 Thanks for being on time. I thought I was late, but then I realized I started at 10.45. So I ran all the way through the underground. And I was like, shit, I'm going to be late to introduce this next speaker. Actually, it's not really a big deal, because this next speaker is just, I don't even know why he's speaking. It's like, I've probably never heard of this guy. I think he's never spoken at one of these things before. He runs some blog. I think he's got a YouTube channel or something. I don't know if anyone even watches it. It's called Dream Lounge. You guys heard of this thing? No? Something like that? I think he's totally unknown in the young men's movement. Anthony Johnson? Is that ringing a bell? No, but seriously, I sought out to speak at this event two years ago. I was speaking at a different event. It was a pickup artist event. And it just wasn't really the best fit for my message. And I learned of Anthony. And I was like, I have to speak at this guy's event. So I Facebook stalked him and sent him multiple messages. Hey, man, you got to let me speak. You got to let me speak. And then I met him at one of the events in LA. And he was like, come speak at my event. And I was never as excited to speak at any event than the 21 convention because it's just there's really nothing like this out there. There's events that are focused on dating. There's events that are focused on health and fitness. There's events that are focused on surface level stuff. But the quality of speakers that this guy brings is just a testament to who he is. And the coolest thing about it is not the event itself. Well, the event is awesome, but it's you guys as well. I've never been to an event that talks about dating where I actually want to hang out with the attendants. All of you guys are fucking awesome. You guys would all be guys I'd actually want to hang out with. When typically you meet somebody that's into dating and wanting to become like a pickup artist, OK, I don't think so. And that's just a testament to who he is and what he's put on. So let's give it up for Anthony. Thanks, guys. There we go. She got what I was saying at this point. Just like when I opened the event, thank you so much for coming. Especially Sunday morning, a little bit early. Events have been dragging on, a lot dragging on. But I know you guys are getting tired. A lot of information, a lot of pictures being filled, as Michael said yesterday. I'm glad you guys are here for that. And as far as I can tell, all of you immensely enjoy it. Which is really cool for me to experience as well. My speech today is going to focus on, well, first of all, this is the first speech I've given at the 21 Convention. That's not also the first speech of the event. So personally, I figure I should tell you guys this, it's a big relief to speak on Sunday morning. Rather than right off the bat, like Robbie did this here, it's a tough spot. And he did a great job of filling that too. And before I get into the speech, I want to make one more thing that might amuse you guys. Someone here for the first time in my six years of running the 21 Convention as the founder asked me, it was yesterday, I don't know who it was. But I thought about later, and it was just so gratifying and so amusing, it just was awesome. Someone asked me what I'd do here. They didn't know who I was. They were like, what do you do here? What is your job? They saw me running around, doing different things, talking to speakers. They didn't know who I was. Which is such a clear sign that this year I've finally done my job better than I ever have before by a giant leap forward. Because I was able to remove myself, which has been a big deal to me to do that. Not from the event entirely, but to distance myself, to do bigger and more important things at the event that need to be done and have more and more focus and attention. So whoever that was, I don't have to hear right now, but thanks for that. I didn't realize it at the time, but the minute I thought about it was a big win. And maybe some of you guys thought that too, if you did. Same thing, kudos. So, good trip. My speech today for the next 41 minutes and 45 seconds is going to start out focusing on a direction, in many respects, for the 21 convention. What it's about, in a huge aspect of it, where it's been, where it's at now, and then kind of where it's going. It's not going to take very long to discuss that particular point, but that's definitely going to be the introduction or the intro point. And that's what the theme of the speech will center around. I think in doing so, you guys will get a little bit of guidance, very specific to the event and what it's about, because I know a lot of you are new. A few of you have been here before, both in the European events as well as the American events. But this event definitely could use some direction, even in spite of how awesome it's been, and self-guiding for you guys. I'm sure very few of you, if any, are confused as to what the event's about. But even so, I want to give you guys some extra guidance and point the whole movement and the whole convention, and you guys are making the process at least a little bit to where my head's at, and where I think the event's going to keep going, and how it's been going and progressing over the years. So this graph, or this chart, or marker, ink on a board, I'm not actually going to use it a whole lot, actionably. But it's up here for you guys to conceptualize what the speech will be about. So I am represents ideal man, or the ideal man, which is a theme, and a topic, and a term you've heard of this convention, literally this event, as well as in the 21 convention in general. Meaning on the website, and in the lingo surrounding it, and in many of the speeches throughout the years, including, again, this event, from right now to yesterday to last night with Michael Coutino, who spoke last, previous speakers in the event, and even the first day, and so on and so forth. It's been around for a while, that term, actually about I want to say almost two years as I started using that term, when it really became a direct and obvious focal point, which I'm very much hinting at, that it was a focal point from the very get-go. For the many years before, two years ago, this convention was running now in its sixth year. So the theme will be, or the starting point that will filter into the themes that we'll dig into, is, again, about the convention itself, and really what a huge focal point that is for everything about the convention, not just here. So I think just to clarify for you guys too, it's not, this convention is not just this one event. That might be your guys' experience, and your first experience, and the majority, you know, vast majority of your experience of the 21 convention so far. But it's really, this is the eighth 21 convention. Visual, who you guys met yesterday as an attendee, has been here since the first one. So it's really, it's the cumulative, the 21 convention in many respects