My Chat with Mario Nawfal, Entrepreneur and Host of the Largest Spaces on X (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_715)
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Summary
In this episode, Ghat Saad shares his story about dropping out of university at the age of 16 to pursue his dream of becoming a politician in the United States of America. Ghat talks about why he decided to return to his alma mater, Northwood University.
Transcript
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lies the Northwood idea, a philosophy that celebrates individual freedom, responsibility,
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Hey everybody, this is Ghat Saad. The gentleman that I have with me is a fellow Lebanese.
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His name is Mario Naufal, and he is the host of the biggest show on X-Spaces. He's been kind enough
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to invite me a few times on the show, which is a big honor because he's got some really,
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really big guests. Haven't been able to go on his show yet, but I made sure to invite him first on
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mine. So hopefully he'll keep trying to get me on his. How are you doing, Mario?
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I'm doing very well. So tell us, tell us a bit. I only found out that you were Lebanese when your team
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sent me the short bio. I mean, I figured you were of some Middle Eastern descent because of your last
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name. Were you born in Lebanon? Do you speak Arabic? Give us a bit of the personal stuff.
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Yeah, I don't talk about it a lot, really. I'm surprised my team put it in the bio because I,
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for me, I never, even though I've lived most of my life in Australia, so I migrated there as a kid.
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I was born in Lebanon, but it's because I've been, I'm in Hungary now. I was in Dubai yesterday. I was in
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Singapore a few days before. I've lived in almost a new country every three to six months. So I don't
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identify behind any one culture or religion. Even my accent changes every six months. But I was born,
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I was born in Lebanon. I migrated out of that country as a child and lived in Australia for the
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majority of my life and then started traveling the world. Well, my only exposure to Australia was in
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2001. It was my first sabbatical leave after I had been promoted as a professor. It was a one-year
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leave. And I spent seven weeks in that region, five weeks in Australia, two weeks in New Zealand,
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fell in love with the place. I've never been back. And I saw in your bio that you attended Monash
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University and I actually visited some folks at Monash. So tell us about that. What did you study there?
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Well, yeah, I studied banking and finance. And then I listened to a boy on YouTube who made his
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first million dollars at age 16. I'm very entrepreneurial. My business is mainly investing
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and I've built a few businesses. And I dropped out of university near the end. I was doing really
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well when I heard of a boy that made a million dollars at age 16. And she got, I'm like, what am I
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doing? So I dropped out and I, I, um, I was going to study journalism, believe it. And I was going to
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go to Canberra university. I think it was, I think it was Canberra university to study, um, political
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science. And that was my passion. I really wanted to join the United nations. And then I realized
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that's not what the money is. I'm not going to be able to have a, achieve the things I wanted to
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achieve in life. You know, I come from a pretty, pretty poor background. Uh, if I get into politics,
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so unless, unless you're a politician in those countries where you can make a lot of money.
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And so I, I got into banking and finance, um, but politics has been, you know, in my blood,
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But I would be remiss as a professor, uh, if I didn't push back a bit and say, surely
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there is more to life than simply making money. So is there any chance that you could ever just
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for the sheer beauty of completing that, which you started, would you ever reconsider going back
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and finishing your degree, despite the fact that you are a huge success?
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No. So, so money obviously is one indicator. Second, the first step before you wish for anything
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else, I think it's important to get money to be able to meet the necessities. You know, as I
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said, I come from Lebanon, so I do have a side of my family still in that country that's economically
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completely destroyed. Um, so I need to support that side of my life, you know, and support my
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lifestyle and people around me. So I think money is, is, is one requirement. Now in terms of finishing
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it, there's no purpose to it and beyond optics. I say that with all my respect, because I, I don't
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need the bank for, for at least what I'm doing. It depends on the person. Obviously I give that advice
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to a lot of people for what I'm doing. It only matters for optics. And, you know, I'm grateful
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enough to kind of be in a position where I don't need that anymore. I've never been asked
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about my degree. I think you're the first person in over a decade that's asked about my university,
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even mentioned university. Um, and that's probably the first time I talk about it publicly. Um,
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obviously you're a professor, so it makes sense, but I just don't think it's a, it's a necessity.
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You know, I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. Uh, well I'll give you, I'll give a shot and
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then we can move on something else. It's funny that we're talking about this because, uh, this
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summer I appeared on a show. Do you know the show called diary of a CEO? I think I could
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long time ago. Okay. It's, uh, he's actually someone who's also become very successful as
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a show host. Uh, I think he's now maybe at maybe 7 million subscribers on YouTube and out
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of all of the shows that I've been on. And in my career, I've been on a lot of shows. Uh,
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I would venture to say that he was certainly in the top three best hosts I've ever had really just
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a wonderful conversationalist knows exactly how to do the tango in terms of the rhythm of the
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conversation. The reason I bring him up is because at one point he asked me, and I don't know if,
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if that part of the conversation made it into the final, you know, cut, but he asked me, you know,
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I've always thought about studying business and psychology. So Dr. Saad, what do you think? And
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so that's how it originally came up this summer. And I said, you know what, it doesn't matter how
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successful you are just pursue it for intrinsic reasons. Two quick stories that I discuss actually
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in my happiness book. One gentleman, Mario had escaped Nazi Germany. He's a Jewish guy who escaped
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Nazi Germany in the thirties, came to Montreal, had a very successful career. And in his sixties,
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decided to go back, complete his undergrad in his seventies. He finished his masters. And I think
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at the age of 91 or 92, got his PhD. The second guy, uh, who came on my show, by the way, uh,
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got, got a medical degree in 1955, then picked up a PhD in 1967, but his first love was always physics.
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So when he retired from medicine in his seventies, he then enrolled in a PhD program in physics and
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finished his PhD at 89. So that, this is my last pitch for this. Maybe in 50 years, when you decide
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I've done it all, I've succeeded in every possible way, you can go back just for the pure joy of
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learning that I, in the least bit convince you, or am I falling on deaf ears?
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If you're, if no, no, if you're convincing me to learn, I'm extremely convinced. I think if you need
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to learn through university, that's one way of doing it. Sure. Um, there's just so many ways in
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today's Asia, there's just so many ways to absorb information, just discussions like this. Like I
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absorb information. My way of learning is two way conversations, a conversation like this is the,
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you know, I'm, I'm, I'm speaking to the former president of Hungary tomorrow, and we're going
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to be talking about population collapse. And I have to research it before having that discussion.
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And that discussion will be tomorrow. That discussion will probably teach me more than,
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you know, a month or two in college, just because of the fact that it was a two way conversation
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and it was meant to be, I'm creating content for others. So I think that's my way of learning.
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And, uh, you know, the way I absorb information will change over time as I age and it would,
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as I just grow as a person. And if I get to a stage where I can focus enough to go back to college,
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um, why not? It could be, it could be nice to go do another year at Monash and finish my degree.
