I got my BJJ black belt yesterday from Phil Migliarese and Ricardo Migliarese at Balance Studios after 9 years of hard training and competing. I've learned more about life from martial arts than any other endeavor I've undertaken. The biggest lesson is that I'm not special, far from it, and that to get better at anything, you have to work hard. There are no shortcuts.

So I've learned more in these maths than I have in all my years.

I've learned more about life, about the mind, in these maths than I have in all the years of school.

And I think 2 things, 2 of the biggest things I took away is the humbling reality that I'm not special.

And if you want to be good at anything, you have to work really hard.

And if you want to be the best in the world at something, like I do, I want to build robots better than anybody else in the world.

Or whether that's knitting or yodeling, anything.

You have to work, but you have to work harder than anyone else in the world.

And the second lesson I learned, I used to compete a lot, I used to lose a lot, and I used to hurt to lose.

And I remember, I don't know if Phil remembers this conversation, but I think at Lake Blue Belt, I was going to a big competition and I said you know I don't know how I'm gonna win it's like 50 people division and he said well give everything you can to win but whether you win or lose you're still gonna have a home here.

So the 2 things I'd like to say thank you for is the pain and the love.


Speaker 0: So I've learned more in these maths than I have in all my years. I'm a nerd, I got a PhD. I've learned more about life, about the mind, in these maths than I have in all the years of school. And I think 2 things, 2 of the biggest things I took away is the humbling reality that I'm not special. And if you want to be good at anything, you have to work really hard.

And if you want to be the best in the world at something, like I do, I want to build robots better than anybody else in the world. Or whether that's knitting or yodeling, anything. You have to work, but you have to work harder than anyone else in the world. And the second lesson I learned, I used to compete a lot, I used to lose a lot, and I used to hurt to lose. And I remember, I don't know if Phil remembers this conversation, but I think at Lake Blue Belt, I was going to a big competition and I said you know I don't know how I'm gonna win it's like 50 people division and he said well give everything you can to win but whether you win or lose you're still gonna have a home here.

I'm still gonna love you. So the 2 things I'd like to say thank you for is the pain and the love. I'm gonna miss you.

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Black Belt Speech | Lex Fridman