—
Named number two on Business Week’s list of the 100 most powerful athletes, this accomplished musician, philanthropist, and top-shelf entrepreneur describes how he used pressure to his advantage in this episode of Impact Theory with Tom Bilyeu.
SHOW NOTES
1. Shaun talks about opening your eyes to what’s around you and diving deeper into opportunities. [2:40]
Tom and Shaun discuss falling in love with working hard and pushing through. [6:20]
Shaun recalls a defining moment when he owned his personal narrative and overcame peer pressure. [9:14]
Tom and Shaun explore their definitions of competition. [12:37]
Shaun explains the importance of using visualization and setting balanced goals. [16:47]
Shaun talks about being thankful for pressure and spinning it to your advantage. [24:14]
Tom and Shaun talk over leveraging learning experiences and staying motivated. [30:56]
Shaun shares the importance of personal identity and separating what he does from who he is. [36:20]
Shaun defines the impact that he wants to have on the world. [43:09]
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Shaun’s video documentary (attempting the first Triple Cork in Halfpipe starts at [6:38]) – http://bit.ly/1v5Eugl [27:05]
SHAUN’S VENTURES
Big Bear Snow Summit – http://bit.ly/2iQOJzM [34:19]
Mammoth Mountain – http://bit.ly/2lBCo4W [34:19]
Shaun’s men’s clothing line Wht Space – http://mcys.co/2gpTksn [34:31]
PEOPLE
Retired professional tennis player Andrew Agassi’s book titled Open – http://amzn.to/2kGOZTh [35:32]
Bad Things guitarist Jared Palomar – http://bit.ly/2lFsZsP [37:49]
ARTISTS/BANDS
Thirty Seconds To Mars – http://bit.ly/1dTYOrR [36:50]
Shaun’s Big Air snowboard competition and Music Festival series Air + Style – http://bit.ly/2lEeftK [42:29]
Flume – http://bit.ly/1sO2Rgd [42:37]
Major Lazer – http://bit.ly/1AyaufC [42:38]
Vince Staples – http://bit.ly/1CLTi7k [42:39]
YG – http://bit.ly/2lEfTLL [42:39]
TV On The Radio – http://bit.ly/2fZuxOW [42:40]
FOLLOW SHAUN WHITE
TWITTER: http://bit.ly/2l0gWc7
INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/2lzGlGs
FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/2kT7ULG
SNAPCHAT: @ ShaunWhiteSnap
Tom Bilyeu is the co-founder of 2014 Inc. 500 company Quest Nutrition — a unicorn startup valued at over $1 billion — and the co-founder and host of Impact Theory. Impact Theory is a first-of-its-kind company designed to facilitate global change through the incubation of mission-based businesses and the cultivation of empowering content. Every piece of content Impact Theory creates is meant to underscore the company mission to free people from The Matrix and help them unlock their true potential. Impact Theory exists to inspire the next generation of game-changing companies and creators that will make a true and lasting impact on the world.
—
—
Tom: Everybody, welcome to Impact Theory.
You’re here, because like me and my friends, you believe that human potential is nearly
limitless.
You know that having potential is not the same as actually doing something with it.
Our goal with this show and company is to introduce you to the people and ideas that
are going to help you actually execute on your dreams.
All right.
Today’s guest was born with a heart defect that required two open heart surgeries to
correct, but he refused to let that slow him down and proving that you can overcome any
obstacle through hard ass work.
He is now the most decorated snowboarder on the planet.
Intensely driven, he turned pro in snowboarding at the ripe old age of 13 and turned pro in
skateboarding by 17.
He’s the youngest rider to ever win the US Open, is the only rider to ever score a perfect
100 on the superpipe in the X Games.
He’s won two Olympic gold medals and a record breaking 15 X Games gold medals.
He’s won 10 ESPY awards, is the only athlete to win gold medals in, both, the summer and
winter X Games.
He reached number two on Business Week’s list of the 100 most powerful athletes, which,
honestly, isn’t too surprising given that he’s partnered with some of the biggest brands
around.
He’s designed massively successful apparel lines and other goodies for the likes of Burton,
Oakley, and Target.
He’s, also, an accomplished musician, whose band, Bad Things, has played the main stage
at Lollapalooza and toured the world with 30 Seconds to Mars.
To prove he has relevance well beyond sports, he’s also established himself as a top shelf
entrepreneur.
He now owns a stake in Mammoth Resorts, is the majority shareholder of 20 year old snowboarding
and music festival, Air and Style.
He’s launched a men’s fashion line with Macy’s called WHT Space and wound up on the cover
of Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in 2016.
Please help me in welcoming the passionate philanthropist who works extensively with
charities, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the man who has his own snowboards, skateboards,
clothing lines, and video game, the Shaun-trepreneur himself, the unstoppable Shaun White.
Shaun: Thanks for having me.
Tom: Absolutely.
It’s a pleasure.
Shaun: What an intro.
Right?
Tom: The good news is with you, it was about trimming down.
That was like, “God, I can’t even begin to fit all the things that you’ve done.”
Shaun: Yeah.
Busy guy sometimes.
Tom: Which is actually a perfect place to start.
Give us a sense, why not just focus on one thing?
Not only do you do multiple sports, but you’re really, really active as an entrepreneur.
Shaun: Yeah.
You know?
It’s strange.
I’ve always just had my eyes open to what was around me.
Things would just come in and out of my life, and it was up to me to really dig deeper on
those if it felt right or just pass and move on to the next thing.
