0:01

Hello VT, hello family.

0:04

I'm such a big fan, Busi. My

0:06

name is Kahai, all the way from Nairobi,

0:10

Kenya. For the last,

0:13

the whole of last two months,

0:16

I've been feeling so stuck. One

0:18

day while I was just drawing, I

0:21

normally do drawing mostly, while

0:23

I was drawing, I just came across

0:26

your video. And for

0:29

the

0:29

whole of last month, every day I've

0:31

been binge watching and listening

0:34

to your podcast

0:36

and your videos.

0:37

They have pushed me, they have pushed

0:39

me a lot to actually push myself

0:41

to start doing something because

0:44

I've been feeling so

0:46

stuck in

0:48

actually taking action to

0:51

doing things. There

0:53

was this one, one

0:56

YouTube video, I think the

0:58

title is ideas are not

1:00

something, ideas are not anything if you

1:02

don't actually work on them. And for

1:05

me, it really, it really

1:07

pushed me to see like how

1:10

maybe I was delusional to,

1:12

to things which I thought, you know,

1:14

like once you have an idea in

1:16

your mind, it cannot really

1:18

manifest until you actually do it. And

1:21

for some reason, the way you just speak it, the way

1:24

you just, the way you

1:26

just, you

1:27

just make it so connect so good.

1:30

And I'm just grateful. I just wanted to say so,

1:33

so thank you and continue

1:34

doing the work. I'm such a

1:36

big fan. Thank you so much. Love

1:38

you. Yo,

1:40

yo, yo, my man Busi.

1:43

Shout out to the VT

1:45

podcast team and everyone

1:48

that keeps following. My name is

1:50

Nail. I'm also from the East Rand

1:53

and I just want to say, man, I've been following your podcast

1:55

for quite some time now and

1:57

I've learned a lot, but I have to say

1:59

that.

1:59

episode that stood out the best for me and

2:02

I still practice and listen to still

2:04

daily is the sign of

2:06

money. That changed my

2:09

whole narrative about money because

2:11

I'm from a Catholic background. I

2:13

also been heard in hearing

2:16

all these weird

2:18

ideologies about money in terms

2:21

of changing my mindset and changing

2:24

the way I speak about money and

2:26

finally changing the way I use money.

2:29

It's amazing man I can't say what

2:31

it has done for me in

2:33

a short space of time but

2:35

I wish it would be taught in schools.

2:38

I wish it would be taught to

2:42

accountants especially because

2:45

some seem to not get it speaking

2:49

from experience so thank you a lot

2:51

man and my son just got birth

2:53

today and I'm really

2:55

happy that I got to hear

2:58

that before he was even on this

3:00

earth so shout out to the VPT

3:02

podcast yeah

3:05

thank you. It's time to take

3:07

your seat at the table find

3:09

out how would Fosite McGuire

3:12

as we discuss ideas

3:14

that matter at Catholic Football

3:17

Action. Hello

3:22

family. Here

3:25

we are hello family and welcome

3:27

to another episode of the VPT podcast

3:29

and here we talk about ideas

3:32

that matter. I know you guys have missed me

3:34

I know this because in my DMs is all

3:37

I've been hearing. All I've been hearing

3:39

is when is the next podcast coming

3:41

out right and down. Somebody sent me a very

3:44

funny message they said Vussy you are

3:46

worse than a drug dealer because you're like

3:48

serve us this content and then as the minute

3:50

we're addicted you withdraw yourself

3:53

and then they said worse you withdraw yourself

3:55

without warnings and they sent me one

3:57

of these memes of like somebody sitting there

4:00

very cold and kind of frozen and... you

4:02

know... doing da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da... You know

4:04

that thing you do when you cold? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da...

4:07

and they sent me one of these memes, and they were like, this

4:10

is us with the withdrawal symptoms. Drop

4:12

in episode! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

4:19

Ah, man, I miss you guys all the time. I really

4:21

do miss you guys all the time. I

4:24

really, really do. I've been all over the world,

4:26

as is my nature. Where have I been? We've

4:28

been to Europe. I

4:31

did Amsterdam and Paris, and

4:34

been in other parts of Africa

4:37

as well. I've been in

4:40

South Asia, and I've been in North America.

4:43

So by God's grace, I've been all over

4:46

the world. And it has been a

4:49

fantastic whirlwind of travel. I've

4:51

loved every moment, every second.