is the cumulative compounding effects and experiences of those conventions kind of summing up into one thing. That really is the 21 convention in spite of how immense and direct and in your face this particular event's been for you guys. Back on point, a really big, the biggest focal point of the 21 convention and of those some events adding and compounding upon each other is the theme of the ideal man. And I wanna now discuss with you guys what that means to me and what it means in the context of the 21 convention. Here, when I discuss it, and the underlying themes between the speaker is when they discuss it. And on the website, and on the videos, and anywhere else you read about that term as it relates to this convention. As I discussed in Orlando, Florida last year, during my last, during my speech there, it was the opening speech of the event. You can find it on the videos on YouTube, on the website. Ideal means to me, so breaking the term down, ideal man. Ideal means to me, and I believe it's the most accurate definition of the term currently available, so far as I'm aware, it means the best and highest possible of anything in physical reality. Which doesn't necessarily mean perfection and in many cases it won't. So ideal means the best and highest possible. That's what that means to me when I use it, and especially when I use it with this convention. The man part is where this gets, I think, will get really interesting for you guys because the ideal part may have been somewhat obvious to you if you thought about it a little bit. So ideal means the best and highest possible in physical reality in your lifetime, in this lifetime, effectively and essentially right now. The man part that I use, and this is what I very directly and deliberately and intentionally mean, it means the self. It doesn't just, it can mean in some cases a more broad and general sense of man and concept or mankind, so to speak, but I mean it very explicitly with you guys here and in the videos and so on, the self, you, the individual. This is why in the banner on the website, one of the core themes you see in the, if you examine it and you look at it, it says individualism. As well as self actualization, but separate point, somewhat. Individualism, though, is really what I wanna drive at here. It means you, it's about you. And specific to the term, the ideal man relevant to the speech, and the 20th convention as a whole, it has to be and it must be. And this is what I mean when I say it, self-generated. So, I'll let that sink in for a second. The best and highest vision of your own life and of what's possible to you in this lifetime as it's self-defined and self-generated and self-structured, first and foremost, so that doesn't exclude anyone else's input. It does mean, however, that your input and your interpretations and your filters as the self, as you, as the owner of your own life, as the driver of your own life, hopefully, or ideally, you are the ultimate filter and you have to self-generate what this term, the ideal man, means to you once applied. So when I use it with the convention and as I use it right now, it's more global, it's more general, but as you guys interpret it and experience it and absorb it into your own life, it must be, as far as I believe that accurate definition can be applied to it, it must be self-generated by you. You can listen to what I'm saying and I'm gonna go into some very strong suggestions, three in particular, as for what I highly recommend you incorporate into that, but ultimately you must decide and be the judge. You must judge yourself, you must think. Just like your Ron Brook was talking about at this convention just a few days ago. You must be the final arbiter of what gets applied into that definition as you live your life, as you apply those principles, or don't in some cases. I don't think you guys here would. Since you guys came, you guys are definitely the top percent of guys who have ever watched these videos and been informed and made aware of this convention. So is that making sense? Is there anything that's not really clear when I say the ideal man as the best and highest vision of your own life ideal and the man, the self-generated part? And it's, I guess I'll add one thing to it. It must, I can't stress enough, it's the most important critical aspect of this definition of this concept that it must be you must define what that term means in your life. You must, you cannot delegate it. You cannot have someone else do your thinking and you're living for you. Even if say you have, we'll say you wanna live the best and highest vision, the best and highest possibility of your relationships with women. So dating specifically male-female relationships and you hire a coach like Robbie or Sasha or whoever to help you do that. They can't think for you, they can't live for you. They can provide their thoughts to you and they can demonstrate physical actions in approaching and meeting and interacting with women but they can't do those things for you. You must, you have to do those things. And when you realize that and you realize how absolutely pinpoint accurate that is, I think that's where you guys have a lot of success in your life and that's what I mean with this. It's kinda like from what's another topic. I can take electricity and shock your muscles and they'll contract and your body will move but that's not really your will and yourself moving the muscle. It's someone providing an external stimulus to your body. So if someone tasered my arm and it flexed, it wouldn't really be me moving it. It would be someone else and this movement would have no real meaning. There would be nothing meaningful. There would be no filling of a picture in that specific case and that physical example there, that applies I think to everything in life and especially what we're talking about here with the ideal man. So when I talk about the ideal man and the 21 convention or that topic specific to the 21 convention and that context and here and in the videos and online, that's what I mean. So now I'm gonna go into three and then maybe a bonus if I have time. Very specific points that I have experienced as the best and highest vision of my life up to this point and up to that maximum capacity that I have achieved relative to my goals and my objectives and my values. Three points that I think are really critical at the very least they've been for me and I believe very strongly that for most men and for most people in general that they'll also be very important to you. They're very, as far as I can tell, as far as I've experienced in my life and my some knowledge and judgment, they're super, super critical. So just briefly overview them. The first one will be, yeah, I'll tell you guys, the first one will be living life firsthand. The second one we'll discuss is resistance to change but specifically negative change which I think most people don't recognize. And the last one will be a question. I'm gonna keep that one a mystery