Next Level Pros - #129: will.i.am Unplugged: Will AI take over the world?

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Welcome to a new episode of Next Level Pros! In today’s conversation, our guest is Will.i.am—artist, tech innovator, and futurist. Will dives into a range of topics including his journey from music to technology, the future of AI governance, and his thoughts on Universal Basic Income (UBI). He shares unique insights into his creative process, the importance of collaboration, and how curiosity has driven him to pioneer in the tech space. This episode is a deep dive into what it takes to innovate fearlessly and the mindset needed to push boundaries in both art and technology. Apply to be on the show: https://forms.gle/hwDijQPFyKCEtHNs8  Highlights: "Curiosity is the fuel that drives innovation; stay curious, and you'll find the answers." "We’re headed towards a world where companies run themselves with only a few people overseeing data."  "You don’t need to own something to find value in it, but own your data and your identity." "True collaboration happens when minds gel, ideate, and challenge each other without ego." Timestamps: 00:00 – The Future of AI and Business 06:56 – Creative Thinking and Influence 14:00 – Autonomous Vehicles 20:20 – Universal Basic Income Debate 26:57 – Data Ownership and Modern Society 29:32 – Craftsmanship vs. Planned Obsolescence 33:02 – Pioneering in Tech 39:34 – Learning at Harvard 47:29 – Pitching Success Stories 50:21 – Principles for Success Looking to scale your business? Want to learn directly from the same team that helped me sell my last business for 9 figures? Click this link below to check out how you can work with us. https://nextlevelhomepros.com/grow-home-service-vsl  Join my community - Founder Acceleration ⁠https://www.founderacceleration.com  ⁠ Apply for our next Mastermind: h⁠ttps://www.thefoundermastermind.com ⁠  Golf with Chris: h⁠ttps://www.golfwithchris.com ⁠  Watch my latest Podcast Apple- ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281S ⁠ Spotify- ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2 ⁠ YouTube - @thefounderspodcast

I read an article and it said, yeah, in the next three or four years, we'll see a billion dollar business ran by one person. Yeah. So that means by 10 years, there's going to be a company that's started by the AI and we'll have humans working for it for like delivering stuff or maybe not. So who will own the AI? Because there's no governance and regulations. I don't know the answer to that right now.

There are a lot of people that call you lyrical genius. You've been involved in a lot of lyrical genius So you wouldn't consider yourself a lyrical genius? No What up everybody welcome to another episode of next level pros today We're taking to the next level with my boy will I am welcome to the show my dude Yeah, we next level pros. Let's go Will Do this dude excited to have you on the show. We've been trying to get this thing done for like a year Yeah, I know so happy that we did it the day before school's over.

Yeah, dude. It's been... Last minute. So we've known each other for a couple years now, attending HBS, the OPM program, Shout Out Harvard. And dude, so you've got an incredible story. I've always been really just impressed with your level of intelligence. Next level intelligence. Let's go. When it comes to tech, you've been involved in a bunch of stuff. So, how did you get into that? Obviously, music is your background, but what got you involved in the tech and all the stuff along the way?

So I got involved in tech because a piece of tech is my instrument. So I play the computer, I don't play the keyboard enough to say I'm a pianist, I don't play the drums enough to say that, you know, check me out hitting these these drums. I play decent for me to really be, you know, what will be considered a pro because I edit the shit out of it on my real instrument, which is the computer. Yeah. And because of my love for compute and how it amplifies my creativity, I wanted to know the folks that are responsible for compute programmers, electrical engineers, developers. And, you know, like you put a band together

to create music, you put a band together to create music, you put a team together to create technology. So when I see things like, especially this microphone, I'm like, yo, just the, people look at it and they'll probably see that, probably look at it and think it's insignificant, but look at this mic and then look at this mic. Look at how this is designed, look at how this is designed.

Look at the quality of this mic versus the quality of this mic. You really can't tell the difference, but look at the size of this. Look at how much innovation and engineering went in to make this product. And I would always marvel off of like, who are the brains behind this?

You know, who made this board? Somebody designed this board. You know, somebody designed the silicone chip and the computer. So, who in your life influenced you to like think that way? Right? Like what are, cause you to think that way? Because not everyone thinks that way. Not everyone looks at a mic and is like, man, this is amazing.