4:54

I must tell you, something very strange is happening,

4:56

which is this. I'll find like I'll be

4:58

walking through an airport, right? And then all

5:01

of a sudden, I'll just hear like, hello,

5:05

family. From

5:07

somebody I didn't even know, in a part of the world

5:10

that I'm just like, I didn't even know we had reached

5:12

that far, right? So it's, listen,

5:14

I love all of you guys in the community. You really do

5:16

make putting these episodes together such

5:19

an honor and a privilege and a joy, just

5:21

to contribute and to share with all of you guys.

5:23

It's so cool. Love, love, love,

5:25

love, love, love it. The

5:27

other day, I was in Zimbabwe.

5:31

I always say that, I think I've said it before on a

5:33

VT podcast. Every time I say

5:36

Zimbabwe, my mind

5:38

immediately jumps to

5:41

Robert Mugabe speaking,

5:43

I think it was, I made me wrong, at

5:45

the United Nations General Assembly. And

5:47

he says, Oh,

5:53

yeah.

5:59

I'm a child. He says, like,

6:02

he says, Blah!

6:06

You guys remember how, like, the other

6:08

girl used to, like, stretch out

6:10

his words and towards the end, he would,

6:12

like, tilt his lips. Blah! I

6:15

feel like, I

6:18

feel like you could have been like

6:20

a villain in, like, Lord of the Rings

6:22

or something, you know? Like, one of those villains

6:25

on, uh, Winter is coming,

6:27

I say. I'm sad. Ha

6:29

ha ha

6:29

ha ha. Ah!

6:39

Ooh, I can't breathe. I

6:42

can't breathe. I'm getting stomach

6:44

pain. Hold on. Ooh,

6:47

sir. One, one thousand,

6:50

two, one thousand, three, one

6:52

thousand.

6:54

Whoa. Right. So

6:56

we get back to the podcast. So,

6:59

every time I say Zimbabwe, I

7:02

always imagine Robert McGowan, blaaar! Keep

7:07

your brrrtton and leave

7:09

me my Zimbabwe. Why?

7:14

What? Blar,

7:17

keep your England and let me keep my

7:19

Zimbabwe. So? So? Every

7:22

time I travel to Zimbabwe, I have my

7:24

travel to Zim. I

7:27

have just the back of my mind. I've

7:29

had several people from the beautiful country, by

7:32

the way, gorgeous, gorgeous country, notwithstanding

7:34

its economic challenges, just the

7:37

beautiful country. Unbelievable people.

7:39

Honestly, honestly, unbelievable people. But

7:42

every time I travel into Zim, one of the things that

7:44

always sticks out at me is, if you ever speak to

7:46

a person from Zim, especially with a heavy Zimbabwe accent,

7:49

you guys find a way to add consonants to words, so

7:53

against is against. What? What

8:00

did you say? Agenisti. Wha-what? Wha-what?

8:03

No chief, there's no I in between.

8:06

It's against. Yes, Agenisti. Hahahaha!

8:13

Ahhhh... Alright.

8:16

Now, for those of you who've never listened to the

8:18

VT podcast before, because usually what happens

8:20

in the world of social media today, somebody will cut

8:22

out that little clip, and send it to

8:24

you guys, and somebody will go, I can't believe

8:26

he's such a bastard about Jim Bobble, he

8:28

must never come here again! There

8:31

are a couple of things about the VT podcast you must know. The

8:33

first is we don't take ourselves all together that seriously.

8:36

We take our work that seriously, but we recognize

8:38

that we're human beings. We're spiritual

8:40

beings having a human experience. This is just fun,

8:43

right? The second is we love the idea

8:46

of looking at each other's idiosyncrasies,

8:48

and laughing at those idiosyncrasies and sharing

8:51

to those idiosyncrasies. So, if anything,

8:53

please feel free to take the mickey out of me. They

8:56

often do when they send the voice notes, so

8:58

feel free to become part of the community in that

9:00

way. Good. Great family. So,

9:02

what an amazing couple of weeks it's been, right?

9:05

First, before we start, and this will kind

9:07

of give you a sense of how long it's been since our last podcast.