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Uh, you said president. So is this, uh, president Novak? Correct. Yes. Oh, okay. Well say hello to
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her from me because last year, uh, in, uh, actually almost exactly a year ago, maybe a week ago, a year
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ago, uh, I had been invited to be one of the plenary speakers at, to your point about what you're talking
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to her about. Uh, I've been invited to speak at the Budapest Demography Summit. And I was actually,
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uh, lecturing about some of the evolutionary dynamics involved in forming a family and what
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are some of the parasitic ideas that are stopping people from reproducing. And so that's wonderful.
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What, what's been your, uh, you know, first impression of Hungary if you haven't already been there?
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I've been to Hungary before. I, um, I think her story is fascinating. I was pretty surprised to see
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the success she had, even though it was limited and it's a long way to go. She's a success,
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a small success. There's not many countries that were able to reverse the drop in fertility. Now,
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for anyone listening, you know, kind of thinking, what the hell are we talking about? This is one
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of the most, well, everyone's focusing on Ukraine or Gaza or the next pandemic, um, or the left versus
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the right. One of the, the, the, the most concerning issues to face civilization right now is population
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collapse. And, um, you know, president Novak has, you know, is really leading the way and kind of
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bringing awareness to this issue and talking to other leaders about it as well. So I am,
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you know, I was just fascinated by the fact that she was one of the very few, I think she did the
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best job so far out of all leaders to be able to have at least some sort of successful strategy.
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I won't really dig into what exactly she did, um, because the, the issue of, of, of the dropping
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fertility rates, and you probably don't know this a lot more than, than I do, doctor, but it's
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global. Africa's catching on. No one would have mentioned Africa. Arab countries are, uh, are already
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heading that direction. And it applies to Japan and Italy, two very different cultures, very different
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economies, very different ways, ways of life, the way they treat work as well. And China and Cuba
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and Canada and Australia, it was just, it's probably the only, um, the only issue that is still
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unresolved. No one can really point at one or at least a handful of reasons. Maybe you do,
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you know, a few, maybe the president knows a few as well, but I don't, um, that is leading to this,
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or at least how to reverse it, like a solution that's been applied successfully, um, to such a
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concerning and, and, and bizarre problem, to be honest, especially because during the last few
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decades, everyone's talking about population overload. I think in Hungary, and you'll correct
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me if I'm wrong, I think they've tied the fertility trajectory of women to the amount of income taxes
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that they are beholden to. And I think if you have four kids or more, no more taxes for you. Does
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that, does that cover it pretty much? Yeah, it does. But why did it work in Hungary, but it didn't work
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in Japan or Korea? Oh, they had the same tax structure? No, there's no, no. So it's a
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different structure, but they had other economic means. So maybe hers. So I'll dig into it tomorrow
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and I'll let you know, I'll just, I'll send you a quick voice note or message and what she says to
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me. But I know she met with the leader of, of the prime minister of Japan, I think recently.
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I think it was, yeah, Japan, to kind of go through her strategy. But it worked. Again,
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it was a 30% improvement. Hungary is still one of the 20 countries, I think it's at number
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14. So the top 15 countries still with the lowest fertility rate. So still very concerning
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because of the population collapse, especially for such a beautiful country. I'm there now,
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obviously. But it's, yeah, it's at least a glimmer of hope in, in that, in that bizarre issue that no
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one talks about. So a lot of people listening to us now, hopefully many will, and please feel free
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to upload it and share it anywhere that you want on your platforms. We'll look at you, you're, you're
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obviously a well, very well spoken guy, you're highly successful. And there's a million people
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sitting there and saying, well, how can I become Mario? What, what's his secret sauce? What's his
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recipe, right? So, okay, we spoke a bit about how you went to university, then decided, okay,
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that's not for me, I'm going to become an entrepreneur. Is there a set before we drill
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down on your show and your guests and so on? Is there a how to sort of a prescription list that
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you can offer for how people might be able to not necessarily emulate your success, but go down the
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path that you went down? So, um, there's just so many factors, Professor, and I know you probably
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really, you know, you know, you know, a lot more factors than I do, having spoken to a lot more
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people than I, but one thing I've learned is I've tested many, many things. And that goes, you know,
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I've, I've, I've had my success well before the, the media, you know, empire, whatever you call it,
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the media company business were built well before the investment side of the business. I built,
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I made my money in Australia and I'm talking from a wealth perspective here, not talking about my reach
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in the media side, but it also applies to the media side. I've tested a lot of things and it's like
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you constantly test. So obviously, um, persistence is important. You know, I've gone through my fair
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share that you surprised me. I was going to do an interview with Joe Rogan. I don't know how you
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haven't been, you haven't gone your, through your, through your fair share of, of cancellation yet.
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Joe was laughing about it. Come on, look at that smile. How could you cancel a guy with such a smile?
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Yeah. But as I've gone through that and I had to proceed, persist, um, persevere. Um, another one
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was testing many things, you know, kind of the pebbles before the cannonball, you know, throw a
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kind of a gym, Jim Collins, good to great. I think it was the book. You throw a lot of pebbles, you see
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what lands. And then when something works, you just got to double down and you got to do it consistently.
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And like, for example, right now, I don't want to travel. I really want to be stable. I've been
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traveling all my life. I want to be stable, not travel. I was telling this to, to, to, to my,
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to my team earlier. I'm just so exhausted of traveling. I was in Singapore a few days ago.
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I was in Dubai this morning. I'm in Hungary today and I'll be in Washington in two days.
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Um, so it's because this, it's what it takes. Um, so I, and I'm, I'm, I'm ill today and I'm doing
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an interview with you and I'm doing two more tomorrow because it's what it takes. So when
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someone's listening, it takes a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of trial and error. Uh, and you've
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got to be creative. I think that's the best way to kind of be very general vague and broad,
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but at least it gives people an idea of kind of general rules that I've had to apply over the
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years to succeed. You know, it's easy to have one thing to succeed in, but it's very difficult to
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succeed in my first business, which was an e-commerce company, which still exists today
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that I built in Australia 12 years ago. And to succeed in crypto, becoming the biggest,
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one of the biggest crypto incubators and AI incubators and investors in the space to now having
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the biggest show on X and previously having the biggest clubhouse room. Um, you know, I've, I've,
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I've done it many times. Um, and, and I think these are some of these rules of, there's a lot more,
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um, that I've had and, and luck wasn't on my side. For anyone that wants to point out luck,
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it was definitely not on my side. So it's just a lot of, um, rules I've had to, not rules,
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a lot of, um, strategies that I've had to use that I've kind of summarized them.
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How do you get the confidence? You know, I mean, you're, you're, I mean, I, I guess you're in your
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early thirties, if I may ask, is that, does that sound right? Uh, you know, you're, yes,
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you're a man, but you're a young man and yet you're able to sit down, uh, or reach. I don't
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even know how you reach many of the people or, or the people that you do. You reach them. They,
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they're interested in sitting down. Do you think that you have the supreme level of self-assuredness
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that is part of that list that you maybe failed to mention in the previous question? Because how else
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could someone like you be saying, Hey, I can reach pretty much anybody. And, uh, I'd like to think
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that they're going to say, yes, that takes, I mean, it's wrong to say it takes chutzpah because that
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has a negative connotation to it, but it takes supreme confidence in yourself to be able to make
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those moves. No, I do have imposter syndrome. So I don't, it's improved and I've really found ways
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to deal with it. Um, maybe you could explain what that is for the people who don't know what it is.