You try getting into the mind or whatnot. Does that come natural to you? Or do you feel like you've had different influences that have gotten you to that level of thinking? I like taking things apart and try to put it back together. I used to take my radio apart level of thinking? I like taking things apart and try to put it back together. I used to take my radio apart primarily because we were poor growing up, so shit was always broken.

So you had to make sense of scraps. And I'm just curious. I have a curious mind that wants to know about... Would you say that's more nurture or nature? I think you nurture that. You can nurture that. Yeah. So who in your life has nurtured that for you? To be curious? Yeah. My mom, my uncle, rest in peace, my uncle Faye, To be curious. Yeah.

My mom, my uncle, rest in peace, my uncle Faye, he would say, you are the words, your definitions. If somebody asks you what you're doing, you should be able to articulate what you're doing, even if you're sitting there, just breathing. Never say I'm doing nothing, because you're never not doing nothing. Yeah.

Always arm yourself with the ability to express and explain what you're thinking, how you're feeling. You are your words. Remember, you always be like that. Always be able to paint a picture with exactly how you're feeling and push us to do that. We were getting debates. This year, uncle.

My uncle on what you said makes no sense. What do you mean? Listen to what you just makes no sense. What do you mean? Listen to what you just said, he would tell me. And explain it better. And so that kind of like introspect, analyzing, you know, having an emotion, being able to hold it and articulate it, just wrap my mind around doing that around everything.

Why I like something. That's cool. Why is it cool? Oh, that's cute. Why is it cute? To explain more digging digging deeper yeah yeah explain yourself more or you might understand what you just said but you're assuming everybody else understands what you said so try to

translate simplify summarize right you know do that for easy things do it for complex things and so that type of like creative thinking critical thinking came from my mom and my uncle that's awesome yeah I know there's there a lot of people that call you lyrical genius you've been involved in a lot of black thought from the roots after it's a lyrical genius so you would consider yourself a lyrical genius no what would you say if on your grave there was written the grave yeah yeah we're

talking we're talking on the grave the five things that will.i.am is best well known for. We gotta knock on some wood, bro. We gotta knock on some wood. Sorry. We're knocking some wood. All right. Fast forward 150 years. 150 years, bro? If we're in a technological revolution right now in tech and synthetic biology, shit, when I'm 120, I'ma look 40, bro. Alright, alright. Okay, so at 140, when you're still kicking. 300.

When you're 300, alright, and people are like, man, what did will bring to the earth? What was what was his? Genius, what do you say because I mean there's obviously a lot out there about you You've been successful in in all different aspects, right some well-known some lesser-known Like what are what are what are the gifts that you have to give to the world? What will you be known for? What would I be known for? What would I be known for? Will. My name.

The ability to do, to manifest, ideate, materialize, like the will. So I'll tell you, I've gotten to know you a lot better, this unit, so here at OPM at Harvard, we have living groups, and every year we live together for three weeks at a time. Me and Will have had the opportunity to and the thing that has impressed me most about you is like your ability to ideate.

Right? Like it's like beyond and I consider myself a pretty good visionary, right? Like being able to come up with ideas and stuff like that. But like you approach things completely different than any other individual. I was ever hung out with. Right, like you- Oh, thanks. Yeah, man. I mean, just your level of like, how will AI do this, right?

And like, you start thinking about like, this crazy new angle that nobody has even considered. Like, and I'm just like, man, dude, where does it get this from? So obviously your uncle's influenced a lot of that. I would say that's probably gonna be one of the biggest things that you're going to be well known for is like, you know, even maybe more than Elon Musk. We'll see. Elon Musk. Wait, there's the invisibles.

The invisibles are the ones that like are really ideated and not taking anything from Elon. He's dope. He bought into a lot of his ideas. Yes. I get that. We had this discussion. Yeah. But he's great because he knows how to then explode an idea to take a seed, nurture it, and grow. He's a grower of ideas rather than a originator. He's a farmer. Right. He knows how to farm the land

and grow that idea into a crop. To like, yeah, productizing it. Just the idea is not, the idea is not big enough. So what do you feel like your biggest strength in that whole process is? Is it on the idea side? My strength is in the collaborative side. I think my strength is in the collaborative side.