because it's the only question. So I had a little bit of surprise for you guys. I think you'll like that last one the best too. Perhaps not by accident that the best would be for last. So the first one, the FH that represents living life firsthand. The best analogy I was able to come up with their metaphor for this is that, well first of all, who here is familiar with video games? Essentially everybody, right? Who here is not familiar with a video game at this point in life? Really? Come on, dude. All right. Maybe he's not, but all right, so he's not. So all right, maybe someone in video too that, I don't know, they're just not familiar with it. Well, we'll go through it for them. I'll use a chair. Most people in life, how they live is not firsthand as we're gonna dig into here as the first topic. If you take it in an example of playing a video game on a controller with a TV in front of you, most people are not even playing their life, so to speak. They're sitting in a chair next to someone or some group of other people playing life and they're just sitting there. They're just watching that action, that interaction, that input and response happen to other people. They're not even playing. They're just sitting there, idly, passively. They're not active physically, not in terms of exercise, but not actionably and they're not doing it mentally either, which I think was why Iran brooked the other day. I've talked a lot to you guys about those of you here for it, think, think, think. He said that probably 10 times. That's what he was getting at. As far as I can understand it, I believe that's what he meant, very simply put. So most people are not even playing the game. They're just watching other people play it. They're sitting by, not you guys, but most people outside of this room, most people in the world, like, almost all. It's a huge majority. They're not even playing. You then have a minority of people who are much better off, have done a lot of thinking, have taken a lot of action in their life that are actually not playing the game. They're in front of the TV, so to speak. They have the controller in their hands and they're playing the game and they're interacting. They're much less focused on what other people are doing in terms of value and importance and they're much more focused on themselves, on their self-interest, on their values, on their objectives, on their goals. They receive, they're able to comprehend or they're able to deal with a lot more input from a lot more people, but not have it affect them as much. They're less, they're much more control of their own life now that they're playing the game. They're much more closer to, I think the best and highest way you can live your life happily as you pursue your happiness. So they're playing, but now that they're not sitting there and now that they're playing, they're still playing in most cases, I think, of that minority who are actually playing the game. They're playing at third person in terms of like a camera setting in a game or even like in a novel. It's from a distant perspective. There's a lot of distance between what's actually happening and their face and their eyes and their senses and their experiences. They're still not as close as they physically and possibly can be to the experience. They're on their way, but they're still not there yet. So they're not sitting there, now they're playing, but they're still in a different, not in the best perspective, so to speak, to get the most out of life. They're still third person. So what I mean when I say first hand is switching, making the actionable and definite switch from that third person perspective where you're kind of distancing yourself from the character in the game. The camera becomes dead on, like in many as fate would have it, shooter video games, so to speak. The camera is right there. You don't see the character anymore. As a third person perspective, you are that person now. It becomes, that's it. It's as close as you can get. You're playing the game first hand. Is it making sense? Should be. So that's what I mean when I say live life first hand. Get in that position. Get way the hell away from watching other people playing it as a primary importance. Get much more involved in playing the game. And then once you get into that and you focus more on your life and your interest and your values as a first and foremost priority. So not that you're ignoring everyone else, just like a huge dick. You focus on yourself first and foremost, just like you're on talk about and self interest. Then once you do that, you have to make the definite and actionable switches to get it first hand, to really live life not through other people so much. You live it first and foremost and the dominant amount of your time through your own eyes, through your own experiences. You trust yourself, you trust your judgment. You have self respect. You love yourself, you like yourself. You enjoy life and you're happy about it. You're not ashamed about it. You don't apologize about it. That to me is living life first hand and that's of critical importance, especially relevant to living the best and highest vision of your own life. No matter how you define it, almost, as long as you don't define it in a hugely evil negative way. Like Michael talked about yesterday, like Hitler would be an example of that. So there are limits to when you define it but they're pretty foreign for you. As powerful as those limitations might be. Before moving off of this specific point, one more point I want to make about it is two actionable points and I got to get through these as fast as I can. Because this is very conceptual what I'm talking to you about. It's very abstract. It's even with the video game analogy, it's still very hazy perhaps to a lot of people or it can be very easily. So a great way to do these steps to make these shifts, I think almost everyone here basically everyone watching is much more playing it. Most people that wouldn't be here, for example, would be a Nazi. But to make these shifts no matter where you're at in your life and in your experience of it and in your pursuits, to make these shifts two very actionable ways that I've experienced and I've talked about on my blog will be as follows. The first one is to develop a desire and an awareness to want to live every day you wake up. So and to experience more specifically, a lot of people wake up and they wake up on, I think this is common knowledge for you guys and to those watching, hopefully it is. A lot of people wake up kind of like in a zombie state. They get up and at no level, not even like on a deeper level where they're not thinking about it, which would be acceptable. They're not really thinking about wanting to live life and pursue happiness not to any degree. They kind of wake up and they just go through an automated process that was not automated on purpose. That makes sense. They wake up, they don't want to live and then do things subsequent from that. They wake