9:09

I think this is, this is all of

9:12

us, no matter where in the world we find ourselves, let's

9:14

send some thoughts and prayers to

9:16

the people of Palestine and

9:18

the people of Israel. This is a long-standing

9:20

conflict that certainly has

9:23

been around before I was born, and

9:26

I suspect we'll be around long after this

9:28

too. And I think what we, all of us should

9:30

pray for, is we should pray

9:32

that we have leaders who are seasoned for

9:34

this moment. One of the things

9:36

I really believe in as a student

9:39

of leadership is that moments reveal

9:41

the seasoning of a leader. A

9:43

person can have the right composition.

9:46

They can have the right education. Sometimes

9:49

even the right make-up, the

9:52

way they speak, the way they move. But you

9:54

don't really get a person's constitution

9:57

until the moment of leadership comes. certain

10:01

seasoning that must

10:03

bring you to that moment. Anyone listening

10:05

to this podcast who has had life, life

10:08

them as I often say, because it doesn't

10:10

matter who you are and where in the world you come from, how

10:12

smart you are, how educated or good

10:15

looking or well spoken or connected, life

10:18

will life you. I think it was Sylvester

10:20

Stallone who said, nobody

10:23

will hit you as hard as life.

10:25

But I think for those of us who recognize that, we

10:28

know that one of the ways life

10:30

lives you is putting

10:32

you through trials and tribulations. But

10:35

it is only often at the end of those experiences

10:37

that you recognize you have been a bit more seasoned.

10:41

You come out different. You move different.

10:43

You think different. You analyze

10:46

different. You relate to people differently

10:48

because life has seasoned you

10:51

a little bit. And so what I hope for

10:53

the people of Palestine, what I hope

10:55

for the people of Israel, these are

10:58

the peace loving people. I'm not talking

11:00

about the incalcitrant extremists

11:03

who post all sorts of crap on

11:06

social media. I'm talking about the

11:08

people who are calling for a ceasefire. I'm

11:10

talking about the people who are peace loving. I'm

11:12

talking about the people who want to preserve human

11:15

life. The people who recognize

11:17

just the incredible gift that a life is.

11:20

And I pray for all of you is that

11:23

we have leaders who are seasoned

11:26

for this moment. Many

11:28

years ago, not many years ago, many months ago, I was

11:30

invited to one of the leading med tech companies

11:33

in the world. The CEO of

11:35

the Africa business at Medtronic is a dear

11:37

friend of mine, Peter. He is. And

11:40

he invited me over there. And I'm going to tell

11:42

you why this is important in a moment. And

11:44

so I went over there and he wanted to show me the work that

11:46

they do at Medtronic. And they're the ones that brought

11:49

the innovation of the PASER to the world. The

11:51

PASER is the device they connect

11:53

to your heart. Right? And

11:56

if your heart kind of skips a beat or you have certain malfunctions

11:59

or idiosyncrasies.

12:56

the

14:00

world's most advanced computers today.

14:03

This incredible,

14:05

incredible manufacturing by

14:07

our Lord and Savior, this incredible gift

14:09

from God, this brain that

14:12

does all of this work, that converts all of these

14:14

receptors into signals, these signals

14:17

into information, this information into

14:19

what you know to do next. Just

14:22

as you listen to this, these

14:24

are all at work. As you hear

14:27

the words, the tone and texture

14:29

of my words, the beam and

14:31

boom of my words, the

14:34

pitch and pace of those words,

14:37

as your eardrums are receiving those receptors

14:39

and vibrating, and the sound

14:42

then making sense going into your brain and

14:44

your brain interpreting it, letter by

14:46

letter, word by word. At that

14:49

too, just the instance

14:51

of seeing, the

14:53

instance of listening, the

14:55

instance of tasting,

14:57

touching, of smelling, that

14:59

is

15:00

a God-made miracle

15:02

happening every day.

15:04

And here we are, living in a world where

15:08

people are being killed. It's

15:12

just the most extraordinary thing when

15:14

you consider what it really takes for

15:17

a human being to exist. And

15:19

so I pray for our brothers

15:21

and sisters in both Palestine and Israel

15:24

that the world has the leaders

15:27

who are seasoned for this moment,

15:30

seasoned for this moment. Right.

15:35

What a plus, tough place to start, but I suppose

15:37

it's a necessary place to start,

15:39

given how long it's been since our Lord passed constant.

15:42

Some of the feedback that has come back from you guys, thank

15:44

you so much. Again, don't forget to send those

15:46

voice notes. They really do go a long way. I

15:48

must tell you that I personally

15:51

love the voice notes. We listen to them each

15:54

and every single one. Believe it or not, I

15:56

listened to each and every

15:58

single one every time before. we do a podcast.