I could ideate on my own, that's great, but I'm really good in the collaborative process. You know, the ping pong, the banter, the ricochet of how it ricochets and grows into something more. I'm like like the brainstorm. When two brains, three brains, four brains are yelling and jamming on something and then like I'm the and thener. And then we can, and then it's no, no, no,

bring it back, bring it back. It needs to, we have to make sure I'm the end thenner. And I could do it by myself, but it's better when you're. So you like taking an already formulated idea and add enhancing it. No, no, no. That's great. I could do that.

I could improve somebody's, I can edit, I can improve somebody's idea. But I could come up with an idea, throw it to you, and then the moment that it's, you're interfacing with the idea and you throw it back to me, I could then see the good of what, you know, what to keep from it,

what to like put to, what to like, put to, partitionalize and put that to the side. And then grow on that idea. So, say for example, start off with one idea. I threw it to you. You then have your perspective on it. And I'd be like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, but okay, that's great, but there's a part of your perspective

that I could take apart, let's great, but there's a part of your perspective that I could take apart. Let's put that over there. That's another idea you probably didn't think of that. And let's add, because what you don't want to do is when you're collaborating, is to say that your contribution's not good enough. Right. Because then,

motherfuckers don't want to collaborate with you. Right. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, I hear you. So you want to be able to. Because otherwise you're just shutting down ideas or whatever else and they feel like, oh, this guy doesn't value my opinion.

You want to grow ideas. Right. You know, and cultivate and expand. I love bringing the best out of folks. Whether I started the idea or I'm editing somebody else's idea. Right. That's what I really, you know, jazz over

and that's the environment that I thrive in. So when I've seen you light up, it's usually when you're talking about the future and how AI is gonna play into it, like how do you see the future? I mean, you, you've obviously got a really cool product, FYI, with this guy, like AI and everything else, like, where, where do you see us going next? Five years, 10 years, 20 years

with, with all that? I mean, things are changing rapidly right now. What side of AI? Dude, all of it. I mean, you tell you tell me. I love for you to just like, cast your vision. Like where you see things going. Because I think you think, kind of what you brought up earlier, like the way you understand things may seem like very simple or what not. But there's a lot of people out there that just don't understand what's common.

Okay, so you know you look out where we're right here in front of this awesome river, right by the river. There's this freeway. Yeah. Most of these, every car on this, on this freeway right here is somebody's driving it. Yep. And in some assembly line right now is a fleet of level three autonomous vehicles. What does that mean? In some assembly line right now is a fleet of level three autonomous vehicles. What does that mean? Level three autonomous vehicles is where you could be sitting in a car and the car can drive but it still needs

you to take over the steering wheel if something happens. It's level three. Level five, it's full autonomous. I don't know what level four is right now. Hold on, let me see. Yo, I'm sitting here talking to Chris and we're talking about autonomous vehicles. Level three is like where the car can drive

but it still needs a human to be present to take over the steering wheel if something happens, right? Level five is full autonomy where a car could just drive by itself like Waymo. What is level four? And then after you tell me level four, tell me what level one and two is. Hey yo, what's up fam?

Alright let's break this down like a proper jam session, you feel me? So when you're talking about autonomous vehicles, it's all about the level of automation and control, right? One, level one is like having a regular car with a sprinkle of magic where the car can handle either steering or acceleration slash deceleration under human supervision. Think of this as a car with basic cruise control. 2. Level 2 is where things get a bit more spice you know it's like the advanced driver assistance systems where the vehicle can control both steering and speed in specific scenarios but hey you gotta keep your

hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. 3. Level 3 like you mentioned it's like having a car that can drive by itself under certain conditions but it needs your attention like a needy pet when things get tricky and you're expected to take over when it gives you a nudge. 4. Level 4 is like the cool kid on the block. The car can handle driving in most situations without any human intervention, but there might still be some scenarios or environments where it might hand over control to you,

like tight mountain roads or extreme weather conditions. Five, and level five is the ultimate, like the car's the DJ and you're just along for the ride. Total autonomy, you can take a nap, read a book, or even make a podcast episode while the car does its own thing in all conditions. It's quite the ride we're on with technology moving like lightning.