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To this day, I do an interview. Like I didn't, I don't do many interviews, uh, professor, very,
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very little. Um, and what, the last one I did was with, I did one, I can't remember a few months,
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there's one recent, a few months ago, I did one with Sputnik on the, um, um, because I'm,
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I'm doing a lot more interviews in Russia and expanding to the Russian network because of the war in
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Ukraine. So I didn't interview Sputnik to build that relationship. They've been asking me for a while.
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And, um, obviously got censored in the West. Um, but I, I, um, uh, so I did that interview and,
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um, I immediately called my team who was watching it live. It was like a TV interview and like,
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I messed up, didn't I? I don't know if I can curse you. I curse. Go, go, go curse away.
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Um, so I, I, I, I fucked up, didn't I? I called Jess at the time. She's like, no, no,
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what are you talking about? You did great. And, um, it took me a while till I called her. Maybe I did. Okay.
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I still have that till today, but once you interview people like Hunter Biden and Elon and
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Bill Aquman and Mark Cuban and prime minister Khan and president Bolsonaro and all these different
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people. And then I've done over the last year, it's, it did fine. It took a long time. It took
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me to interview world leaders, some of the biggest, and I've had Elon on my show. Uh, at last I checked
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on, on the, on the dashboard seven times, jumped on my space, uh, total. So to have someone, um,
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um, you know, some people like him jump on and have those discussions with them and they become
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casual, they become natural, but it took me a long time to get here. Um, so it wasn't easy. Now,
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in terms of how do I reach all these names? Um, I'm going to obviously Washington. I'm interviewing
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RFK, um, Kevin O'Leary, Tulsi Gabbard, Jordan Peterson, which I know you've had an interview
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with as well. Can't wait. It's on my next, on my YouTube to listen to on the plane, uh,
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tomorrow. Um, and the list goes on. So interview all these different political leaders, various
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senators and stuff in the U S and the answer is very simple. There, um, is, is when you,
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when you do one interview and you know, if I have an interview with you and you find it pleasant,
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we, you know, I'll have you on my show hopefully soon. And, and you have me on yours now. Um,
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and if I asked you, you know, Dr, do you mind connecting me to this person? And if our relationship
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was good, if, if you found me to be a good person, a good person to interview, to be on my show,
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then you'd make that introduction. And that's been the way that I've expanded network to be able to
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message. Um, you know, I remember when I interviewed Eduardo Bolsonaro, Congressman Bolsonaro,
00:19:37.760
the son of the president who I've also had on my show, he was in Abu Dhabi. We interviewed in person
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last week and on the spot, um, I want to interview prime minister, uh, president Miele, sorry.
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So he gets his phone. He's like, take a selfie with me. Miele, you got to do an interview with
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Mario. And then the next day my team is talking to Miele's team. And that's been the case across
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the board. Now we've got, um, I can't mention the name, but there's a lot of massive names that
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are being scheduled for later this year. So it's been good. That's well, I'm, uh, I'm even more
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honored now that you've reached out to me a few times to bring me on the show. So I definitely
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look forward to coming on your platform, uh, without mentioning names, of course, uh, and
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you'll see in a second while I'm saying this, are there, so first we can address who are some
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of the people that you met, uh, through this process that really blew your mind in a positive
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way, even more than you would have hoped for. And are there some people without mentioning
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names where you said, Oh boy, was this person a dud? Uh, and if so, why? So it's, you know,
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I thought they would be a great conversationalist, but they ended up being very shy and withdrawn,
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or I thought they would be supremely philosophical and knowledgeable. They turned out to be a dud.
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Uh, what are some lessons from the battlefield that you could share with us? And again, of course,
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you don't have to mention any names. Yeah. Incredible people to speak to. I'd say
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Prime Minister Khan's discussion was great. Eric Weinstein is one of my favorites. He's been on
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the show many, many times. Um, I'd say those two are notable ones. Obviously, Elon goes without
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saying, so I won't even mention Elon because I think he's always on top of that list. Um,
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I think those three were really good. I put them at the top of that list. Very good conversationalist,
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very intellectual. It was fascinating. Some names, some names that most people won't know
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that turn out to be, okay, let's get, let's get something. Let's, let's dig into something a bit
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more difficult to talk about. I was very fascinated when I had people, when I, when I, um, considering
00:21:44.140
I was listening to your interview with Joe Rogan just before this, and you guys dug right into the,
00:21:48.560
in that interview, I think your 10th appearance on his show, you went right into October 7th,
00:21:52.800
the Gaza war, which is what everyone gets away with. So I'll, I'll, I'll have the courage and jump
00:21:57.120
in the same to discuss the same thing. I was fascinated by the intellect of people on both
00:22:02.440
sides of that battlefield. Both. I remember one show I did, uh, doctor, I had, um, a Palestinian
00:22:09.180
journalist that had lost most of his family, a great guy, his name is Muhammad, lost most of his
00:22:14.040
family members due to strikes, very intellectual. And then I had an Israeli pilot who was the person
00:22:21.480
that pulls that trigger and other Israelis as well, share the stage together. Um, I've had
00:22:27.260
Lebanese politicians and Israelis share the stage together as well, which is illegal for Lebanese
00:22:31.280
citizens. Um, and what was fascinating is that, you know, you'd, you'd, I feel like they, both sides
00:22:42.280
agree on most things. They just have different information they consider to be true. They have a
00:22:49.380
difference. If you listen to each one, their explanation of the same situation, and I'm kind
00:22:55.800
of digressing from your question, but I, it kind of answers it indirectly. It's like, they've been,
00:23:01.280
they described the same situation in different ways, where if I hear a Palestinian or a Lebanese
00:23:08.800
person describe that same situation, like, wow, you make a very good point. And I cannot disagree with
00:23:13.260
you. Then you listen to an Israeli person describe the same thing. You make a very good point. I can't
00:23:18.760
disagree with you, which then I'm like, then if both are intellectual, both are objective and both
00:23:23.420
are talking about the same thing, but in different ways, I feel like what's lacking is what are the
00:23:31.340
facts and how little we actually know. Um, I think this is, this has been my conclusion and kind of
00:23:38.920
indirectly answers your question where I've had a lot of really interesting intellectual conversations
00:23:43.720
about this very polarizing topic, one that scares the hell out of me because I've been canceled the
00:23:49.040
most about this topic, almost this topic more than anything else, because it's such a very, it's such a
00:23:55.040
delicate one, but it's, it's, yeah, it's, it's a very intellectually interesting and intriguing one.