up and they say like, I have to work, go to work. I have to do this, have to do that. They become, they just, they live, they remove themselves, they get further and further away from that first time experience I was talking about. So to really make these steps a really actionable way to do that is to just think about it and to automatize it if you can intentionally. The desire and the want to live every day you wake up. So rather than say, even, you know, it might be a good thing to say in most cases or in many cases, I want, I wake up, I've woken up, I want to do this today. It's, that's not the way you make these shifts. It would be, I'm awake, I'm happy to be where I'm at. Physically I'm safe, I'm secure, I'm not injured. I want to live, I want to experience end of sentence, I want to experience work, I want to take actions, I want to do these things. I want to live my relationship, make it better. I want to do this, I have a child, I want to take care of the child. I want to do all these things but those things are subsequent from first saying I want to experience which is subsequent from I want to live. So if you guys can do those things in that order, that very actionable order, that at some point might and probably will become subconscious so you don't think about it every day, you don't need to wake up every day and be like, I woke up today, what do I want to do? It doesn't need to be like that forever. You might have to do that a few times to make it, to concretize it but eventually it will become automatized and it's not a big deal when it does. It's not a bad thing. The second thing before I get off this topic is how to not care what other people think about you. Like a lot of people, they promote as a, it's promoted very, very commonly here and elsewhere is a good thing to not care. Don't care what other people think about you, care about what you think. It's common knowledge or it's perceived as a good thing very widely, it's very accepted that it's a good thing. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm saying the best way to do that and I think the only way to really achieve that effect, to not care what other people think about you in a negative sense usually, would be to care first and foremost and this is what goes unrecognized and undiscussed, care first and foremost about what you think. Not, that's the only way to really not care where they'll be able to think about you because on some level you'll consider what other people say. It's very difficult to not do that across the entire spectrum of your life, super consistently like a rock. Hard, I don't even think it's possible but I think you can achieve that effect by caring what you think, valuing your values, your judgments, your thoughts first and foremost as a filter for what everyone else is saying in the world. Your friends, your family, people you don't know, strangers, speakers, YouTube commenters, all of that. Care what you think about first and foremost. If you can do that and you can focus on that and that can become a subconscious automatic process, you'll stop caring, you'll value less what other people think of you and you'll care more about what you think of yourself especially. So it's not like you really, the focus should not be on devaluing what other people think of you. It should be on valuing first and foremost what you think and what you value and what you judge because it's your life, you must do this. It's the only really accurate way I think to live. Like I talked about the other man part, you've got to be the judge, you've got to define that, you've got to define what comes into your head. You have to be that person. No one can do it for you. They can't live for you, they can't think for you. They can think and spread that knowledge to you but you stop to be the interpreter and the filter for absorbing it. Moving on to the second topic. Resist change. I am notorious among people who know me for resisting change. I've been this way essentially my entire life since I was a small child. If I think I'm right, I think I'm right. Absolutely, hit the highway. My way. I can be open to ideas and new things and people on my blog actually that have seen me that have followed me very closely, very personally over the years would defend me to the death I think but I've tried a very wide range of diets, of exercises, of dating ideas, of business ideas and so on and so forth. I've tried a lot of different things so in that respect, I'm actually a lot more open minded that people take me to be at face value. I'm active minded as James Steele calls me. I was a speaker at this convention the other day. But even so, at least at face value, I'm notorious for resisting change. It seems that way. I'm very stubborn. If I think I'm right, I think I'm right. And until I see new knowledge that I'm not right, fuck it. I'm right. Go to hell. That's my personality, my attitude. And I'm proud of it. I learned to stop apologizing for that sometime ago now. What I wanna talk to you guys about right now though, briefly just before moving on to the next topic, is resistance specifically to negative change. Because resistance to change, it's not defined. It has to be defined to really be applied to someone's life. So when I say resist change, I don't mean resist new and better changes in your life, growth and so on. No, of course, you wanna grow. You wanna improve yourself in terms of change. Obviously you don't wanna destroy yourself and destruct yourself, just like Ron Brook talked about, the self-destructive behavior, like lying, cheating, stealing, defrauding people and so on. So when I say resist changed, I mean resist change, I mean resist negative change. Changes that you identify and judge the best of your ability to be negative and bad for your life and your happiness and your values and your objectives. You've got to identify those. And I think those, hence I haven't included here, I think this concept is so overlooked and so unrecognized, it's almost not even a, it makes sense but before me introducing this topic to a lot of people, it's not even, I've almost seen it, almost seen it so there's a few places but very few where it's even discussed in conceptual form. No one talks about it. It makes sense when we talk about it now before that. This wasn't even in the discussion. So to best exemplify this, resisting negative change, which I hope is obvious, I'm attributing massive importance to it, does anyone here not know what a bicep curl is with a dumbbell in a gym? Does anyone not know what that is? Just in case someone doesn't know what that is watching the video, bicep curl would look something like this with dumbbells in your hand, heavy weights. You would start at the bottom, standing or sitting, you would lift the weights against gravity. I'll have some irony at some point if I have this on my blog. And then you lower them. Well, you might lower them. So you raise them positive and you lower them negative, maybe. A lot of people don't. Most