WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.077
Hey everyone, it's Jay Shetty and I'm
so excited to share that I'll be coming

00:00:05.160 --> 00:00:07.958
to Australia this November
with Wanderlust.

00:00:08.042 --> 00:00:12.917
I'm bringing my live transformative
experience to the stage for a powerful

00:00:13.001 --> 00:00:17.809
three-day tour focused on the four
decisions that shape your entire life,

00:00:17.893 --> 00:00:19.300
how you see yourself,

00:00:19.560 --> 00:00:23.334
how you choose to make money,
how you choose to love and how you serve

00:00:23.418 --> 00:00:27.000
the world. If this resonates with you,
I'd love to see you there.

00:00:27.450 --> 00:00:29.797
Grab your tickets and I'll
see you in Australia.

00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:35.617
With Zip, you can get the backyard
fence you need and the barbecue you want.

00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:39.300
You can get what you need want.
It pays to Zip.

00:00:39.420 --> 00:00:41.134
T's and C's credit
approval criteria apply.

00:00:41.217 --> 00:00:45.217
Credit provided by Zip Money Payments
Pty Ltd. Australian Credit License 441878.

00:00:45.870 --> 00:00:50.402
Honestly, my feed earlier this year
was full of your interviews. I was like,

00:00:50.485 --> 00:00:52.550
who's this sharp, smart, eloquent,

00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:56.821
incredible athlete. And then we saw each
other at the Dior show in LA and hand

00:00:56.905 --> 00:00:59.989
on my heart, I've never done
this to anyone else in the world.

00:01:00.072 --> 00:01:01.860
I came right to you and I was like,

00:01:02.040 --> 00:01:05.177
Aileen, I'm a fan. I want you
on the show. And thankfully,

00:01:05.260 --> 00:01:07.676
you wanted to come on too.
I'm, first of all,

00:01:07.759 --> 00:01:10.119
so flattered to hear
you say that. Secondly,

00:01:10.202 --> 00:01:14.061
the feeling is absolutely mutual.
I think what you do is so incredible.

00:01:14.144 --> 00:01:17.420
And you bring this very enlightened,
but also highly, like,

00:01:18.560 --> 00:01:23.243
like high touch, like very applicable
to real life kind of approach to so many

00:01:23.326 --> 00:01:27.765
people. And I genuinely believe you've
made so many people's lives better.

00:01:27.848 --> 00:01:31.065
Hey, it's Jay. I don't know
what your day's been like,

00:01:31.148 --> 00:01:34.020
but I was just thinking
about you for a minute.

00:01:34.590 --> 00:01:38.818
And I hope you're being a little patient
with yourself because you deserve it.

00:01:38.901 --> 00:01:40.670
And yeah, I'll talk to you soon.

00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:44.480
.

00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:49.000
.

00:01:50.790 --> 00:01:54.083
Ailingu, welcome to On Purpose.
Thank you for having me, Jay.

00:01:54.166 --> 00:01:57.237
I'm so happy to be here.
I wanted to start by asking you,

00:01:57.321 --> 00:02:01.443
today you're doing everything. I mean,
you've graduated from one of the best

00:02:01.527 --> 00:02:05.815
schools in the world. You are one of the
highest regarded athletes in the world

00:02:05.899 --> 00:02:09.745
in your field, fashion, business.
We know all of this from your resume.

00:02:09.828 --> 00:02:13.785
What's something you wish people knew
about you that you couldn't read on

00:02:13.868 --> 00:02:18.212
your resume? I think for a long time,
there was this sense of wanting to justify

00:02:18.296 --> 00:02:19.790
my academics as independent

00:02:20.790 --> 00:02:25.361
And so initially it was in the sporting
community, I would be the biggest nerd.

00:02:25.445 --> 00:02:27.836
I was always helping people with homework.

00:02:27.920 --> 00:02:31.607
I was kind of known as this academic
person. And then over time,

00:02:31.691 --> 00:02:35.967
as I became more well-known, I think
the general assumption or presumption

00:02:36.051 --> 00:02:40.504
that maybe we hold socially as a society
is that athletes maybe go to school,

00:02:40.588 --> 00:02:42.650
but they don't really go to school.

00:02:50.790 --> 00:02:56.482
Because at my core, I think of myself more
as an intellectual person who chose to do

00:02:56.565 --> 00:03:01.639
sports and to apply that kind of cerebral
take in like an athletic context.

00:03:01.722 --> 00:03:05.710
It could have been something
else versus an athlete who...

00:03:05.970 --> 00:03:10.789
thinks they are smart, right? Like that, I
think that's like an important distinction

00:03:10.873 --> 00:03:15.403
to make. And so I think one thing for me
was getting into Stanford when I was 16

00:03:15.487 --> 00:03:18.403
and doing that before
the Olympics so that I had my,

00:03:18.486 --> 00:03:21.633
what would have been my senior
year and then a gap year.

00:03:21.716 --> 00:03:26.330
So those two years to be like full time,
that was my first time being pro. Yeah.

00:03:26.820 --> 00:03:29.460
as in like full-time
as an athlete. Before that,

00:03:29.544 --> 00:03:32.865
I was Mondays through Friday
in school, just totally normal.

00:03:32.949 --> 00:03:37.235
I was the first person in our high
school's history to graduate early to kind

00:03:37.318 --> 00:03:38.680
of make that transition,

00:03:38.940 --> 00:03:42.459
situation work, but it was not because
it was an Olympic accommodation.

00:03:42.543 --> 00:03:46.112
It was because I had done the credits
and found a way to graduate early.

00:03:46.196 --> 00:03:50.019
And that was really special as well.
So I think what's misunderstood is maybe

00:03:50.103 --> 00:03:53.774
that how much to the extent that I
value education and seeing that as like

00:03:53.858 --> 00:03:57.174
the fundamental layer and building
on top of that. As a young girl,

00:03:57.257 --> 00:04:00.827
were you always athletically and
academically inclined at the same time?

00:04:00.910 --> 00:04:02.940
Were they two paths that always existed?

00:04:08.940 --> 00:04:13.241
Like literally everything, very obscure
things if you think about it and like have

00:04:13.324 --> 00:04:16.960
no interaction with one another,
right? Like I did archery. I did...

00:04:17.220 --> 00:04:19.506
like horseback riding.
I did rock climbing.