You know what I mean? So level four is where the car can stop at red lights, stop at stop signs, make left turns, it knows, you know, don't turn on red light if you're on a one-way street, you know, stuff like that, right? And while level three doesn't stop at red lights and doesn't stop at stop signs,

it still needs a human to hit the brake when it sees, you know, the extra pair of eyes and level five as you mentioned is the full kit and caboodle I you got it level four is like the cars really got its drivers license you know it understands the rules of the road just okay so that's it it's interesting you know so I was just using as an example of where we are right now way Mo is legal in California right driving without humans, right a Google product called Waymo level five, right Tesla is level four. Yeah, Tesla's level four because I use that every single day Every once in a while I have to take over for whatever particular reason,

whether or what not. So what's coming next is self-driving companies. Right. Where right now we don't have level one, there's some, we're at level one where some companies have AI in it. Five years there's gonna be companies that are like Fortune 500 companies.

10 years to be safe. 2034, there'll be Fortune 500 companies, level five, autonomy. Maybe two employees making shit tons of money. And those two employees are overseeing the data, the data set. So this actually brings up a really- And that company could have had, at that level, making that much money, it could have had thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of employees.

Now it's just full autonomy, self-driving company. I'm trying to remember who said this the other day, but I read an article and it said, yeah, in the next three or four years, we'll see a billion dollar business ran by one person, which will be interesting. I don't know if it'll be that quick, but you're saying by 2034 is what you, what you envision? 10 years. Yeah. So that means by 10 years, there's going to be a company that's started by the AI. You hear me?

Yeah. And we'll have humans working for it for like delivering stuff or maybe not so who will own the AI because there's no governance and regulations I don't know the answer to that right now but if that's why we need some basic level of governance and regulations to ensure that shit like that don't happen so this actually brings up a completely different question I'd love to hear you weigh in on. So the future of companies that are only ran by one or two people. I think that's dope. So hold on, let me tell you where I'm going with this. At some point we have to graduate to

like a UBI, universal basic income, right?? Because it's gonna get to a point where like, people just can't work anymore because robots and intelligence have literally taken over every hands-on type of situation. How do we bridge that gap? Okay, so we're assuming that, okay, imagine it's 1924 right now, all right, years ago. Yep. People working in factories, all kinds of stuff.

The job Levi has didn't exist. The job of the people that made this product, that didn't exist. The factory that made this LED light, right? That's damn near, you know, a little piece of the sun hit in this piece. Doesn't even get hot. That didn't exist. So there's going to be lots of jobs that are coming. That we have no idea. We can't imagine right now.

Some of us could imagine what those types of jobs might be. So do you imagine a world in which we have to have a UBI? Imagine the world. France has imagined that already. Right. But is that the right move right now? For America? Yeah. I mean, just for the world. Well, France has imagined it.

Right. Is it working? I have people from France that, to them, it's working. They can go to the hospital with a crazy emergency scenario and don't have to ever pay hospital bills. Which is cool, but I also have friends in Canada that can't get an MRI done for 12 months because everybody gets it for free. And so I guess my question is, I mean, we're not talking, you know,

I don't want to debate like health insurance. I'm talking about like actual, like even just like basic income that covers their stuff where they no longer work. Like, do you, do you imagine a world where that exists or do you think that people will always be utilitarian? Okay, so or you're we gonna end up like Wally America might yeah Does anybody that's on that trajectory to end up like Wally?

There'll be Americans. What's your fat people sitting on real? I don't mean to say that in like a in a harsh way my country, America's dope, but we do have an issue. But also, I'm team human. I know that we're going to make some things that are going to... We're not just going to sit idle. I can't, as much as that world is plausible, that's not the human spirit. I agree with you 100%.

I think as like our center, our soul, we desire to create, to be active, to be doing things. But it's so interesting because at the same time, we want to automate, we want to make things easier. And so it's like this constant struggle. So let's look at like, okay, even if I go down that path, I just- Go down that path. Let's go. No, it's like the microwave

so People thought like the microwave will take cooking jobs But you still need people to cook but in this scenario you don't even need people to cook right Because there'll be some type of But not everybody's gonna have access to, that level of lux. There's a new technological lux that's about to come, but not everybody's gonna be living that life.

Right. And. So I have a friend that he theorizes that UBI will actually look more like you get like certain amount of like data or access like from a standpoint of like, I can use so much energy and data to utilize the robots to come in and clean my house, do some basic things where it like basically lifts everybody's standard of living and you can basically allocate your certain amount of energy or data towards something.

