardi 151 which is like, 75% I think. You know, different tolerances.
- Mhmm.
- You could do the same thing with heroin. You could monitor it, but here's the problem, it's killing people, one 'cause it's addictive and two, you don't know what it was laced with or who it was with. But now you've got people, and it's killing people, here's the thing, part of the allure that makes these narcotics attractive is the fact that they're illegal.
- No. They make you feel good. Like cocaine, heroin, those drugs, they make you feel good. You know, I was in, the first time I ever drove into Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, we were hanging out and meeting people, and we were finding out that people are partying using this drug that keeps you awake for up to a week at a time.
- Oh wow.
- Yeah, and towards the end of the week, they were hallucinating and I mean, they looked just-
- You'll hallucinate even if you do nothing and just stay awake.
- Yeah, they looked crazy but for something to keep you awake for you know, three, four, or five days straight, you know, the weather's nice over there, people are up and partying all night long. And it was methamphetamines, and I think somebody told me it was like, jet fuel or rocket fuel they're ingesting. But bro, these things are something so addictive you can't legalize and expect people to like, expect people to...
- Yeah.
- I just don't see it. No way.
- There was, the video I was watching, we'll continue on to the next question. The video I was watching though, the crime rates went down, the murder rates went down, the-
- You might be talking about marijuana, but not no cocaine or heroin.
- Like Amsterdam, it was something like Amsterdam.
- You can't go get cocaine in Amsterdam.
- Yeah, Amsterdam, I'm pretty sure it's a free open, like you can get-
- Marijuana, I've been there.
- I'm pretty like, that's Amsterdam's main thing is it's all legal.
- Yeah, but I don't-
- We need a Joe Rogan guy, someone to like, look up if these drugs are illegal, like legal in Amsterdam. There's one of those European countries, everything is completely legal. Pulling it up?
- Yeah.
- What drugs are legal in Amsterdam? In Amsterdam. Okay Reddit, that will get us some good. Technically, you will not be, while recreationally is possession and trade of non-medicinal drugs by the opium law are technically illegal under Dutch law, official policy since the late 20th century has been openly tolerated. Okay, so maybe possession is legal, possession is legal but you can't sell it if you want to do drugs in the Netherlands. So you can possess them, you just can't buy them. I'll have to pull up that clip, that's my thought on it though. Just 'cause how many, imagine like, imagine if the law officers got to focus on the rapists and the murderers, and the you know, fill in the blanks as opposed to like, chasing someone down you know, Jimmy the Crackhead, you know, so that he can like, you can put him in jail so he can get back out and go do crack again. There's a whole nother, and then you could have, you know, maybe put them to work doing something else.
- Do you think, just don't come to class high. Don't go in public high, it shows, it smells.
- So question number two.
- Yeah.
- If you had to open a school in another state, where would it be? Seattle I believe has that policy too.
- Open a school in another state?
- Yup. "This is my favorite podcast so far." I mean, I can answer, if I had to open a school in another state, mind you, all of my family's pretty much in Michigan except for one of them are in Ohio. If I'm gonna go through the trouble of moving, move away from my family anyway, y'all are gonna have to follow me to the Hawaiian islands. I'm gonna open to Kona, gonna go to the big islands and I'm gonna open up there.
- All right.
- That's where I'm gonna open. Texas, yeah Texas is one of them too.
- My question, my answer is I'm not going anywhere. 'Cause I got, I'd have to take my family, and my kids, and my Metro family, I'm not leaving them.
- If you, this is what, this is a hypothetical.
- I can't even think about.
- Okay, so.
- There's no plan B, absolutely not. No.
- Okay, Michigan outlaws Muslims, you're not allowed to stay here anymore, you have to move. Where are you going? Where are you going? Muslims and Christians, we're not allowed, you guys, we can't tolerate you anymore, get out, go somewhere else, where are you going? Which means your whole family's coming with you.
- Yeah.
- Your entire family is coming with you.
- And my Jiu-Jitsu family?
- Sure, yup.
- Okay.
- They all agree to go with you.
