The Tim Ferriss Show - #847: Steve Young, from Super Bowl MVP to Managing Billions – Hall of Fame 49ers Quarterback on High Performance, Reinvention, Faith, and How to Blend Dreams and Plans

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Steve Young (@steveyoung) is a Hall of Fame NFL quarterback who played more than 15 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. Steve co-founded HGGC, which manages more than $6.9B in capital commitments. He’s also the founder and current chair of the Forever Young Foundation, which supports children’s charities globally. He is the author of QB: My Life Behind the Spiral and The Law of Love.This episode is brought to you by:Cresset family office services for CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs: CressetCapital.com/TimAG1 all-in-one nutritional supplement: DrinkAG1.com/TimWealthfront high-yield cash account: Wealthfront.com/TimNew clients get 3.25% base APY from program banks + additional 0.65% boost for 3 months on your uninvested cash (max $150k balance). Terms and conditions apply. The Cash Account offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC (“WFB”) member FINRA/SIPC, not a bank. The base APY as of 12/19/25 is representative, can change, and requires no minimum. Tim Ferriss, a non-client, receives compensation from WFB for advertising and holds a non-controlling equity interest in the corporate parent of WFB, which creates a conflict of interest. Experiences will vary. Outcomes not guaranteed. Instant withdrawals may be limited by your receiving firm and other factors. Investment advisory services provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, not bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value.TIMESTAMPS:[00:00:00] Start.[00:02:34] The full circle of Josh Waitzkin.[00:05:47] The Stephen Covey plane ride that changed everything.[00:11:38] Overcoming victimization: The hole you dig, then jump into.[00:14:16] How taking ownership led Steve from rock bottom to NFL MVP in one season.[00:21:50] Interceptions and the truest truth about accountability.[00:26:09] What separates good from great quarterbacks: Adrenaline alchemy.[00:31:21] Alex Honnold and the genetics of not panicking.[00:32:14] Learning to actually throw a football at BYU.[00:35:01] Recovering from the offensive coordinator who wouldn’t coach southpaws.[00:37:00] The vulnerability prerequisite.[00:42:45] Separation anxiety: Thriving by day, terrified by night.[00:48:29] Tears in the Candlestick Park training room.[00:52:37] The diagnosis that made the puzzle pieces fit.[00:58:32] Dad’s philosophy: Dream (1%) and Plan (80%).[01:01:14] Law school between Super Bowl parades.[01:02:33] Trading locker room access for venture capital deals.[01:08:45] Mourning old identities and heeding Roger Staubach’s transition advice: “Run.”[01:11:49] Rich Lawson walks out of Morgan Stanley: “I’ll be the CEO.”[01:19:05] 30 years of partnership: Yin, yang, and existential crises.[01:23:01] HGGC: The name nobody can pronounce (and why).[01:25:19] Faith evolution: From Boy Scout theology to something deeper.[01:29:41] The Law of Love: Bill Walsh’s secret weapon.[01:32:53] Divine humanity and the irony of losing self-interest.[01:43:52] Parting thoughts.*For show notes and past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast.For deals from sponsors of The Tim Ferriss Show, please visit tim.blog/podcast-sponsorsSign up for Tim’s email newsletter (5-Bullet Friday) at tim.blog/friday.For transcripts of episodes, go to tim.blog/transcripts.Discover Tim’s books: tim.blog/books.Follow Tim:Twitter: twitter.com/tferriss Instagram: instagram.com/timferrissYouTube: youtube.com/timferrissFacebook: facebook.com/timferriss LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timferrissSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello, boys and girls, ladies and germs. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of the Tim Ferriss show, where it is my job to deconstruct world-class performers to try to break down how they have done, what they've done, what you can copy and paste and test in your own lives. And it can take many different forms. This interview has been probably two years in the making. I was so happy to finally have it happen. Steve Young, also very timely right about now at the time of recording. Steve Young is a Hall of Fame NFL quarterback who played more than 15 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. He was Super Bowl 29 MVP, earning Sports Illustrated and Sporting News Player of the Year honors from 1992 to 94, and won the NFL MVP award

in both 92 and 94. When he retired, he held the all-time record for highest quarterback rating and remains the only quarterback to win four consecutive NFL passing titles. What makes him also very interesting to me is that he's a multi-hyphenate. So the story did not end there. He didn't fade into obscurity. After football, Young became an ESPN analyst and a private equity executive. He co-founded HGGC, which manages roughly $9 billion in capital commitments. And there have been some amazing, amazing profiles of him, which initially piqued my interest because he seems to have been so good at reinvention and also high performance, not only over decades, but, but in different disciplines entirely. He's also the founder and current chair of the Forever Young Foundation, which supports children's charities globally. He is the author of QB,

My Life Behind the Spiral and The Law of Love. You can find him on Instagram at Steve Young. And without further ado, please enjoy a very wide-ranging, very in-depth conversation with Steve and I would be remiss if I didn't mention one thing. He requested that I include in the intro, which is that he and I seem to be journeying

on parallel paths. And certainly both during the interview, but after recording, that seems to be the case. Not at all comparing myself to Steve. He is so many levels above me in so many ways. But nonetheless, he asked me to include that, so I am doing that here. Please enjoy. At this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Can I answer your personal question?

Now I would have seen an appropriate time. What if I did the opposite? I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over a metal end of brain. Steve, thank you so much for making the time. It is so nice to see it. It is so nice to see it. Hopefully I can add something to the amazing stuff that you've done for a long time. We'll see.

It's yet to be determined. I'm sure that'll be the case. Well, first, point out the pink elephant in the room. Welcome to my temple of Tim. I love it. I love it. I bowed to the greatness. And also, this has been for me two or three years.

years in the making, sort of a slow build because a friend of mine sent me a Bloomberg article about you that talked about the many chapters of Steve Young. And at that time, as is true now, I've been incredibly interested in people who successfully navigate these phase shifts. And I do not follow football. I have a lot of respect for football. God knows, every time I see one of the car crashes, aka collisions, I think that one hit and I would be done, right? I don't know how you guys do it. It's insane. Even now as I watch now, I'm like, did I actually do that? It's just remarkable how durable players are. I have no idea how you guys do it. But what I've been hoping to dig into is psycho-emotional, spiritual, mental side of things. Right. And that's football. Weirdly.

That's football. Yeah, it's crazy. I can, we'll go on for that for a little bit too. We'll definitely get into that. And I thought we would start. Actually, I'll start with a wave hello. I don't think you guys know each other, but you might have had a connection decades ago. A friend of mine who's a bit of a reckless named Josh Waitskin. He was the basis, he would hate me to introduce him this way,

but he was the basis for searching for Bobby Fisher, the book and then a movie chess prodigies. Yes. Yes. Yes. And he was in most recently he got kind of docks. He didn't really want to be public about it. it for working with the Celtics in the last few years.

Really? With their coach. And he is a huge fan. I mentioned, he's like, hey, you have five minutes on the phone. He texted me this morning. And I said, I can't do it. I'm preparing for a podcast with this legend. And I sent him a link.

And he goes, oh, I studied his game. I used to study and study and study. He's not a football guy. But I thought you were bringing it up because that's my favorite movie. Oh, I have no idea. Oh, absolutely. I thought that's why you were saying. No.

I know. Like, how do they know? Because I've said it many times. I was like, oh, that's why. I had no idea. I love that. That's a movie everyone needs to watch. It's a compelling story.

Super compelling. And what doesn't get put into the movie because it couldn't have been put into the movie given the time frame is that Josh at his peak effectively retired from chess because of all the attention that ended up landing on him after the success of the book and the movie. and he has navigated three or four very, very, very successful phase shifts. That's awesome. And so Game recognizes game. He's like, oh, I know Steve Young. I've studied Steve Young. That is weird.

That's like a full circle for me. Very small. Growing up when I was in, when I was a kid, the movie in high school, and people probably never heard, probably don't know it. Yeah, it's older. I'm glad you're, let's shout it out. Go see that. It's worth it.

It's really. And the book is very good. It's in fun subject slash. SOR subject to chat with Joshua about, but I'm going to invoke a name that was very meaningful for me in terms of writing way back in the day, and that is Stephen Covey. So could you describe meeting Stephen Covey and who Stephen Covey is? So in the 80s, 90s, even the odds, I guess you call him, he was writing books, Seven Habits books. And really, I'd known his kids, but I'd never met him. You had known his kids through the

church? At school, yeah. No, at school at BYU. Like, I'd met them and they played football. But I'd never really met him. I've got a little background here. So I'm playing for the 49ers. Joe Montana, we were on the same team. And I, we both wanted to play. And he was the king. And I was this kid that wanted to, I didn't want to just sit there, you know. And I finally got my chance to play in 1991. And it didn't go great. And I always joke about walking around town and how I describe it is telling people, no, I think he did throw an incomplete pass once. You know, I mean, I think he did lose a game.

In fact, I think he's thrown an interception or two. Because the memory of someone who's great is only great. And here's this kid trying to live up to all of that. And I was pouring myself into it. I was over-indexed on trying to figure out how to, All I could look around was everyone who wasn't and how everything was my fault and everything, no matter what happened, I went anywhere. It's like, well, yeah, Steve Young's sucks.

You know, it's Steve Young's problems. I found myself middle of the season middling around and I noticed that I was like depressed. I was miserable. I felt like I was like at a bottom of a hole. We lost a game against the Raiders in front of 100,000 people at the L.A. Coliseum. Jerry Rice is open in the end zone to win the game. never, he's literally waving, like, you know, and I didn't see him. And it was just like the epitome of like everything that could go bad. And so I was miserable. I need to give you that backstory because

you have to know my state of mind. I was miserable. And I got on a plane because Tuesday is day off in the NFL. So Monday night, I got on a plane, went to Salt Lake City to see my brother because he was in University of Utah med school. I was like, man, maybe he can, I don't know, help me get out of this funk. I mean, this is just terrible. I'm not sleeping well. It's just miserable. And I walk around the town with him. He's like, Steve, I got two kids and broke in medical school. Like, your life looks sweet to me. So he didn't help very much. I told him, I didn't know how he was going to get to Christmas. So I get on the plane to come back, sit down, and Steve Covey sitting there. And he says, hello. And I'm like, oh my gosh, it's been, you know, I've always wanted to meet you. And he goes,

he asks a simple question, how are you doing? And I'm in a state of mind where I was pretty got vulnerable, I just told him, kind of recitated everything that I just said to you and how kind of miserable I was. I got done with it, you know, 25, 30 minutes later. And he goes, huh, wow, man, I can feel that. Like, I can feel all of that, the expectations, how tough it is to not get the help that you think that you need and things that are working against you. And, man, can I ask you a couple questions. I go, yeah. He goes, your owner, Eddie DeBardaloo. Tell me about him. Oh, my gosh, she's the only owner in football that ever saw players as partners. I mean, he's amazing. And I went on about that. And then he's, what about your coach Bill Walls? He's like, yeah, he's like,

a guy that talks about hydration and nutrition and sleep and mental health. And you talk about partnership. He's like, no one's doing what he's doing. His West Coast offense, that guy is amazing. He goes, yeah, I'd heard that. I'd love to meet them both, you know, because let me ask one last question. Is Joe Montana on the team? I'm like, yeah, he's hurt, and that's kind of the problem. And he's like, well, if you had to ask him for mentorship, go ask him questions to help your game. Could you do it?