Music, for example, that was something that just came to me.
I was competing at the X Games.
I won the slope style event and the halfpipe, which made me the athlete of the games, which
they called me.
You win a guitar, and you win a car as the prize.
I remember thinking, “Sick.
Let’s drive the car.”
I’m not thinking of this guitar.
Randomly, I’d won this guitar.
Then, my brother was like, “Oh, I’m going to start playing guitar.
That’d be cool.”
Then, some kids in my neighborhood, and I’m thinking to myself, “Wait a minute.
I have a guitar.”
It was a great guitar.
It was a Fender Strat American made.
I called my buddy, who actually brought home from Colorado for me.
Picked it up, starting playing, and fell in love with playing.
Then, the competitor in me was like, “You know what?
I want to do this.
No one knows.
I’m not going to tell anybody.
I’m going to train just as hard as I would train on the snowboard or something else,
because maybe one day in the future I could actually be in a band.”
Wouldn’t it be cool to pick up a guitar and be able to really play, like a true musician.
That was my long term goal, and I would play and play and play.
Then, the time came where I actually made friends in music.
I joined a band.
We put out an album and toured.
Yeah.
Tom: Talk to me about, A, using competition, but then, B, what it looks like to train the
way that you train, like stretching your fingers on long flights and picking the seam of your
jean.
That’s an incredible story.
Shaun: Yeah.
It’s a very simple thing in my mind when I look at it.
It sounds lame, but it’s like you just do what’s hard until it’s not hard anymore.
I remember playing guitar, and I couldn’t up pick.
I could only play punk rock songs, because you just down pick the chords and whatnot.
I would sit on the airplane, like you said, and I would up stroke the seam of my pant
and listen to the music that was playing and play along with it with the pick in my hand.
Then, it became easy to do it.
I slowly got past that hurdle.
Then, a whole nother genre of music opened up for me and that was it.
Even when it came to snowboarding, there were certain things that were very difficult to
get past.
I just remember doing it until it became easy.
If you broke your hand and you weren’t used to riding with that hand, then you’re forced
to ride, to use chopsticks, or to do something.
Once you do it enough, it becomes, you know, a casual thing to do.
Tom: Here’s what I find fascinating, though, and I hope that people will hear in your stories.
There’s a whole genre of medicine to deal with people who, let’s say, hurt their back.
Shaun: Yeah.
Tom: I remember one time I had a neck virus, where you get a cold or something, and then
the virus settles into the muscle.
This is how they explained it to me.
I’m, actually, tempted to believe this is bullshit, but nonetheless –
Shaun: Sounds rough.
Tom: The effect of it was, I was like this for a week and a half.
Every time I tried to move, I’d get this massive spasm in my neck.
The doctor said, “Okay.
Here’s what’s crazy.
If you don’t force yourself to fight through that and, ultimately, get your neck back upright,
there are people who have lived 20, 30 years.
They never get out of that position, because they become so afraid of the pain.”
Most people don’t break their hand and get good at the left, right?
They just stop and they wait until they heal, or they may never get that good again.
When did you realize that you could do that?
When did you fall in love with pushing yourself to do that?
Shaun: Yeah.
I would say through sports.
At a young age, I was, you know, a lot of angst.
I wanted to do things, and that’s where snowboarding came along.
It gave me that outlet.
It was fun, and it was cool in the beginning.
Then, my parents were like, “Oh, maybe he’s pretty good at it.”
People around the mountain are telling them I was pretty good.
They put me into a competition.
It was a race, and I won’t.
I was pretty fast.
Tom: This was at like seven, right?
Shaun: Yeah.
Six, seven.
I had skied at four.
If you call it skiing.
I wasn’t allowed poles, because I would hit people.
I was really into the Ninja Turtles.
I had moves.
I thought I had moves.
See, I ended up not allowed poles, and then, I would just go in to the trees and they’d
lose me.
They’d be all worried about where I was, and what would happen.
They’re like, “Oh.
We’ll put him on a snowboard.
He’ll be falling.
We’ll keep track of him.
It’ll be great.”
Obviously, I figured it out pretty quickly.
Then, they put me in a competition at the local resort up at Snow Summit, and you know,
I won.
That gave me this like, “Wow.
I can win something.”
Then, it gave me the passion to work hard at something.
To keep winning.
Once you get that taste of victory and you’re like, “Wow.
Well, maybe I want to keep going on this path.”
I think that was where it stemmed from.
Then, the other huge component, which I’m sure if you read any other sports book or
anything, I have an older brother.
Seven years older than me.
A lot bigger.
A lot stronger.
A lot smarter.
He was always beating me at everything I did.
Everything.
Monopoly, chess, anything, video games, snowboarding.
Everything.
He was just always winning.
I just couldn’t beat him.
I just kept at it.
Finally, crossed that barrier where I was actually learning the tricks he was learning
at the time, but he’s seven years older.
In my age division, it was just no contest.
That’s what kind of stemmed that whole me turning pro at 13, because I was already ready
for the next level.
Tom: Do you think about the birth order of you, your brother, and sisters at all in,
what ends up becoming your persona, in snowboarding, and just that you got as good as you did?
Shaun: I don’t know.
I think I got to learn from them.
Even with my brother and sister, it was like, “Oh, wow.”
My brother chose this path.
I’m going to do this.
Tom: That’s interesting.
I think one of the most fascinating things about you is how uniquely you have carved
your way through it.