- All right. Somewhere nice, probably like Texas.
- Texas is nice.
- Yeah.
- Texas is hot, from what I understand it's very hot in the summer.
- Yeah, Texas, somewhere where the average temperature is higher than here, like 65 degrees or higher.
- I agree with that, I agree with that, yeah I'm not gonna, I don't want to move. I do miss, this is my favorite time of the year. But it's like, it's one of my favorite times, I really like summer, this is nice, Michigan's one of the most beautiful, honestly one of the most beautiful states. We have garbage winters, so we kinda get jaded, but Michigan is one of the most beautiful states.
- I'd have no problem moving somewhere where I can get me like, you know, a few acres of land, some chickens, couple lamb, you know, big property that I could take care of, live off the land a little bit, have some gardens growing, so anywhere I could do that, I would be happy, I'd get me a big, big barn with my little workout equipment.
- Jiu-Jitsu mats, put Jiu-Jitsu mats down.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, nice little crossfit area.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, you could do that in Texas, Jiu-Jitsu, Texas is becoming kinda the mecca for Jiu-Jitsu though. It used to be California.
- Yeah.
- And I'm gonna be very open that I'm happy that it's moving away from California.
- Why?
- I just don't like, I don't like California. I just don't need to go. Texas though, obviously, Coach Alvarez is in Texas, Coach Bruno, Professor Bruno, Sensei Bruno is in Texas with Lee Jiu-Jitsu. So a lot of good names, that's a good city, anywhere warmer though, that's mine, warmer, maybe on some water. You know what I like about the Hawaiian islands? At least Kona? I've never been to Oahu, I understand Oahu can get pretty rowdy. But Kona, man they are so laid back. Have you ever, I mean you traveled probably way more than I have.
- I've been to Fiji, that's past Hawaii.
- Okay, well then there you go. So from what I understand, Detroit's pace is very fast compared to other states, other cities.
- Yeah.
- Is that?
- That would be fair to say.
- Yeah, I could probably get used, I could get behind the slower pace. Like, if they've got you know, Hawaiians, I feel like they've got like, you know, they'll wake up and they'll go like, they might train a little Jiu-Jitsu in the morning, 'cause they're active there, it's big in Hawaii. They might go like, catch breakfast from the ocean, eat it, take a nap, you know, like, they're just not in a hurry. The vibe I got is they're not in a hurry to do anything.
- Yeah.
- I could get behind that. It's kinda mellow, I could get behind that.
- It sounds like retirement.
- Well it does, well, yeah. But they're happier. You know, everyone, whenever my brother comes up to visit from Columbus, he's like yo, everyone in Detroit is so angry man, why are you guys? You guys don't smile. And Ambrose even, when we were at Forth Worth for, what was it? Well we went to Texas for the Jiu-Jitsu World's or whatever, they were generally happier. They smiled more.
- Southern people are generally more polite, happier.
- Generally.
- Yeah, overall. I would say in my experience, for the last 30 years they are happier, more pleasant, more polite people than we are up north.
- Yeah, that's, yeah. Yeah, I would agree with that. So okay, so we move our, so you're gonna move, you know, you have to move, you're taking your Jiu-Jitsu family, your blood family and everything with you to Texas.
- Well, somewhere warmer-
- Oh, somewhere warmer, okay, alright.
- Texas, or somewhere warmer.
- Somewhere warmer.
- Yeah.
- All right.
- With a lot of land, get some animals.
- That sounds like Texas.
- Get a pet dog.
- You get a lot of land in Texas. All right, so next question is, you both in-
- How was .
- Well this one. "You both enjoy your work."
- Yeah.
- Absolutely, 100%. "What would you say to somebody who doesn't enjoy their job, or even worse, they hate it? How do you change that? And what if the money is too good?"
- I like that question.
- A lot, I like...
- All right, so let me tell you-
- Yeah, I love this topic. I could talk about this topic every podcast every week for the rest of my life.
- Yeah. What do you say to somebody who, how do you change it?