I'm like, yeah, I could. And he goes, all right, well, I want you to know what I do. I travel the world looking for platforms, companies, organizations that, you know, that create the ability for the humans on the platform to see how good they can get and iterate and find out because that's what life should be about. And so as I travel the world, I'm always looking for it. And I'd love to talk to those guys about their platform. But I got to step back, Steve, and tell you that from my perspective, the platform that

you're on, the place that you are, I think might be the greatest one that I've ever seen. And I was like, didn't you hear me? Like, bro, this is miserable. Things are terrible. These are terrible. But it stung me. It like went through my heart. It was like, oh my gosh.

My first thought was, I think I might have screwed this whole thing up. Like, oh, because to have him say that truth to me, he goes, let me ask you a question. because it's scary. He goes, I always wonder if people are willing to take the chance to find out how good they are. You know, and I'm like, reflexive about it. I'm like, yeah, of course, I'm absolutely up for that. And then he took a minute and he's like, he looked kind of like he was little and bald and long thing. I was like a little Yodish, you know what I mean?

I remember the about the author. Yeah. And so he took his finger and he kind of looked at me and said, then be about it. it. And I was like, oh my gosh, I realized right there that the hole I was in that I thought so many people had dug that I had dug it. I had no idea that I dug the hole. And I had thought that everyone pushed me in and I didn't realize that I had jumped in. And so it was that we can talk about victimization for a long time because it's such an important thing to ferret out in your own life over and over again, like never stop. It was the realization that I had played the victim

and had jumped in a hole, dug it and jumped in, and I am the author of it. Like, that's what the shock was. Like, I authored this. And I remember getting off the plane as if I was transformed. I don't want to say it lightly. It was as if I now knew if I was going to do anything. I was going to be about this. And I remember not sleeping well that night, but for a different reason. I thought, oh, my gosh, I think I've screwed this up enough that on Wednesday mornings, when you get fired in the NFL. And I'm like, I'd heard rumors about maybe getting benched. And I'm like, oh, crap, don't tell me that I have screwed this up so bad that I don't get a chance to go fix it. And I screamed down to practice the next day as energized as ever. Like,

I've got just please don't, please give me another. And I didn't get benched. And I did play and I was about it and it was fun because it's like something that's true like truly true universally true when it's that way it doesn't waver you don't have iterations of it like it's just true not second guess I don't have to worry about like and he said people are really afraid like it's hard to find out how good you are because you might find out you're not very nearly as good as you thought you were but that's you got to make that okay and that now I'm going to be iterate and find out how good I can get it's really about fear and if you can lose that fear and that's basically what you're dealing with is a fear-based you've been fear-based and I was like

oh my gosh and you just wanted to excise it now it doesn't happen overnight but I remember soon after that season ended and the whole off-season and so the next year we're playing the cowboys are the best team in the league right and I think to myself this is where you find out right and I remember running up to troikman we're warming up and he's a friend and he's a quarterback for the for the Cowboys, and I'm like, Troy, it's so great that you're here, man, because I'm on this quest to see how good I can get, and I can only find out against the best, and so I'm so glad that you're here. And I remember Troy looking at me like, freaking weirdo, what's wrong with you? But that's what I was about. And to finish the story, I think I have to finish it kind of honestly

and authentically, I was MVP of the NFL that year. And you think back to being in the bottom of a whole learning to my brother to see if, like, I could get out of this depression. And it's just a to me, the perspective, a truthful, universally authentic fact can make that kind of difference in somebody's life. I owe him the greatest debt, right? Because you think about angels in your life or people that show up. It was almost like, it's a wonderful life moment, right? You know what I mean? You almost think, was he really there? Or was I imagining like this guy that's sitting next to me? So that's the, that's the Stephen Covey story. What a wild sliding doors moment, right? Just the happenstance of that interaction and how it changed things.

It's so remarkable to reflect on. And it really never ended. Because it's true, I now seek out that victimization in my life, watch it for other people, try to help because it's such a nefarious, common state of being, and totally rationalized to, I always talk about the intropic world that we live in, it's like super transactional, eat what you kill, sweating your brow. Like, it's all the conditions of the world. Like, victimization feels almost rational, but it's kind of death. That feeds to accountability. It feeds to who authors all this. You think that someone else is authoring, but you continue to author it and don't take it. That's what I was missing, right? And so that's why the perspective was so powerful. To this day, it gives me a little chills. Like, I'm so grateful,

because I was about to walk down a path that was going to be miserable. And I would have said, it wasn't fair. This is not right. I need another chance. I want a better shot. I want people who will support me more. You know, you come up with all kinds of stuff. And that's what would happen.

And who knows where we'd be. That may be. But it would have been a different life. Great Stephen Covey, man. Just a quick thanks to our sponsors and we'll be right back to the show. Listeners have heard me talk about making before you manage for years. All that means to me is that when I wake up, I block out three to four hours to do the most important things that are generative, creative, podcasting, writing, et cetera, before I get to the email and the admin stuff and the reactive stuff and everyone else's agenda for my time. For me, I need to find people who are great at managing. And that is where Cresett Family Office comes in. You spell it C-R-E-S-S-E-T. Creset Family Office. I was introduced to them. by one of the top CPG investors in the world. Crescent is a prestigious family office for CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs. They handle the complex financial planning, uncertain tax strategies,

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And disclosure, I am a client of Crescent. There are no material conflicts other than this paid testimonial. And of course, all investing involves risk, including loss of principle. So do your due diligence. Many of you know how deeply I love Japan and its culture of unwavering dedication to craft, refinement, commitment to continuous improvement. But why do I bring this all up? Well, the same focus on improving one thing over the span of years is found in today's sponsor, AG1. They are now unveiling AG1 next gen. The same single scoop, once a day product that I use myself, but now with more vitamins, more minerals, and five new clinically studied probiotic strains shown to support digestive and immune health. Ag1 is also NSF certified for sport, one of the most rigorous,

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Right? Being all about it. I love that. As you put it. And I'm curious to know after that realization, after the questions about seeking out mentorship or otherwise on the plane, what were some of the next steps? What were some of the most important changes that you made that allowed you then a year later to be where you were? And it's like a boat that leaves the harbor. It changed the direction that you left every morning.

Like there's an intent. There was an aha, right? It was like, oh my, I can't believe that I almost walked down this treacherous path. And that's why I knew it was true is because every morning I wake up and say, you didn't have to doubt it. It was like, don't play the victim. Start owning and look forward to. the possibility of what you can, like my theology is about we're here as humans to learn and grow.

It can be tough and miserable. It can be all kinds of things, but that's the underpinning of what we're trying to do is learn and grow. Be about it again. Like, don't be afraid. It changed how I went to practice. Like, you might not have a great practice, but own it. You might not be as strong as you thought you were. Well, freaking own it. Like, stop dancing around the authenticity of what you're trying to do. And once I open myself to all that, it brings you to the moment. Like, it brings you to the present. Like, what can I do right now? Not what if or what possibly. It was a quest that was intentional every day to go find out. Like, it's okay if you're not as good as you thought you were. In fact, let's just know. I don't need to read the paper to have somebody

tell me how I'm doing. I don't need to wait in the line at the grocery store at the checkout, you know, paying, as they talk about the 49ers. waiting for the inevitable, what do you think about Steve Young? And then waiting for the answer, as if it was going to define me. That's where I was. That's before it was like, oh, he sucks. I'm like, oh, yeah, I suck. You know, it's like you've allowed, thinking that you're doing it to me,

I'm allowing them to do it to me because I'm not defining it right. So I just, and that has stuck with me even today where it's a vulnerability, it's an authenticity about accountability. Like, where is it? Where does it lie? I'm using football to describe a lot of stuff that are very important concepts, but it's like when you throw an interception.

And for people who don't know football, what does that mean? So I have the ball. I'm the quarterback. I drop back to pass to win the game. The last minute, the last seconds, the crowd is screaming with anticipation, 80,000 people, you can feel the emotion of it. Like, it's happening.