00:24:02.060
I think one of the reasons why to, to your, to your point about how you could listen to one side and
00:24:07.320
they make great points and you listen to the other side and they make great points. The reason why
00:24:11.660
oftentimes they're talking in different lanes is, uh, I'll propose this as a explanation and you tell
00:24:18.760
me what you think of it. So in, in psychology, you, you might've heard of the concept of theory of
00:24:23.960
mind. So theory of mind is an important mechanism by which people can have meaningful conversations.
00:24:30.280
I've got to put myself in the mind of Mario to make certain assumptions about what is, what are his
00:24:37.200
beliefs, his attitudes, his drives, and it is that, that allows us to oil our social relationships. So
00:24:44.020
for example, autistic children, Mario, one of the ways that you, uh, diagnose them early as being
00:24:50.340
autistic, there is no blood test that you could give to tell it, but if they fail this theory of mind
00:24:56.000
test, as you probably know, you know, autistic children are often very emotionally, you know, inept,
00:25:02.780
right? They don't read cues. Well, they can, it's precisely because they lack that module of theory
00:25:07.160
of mind. So now let me link it back to what you said about the two camps. I think what ends up
00:25:11.780
happening in my view is that each camp does not have theory of mind of the other, right? So, so,
00:25:20.480
so if I only view the world through the lens of looking inwards at my needs, my desires, my constraints,
00:25:28.620
then I could never understand the other side because I simply lack that ability. And, and,
00:25:33.660
and I think it applies to both. And that's why they end up speaking this way. What do you think of
00:25:38.260
that explanation? I think it's twofold. I think this is one of them. I think the ability to put
00:25:44.800
yourself in other person's shoes. Like if you, when you talk to me, when I talked to, I was having a
00:25:50.220
discussion with someone close to me yesterday about this exact thing. And I went through the process.
00:25:54.120
When I talk to someone on the Israeli side, it's very easy for me. I push back and I make the
00:26:03.700
argument that the other side would. And then I do the same with someone on the, on the, on the
00:26:09.060
Palestinian side. It applies to any topic really. But I, so I put myself in the shoes of the other
00:26:15.080
side to play devil's advocate, to have that two-way conversation. But the ability to put yourself in
00:26:19.960
the shoes of either the person you're speaking to or the person that, if you want to have a discussion,
00:26:23.900
play devil's advocate, if you both agree, of the person on the other side of that fence,
00:26:28.000
even if you strongly disagree with them, it's something that not a lot of people could do,
00:26:32.260
which is interesting. But I also think another thing, Professor, that I would love to get your
00:26:37.660
thoughts on is it's a, you know, obviously I'm a big advocate for free speech, but I'm also
00:26:43.800
very critical of misinformation, malinformation, disinformation.
00:26:46.840
So I think it's the information they're being fed, like someone that's sitting in Israel,
00:26:54.300
watching Israeli TV, and someone that's sitting in, in, in, in Palestine, or let's go to Ukraine,
00:27:00.320
Russia, or even in the US, someone that's sitting, turning on CNN or MSNBC every day versus someone
00:27:04.640
turning on Fox every day. They're being exposed to a very different story of the same fact.
00:27:12.360
So I think it's, it's, God, you know, there's certain information that comes in certain,
00:27:19.080
you have certain belief and confirmation bias, you just kind of keep taking in that information,
00:27:22.780
plus the theory of mind of being unable, maybe for that same reason, of being put, putting
00:27:28.620
yourself in the other person's shoes. Do you think it's a bit of both?
00:27:31.780
Yeah, I mean, that, that makes perfect sense to me. And by the way, I, as I was reading,
00:27:35.040
because you're, you're talking about, you know, your, your, your absolute, your absolutist stance
00:27:40.920
on free speech. And that really resonated with me, because as, as you know, as you might have
00:27:45.300
heard me mention before, Mario, look, I'm Jewish with the, you know, very tragic background in
00:27:51.320
Lebanon and so on. And yet I support the right of Holocaust deniers to deny the Holocaust, right?
00:27:57.320
I mean, it'd be difficult to imagine, you know, a, a, a malinformation, misinformation,
00:28:05.400
disinformation that is more egregious than that, right? It's the negation of a historical fact where
00:28:10.280
millions of people were exterminated like little mosquitoes, but yet in a free society, you have
00:28:16.340
to allow for that. So then hopefully the way that I can beat your, your nonsense, if you're the
00:28:21.360
Holocaust denier, is that hopefully I can have better ideas that maybe I can get you to, to flip
00:28:27.180
and come my way, or maybe the audience can flip my way. Are you that much of an absolutist? Or do
00:28:32.900
you believe that there is some stuff that is so egregious that no, no, we have to step in and not
00:28:38.440
allow it? I don't know the answer. I, I, I get asked this a lot and I'm still, and I know others are
00:28:48.900
doing the same, including Elon and the CEO of rumble who were big supporters of as well. Um, it's a very
00:28:56.640
delicate line. I'm in your camp. I think if someone wants to deny the Holocaust, they can
00:29:03.400
delight, deny any historical fact. If they have the right to deny the earth is round, I'm like,
00:29:10.100
let them deny the Holocaust. Let them deny that there's cars out there. Let them look out the
00:29:15.380
window and say, all these people, they're actually lizards that control society. Let them deny any
00:29:21.080
historical fact that even these, the species out there outside my window are humans. I think when
00:29:25.900
you start, um, what happens is what I've noticed is when you prevent people from being able to speak
00:29:32.640
whatever it is they want, it starts building up and then there's conspiracies come up out of that.
00:29:38.280
It's like, why can't I deny the Holocaust? Now, this is something I've never talked about. I've never
00:29:41.860
discussed the Holocaust. I've never even dug into it. I'm like, it happened. It's tragic. I've seen the
00:29:46.240
movies. I've, I've researched it as a kid. I've learned it in school and I've kind of, I haven't gone down that.
00:29:50.260
I'm sure I'm going to go down that rabbit hole someday in one of my shows, one of my interviews.
00:29:54.900
Um, but I just don't find any good reason to deny the Holocaust. Now, if you come to me, say,
00:29:59.500
hold on, there's a, there's another side of the story. There's actually a reason why
00:30:02.600
denying the Holocaust has negative repercussions. And if I'm convinced, I'm convinced, but I think
00:30:07.580
my stance on, on free speech, I think I'm going to follow, you know, footsteps again on that one
00:30:13.220
because he's done it right. He's like, Hey, I think everyone should have a voice. Um, the only
00:30:19.140
limits that I want to have are the things that break the law and everything else is free game,
00:30:24.780
but I'm in a different position. I don't have a social media platform. A social media platform,
00:30:29.500
doctor, is a, is a town hall. It's a place where people can meet and talk. I have a platform. So
00:30:34.200
I have a responsibility now. So if I give an idiot the mic, they're spewing hatred. They're just
00:30:40.660
spewing disgusting stuff. Then people tell me, but you have a responsibility as a platform. You can't
00:30:45.620
have millions of people listen to something, you know, is false and you know, will bring negativity
00:30:49.700
to the world. So how do I though? How do I prevent this negativity from, from, from amplifying,
00:30:57.460
but not becoming the arbiter of what people are allowed to talk about. And then my conclusion was
00:31:03.680
the way I, and I'm still, you know, kind of training that line. I make mistakes is that if there's an idiot
00:31:09.160
spreading hatred, I have an intellectual pushing back in a very, in a right speaker. So I'm like,
00:31:14.960
I tell my team, cause I have a team 24 seven during the space, 13 panelists. I have a crazy
00:31:19.400
guy, sonny, he's a really good speaker. He's experiencing stuff that's really negative.