00:04:19.589 --> 00:04:23.197
And at one point I tried swimming
and tennis, but then I, you know,

00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:27.219
longer term, I did soccer and basketball
and cross country. I did ballet.

00:04:27.302 --> 00:04:30.084
I did piano. I did singing
lessons, like everything.

00:04:30.167 --> 00:04:34.161
My mom would say that I was athletic.
There were a couple of sports that I

00:04:34.244 --> 00:04:37.246
thought were pretty impactful
running being one of them.

00:04:37.329 --> 00:04:41.598
And I hold that to this day. And then
obviously skiing when I started on my ski

00:04:41.682 --> 00:04:44.022
team at seven or eight
years old. But again,

00:04:44.106 --> 00:04:46.640
I would say that I
was much more known as like

00:04:46.890 --> 00:04:52.250
the nerd in my class than the athlete in
my class. And what would you nerd out on?

00:04:52.500 --> 00:04:56.481
What were the things that you were
fascinated by or drawn towards?

00:04:56.564 --> 00:05:00.914
In elementary and middle school,
I went through a K-28 all-girls school.

00:05:00.998 --> 00:05:05.656
And so every year we would have the school
slash math Olympiad kind of thing.

00:05:05.739 --> 00:05:09.166
And so I won that in our grade
every year in our science.

00:05:09.249 --> 00:05:13.538
I did that both years that it
was available and won that in our school.

00:05:13.621 --> 00:05:17.540
So I think it was math and science
were definitely my big things.

00:05:17.624 --> 00:05:19.040
And then interestingly,

00:05:22.500 --> 00:05:24.985
philosophy. And so over
time, it's been like,

00:05:25.068 --> 00:05:29.520
I would say I have an analytical lens
to everything. And I take more of like a

00:05:29.940 --> 00:05:32.645
philosophicals,
like overview on top of that. Yeah.

00:05:32.728 --> 00:05:34.996
When I watch you do
an interview, I'm like,

00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:39.042
this is a philosopher speaking with
an academic, with a scholar. I'm like,

00:05:39.125 --> 00:05:43.416
take me to church, Eileen. I'm like, I
want to come to this motivational lecture

00:05:43.499 --> 00:05:47.025
by Eileen Gu. Like, that's how I
feel watching you. I'm like, God,

00:05:47.108 --> 00:05:50.688
I'm inspired. This is incredible.
And I mean it, I mean, I'm being,

00:05:50.771 --> 00:05:54.515
I'm being silly, but I'm also being
extremely genuine when I say that.

00:05:54.599 --> 00:05:55.432
Like, it's,

00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:59.221
Everything that you share is poignant
and powerful. I want to get into that.

00:05:59.304 --> 00:06:03.310
But before we do, can you take me back to
a childhood memory that you have that you

00:06:03.393 --> 00:06:04.943
feel defines who you are today?

00:06:05.250 --> 00:06:07.195
Firstly, thank you so
much for saying that.

00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:10.923
I'm deeply flattered and humbled. And I
do want to say that nothing that I said

00:06:11.006 --> 00:06:14.697
during the Olympics was calculated. I
had no idea what any of the questions were

00:06:14.781 --> 00:06:16.868
going to be. So if it
had been something else,

00:06:16.951 --> 00:06:19.699
I would have answered something else.
It's more to my heart.

00:06:19.782 --> 00:06:23.662
And I think a big part of that was having
an academic foundation to be able to think

00:06:23.745 --> 00:06:26.823
to begin with. And so there's that.
So I've never done PR training.

00:06:26.906 --> 00:06:30.456
I don't really know what that is. I
don't really know what that would entail.

00:06:30.539 --> 00:06:31.589
I just sit and think,

00:06:35.250 --> 00:06:38.966
with that. Absolutely.
This is going to sound really crazy.

00:06:39.049 --> 00:06:41.110
I started journaling very early.

00:06:41.340 --> 00:06:45.134
I was probably around four and I think I
was given a journal maybe as like a gift

00:06:45.217 --> 00:06:47.240
or something.
I don't remember particularly,

00:06:47.323 --> 00:06:51.213
but I remember very distinctly. It was one
of those journals that had like a little

00:06:51.296 --> 00:06:55.042
lock on it. And I really liked it because
it was my first thing that I felt like

00:06:55.125 --> 00:06:58.680
was really mine and contextualizing
privacy and like having this thing where

00:06:58.763 --> 00:07:02.653
it's like my brain outside of my brain and
it's like only mine and I can protect it

00:07:02.736 --> 00:07:04.807
with this little like
lock and key mechanism.

00:07:04.890 --> 00:07:08.527
So I thought that was really special.
And in the first page of the journal,

00:07:08.610 --> 00:07:10.670
I wrote along these lines.

00:07:11.340 --> 00:07:13.940
Dear Journal, my name is Eileen.
I'm four years old.

00:07:14.070 --> 00:07:18.252
I'm writing this now so that when you
are reading this, when it is published,

00:07:18.335 --> 00:07:21.770
like you will believe that I
actually was four and wrote this.

00:07:23.070 --> 00:07:23.767
Which...

00:07:23.850 --> 00:07:27.381
Wow. I think about now and there's
just like, let's unpack this, right? A,

00:07:27.465 --> 00:07:31.045
the hubris that I had as a four-year-old
to think that I would do something

00:07:31.128 --> 00:07:33.976
substantive and then B,
to like write a book about it and C,

00:07:34.059 --> 00:07:37.639
that there would be anyone in the world
that would possibly care to consume

00:07:37.722 --> 00:07:41.254
this like writing of a four-year-old,
right? Like what was the assumption?

00:07:41.337 --> 00:07:44.722
I had not started like free skiing.
I had no idea what free skiing was.

00:07:44.805 --> 00:07:46.920
I had no idea what I
was going to do in life.

00:07:47.003 --> 00:07:50.584
I didn't even know what I was going
to be journaling about. But in my head,

00:07:50.667 --> 00:07:52.267
I was like, one day I'm going to

00:07:53.850 --> 00:07:57.682
important enough that people are going
to care to read it and that this is going

00:07:57.765 --> 00:08:02.114
to be meaningful and impactful enough
to be worth writing about. Obviously,

00:08:02.198 --> 00:08:06.654
you know, it wasn't in that But like that
was kind of like the implication, right?