16:00

So as you hear this and those voice

16:03

notes, we don't always get a chance to play

16:05

all of them, but I listen to each

16:07

and every single one of them in the world, no matter where

16:09

you are, each and every single one. So

16:12

the last question, which was the opening

16:14

video then, or rather the opening audio,

16:17

right at the end, sir, you said, you've

16:20

just welcomed a little child to

16:22

the world. Can you believe it? That's

16:24

what inspired my podcast today, because

16:28

I thought about germinations and

16:30

how things come into being. Yesterday,

16:33

true story, just yesterday,

16:37

my eldest son was turning 13. It

16:40

was an emotional day for me. And

16:42

I'll tell you why. So

16:45

my father died when I was 13. And

16:47

I remembered

16:50

then, as I do now, the

16:52

relationship

16:53

I

16:57

have with him and had

17:00

with him

17:01

then. And

17:02

it's

17:05

a precarious age to lose a parent, right?

17:07

First, there is never a convenient

17:10

age to lose a person you love. So

17:12

please don't misunderstand me. But

17:15

as a young man coming

17:17

into the world, losing

17:20

my father at the age of 13

17:22

was a precarious thing. First,

17:26

I lost him in what was exactly

17:28

one month and one week before my

17:31

13th birthday. Sorry.

17:35

So in what was exactly one month and one week

17:37

before my 13th birthday. Second,

17:41

there are, for those of you here who know,

17:45

physiologically and biologically,

17:47

there are certain things a young

17:50

person, a young male

17:53

goes through when they reach

17:55

the age of 13. There are

17:57

certain maturations that take place. There

18:00

are certain comings of age that

18:03

take place, and it's

18:06

very difficult to go through those

18:09

without having a reference man in your

18:11

life. And I didn't

18:15

have a reference man in my life. My father was my best

18:17

friend. He was the sensei of the

18:19

dojo. He was the guy I spent most

18:21

of my time with, right? So my

18:23

dad was literally my best friend. I didn't have

18:26

kind of older cousins that I could lean on. I

18:28

didn't have older uncles or anything

18:31

like this. We were not that close. So this

18:33

was a very difficult, very,

18:35

very difficult time and a very difficult experience.

18:38

All of that notwithstanding, I

18:40

went through that time as one

18:42

must. And so I thought yesterday

18:45

about what was my

18:47

son's birthday at 13. I thought yesterday about what

18:50

are the questions I wish I could have asked my father

18:53

then that

18:54

I would like to answer for my son

18:56

now.

18:58

And then I started reading a little bit about

19:01

this age of 13 and how

19:03

for so many cultures in the world, the

19:06

age of 13 is a coming of age.

19:08

It literally is a coming of age. All

19:10

sorts of cultures have initiation

19:13

processes that they take you

19:15

through when you reach that age. And

19:17

so my podcasts today is

19:20

going to be about this. It's going to be about the

19:22

coming of age. Why

19:24

coming of age? Well first, because

19:28

there is a process of growing

19:30

up you must go through and the

19:32

process of maturing you need

19:35

to endure that takes

19:37

you to the person you are intended

19:39

to be. There is an understanding

19:41

across cultures that until you go through

19:44

that process of coming of age, you are not a full

19:46

member of society still.

19:49

You are a member no doubt. You are a human

19:51

being no doubt and you have rights that

19:53

are preserved absolutely

19:55

at a human level. But

19:57

you are not yet a full country.

20:00

a member of society. It's almost

20:02

as if your status then in society

20:05

enjoys certain limitations. These

20:07

coming of age rituals are

20:09

a part of the things that signify

20:12

that you are now ready to be

20:14

a full and functioning member

20:17

of society. You

20:20

see, most of us can probably think

20:22

of individuals that clearly haven't grown

20:24

up yet. You know people like

20:26

this. They're childish and immature

20:29

despite their age, never taking

20:31

any responsibility or owning the consequences

20:34

of their actions. In essence,

20:37

there are children often

20:39

in an adult's body. It's

20:41

precisely these types of people

20:44

who need or would benefit most

20:46

from these coming of age rituals. So these

20:48

coming of age rituals then are a signifier

20:52

that you are ready to act

20:54

in a manner that is proportional and

20:56

representative of yourself as

20:59

a full functioning member of

21:01

society. These coming

21:04

of age rituals are recognized universally

21:06

almost as necessary.