That's his theory of the way that a UBI would be implemented. What are your thoughts on that? I remember when I was growing up, a record collection was important. You know, you collected the songs that you wanted to listen to, and you owned that stuff. And you know, if you were a teenager, you dreamt of having a car, because you wanted it,

and you owned it when you bought it. And you wanted to have, if you were lux enough and lucky enough to have a nice house, maybe you wanted to have timeshare in a house somewhere else. Everyone, if you have money, you want to service, people will come help you clean and take care of your kids. Now you don't necessarily need to own records, but not owning it, now you have this mentality of, I don't have to own it.

I don't have to own a car. I don't even have to own a house. I could have access to a house. So now access is the new aspiration. But the folks that own the companies that give you access, they own everything. Right. And so there's this like,

I think there's this reconditioning that you don't need to own stuff. So even a lesser few can own everything. Yeah, it's interesting, right? Like they say don't own, but on the flip side, right? Like it's so that they can own. To me, I'm like, wait, why is there a huge generation of folks

that don't want to own something? Right, so, hey, don't own anything. Not even your data. And then these companies and the people that own it, they own your data too. And because they own your data that you don't value They go out own land and houses and planes and cars They own the world

while Giving you something for free that you don't own Even your very steps that you take You know every move that you make. Sounds like a song. Yes. Every text that you've typed, every comment that you've said, every place that you went, people that you know, connections from this point to that point. I think that's kind of low-key tech perversion.

And it's inhumane, it's gonna be inhumane when we look back at this moment that we live in. Like I can't believe they pulled the wool over our eyes. I can't believe people were taken advantage of. It's like if you see a cigarette commercial, you're like, damn, they have cigarette commercials back there? Or like you go on an airplane, you, like wait.

You see the old cigarette things, right? They used to like fly and smoke cigarettes? Yeah, that's great. It's kind of fucking nuts. Everybody in the same cabin smoking cigarettes? Didn't they know secondhand smoke causes cancer? Like, now we look back at certain practices, like how did they even get away with that?

Right. The same is gonna be for data practices and like- Can't believe we got away with that. Conditioning folks to think that it's not important to own but to have access. We're gonna look back at these times like, damn, motherfuckers were really greedy. The very few

You know Damn did they pull a number over on people? and I Can't wait for the day where people are like empowered by their own data They they they strive to own stuff We make things that last. Like remember in class, they were talking about John Claude, Bivet, the watch dude? Like, they made products that took that whole concept

of planned obsolescence, where things were made to break, watches are not made to break. The opposite, yeah. Ever since they started making watches, yeah they're probably like some point in time in the 80s where. Casio. You know what I mean, where shit was like,

breakable, replaceable, but the majority of the watches that people love and collect are sustainable down from the whole point of craftsmanship. You know, it's like you pass it down to your, you know, you buy it for $3,000 and you know you could pass it down to three generations, so really you're buying it for like $1,000 or 500 bucks. It's an investment for the next folks to pass it down to their folks. So it's not just for you, it's for you to hand off.

And so the craftsmanship has that baked in what they're making. I don't care how awesome this phone is, you're not like, listen, get over here, sonny. Hey, grandpa, I'm giving you this iPhone 16. My grandf... Nope, his grandfather didn't give him that. Right?

You can't. I think he's dead in five years. Not even five years. I mean at best, right? Soon as that iPhone freaking 18 comes out, that iPhone 16 is kind of like, you know, starts acting funny. Oh yeah. Like yo, my shit's glitching because it's planned obsolescence.

They made it to break. They made it to be replaced. And you can't sustain that future. We have to get back to some type of foreverness where things are made to be forever. And because I believe in humanity, I think this tech revolution and this job displacement that's happening is going to push humans to get back to its essence, its core, to make things at last, to make things for community, to be, you know, of service, to be purposeful and solution-orientated. Yeah, love it. I love

it. I think that's a very positive view on the future, which is awesome. I'd actually like to shift gears. So we've been a part of this program for the last three years or two years over, two-year span. What have been the highlights? Why did you even get involved, come back to school, even get involved, come back to school, be a part of the owner's president's management program, like what, what got you motivated to be a part of that? Like most people look at you and be like, oh, you're already a success. You've had, you know, successful in the music industry,

successful in the consulting industry, successful in exiting the tech industry. Like why, why are you here? Wait, I ain't supposed to be here? Stop it. Why did I want to come to HPS after having success in one domain? In several domains.