00:08:06.737 --> 00:08:10.357
Which is kind of interesting to think
about as a four-year-old. So yeah,

00:08:10.440 --> 00:08:14.368
I don't really know where that confidence
came from. I have no idea, but yeah.

00:08:14.451 --> 00:08:17.711
And one day you will have to publish that.
I'm working on it now.

00:08:17.794 --> 00:08:20.591
You will get to read it.
You are? Oh, that's incredible.

00:08:20.674 --> 00:08:23.625
You'll have to come back
on to talk about the book. We can.

00:08:23.709 --> 00:08:26.557
This episode of On Purpose
is presented by Ultra Running.

00:08:26.640 --> 00:08:29.797
We all benefit from having
a little more space. So do our feet.

00:08:29.880 --> 00:08:32.760
That's why Ultra Running
shoes feature ultra fit design,

00:08:33.960 --> 00:08:38.936
room for comfort, balance and strength.
They're perfect for running,

00:08:39.019 --> 00:08:44.591
walking or hiking, any pace, any level.
They feel right from the first step.

00:08:44.674 --> 00:08:50.468
Go to ultrarunning.com forward slash
on purpose and use code purpose 10 for 10%

00:08:50.552 --> 00:08:55.760
off. That's altrarunning.com forward
slash on purpose. Stay out there.

00:08:56.070 --> 00:09:00.616
That's incredible, though. I love hearing
about how people start so young and those

00:09:00.699 --> 00:09:05.022
habits start so young. Have you journaled
pretty much every day since that time

00:09:05.105 --> 00:09:05.938
or did you...

00:09:06.150 --> 00:09:10.362
falling in and out of love with it.
Yeah, definitely not every day. And also,

00:09:10.445 --> 00:09:14.044
I would say my journaling habit
is actually less like, Dear Diary,

00:09:14.127 --> 00:09:18.618
this is what I did today. I would describe
it more as like an anthology of essays.

00:09:18.701 --> 00:09:22.299
So like, what is one thematic
principle that like keeps recurring,

00:09:22.383 --> 00:09:25.702
maybe like today or this week,
or like within a month, right?

00:09:25.785 --> 00:09:29.495
And I just keep returning. So like,
a recurring theme I have is like

00:09:29.579 --> 00:09:31.810
on womanhood. So it's like, my continual

00:09:36.150 --> 00:09:39.519
how do I balance like
my masculine feminine sides?

00:09:39.602 --> 00:09:41.950
How do I inhabit my power without,

00:09:42.300 --> 00:09:46.821
feeling shameful about it and also
without feeling performative about it.

00:09:46.904 --> 00:09:51.362
And that has been so complex because
I was the only girl on my ski team.

00:09:51.445 --> 00:09:55.903
But also I mentioned I went to an
all-girls school. So Monday to Friday,

00:09:55.986 --> 00:09:59.927
I would be only around girls
and then weekends, I would be only

00:10:00.010 --> 00:10:04.062
and gender dynamics, and also the power
that holds when you're the only one.

00:10:04.145 --> 00:10:08.142
So if you're the only girl in a ski team,
you feel like you're carrying all

00:10:08.226 --> 00:10:12.386
of womanhood on your shoulders because
you're the only one who's representing.

00:10:12.469 --> 00:10:15.923
And so if you're good, then you're
dispelling all of these myths.

00:10:16.006 --> 00:10:19.568
But if you're bad, then you're
corroborating them. And so suddenly,

00:10:19.651 --> 00:10:21.610
like I'm the N of one sample that is

00:10:21.820 --> 00:10:25.875
like upholding all of these stereotypes.
So I was like super aware of that when I

00:10:25.958 --> 00:10:29.604
was seven or eight. And so over time,
you know, with introducing fashion,

00:10:29.687 --> 00:10:32.618
with all of these other kind
of like elements into my life,

00:10:32.701 --> 00:10:36.602
I've grown a lot, but I would say I'm
still working on it. That's fascinating.

00:10:36.686 --> 00:10:39.616
I love that you have a space
that is beyond the public eye,

00:10:39.700 --> 00:10:43.480
that's private to you with that lock
and key that allows you to have these

00:10:43.870 --> 00:10:47.798
exchanges with yourself around your
philosophy on life and how you approach

00:10:47.882 --> 00:10:52.238
it. Even what you were just saying now in
knowing how your masculine feminine fits,

00:10:52.321 --> 00:10:56.677
what have been your latest reflections on
your masculinity and femininity and where

00:10:56.760 --> 00:11:00.130
they fit into your life and where
you see them being expressed?

00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:03.321
So I started working with Dior.
Congratulations.

00:11:03.405 --> 00:11:07.146
We love Jonathan Anderson.
Thank you. He's amazing. And you know,

00:11:07.230 --> 00:11:11.854
I think he plays with it so interestingly
because if you think about like a Dior

00:11:11.938 --> 00:11:16.070
face, it's very, it's like fresh,
it's young, but, The outfit is...

00:11:16.300 --> 00:11:20.795
is not reductive in that sense, right?
It's not something that's one dimensional

00:11:20.878 --> 00:11:23.827
of like, here is a caricature
of like a teenage girl,

00:11:23.911 --> 00:11:26.631
and we're going to like
slap it on a grown woman.

00:11:26.715 --> 00:11:30.065
It doesn't feel like that at all.
There's kind of this like,

00:11:30.148 --> 00:11:34.013
modern strength slash like,
the silhouetting is a lot more inclusive.

00:11:34.096 --> 00:11:38.705
And there's almost like a tomboyish style
within like a very flowy feminine fabric

00:11:38.789 --> 00:11:42.680
or print. And so that kind of like
comparison between cut and style,

00:11:46.300 --> 00:11:48.676
to bring that out?
How do you work with, you know,

00:11:48.759 --> 00:11:52.611
shapes and lighting and expression and
different hair and makeup and a different

00:11:52.694 --> 00:11:56.202
look to kind of like embody a very
multi-dimensional sense of femininity?

00:11:56.285 --> 00:11:59.891
It's not like femininity is the color
pink and we all smile and we all wear

00:11:59.974 --> 00:12:02.154
this haircut and we all,
you know, do X, Y, Z.