people that go to the gym as in like 999 out of 1,000 have very vague, a very vague conception, if any at all, of negative resistance when they lower the weight. Some people do. People in this room, perhaps more so, a higher percentage of you know what that is, and you're aware of it, and you might even practice it when you go to the gym. You might intentionally lower that weight slower than gravity, nature, what otherwise, and the environment, otherwise lower it for you automatically, just by default. So people in the gym now, they do a bicep curl, they lift it up and they just drop it down. Sometimes fast, sometimes injuring themselves, because at the bottom, the force picks up and it jerks on your elbows and connect the shoes. Different topic. But I hope it's clear what I'm getting at here. If you don't intentionally and deliberately and purposefully lower the weight, there is no resistance on the way down, on your muscles. There is no stimulus being inputted or input into your muscles. There's no damage occurring. Healthful, safe damage, hopefully, and not your connected tissues by throwing it around. So to achieve that, notice, is an absolute must. There's no way around it, at least especially on gravity-based equipment, like dumbbells, they're just dependent on gravity. You have to intentionally lower that using your mind and your will. You have to lower that slower than gravity would otherwise have you do. I think you should lower it at a 10 second rate or close to it, five to 10. Not the point though. The point is you're not allowing gravity to any degree, to any degree beyond the minimum amount necessary to affect the lowering of that weight, the speed. You're controlling it. You're in full control of it, ideally. That's the only safe way to exercise. It's the only way to get the most out of your exercises. You have to control the repetition, both in the positive, as most people do, ish. And then they lower it. You have to lower it. Most people don't. They do... And what's true in physical reality there is true, like I make it many things, metaphysically, when you live in other arenas of life. It's the same thing. Most people aren't doing that. They're just dropping it to second life. They'd make all this effort to improve themselves, some people, positively. And then when negative influences come in, they don't, they might be subtly aware of it, maybe. And if they are aware of it, they might then have the courage to do something about it and resist that change, and get the most out of what they're doing, and do it in the safest way possible, short-term and long-term, for your safety, and weight training and in life. So what I'm getting at is it's not just as important. The negative resistance is not just as important as the positive. It's more important. To hone in on that, I really gotta hustle through this. Your negative, the ability of your muscles to resist stretching, to resist the negative force through a bicep curl, is approximately, and most people, 40% stronger. You can lower 40% more weight, so to speak. It's not actually the right term, but close enough. It's you have more strength in lowering. So there is greater resistance when you, I think ideally there is, in weight training specifically, you need to have a greater resistance as your muscles stretch, as you lower a weight, than when you raised it. Specifically because you have more capacity to do that and exercise. Your muscles are literally stronger to do that, or have the capacity to lower more weight than they raised. In life, I think it's the same thing. So if that capacity to resist force is greater than it is to raise it, there is potentially a lot more benefit, especially if that weight is then induced to your muscles. A lot more damage can be done to your muscles safely on the lowering part, than in the raising part, because you're stronger among other factors. Hopefully I'm not losing you guys here. The bottom line is resisting negative change and negative forces is actually as important as improving yourself positively is. Over a lifetime, the hardest thing to do is to not change who you fundamentally are. Is to say, to stay, to have the best within you from the get-go, as soon as you become an adult and you really start thinking for yourself, to keep that core within you the same, which people have commented on me multiple times throughout this convention throughout the six years I've done it. When I was 17 when I started it, I was Anthony Dream Johnson. At 23 now, almost 24, in every important respect I feel and other people feel apparently as well, I'm the same guy. I've changed, I've grown, this event is in different locations, literally, physically speaking. New things have come up, new formats, things have gotten better, but I haven't also lost sight of who I am and the best within me from the get-go. I didn't let negative things come in and change me for the worse, absolutely not. I did not let it happen, I was aware of it and at least the respects necessary at the time. So sometimes I wasn't perfect on it, but I always came through in the end and remained true to who I am. I believe that's true, it's been true every step of the way and I think that's how you guys should live as well. I think it's an important, to be more specific, it's an important part of living the best and highest vision of your own life. It's a very critical component, I think. So the negative resistance, it's not just as important as positive changes you wanna induce, it's even more important because there's so many factors coming into your life. Just like Ron Brook talked about, there's society, there's the media, there's the mainstream media who are fucking dumb. There are other people, even well-intentioned people with good intentions, friends and family, people that love you, they might have negative influences into your life. In most cases, unintentionally and non-militiously, some cases maybe, I don't know. I don't know your life, so to speak. So yeah, that's that point. If anyone has a question at the end on that, that might be the point when I ask questions. Moving on to the last point. Well, look at this. A question was posted to you guys yesterday that I think is immensely important, is you cannot, it is super, super important. Right now, the value of it has gone down a little bit just by environmental factors, but I believe within our lifetime there's a great chance the value of that question could actually increase, which would be unfortunate, paradoxically, paradoxically, so to speak. I know it's a little bit hard to understand, let me get into it. The question was posted to you guys last night. Do you know what you would die for? Do you know what you would die for? This is serious and a deep question that you really would have to think about to answer honestly and accurately. It's not something to be taken lightly, and it's a good question with a lot of value. I don't think you should live your life without at some point really figuring out what