If you don’t mind, it’s obviously a very famous story in your lore, but just quickly when
all the guys decided they’d gone partying.
They want to just split the winnings from the race, but that didn’t make sense for you,
because you had to pay your own way.
Shaun: Yeah.
I was 15 years old, I flew to Japan to do this big competition called the Toyota Big
Air.
I remember getting there, I’m pretty sure, the way it worked out is the specific invited
riders got a little bit of money to show up.
Then, obviously there’s great prize money.
You had maybe three or four days of practice.
I was 15, so my mom’s there.
I was paying out of my own travel to get the flights, to get the food, to get the hotel,
and all of these things.
I remember sitting there, and it’s the game day.
We’re supposed to hit the jump, and everyone’s complaining, which is like music to my ears.
I’m having the best day ever.
Yeah.
The guys had gone out, we’re in Japan.
There’s a lot of fun things to do I was in my room with my mom doing my Algebra or whatever.
I’m like, “All right.
You guys go have fun.
I’m going to do my school work.”
Anyways, long story short, they all got together and were like, “We’re going to split the prize
money for the competition.”
I’m sitting there thinking, “Wow.”
Doing the quick math.
I’m like, “This doesn’t even cover the flights once you split it up among all the riders
and whatnot.”
I said, “No.”
At 15, I was like, “No.
I want to compete.”
They just sat there and hazed me.
There was this board of all the rider’s faces for who was at the competition.
They took turns drawing dollar signs in my eyes and doing whatnot.
I just remember being like, “I’m not going to succumb to the peer pressure from this.
I came here to compete.
I’m feeling great.”
I stuck to my gut feeling there, and I won.
I won.
I won $50,000 and a car.
Yeah.
It was a time where I just stuck to it, and that was a big win for me.
That was the first realization that I didn’t have to follow the pack.
I didn’t have to do what everyone else said, because it’s what they want, or should do,
or what you’re supposed to do.
I just felt like, you know what, this is a point where I should make a stand.
I should really be me and own it.
I did, and I won.
It was pretty wild.
That was a big one.
Tom: That’s amazing.
The reason I really wanted you to share that story is in no uncertain terms when I was
15, I would have crumbled.
I would have so wanted them to like me that even if I had said no at first, about the
time they started drawing the dollar signs on my eyes –
Shaun: Yeah.
Tom: What gave you … Was it having won in the past?
Was it fights with your brother?
What gave you the ability to go, “I idolize these guys.
They’re now really being mean.”
How did you stay the course at that point?
Shaun: I don’t know.
I remember it being harsh, and they were lighthearted joking in a way, but I know deep down they
were really pissed.
I was the only one like, “No.
We’re going to ride.”
I just remember thinking this could be my chance to win, and I’m not going to let these
guys take that from me.
I just stuck to it.
I remember just putting my headphones on and doing anything to distract myself, because
nothing’s going to slow down the clock when we need to do the competition.
It’s definitely like a defining moment for me to stand up for myself and what I want
to accomplish.
Tom: What’s the nature of competition for you?
What does competition mean?
Shaun: It’s a multiple of things.
It’s a chance to, I guess, go out and show the hard work that’s been put in and to display
it for everyone.
Your chance to show off in a way.
Another way, it’s a chance to access some deep part of yourself that is going to do
something you never thought you could or would want to do.
You know?
I have trouble now that I’ve gotten a little bit older.
I’ve just turned 30.
Unfortunately, you think more I feel like.
I’m like, “Ah.
It’s pretty icy today.
It’s a little windy.
I feel like tomorrow.”
Now, I’ve got the weather report.
I’m like, “It’s going to be better tomorrow.
We should definitely come back tomorrow.”
Procrastinating.
You know, it’s your chance to do something great.
I strive for those moments.
I wish I could recreate them in the normal life setting, because it changes from a “I
want to do this new trick” to “I have to do this new trick.”
It’s the best, because it takes that seed of doubt out of your mind.
Once that doubt is gone, like if I asked you to jump over the table or something, and you
were like going to practice it.
Then, we’re like, “All right.
We’re going to film this one.”
I better make it.
You know what I mean?
You’re expected to jump over the table.
It’s going to happen, so what are you going to do to best prepare yourself.
That’s that motivation of getting to the contest, throwing the big tricks, and seeing your competition
and that motivation.
I’ve always loved that.
Interesting enough, the dynamic in my family was my brother.
Extremely talented guy.
Amazing on a snowboard.
Could do any trick you could think of, but you put a camera on him or you put him in
a contest scenario, he couldn’t do it.
The pressure and awkwardness of like, “All right.
Go,” sort of thing.
I remember I was slightly the opposite.
Where I would do all right in practice, and then they’re like, “all right.
It’s contest time,” and I would do better.
I know that I have that in me.
I’ve always loved – Tom: Is that something you’ve cultivate?
Shaun: I think over time it just became so.
You get used to … If you hate speaking in public and you’ve got to talk and make speeches
all the time, you’re going to get comfortable at it.
Just like us talking now, I used to look back on my interviews, and I was terrified.
I was like, “Why was that such a bad interview?
Well, because you’re not thinking about your answer.
You’re talking and then trying to steer it where you want it to go.”
I would learn from that.
Then, try it again the next time.
An interview you realize you’re in the driver’s seat of where you want to go with your answers.
You could ask anything, but I could tell what I want to say in a way.
That’s the funny thing, but you learn these things over time.
If you can imagine, obviously, I’ve been competing since I was six years old, you develop these
rhythms and the way you go about it.