- So I come here, and I was like Hey Mo, yeah, man, you're so lucky you get to, you're so lucky you get to do Jiu-Jitsu every day for your job, and you get to help people live healthier better lives through vitamins at your GNC store, you're lucky.
- Yeah.
- You know, like I, you know, you just caught a lucky break or whatever. Or I don't have, you know, I don't have the money to open up a business right now, to do something like that, and I hate my job. And this is it guys, the money's too good. 'Cause no one's gonna stay at a job they hate that doesn't pay the bills.
- Yeah.
- A lot of times, they've got golden handcuffs. They're making 70, 80, 120, 150,000 per year. And they hate it. And so they're being compensated for their time to go to a job, I think of Quicken a lot, which is now Rocket Mortgage. Like you know, those mortgage brokers. Man-
- Talk about drugs.
- Huge payroll.
- I hear stories about those guys being on speed all the time because they like, ride the hell out of you.
- Yeah, huge payroll. You get paid man, I mean you get paid but what's the actual cost of that? So that's normally the thing, so they hate it. How do you change that situation?
- Well, I've been in that situation.
- Yeah.
- And if you hate your job, and you don't like going to work every day, imagine living the rest of your life in that nasty, ugly incompleteness. Imagine living your life and not accomplishing anything, that's an empty feeling man. That's an empty freaking feeling.
- Yeah, well absolutely.
- Yeah so, I've worked for people when I was a teenager, but when I was 15 or 16, I decided man, I'm doing my own thing, I can't work for people. I don't like people telling me what to do, okay? So .
- That's usually how, that's usually how things start. You're like, yeah I can't, you know, I just can't handle that.
- Yeah. Well, I'd say this. I'd say if you chase what you enjoy, and this sounds so silly, you're gonna make money. You're gonna do better. And it's not the money that you're really gonna be rewarded with, it's the... You're gonna be, you're gonna feel happier, you're gonna feel content, you're gonna feel like you're able to stand in your own shoes, in your own skin, you know? You're not, there's authenticity when you go to work and you enjoy something that you do, and creativity comes out. It doesn't matter what the hell you're doing, it doesn't matter what the hell you're doing. And you have to chase what you enjoy. You have to chase your passion. If you don't, you know, you want to talk about being miserable, I mean, you have to.
- And that's you know, I think that's important, that's roughly my same answer too. I would add a couple caveats to it. So I enjoy Jiu-Jitsu, really, really enjoy Jiu-Jitsu. And don't get it twisted though, right? So if someone's making 100,000+ a year working 40, 50 hours a week.
- Yeah.
- That's gangster money for not many hours. I mean, 50 hours a week, I could have a whole nother like, life with the extra time. Like, 50 hours a week is really nothing.
- Yeah.
- It feels like a lot when it's something you hate doing.
- Yeah, that's true.
- That's the thing, it feels like a lot when it's something you hate doing. So when you love like, you love Jiu-Jitsu, I love Jiu-Jitsu, but if someone else like, if you're like, hey, I just really enjoy baking. You know, I enjoy baking. Then I believe you can make money, now, make 100,000, 150,000 baking? Yeah I mean, that would look a little bit different, you're probably not gonna do it baking cookies in your own kitchen, you're gonna have to set up a different structure, do something online, what have you. But like, but you've got to weigh the cost of, I feel like we've talked about this before, there's this, you have the weigh the cost of doing something you enjoy, that gives you fulfillment, that feels like you're making a difference, that like you know, gives you-
- Well look, for those of us who know, for those people who know us, you were in the gold and jewelry business years ago.
- Yeah, a long time ago.
- Okay.
- I hated it. I honestly, it's to the point to where like, I can't even look at the jewelry store.
- So look, I was making probably five times more money than I was making today, years ago, but I'm five times happier taking a five time pay cut because you know, I want to go to work and enjoy it.
- Yeah.
- I really enjoyed what I did in the nutrition industry.
- Yup.
- I loved my job. But there came a point when I said you know what? I want to do something a little different. You know, I still have my nutrition business but now I'm moving into metro, but for those of you who asked that question, I took a pay cut to come, to do this, but I'm so much more rewarded, and the extension, the rewards that I've been able to extend to my wife, my children, and all of our members here.