00:31:23.340
I'm like, guys just immediately get me someone that can counter whatever that person's saying
00:31:26.960
to balance it out. So that's been my way. Instead of silencing one side, I balance it out with
00:31:33.060
the opposing side and then let the people make their decision. I think people are smarter than
00:31:36.900
what credit we give. Do you, do you feel that that approach that you're taking is one that
00:31:41.840
maybe Pierce Morgan provides on his show? Because he often brings people that are diametrically
00:31:49.180
opposed on really contentious issues. And he tries, I think, to be exactly that fair-minded by
00:31:54.860
offering both camps a platform. Would you see that? Would you say that that's the Pierce Morgan
00:31:59.000
approach? Yes. I'm very, very similar, but different. Pierce Morgan, incredibly good at what
00:32:05.600
he does. Incredibly articulate. But he has his, he's the one that pushes back and he has
00:32:12.220
his own opinion. When you're the one that has an opinion, even when you try to balance
00:32:16.040
it, it's your bias without you realizing will start having an effect. So what I try to do
00:32:21.140
is I push myself, which I'm very boring because I'm very boring than interesting. You might
00:32:26.420
find me interesting, but most people might find me boring because people want someone that
00:32:29.760
takes a stand. They want someone who has an opinion. It's more exciting. It's more interesting
00:32:33.700
to follow someone that stands free Palestine or someone that's, you know, Zionist to the bone
00:32:41.320
because they stand for something. But when I'm, when I'm someone that's like so vanilla that I
00:32:48.160
actually have no opinion. I don't think I need, I can't, I don't even have the right to have an
00:32:52.340
opinion because there's so much I don't know. So I just become a person that asks a lot of
00:32:56.440
questions. So I'm more of a facilitator than a, than a person that has an opinion. But I've
00:33:02.360
learned to really play devil's advocate. Since we talked about me being Lebanese, doctor,
00:33:06.380
you know how polarized Lebanon is. And as a child, I've seen that. My, my family was really
00:33:11.360
split. You know, you know, I was born Christian. I'm not religious now. And one of my family,
00:33:15.480
side of my family was very pro one Christian sect and the other was very Christian. They were about
00:33:22.540
to fight with each other. I'm like, wow. And then my, my mom, my other side of the family
00:33:26.360
was even a whole different political sector. They're all fighting each other. I'm like, wow,
00:33:29.780
that's insane. And that's how I learned to never have an opinion and never be the idiot that gets
00:33:35.800
fooled. Yeah. You know, I, uh, this idea of, of this orgiastic tribalism, I often tell the story
00:33:42.980
that you can walk in, in areas in Montreal where it's hardcore Lubavitch, like meaning, uh, you know,
00:33:50.120
Orthodox Jews, you know, with the full garb, but even amongst that group. So not only are they Jewish,
00:33:56.160
not only are they extremely religious, not only are they Orthodox, but even within that camp,
00:34:01.440
they can find a way to hate each other. So there's the, the Hungarian, to your point,
00:34:06.060
you're now in Hungary. There's the Hungarian gang that puts up their socks over their pants
00:34:10.980
and they would never be caught dead marrying off their daughters to those asshole Polish Jews
00:34:16.160
who look exactly the same. And so the ability of the human mind to create an us versus them,
00:34:22.720
you know, worldview is, is infinite. It's, it's, it's a regrettable feature of the architecture of
00:34:28.120
the human mind. Uh, one thing I noticed by the way, in looking at your, maybe I shouldn't even
00:34:32.540
mention this because I know that some of the folks who listen to you are not big fans of mine. I,
00:34:37.260
apparently it turns out that both you and I are Mossad agents, but I've never seen you at any of them.
00:34:43.060
I've never seen you at the Mossad retreats where I go.
00:34:48.060
I don't, I didn't know. Yes, I've been a, I'm a, I'm a Hamas sympathizer and a, and a,
00:34:54.840
and a Mossad agent. I'm a Russian spy, Ukrainian spy. I'm an, I'm, I'm for a period until I started
00:35:02.140
doing my video show when I was just faces. Um, there were rumors, like genuine rumors that I was not
00:35:07.860
even real. Um, I've been investigated by the FBI, the SEC, the CIA. I can't travel to the UK,
00:35:14.840
which I'm going to go there again soon. I can't travel to the US, which I'll be there again
00:35:18.080
tomorrow. And so, yeah, there's a lot of rumors about me. Um, we laugh about it, but because I,
00:35:24.200
when you get into the political world, it's a scary world. When you start covering things like,
00:35:30.020
um, you know, when, when you have certain people on your stage, when you have,
00:35:33.840
when you cover certain topics, um, and you break certain stories, um, yeah, it is, it is a scary
00:35:41.640
world. Then there's obviously the idiots that just make up conspiracies, but then there's also
00:35:46.120
people that start believing those conspiracies. I was at one stage on a fatwa list, people wanting
00:35:50.380
to target me during the guys of war. I was also on a, um, there was, um, some Israelis in Canada
00:35:56.960
that were, there was a recording that was leaked of them wanting me to travel to Canada to assassinate
00:36:01.000
me and they were planning how to do it. Uh, that went viral a year ago, whatever. And so, yeah,
00:36:06.140
I've, I've had my face share across the board, uh, doctor, but, uh, I've never seen you at those
00:36:10.840
massage meetings either. Do you, I mean, do you, have you developed a thick skin because it is
00:36:18.420
part of the nature of your job or is this something that you've had to work hard at in order for things
00:36:25.200
to not be sticking in your mind and say, cause I mean, I think I've got a pretty thick skin,
00:36:29.960
but I'm also a human being. And when you see somebody saying such horrible things about you,
00:36:35.140
sometimes you get sucked into the trap and you're pissed off. Sometimes you reply,
00:36:39.180
do you have very good discipline in terms of how to navigate all of the nonsense that people throw
00:36:44.000
at you? As long as it doesn't cross certain lines, when it crosses the line of impacting my business.
00:36:49.720
So I went a year ago, I went through NBC out of all places. NBC did a hit piece on me a year ago.
00:36:55.240
And, um, I remember that day it came out. It was like, uh, the FBI and SEC respond to complaints
00:37:02.080
about Mario Norfolk. And it was by a journalist that has a history of attacking Elon. And I was
00:37:07.360
filming a TV show at the time. And I, the hit piece came out five minutes before I started filming.
00:37:12.720
I have to put my phone away. It's a horrible day. And I remember meeting, um, I met in person,
00:37:17.100
Eric, um, Eric Weinstein and, and, um, Anthony Scaramucci, cause they were both there in LA.