21:10

Since they as individuals who have

21:12

not gone through this process often fail

21:14

to embody the spirit of adulthood, tradition

21:17

may be able to step in to thrust them

21:19

into the role as part of

21:21

their collective. And this is one of the things

21:23

that comes through in this process

21:25

of coming of age is how it recognizes

21:28

you as a part of a collective. In

21:30

a great book, King, Warrior, Magician

21:33

and Lover, the fantastic

21:35

book by the way, Rediscovering the Archetypes

21:37

of Mature Masculinity, Robert

21:40

Moore and Douglas Gillette write this,

21:43

a man who cannot get it together is

21:46

a man who has probably not had the opportunity

21:48

to undergo a ritual

21:50

initiation into the deep structures

21:53

of manhood. Now we do live

21:55

in an age today where we are often

21:57

wont to for trying to pull

21:59

down. What it is that is masculinity.

22:02

Recognize I'm not talking here about toxic masculinity,

22:05

although we can have an entire podcast about

22:07

what that is, whether or not it exists.

22:09

And it depends, by the way, yes, on where

22:11

you fall on the spectrum of

22:14

critical theory, whether or not you believe

22:16

in the idea of a toxic masculinity. But

22:19

that notwithstanding, I want to keep to this

22:21

theme in the moment of coming of

22:23

age. The focus in their work was

22:25

on masculine, on the man. It's

22:27

true, too, by the way, for women, and I'll tell

22:29

you a bit about that in a moment. They

22:32

say that there are a few things that must

22:34

be recognized when you have not

22:36

gone through a process of a coming of age. The

22:39

first is that you are stunted

22:42

and that your perspective of the world is

22:44

often false. The reason your

22:46

development is stunted is because you've not gone through

22:48

this process of maturation. The reason

22:50

your perspective is false is because it's based

22:53

on a childlike understanding of

22:56

the world. The second is

22:58

that the reason this is is because

23:01

all initiation processes typically

23:04

have a sacred space that you must

23:06

go through. For the people

23:08

of the Kossa nation, for instance, there is

23:10

the initiation of going up into

23:12

the proverbial mountain about which

23:15

those of us who are in the Kossa often hear about.

23:18

But there is a separation from society,

23:20

a sacred space you are taken into.

23:23

And there in that sacred space, you

23:25

endure alone or as

23:27

part of a smaller collective, a process

23:30

that brings you to a new awakening.

23:33

It is this new awakening, then, that

23:35

once you come back into society, you

23:38

bring into society as a fully formed,

23:41

functional, functioning member

23:44

of community. These are necessary

23:48

rituals that for all of us we must

23:50

go through. A part of what they posit

23:52

in their work is that in part the challenge

23:55

we face with the world today is because

23:58

we've not had enough. of these coming

24:01

of age rituals, these very necessary

24:04

rituals that all of us must go through. And

24:06

so for instance if you were Jewish you would know that at

24:08

the age of 13 for the male you go through

24:11

the bar mitzvah and for the female you go through

24:13

the bar. And again the idea there

24:15

is that there is a coming of

24:17

age, a certain process that

24:19

you must endure that takes

24:22

you from being a child through the process

24:24

of adolescence and then into an

24:26

individual who can act as a single

24:29

standalone member of society and not

24:31

only as somebody else's child.

24:34

These rituals empower us both

24:37

individually and collectively. One

24:39

they empower you individually because they prove

24:42

to you that you have the metal to endure,

24:44

a process of maturation.

24:47

More importantly they empower us

24:49

collectively because they are a safeguard

24:52

if you would, a measure of comfort

24:55

for other members of your

24:57

community and your society that

24:59

if you have gone through those rituals there

25:01

is a level at which you must be

25:03

able to operate, think and exist

25:06

that creates a sense of comfort for other

25:08

members of your community. It

25:10

isn't to say that you won't experience

25:12

challenges or difficulties or sometimes

25:15

that you won't even fail at certain things, quite

25:17

the contrary. It is to say

25:19

that at the very least your metal

25:21

around your ability to go through each

25:24

of those systems and each of

25:27

those seasons in your life. Let

25:29

me add here in parentheses each

25:31

of those inevitable seasons in your

25:33

life. That muscle

25:37

has been developed so they help

25:39

us go through difficult problems, they

25:42

help us create habits, they

25:44

help us learn, they

25:46

help us grow,

25:48

but they also help us

25:50

connect.