I know that when I get to the contest like this is going to happen.
You can bank on those moments.
That’s really what competition is for me.
It’s a way to really tap something in me that I don’t normally get.
I was at the X Games, and I did, in my run, I broke an old record.
I went 24ft out of the 22ft halfpipe.
I was up there.
It was funny, because I wasn’t going that big all day, but it was the contest time.
I was jacked up, and I dropped in.
Then, I hit that marker.
I recently broke that record at the US Open of Snowboarding in Vail last season.
I went 26ft.
It just kind of comes out of you, and you do better.
That’s what competition is for me, for sure.
Tom: All right.
If your brother, Jesse, came to and said, “All right.
I really do feel like I’m gifted, talents, but I don’t do as well with the pressure.
Teach me.”
What would be a couple things that you would know right away.
I’ve got to get him to understand this, do this, pre-visualize whatever.
Shaun: Yeah.
Visualize, definitely.
That’s the thing for me, it’s always been, “Well, what’s it going to look like?
What’s it going to feel like?
What am I going to be wearing?”
Every little detail and visualize yourself winning.
What are you going to do after?
You know, you just project it and it happens.
I’ve always set goals for myself.
That’s a huge one.
Set the goal of like, “What do you really want to do?
What is it in the end?”
For me, I would always setup a fun goal, and then a serious goal.
One year, one of the goals was how many cars can I win.
The snowboard contests would give out cars if you won the series.
Obviously, yeah, winning the series is amazing.
That’s a feat of its own, but I broke it down to, “I’ve just got to win the cars.”
You know what I mean?
It made it into this stupid game where it dumbed it down slightly.
Tom: Does that help alleviate the pressure?
Shaun: A little bit.
Yeah.
Obviously, you have serious goals of, “I want to win the Olympics.
Then, I want to see how many cars I can win.”
It made it this fun thing of taking a little bit of the edge off, because it’s such a daunting
task when you look at it from, “Wow.
I’m going to try to win the Olympics.”
It’s such a big thing.
Then, you really break it down into these smaller things.
It’s more edible that way.
Tom: Did you come to stuff like that more naturally or was it like you knew, “I need
to manage my mind,” which is what I hear as you talk through this stuff?
Shaun: Yeah.
I don’t know if I knew what I was doing.
Now that I’m a bit older, I see the … I can break it down for what was happening,
but it just felt like there was so much pressure.
Man.
You’ve got to do this.
You’ve got to do that.
It just help like there was so much weight on it, and I would always turn it to my favor.
Any which way you spin it, I’m winning in a way.
If you look at a competition, like this last X Games I went to.
I didn’t win, but I really feel like I won, because I know exactly what I need to work
on now.
I know exactly what happened.
I did wrong, and I’ve got to go back.
That’s why it’s still winning to me.
Where, if I did win, I think about it like, “Wow.
I’m exactly on the path I’m supposed to be going.
The training and the ideas I’ve had before are working.
This is where you go.”
It’s not like even the slight step backs are actually to leap forward in a way, because
how are you going to know where you lay in the whole field of things and what’s going
on.
It’s to take a step back, and then go, “Okay.”
You reassess, refocus.
Even I was talking to some people in the green room, and they were talking about Russia Calling.
I watched that, and I was like, “Man.
Okay.
That wasn’t right.
It didn’t normally play out that way.
I’m going to change that for this next time or I’m going to do this and that.”
If you’re always looking to better the situation, and I’ve been to contests before where I really
wanted to win, and I put everything on the line for that event, and I didn’t win.
I went, “Man.
You put too much pressure on it.
You did this.
You did that.”
There’s such a thing as over practicing, too.
A lot of guys show up at the competitions, and there’s two hours to ride.
They ride … They’re the first one there at the gate.
They ride two hours.
Then, they landed their run.
Fifteen perfect runs.
Then, they get to the contest and they fall.
I’m like, “Yeah.
You just nailed it 15 times.
It’s like rolling dice.
You’re going to hit seven.
You’re going to crap out.”
Save it for the real contest.
You know you got it.
You’ve got to be your own friend in that scenario.
Tom: I really hope, dear listeners, that you paid attention to that, because here’s what’s
powerful in that and here’s why I think you’re going to have unprecedented success for an
athlete in your after career as an entrepreneur.
Because all the mental tricks that you’re using in sport are exactly what you’re going
to have to do in business.
In business, you’re going to get your ass handed to you.
I’m sure you already have.
It’s only going to keep continuing.
It’s a natural part of it.
Shaun: But you learn.
Exactly.
Tom: Exactly.
Shaun: Well, that didn’t work.
Tom: 100%.
When you’re saying that, you know, “I went to the X Games.
I didn’t win, but I feel like I did win, because I know how to frame that in my mind.
I know how to look at that as, okay, now I’m going to assess.”
If you had said, and I was actually really afraid you were going to say, “If I had won
it wouldn’t have been as good.”
You didn’t.
You said, “If I had won that I would know okay cool.
I’m on the right path.”
You’re going to make a win out of it either way, right?
Shaun: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Tom: There’s a great book called Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn.
If that’s your mentality – Shaun: That’s great.
Tom: Right.
Then, you can never really lose, because you’re playing a much longer game than everybody
else.
Shaun: Yeah.
Tom: It’s like, I always tell people, “Think of life as practice.”
I came into competition very late.
My sister was really good at basketball.
She’s really good at every sport.
Shaun: That’ll do it.