00:37:22.360
And I asked for their advice because they both had their face here. They both told me Mario will
00:37:26.500
pass. And when you go through one, your skin becomes a lot thicker. It was very tough at the
00:37:31.360
time. Later, I debunked it. It turns out there was no SEC and the FBI was just one ex FBI agent.
00:37:37.200
So it was all debunked. The story had no, no, no, uh, not, no, no meat to it whatsoever. But
00:37:42.880
I didn't, I didn't, I didn't care about it. I never care about it, but it impacted my business.
00:37:47.720
So because I'm in, I'm in crypto, when people see FBI, I see, especially after
00:37:52.160
FTX, everyone freaked out. They didn't want to see the headline. It just says respond to
00:37:56.880
complaints. I can make up any complaint. The FBI will respond. Hey, we're not interested
00:38:00.740
in your complaint. Aha. They responded. That's how it's true. And then, and even that didn't
00:38:05.600
happen in reality, but that's what the title means. Many people take it, take it out of
00:38:09.660
proportion. Oh yeah. The FBI is investigating Mario, et cetera. So that was my hit piece that
00:38:13.800
hurt my business that really, really got me. And the ones that get me now, and they've
00:38:18.800
been happening, um, whenever there's a flare up in somewhere in the world, whether it's
00:38:23.400
Ukraine or, or U S politics right now, it's, it's, it's Israel, Gaza, uh, Lebanon, Ukraine,
00:38:30.740
Russia, and Pakistan and Brazil and the U S because of election. So these are the areas that kind
00:38:36.720
of flaring up for me. And I go through, when it starts impacting me or my family and my
00:38:41.040
friends, that's an issue. When my team members start getting death threats or, or close ones
00:38:46.380
start getting threats. Um, these are red lines for me, but if it's people attacking me online
00:38:51.180
has no impact. You don't care. Uh, go for a walk. Gotcha. Good, good strategy. Uh, are there
00:38:59.620
any guests? I mean, your reach is astounding as you, as we mentioned earlier, you can reach,
00:39:05.260
uh, top academics to top politicians to, to anybody pretty much. Is the, are, is there two
00:39:11.620
or three people that you'd say, Oh my, before you answer, I'll give you mine. I actually mentioned
00:39:17.840
this on, on Joe Rogan, not this last time, maybe two times ago. So he had asked me, what about,
00:39:23.780
you know, would you be interested in speaking to like, uh, entertainment celebrities? And I'm not
00:39:27.660
really that interested, but then I said, you know, there are two guys that I would love to,
00:39:30.560
to have chats with. Uh, one, I think of course you would know Clint Eastwood because I grew up
00:39:36.660
in Lebanon before I learned how to speak English, Mario. I was watching the spaghetti Westerns of
00:39:42.940
Sergio Leone in the 1960s. And even though I didn't understand English, I see this guy, it's always,
00:39:49.160
you know, Clint Eastwood comes into the town. He's the guy who's the, he's the lone wolf who's going to
00:39:53.800
set everything straight. He's going to kill the bad guys. And as a young boy, uh, I was like, yeah,
00:39:59.440
I want to be this guy. Right. And so Clint Eastwood is still alive. I would love to speak with him.
00:40:04.800
The second one I suggested, uh, who unfortunately recently passed away, although his son,
00:40:10.040
after he saw me on Joe Rogan reached out and said, you know what, I'm going to organize it for you to
00:40:14.760
meet my, uh, father. His name is Burt Bacharach. He's, uh, a musical producer who many of the famous
00:40:23.100
songs of the sixties, seventies, and eighties were written and composed by him and his partner.
00:40:27.940
And I thought he'd be a great sort of creative musical genius to have on. And then one other
00:40:32.600
person from academia who is still alive, I'm not sure if you would know him is the economist Thomas,
00:40:39.200
Thomas Sowell. Do you know, have you heard of him? I have not. Thomas Sowell is a, is an incredible guy.
00:40:46.160
He, I mean, he's the type of guy that you can go back in the sixties when I was probably not born or
00:40:52.700
in diapers and he was hitting the walksters before there was the term walkism. He was going after the
00:40:59.240
radical feminists and all these idiots. So he's a very disciplined, you know, only reason, only data.
00:41:05.200
He's still alive, but he's become a recluse at this point. He's 94 years old. So those would be
00:41:09.660
some of my guys. What is your sort of two or three trio that you would love to have that you haven't
00:41:15.040
By the way, just a quick, very quick question. I'll ask you yours. You said before you spoke
00:41:19.600
English. So what were the, as a child and as a Lebanese Jew, do you speak Hebrew, Arabic, both?
00:41:25.480
Right. Great question. No. So Arabic is my mother tongue by far. I only spoke Arabic. Now in Lebanon,
00:41:32.380
as you may or may not know, because now it's a bit changed, but when I was growing up in the sixties
00:41:36.800
and seventies, usually the educated class learned French along with, with, with, with, uh, with
00:41:43.560
Arabic. So for example, I don't French, I don't French, not Arabic as a child. Oh, you spoke. Okay.
00:41:48.260
So I went, for example, to a place called Licee de Jeune Fille, which is like the school of little
00:41:54.520
girls, even though it's not, it wasn't only, it was mixed. Uh, and so I learned first Arabic,
00:42:01.300
then French and was fluent in French Hebrew. I learned it in the context as, as you said,
00:42:07.340
because we're Jewish. And then eventually you learn, uh, your, you know, your, you have to
00:42:11.140
study for your bar mitzvah. You have to learn how to read Hebrew and so on, but it wasn't something
00:42:15.660
that was this, you know, spoken all the time at home. And then English was my fourth language,
00:42:20.420
which I only learned when we moved to Canada at the age of 11. So, so that answers your question.
00:42:27.020
Okay. But thank you for asking. Yeah. Um, so, so, um, in terms of people I would like
00:42:32.660
to meet, I'd mention, I'll mention two names, actually four names. Um, two of them are either
00:42:43.220
confirmed or about to be confirmed, but I would love to interview, um, president Putin, president
00:42:52.080
Zelensky, president Biden, um, vice president Kamala and president Trump. So as I said, like,
00:43:01.740
you know, a couple of those already in progress or confirmed and, um, about, you know, will
00:43:07.280
be happening soon. Now, the reason I'd like to interview those people is because there are
00:43:14.000
some discussions that could have an actual impact on how things, so, you know, we can
00:43:23.620
have discussions that allow people to understand the situation and have a relatively small to
00:43:28.200
medium impact. Then you can have those one-off discussions that could change the world. So
00:43:34.740
for example, I'll give you an example. If I have president Putin on stage in a space and
00:43:40.980
a few leaders from the West and they're having a discussion on how a peace deal would look
00:43:46.040
like, what do you think that would do to whatever administration is, is in the U S
00:43:50.800
whether it's Kamala or Trump or current Biden administration, when in a discussion viewed
00:43:55.580
by 50 million people, I'm assuming what the reach would be for such an interview or such
00:44:00.920
a space where president Putin and XYZ business leaders in Europe, India, the U S are discussing
00:44:14.920
the details. And I'd love to have Zelensky, president Zelensky, but Zelensky would never
00:44:17.980
come on with Putin on stage. I don't think, I don't know if president Putin will come on
00:44:22.980
with Zelensky, with president Zelensky. But, um, different business leaders from Ukraine as
00:44:27.920
well, if, if any would like to come and then talking about how a PC would look like. And
00:44:33.760
that goes viral. Then the administration is in a position to be like, all right, we had
00:44:39.520
these leaders from our country discuss openly what a PC would look like. And they kind of
00:44:45.480
met somewhere in the middle. So now the world's like, hold on, there is a possibility for peace.
