Professor Green: How To Overcome Life’s Hardest Challenges & Find A Purpose | E80

To say that Professor Green has faced and overcome adversity in his life is such a gross understatement. He's self-aware, he's honest, he's critical of himself where he feels he needs to be.

I've got to do some work on myself here. Things need to change, 'cause you push things down, they come at you sideways. I can't keep projecting my problems onto other people and blaming them. "You know what? If you- if I ever see you again, I'm gonna knock you out." And, uh, people are like, "Wow, do you wish you could go back in time and change what your last words to h- him were?" No, of course not, because the anger was just. Uh, it was that constant. It was him being in and out of my life, him being such a kind, generous, gorgeous man, but being such a shit father. I felt like he was threatening me and I felt like I was right to stand my ground, but didn't expect that five minutes after that he'd walk up behind me and put a broken bottle in my neck. I got my phone, I called my nan, and I just apologized for all the work she had put into me, that this was how it was gonna end.

To say that Professor Green, AKA Stephen Manderson, has faced and overcome adversity in his life is such a gross understatement. There's moments in this podcast today where you realize how unfortunate his life has been at certain moments and how much of a seemingly unfair start he had, that it almost doesn't seem like it can be true. And we know Professor Green. We know his music. I grew up listening to Professor Green's music. We know his documentaries more recently and how inspiring and vulnerable those documentaries have been. And most of us will know about the tragedy that met him in his early years when his dad decided to commit suicide. But it's interesting to see how all of these events came to shape this man, a man that is empathetic, a man that refuses to be bitter, and a man that has overcome and thrived despite all of this. Professor Green is a remarkable person. He's a remarkable guy. He's self-aware, he's honest, he's critical of himself where he feels he needs to be. And because of that, because of the content, the documentaries and the music he's made, he is one of my sincere inspirations, especially as it relates to mental health and the change that he's been able to make in the conversation. This is a- an honest conversation today and it's one that I think everybody should and needs to hear, especially men, especially in the world we live in. So without further ado, I'm Stephen Bartlett and this is The Diary of a CEO. I hope nobody's listening, but if you are, then please keep this to yourself. I did a lot of research on you and I- I've listened to podcasts you've done and I've read, um, parts from the book that you- you authored and I- I want to know from your perspective what you think the most pivotal moments were from your early years that came to shape the man that you became later in your life.