We're winning this game. And then I throw it. And the other team, the defense that's on the field, they intercept it. They take it. And there's this moment where 80,000 people with all this anticipation is like, oh, like, sports is that cool because that's, it's hard to get those moments where they're like binary moments where it's like, and then the emotional swing, like to get that kind of a swing with 80,000 people, it's kind of crazy cool. I can't believe what I'm saying that because it wasn't that cool.

the moment. But it was crazy, it's crazy to feel that. And I spent a long time with my teammates at that moment when they would look at me and say, hey, we watched you do this. And it felt like you threw it right to them. Like there's an underpinning of it. Like, we know you didn't do it on purpose, but it kind of looks like you did. And so as a human behavior emotion, I'm like, oh, I got to show them that this was a mess. Like, you turned the wrong way or you didn't block your guy or something else happen. Mitigation. Right. That's the instinct. I take the banner of mitigation and say, look at all this truth. I'm not telling you lies. I'm telling you truth. This is how it happened. Facts. Own the facts. But I didn't realize

that there's a truth to the mitigation, but it's not actually useful until I turn. turn to them and say the ball was in my hands and now it's in their hands. That is the truest truth. If you live in mitigation, which is kind of the Stephen Cove, it's like where I was living in all this truth, people saying things, people doing, well, how he fell, it's all this, but it was mitigating and it wasn't authoring. And so when I started to breathe that back into the system, look, I screwed it up. No matter what happened. Don't worry about mitigation right now. I screwed it up. Let's go fix and everyone was like oh yeah let's go do that and i'm sorry that i turned the wrong way and so all the sudden it's like calm is contagious and the military ownership and so it's like and so i have to

when i talk about stephen covey i have to talk about my authorship vulnerability and accountability for me the quest is really to be honest with yourself and that's what i wasn't doing and so that's when you say what did you do what were the aspects of what you know if someone here heard this and go, I want to be about that too. How do I do it? To me, it's a state of being. It's not a list of things to do. Right. Well, it also sounds like if I'm hearing you correctly, basically out of the gate each morning, it sounds like you were reminding yourself of that underpinning truth as you went out into practice. It was almost like you have to excise the victimization. Look, I don't know a ton about brain. I'm not a scientist, but what little I know is that the brain's here to keep me

safe and in so many times your brain's working against you because it's playing the victim for you and you have to retrain kind of how you think about it so like that's why i say every day you have to keep training a new thought pattern a new way to and it was so clear to me it was easy when it's not clear and muddy it's harder you're like i can't what was the point i can't remember and here comes the life but for me it was so clear and obvious that i was playing the victim that i think for me it was the state of being every morning, I might suck, but it has to be okay. It has to be whatever it is so that I don't look anywhere else. It's just you can author it, you can get better at it, but quit living in the mock of mitigation, I guess is how I would say it.

We are going to come back to some related threats. I'm sorry to riff like that. I mean, it's not friffing. This is why it's long form. And as a muggle, someone who's looking at football and I don't understand all of the technicality behind it and the strategy, but I respect the athleticism. I look at a quarterback and I wonder if you were to try to explain it to someone like me who's a layperson per se. What separates good from great quarterbacks? Are there any particular elements that you see consistently in great quarterbacks that are absent, not paid as much attention to or otherwise. I mean, they could be physical,

but I'm wondering if anything comes to mind. There's not long enough form for this. Yeah. Because, I mean, people have been searching. Because think about it, how many very, very smart people have been looking into college to predict who can be great in the NFL, and there's no worse results than trying to predict that. Trying to do that.

And that's why, why is college not a great? predictor. You know what's happening in the NFL? What do you think? Is it something internal like their ability to learn in a certain way? I've been trying to melt it down to something that people can just grab like this is the truth. One thing's for sure. Human behavior, I don't know the right way to think about it, but when there's adrenaline and focus and pressure, opposition, I mean, how many games are someone's paid to actually screw you up, like physically? Like I'm paid to grab you and throw you to the ground and hurt you. Like, you know what I mean?

That's my, I've paid millions of dollars. So it's all in that moment, in that kind of dynamic, that you now have to ferret through. And Tim, I wish everybody who loves football could stand with a helmet on. And at 6-4, 6-3 or whatever, 6-2, whatever, like Russell was in 6-5-10, and stand there and ferret through bodies in motion, the fastest, most athletic humans on earth on both sides. And that's why when you talk about the difference in the NFL is the speed,

it's the athleticism. A lot of times people's brain can't process that fast. Right. They were processing fine in college. They were processing grade in high school. But it's just an elevation. Gladly for me, there's not a super pro. I would have topped out, you know, but it's, I think, more than anything, the quality,

because there's fundamental things. You've got to be able to throw the ball. You got to be able to, but it's the process of figuring out the speed. And then because no one's, in my mind, college, everybody's, every receiver's open, and the pros nobody's open. Like, that's the change. You have to now figure out how to deliver it so that it's not open at the time you throw it. But by the time it gets there, it's open.

And I think that's the best way to explain how, and then do it over like every 30 seconds. And how many times do you throw it right at the, and then just as it leaves your hand, you get just pounded into the ground. You don't even see it. I mean, how many times you have bottom of a pile and you're like, how did it go? Like, you don't know. And you just listen for the crowd, right? Because you're like, if it's home and they're securing, you're like, it worked.

Otherwise, if they're booing you, then it's bad. So I think it's the processing, and it's a guile. It's a street smarts. It's not necessarily IQ for taking a calculus test. Right. There's memorization, but it's a, you just get it. You get it. I think there is a speed also associated with that, even with street smarts that I see in some of my friends in business, a certain EQ savvy.

They're very fast. Like their clock speed is high. And I think they'd be great quarterbacks, right? That's where that's the thing. And I think you just described it very well in other fields. I see it too. But again, even when I see it in other people, I think, I don't know at that speed, because you just don't, you don't know until you know.

There's also the pressure of imminent bodily harm. Well, that's what I mean is, I think most humans, when things get more intense, the adrenaline runs. And when adrenaline runs, the brain focuses, right? it gets smaller and it gets more focused, but yet you're not as aware. And so that physiology doesn't work because in quarterbacking, you have to expand. And it has to be the more present you are. Like if you're in your backyard, not 80,000 people watching,

and if like this is all happening in my backyard, how would I take this in? So I've noticed that the best quarterbacks have a genetic, I think it's genetic, predisposition to when adrenaline runs, it doesn't do the normal things for most humans. And that's why the quality is like, I wish I had a test for that because I could promise you, I could tell you who's going to be great. Yeah. I wonder if it's something just thinking out loud. I interviewed someone named Alex Honnold on the podcast before he did his big run, which turned into a documentary called Free Solo. but he climbed. Oh, my.

I think it was L-CAP. I can't remember the exact face. And it's like, with no ropes. And so I interviewed him. I can't watch it. It's too. I can't.

I mean, I'm honestly, I can't. I'm like, I can't, I literally can't watch it. I want to watch it. I can't watch life and death like that.

And his, his brain responds differently to those circumstances. 100%. And that's the only way. Because all of us watch it go, oh no. Panic and fall. No way.

That's what happens. No way. Not every. Every grip has to be life or death. Like, no way. Like, people think about quarterback in the NFL's like, whoa, you know, how do you do? I was like, look, talk about what you just said. This is penicult.

It might be like neurologically or genetically related. Is there anything that when you look at your trajectory that was learnable or coachable that you absorbed by watching other people? Like, what did you improve most at? So there's a lot out of the box, right? I mean, you were successful as a younger athlete and read some great quotes from your dad about this. But you were successful as a younger athlete. You seemed to have some hardwiring out of the box that was very helpful.

But you didn't just hit the ground running in the NFL and you were top of the game. There was something that improved. I'm wondering more many things. So one fundamental thing had to happen, which was how to throw the football. It's not intuitive. Kind of like golf. Great golf swings. when you grab a club as an adult, you're not going to do it right.

And as a kid, I grabbed a football, and because I didn't want to be embarrassed, I wanted to spin perfectly. I would spin it out of my hand, and that's how I did it. But you can't get behind to throw it hard. And, you know, this was not something that was like a deep, dark secret. Some people grab it and grab a golf club, grab a football, and it's just like, oh, yeah, that's how you must do it. That's not how I did it.

And so I got to college. I'd faked my way into playing college quarterbacking without really understanding it. And Jim McMahon was the quarterback at the time at BYU.YU. Incredible. Second the highest man. He was amazing. But he was righty and I was lefty and I was like, how does he's throwing it different? And then I realized that you have to, instead of spinning it out, like to spin it,

you actually go the other direction using the tension inside your arm as you hold it and then just go in. Oh, wow. You spin it. It comes out and spins. but now you can throw it with all your power. Right, right. And that was, you're talking about what I had to have that. I mean, those seem, and I've played a bunch of sports, certainly,

out of a JVE level. Well, no, it's, but it seems like rebuilding your swing in golf or something. A little bit, but it was such an unlock. Yeah. Once you felt it, golf's been more complicated because you got a stick and you got this, like, you're a little divorced from the feedback. Right, right. But in fact, it was in my hand.

Once you felt it, you're like, Like, oh my gosh. And then what I realized is I can now throw it as hard as I want right there. Like it was like this gift I had that was going to go undiscovered. Yeah. And all of a sudden it just came out. Did you realize that at BYU? Yes, right there.

It was my freshman year. I wish I would have written down the day. It was like November 10th, you know. Okay, it was like discovering fire. Fire. Exactly. We live. And I, all I did from that point on is throw the ball.

Like I just wanted to throw it. Throw it everywhere. Throw it. And what's ironic is that the coach who was the offensive coordinator at the time soon after. Because no one knew. This is all happening. I was eighth straight. I was no one.

I was nobody. But I figured it out. It had clocked in. It was clocking. Right. And so I think for me, he pulled me aside later in the year. He goes, by the way, I don't coach lefties. He said it to me.

I don't coach lefties. And so I was moved to defense at the end of that season because LaValle Edwards, the coach said, look, you're super fast, super athletic, we have 10 quarterbacks, we want you on the field. And so I started in the winter, practices winter as a safety in a defense, coldly position. I couldn't stand. I hated every second of it. As soon as practice ended, the quarterbacks would throw after practice, I'd go throw. And in the interim, that coach who told me he wouldn't coach lefties took a head coaching job

at San Diego State. Another coach, Ted Toner, came in, and I'm throwing with the quarterbacks after practice. And he goes, Steve, I thought you played quarterback. I go, I do, but they told me I'm lefty. So I have to play defense. And he goes, that's ridiculous. That's stupid. I go, I know.

It's insane. And then I screamed out, and I learned out of throw, too. Like so, I have this thing that, you know, and he's like, let me go see if I can fix it. So he goes in and changes it. And that spring, spring ball was a month, you know, 30 days of practice. He got two weeks for me to practice before I, you know, they made a decision. And by the end of the two weeks, because of this new gift, that was it. That was it.

And what that changed? Everything, because I was fast. I could run. I could throw it hard. I could process. the game wasn't too fast for me. I kind of all made sense to me. I just didn't unlock that one fundamental piece of throwing the ball.

You know, it's so fun having this conversation. I've been looking forward to it for so long. And before I forget, I just wanted to say, again, on a very reduced junior varsity level. But I wrestled my whole life, basically. Oh, I have total respect. I wrestled in ninth grade. Yeah. It's a tough sport.

I will never wrestle again. It is tough sport. It is brutal. There is no good news. No, there's no good news. You work, like, I remember the first wrestling, go to just a break in your story, three, one minute or three minutes, I can't remember how one.