Where, what's that? I mean, tech, music, right? It's not just. I was successful in tech because, well the one success I had in tech with Beats is because I was a part of a team, a well put together team. Yeah. So I can't take full credit like, yo, that was my shit. I could take credit for like my contributions,

but as far as assembling the team, that wasn't me. I was a part of the team. So really, really it was like you want to be able to go and build your own thing. Yeah. And then my, you know, I've taken, you know, I went up to bat a couple of times with other companies that I've started. I've struck out, but I got to the plate.

And I struck out because I hit the ball, I hit a home run, it just was out of bounds. It was foul. I hit that ball far as fuck, but it was a foul ball. I hit that shit out of the parking lot, but it was foul. Great connection. Great. Why do I say that?

Because in 2012, we built a watch that was a voice operating system that had its own, you know, SIM card, it was its own phone. We used a Snapdragon chip by Qualcomm. We had a battery wrapped around the wrist. It was the first of its kind. And we did something before a lot of the, you know, Samsung's device, even Apple's watch. We didn't follow, we led. It just was too early.

And so that's what I mean by the foul. Swinging a little too early. Yeah, had you been a little bit slower in your swing? Home run. Would have been a home run. Yeah, that's interesting. If I was slower on the swing and slower in my assembly of my team, it would have been a home run.

But lesson learned. It's crazy how timing plays into so much, right? Like too early. And so, and then we created a, we expanded on the voice operating system, put four layers of context onto it, which was pretty early for its time. I was able to find awesome engineers,

but I wasn't able to find awesome operators. Because I thought just the innovation and build it and they will come, that sentence is incomplete. Build it and they will come after you strategize on the messaging, right? You just don't build it. If will come after you strategize on the messaging, right? You just don't build it. If everybody's building it, they're gonna go,

there's so many places for them to go. Gotta be able to track the town. You gotta like build it and they'll come after you strategize on the messaging and the awareness and your business plan. You can't just like, you're assuming that we're at the park and you got a handful of rice and a pigeon is gonna come when you throw shit on the floor.

That's not how people are. We're not pigeons. We're not freaking ducks in a pond and you throw some bread and motherfuckers like quack, quack, quack come fucking eat and shit. Like, no, no, no, we're not. We're sophisticated motherfuckers. And so that's the reason why I came to HBS

is to learn about some sophisticated shit. So what would have been your biggest takeaways that you didn't expect from HBS? My biggest takeaways were some of the professors have a very responsible approach to business. You never would think that they're talking about community. You're never thinking that they're talking about like

purpose, mindfulness, when they inspire leaders to go out there and lead. I thought it was just money, money, money, go make money. Fuck the world, go make money. So to see that HBS has a philanthropic approach to gently push folks, you don't expect this to be a church. A church inspires philanthropy. But to see that they have, do good in business, and in the folks that don't do good in business, you really know that,

you really know that person has some wicked tendencies. If they've come to HBS and they go out and do business and they fucking the world up, that's in that person's heart. Because it's, That's in that person's heart. Right. Because it's, you see that they're pushing you with,

inspiring you to have a moral compass. I agree. It's been incredible to see just like the message of like, be better, do better, right? And be like an incredible influence of the world and like I mean the level of people that we have in this program I mean literally we have people in our program that are like kings of their own universes right like I mean that would be yeah to know one of these people would be absolutely incredible. And there's 165 of them, right?

Like, I mean, so many influential people. And so like the messaging that's coming from HBS to go and do good, like it can really impact the world with the level of people that we have here. Yeah. And there's some unique folks here. You here, the businesses they have, the access to impact and influence they have. Not just their businesses, but like spouse's business that they, you know, it's pretty, being vague on purpose,

I just don't want to expose, you know. Yeah, it's wild. It's wild, but think about like, yeah, to your point, the impact just in our class of OPM 62. in our class of OPM 62. There's some 59ers and 61ers here, OPM 60. But the real OGs are the 62ers. Yeah. He's saying this sucks.