00:12:02.237 --> 00:12:05.646
And that's what being a woman is.
It's like understanding it in all its

00:12:05.729 --> 00:12:09.679
multi-dimensional nuance. So that was like
something that I did maybe two days ago

00:12:09.763 --> 00:12:13.369
and I was thinking about recently.
And you're an old year today. Of course.

00:12:13.452 --> 00:12:14.802
We love it. Yeah. On brand.

00:12:16.300 --> 00:12:20.672
seven or eight, you said. Yes. What does
training for being a free skier look like

00:12:20.755 --> 00:12:24.638
at seven to eight? Talk to me about
the regime, the discipline, the diet.

00:12:24.722 --> 00:12:29.039
What are you having to do at that age to
build this phenomenal skill set you have

00:12:29.123 --> 00:12:32.408
today? Jay, I think you're giving
me a little too much credit.

00:12:32.491 --> 00:12:36.211
What do you mean? I mean, it was a
ski team that occurred on weekends,

00:12:36.295 --> 00:12:40.232
North Star at Tahoe. I think there
was maybe like a couple weekday options

00:12:40.315 --> 00:12:42.380
for people who were local. But since I

00:12:46.300 --> 00:12:49.017
Thank you. in school normally.
And then on Friday after school,

00:12:49.100 --> 00:12:52.034
my mom would pick me up, drive
the four hours to get to Tahoe,

00:12:52.117 --> 00:12:54.856
during which I would, you know,
when I was younger, sleep.

00:12:54.940 --> 00:12:57.540
And then as I got older,
you know, do homework, eat.

00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:01.720
prep, do whatever I need to do.
Saturday morning, I would wake up,

00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:04.021
And this is actually
an important distinction.

00:13:04.104 --> 00:13:06.077
A lot of people think
my mom is a tiger mom.

00:13:06.160 --> 00:13:08.849
She's totally not.
Her number one thing was always sleep.

00:13:08.933 --> 00:13:11.330
So I was always the last
person to get to ski team.

00:13:11.414 --> 00:13:15.271
Like I was always the last person because
we would get there so late after school

00:13:15.354 --> 00:13:17.752
and I'd be the only one
driving from San Francisco.

00:13:17.835 --> 00:13:20.962
And so she would let me sleep
until I woke up naturally. You know,

00:13:21.046 --> 00:13:23.096
usually I would not wake up before eight.

00:13:23.650 --> 00:13:28.984
And I would go skiing maybe from like 9,
9.30 until the ski team would end at 2.30.

00:13:29.067 --> 00:13:34.010
And then my mom and I would probably
ski another hour just to take advantage.

00:13:34.093 --> 00:13:39.101
You know, we're already in Tahoe. But when
I was training, it was so much fun.

00:13:39.184 --> 00:13:44.126
It was so fun. And I think that was the
most important factor and still is to

00:13:44.210 --> 00:13:47.930
this day. I mentioned I
was the only girl on my ski team,

00:13:53.650 --> 00:13:57.889
feels like when you're terrified, right?
And that is not a gender divided thing.

00:13:57.973 --> 00:14:02.050
And you know how elated you feel when
you're asking your body to do something

00:14:02.133 --> 00:14:06.643
it's never done before. And like that kind
of very like human and very saturated kind

00:14:06.726 --> 00:14:10.749
of like emotion just makes you bond
with the people that you're experiencing

00:14:10.832 --> 00:14:14.964
with that much more. And so of course,
there'd be little challenges. You know,

00:14:15.047 --> 00:14:19.232
I remember my coach would be like, whoever
can slide this reel the longest gets

00:14:19.316 --> 00:14:20.149
a dollar or

00:14:23.650 --> 00:14:26.760
healthy sportsmanship and really
healthy competition. And, you know,

00:14:26.843 --> 00:14:29.483
this was pre-puberty.
So I was definitely one of the best,

00:14:29.566 --> 00:14:32.957
if not the best on the team. And there
were several others. And, you know,

00:14:33.041 --> 00:14:36.573
we would be jostling for that position.
And like maybe one day someone learns

00:14:36.656 --> 00:14:40.206
a new trick. And I remember so
distinctly my first time sliding a rail.

00:14:40.600 --> 00:14:44.024
So there's like boxes in the train
park and then rails are like the,

00:14:44.107 --> 00:14:47.427
you know, like a handrail.
And so this one, I remember so vividly,

00:14:47.511 --> 00:14:49.903
it was my entire team
lined up next to the rail.

00:14:49.986 --> 00:14:53.771
And I was the first person on our team
to slide the rail. And I remember I,

00:14:53.854 --> 00:14:57.587
you know, everyone's lined up, they're
watching, you know, I was keyed up.

00:14:57.671 --> 00:15:00.321
I do it. And it's just like
this chorus of, you know,

00:15:00.404 --> 00:15:03.673
seven and eight year old boys like,
wow. And of course, you know,

00:15:03.756 --> 00:15:06.716
by the end of the day, every
single person slowed the rail.

00:15:06.799 --> 00:15:09.120
But that was just
the sense of like pure joy.

00:15:10.600 --> 00:15:14.364
with people that you form lifelong bonds
with and who I'm still very close with

00:15:14.448 --> 00:15:18.212
to this day. Even though the others didn't
go on to become professional skiers,

00:15:18.295 --> 00:15:21.524
we still just will always share
that bond and that's really special.

00:15:21.607 --> 00:15:24.933
That's incredible. You speak about
your mom so beautifully. Of course,

00:15:25.017 --> 00:15:27.515
I met her at the Dior Show.
She's with us here today.

00:15:27.598 --> 00:15:29.448
Talk to me about how much you learned

00:15:29.560 --> 00:15:34.360
from your mom and your grandma
that was beyond just this incredible...

00:15:34.870 --> 00:15:38.549
dedication she had to you,
this ability to want you to sleep,

00:15:38.633 --> 00:15:43.669
but then driving you four hours, like that
level of devotion to you and wanting you

00:15:43.753 --> 00:15:48.542
to have this full, rich life. What were
the lessons that we may not see through

00:15:48.626 --> 00:15:52.737
that, that you've experienced
and feel from your mother and grandma?

00:15:52.820 --> 00:15:56.685
If I were to distill it, I would
say my grandma was the dreamer.