And so by the first one was over, I was done. Yeah. The best, the people are in the best shape, the greatest athletes. When I see wrestlers, I tip my cap. I walk away, man. I'm like, it is a suffer fest. It is brutal. No matter what.

And I was, just a brief digression here, but I spent a year abroad in Japan in high school, which was my first time really outside of the United States, from Long Island to Tokyo, which changed my whole life. But I competed in judo while I was there. Then I came back for my final year of wrestling in high school, and I was doing really, really well. But I hit a wall, and the reason I'm bringing this up

is not at all to compare apples to apples. No, no, no, I bet you get it. But I somehow found a book called Mental Toughness Training for Sports by a guy named James Laird spelled L-O-E-H-R, who Josh Waitzkin actually also knows. And I read that book, and the key piece of that, it talked about different approaches to mental toughness, but it had an assessment,

and it asked you to give this assessment to close friends, coaches, teammates, and it just made all of your strengths and weaknesses, had them rate you on all of these different aspects of toughness, performance, resilience, et cetera, psychology. And once I had those report cards from all these people and I was able to see and accept strengths and weaknesses, and I don't think this is unique to me, there really was a before and after, right? Like the next practice was different, and that's when everything hockey

stick and ended up having just an incredible season. But to people who are listening and haven't experienced what, say, Steve experienced on that plane ride or what I've experienced with that book, there really can be that flash boil before and after. Like, that's kind of what self-help stuff does and tries to get you. And the problem is it doesn't all-time land because I get the idea, right? And so I read the book, oh, I'll go read the book. You read the book going, oh, okay. But the flashpoint is really, to me, the vulnerability, that that's the hard part.

the hard part is to open up and take the risk truly, internally. And I was living this life where it's like, I want to be great, I want to be great, I want to be great, I want to be great. And anyone who tells me I'm not, I don't know what to do about it, and it feels like I can't overcome it. And it's like you have to become vulnerable. That's how you take it in. And so people are like, what do I do?

I was like, in relationships with your mom, with your siblings, the most intimate ones. Can you start to recognize the complexity of that relationship, which it always is? And however you've defined, it's probably been not a great, authentic, vulnerable place. Can you start by opening up to your accountability, to your... Your pardon. Yeah. Your contribution. Like, how can you, if you want to have an aha moment or you want to have a read a book and change, you know, kind of inflection point, it comes from.

You were open for it. You were ready for it. And I was so desperate with Stephen Covey, but it wasn't necessarily I was looking for it. It was because it resonated so truthfully. Like, I'm screwing this up. I am royally screwing this up. And I cannot keep screwing it up.

And I think a lot of people at that moment go, oh, I'm going to keep screwing it up because I don't want to face the other side of that. That's what Stephen Covey. Remember what he said, a lot of people don't want to know how good they are. It makes sense to my brain. Yeah. Unless you get to that space, you really can't change. Well, the vulnerability also seems to me fundamentally accepting the possibility,

almost the certainty that you're making mistakes. And part of accepting how good you are is not necessarily accepting how excellent you inevitably are, but accepting the possibility that you might be falling short in certain places. And then also the grace in it, right, where what's the point? is the point to be regarded by people? Why it resonating with me? Because my own theology was like, we're here to learn and grow.

Let's do it. And part of learning and growing is I suck right now, but I'm not going to suck tomorrow. And once you can start to get into that mode of like, that's what I'm about, that's what happens. There's a clarity that comes. Because now everything gets fed through that truth.

And now it comes in more authentically. Like it doesn't hit the same way. And you can go in front of 80,000 people and find a piece about it. 80,000 people could boo you mercilessly. It is hard to what I'm talking about, but you can be authentically say, look, I'd boo me too. In fact, I might just boo with you. Like, it's okay. And you get into that place.

But you're not going to boo me. I'm going to try not to get booed tomorrow. But it might be. And like this, but as long in your brain is saying the whole point is, it's a lot of is to learn and grow, then Stephen Covey, be about it. And I think that really freed me up. It seems like such an important tectonic plate underneath everything else. I want to ask you about one of those quotes from your dad that I was alluding to earlier.

So this is from the Bloomberg piece and the URL has in it. Steve Young is an athlete who's actually good at finance, which I just, part of me love. Backhanded compliment. Yeah, I just love that. So your dad is bewildered by how well. By that fact. Well, he was bewildered by how well you did at football at different levels. And then this last line is the one I wanted to ask you about.

It says, honestly, Steve's personality is probably a better fit for law or business. As compared to professional athlete. Why would he say that, do you think? He's referring to, look, we should talk about it. So when I was a kid growing up, you know, first grade, second grade, third grade, I was a kid that when the first day of school, I would turn to my mom or dad and say, look, I'm not going. And they're like, why?

It's super fun. And I'm like, my brain was processing it in fear and a new place, new people, and that seemed super scary. And that's, I think clinically would be called separation anxiety. And I think people listening, I'm sure they know somebody probably that had that as a kid. And so that didn't really show up in my life because I realized very young that I was not going to be like going on vacation with my friends and I was going to be home. Sleepovers, not so much. Not so much. But during the daytime, I was killing it only for context, like all stayed in three sports, captain, straight A's.

Like not because I was like, you know, tiger parents or tiger person. Like I just, the day was awesome. I can't wait. It's going to be great. And at night it's like, I'm home. And I didn't realize how much I had of this is when I went to college and had to go through a process of geography change that was like existential. And it's hard to explain to people because they're like, going to college is awesome, man.

What's your problem? And why you didn't unpack your bags the whole semester? And you kept telling you're just miserable? Like, how's that possible? Well, it's how my brain worked function. I can't really say much about it. that's about it. And I remember when I came back for Christmas, I finally got to come home. And I remember walking through the door and going, oh, wow, I kind of want to go back to school. And I realized that that was a

huge shift for me. You know, you live in your own private Idaho, like all the things that you're feeling, all the things you don't really share, you don't really, you know, it's like some of it you're afraid to even share. And it's like, all of a sudden I realized it's going to be all right, because now I have two homes. And that was a shift that I needed. What my dad's describing is generally when I had to go play, there was a pattern of focus that was like, you know, he would call hyper focus and not fun, you know.

And so he's like, he's built for something else. I think that's what he's referring to. But I think it comes from the roots of that, what I would call clinical part of my life, another little internal battle. Because now I see the world and I'm like, I can't wait to discover it. At some point it just flipped.

The thing that was so constrictive and difficult and threatening, my parents left for a couple days when I was really little at my aunt's house, and I can still smell it. I can still feel it. I can still like the terror of them walking out. And I just like, I look back and like, that's an insane react. I can still hear my brothers and sisters outside laughing and with all my cousins.

But that was me. Part of the authenticity has come to a place where we can look at in the eye too, you know. I think that explains my dad's comment. That part of me, but what he doesn't realize is that part of me drove the intensity and the focus. So it's like there's not all bad. Yeah, there's a flip side. There's a flip side. And so I would say to my dad, well, the way.

way you're looking at it, I can see why you say that. But the way I'm looking at it is like, I think it was an end of this. I had to have it. Yeah. Just a quick thanks to our sponsors and we'll be right back to the show. It has been a wild year for money in the markets, but managing your cash doesn't have to be a guessing game. Wealthfront has a simple solution to help you cut through all the chaos and manage your money with confidence. With the wealth front cash account, your cash can earn 3.25% variable annual percentage yield from partner banks. You get instant fee-free withdrawals to eligible accounts 24-7. Your money is always accessible when you need it. When you're ready to invest, transferring funds into one of Wealthfront's expert-built investing portfolios is easy-peasy.

For a limited time, Wealthfront is offering my listeners, that's you guys, an additional 0.65% boost over the base rate for three months, which means you can get up to 3, 3,000. point nine percent APY on your first $150,000 in deposits. More than one million people trust Wealthfront to help build their wealth. Go to Wealthfront.com slash Tim to receive the boosted APY offer and start earning up to 3.9% variable APY today. This is a paid endorsement of Wealthfront. Wealthfront brokerage isn't a bank. The base APIY is as of December 19th, 2025 and subject to change. For more information, see the episode description. Was there a point where, I mean, this is going to be a strong way of putting it, but you know, I've experienced my own life

and have talked about struggles. Some of it, I think, is hereditary with generalized anxiety, depressive episodes, which I've seen throughout my family. And appreciate how open you've been about discussing some of this. And I'm curious at what point you realized you didn't need that kind of monkey on your back. And specifically, I'm thinking about in the course of doing research for this, reading a New York Times piece, and it mentions Dr. James Clint and Reggie, I guess, and you approaching Reggie at one point.

I think it was after, what, three sleepless nights, something like that. And I guess I'm wondering what was happening, right, for people who don't know what the context is. And then what happened afterwards this? it helped. It's kind of a bookend, actually tight bookends between the Stephen Covey story and the Jim Clint story because just before that, and maybe that leads to the vulnerability in the depth of what I just described and where I was in a hole and victimized and there was a game that I just starting like Thursday night, the good news about all of that anxiousness around playing,

I always slept. So it was like, you could deal with it. And all of a sudden I wasn't. And so it was a game where people that I was near were like, you're a mess. You got to talk to them. Like, you can't play. And I'm like, oh, no, that's not an option. Like, we're playing. And I remember telling them, as I left for the game in such a state, I just probably never been quite like that.

So I promised him. I said, look, if we win, I'll talk to the team doctor, just tell them, like, I'm not, something's going on, you know. But if we lose, I can't. There's no place to be able to. to, like you can't. An excuse. Yeah. That's just the way of my brain was working.

So we won. I played pretty well. I was like, I don't suggest, by the way, that that's how you prepare. Right. But after the game, I'm sitting in the training room, towel, ice pack, and I see Reggie. You know, he's been around. He's been around all the Super Bowls. He was somebody that I promised my friends that I would do this, but I didn't want to.

And we won. So, like, we're good for. little while, right? But I did. I pulled him aside and I remember back in the corner, the old candlestick park, it was like stuff was dripping down. It's a dank, it's old school, right? And we're in the back corner and I get kind of move away from everybody and I'm kind of almost nose to nose. And I'm like, Reggie, I'm going through this thing. I don't know what's wrong. And I kind of explained it all. And as I'm explaining it, I see a big ball of a tear, like a big ball come out of his eye and then drop and then another one.