Yeah. It's overwhelming sometimes. Yeah. I flew in Falcons and to meet Adrian, knowing that his family is like the people that make the Falcons. To me that was like the highlight. Because Black-Up-Piece is huge in France and He's so nice and down to earth and they speaking of down to earth. They build like things that leave the earth That's that's pretty awesome There's a guy that was in my cohort last year named David

He was 71 years old, and he made, his business was, he made food for, you know, retirement homes. Hmm. And he's like, you know, I'm the, at my age, I could be living in a retirement home, but because I'm still hungry and an entrepreneur, I wanna make sure that, you sure that when I eventually retire, that I'm gonna retire in a place that I helped

bring up to speed and create awesome services for. And that inspired me, you know? Cause a lot of times when you think of entrepreneurs, you think of like 28 year old, 30 year old, 40 plus. If you're in your 50s, like you've already like, you did it a couple of times, your cereal. 60, you're like, yadded up, planed up. 70s, you're retired. Right.

This dude's like, still running, started this company, came to HBS to knowledge up some more like wow this dude is awesome and just truly inspirational living with them for those three weeks. I love it. Love it. We'll shift to final gear. I mean a lot of listeners they know you from the Black Eyed Peas or what not. What's a couple stories that not a lot of people know about the black

eyed peas maybe some of your you rise through the ranks I don't know some some fun ones what do we got to. And there's one story where there was an opportunity that we wanted to seize because there was whispers around the NFL changing their, how they cast it and who played on the Super Bowl. So after the Janet Jackson Justin Timberlake fiasco, there was a... That was what? 2004 something? The Janet Jackson thing? There was a... That was what? 2004 something?

The Janet Jackson thing? What was that later? Yo, when was the Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake wardrobe malfunction? What was that? Yo fam, that infamous moment, the Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake wardrobe malfunction happened during the Super Bowl halftime show on February 1st, 2004. Wait, 2004. So from 2005, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 7 years, they only had classic rock.

Easy, predictable. They didn't have anything pop. So when I heard that they were thinking of changing that up, I flew out to New Jersey and pitched this concept to the NFL. and pitched this concept to the NFL. And I brought my little DJ gig, my DJ gear in 2010. Black Eyed Peas were like, I got a feeling was big, Boom Boom Pow was big, I'ma be was like, we had massive hits globally.

I'm like, yo, I got this, can we set up a meeting? Cause I heard you guys might be interested in pop again, or urban pop. And I put a little deck together to pitch to Black Eyed Peas to perform. And had we not pitched it and had a successful turnout, who knows if they would have gone back into pop. So I remember like how nervous I was pitching,

you know, our stance and that they had nothing to worry about as far as like, we know it's a family show, it's a show about football more than it is music, but we want to celebrate the sport. You know, my uncle played football, I wanted to be a football player until I got a concussion. And so that's one thing, because I like pitching. I like making decks and pitching it to companies. I pitch this one concept to Coca-Cola. And this pitch and the outcome is what got me my gig working at Intel. So from 2011 to 2014, I worked at Intel in the Futurist Department. But what got me that gig was this pitch to Coca-Cola. I was like in the elevator with me, B Perez

and Mutar Kent, who's the CEO of Coke at the time. I'm like, yo, companies the size of Coke should be verbs in society. If you don't believe me, you should Google it. And so they were like, wow, that's pretty clever. I was like, yeah, when's the last time you saw a Twitter commercial or a Google commercial? They're verbs in society. And I have a verb for Coke. He was like, what do you think Coke's verb should be?

I was like, if you take the name Coke backwards to E-K-O-C, we could say that's eco-cycle, eco-community, eco-collaboration, eco-concept, eco-consumption. And we'll do that by taking your byproduct and creating a new base cloth and then licensing that brand to other companies to execute their sustainability efforts. So eco-cycle beats headphones, EcoCycle Levi jeans, EcoCycle Schwinn bike. And they love the vision and we launched that product. What remains from that is a brand called EcoCenter.

And then from there I got my gig at Intel. Another idea I pitched was From there I got my gig at Intel. Another idea I pitched was EcoCycle. I pitched making hardware to Jimmy Iving. That's what gave him the insight to create beats with Dre. I pitch. Yeah, just love pitching ideas. I love it. I love it. Yeah, I think those are the lesser known stories for sure that people know. Last but not least, I'd love to hear what are maybe your top three principles for success as you have applied them across just so many different

industries and different things. What would you say your top three things that drive you, your mission, your principles, what are they? Sorry, my brain was in the phone and you're listening so I don't wanna even assume that I heard you. No, you're good. We'll give it to you again. We'll give it to you again. Give it to you again.