25:52

Some might wonder what's the importance of

25:55

a coming of age, what is the importance of these traditions

25:58

and rituals. Well there are a lot of different traditions and rituals.

25:59

They're an important part of identity. They're

26:02

an important part of how we celebrate

26:05

unique cultural heritages within family,

26:08

and they're an important part of how we build community.

26:12

When you say, I am a certain

26:15

thing, often that is

26:17

rooted in what you have had to go

26:19

through and what you have had to endure

26:22

to become the thing you are now claiming.

26:25

I am a man. What does that

26:27

mean? What have you gone through to

26:30

prove that you are a man? I

26:33

am a woman.

26:34

What does that mean? And

26:36

what are the processes? What are the rituals that you

26:38

have had to go through to prove that

26:41

you are where you are?

26:46

Did you know that even in Christianity,

26:49

for those of us who are believers, there are coming of age

26:51

too. The baptism, the

26:53

first holy communion, the

26:56

first reception of the Eucharist, for instance,

26:58

or even the confirmation, these

27:00

are sacraments of the Christian initiation

27:02

process. They are processes that take

27:05

you through levels of maturity

27:08

as you come of

27:10

age.

27:12

Why am I sharing all of this

27:15

with you? Why is it important?

27:18

You see, I think coming of age helped

27:20

us do three things. The first thing

27:22

they helped us do is to shape our emotions. The

27:25

second thing they helped us do is to place events

27:27

and perspective. And the third

27:29

thing they helped us do is to have a sense of ourselves

27:32

in the context of others. Let's

27:34

discuss all of those. When

27:36

you go through these comings of age, these initiative

27:39

processes, they stretch and

27:41

test your emotional muscle and force

27:43

you into a space where you yourself

27:45

are forced to deal with your emotions.

27:48

And so as you go into the world confronting

27:51

your emotions every day, you surely will,

27:54

you have learned at the very least and tested

27:56

your muscle in your ability to deal

27:58

with these emotions.

29:18

The

30:00

choice. This is the Morpheus moment

30:02

now. You can take the

30:05

blue pill and stay the way you are.

30:08

And you will live the world and

30:10

live in the world quite comfortably, possibly

30:13

the way you are.

30:15

Or you can take the red pill

30:18

and offer yourself for

30:20

these experiences that are a coming of age.

30:23

And at every experience a new

30:25

you will be revealed to

30:27

the self. You

30:29

don't have to know what the experience is going to be. You

30:33

don't have to know how much pain or

30:35

displeasure or discomfort you would endure. All

30:39

you need to know is your

30:41

destiny demands

30:43

of you to become the person you need to become on

30:46

the other end of that experience. This

30:51

moment in our world is

30:54

a calling to those of us who are growth merchants to

30:57

look for the opportunities to come

30:59

of age. And

31:02

so the question I have for you in this week's podcast

31:04

is have you embraced the opportunity to come of age? The question

31:07

I have for you in this week's podcast

31:09

is if you're going through your experience

31:12

of the coming of age now, have you surrendered

31:14

yourself to it? One

31:17

of the greatest lessons I've learned as I've gotten older

31:20

is that true wisdom surrenders itself to life.

31:22

It doesn't fight it. True wisdom recognizes

31:24

that life has a certain

31:26

cadence,

31:29

a certain rhythm and a certain flow. And that

31:31

it is for the wise to follow the flow

31:36

of the river

31:39

of life rather than try

31:41

to peddle against the current. In

31:45

this season of your life, those

31:47

of you called upon to have a coming of age experience have a coming

31:49

of age experience. I want to

31:52

give you right now the tools

31:54

of how you do that.

31:56

The first tool,

31:59

the recognition. that this is

32:01

not a group project. A

32:03

coming of age is a personal quest. It's

32:06

something you have to do on your own. Sometimes

32:09

it's something you have to do intentionally

32:12

absent of the people you've had in your life

32:14

to this stage of your life. It requires

32:16

of you to build the internal

32:18

resilience, the ability, the mettle, the

32:21

core, the skill, the functioning, the chutzpah,

32:24

the belief in self that you alone

32:27

can

32:28

go through what you need to go through

32:31

to get to where you need to get to.