And he hasn't changed his face. He hasn't changed anything. And I'm like, Reggie, are you crying? And he's trying not to like break. Like he's like, I dealt with so much clinical anxiety I could hardly get through medical school. That's what he said. That's what he said. This is what he, I mean, as he answered with a straight, like,

He hadn't changed his face at all. I had dealt with, and I, watching you, instinctively felt that there was something going on. And I feel like I've, like malpractice, that this is what's had to come to it. Like he felt this incredible pain as the team physician that would have, and qualified to maybe watch for this kind of stuff. and I'm like, man, like, I was relieved. Yeah. Because I didn't know what was going to happen. I was like,

telling something that was totally like, total vulnerability, total, like, weakness it felt like, right? And he's like, respond. Like, oh, I blew it. And I'm like, Reggie, don't worry about it, bro. But he said, we're going to get the bottom of it. And it wasn't maybe two days later, he sent me up to a child psychologist, psychiatrist,

aren't sure. And they gave me a test of 10 questions that would describe things. things that happen in your life. And that would be, if you answer yes to eight of them, then you're a kind of undiagnosed childhood separation anxiety as an adult. And so I was nine of them, right? Like so, and he said, most people, Steve, who have this going on in their life, they're like self-medicating, right? They're in the basement. They're like, you know, but you're the MVP of the NFL. So I think we're just going to let you keep rolling. You know what I

mean, and find your way through it. And I did find solace in the knowledge, because until that point, I had subconsciously always known that I didn't like being in other people's houses when I was a kid or, you know, in other places. But my life was so full and amazing that I just, kind of, we just made our way. And so this is a point where now book ended with Stephen Covey maybe three weeks later. These are pretty vital, big change. that happened that I think allowed me the place to kind of find peace about it all. And so was the diagnosis in itself the treatment in the respect that you finally had a label to apply, a way to think about it so that it wasn't this nebulous set of worries?

Or what allowed you, I guess, to go back to Strait? It was actually super cool because I didn't think about it. it as a stigma. Like, I thought about it as like, oh, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, as I told my parents and told my, my, then we found out that, like, in my mom's side of the family, this is a thing. Yeah.

And explained all kinds of craziness that was going on, that now I'm going to go, oh. Now the piece of stuff. So now I paid forward, you know what I mean? So in its own way, that was, the knowledge was the key. And then because I was so functioning through it, like, it was helpful. Didn't make playing in front of 80,000 people and trying to be a great player, it didn't make it simple. But I think it was a piece to the puzzle for me to recognize that what I experienced as a kid, then you could kind of put into context.

And knowledge is power, right? Yeah, I remember maybe it was two years ago. I wanted to do this experimental treatment. It's actually not so far from where we're sitting, right? we're sitting here in Palo Alto and they're in Sunnyville, but I was doing something called accelerated TMS. I won't bore you with all the details, but it's this medical treatment, and they had to put me through all these assessments beforehand. Is it red light? It's called a Keisha Clinic, and they apply a magnetic coil, basically, to your brain or to your skull.

And the long and short of it is it produces a type of stimulation that is remarkably effective for generalized anxiety, in some cases, depression, OCD. And part of them checking the boxes for me to be able to pursue this, not just for myself, but to interview scientists about this on the podcast and hopefully present more tools to people who might be suffering. They took me through all these different tests. And at one point, after an hour or two, they took this big pause. And they said, you know, Tim, based on all of this,

you seem to qualify for moderate to severe OCD, and then he paused, and the doctor was kind of nervous, and he's like, I know this is a lot to take in. If we need to take a break and come back tomorrow, and I was like, are you kidding me? I was like, it makes perfect sense. None of my friends would be surprised. It was just like, in retrospect, yeah,

it makes a lot of things click together. Even one of my friends later, he's like, oh, man, knowing that you got diagnosed makes it so much easier to put up with your OCD. And I was like, okay, and it was really, I think there's a risk that maybe you overrefer, define yourself by the label, but in my case, I was just like, oh, okay, that's great. Now I have a shorthand way to piece these things.

That's exactly how it felt. It was like, I got a job to do. I'm about it. I didn't realize how victimized I had become and how inauthentic I'd become and all that part of it. But at least it all kind of like, like you said, my friend's like, oh, yeah, I can see that. Or you know, my parents, like, my dad's like, I keep telling you just go have fun and you

don't have any fun. Oh, now I get it. So that way it was useful in that way. I feel like, again, what are we here to do? Learn and grow. It's like, that's okay. Let's go through it, right? And I still, to this day, find myself the anxious parts have all kind of abated.

But the pattern as a kid, I'm realizing now how you achieve, how you accomplish, what's the root of how you try to do it? And I was doing it in a fear-based way. like in other words if i worry about something that's important to me enough i can make it happen it's magical thinking in a way right like if i worry and work and fred and something good will happen like in my life and if you think about all the good in your life did it come because you worried about it probably that's the wrong dynamic but it takes again this vulnerability and authenticity to kind of say, over my life, I've now realized watching good things happen and

like, I didn't even worry about it. Something good happened and I didn't have to author it. And so it's like life is so crazy amazing in that way where the onion unfold and unraveling. Like you just learning is so powerful to your life. And again, you can't get there unless you're willing to say, it's okay. It could sting. It could hurt. It could hurt for a while. But at least it's what is. It's real. Yeah. Steve, I have to ask you about the following.

This is the law degree. Over the course of seven off seasons, he pursued a law degree at BYU. Side note, this is from the Bloomberg piece, his great, great, great grandfather was Brigham Young himself. That's wild.

I mean, I've spent a lot of time in Utah. That's maybe a whole separate chapter for another time. But why the law degree? Why did you pursue that? my dad when I was growing up, because I had a picture of Roger Staubach was a famous quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys on my wall, he'd tell me what you wanted to be when you grow up. And I'd be like, I want to be a quarterback, like Roger Staubach.

Look at my, you know, and he'd go, well, that's a great dream, son. That's a great dream. And dreams are less than 1% chance, you know, but dreams are important. Like, have a dream. Like, I love it, have it, but that's very unlikely. I need you to make a plan that's 80% chance. And so I would tell them, 80% chance, I'll fake it and tell you that I'll go to college

and then I'll go to law school like you, dad, and I'll be a lawyer. Okay, so your dad was a lawyer. My dad's lawyer. You know, he described law and I was like, I think I could do that. So then I would tell him that. He goes, you know, I think there's an 80% chance

that you can do that. So that'll be the plan. That's a plan. And now we have a dream and a plan. He was always about that. even he turned 90 in February and I recently asked him like, well, what's the dream, dad? You know, because he always like, he's like, 110. You know, like he has it in his mind.

Yeah. Like, that's the dream. So then I had a dream and a plan. So then I go to college and I end up going pro and the dream comes true, right? I'm like, dad, so much for one percent, bro. It's 100% now, you know? And then he would always say, well, the average career is three years. And then I played for six years.

And he's like, well, what are you going to do the rest of the year? you're retired 35 and then what, you're another half of your life. What are you going to do? So he just kept kind of put in my head. Dog with a bun. Yeah, well,

it wasn't, I didn't bother me because I knew it was pretty true what he was saying. Like, what are you going to do with the rest of your life? And so I got, I don't know how it got in my head. I look back on that as like, Tim,

that's just stupid to try to go to law school while you play. Like, that's just, like, just dumb. But I figured it out with the ABA, with the law school because the first semester in law school is in the fall nationwide. The first year curriculum is sequential.

You can't cheat it. And they worked it out where I could audit the second semester one winter. If I passed the classes cold, then that would qualify me to come back and take the second semester, blah, blah, blah. So over seven years, six for credit semesters, I went back. And what was funny now, but wasn't funny at the time, is we went to three Super Bowls in that time. And the Super Bowl is in February. You know, end of January, February.

School starts right after the new year. So I'm showing up a month late, and no one in law school cares. You still got to do the work. So I remember going the parade down Market Street in San Francisco and jumping on a plane, the Delta plane back to Salt Lake City at evening. And then the next morning, in class,

and every class, the five first, you know, whatever class I, usually five or six classes, every class is Socratic method, they walk in and they say, Miss Jones, can you please brief us on, blah, blah, the whole day was, Mr. Young, could you please brief us on? So I'm just scrambling, but I think I loved that in a weird way, but I look back as like, what are you doing, man? What are you doing? But my dad was right. I'm now 25 years in private equity. and the only way I was able to cut the line being late to the party was because I had an advanced degree. That's how I did it. And so it was right.

Yeah, it served its purpose. Dream and plan. All right. So you're doing these seven off seasons, flying back, parade, get on a plane, fly back next morning. Mr. Young, right? So you're doing that. How do you make the hop to finance? How does that?

How does that even materialized? Okay, so you got to remember the 49ers, 1988 were given land in Santa Clara by the city of Santa Clara because there's nothing going on down there to build a training facility and try to attract more business. And that's funny now because Silicon Valley, you know, Santa Clara's middle of it's like it is the epicenter of Silicon Valley. And so that's where I worked all the years. And so as we worked and watched the explosion. of Silicon Valley and technology, we're sitting in the locker room, and there's five or six of us,

the lunch group that we would figure out, okay, look, how do we get in on all this venture investing and all this stuff that's going on, all these businesses? Guys were leaving Stanford Business School, literally in the middle of class, would get a text or something, and they would take the CEO job of a new startup. They'd walk out, you know what I mean?

And so how do we get in the middle of it? So we started trading access to the locker room from this guys on Sand Hill Road for a venture, investing. So we started to get everything they did. We gave them $50,000 of what they were doing. We just split it up. How did that relationship happen? We would, well, it doesn't seem like the Venn diagrams were totally overla. Well, no, because like Doug Lione, he was a great guy. He was a great friend. He's one of the greats. He was one that said, look, we didn't make a trade. Yeah. It wasn't a transaction.

It was more like, hey, we'd love a relationship, come in the locker room, be a part of our life and let us be a part of your life, essentially. And he was somebody that I think really appreciated the complexity of what we were doing and the high function that we were doing. And then we obviously appreciated the high function and complexity of what he was doing. And so we shared in that. And I think that that started a process. I was asked by Brian Maxwell, who's now passed away, but he started Power Bar. That was a meal replacement for marathons, right?