So what would you say are your top three principles of success or maybe even like your mission that drives you now that you've done so many different things, so many different industries, what's your message to the world of like, do this, this will help you succeed? Stay curious. do this, this will help you succeed. Stay curious.

Be audacious. Be ultra competitive. That combination of curiosity is going to give you the knowledge you need. The audacity is going to allow you to then apply that knowledge and compete with things that you that people will tell you that you shouldn't probably try to compete with. Yeah. Like the David and Goliath story is like, here's this audacious little dude with a rock and a slingshot.

A lot of confidence. A lot of audacity. Curious enough. What if? Audacious and competitive. He was so competitive that he audaciously competed against a giant and knocked him out with a slingshot rock. It's crazy. But the curiosity gave him the knowledge

of how to propel that rock and where to hit him with the rock at. Right? Yeah. It's not just, I don't think he was just like, just randomly threw a rock at him, motherfucker. This dude was like, all right, I'm gonna hit this dude square in the eye

because I know that's, you know what? The one spot. The one spot and my chance to really fuck with him. I don't think it was luck. Right. If you break down the David and Goliath story. Right. It's strategy, but you get strategy by being ultra curious.

You execute strategy by being competitive. You don't just compete to compete and then fucking get crushed. If you really want to compete, like, okay, let's study who we're fucking competing with. And let's be audacious to put ourselves in a trajectory. In a situation where you're taking on the glides of the world. Yeah. So that's what I'm saying. I love it. where you're taking on the glides of the world. Yeah, so that's what I was saying, is to do that shit. There's no reason why we, like Michael Jackson's Michael Jackson.

So to make music when Michael Jackson was making music, why would, that's audacious. It's fucking Michael Jackson. Right. To think that you could sell records like that, like who are you to think that people would want to listen to your stuff? You can't sing like Mike. You can't even dance like Mike.

Why are you trying to make music? You can't even play the piano like Stevie Wonder. He can't see, you can see, you should just give it up. You can't play the drums. Why are you trying to make music? Who do you think you are? No, but I got these ideas. Okay, but you can't play the drums, you can't dance,

you can't really sing like the people that I think could sing really good. Yeah, but I got these ideas. Hold on, hold on. So I'm curious to know that computer. I'm ultra competitive and audacious to be competing with these people who are really good. That's what I, those three, that three combination

at full spectrum of curiosity, audacity, and competitiveness, you want the full spectrum of each one of those things. Not just like a slice of it. You get a slice of it, you're knocked out. You want full spectrum of curiosity, full spectrum of competitiveness, full spectrum of audacity, and leave the arrogance alone.

Don't fuck with that. Arm yourself with ego when everyone's laughing at you, but don't fuck with that. Arm yourself with ego when everyone's laughing at you. But don't fuck with arrogance. Because you need a little bit of ego when everybody's like, ha ha ha, who the fuck? Like, I'm gonna show your ass. You need that ego. Ego is like a weapon when you need that a little bit.

To say like, put your ego away. bit. To say like, you know, put your ego away. My ego is what is what is what protects my vulnerability when people are telling me that I cannot do it. So you need that. Dude, I love I love the passion. You're you're obviously very I mean, you know what drives you. I mean, you just lit up talking about those three things. And that excites me. I think that's where the juice is really. And just to hear how you applied that in music, how you applied in your career, man, that's really cool, man. I appreciate you taking the time.

I know we're busy here at HBS. We got a lot going on. Oh, no, I appreciate you wanting the time. I know we're busy here at HBS. We got a lot going on. Oh, no, I appreciate you wanting to like sit and chat, bro. Like any one I like to talk. Any chance, you know, that's like, you know, like, yeah, but thank you so much. It's really, really thanks. Thanks for jumping on. It's been, I think, a lot of people when they view superstars, I put you in the superstar category, right? You're well known in the music industry or whatnot.

They only see you for that. And I think coming to know the human side of you over the last couple years has been awesome, right? Like you've got you got an incredible heart you've got a passion to do good for the world and I just want to let you know I appreciate that about you. Thank you Chris. Thank you.