Tom: Unlike you, who got better than your brother, I did not get better than my sister.
Shaun: Oh, okay.
Tom: I tried to do all the things that she was good at.
I was terrible at them, because I had a fixed mindset.
I didn’t believe that I could go practice and get better.
It never occurred to me.
Practice time was just facing my inadequacies over and over and over.
I wasn’t able to compute that, “Hey.
If I do this, I’ll actually progress and get better.”
As an adult, though, I found that, and business became that for me.
That, “Hey.
If I treated this like practice and I’m really just trying to get good.
Then, over a long enough timeline this will add up to something.”
Shaun: Yeah.
Tom: Then, while other people are freaking out about a lost deal, about blowing a meeting,
about not getting hired or fired, or whatever the case may be, they’re not looking at it
on a long enough timeline.
I’m thinking, “Ah.
I totally screwed that meeting up, but what did I learn?
I learned this.
Now, I have that skillset.
I can go on and get better.”
The reason I was asking you to define competition, for me, competition is being tested.
I want to be tested.
Now, I didn’t when I was younger, because I just assumed I would fail.
Once you believe you’re in control over whether or not you win, then competition becomes intoxicating.
It’s a moment where, now, it isn’t just practicing snowboarding down the mountain over and over.
There’s something real that this is working towards.
It’s going to be a moment of immense pressure, and I get to see if I’m better than everybody.
Shaun: Yeah.
Of course.
No.
It’s true, though.
In that moment of, “Well, I put in the work.”
It’s the actual, that’s what you’re going for.
Yeah.
You said, “In business, you can fail here and there, and it’s the same idea of trying
something over and over.”
Finally, cracking the code on it.
Then, once you get that win, you get that experience, and know that you can succeed,
it’s that, like I said in competition, that seed of doubt goes away.
You show up to win every time.
That’s the only option.
Once that’s the only option, it’s even more obtainable.
Tom: Say that again.
It’s even more obtainable.
What do you mean by that, because that so true?
Shaun: Yeah.
It’s just in the air.
You put it out there.
You just feel it, and you’re like, “Wow.
Well, I know … ” Back to the table … Tom: Thank God this is recorded.
Where would we be, Shaun?
Shaun: I know.
It’s a lot of metaphors.
If I asked you to do a feat, and you actually accomplished it, you have that knowledge now
going back to do it again.
“Well, oh.
I’ve already jumped over this, or I’ve already done this thing in business.
It’s old news.”
You go in with even more confidence than you had that it took to win the first time.
You have that in you and projecting that positive thing always just leads to better outcomes
either way.
Even with pressure as well.
When people say, “How do you deal with the pressure?”
I’m just so thankful for the pressure.
You know?
They’re like, “Everybody thinks you’re going to win the Olympics.”
I go, “Well, if everybody thinks I’m going to win, that’s great.”
I’m like, “That’s a lot of people believing in me, thinking that I can do it.”
Hey.
Maybe I just might be able to do it.
Instead of letting it weigh me down, like “Oh my God.
All these people are expecting this from me, and I’m expecting this from myself.
It’s just too much.
Can’t handle it.”
No.
It’s a blessing.
It’s a great thing to have people counting on you and needing that.
It’s all leading up to that, sort of like you know you can win.
You felt it before.
You know what’s obtainable.
Everybody else believes in you.
You’re a team rather than letting it weigh you down.
If you can put that subtle spin on things and use it to your advantage, it’s always
a better scenario.
I’ve let the pressure get to me before.
It’s just, “Well, that didn’t work.”
You know?
I was terrified of this to happen, you learn from that and you go on.
There’s always lessons to be learned.
Even learning tricks.
It’s a basic thing.
It’s like a math problem.
You’re through solutions at it, and finally, the numbers work and it clicks.
It works out.
Same with snowboarding and jumps.
Learning a new trick.
You learn the very important lesson, a simple lesson, or what not to do.
“Hey.
I’ve tried this.”
You watched the video.
“Aw.
I took off wrong.
I’m going to try it again and again and again.”
You get to a point where you get the confidence, the muscle memory.
You get the ability to then do that trick.
Now, it’s yours, and then you can do it at a competition when it really matters.
The practice, like you said, it’s something you get over time.
Tom: When you were doing the build up for the Sochi Olympics, and you were trying to
learn the new trick … Obviously, in the documentary it was so cool.
By the way, I don’t know how you felt about making that available to the public.
You were so raw and so vulnerable.
Admitting that, “I’ve never had a road block like this.
I’ve never been afraid to try something like this.”
As somebody watching the documentary, that was so powerful to me to know that, A, somebody
that you look up to and admire and think they’ve just done something inhuman.
It’s more interesting to me that you had to overcome that than if you just “Ah.”
If it was just easy for you, that’s not inspiring.
Shaun: Yeah.
Here’s the winning run.
Tom: Exactly.
Shaun: Totally.
Tom: To see the fight.
How did you, in that specific example, how did you deal with the fear?
When you had crashed … Dude, that shit looked like it was going to break you in half.
Shaun: Yeah.
I took a bad spill.
If that were a competition, I would have landed it, because I had to.
I dropped in, and I went to do that trick.
I was doing, I don’t know if you seen there’s a video out of me attempting the first triple
flip in the halfpipe.
You can watch the video, and I slowly I do the one rotation.
Everything’s great.
I do the second rotation.
Then, halfway through the third, I decide that I don’t want to do a third flip, and
I open up.
That slows your rotation down.