00:44:51.640
It might include some things that many of us don't want to see, but it might save thousands
00:44:57.160
of lives. Uh, discussions like this, now a discussion with Trump, president Trump or president Biden
00:45:03.980
would probably not go much, not go far. So unless I have them both together on stage,
00:45:08.560
they'll be saying, and after the election where they can be honest and sincere. Um, but the
00:45:13.460
discussion, I put that one aside, president Putin, president Zelensky, prime minister Netanyahu,
00:45:18.800
um, um, um, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah. Those are, those are discussions. Those are
00:45:26.920
discussions. I would be, these are the things that really fulfill me because I know for a
00:45:32.800
fact that if I have the leader of Hezbollah or I have prime minister Netanyahu on stage
00:45:38.940
separately, of course, they'll never be on stage together, having a sincere discussion of what,
00:45:43.960
because when I have a discussion in my spaces, you probably see it's a very sincere, it's like
00:45:47.640
a really casual chat. You know, Joe Rogan's another level, but it's like, that's the type
00:45:51.740
of discussion, like just a very free flowing discussion about topics that are extremely
00:45:55.640
sensitive. And it's like prime minister, like Mr. Nasrallah, or I think Sayyid Nasrallah is
00:46:01.240
like, what would you, what would it take for you to stop attacking Israel? What would it
00:46:05.400
take for you to integrate your military? If Israel does this, what would you do? Okay,
00:46:09.060
but what if Israel does that? Or prime minister Netanyahu, if, if Sayyid Nasrallah or Hezbollah
00:46:14.220
do this, would you be okay with it? Like, what is your red line? What? And then you have this
00:46:19.840
free flowing discussion. I'm trying to get sincere, like behind the scenes, of course,
00:46:23.240
they can only go so far, but those sincere discussions I genuinely think will have, will
00:46:27.500
at least, because my audience is so wide. I have Israeli journalists and Palestinian journalists
00:46:32.360
listening to my show. Like I've worked so hard to gain the respect of all sides.
00:46:35.400
of any issue. They both love me and hate me. They love me because I cover their side,
00:46:39.000
but they hate me because I also cover the other side. That means if I, like, there's not going
00:46:43.700
to be, there's no other time where Palestinians could listen to an interview, like attentively
00:46:49.640
to an interview with prime minister Netanyahu, or Israelis would attentively listen to an interview
00:46:54.000
with Sayyid Nasrallah, same for Ukraine, Russia, or any other country. These are, and you
00:46:58.900
see how I'm taking so long to answer the question, because it's, I'm very passionate about
00:47:02.680
this. And I think, and probably one, one I'd love to get your comments on. It's fascinating
00:47:08.460
how far dialogue takes humanity. When you have two sides that hate each other, just sit
00:47:14.860
Oh, or just even, so this story, you'll forgive me. Well, not, I'm, you probably haven't heard
00:47:19.860
me. Do you know my juju story? Does that ring a bell?
00:47:24.360
Okay. Some of the listeners may know it. So apologies if it's repetitive, but it exactly speaks to
00:47:29.400
your point about the importance of dialogue and not dehumanizing the others, right? I mean,
00:47:34.140
the Israeli lives and live in a camp where there's the really nasty people over there. And the other
00:47:39.180
side lives over there where the nasty Jews live over here. And we never interact. So we demonize
00:47:43.740
the other. So I remember when I was a first semester doctoral student, I studied at Cornell
00:47:48.580
University. And because, you know, I'm Arabic, Lebanese, I was a very, very good soccer player. So it was
00:47:54.660
easy for me to connect with a bunch of Lebanese guys. I mean, most were Lebanese, but not all of them.
00:47:59.280
But they were all Arabic. And we would play soccer. And I mean, they respected me because
00:48:04.700
I was a very good soccer player and also because I was Arabic and so on. On one day, one of the
00:48:11.820
gentlemen asks me out for a coffee. So we go out for a coffee. And at one point we're sitting
00:48:17.080
there and he looks at me sort of very pensively and he goes, you know, God, I really like you.
00:48:23.300
And I said, oh, why do you? I won't even mention his name, even though it's not as though
00:48:28.240
anybody would know who it is. I said, oh, why do you say that as if you're surprised?
00:48:33.300
Is it, oh, is it because I'm Jewish? And then he goes, no, but come on. I mean, you're not
00:48:38.620
a Jew Jew. I said, no, no, I'm a Jew Jew Jew Jew. He goes, no, no, but come on. You know
00:48:44.420
what I mean? It's because in his mind, the Jew does not speak Arabic. The Jew does not play
00:48:51.120
soccer well. The Jew is not somebody that I can like. And somehow by us connecting and becoming
00:48:57.100
friends, it was damaging the exemplar that had been built in his head for many years. And so that
00:49:03.760
the only way that there could be non-cognitive inconsistency in his head is to say, but come on,
00:49:10.840
wink, wink, you're not really a Jew. So that's exactly speaks to your point, which is once you
00:49:15.080
get people together and they're eating hummus together and they have the exact same aspirations
00:49:19.980
and they love the same things and they roughly hate the same things. Suddenly all that demonization
00:49:24.680
goes away. So is this, is this the way we win the Nobel prize? You and I, we need to invite
00:49:32.160
Yeah, I thought, I'm very naive. And at least I was. And one thing I thought would happen
00:49:39.140
is that with the advent of the internet, the days of war between Russia and Ukraine behind
00:49:44.200
us, I just couldn't imagine like Russia and Ukraine do business together. Russians, Ukrainians,
00:49:48.620
they're like one people. You go to Dubai, I live in Dubai, it's a safe place for me. Everyone's
00:49:53.520
one. They sit down together, Russian, Ukrainian, Arab, Jews, Israeli, American, Chinese. They'll
00:50:00.940
do business. It's a city of business, making money. No one cares who you are as long as you
00:50:05.480
write the check. And I've lived like this all my life. And I just think, it's just sad to
00:50:13.700
see that the, the RFK talks, I've talked a lot to RFK and I'm going to meet him again.
00:50:19.240
And, and he, he blamed the social media algorithms for that. It's that tribalism, if anything,
00:50:26.020
became even, no, I wouldn't say became worse, but it continued despite the internet, despite
00:50:30.600
us being connected. We're connected, but we're not connected.