00:15:56.768 --> 00:16:01.743
She is the most dauntless, just go-getter
optimist that I've ever met in my entire

00:16:01.826 --> 00:16:03.430
life. When she was my age,

00:16:04.870 --> 00:16:09.449
engineer at one of the largest copper
mines in China at 21, which is crazy.

00:16:09.533 --> 00:16:14.485
I'm 22 now. And that was in her generation
in China as a woman. So it's like, oh,

00:16:14.568 --> 00:16:18.340
I talk about, you know, being
a woman, a male dominated sport.

00:16:18.423 --> 00:16:23.127
She was in the mines, overseeing men
in the mines at 21. Like that's obscene.

00:16:23.210 --> 00:16:28.370
Like I can't even imagine. Right. And not
once has she ever had a victim mentality.

00:16:28.780 --> 00:16:30.989
Not once has she ever thought,
oh, it was so difficult. Oh,

00:16:31.073 --> 00:16:33.373
I was the only woman.
She was like, of course.

00:16:33.520 --> 00:16:37.929
You think they could keep up? Of course,
I was the only one who could do it.

00:16:38.012 --> 00:16:41.594
Why would they be able to do that?
And she had older brothers,

00:16:41.677 --> 00:16:45.022
and she would always say how
she was keeping them in line.

00:16:45.106 --> 00:16:47.919
So there was never a sense
of oppression for her,

00:16:48.002 --> 00:16:52.234
even if objectively the circumstances
she grew up in were very difficult.

00:16:52.317 --> 00:16:56.963
She lost her mother at a very young age.
And so losing that kind of female force

00:16:57.046 --> 00:17:01.420
in her life, I just can't even imagine.
And yet she just went on to become

00:17:03.520 --> 00:17:07.938
Fierce woman and For that, I will always,
always admire her. That's beautiful.

00:17:08.021 --> 00:17:10.021
She definitely passed that on to my mom.

00:17:10.180 --> 00:17:12.600
My mom, I would say, is the...

00:17:12.880 --> 00:17:16.769
efficiency queen. So she gets
things done. In modern speak,

00:17:16.853 --> 00:17:20.001
in like Silicon Valley
speak, she's an operator.

00:17:20.084 --> 00:17:24.984
She is the one who will ask, okay, how?
And so she will not do unnecessary

00:17:25.067 --> 00:17:28.552
suffering. She will not
work for the sake of working.

00:17:28.636 --> 00:17:33.804
She will do the shortest path and the most
efficient to do something with high

00:17:33.887 --> 00:17:37.860
quality and uncompromising
results and attention to detail.

00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.225
who's going to stay up
late all night to do it.

00:17:45.308 --> 00:17:48.014
She's not the one who's
going to suffer unnecessarily.

00:17:48.098 --> 00:17:52.251
And so between the two of them, I think
my grandma will like set the stage and set

00:17:52.334 --> 00:17:55.712
the direction. And my mom gave me
kind of the toolkit, if you will,

00:17:55.795 --> 00:17:58.037
to then go on and achieve it.
So in that way,

00:17:58.120 --> 00:18:01.911
I would feel like the two of them
almost like co-parented slash like formed

00:18:01.994 --> 00:18:05.424
the basis for like these two really
complementary parts of me. Yeah,

00:18:05.507 --> 00:18:07.852
you've got the vision
and the tools. Yes. Yeah,

00:18:07.935 --> 00:18:12.120
the dreams and the practices. Exactly.
Yeah, that's pretty spectacular. Yes. It's

00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:14.747
And when I'm hearing about
your grandma, I'm like,

00:18:14.830 --> 00:18:18.449
Wow, the fact that she was doing
that at 21 in her generation in China

00:18:18.533 --> 00:18:22.416
is unbelievable. I know a lot of people
look at you today and they're like,

00:18:22.500 --> 00:18:26.278
I failed at life. I'm really behind.
Aileen Gu has achieved everything in

00:18:26.361 --> 00:18:27.194
the world.

00:18:33.520 --> 00:18:37.764
Jay, Eileen, I feel behind.
I feel stuck. I'm 22 years old. I'm 25.

00:18:37.848 --> 00:18:41.317
I haven't achieved anything yet.
I don't know who I am.

00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:45.340
What would you say to them?
Oh, my gosh. I feel the same way.

00:18:45.880 --> 00:18:49.020
Absolutely. And I think
the reason for that is...

00:18:49.420 --> 00:18:52.432
A, hedonic treadmill theory,
generally speaking, right?

00:18:52.515 --> 00:18:56.680
And so the idea being you acclimate
so quickly to your circumstances that,

00:18:57.010 --> 00:18:59.234
it's no longer objective.
It's not like, oh,

00:18:59.318 --> 00:19:03.063
I reach a certain benchmark and I
will be happy. It's the faster you run,

00:19:03.146 --> 00:19:06.870
the faster it moves and you just
keep going and going and going. And so

00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:11.039
relatively, you can feel exactly
the same as anybody in your peer group,

00:19:11.122 --> 00:19:14.706
irrespective of these kind of like
objective goals and achievements.

00:19:14.789 --> 00:19:17.833
And so I would say, I think
this is a hallmark of our age.

00:19:17.917 --> 00:19:21.662
Like I think being in your early
twenties, mid twenties, late twenties,

00:19:21.745 --> 00:19:26.210
this is like a point in your life where
it's really important to feel that way.

00:19:26.293 --> 00:19:29.444
And I almost think of that as
like activation energy. I mean,

00:19:29.527 --> 00:19:31.847
generally in chemistry,
it's like you can't,

00:19:31.930 --> 00:19:34.333
perform a reaction
without like a catalyst.

00:19:34.416 --> 00:19:39.133
Like you need some kind of energy either
within the system or externally introduced

00:19:39.216 --> 00:19:43.816
to create it. And so that dynamism and
maybe we kind of create that and like feel

00:19:43.900 --> 00:19:48.500
it's like discomfort. But the fact of the
matter is it's energy that doesn't know

00:19:48.584 --> 00:19:51.070
where to go.
And so that's a neutral thing.

00:19:51.340 --> 00:19:54.470
It's more about redirecting it instead
of like sitting with this golf ball

00:19:54.553 --> 00:19:58.074
or butterfly or whatever you want to kind
of think about it as like bouncing inside

00:19:58.157 --> 00:19:59.937
of you feeling really uncomfortable.