It changes things.
That mindset got in there, and I decided I’m nervous about this.
I opened up, and I caught the lip of the halfpipe.
Now, the wall is 22ft tall, so I then bounce off of the lip and flew to the bottom of the
halfpipe.
My helmet came off.
It’s, actually, a pretty spectacular crash.
Tom: Yes.
Spectacular.
Shaun: The goggles come off of my helmet, and then the lenses come out of the goggles.
It was bad.
There’s all my stuff everywhere.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been concussed before?
Tom: No.
Thankfully.
Shaun: It’s a very surreal thing.
I wasn’t in any pain.
I was just sitting there like, “Wow.
This is that moment that I dreamt about.”
It’s like a deja vu feeling of like, “I’ve been here before.
This is … I swear … ” I just remember going, “Wow.
This is that moment.
This sucks.”
You know?
Okay.
I remember going to the hospital, getting all checked out.
I had slightly separated my shoulder, and my pelvis has all bent out of shape.
I had a bit of a concussion from it.
Yeah.
Going back to doing that again, yeah, I had to look at the video and think about what
I did and what I could have done differently.
Something happened, though, that saved me right in the middle of it.
I don’t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, because it steered me from my path.
Another competitor of mine created a new trick.
He deemed it the YOLO flip.
You Only Live Once flip, I guess.
Tom: Yes.
Shaun: He created this new trick, and I’m like, “Oh.
I have to do this trick.”
It really inspired me.
I learned his trick, first try, three days later.
I was that motivated to do it, because I saw a competitor.
I knew it could be done, because he did it.
Well, why can’t I do it?
It really paved the way for it rather than doing something that had never been done before.
To create that excitement, that pressure, and to look at it like, this year, I’ve decided
to do every single competition that I can enter.
Just because I know getting to that pressure scenario when I was younger, I didn’t think
as much.
I would just throw my tricks and that was it.
Nowadays, I need that extra motivation.
That coaxing into it.
To get rid of that seed of doubt, I show up at contests now.
It’s kind of like knowing yourself as well as knowing your strengths and your weaknesses,
and sticking to that.
What are you really good at, and what are you not?
Being real and honest with yourself about it.
There’s a difference between working hard at something that you’re not good at and forcing
it.
That’s the inner question that you have to ask.
I’ve always found that to be a truth for me.
You know?
Tom: What drives you now?
You’ve accomplished so much, it’s absurd.
Writing your intro, it was a matter of, how do you trim things out, right?
Your list of accomplishments is ridiculous.
Shaun: Thank you.
Tom: It’s dangerous, dude.
What you do is dangerous.
How do you push yourself to keep pushing, stay relevant, to really progress the sport
when it’s like, “I’m Shaun White, bitches.”
How do you … Shaun: That’s what it says on my car.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You saw me pull in, huh?
How do I stay motivated?
You know, man, it’s a mixture of things.
It’s like there’s always new goals.
There’s always new things to do.
Obviously, when it comes to snowboarding, going to an Olympics and not doing well.
Obviously, at Sochi, not getting the gold medal and all that, man, extremely motivating.
Extremely eye opening.
I’d never gone to an Olympics and not won.
That was the first time for me.
I was like, “Wow.
How do I feel about this?
What happens after?”
It was amazing for me to realize that people were still like, “Oh, you’re the champ.
You’re the guy.”
You Know?
I don’t know.
For some reason, in my mind, just assumed that if you don’t win, they immediately strip
all of the other medals, and you’re just some guy.
Your superpowers are gone.
You’re just like the dude in the glasses at work.
I was like, “Oh no.”
I just remember feeling this overwhelming like, “Wow.
I’m still alive.
I’m still here.”
The worst thing I could have imagined, happened.
I was still here.
I was considered the great in the sport.
It did a lot for me, personally.
I was like, “Wow.
I can actually lose.”
I hadn’t lost.
I mean, this reign of me winning, it’s been a long, long thing.
Obviously, that was just one night.
One contest, but the world was watching.
It was pretty rough to lose, but you realize that, “Yeah.
It’s just that one moment, and you’ve got to get back up.”
That’s the true spirit of the sport.
It’s to come back, and it’s like Rocky.
He didn’t even win the first movie.
It’s the thrill.
The fight to get there.
You become part of the US team, the Olympics, and all of that.
It’s such an amazing and memorable thing.
Then, to actually go and compete.
The bounce back from that was amazing.
I remember sitting there thinking, instead of curling up and like, “All right.
Yeah.
They’re saying I’m getting older.
Maybe I should quit.”
I didn’t want to quit.
I didn’t want to quit.
It was just put in my head so many times by the media that I was … They’re comparing
me to a 14 year old.
Of course, I’m going to look a lot older.
This kid is 14.
You know?
You start hearing it so much, you kind of believe it.
I remember sitting there thinking, “Wow.
Well, I don’t feel that way.
I’m not done.
I don’t want to be done.”
Obviously, there’s other things in my life that were capturing my attention at that time,
but the thrill was still there.
I had new found motivation from not winning.
I remember thinking from our wins and lessons scenario I was like, “Wow.
What’s to learn from this?
How do I better myself?”
I sat there thinking, I actually probably said it out loud to some friends, “I’m going
to do more than I’ve ever done after an Olympics this time around.”
Normally, what happens is you get this flood of, “Hey.”
This company wants to endorse you.
You’re the Olympic gold medalist and blah, blah, blah.
You totally deserve to do that.