- So you took a pay cut to come and open a Jiu-Jitsu academy.
- Correct. Correct, because I want to wake up, if I'm sore, if I'm tired, if my body hurts, if I didn't get any sleep, I still want to wake up and say I want to go to work.
- Yeah.
- It's been that way my entire life. And the second that I don't want to go to work, as tired as I am, you get me up sometimes like 5 o'clock in the morning.
- Not recently, but we used to. Not recently.
- I don't know, it's like you calculate well, Mo's only allowed to sleep three hours this night, so let's plan it for this.
- Well, not-
- I'm gonna give Mo five hours of sleep tomorrow.
- You're on that, big time man like, I swear, I flew in for No-Gi World's Jiu-Jitsu conference and I got in at like, 10 local time. Like 10, and I'm like, I'm normally winding down and so I get in and you're like, sweet, hey, what's going on? And so, you hungry? I was like, it's 10 o'clock Central, which means it's 11 p.m. Eastern.
- Arabs, we have to feed people. We have to eat, it's how we show our love we've got to feed you.
- You guys stay up so late, so late, like, I'm like, . I mean whatever, if your schedule, if I'm staying up 'til when you stay up, midnight, one, two. I'm not gonna wake up 'til like, 9 or 10. I need that sort of sleep. But to go back to this question, I would say a few things. If you know you've got an out, right? There's a sign actually, you know, the Jimmy Johns or whatever, but there's this, I'm gonna give you the real quick version. Next time you're in Jimmy Johns, look at, there's this tale about the fisherman and the fleet. And so this businessman, he's on vacation in Mexico and he's, and so he's just vacationing and he sees this little fisherman come in with a load of fish, and it's like 10 a.m. in the morning, and he says, okay, he's like, "Hey, that's a pretty good haul. You gonna go out and get more?" He's like, "No, I'm just gonna cook this up and you know, we're gonna have you know, kind of cook it up for lunch. I'm gonna play my guitar with the amigos and then we're just gonna call it a day." You know, and finish that. And he's like, "Well you could go out and get four more loads if you finished fishing the rest of the day." And he's like, "Okay, and then what?" He's like, "Well then you would sell the extra and then you'd get a whole fleet." And he said, "Oh okay, and then what?" He's like, "And then once you get a fleet, then you can outsource that and then you could actually end up selling the whole company to somebody." He said, "And then what? What would I do with the profit from selling the whole fleet?" He's like, "Well then you could retire." He's like, "And then what I would do?" And he's like, "Well then you could just you know, go to a nice place on the beach, catch a couple fish by 10 a.m. And just play the guitar with your amigos and enjoy the rest of the night."
- That sounds cool.
- That's exactly where he was in the first place. So he's saying like, he was saying the guy who wasn't grinding it out, he just caught a couple fish, played his guitar with the amigos, you know, called it a night. He's like, but if you build it up, build it up so you could sell it to retire to get back to the life you want, he's like, that's kind of the thing, right? Like, that's the American dream is hustle, hustle your prime years doing a job you hate so that you can spend your twilight years when you aren't in your peak health, 15 years maybe if you're lucky to like, hang out in Florida, you know? Like, that's the American dream. I'd much rather, man, I'd much rather, I was talking to a member last night, I was talking to Jordan, and I was like, dude, a couple of years ago when I quit my job, I worked the most I have ever worked. I also retired. Retired. I was like, I probably worked more than just about anybody you know. In fact, I get a lot of flack for it, you're always on your phone, you're always working. And in my mind I was like, I feel like I do whatever I want. I can do whatever I want whenever I want. What I want to do though happens to be circulating around Jiu-Jitsu and my Jiu-Jitsu members, and learning Jiu-Jitsu and teaching Jiu-Jitsu and competing Jiu-Jitsu and like, that just happens to be things that I really enjoy. And then there's of course, things that I do with Amanda, spending time, there is family time in there. But like-
- Are we on?