00:20:00.020 --> 00:20:03.418
It's more about doing the self-work
to know where that energy goes.

00:20:03.501 --> 00:20:07.315
But the fact that you have it as a
hallmark of being young is so beautiful.

00:20:07.398 --> 00:20:11.680
Yeah, it's almost like you're saying that
we fight that limerence and we almost want

00:20:11.763 --> 00:20:15.889
it to go away rather than what I'm hearing
you say is actually if you channel it,

00:20:15.972 --> 00:20:18.071
if you redirect it, if you put it forward,

00:20:18.154 --> 00:20:22.124
then actually that's going to propel you.
That's going to make the difference.

00:20:22.207 --> 00:20:26.520
I think so. But knowing what direction to
take is so much harder than people think.

00:20:30.020 --> 00:20:34.014
I think hard work, super important,
but overpraised. Direction, underrated.

00:20:34.097 --> 00:20:37.384
And so we think about this as like,
who's working the hardest?

00:20:37.468 --> 00:20:40.211
Who's doing the most?
But if you're punching a wall,

00:20:40.295 --> 00:20:43.256
who's punching the wall the hardest?
That's not helpful.

00:20:43.339 --> 00:20:47.115
Like who's getting to the destination?
If you can walk around a column,

00:20:47.199 --> 00:20:51.301
maybe it's easier than punching the wall.
So it's not necessarily about doing

00:20:51.385 --> 00:20:53.965
the most. What's more
important is the direction.

00:20:54.049 --> 00:20:56.060
And so I think having that activation

00:21:00.020 --> 00:21:02.347
is taking the time
to figure out the direction.

00:21:02.430 --> 00:21:04.962
And that's worth the time
that it takes to explore.

00:21:05.045 --> 00:21:08.757
And I'm saying this as if I'm some
kind of like sage entity. I'm like, oh,

00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:12.602
I've been through it. I crash out about
this like every night, every night.

00:21:12.686 --> 00:21:15.833
I'm like, oh my God, what am I
going to do? Like I'm so behind.

00:21:15.916 --> 00:21:18.192
I feel like I'm not
living up to my potential.

00:21:18.275 --> 00:21:22.499
I have so many ideas and so many things to
do and I'm not materializing any of them.

00:21:22.583 --> 00:21:25.884
I feel like I'm losing time
by the day and like totally paralyzed.

00:21:25.967 --> 00:21:29.300
And I think that's just like
a really relatable feeling. A lot of

00:21:30.020 --> 00:21:34.228
you know my entire class with me um and i
think that's a pretty shared sentiment

00:21:34.311 --> 00:21:38.680
for everybody yeah you're so right it is
a generational thing and it's an age thing

00:21:38.763 --> 00:21:42.918
where you're in that space where it's
almost like up until 22 most of your life

00:21:43.001 --> 00:21:47.155
is mapped out for you you know you go
from seventh grade to eighth grade you go

00:21:47.238 --> 00:21:51.446
to college right you get a degree and then
all of a sudden now you actually have

00:21:51.530 --> 00:21:55.660
to make choices that don't have a timeline
i think you're so right about that

00:22:00.020 --> 00:22:03.678
redefined for you. The metrics
of success are there. You have a rubric.

00:22:03.762 --> 00:22:06.314
You want to get to 100.
Getting an A plus is good,

00:22:06.397 --> 00:22:09.634
and everybody wants to get there.
Life is so much more complex.

00:22:09.717 --> 00:22:14.008
And you don't know what your success is.
And success looks so different for so many

00:22:14.091 --> 00:22:18.277
different people. And there are a lot of
people who are really wealthy and really

00:22:18.360 --> 00:22:22.282
unhappy. And there are a lot of people
who in that position would feel super

00:22:22.365 --> 00:22:26.024
unsuccessful. And there are others
who would feel extremely successful.

00:22:26.107 --> 00:22:29.480
And so it is so personal.
And so doing the self-work to discover

00:22:30.020 --> 00:22:32.427
is, is a totally new thing
once you leave school.

00:22:32.510 --> 00:22:37.353
You spawned. the grading system
is already decided when you're at school.

00:22:37.437 --> 00:22:41.655
And as soon as you leave, there is no
grading system because now it's all up

00:22:41.739 --> 00:22:45.958
to you. Who's your athletic sponsor
when you're competing? Anta. Anta. Okay,

00:22:46.041 --> 00:22:50.397
yeah, because I was just thinking what
you just said, hard work, overpraised,

00:22:50.480 --> 00:22:54.624
Direction. Direction underrated.
That's world class. I love that.

00:22:54.707 --> 00:22:58.591
That's an ad right there.
That's brilliant. And it's so true.

00:22:58.674 --> 00:23:02.948
It's so true because we get momentum
from direction, not hard work.

00:23:03.032 --> 00:23:07.761
Momentum comes because you know
the direction you're moving in and then it

00:23:07.844 --> 00:23:13.094
snowballs. Exactly. Yes. You can push a
rock up a hill as hard as you want and you

00:23:13.177 --> 00:23:16.475
won't gather momentum
because the direction's wrong.

00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:18.900
But maybe you can imagine him happy.

00:23:19.100 --> 00:23:23.240
Yes. Sisyphus reference. There you go.
Yeah. Talk to me about how

00:23:23.690 --> 00:23:28.187
you look for direction at your age with
the success you've had with the multiple

00:23:28.270 --> 00:23:32.652
opportunities. Now you're in a position
where opportunities are flying towards

00:23:32.735 --> 00:23:36.087
you. You can go anywhere,
do anything, be on any red carpet,

00:23:36.170 --> 00:23:40.667
interviewed anywhere. How do you choose?
How do you find your direction when you

00:23:40.750 --> 00:23:43.670
have unlimited opportunities,
unlimited ideas, and,

00:23:44.090 --> 00:23:47.840
But at the same time, you're this
thoughtful, pensive, introspective human.

00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:51.180
A lot of people don't know this,
but I'm very introverted.

00:23:51.263 --> 00:23:55.300
And so the older I've gotten, the more
I've realized that it's actually really

00:23:55.383 --> 00:23:59.525
important for me to have a little bit
of personal space and time because there's

00:23:59.609 --> 00:24:01.955
kind of two categories here.
One is my career,

00:24:02.038 --> 00:24:05.335
which is already somewhat developed.
And so when I'm doing that,

00:24:05.419 --> 00:24:09.666
a lot of it is outward facing, which means
I've already kind of like done the work

00:24:09.750 --> 00:24:13.099
to get here. And now it's like I
am creating something out of it.