that is. Not that you have to go through with it necessarily, but you should figure out what that is. You should be honest with yourself and find out the accurate and correct answer to that question if it's one thing or if it's multiple. What is it? Find it out. Immense value. But I want to pose an additional question to you guys that I think is of even more importance and that the other topics mentioned here is just very rarely discussed anywhere in the intellectual sphere of the world right now or at any point. It's not what would you die for? It's what do you want to live for? This is a theme that, this is actually a consistent theme in the 21 Convention that you guys may not have realized in these specific terms. It's what people like James Marshall and Orlando Owen and others have talked about over the years. This event alone and other events in the years gone by. It's purpose. That's the purpose of your life. The applicable purposes in it express brought into your life, your physical real life, your everyday life. From the day you were born to the day you die or at least to the day you start thinking to the day you die. So it's not as important as what would you die for is you really need to ask yourself in addition to that question and I think of even more importance. It's what do you want to live for? What kind of legacy do you want to leave? Not necessarily for others, but just in and of itself for yourself. What do you want to do with your life? Which is another way of saying the same thing I'm saying here, which I got from a speaker named Socrates who speaks at the United States events, the American events. It's where the first time in human history, I believe, where you can honestly ask yourself these kinds of questions, this question. What do you want to do with your life? What do you want to live for? I can tell you right now, this convention, I'll say this lightly, so it might be like, what the fuck? I would die for this convention. I love this convention. I can't even express some words to you guys. Over the years there have been really tough points where I've bled and sweat and cried for this convention, sold everything I own, gone into huge amounts of debt, risked everything because it's what I wanted to absolutely do. I believed in myself, I believed in what I was doing, and I believe in this convention, the 21 convention. So I've gone through that, and honestly I can say I would die for it if I had to, but I would rather live for it. Which I got from an author named Ayn Rand, who she talked about her philosophy and what she accomplished. That's true in my life and of me. And I believe all of you guys have something, if not yet, at some point in the future, the opportunity to have something like that in your life. And just like other speakers who talked about a purpose and meaning of life, so to speak, it's kind of an overused term in the world today. But that's what that means. What do you want to live for? You have to answer that question. It's of immense importance. So we went through this, this is not complete. I hope it makes sense to you guys, I'll have time and a moment for questions if you have them, as well as throughout the event. But I do have one more thing I want to talk about. Kind of the bonus, and we do have time for it, which is awesome. One of the most famous political statements of all time, I believe the most famous of all time, is the line in the Declaration of Independence that discusses life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as unalienable rights. The unalienable rights part is not specifically important in the context of the speech and right now. I think it's of immense importance in other respects. To a degree, I can't even currently express in words. But that is probably the most famous political statement of all time, as far as I know it is. What I want to discuss is the order of those words, relevant and specifically applied to your life. If you notice, it's life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They didn't just, what I want to propose and put forward to you guys and what I convinced is true. It wasn't necessarily an accident. It may not have been a conscious decision or it may have been by Thomas Jefferson, I believe wrote that specific part with one or two other people contributing. But it's, he wrote it, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At the very least, that's how it came out of his head by default. It may have been a conscious decision, it may not have been. But it went, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I don't think that's an accident. I think it's in the order of immense importance. It's not incidental, actually it would be the correct term. Because each term that precedes the next is required and absolutely necessary for the next one. So like other speakers of this event have talked about, like Yaron Brooke and Orlando Owen in the past and I think again at this event, happiness, the pursuit. And to pursue your own happiness. Your own selfish, it's the self, the self-interest. That's your happiness. But to pursue that in any capacity, to any capacity, to any degree, you have to be free to do it. If you're not free to pursue your happiness, you can't pursue your happiness. It's not gonna happen, no matter what. Absolutely by definition of the terms doesn't happen. And a popular statement today in America that I think is flawed as nice as it appears and as popular and as catchy lingo as it is. A popular statement in the United States right now is to live free, but that's not really, it's still missing a point when people say that because they're not emphasizing, I think the first component of that statement. Because liberty to live free, to live free, you first have to live. So you can't pursue happiness if you're not free. You can't live free if you're dead. You gotta be alive. And I'm not proposing that these things are in conflict. There are many, lots of people who have many variations of conflicts between these two things of living and living free. I'm not proposing they're in conflict. Proposing that one is necessary for the next. They go together. It should be obvious at this point. You can't live free if you're dead. You gotta be alive. So I wanna propose to you guys, just like in, as a sum total of all this, this would be life, the best and highest vision of your own life as you have defined it and as you have set the standards. So the bottom line and the clincher of this whole speech would be to live. To do anything that has to be your highest value is your own life. Anything that precedes or is subsequent of that should be recognized as subsequent of that. As important as pursuing your happiness is and living free, you have to first live. Nothing else happens until that really starts. And there are many sayings that I would agree with that say that many people from all kinds of philosophers and religious leaders and whatnot that many people, they go their whole lives without actually