00:50:35.380
We're in our own little echo chambers that are exasperated by the social media algorithms.
00:50:40.280
Not the social media company's fault, because they just want you to stay there. They want
00:50:43.620
you to, they want retention for retention. They got to feed you the stop confirmation
00:50:46.620
box that you want to hear. And it's just, it's just sad to see that. And it's just sad
00:50:51.300
to see that on, on, on a map for someone that's just innocent and clueless about, I love people.
00:50:55.700
I love when I meet someone, doctor, that has no idea about anything that doesn't barely even
00:51:00.580
knows what Israel or Lebanon is. And you go to them and you go, you go, they got to take
00:51:05.040
him to Beirut and say, Hey, let's go to Jerusalem. And let's put it on your map. And then like,
00:51:12.980
Oh, okay, cool. I can get, I can take it. It's only an hour away, like taxi there. And
00:51:17.100
that naivete is beautiful. But it's crazy to imagine, like tell them, no, you know what?
00:51:21.460
There's actually a war between those two countries. If you go to Israel, you can't come back to
00:51:25.140
Lebanon. It's illegal. You can't go to Israel. There's no direct flights, even though they're
00:51:29.400
neighboring countries. Um, I, it's just, it's, uh, you know, it's something that you spend
00:51:35.780
a lifetime understanding. You, you, it's, it's, I like how you said the, you know, you like
00:51:40.620
the naivete of someone who doesn't know any better. I've often argued that one of my biggest
00:51:45.400
fears in life, you don't have any children, do you? No. So one of the biggest fears in my
00:51:51.320
life is for my children to grow up. And then I argue that I would lose the protection
00:51:59.020
of their innocence. So exactly to your point, right? Because, right. I mean, I'm dealing
00:52:04.680
in a nasty world out there. I mean, not everybody's nasty. Most people are lovely, but you know,
00:52:09.220
you're out there, you're fighting, you're trying to convince people, you're writing books, you're
00:52:12.860
writing papers, you're getting rejected here, you're getting accepted there. The world is
00:52:16.860
one big, you know, push, but then you come home and then you've got these wide eyed, innocent
00:52:22.320
children who are now growing up, who are teenagers. So some of that naivete is going away.
00:52:27.220
And so I kind of live in perpetual fear of not being protected by that naivete. So if
00:52:32.740
you ever, inshallah, have any children, remember those words, your children's innocence protects
00:52:41.820
I am some of my favorite people in this world. I'm remembering over the years are people that
00:52:47.540
have nothing to do with our world. They just want to dance or they just want to go out and
00:52:52.440
have fun. And they don't, they don't, Russia, Ukraine are on war, really? Millie's dying.
00:52:58.260
That's so sad. And that's it. I wish it stops. And that's it. But as, you know, as someone
00:53:04.620
who's been privileged to have, to really like, I genuinely, you can come to me with three arms,
00:53:09.520
two legs and believe whatever you want. I don't, I never, I just so don't care about what someone's
00:53:16.220
religion or culture or where they're from is. So much. I just, I, it doesn't even register in my
00:53:22.640
head. Oh, this person's an ex. I need to think, I need to put them in that bucket. Like my brain is
00:53:28.280
not even wired that way, which I sometimes forget how rare it is. Um, I suspect that that's one of
00:53:34.160
the reasons why you've proven to be so successful, because it's exactly that, that allows these
00:53:40.400
diametrically opposed camps to somehow find the quote safe space in Mario. I mean, that's exactly
00:53:46.920
the secret. Yeah. And like, if I had to take one lesson from this and something you'd obviously
00:53:52.780
relate to, um, doctor is that, um, it sounds just very cheesy, but we have so much more in common.
00:54:00.800
Number one. And number two, there's two sides of multiple facets, but let's just say two sides to
00:54:06.120
every single coin you'd ever find on any topic, whatever it is, there's always an, an intriguing
00:54:13.780
intellectual other side of that coin. And that many people don't refuse to see. And you've given
00:54:19.720
the perfect example of how people kind of demonize a certain group. And you're like, I like the example
00:54:25.400
you gave, but you're not juju, like not juju, juju. You know what I mean? You're not juju, juju. It's
00:54:31.020
like, cause they've created that whole certain image. And when they see someone that's like a cognitive
00:54:34.620
dissonance, that he's someone that doesn't fit in that description, doesn't add up, but I like him,
00:54:39.360
but it doesn't add up. How can I make sense of this? It's like an error message in their brain.
00:54:45.980
Exactly. All right. Last question, because I could keep you here for many hours, but I want you to be
00:54:51.140
fresh and ready for president Novak tomorrow. And I know that you're ill, so I won't take more of your
00:54:55.960
time. Last question. Not that you need my platform to promote anything because you have a much bigger
00:55:01.220
platform. But are there any projects that you're currently working on? Oh, I'm working on a book.
00:55:07.600
I'm doing this that you'd like to use this opportunity to promote. Take it away, sir.
00:55:12.940
No, doctor. I love your content, to be honest. Like I've, as I've, obviously I'm interviewing you and I
00:55:18.060
like to do my homework on, on anyone I interview. I've been listening to your content, seeing you on
00:55:23.180
X a lot, but I've been listening to your interviews. The way you describe things is really fascinating.
00:55:28.800
So if anything, um, you know, I just want to, want to thank you for what you do. Um, you
00:55:34.960
know, I'm gonna, I know you've got a new book coming out next year as well. I do. Um, and
00:55:39.020
I'm, and I'm, I'm going through the, what's the, um, what was the book? Uh, the last one
00:55:44.560
you had, um, that, uh, I've been listening to a lot of, I haven't read the book yet.
00:55:49.860
Parasitic Mind. It's one of the most fascinating, at least the interviews you've done on it, some
00:55:54.320
of the most fascinating discussions. Oh, thank you. And I articulated, articulated those very
00:55:58.420
polarizing issues. That's lovely. I know that you're going to, are we allowed to talk about
00:56:04.620
the trip you're, you're, you're coming here? Is that, is that okay? Oh, the Washington,
00:56:08.160
Washington, of course. So I know your team has reached out to me about us getting together
00:56:12.780
in person. So we could, we could do this offline, but hopefully we can make it work. I'm currently
00:56:17.300
in Montreal, not at Northwood. Uh, if we can make it work in person, that would be fantastic.
00:56:22.640
If not, we'll do it remotely. Mario, thank you so much for coming on. You're, you're an
00:56:27.220
inspiration to so many people who want to be entrepreneurs. You could start off with
00:56:31.460
nothing, right? There was no trajectory. You didn't go to a particular school to be speaking
00:56:35.580
tomorrow to president Novak. If you've got the grit, you've got the perseverance, you've
00:56:39.460
got a nice personality that people want to be around, which you have all those things.
00:56:43.500
Uh, you can be a success like, just like Mario. Thank you so much for coming on. Stay on the
00:56:47.480
line. We could say goodbye offline. I'll, I'll talk to you soon. Cheers.