You won, and it’s the quick money that comes your way.
Before the world turns around, it’s off to the next thing.
I wasn’t getting those floods of offers.
I was getting offers still, but it wasn’t like the quick gold rush scenario.
I was like, “Well, what do I want to do?
What do I truly want to do?”
Since that Olympics, in business man, I no longer ride for a mountain.
I’m a part owner of a mountain resort.
Big Bear Snow Summit and Mammoth Mountain.
Yeah.
I still compete, but I now own my own competition series.
Music Festival Series.
I’ve changed my boys clothing line to a men’s clothing line, because it fits my vibe of
who I am today, not who I was before.
Tom: Do you know Michael Strahan?
NFL Hall of Famer.
Good Morning America.
Shaun: Michael, yeah.
Of course.
Tom: He talked about that.
That if you want to have longevity in a career, at some point, you have to get really serious
about your training.
Shaun: Yeah.
Tom: A lot of NFL guys have talked about you don’t bulk up as you go longer in the NFL.
You actually start to get leaner, meaner, tighter.
Jerry Rice, who had one of the most unbelievably high performance, long lasting careers.
Worked out like a demon.
His whole thing.
Terrell Owens, who we’ve had on the show.
Shaun: Wow.
Tom: Same thing.
Work ethic.
Really treating your body like a tool.
That’s the weapon with which you’re going to win the war.
It’ll be really fascinating, I’ll put a chip, that if you keep up with that, that’ll magnify
your … You love Agassi.
Shaun: I do.
Yeah.
Tom: Crushed it by – Shaun: It was interesting to see.
I read his book, Open, which was amazing.
Yeah.
It was funny to see in his career, because I was always comparing, obviously you read
the book.
I’m like comparing my life to his.
The one thing is he never really enjoyed tennis, because everything was tennis for him.
Once he found his life wasn’t tennis, it was his wife, his foundation, and his family.
Then, he would go out on the court.
He was more dangerous, because he had that slight bit of like, “Well, I don’t care.”
You know, like that feeling I got after losing.
“Wow.
I’m still here.
I’m still alive.
My dog still likes me.
My house isn’t taken away.”
You know what I mean?
He became an even greater tennis player than he was, it felt like.
At least, maybe, my recollection of the book.
I was comparing that to my life.
I always felt like snowboarding’s been a part of, it’s not me.
It’s not my life.
It’s what I do for fun, and it’s what I do competitively, but it’s not who I am.
I’ve always felt that way.
Tom: I mean, it certainly answers the question of why you’ve done so many diverse things
in your career from music, which you take it seriously, man.
You’re not a dabbler.
You’re a full blown rock guitar player.
I mean, it’s crazy.
I didn’t know a lot about the music side of you when I was researching.
When you were like, “Yeah.
I went on tour with 30 Seconds to Mars.”
I was like, “What the fuck?”
Shaun: Yeah.
Tom: That’s for real.
Shaun: Yeah.
It was heavy.
I’ve always loved that about music, that there wasn’t really a competition.
It was more, you just create and you keep doing that.
You keep trying to better your craft.
Then, within that, there’s a team element, because I remember standing and I was like,
“Man, I’ve got to … ” It was our first show.
I got on stage, and I was like, “Okay.
I’ve got to do this.”
I was talking to myself.
Everyone laughed and looked at me like, “No.
We’ve got to do this.”
You know?
You can play that guitar all you want, but unless I’m on time and everybody else does
their thing.
That really was an amazing thing that we were all there together.
That’s something that I never really had in snowboarding, because it was always like,
“I’m going to practice today and this and that and whatnot.”
Yeah.
A really amazing time with the music.
It gave me a lot of appreciation for that lifestyle and the amount of work that goes
into it.
I mean, even Jared.
Gosh.
To see the levels of, we were playing dive bars to a festival to seeing a guy sellout
an arena was just incredible.
That amount of effort that goes into it night after night doing the same show and bettering
it.
I mean, the guy’s learning bits and pieces of every language from whatever part of the
world he’s playing in.
It was just incredible to see.
Very inspiring.
Tom: Yeah.
It’s interesting.
Having been to his house, the way that he has everything laid out so that he can maximize
his time.
He’s got like three companies operating out of his house, which tells you something about
the size of his house, which is an old military base.
Shaun: It’s an old base.
Tom: Which is crazy.
Shaun: He’s on another level.
Tom: Oh, very much so.
It’s incredible.
Shaun: I thought I worked a lot.
I was like, “Man, this guy.”
Tom: You do work a lot, though.
Shaun: I do.
Yeah.
Tom: How do you think about time management?
Shaun: That’s been a real tough one for me, because I guess going to traditional school
setting you learn to manage your time from this class, and “Oh, I want to go to the mall
tonight.”
I never really had that.
I was always just in a van with my parents going to the next competition and doing whatnot.
As I got older, that was something that took a lot of time and I’m still pretty terrible
at it.
I have a really great assistant.
That’s when you realize to any great person you see, there are people around helping,
because you can’t do it all.
It’s just too much.
You’ve got to know your strengths and weaknesses.
I’m terrible at scheduling, and I can’t accomplish all these things I want to do without somebody
coming in to help.
That’s where you’ve got to rely on people around you in that sense.
Tom: It’s interesting.
For somebody who has so many things going on, usually the first things to go are details,
but you’re actually super focused on the details.
I know for the WHT Space, you hand painted 150 motorcycle jackets.
Shaun: Yeah.