- Yeah, I think it's still going. If you guys are watching this, let us know if you're still watching, see it's going for 40 minutes.
- All right cool.
- Made a rookie mistake, letting my computer die.
- All right, this, this question here is, this is a really good one, "Where do you draw the line between having thick skin and checking someone who deserves it?"
- Yeah. I kinda have trouble, trouble with this one.
- Not really, you're pretty good at checking people.
- That's what I'm saying, like, I just, I kinda check, yeah.
- Yeah.
- That's kinda like, you know, I have trouble holding my tongue sometimes.
- Yeah, well you don't do it out of confrontation, you do it out of like, well let's get clarity here, right?
- Yeah. Well yeah, it depends on the situation I suppose. All right, so we're good, Coach Jimmy, everyone can hear us, see us, he's responding so yeah.
- All right cool.
- Okay, where do you draw? I feel like you're very, very good at it. You're way better at this than I am. I tend to be, maybe it's your maturity level, maybe it's your age.
- No-
- Maybe it's a little bit of both.
- I think we just have two different like, approaches. So where do you draw the line between having thick skin and checking somebody who deserves it. So why don't you give an example.
- Okay, so someone who, thick skin, so if someone wants to say something and if I want to... If you ever hear like, me make a joke to Coach Mohammad, that's a little bit different, 'cause we're friends, you know I'm joking. But someone like, if you're in a conversation and someone makes a little slight, like, oh yeah, let me guess, I'll give you a perfect example. Like oh yeah, we're planning family trips and I was like, well I don't know, I don't really want to do that. Like, why do you care Dave, you're gonna be on your phone anyway, okay? Now.
- You're talking about a family member?
- From a family member. You know, I was like, and so what they're in, they're passively aggressively saying is, you don't care anyway 'cause you don't kinda want to be there. And so I, and now do I say and be like, and if I ever start getting extremely sarcastic with you, just for what, it's very, it's the best idea to just back away a little bit 'cause I'm not let up until, one of us is gonna get angry and it's probably gonna be you. So like, where do, do I just let that go? But hey man, they dissed you. Do I let that go? Or do I check somebody? Like, do I check someone, call them out and say, well you got a problem, I'm standing right here, what's up? If you've got something to say, let's say it, you know? That's another way of asking this question. Where do you draw that line?
- Yeah you know, I was just talking to somebody about this like, if somebody said that to me I would just, yeah, I don't consider myself a confrontational person.
- Yeah, I wouldn't, you're not.
- Thank you. Thank you, for all the people out there.
- You're not.
- Thank you. So I would just probably say, you know, I don't think me or you would want me to miss work, just you know? And neglect my work, and I know you appreciate how hard that I work, and I know you wouldn't want me to you know, run late on something on work, but... Even like strangers, you're more of that confrontational, and you know you would never know it. Like everybody-
- Wait, okay. Okay, wait, go on, finish your story.
- Okay, maybe not confrontational but like...
- Strangers?
- Yeah, like if somebody like, pokes you, you're gonna poke them back and say oh what was that? So you know, you are, I wouldn't say confrontational but it's like you can't take a shot at David without David taking...
- Let me-
- I think confrontation was a strong word.
- The checking, so here's the checking, right? Like, so if someone wants to say something or someone like, I'm just gonna ask, I'm gonna ask you, my first thing is, my general response is I'm going to assume I misunderstood you. What did you say? Like, what do you mean by that? What did you say, what do you mean by that? That's my, those are my first two questions.
- Okay.
- And now they have A, they can either repeat exactly what they said in the tone they said it. And then you know, that happens there. Or B, they can rephrase it more appropriately, and I'll be like oh, oh okay, that's what I thought.
- Some people don't know how to properly phrase or express what they're asking. Like, if somebody's asking you know, oh, you're gonna be on your phone. They're just saying, I'd really like to spend time with you. That's what I hear.
- Well that's-
- That's what I hear.
- That's a direct way or form of saying that.
