Matthew McConaughey: The Silent Crisis No One Is Talking About! I Sabotaged My Own Career!

I think too many people quit too early. And we give ourself the options and the parachutes in things like relationships and work, self-help. And we pull that to the (censored) when we can still be flying, even though it may be a rocky flight. We pull it early and, okay, it's a safe move. Got down on the ground. What I was building didn't last, but most of the time, it could if you'd have hung in there. But if you have any ambition, resistance is gonna come. And so own that (censored) .

Matthew.

Matthew.

Matthew McConaughey! You've been able to climb to the very top of the mountain again and again and again. Is this natural talent, or is there anything transferrable?

First, look at what's in your DNA. Like, I wanted to play basketball. But no matter how hard I worked, I was not the fastest nor the biggest. So look at what do you have an innate ability for? Then, what are you willing to hustle for? And this is very important 'cause some of us have innate ability, but we don't work for it. We grew up hardcore on hustle, hustle, hustle. Sleep was sin in my household. No TV. Mom would always say, "Why are you gonna watch someone doing something when you can go out in the world and do it yourself?" And then, number three, endurance. I remember this one time when I told my agent, "What I want to do is dramas. No more rom-coms." And this $8 million offer comes in for comedy. I read it and I said, "No, thank you." They come back with a $12 million offer. "No, thanks." $14.5 million offer. I said, "Let me read that again."

(laughs)

I ultimately said no, and I just bought myself a one-way ticket out of Hollywood. About 20 months after, offers came in. Would those have come if I'd have never stepped out? No. Now, number four, if you do this, you're most likely gonna have some success in life, and that is you.

And what about Admiral Bill McRaven?

So he shared great wisdom with me when I was seeking out male mentors.

We reached out to Bill, and he wrote this letter for you. He said, "Dear Matthew..."

Wow.

Are you able to share what you were seeking guidance from him about? To my regular listeners, I know you don't like it when I ask you to subscribe at the start of these conversations. I don't like saying it, I don't like it being in there. None of us like it. It's frustrating. Do you know what's also frustrating? It's also frustrating when I go into the back end of a YouTube channel and I see that 56% of you that listen frequently to this podcast haven't yet subscribed, and so many of you don't even know that you haven't subscribed, because I'll see in the comments section, you say to me, you go, "I didn't even realize I didn't subscribe." And that actually fuels the show. It's basically like you're making a donation to the show. So that's why I ask all the time, because it enables us to build and build and build and build, and we're going for the long term here. So, all I'd ask you is if you've seen this show before and you like it, help me, help my team here. Hit the subscribe button, and we'll continue to build this show for you. That's my promise. Thank you to all of you guys that do subscribe. It means the world to me. Let's get on with the show. Matthew, you're a s- particularly surprisingly artistic, creative, wise, yet materially successful individual, and it wasn't until I dove deeper into your story that I started to understand why that was, why you are, to me, in my mind, such an anomaly, because you are... You seem to be several things that don't often appear in the same place. So my first question to you is, what do I need to understand about your earliest context to understand who you are, the values you have, and the perspective that you view the world with?