00:24:13.183 --> 00:24:16.880
Whereas the other thing is me being
a 22 year old and I need to build.

00:24:18.200 --> 00:24:20.380
I cannot stagnate in the

00:24:20.900 --> 00:24:25.254
energy kind of like dissipation phase
because otherwise I feel like I'm just

00:24:25.337 --> 00:24:29.516
going to freeze at the age that I
became successful and that's just going

00:24:29.599 --> 00:24:34.304
to stagnate forever. Whereas I also need
to realize that I'm this like independent

00:24:34.387 --> 00:24:36.080
entity who is 22, which means

00:24:36.260 --> 00:24:39.631
I need to take the time to learn.
I need to take the time to fail.

00:24:39.714 --> 00:24:43.399
And I need to have these experiences
that maybe you can't really justify

00:24:43.483 --> 00:24:46.121
with opportunity cost.
But it's important to travel.

00:24:46.204 --> 00:24:49.837
It's important to try a new hobby.
It's important to make a new friend.

00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:53.971
It's important to say yes to something
that you didn't think you would have fun

00:24:54.055 --> 00:24:58.263
doing. I really do try to value that. So
as far as knowing what's important within

00:24:58.346 --> 00:25:00.440
work, that's very easy for me to decide.

00:25:06.260 --> 00:25:10.461
values. What's great about my brand is
that it's actually just my values and what

00:25:10.545 --> 00:25:14.164
I like to do and who I am. So there's
no kind of like asymmetry there.

00:25:14.248 --> 00:25:16.439
But it's like I care
about women in sports.

00:25:16.522 --> 00:25:20.860
I care about encouraging young people to
do balanced sports and academics as well.

00:25:21.290 --> 00:25:23.530
I care about uplifting free skiing.

00:25:23.960 --> 00:25:26.120
Globally. And I care
about cultural exchange.

00:25:26.203 --> 00:25:29.609
So like those are generally things
that thematically will speak to me.

00:25:29.692 --> 00:25:32.799
I also think that I care a lot
about masculine feminine balance.

00:25:32.882 --> 00:25:35.142
I care about artistry.
I care about creativity.

00:25:35.225 --> 00:25:37.634
So that's kind of where
the fashion side comes in.

00:25:37.718 --> 00:25:40.168
And I'm going to be
a little bit more about that.

00:25:40.490 --> 00:25:42.896
Generally, that's how
I will choose events.

00:25:42.979 --> 00:25:46.833
Those values guide me and I feel
they have not really led me astray.

00:25:46.916 --> 00:25:50.770
Within the personal side, it's so
nebulous. That's why I don't know.

00:25:50.853 --> 00:25:55.286
When you're asking me, what advice would
I give? Pretty much all I can say is,

00:25:55.369 --> 00:25:58.701
yeah, I'm also in the cloud.
I have no idea what I'm doing.

00:25:58.785 --> 00:26:01.712
My only thing is if you
flip a coin a hundred times,

00:26:01.795 --> 00:26:04.954
it'll land on heads more than
if you flip it five times,

00:26:05.037 --> 00:26:07.990
just by virtue of how many
times you flip the coin.

00:26:10.490 --> 00:26:15.183
as many things as possible and hopefully
trust the model on its training data.

00:26:15.267 --> 00:26:19.899
Not to be super Silicon Valley on this,
but every experience you have is just

00:26:19.982 --> 00:26:24.798
informing you. It's like training your gut
feeling. I really do believe in that.

00:26:24.881 --> 00:26:28.590
I love how your life is really mirrors a

00:26:28.790 --> 00:26:34.236
belief that I have, which is that life
is more about collecting and connecting

00:26:34.320 --> 00:26:37.490
things than it is about
doing or being anything.

00:26:37.940 --> 00:26:40.415
I love that. And I feel
like when I hear you speak,

00:26:40.498 --> 00:26:42.672
you're collecting things
from Silicon Valley,

00:26:42.755 --> 00:26:46.033
you're collecting things from fashion,
you've collected experiences

00:26:46.116 --> 00:26:48.540
from academia, you've
collected things from sport,

00:26:48.624 --> 00:26:52.302
and then you've just connected all
of these things. And that's who you are,

00:26:52.386 --> 00:26:55.864
is you're a collection and connection
of all these ideas, philosophies,

00:26:55.947 --> 00:26:59.726
beliefs, interests, values, as opposed
to like, oh, I'm an athlete, or I'm a,

00:26:59.809 --> 00:27:03.889
you know, whatever this box is. I just, I
love that your generation has you to look

00:27:03.972 --> 00:27:06.380
up to to go, oh, that's
what I have to do. I can

00:27:07.940 --> 00:27:11.775
at the same time and I don't have
to choose and I don't have to have

00:27:11.858 --> 00:27:16.097
the tension of fighting between them.
You talk about your thoughts creating

00:27:16.180 --> 00:27:20.937
your reality. When I first saw one of your
clips that really resonated with me and I

00:27:21.020 --> 00:27:24.971
was like, who is this person at 22
talking about the power of thought?

00:27:25.054 --> 00:27:29.062
Talk to me about how that became
a practice and developing that mindset

00:27:29.145 --> 00:27:32.660
became powerful for you at such
a young age and how it's been

00:27:33.020 --> 00:27:36.620
what has allowed you to unlock
everything that's come your way.

00:27:36.950 --> 00:27:40.378
Wow, you're really good. The way you
talked about the pattern recognition

00:27:40.461 --> 00:27:44.274
is like really sitting with me. I feel
like I'm going to marinate on that further

00:27:44.358 --> 00:27:48.219
in my own time. And you're going to have
to do that and then tell me what you come

00:27:48.302 --> 00:27:52.115
up with. Yeah, we'll chat. Well, I will
preface this by saying I'm an only child.

00:27:52.199 --> 00:27:55.849
And I actually think that was pretty
important because it meant that I...

00:27:56.270 --> 00:28:00.287
My mom was an immigrant, and so she talks
about this all the time where she didn't

00:28:00.370 --> 00:28:03.287
go to high school in the U.S.
So when I came home, you know,

00:28:03.370 --> 00:28:07.387
being bullied in high school, she didn't
really know what to do because she didn't

00:28:07.470 --> 00:28:10.170
really have this like American
high school experience.