- But some people don't know how to say look, I really, we have history together, we have memories together, I'd really like to spend, you know, it's been a long time, I feel like we're growing apart. Man, I just wish we could hang out like we used to. Instead of saying that, they're saying, well you're gonna be on your phone anyway.
- Yeah.
- So they don't know how to communicate that.
- Well that, I mean, at a certain point, you're 27 years old, there's some social skills you should probably learn. I have a Jiu-Jitsu program here that could help teach those. Start enrolling as young as 4 1/2, you know? But like, they- That's that sarcasm coming through. I think the checking, I don't know if you've ever seen me, I used to be a huge hothead, so in terms of where I used to be. My first six months of being with Amanda, this is the difference, if anyone wants to know the difference between like, a blue belt and a black belt, my first six months of knowing Amanda, like, this guy cut me off and I was out of the car like, chasing another guy down. And he was in his car. And I was a blue belt so I thought I was like, the bomb, you know? And now I'm like, man, I can't think of a situation in which I'm getting out of my car. Unless it's on fire, you know? I can't think of a situation. So checking someone, I think just means like, because I do believe there's times. Have you ever seen the movie, "Hidalgo"? The horse movie with, it's an old one, a horse racing movie, they go race in the Arabic desert?
- No.
- It's a good one, anyway. So he's like, he's a western cowboy who fights, who engages in this Arabic horse race, and he's got a mustang, and the mustangs were the mutts, and they started making fun of his mustang and they're like, you can say whatever you want about me, just talk about my horse that way.
- Yeah.
- That's kind of my philosophy is like, the second you start getting, hurting my family, hurting my wife, talking about my wife, talking about you know, even my partner and his, like, that's sort of like, you can say whatever you want about me because I know extremely well, who I am. And if you think of me differently, than you're wrong and that's usually the case. But you start talking about Amanda like, that's where I'm like, okay now you need to back off, now you're talking about my family. Now it's to the point to where like, an apology is gonna be sort of needed. Like, checking things like that. If someone wants to, we have even had these things, if someone wants to impugn the reputation of our, Metro Jiu-Jitsu's reputation is impeccable. If I do say so myself. Because we've spent a lot of money and time to make things right, and to do right by our members and people who come in here. And so if someone wants to talk, if someone wants to slander that, or in print, you know, write something and libel against that, I'm gonna kinda address that. You know, because I believe we're above reproach at that point.
- Yeah.
- You know, so that's-
- I was talking to somebody yesterday, about the tournament we just came back from. By the way, congratulations.
- Yeah, I was gonna bring out the trophies and everything, but I didn't want to take up table space and everything.
- Yeah, congratulations on first place kids, at the Newbury Tournament.
- Yeah, the team did great.
- First place adults and first place overall.
- Overall.
- Yeah, big accomplishment, congratulations. So I was talking to somebody about the members and like, just the relationship with the coaches, and when the members are competing and they have emotional highs and they get in there, and they compete, and they win, man, like, that energy is the same energy that a student has, coaches have right at the same moment.
- Yeah.
- 'Cause we've been there before, we've won and we've lost. And the same energy when somebody loses, it sucks the wind out of us just like it does our members. And we can feel both of them. And so that, like that really builds a bond when we care now, we care about our members right now.
- Yeah.
- And we like, we have that relationship, we understand where this relationship is going, how it's gonna impact our life. Sometimes it takes a few years for somebody to realize, okay, these guys are, my coach really does love me. He really wants the best for me, and he's only doing and saying this to make sure I put my best foot forward in my life. He doesn't care if I become a world champion.
- Right.
- He cares that I'm a world champion with my wife, at my job, he wants to see me succeed. And that's why we're so protective of our members, and we care so much about them because it's really off the mat that we want to see them succeed.