32:33

So that's the first place. The

32:36

second is

32:38

to constantly

32:40

keep your eye on who you

32:43

are becoming,

32:45

not who you are. This

32:47

is the problem with the world today, isn't it? It's

32:50

all about who am I now. Where

32:52

do I live now? What

32:54

do I drive now? What

32:56

do I do now? What do I earn

32:58

now?

32:58

Who are my friends now? How many followers

33:01

do I have now? Very

33:04

few of us keep

33:06

an eye on who we are becoming.

33:09

As a reason and as a consequence

33:11

of this, who we are becoming

33:14

is consequential rather than intentional.

33:17

See, if I am intentional about

33:20

becoming somebody, then I

33:22

manifested so. I make

33:24

it so. But

33:26

if every day is happening to me, then

33:29

I end up in a place I might not have volunteered

33:31

myself for, being intentional.

33:35

And the third, the third

33:38

tool to remember as you

33:40

go through a process of a coming of age,

33:42

this is the one that will help you have a sense of normalcy,

33:46

it's the one that will help you not not absolutely

33:48

lose your mind, is to remember

33:50

this, you are not unique.

33:54

You are not unique. You are

33:56

not alone. You are not

33:58

the first human being having this. experience.

34:01

Many have been here before you and

34:04

many will be here long after you. This

34:08

is the beauty of being a human being,

34:11

the surrender to this wisdom and this cadence

34:13

as I said earlier. You

34:15

are not unique.

34:18

You're part of a sum, you're part

34:20

of a whole, you're part of a community,

34:23

you're part of a group. But more

34:25

importantly

34:27

you are part of a lineage of

34:29

people

34:30

who have the courage to go through

34:33

the experience you're going through. I hope

34:37

for you, those

34:40

of

34:42

you

34:44

who go through this moments, these

34:46

feelings of age, the birth, the

34:49

rebirth, the maturation

34:51

from childhood into adolescence

34:53

and from adolescence into adulthood. As

34:56

you morph in your journey, wherever

34:59

you might find yourself, important

35:01

it is you recognize that

35:04

you are not unique,

35:05

you are not alone, you're

35:07

part of a lineage and

35:09

that the person you are destined to be

35:12

requires of you

35:14

to have the courage to go through what you're going

35:16

through now.

35:20

Isn't that beautiful? Now

35:23

I share that with you because yesterday

35:25

when I was musing over my son's birthday

35:28

I thought if there was one thing I would have liked my father

35:30

to tell me it would have been that. I would

35:34

have liked my father to tell me you will go through

35:36

things in life and it's

35:38

not because life is terrible to you

35:40

or because you're a bad person or

35:43

because you've somehow been chosen to go through

35:46

this terrible experiences but

35:48

rather because the person you are

35:51

destined to be is

35:53

required to go through what

35:55

you are going through. So

35:57

my friend,

35:59

my son.

35:59

I would have liked for him to say. Lament

36:04

not the experience, but

36:07

rather celebrate the opportunity to have

36:09

it. Celebrate

36:11

the person you become at the other end of it.

36:16

What a podcast.

36:17

What a power podcast. I'd love

36:19

for you to send us your voice notes. Tell us a bit

36:21

more about some of the coming of age

36:23

experiences that you might have had. I'd

36:26

love to hear from you from all over the world, no matter where you are,

36:28

about the cultures and rituals from

36:31

your own part of the world that people go through when

36:34

you go through a coming of age. It's

36:36

a universalism. It really is. And

36:39

perhaps our generation needs to learn the

36:41

wisdom in it.

36:43

All right. Friends.

36:45

Family, thank you

36:48

so much for the opportunity to be with you again. And

36:50

as we close off every single podcast here on the VT

36:53

podcast. Sayonara.

36:56

Hello, family. We love to hear from

36:58

you here at the VT podcast, and we've made it even

37:01

easier for you to do so. You can send

37:03

us a WhatsApp voice note about your thoughts on our

37:05

podcast. One plus two six,

37:08

eight one five zero five,

37:10

seven double six seven. As

37:12

plus two seven eight one five

37:15

zero five, seven double six

37:17

seven.

37:17

We look forward to hearing from you. This

37:20

podcast was proudly brought to you

37:22

by Microfund in partnership

37:25

with Sound and Sounds Media.