I remember back in the day. But for a single guy, that was my, it was meal replacement, like not for a marathon for like day to day. And so it kind of got famous around the Bay Area. that I was, you know, he, you know, the power white, he asked me to be on the board. And I was like, well, I never done that before. I'll try that. First board meeting, Larry Sonsini, one of the, yeah, like, icons of Silicon Valley lawyers. So when I first moved, just for people who don't recognize that. So back in the day, Wilson Sonsini were kind of the connective tissue behind the scenes

for Silicon Valley. They were one of the big. It was the backbone of legal background. And then Warren Hellman of Helman and Freeman, like Warren Helman's like, I, icon of investing in the late 90s and really his whole life. He is the icon. So there's two of them and I'm sitting in the board. I mean, your list is pretty insane. Pretty insane. Yeah. How does this happen? And so I had a guy that I'm glad this is long form. I had a friend in college who was messing around with the URLs before the internet was shut down by the government. You could go in and he had an algorithm where he'd put a geographic boundary around an internet search. And if you're old enough to the 90s, the internet was a mess.

If you put in, you know, Palo Alto hammer, you'd get like a USSR sickle. Like, you'd get, nothing made sense. But with this enablement, you could put in Palo Alto Hammer and get the local Ace Hardware store. Yeah. So that made it useful. And so we had that enablement. My buddy was doing it.

He was like, can you help me? I'm like, so I take it to the board meeting. And I'm like, hey, this, what do you think about this? And like, that works. you need to start a business that retailers are panicked right now because their brick and mortar stores are going to be usurped by Amazon. And late 90s, it's 10 years before the time, but people are thinking about it.

Take this enablement to them. They can query their inventory real time, and they can drop ship it that day, and someone can pick it up. It becomes your distribution point. And I'm like, oh, so we went and did that. And my longtime partner, 30 years together, left his banking job at Morgan Stanley, be the CEO of this business called Found.com.

What's your partner's name? Rich Lawson. How did you meet this? I just love these stories. And I want to just take a quick sidebar for folks because this is a great example of going to where the action is. In this sense, I just had a conversation with Bill Gurley, legendary, venture capitalist. Yes.

He's got a book that might be out by the time this is published, but it's coming out soon called Running Down a Dream. And in it, he has a chapter on going to where the action is, Bob Dylan going from Minnesota to New York City. And you can kind of go down the list. And in this case, it's like you happen to be in the epicenter. And again, I wish I was Bob Dylan and had the smarts to go from Minneapolis to the action in Silicon Valley. But I actually, luckily, was already here, like just sitting here. I actually watched the traffic get worse and worse. Like, where is all this traffic coming from?

Like, I used to get to work in 10 minutes. Now I get working 30. And so it's like, we made fun of the athletic brain. It's like, it took a little while to kind of get it going. But in the end, we were in the middle of it. And I found myself. So to finish that story, we start a business. Rich is the CEO.

I'm the chairman, backed by Excel KKR and Bain. and it was all of that. And so that's where Warren and Larry Sonsini, Larry became a very close friend of mine, a mentor, still is. I mean, really is, still is. I mean, he's just an amazing guy. He's like, Steve, I'm a lawyer. You need to go do this.

That's how it's switched. Oh, I see. He said, I'm a lawyer. And he's saying that referring to. He just said, look, your EQ and the way you look at the world. And I had graduated in finance. So I was like I knew enough to be not even dangerous, but knew enough to what it was about.

He said, you need to go help people build businesses. That's kind of how it switched. And I'm looking right over your shoulder at looks like maybe a tweet from Rich Lawson, your partner. He says, very proud to break into the top 20 of 500 plus private equity firms globally in just over the decade. Okay. So, I mean, you've had these multiple chapters.

How did you connect with Rich Lawson? That's actually you can see. Rich Lawson right there. So perfect timing. How did you manage to? Well, let's back up because what you're alluding to, I think, is that what we've been talking about really for the whole time is transition. Yeah. And the difficulties. Because I love football and I was very successful at it. I run into a lot of people who played in high school and loved it. The dream. Like they would give their arm to be able to, or leg, to be able to play in college and keep the dream going. And always think about how when I left the game, it wasn't necessarily forced, but you do age out.

Like it just sooner or later. Even Tom Brady aged out at 45. Like it's still as a young man's game. And I remember the day I retired, I was known for this thing that I had been able to do worldwide even. The next day I remember waking up and now that that's gone. Now what? Yeah. Yeah.

And what I've learned about transition that leads to Rich Loss and how I describe it, that everyone, and even the high schooler, the last day they play and it has to be put away, needs to recognize and treat it like a death, to mourn it and go through all the steps of mourning it and burying it and actually having it as a place that you can keep referring to as a, almost like a grave site, because otherwise you carry it around. You never transition.

Transitioning is about actually moving from to, right? And so I'm really grateful my Roger Staubach poster on my wall. I got to know him. He became a friend. Like it's insane. Yeah. How cool is that? And he famously transitioned.

Probably the most successful transition in history of the NFL. What did he transition to you? The Staubach company was a real estate business that he was hugely successful. And I remember asking him towards the end of my career, Roger, what do I give me some tips. He goes, run. I'm like, run where? He goes, just run away. That was his tip.

because he said, the game will never leave you, but you need to leave it. You need to move on. And I thought that was just simple but really important. And I tell people today, and I really want to write a book about transition, because everybody is constantly transitioning, whether they like it or not. Most of it forced. If there's an authentic, vulnerable way to transition and bury and mourn, you can wake up the next day, realize I was great at something. And now I'm not even good at anything else. But you know what? I'm going to learn and grow. We're going to learn and grow. Hey. I'm slow, but I'm getting there. I'm only twice as dumb as that way. It's useful. What did morning football look like to you? What did running from it look like and what did morning?

It's funny. So you lead to Rich. So as we built this business and I was still playing, I was kidding ready to run and I was already running away from it even before it was over. I think there was a fear-based, which is not necessarily the best way to do this, that if I didn't run really fast, that it would somehow keep me from getting really clear of it all. And so I just started, you know, we had that business. We was just running. And so he was a banker at Morgan Stanley. We took this idea that Warren and Larry had said, great, my buddy Jim Herman.

And he said, as we went to go get financing for this business, we ran into Rich, who was a very successful banker in Morgan Stanley, but young, recognizing everything that's going. I says, you need a CEO. And I'm like, yeah, you're right, we do. You got to be in the late 90s in technology. He's like, I'm walking out of Morgan Stanley. I'm going to be the CEO.

And so we've been together ever since that. And so the transition you're talking about as far as, I think because of that energy around great mentors, I mean, I'm very, very lucky. I didn't have to do it raw. I didn't have to do it alone. That would be super. difficult. I had all this mentorship, all this modeling, all this example from Roger, from everybody.

So to me, it was just, can you just go enact what is obvious to go do? And I really appreciate it because the game never does leave you. I traffic in memorabilia for our golf tournaments for a Fairview Young Foundation. And so we need constant signatures from jerseys from players and hockey players or Hollywood or and so I to this day you can't imagine how many signatures that I do that as part of the memorabilia company and they pay me in stuff so we can use it for the tournaments you know what I mean and I'm still if you told me in 2025 I'd still be signing my name on Steve Young jerseys or helmets it blows the mind but we're still trafficking in it because it funds the foundation and we have great golf tournaments and we make a lot of good things happen. So it's like

a virtuous cycle that we got going. It seems also really fortunate. We were chatting briefly and we won't get into the details of that, but about some of the former military kind of tier one operators who are friends of mine who run into a very similar challenge, right? They're the best of the best. It is brutal. They've been hugely invested in, not that dissimilar in some ways from top level professional athletes. And then they go from being the best at what they do to, question mark or feeling they're not good at anything and and happens to gold medalists or or i should say just Olympians broadly it happens to the high schooler who never leaves football yeah that's you're talking about there's dramatic moments that are clear like the seal team who's the elite member like that resonates

with everybody like oh my gosh that would be hard you're right though it happens yeah but but but but the transition pattern is so common yeah and i was i was thinking how incredibly fortunate. It seems to me that you happen to be here because startups are a full contact support. That is full commit. That is not a nine to five check in, check out going six out out of ten. The startups is in a way, it just seems like a good fit in a sense for someone who's been in six gear for so long. I think there's a little bit of a drug in it, right, where the action, I talk about this for other quarterbacks have played a long time. what do you miss and you miss the opportunity to pour yourself into something like i always say

there's physical athleticism that's part of it there's emotional athleticism the part of it there's psychological about like it's every part of you is necessary to be poured in to be even good at this if not great and so that rigor even business can't provide that it's nothing like it in front of 80,000 people with a score, you know, and officials and a clock and like, that's just, it's a really crazy cool environment because there's truth in it always. There's a purity to it. So purity to it. But even in the purity of it, going back to the truest truth of accountability, you can still

try to fake that it wasn't you. Even in the most true, clear witnessed, 80,000 witnesses just watched it. And you can listen to quarterbacks after the game, especially losing quarterbacks when they ask them what happened. Try to spin what 80,000 people just witness, bro. Like, come on. And so in that way, it just tells me about human nature that if you try to spin what just happened on a football field, what are you going to try to spend in business or in your personal life or in your family? Or in your family. And that's what I say when people say, look, I really want to change.

I really want to transition to something better. I want to learn and grow authentically, truly. You got to be about it. You know, it has to be core. Core, because otherwise you'll, humans, in entropy with gravity and our bodies are rotting, like things are going to, like, it's just truth. We'll go along with that rationale. And that is a transactional path that, yeah, you're right.

It's a rotten path. And people, we live it all the time. We're definitely going to talk about transactional and we're going to get into one of your books. But I'm so curious, right? So you've got this Morgan Stanley banker named Rich Lawson. And he's like, you're going to need a CEO. Furthermore, I'm the guy. Why say yes, right?

What was the pitch? I mean, I love the hutspe of it. Well, I mean, think about it. This is the, I don't know how I try to explain stuff. It's always my dad goes. like, or my wife was like, Steve, get to the point. But industrial revolution, 100 years. Technology revolution 20 years.

This is dead answer. Right. So, like, it was happening. Yeah. Right in front, like, right with us. You could see it. So it was like businesses were literally going from nothing to public in months. Yeah.

That were now being valued at a billion. Like, it was insane time. So you have to put yourself in there. So why would Rich turn and see this? I, because I didn't. understand why he would do it. It's more the question of why you guys would agree to it. Because we just had an idea. Yeah, I see, I see. You needed and he seemed like an operator. And really, the guys that formed this and the guys that did the algorithm and the, I'm the facilitator, right?