- Yeah. Yeah, and that's sort of like, that's where, the Jiu-Jitsu tournaments are great. I think it's cool, it's really fun when you can go and you can win some matches, win some trophies. But like at the end, we talk about this every time, man, like, if that's your value as a human is how you compete in Jiu-Jitsu, there's, that's extremely nearsighted. And immature, I'm gonna say it's immature. If you're just like, if we started having a conversation and then like, you all know those guys. Like, we start having a conversation and they're like, oh yeah well I'm a, about something completely unrelated, and then they start throwing out their tournament accolades in like a conversation about college, or a career, or marijuana, or anything we talk about on this podcast so far today. Whatever, and they think they're too good for you because they've got some accomplishments in Jiu-Jitsu tournaments. When like, there's like, that's great, you may be a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu competition.
- Yeah.
- But you're a white belt in a lot of other areas that matter a lot more, case in point, social skills, networking, you know, servicing your customer, your career, bettering your employees. All these other, being a good husband, you know, like, father, all these other things. They get neglected. And so I think that, Jiu-Jitsu is, we've said this before, someone asked me what I do for a living, I was like, I just kinda help men and women, kids, kinda change their lives, and we do that through the art of Jiu-Jitsu. That's how it goes. And so I have no idea how we got there from how do you draw the line between having a thick skin and checking someone who deserves it.
- We love you, just keep training.
- Okay.
- We love you, just get on the mat. Things will work themselves out.
- Yup, yup.
- Maybe they need to train.
- I need to, I do have, and I don't mean to put you on the spot. When have I ever gotten lippy or checked a stranger? And if you can remember one, you have my full permission to tell me about this.
- It's not that, like again, you're not a confrontational person, but... But you'll like, I'll just say this, you don't use verbal judo, you have a conversation.
- I do that.
- Yeah, so I will use verbal judo if somebody is trying to check me.
- Yeah.
- And David will have a conversation and really want to talk about that.
- I more wrestle.
- Exactly.
- He's more judo, I'm more of a verbal wrestler.
- There you go.
- Yeah, we just kind of explode.
- I'm a judo guy, you're a wrestler.
- I just kind of explode through the conversation.
- That's funny.
- We could agree with that. So we got some other questions, I don't know. I'm gonna assume everyone is still with us. Coaches are talking, coaches are talking truth, thank you Coach Christian. It says, estimated time on having the new mats installed, Facebook User. Facebook User, so that's gonna be, yeah man, to my knowledge, I mean, how many square feet of mat space do we have now?
- A lot more.
- Probably, that's gonna be like, all together, like what, 5,000 square feet? Something like that.
- Yeah. Maybe bigger.
- I mean, I think like a tentative time frame, 'cause that's phase B of what we're doing, phase two of what we're doing. So probably New Years, realistically. Like New Years. You know, we're gonna be doing a lot of that, that work ourself, you're gonna see me back in my carpenter pants and my tool belt, so New Years-ish. I mean, the lead time on those mats is so far out though. But we're gonna be getting some custom ones, really sweet. You got any questions on professor's choice, Instagram?
- Do we?
- I don't know. Nope, looks like people just waving at you. So Seattle has that policy. Some hygiene.
- Thanks for joining guys, we'll see you next week.
- Sweet, all right. So that's it guys, we are gonna go ahead and end this one. I think we got them all. Do flight.
- Do what? What was the question?
- To be fair man, okay yeah, yeah man I did get lippy with a flight attendant.
- Oh yeah.
- I got, yeah, I've had more than my.
- See that's what-
- Flying is so stressful bro. Especially nowadays, but like back earlier, I did get lippy with a flight attendant.
- You're a wrestler.
- Yeah, well that, yeah. That was, I pretty much had an entire plane angry at me. Or at least a good portion of a plane. We will flight attendants, that's really funny. I don't think Coach Mohammad was there for that one though, that was a personal vacation, so only Amanda got to witness that side of me. But all right guys, so we're gonna go ahead and end this. Thank you guys so much for following. Do me a favor, if you're watching this on YouTube, go ahead and follow us like, you know, subscribe to our YouTube. If you share this, you know, obviously this stuff is you know, the more you can share this, take clips, put comments, if you ask questions even after this is posted, we'll answer those as well. And then we're gonna be here next time, Tuesday for another episode of our podcast. As always, we'll see you guys.
- On the mats.
- On the mats. I'm so proud.JI