living. You guys have probably heard that statement in a million different ways and I think it's true. Many people go their whole lives, whether that's one minute, five years or 100 years, they don't really live. So like other speakers I've encouraged you here, I would encourage you to first live and live firsthand and then have things that follow that. Follow that, recognize that they follow that and it all starts, the buck stops at living and living your life to the best and highest that you're able and you desire and you have the capacity to live it, do that. That would be the ideal man as this context and the context is convention, what I mean by it. That's it. I'll take a few questions. We gotta shut it off, but two questions? Robbie? And then up here. Anyone over here? Okay, oh shit. Okay. I'm not particularly, this is a good question. I don't know how did you get this? This is good. Yeah, that's good, you were thinking. I would say it's not, I think it's a big deal to, it's of immense importance. Epistemology, which would be reason and faith and religions and philosophies and reality, these things are very important to analyze and come to the correct conclusions on to the best of your ability and your judgment. But I'm not particularly, like a lot of you know that I'm very much a Ron Paul supporter. Ron Paul is the fuckin' man as far as I'm concerned. Across the board, I don't agree with everything he says, but globally and dominantly by a long shot, I love the guy to death, I've met him, I think he's like the greatest man living. He'd be totally honest right now. Awesome guy, immense understatement. He believes in God for sure. He's done, he's his whole entire life. He was a Christian, starts with a P, anyone? Pisc, I forget what it was. Yeah, something. And then he went to, then he became a Baptist, I think now the rest of his life at like 19. So he's been Christian his entire life, went this, now he's Baptist for the past 60 years-ish, almost 60 years. I have no problem with that. Because to me, he doesn't, he might be making those decisions and I don't agree with those decisions in his head, but it doesn't affect, specifically it doesn't affect me. He's not like hostile with it. So some people like the more radicals of religious people are like really aggressive with it and really hostile to others and that to me is a problem then. But as long as someone isn't really effecting, if they're not trying to force other people to do things to conform to what they believe is right, which I believe is wrong or incorrect at least, same thing, actually incorrect to be more specific. Yeah, I'm not, it doesn't really bother me. It's not a huge focal point. So I think it's important, but to me personally my focuses are elsewhere in everything I do. So it's not live in the live in that specific regard. If you wanna do that, fun. Just make sure it doesn't come out and affect my life directly and intentionally. That's the really bad part. But happens as a byproduct, if you build a church or whatever near my house, whatever, but if you wanna come banging my door and forcing me to do things that I don't wanna do, I think are wrong, that's a fucking problem. Now it ended up being in the political sphere and perhaps in the epic sphere of philosophy. Does that make sense? Does that answer your question? It's important, but to me it's not really a big deal. I don't, it doesn't bother me at all, like that Ron Paul, who I think the greatest man is the greatest man living, he's 100% Christian. No problem with it. If he was any other religion too, it wouldn't, it's not a big deal to me personally. I have a question. In fact. You said if it was any other religion. Almost any, I'm sure there's some where, yeah, that would not apply. Yeah, if you, yeah, it wouldn't be. Yeah, I mean, if you're like, yeah, some religions would definitely not even be religions, they would be something more like malicious, I guess I suppose like a satanist or something would be a good example. Yeah, if someone's like malicious with what they do and what they believe and they're like, the whole thing is about just fucking up the world and other people's lives, yeah, that's a big difference. To do that outwardly and openly and as an active thing, that's fucking whack. That's a different story. That's not even teetering your religion anymore, that's just like philosophy, just going fucking haywire. So, shoot. Oh wait, we have another question. Yeah, let's try to get some other guys real quick. Someone over here? Up here? Yeah, he just ended up a while ago. And then I think Seth did too. I just wanted to hear some more examples around resisting change in life. I did get a bit lost in the bicep coal example. Yeah, I might've gone too much into that. I was thinking, yeah, I got where you were going with it, I was just thinking, but to make it more sort of practical, like what, is there anything specific you could say? It's really anything and everything that someone's gonna throw at you or lots of people are gonna throw at you. It's not even that they're throwing at you intentionally. When you watch TV, the person, the talking little bubble head on TV from whatever fucking news station or whatever, or something out of show, they're not directing at you obviously, it's a TV it's going out to you, a really wide audience, they have no idea who you are. But you have to realize that that is probably as important as direct and as immense people that are close to you can influence you negatively, if not unintentionally. Militiously too, it's possible, but like I talked about. But yeah, it's really like you need to be, you need to really turn on the switches to make yourself aware that a lot of people unintentionally put out bad shit in the world. Just bad ideas that don't work and they're not gonna help you, they're not gonna help anyone. And that's so, it's prevalent in everything, I guess it would be the real direct answer to your question. Any little thing you can imagine just about. There'd be anything of importance, any kind of information, any kind of writing, any kind of discussion, any kind of talking, any action of meaningful importance, statistically meaningful say, can affect you. The dating stuff here and the conversation stuff is a really good example of that. People, things always, I believe this is true in my mind at the very least, as I understand it as well, as I was getting at. Things flow sequentially in a linear order in almost any respect. There would be some instances where that's not true, but different story. So if someone has a fundamental basic premise they live their life on, everything's gonna flow from that. Everything's gonna stem from that. Because at every decision point, they're going, they dig back back in subconsciously, like Ron talked about, and they then make decisions based on that. Unless something goes wrong in that process or at least out of order accidentally or intentionally as a new development and so on. Does that make sense? People