Well, usually It’s not. Unless you’re Jimmy O. Yang’s dad.
On his interview with Joe Rogan, Jimmy O. Yang tells a story that reminded me of a bizzaro 4-minute mile.
There are a few stories you’ll run into if you read self-development books. One of them will be the 4-minute mile and how it was this long-standing barrier Roger Bannister broke it and then other people broke it soon after.
It can be motivating to see the impossible become possible.
(That story also might be a bit off. From Alex Hutchinson’s Endure: “But to draw any meaningful conclusions, it’s important to get the facts right. For one thing, Landy was the only other person to join the sub-four club within a year of Bannister’s run, and just four others followed the next year. It wasn’t until 1979, more than twenty years later, that Spanish star José Luis González became the three hundredth man to break the barrier.”)
Anyway, Jimmy O. Yang’s dad watched his son start acting. He didn’t think it was impossible to begin with. But now he thought it was easy.
If my son can do it, I can do it.
Then he did it. And got gig after gig and has continued acting.
Jimmy also tells Joe what it’s like to grow up in an Asian household. He talks about extended family being comfortable just coming up to a girl in the family and telling her she’s fat.
I was nodding along because of how familiar it sounded. Happens at every family party. They’re just being honest, right?
Joe cracked up because of how ridiculous it sounded. Then they discussed why this might be the case.
Yeah, it’s hard to grow up with a high self-esteem in an Asian household.
But there is a weird honesty to it.
I don’t know. I don’t buy it. They say it’s honest. I think it’s passed down trauma.
Their parents did that to them and now they’re doing it. I don’t know. Re-reading this post, it seems like this podcast episode wasn’t all that fun at all. But it was! I’ll just point to it being another reason podcasts are great: so much is captured hearing someone’s voice.
Check out that episode: Joe Rogan Experience – “#1490 – Jimmy O. Yang”