How often are you present in your situation? When do you start really paying attention, and learning how to learn?

You don't have to have a lot of lived experience to begin good habits.

My guest William started thinking about building his habits of how to learn in his early teens, and by building that habit, he's been able to launch his young adulthood successfully...in an unforgiving and challenging metropolis.

His conversation is about what he's done to start his adulthood, where he hopes it can go, and how he's learning to get better every day.

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Perhaps adversity is what makes us who we are. Perhaps we're better for having to overcome difficulties. Perhaps the small decisions and choices we make - every day - define who we become as a man.

This conversation is with a man who has decided that, despite any heartaches, illness, and the myriad of challenges we all face, he will wake up each day with a purposeful and hopeful countenance.

That doesn't mean it's easy. It just takes practice.

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In what is and will become an annual tradition, we hear from different men about the lessons they learned from their fathers.

Lessons of action, of words, of what was done, or what was not done.

What are lessons you've learned? What lessons are you passing on? If you have children, are you dropping pearls for them to learn from? If you don't have children, are you leaving a legacy or mentorship to other young men?

We all have the duty of teaching lessons to the next generation. The question is...what are yours?

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What is your appetite for risk?

Some men have a life where they seek out new adventures, explore strange new worlds, and boldly go into their futures. And for someone like Brian, it's been how he's lived his whole life.

And if you're like that, what do you show your children as a lifestyle to live? And if you have boys, what does it teach them about courage, risk-taking, and a perspective of the world?

This conversation is with a man who has lived with a manageable dose of risk his whole life...and in the course of doing so, has had marvelous adventures. And, he's teaching his boys to do the same. 

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Who is your tribe?

Do you have a large family, or a community that surrounds you, supports you, and perhaps binds you? Are you born into a community, or do you make one for yourself?

This conversation with Doug is about the magnetic draw of Community, and the beauty and challenge that comes with it. 

What if you think differently than your community? 

How do you frame your life individually when you're a part of something so connected?

We all are better when we're part of something bigger, but we also need to stay who we are. It's a wonderful, interesting tension.

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"Just be yourself. Everyone else is already taken." - Oscar Wilde

Sometimes we lack the courage to really listen to the person you are, or sometimes we might hear, but don't understand what we're telling ourselves.

Sometimes we need to give ourselves permission to become the person we were always meant to be.

My friend Lucio has had a remarkable, successful life...and it unfolded for him naturally as soon as he gave himself permission to live his most authentic life. 

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When do you make the choice to not become your dad?

We all think about how we were raised, especially when we have our own children. And, we all think about what we want to do that worked in our past, and what not to do.

My friend Michael had to navigate his father’s moods, and tried to make sure that his sons wouldn’t have to experience that kind of growing-up. But we all fail sometimes; and some of us recognize failure and recover to grow stronger.

This is a story of a man who made his own a path of purpose. It’s about sonhood and fatherhood, and about how to make choices that make a life.

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How do you know when you have to change your life?

When you grow up in an all-encompassing and all-consuming world but then find that you need to live in another world to be your most authentic self, how do you find the strength to do that? Is it a survival instinct? 

My friend Zack grew up in an evangelical Christian home where he had to teach himself to read and live in a world-view that was very specific to his church.

And then he left that world to seek out and create a new one for himself and his future family. He figured out how to see faith in a moment and actively love people around him…and sometimes even himself.

This episode is about so much - resilience, bravery, belief, and a man’s journey to become more than he was born into.

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Do we ever stop learning from our parents?

Even at 70, my friend Cass thinks about his dad, and what kinds of lessons he’s passed on. Maybe the folklore of our parents never leave us. Maybe there are ideas and value that persist and live through us the whole of our lives.

And what does that say about how we grow into our own manhood? It could be that our version can sometimes be a continuation of our father’s version. Or it could be a contrast. In any case, it’s natural for us to compare who we become as men to our fathers. 

We can do this without judgement, and bring to the comparison a curiosity that helps us figure out who we want to be, and what kind of man we choose to become.

And, then we see how we are next to Pop, maybe we get a better understanding of both of us.

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Is your responsibility to give and pass on in proportion to what you've been given?

If you have been blessed with a head start and a safety net to fall into as a just-in-case, what do you do with that? 

My guest David spent that first part of his launching getting deep learning. He challenged himself with an outstanding, elite, and mutli-faceted education. And from that, he spun out a marvelous career filled with rich life experiences.

And from that, he built a family that carries that sense of belonging and unity in the hopes of passing that kind of privilege to his own sons. He's done the right things with what he's been given, and continues to teach his own children how to do the right things themselves.

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