act on their basic premises, on their philosophies, their fundamental philosophies. And if there are errors in there that have negative consequences for them and for others, that's a lot of people. You gotta watch out for that. Because not, I don't think anyone really currently live as like, even if you have the majority of things right and you predominantly understand major arenas of philosophy and they are correct, absolutely and definitively, they're still not gonna live every subsequent detail out perfectly. So just have a sharp mind, stay active. Don't be closed-minded, don't be open-minded, be active-minded. Think, analyze everything as best and as effectively and efficiently as you can. Good? Cool. I think you basically answered it with that question but I just wanted to, if you could clarify for me the resist change, I've been sort of looking at the opposite of being able to cope with change but external change. So with this- Not internally. You're talking all internal change here, is that right? Yeah, this is a really good point actually. I'm very aware of the concept of what you're discussing. Yeah, you experience and you live things, there are things that are experienced internally and then externally. But what exactly is your question then? Could you clarify that with the concept of resisting change, you're talking about- Negative change. Negative change. Yeah, that's the really important point. Yeah, negative change. It's all, it's completely internal change is what you're talking about. Just about, I mean there would be examples of, yeah, an example of negative change externally not happening to you directly but indirectly and physically would be like a political change, like a political revolution that has very negative consequences. So if you live in Nazi Germany and you just kind of sat around and shit was going south quick and it was all like, oh yeah, just stay with good intentions, we'll be all right. Just go along, that's a bad fucking idea. Because even though it's not affecting you right now, the day is coming where it does. So you have to think, my girlfriend explained this to me very clearly, I didn't realize it till a few weeks ago. You don't just have to think long term, I think. And I certainly don't think just long term. I don't think short term, I don't think long term. I think in terms of like lifelong permanence. So think as long as you can. Think if I work out once a week for the rest of my life, what effect on me is that gonna have? That's an exercise, how I analyze things. That's how I do, basically my entire life is how does it affect me for the next 50 years? Every decision I make, as absurd as that sounds maybe, is lifetime. It's not a week from now, a month from now, a year from now. How does this video be made? How do these videos at the convention be made? How many views do they get over the next 20 years? Those are the terms I think of. The speeches here, like especially the biggest ones, need to get off this, but like Doug McGuff right now, his speech from the convention has like 130,000 views. I can project out accurately and I've been accurate to this point very much. In fact I've underestimated his video. It should be at a half a million within 24 months from now and one million within three years from now, approximately. That's badass and I recognize that while it's hard to project in those specific terms of video views and YouTube and the internet, I try to apply that out as long as I can, whether that's three years or 10 years or 20 years or 50 years or 100 years. So just live life long-term, think long-term as long as you can, not just arbitrarily long. You definitely answered my question with the concept of political change. That's an external source, but you have power and influence over it. So rather than sitting back going, all right, well I'll just deal internally and not that won't affect me, it will affect you. So there is that, that's end to my question with the internal and external. Okay. Could you just clarify with the external change, when do you sort of, is it only take action when you can actually take action and then sort of be able to deal internally with a strong sense of who you are to deal with changes that you can't take? I think the answer to the question is that they are very two different things. Your external experience, your physical senses and how things are immediately happening and then internally, how you process them. Does that make sense? Those are two very different things, they're completely different. They are, they are, they have the same experience word in them, but they're nothing, they're much of their opposites, but they're nothing alike. So when you touch a girl or someone you love or whatever, that's the immediate experience. How you process that is a completely different story. So they're two separate worlds. Does that answer your question? Yeah. Let's take one more and then I gotta break. We gotta break. One more, anybody? Yeah? Okay, yeah. You mentioned a lot about long-term projection and do you think that focusing too much on the long-term reduces your enjoyment of the hour? Because we've had some speakers and there are a lot of people out there who emphasize on not focusing on the past or the future too much and enjoying the now. Yeah, I think. What's your thoughts on that? There is immense value. I don't want to detract from the value of experiencing very directly and immediately and being present. That's of immense value. It's, I guess the answer to your question would be that, yeah, there is certainly always a possibility and an opportunity for things to go, hey, why are there? You've got to stay as precise as you can. It's a tightrope, so to speak. So yeah, there's always an opportunity for things to go wrong for you to lose sight of what's in front of you and what's important and the person in front of you or the experience or the thing or whatever. So yeah, that door is always open. It's just a judgment call. Every time, when everything I do, everything I think, and I think this is correct, at least for me, is yeah, extrapolate things out as long as you can, up to including lifetime, maybe a little bit beyond that. Kind of like you're on Brooke mentioned with kids and grandkids. And then yeah, balance that out. Try to keep a keen eye out for if you're fucking up and you're losing sight of what's in front of you. That certainly has happened to me. It can happen to anyone, I think. I'm not infallible, I'm not unfallible. I'm the president. I don't know every single thing that's gonna happen. But I do the best I can with all available knowledge at all times, the best of my ability. And you just gotta work it, man. You gotta live and think. Does that answer your question? It gets better over time, too. I think as you age and you experience more things, you get better and better at that process at making judgment calls and decisions naturally. That's it, guys. I gotta end this. We have to get the next speaker up. So thanks. Thanks.