Like, I want to be in business. I'm energized by the human complex calculus in business. And so I was drawn to it. I still have imposter syndrome a little bit, right? Like, but back then I definitely felt like, I'm kind of faking my way through it. And here's a guy that was classically trained at Harvard, went in business, you know, went to consulting and then now as a big banker. And like,

to me, he's like, he's got all the category. He's expert, right? That's fun. The yin and yang of it all. What is made,

I mean, I have quite a few friends. I mean, a lot of friends in the investing world are at large, but I have quite a few in the private equity world as well. And I mean, how long have you guys been partners now? That was 1997.

It's been a, Almost 30. Yeah, 30 years. Why has it worked? Right? Because a lot don't. None do. Yeah, right.

There we go. First of all, I think that there was a clarity early on that the things that he's really good at, I really am not good at. And the things that I was really good at wasn't his strongest suit. You know, so there's a yin and yang kind of feel to it. And then there's a trust that gets built that just works. Like it either does or doesn't. And it gets tested.

I mean, the times that in 30 years, you've got to be kidding me, I remember sitting in the corner. There was existential moments when it felt like, well, that was fun, you know, see you later. What types, if you're able to talk about, like, what types of, how do those precipitate? Private equity, if you think about it, is a, it's a really unique business because you go globally to find investors to believe that you can go now deploy capital in businesses. to return, you know, significantly more over a period of time than the public equities or other bonds or anything else. And so private equity's got this fuse of capital that has to be great. And you have to be great in kind of 10-year increments so that as you go out and you raise the money and you go do it, every few years you're going to have another referendum on whether you're in business or not.

based on your report card. Truly. And you could be out of business. And so it's a crazy world to now try to build continuity from fund to fund and a business that reflects the values that you want. In the middle of the truth of it is like there's a referendum every few years. And it might go away. When you're getting started like any startup, there are existential moments that feel,

I look back and it probably wasn't. truly existential, but it felt it. And that builds trust or scar tissue that, you mean, to me, the most interesting people in the world have lots of scars, right, and have found the bounty in it, the good in it. And so that's how it's worked. And like we had our holiday party yesterday last night, and there we are sitting together, chopping it up, like, what amazing what's happened, but yet what we can do, you know? So it's just Henry Kravitz and George Roberts, both I've had the pleasure and the honor of knowing and knowing them.

And that's one of the great partnerships of all time, two cousins that have just, and they're still humble, gentleman, sincere. I mean, I'm inspired by both of them. And so in that way, I'm now getting old enough where we can talk about these generational relationships that are super cool. we all had the same office. We never had separate offices. He's like, I'm Oscar, he's Felix, like, you know, the old odd couple. You look at the around the room and all the helmets hanging up. That's COVID.

All the stuff I remember I told me, remember, bill you that I traffic in? They were in the corner in a big pile. Like, it was just a pile of crap that just keeps getting cycled through. And during COVID, he couldn't take it. He, like, I got to clean this place up. That's me. That would be me. So we hung it.

I walk in after a couple of weeks. man, and like, what have you done? You hung up helmets around that. It looks stupid, you know? Because to me, as an ex-pro athlete, like, that's just dumb. Yeah. But to him, it's like, that's clean, you know? And so we have helmets.

It looks pretty cool. It's the background with the camera facing this way. So HGGC, a handsome good guy company? What does that stand for? Historically, it was Huntsman Gay, Global Capital. At the time, back in 2008, 7, Rich and I were the younger partner. founders and the two older partners, John Huntsman and Bob Gay with Greg Benson, and John wanted his name on it, and Bob didn't want his name on it.

So but then John won, so it's Huntsman Gay Global Capital. But then John was selling his Huntsman chemical business, but in the 2008 credit crisis, you can read the story. It's an amazing story where Leon Black at Apollo had bought it, signed it, but then didn't fund it. because everything had gone crazy. And then what ended up happening is the contraction did not get funded. They broke it.

There was a huge lawsuit and a billion-dollar settlement. But the net of it was John Huntsman never was able to come over. So here we are raising money as Huntsman-Gay Global Global Global Global. And we don't have John. And then Bob left for full-time church service three years later. And so then we go to fund too. And it's like, we're Huntsman-Gay Global Capital. No John.

I'm not going to know Bob Gay. Well, yeah, Rich Losson and Steve Young, what do you think? Let's go. That's so glad I asked. That's such better. So, it's so much better than I would have. So then we have a decision to make in 2012. What do we name ourselves, you know?

Because we can't stay with that name. And there's a little panic like, again, existential crisis. Can we even raise? Can we raise a fun? Let's melt it down. So at least it's a reflection of something that was existing. and I honestly, and everyone around the firm knows is I can't stand our name. Because HGC is hard to say.

So you stand up in a very formal setting and you're trying to express the values and this incredible partnership culture that you've built off of the back of my previous life in football and how you have to come together. And, you know, Perry Pesoo, we can lock arms, strategic vision, we can go. And, you know, everyone here at HGGC, you know. It's a lot of syllables. Yeah. So my great idea is to call it, you know, I used to play a candlestick part.

so it's Candlestick Ventures or Candlestick Partners, but we've said, we branded it, it's worldwide, it's everything. So now we're HGGC just because, and it's fine, it's fun, it's fun. You mentioned something that actually might be a nice segue to where I was planning going next anyway. You said, left for full-time church service. And I was going to ask about faith, the role that faith. Sure.

Not only plays in your life now, but has played. Has it changed form over time? I don't know if it has or not. Yeah, I know. It always does. But it should. Yeah. Learning grow, right?

I mean, that's just, as a young kid, you know, like, it was formative, right? Like, it gave you a sense that God's with you, cheering you. I always, as a kid, I always felt like, you know, even in the hardest times, like, no, God's cheering you on. Like, I never felt this wrathful. Like, when I read the Old Testament, like, eh. Not really. That doesn't make sense. Leviticus doesn't have a big smile.

Yeah, but it doesn't, it's actually, and I was able as a young kid to kind of ferret through the things that resonated and the stuff that didn't. And so my theology is really wrapped into what I would call, you know, being LDS is like complex because it was a, you know, we claimed this kind of restoration. So it was a restart. And in the restart, there's, I mean, you look back at the history

in the last 200 years, it's, pretty chaotic. And so for me, I don't have to carry all that. Right. But the things that resonate, the things that are beautiful are really rooted in that event. So it's like to me, it's always resonated. It's always been something that, and I don't have to carry what I see as kind of the chaotic parts of a young organization.

So in that way, I tell my wife, you know, she got me started on, you know, really questioning and challenging the culture as a cultural experience because true faith can't be cultural, right? It has to be rooted in something actionable that is beyond you, you know? And so I find myself more energized than ever around faith and around the potential of organized religion and its beauty, yet recognizing how devastatingly painful and difficult and all the other parts of it. So ferreting through all that, I find myself more energized than ever at how I feel around faith and connection and relationship. I learned somewhere in there that if you're not careful, you go back to what we talked about around entropy and

rotting and transaction and like if you're not careful religion becomes what I call Boy Scout theology kind of go get a merit badge do the work it's good work it's not bad work go get a merit badge put it on your sash and then wear it around town so everyone knows what amazing Boy Scout you are right I mean does that make sense it does make sense so that theology it's like is productive it's like performative there's good things that come out of it but the relationship can't last because it's transactional. It is self-interested at its core, and it can't make it. So I'm super energized by the roots that really kind of like, I don't know, I find myself every day enjoying as I chew on the ideals of my faith, like how it keeps

resonating in a way that is, you're talking about learning growing, right? Like, I find myself always refining and spiritually kind of that light that I feel, that I want to be around. And it doesn't necessarily, it comes from everywhere. I find my organized religions, it's not hoveled. It's not insular. It's not, like it makes me more curious. Like I can't wait to hear when you tell me about something that you're doing. I'm like, tell me more about that, man, because that's informative to where, kind of where I'm sitting.

And that's when I know it works is when you get away. way from transactional insular, hoveling, self-righteous judgment. Like, those are all transactional words. You asked me a question, I'm sorry to go sort of riffing on it, but it's a really, I think, energizing place to be for me right now. No need to apologize. I mean, this is an exploration, and I wanted to ask for a number of different reasons. One of them, I mean, this is a reflection of sort of the antithesis of insular also in my

reading of the Law of Love, your book, which was sent to me by Greg McEwen, who wrote essentialism. Wow. And ended up listening to it. Oh, man. And I listened to it. I apologize for that. Well, no, no.

It's written for my LDS brothers and sisters. Like, we're in a place where our roots are incredibly non-transactional and yet have allowed for the rational, I shouldn't say infection, but allowing for the transactional to actually lead in places that it needs to be kind of excised. And so that's the book is about, is that there's a law governing the universe, universal law for all humans, that says to see the full measure of something,

you have to lose the self-interest. And I was brought here by my, by Bill Walsh, my coach and the 49ers who used to talk about every year he'd stand in front of the team and say, I don't care what play we call, I don't care what defense we run. We're going to win because we have shared common experience. experiences amongst each other, an element of love for each other.

And it was like, that's how we're going to win football games. And it was actually true all the way to, you know, just all elements of my marriage, my family, my relationships. It was all as I sought the higher ground, I guess you would call it. It just started to resonate and I wanted to write about it. It was my journey led by my wife who I just think like I'm so much better rubbing up against her every day, you know, shoulder to shoulder. Like, I just, I always say she gets the barnacles off my boat, you know what I mean?

Like, I love her for that. And so that's, I don't even know what the question you were. I kind of lost myself in it, but I'll pick up where you just left off with respect to keeping this, it's not the loss of self-interest, it's also this love of the collective that might not be the best way to phrase it, but self-transcendence, maybe, would be one way to put it. How do you, how do your wife, how do you guys, your family keep it at the forefront? Maybe it's a question for you. How has that become more important? How do you keep it like you did the accountability after that plane ride? Right. Something that you have as a lens on a daily or weekly

basis. I think that's where the theology really is important is how you see, how you define the crazy world that we have, you know? I mean, I just noticed the fiery, orb that came through the sky again today. Amazing. Now it just comes in and makes Palo Alto, you know, 67 degrees and perfect. You know what I mean? Like the things that are going on, the miracles that happen. I mean, I can't, you know, I had breakfast, but I don't digest my food. I don't know vitamins and minerals that body needs. Like there's just this intelligence that's out there that is universal. And dang, I forgot your question. Oh, that's okay. No, I was just asking the law of love how you keep that. Oh, in the forefront. In the forefront.