Tom: Why was that important enough for you to put … It was like five days locked in
a warehouse.
Shaun: Yeah.
I think … Well, what’s funny is when everybody looks at the thing.
Well, if you broke up my time, you would think that I’m like “Well, he’s 50% this and 10%
that and whatnot.”
No.
I’m 100% everything.
It gets my full attention.
The jackets, for example, we came up with this great idea to … Well, I was sitting
around with some friends.
I was like, “Man, we should do like really cool, custom painted leather jackets.
We’ll do like a ‘If you’re the right person on the right day, and you show up to a Macy’s,
you’ll be 1 of 150 that will get the chance to buy these leather jackets that I hand painted.'”
The details that I missed is that I don’t paint.
I don’t paint.
Tom: That’s worth considering.
Shaun: I was like, “This is a great idea.”
Then, it dawned on me that I didn’t really have a concept of what I wanted the visuals
on the jacket to look like and whatnot.
I started calling some artist friends of mine.
I’m like, “Okay.
It’ll be a mixture of this and that.”
Then, the perfectionist in me was like … We started painting some jackets, and I stumbled
upon a design that I really liked.
Then, I was like, “This is it.
This is the aesthetic I want to do.”
Then, I went back with a couple of friends that just helped fan and dry the jackets and
hang them up around the studio that we had.
I painted all those jackets myself.
Tom: Wow.
Shaun: We spent about five days and nights in the warehouse there in Downtown LA.
Every single thing that has brought me to this place has been like a long play.
I mentioned in the beginning, I was just like my eyes were open enough to see the opportunities
at hand.
Tom: Your eyes were open enough to see the opportunities, which is incredible.
That notion of, I’m going to put the word in your mouth, flow.
You’re almost moving through these business opportunities with the grace that you show
when you’re skating or snowboarding, which is pretty incredible.
You also have the balls to pull the trigger, and that’s where a lot of people fall down.
They, maybe, see the opportunity, but they don’t actually have the vision of what they
want to do with it or the guts to do it.
To actually buy in to it.
If they buy in to it, they don’t spend the five days locked in the warehouse painting
on the jacket, though.
Shaun: Yeah.
Yeah.
To follow through.
Tom: That really, to me, that’s where so many entrepreneurs fall apart is at the end of
the day only action matters.
Right?
All right.
I’ve got one more question for you, but first, tell these guys where they can find you.
Definitely tell them about Air and Style, because we’re right around the corner.
Shaun: Air and Style.
It is happening this February 18th and 19th at the Colosseum in Downtown LA.
Really amazing bands are coming.
We’ve got Flume, Major Lazer, Vince Staples, YG, TV On The Radio.
Then, we’re building a 16-story snowboard jump, where the world’s best are coming to
compete.
All happening this February.
You can go to airandstyle.com and get your tickets.
I’ll see you there.
Tom: Nice.
Shaun: It’s a nice one.
Tom: All right.
Cool.
My last question.
What is the impact that you want to have on the world?
Shaun: Impact?
Like I touched on in the beginning is that, yes, snowboarding is a part of my life, it’s
definitely not my life and all that I am.
I feel like my thing that I would leave is that I hope to be looked at as someone that
really didn’t see the boundaries of what you should and shouldn’t do.
I did the road less traveled.
I did the things that people said couldn’t be done.
That’s kind of the goal for me.
Tom: It’s a pretty damn good thing to leave behind.
Shaun: Yeah.
That’s it.
Tom: Shaun, thank you so much for coming on.
Shaun: All right.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Tom: That was incredible.
Shaun: Thank you for having me.
Tom: Guys, I hope that you took away from this man what I took away from him, which
is it really doesn’t matter what anybody tells you, you can be, what you’re up against, where
you start with double open heart surgery.
It’s all about what you’re trying to become, and how hard you’re willing to work to get
there.
It is absolutely incredible the way that this man has totally bucked peer pressure.
He does not fuck around with that.
He has stayed true to who he is, what he wants to accomplish, and in doing that, he really
has defined a totally new path from athlete to entrepreneur that I think is really inspiring.
Seeing the way that he dives into the details, seeing the way that he pushes himself to grow
and get better, that he looks at competition as a way to actually feel the pressure, and
to deal with his mind.
That is the thing I find so fascinating about him is he understands what he’s doing with
his mind.
That’s the reason that I think he’s going to become an incredible entrepreneur, and
he’s going to have an even more impactful career as an entrepreneur.
Be sure to go check him out.
He’s going to blow you away.
It’s absolutely incredible.
Guys, this is a weekly show, so if you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe.
Until next time my friends, be legendary.
Take care.
Shaun, man, thank you so much.
It was awesome.
Shaun: Thank you.
Awesome.
Really fun.
Tom: Hey, everybody.
Thanks so much for joining us for another episode of Impact Theory.
If this content is adding value to your life, our one ask is that you go to iTunes and Stitcher,
and rate and review.
Not only does that help us build this community, which at the end of the day, is all we care
about.
It also helps us get even more amazing guests on here to share their knowledge with all
of us.
Thank you, guys, so much for being a part of this community, and until next time, be
legendary my friends.
How did we do?
If you rate this transcript 3 or below, this agent will not work on your future orders
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
—
What’s your take? Comment below or write a response and submit to us your own point of view or reaction here at the red box, below, which links to our submissions portal.
◊♦◊
Sign up for our Writing Prompts email to receive writing inspiration in your inbox twice per week.
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all-access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class, and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group, and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.