Yeah, typical of me I was going to come around about. You can take the roundabout. But I think what I was trying to say is that, again, it's an intent. And it's really about recognizing and defining kind of the conditions of our life that I think God authored. Like the whole, you know, it's a body. There's agency, choices to make. There's opposition everywhere. And so with that kind of as an ingredient, that's our laboratory.

It goes back to learning and growing. That's the laboratory. So in that laboratory, as we define each other, how are we related? And so my theology is that God, mother, and father, we are our durable spirits inside of us that are not from this place. We take a body for learning and growing, but then when we die, there's this physical entity of spirit that's durable and that it's divine. like so that every human is divine. So in that way, as you start to define things that are every day, how you relate with them, it's in the definition is how you actually act.

And so if I see everyone as divine and like more eternal, like it's like it's not just, like you see someone on the street and you say, oh, they're in a bad spot. I mean, that's terrible. They chose their way. What a bad life. And just like, no, let's back out and recognize. that there's a broad, big spectrum of experience, and let's see and have the curiosity for how to help those around us learn and grow as well. Because we really are related. We were all together.

We all chose to take a body. And so in that theology, there's this universality. And so if you talk about the law of love, it's really just a fulfillment of the relationship that's already true. So it's not like I have to go through all kinds of mental machinations to make myself see others as literal family. Like it's in the roots. It's in the dirt. You and I are related in that way. You're divine. We're both divine. So let's be about it. And so in that way, the intent of the law of love is says, the full measure of what I can get out of this life cannot be a transaction. God cannot be Santa Claus. As much as Santa Claus is a cool idea. and that like if I'm super good, I get a gift at its root, it's self-interested and it can't last.

If there are durable spirits inside of us, there are more in perpetual, the law that leads us cannot be self-interested because it will rot. It will rot like everything around us is decay. I look in the mirror today, Tim, it's not going good, bro. Like it's going the wrong direction. So in that way, the law of love is really about saying there is a law that is decreed from, like the origins of the universe that says, if I can lose the transaction, if I can lose myself and be curious about you

and be curious about where you've been, there's an element that's pure in that, that you take in a different way. If you and I have a transactional relationship, it's going to feel that way. And there's a lot of bounty in it. A lot of profit. There's a lot of money around the world.

There's a lot of fame. There's a lot of everything. There's a lot of goodness in many ways. But in the end, if it's purely transactional, If my marriage is purely transactional, at some point it's going to break. It has to in self-interest. And so if you ask me the intent or how do you live it, to me, the definition is important, right? Because otherwise, you'd be like, screw that.

I've been curious about people and I've been hurt. And I'm done with that. And I'm tired of being left behind. And then the victimization shows up. We have themes, right? And all of a sudden, it's like, the world's against me. And now I'm going to, you know, and I'll take my part. So I'm going to take my part.

Right? And as soon as you do that, yeah, there's a mitigating truth to it. Like it's like, it all makes sense in my brain. But it makes sense. Like there's just because you can identify truths in a scene or situation, it doesn't mean that by focusing on those particular truths, right, those mitigating factors that you produce any type of durable good for yourself or others. The idea is that the full bounty of a relationship.

put a religion aside again. Just put it all aside. The full bounty of a relationship is actually ironic. In an unfeigned love, care, concern, even a fairly well hello, you know,

just something that says, I am about your well-being, hope you have a great day. You know, in that simple statement that's not, I'm not looking for anything. Just I truly hope you have a great day. In that element,

I believe it unlocks an irony of how you actually receive a great day, that that makes sense. And so you can't say, I hope you have a great day because then you can help me have a great, you can't make it about something. Then it all of a sudden devolves. Even kids, kids feel pure love from a parent. Do you want to raise your kids in a transactional way? It works for a while. But to really love them in a way that they feel, they can, feel it. I'm loved and I'm a screw up and I'm make that bad decision. I don't know, but I know there's a, I'm loved. And that, that changes people because it hits in a different place. And so the book is really around what I believe is the universal truth that is true for my LDS

community, particularly because that's what I'm very focused on, but it's true, true everywhere. Yeah, can it be applied. But it's the irony of it. Because we all, who are trying to accomplish, that's what we see in front of us, the better the life is the more accomplishments, right? That's how you show a great life. It's irrational to the world that we live in today. It's irrational. Yet, I think it's the unlock. Yeah. That's what I would put it, because people could tell me, screw you, Steve, that's just ethereal, weird, crazy stuff. I know what I need to do to be happy and it's, I'm getting it right now. That's fine. What I'm describing is irrational to all of that. And I'm chewing on it. Tim, I'm not an expert. I've been brought to it

because of a quest, another Steve Covey quest, and I'm just chewing on it, and I'm learning about it. And yeah, that's it. I'm so deeply curious about this. I did not grow up religious. I went to an Episcopal boarding school for a period of time, but I mean, that was non-denominational. So yeah, we sat in a chapel and they gave announcements. But besides that, it wasn't terribly religious. And I don't identify as religious in the sense of having an organized religion I adhere to, but there are also so many things that our current, let's say, breadth of science can explain. And there are also a lot of questions that are really important. And there are things that we can feel like love that are very hard to put under a microscope

and provide spreadsheets for it. You can try. And there are ways to sort of torture some of these things into conforming to numbers. But at the end of the day, there's a lot we don't know. there's certain questions we can't answer. And I, for a long time, was, I would say, a pessimist disguised as a realist, if that makes any sense. Sure, of course it does. Totally rational.

Yeah, being grown up, being raised around a lot of the glass is half empty type of thinking that was justified in reasons, and it made sense to me. I look out of the world, look at the cover of the newspaper, you're like, yep, things are bad. People are bad. and therefore A, B, and C. However, as I've gotten older, I've realized that, for instance, if you have a base assumption, let's just say a belief that humans are divine, there's some aspect of every human that is divine. And divine is a word that will make some people squirm who are listening.

That's fine, too. Which is fine. Totally. Again, I'm curious. I have no, my dogma is very about the human interaction. Right, right. So it's like if you have that belief and it's like, okay, people might say, well, I can't be falsified, Carl Popple, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But the point of it is, does it make things better or does it make things worse? And that I'm not saying that everybody should adopt every fairy tale that they want. But at the same time, there is some latitude in how you choose to view things. And if you start to entertain something that is ever present, intangible, you could call it, divine, you could call it something else, sublime, you could call it wonder, you could call it awe. I mean, there are different ways to put it. I'm not saying those are all equivalent, but you begin to get

more curious and you begin to see, like you said, the fact that plants eat sunlight to produce energy, it's completely nuts. Right? And when you start to really re-familiarize yourself with beginner's eyes looking at how incredibly improbable it is that you and I are sitting here experiencing saying more or less the same reality. It is... It is irrational. Yeah, it's why. Don't you think it's irrational?

It's incredibly crazy. It's nuts. And so I, look, to me, take the... Anyone that's uncomfortable talking about religion or theology and put it aside for a second. Let's just think about, take the universal truth that I believe is universal because it's universal. Forget about it all of that. Just take it as a lived experience, the rational, transactional life that is in front of us and the results of it. Watch as you watch it politically. You watch what happens is over time, you have to separate,

right? Because, and the transactional path is more fundamental. So what is happening politically today? More and more fundamental both ways, because there's no, nobody is looking for, the law of love is not part of the calculus. No one's curious. No one's open. So it's like, forget about religion for a second. Just politically, I've never seen a more divisive, transactional time led by the most divisive transactional people it's not that complex you can also look at I mean even you know we're sitting here in Silicon Valley right a lot of very wealthy people and if the hope is that the list of successful transactions and we're going to land the plan in just a couple minutes if if you look at if people hope the list of transactions will ultimately redeem the time that

they spend on this planet in life. I've never seen it work out, right? I've never seen that work. It's just. It's testable, right? I've experienced that. The Greyhound never catches the rabbit. And so this self-transcendence is discussion.

I just more and more feel like it's so critical. Steve, I know you've been very generous with your time. I really enjoy this. Is there anything else that you'd like to share or talk about before we wind to a close? I will tell you, Tim, that you're really good at this because I don't know that I've ever had a conversation like this. I leave with that unsettling feeling like I've really shared, you know, like I'm like, you know, overshared possibly. And I'm like, oh, man. But I'm at a place in my life where I just, I'm curious about, you know, about that. It's like I'm not worried about it. I was

like, but thank you for a chance to put into words. And like I wish, I already feel like, I wish I could have said that differently, or I could have, you know, because it was so raw in some ways. So I'm going to, I'll get better at that. But I really appreciate that for me, the depths of how you took me to places that I really appreciate. I will not listen to it because it's just too much, too much. But I'll get responses from people. But thank you for the gift of vulnerability and the gift of expressing kind of my story. I appreciate it. Thank you. I've really, really enjoyed it. Folks can find you on Instagram at Steve Young on X at at Steve Young QB.

You've got the HGGC.com website, of course. Also, people should check out for every Young Foundation. And we'll link to many other things in the show notes for everybody at timedup blog slash podcast. And until next time, as I always say, folks, be just a bit kinder than is necessary to others, but also to yourself. And thanks for tuning in. Thank you, Steve. Hey guys, this is Tim again. Just one more thing before you take off, and that is Five Bullet Friday. Would you enjoy getting a short email from me every Friday that provides a little fun before the weekend? Between one and a half and two million people subscribe to my free newsletter, my super short newsletter called Five Bullet Friday. Easy to sign up, easy to cancel. It is basically a half page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kind of a little bit. It's kind of a half page that I send out every Friday to share the coolest things I've found or discovered or have started exploring over that week. It's kind of like my diary of cool things. It often includes articles I'm reading, books I'm reading,

albums perhaps, gadgets, gizmos, all sorts of tech tricks and so on that get sent to me by my friends, including a lot of podcast guests. And these strange esoteric things end up in my field and then I test them and then I share them with you. So if that sounds fun, again, it's very short, a little tiny bite of goodness before you head off for the weekend, something to think about. If you'd like to try it out, just go to tim.blog slash Friday. Type that into your browser, tim.blog slash Friday. Drop in your email and you'll get the very next one. Thanks for listening.

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