00:28:10.790 --> 00:28:14.762
situation. And that's totally new.
She didn't go to undergrad in the US.

00:28:14.846 --> 00:28:18.706
And so when I was taking the SAT,
she didn't really know what to do in

00:28:18.789 --> 00:28:23.099
that situation. And what's really amazing
about my mom and I's relationship is

00:28:23.183 --> 00:28:26.704
that we're so honest with each
other and we're so collaborative.

00:28:26.788 --> 00:28:29.210
And when one of us
doesn't know, we're not.

00:28:29.390 --> 00:28:33.470
we don't pretend that we do.
And there's this kind of like humble and

00:28:33.890 --> 00:28:37.651
almost like student mentality where
it's like, I don't know, but I'll learn.

00:28:37.735 --> 00:28:40.770
And so I think I picked that up
where I was like, okay, I'm,

00:28:41.180 --> 00:28:44.205
not everyone has all the answers.
And I think as a young person,

00:28:44.288 --> 00:28:47.945
the sooner you learn that, the better.
Where nobody really knows what they're

00:28:48.028 --> 00:28:51.684
doing. And the sooner you take your fate
and agency of learning into your own

00:28:51.767 --> 00:28:54.452
hands, the better. And it's
not about becoming an expert.

00:28:54.536 --> 00:28:56.978
It's about knowing that you
have the power to learn.

00:28:57.061 --> 00:29:00.475
And that is your greatest superpower.
There's a reason why kids learning

00:29:00.558 --> 00:29:04.360
languages at a young age is so different
from adults learning the same language.

00:29:04.443 --> 00:29:08.043
Kids just learn so well. And so
because I came to the understanding that

00:29:11.180 --> 00:29:15.163
with kind of like high agency over time.
And that's where I was like, wait,

00:29:15.246 --> 00:29:19.500
I can just not like self parent. But I
did read like parenting manuals. You did?

00:29:19.583 --> 00:29:23.620
At what age? Like 12, 13. For yourself?
Yeah. Just to see what was going on.

00:29:23.703 --> 00:29:27.523
Like I was just curious. Because
my mom had mentioned because obviously,

00:29:27.607 --> 00:29:31.101
I'm her only child. So she was like,
Oh, I raised you by the book.

00:29:31.185 --> 00:29:33.541
Like when you were born,
I read all the like,

00:29:33.624 --> 00:29:38.149
nutrition and like feeding everything. And
I did everything to a T and you turned out

00:29:38.232 --> 00:29:41.097
pretty well, like health wise,
right? And she also has

00:29:41.180 --> 00:29:44.574
another saying where she said up
until 13, it's me as like the parent.

00:29:44.658 --> 00:29:47.853
Contributing genetics is like
the big thing. But then beyond that,

00:29:47.937 --> 00:29:50.735
just like, you know, health,
safety, general, like values,

00:29:50.818 --> 00:29:53.170
all of that until you're 13.
But after you're 13,

00:29:53.253 --> 00:29:56.498
so much of it is like the people
who you surround yourself with and

00:29:56.582 --> 00:30:01.440
your self-learning. And so for me,
I was like, wow, you know, I'm 12 13 so I

00:30:01.560 --> 00:30:04.233
should probably get on that,
you know? So I was like,

00:30:04.317 --> 00:30:08.395
maybe I'll also read the parenting manual.
She said it was pretty good. So like,

00:30:08.478 --> 00:30:11.932
I'll just take a look. They were
like an easy read. What did you do?

00:30:12.015 --> 00:30:15.781
What did you learn? Tell us. Tell us
how to parent ourselves. It was like,

00:30:15.864 --> 00:30:19.110
here's how to like parent your preteen,
like when they're being,

00:30:19.193 --> 00:30:23.375
you know, combative and like when to leave
them to have space and when to initiate

00:30:23.459 --> 00:30:26.548
a conversation, when to let
them fail, these kinds of things,

00:30:26.632 --> 00:30:28.140
how to have the puberty talk.

00:30:31.560 --> 00:30:35.744
great about that is my mom and I's
communication style that evolved because I

00:30:35.827 --> 00:30:39.901
could sit down and be like, hey,
I think we should discuss this thing about

00:30:39.984 --> 00:30:40.817
my upbringing.

00:30:42.450 --> 00:30:45.419
That's amazing. It's kind
of like a formalized setting.

00:30:45.502 --> 00:30:49.081
And for that reason, it's just
been like the most amazing teamwork

00:30:49.165 --> 00:30:53.188
and collaboration. And I admire her.
I idolize her. She's totally my hero.

00:30:53.271 --> 00:30:57.461
In a lot of ways, we are both the same
person and different sides of the same

00:30:57.544 --> 00:30:59.930
coin. We are inextricably
connected. And...

00:31:00.390 --> 00:31:04.576
were both really invested in me.
And there's something so special about

00:31:04.660 --> 00:31:09.087
that just like unbreakable trust to have.
And I totally understand that not

00:31:09.170 --> 00:31:12.093
everybody has that relationship
with their family.

00:31:12.177 --> 00:31:15.401
And I think my truly my greatest
blessing is that I do.

00:31:15.484 --> 00:31:20.092
I love hearing that because I think
there's such a power in allowing a 13 year

00:31:20.175 --> 00:31:22.738
old to have the opportunity
to even do that.

00:31:22.821 --> 00:31:26.790
So it's one thing that you even
opened yourself up to that. Second

00:31:30.390 --> 00:31:34.490
I think she was just like, what?
She immigrated from China? She's like,

00:31:34.574 --> 00:31:39.086
this is not something we've ever done.
But it's cool because it also makes you

00:31:39.170 --> 00:31:43.506
realize your parent is a person.
And as a kid, you don't really think that.

00:31:43.589 --> 00:31:46.830
You're like, oh, this is mom.
The entity is mom. But...

00:31:47.130 --> 00:31:51.718
No. she's a person and she's a woman
and she has friends and she has feelings

00:31:51.802 --> 00:31:55.368
and she's, stressed because it's
her first time raising a kid.

00:31:55.451 --> 00:32:00.102
And so the sooner you realize that she's
a person with her own thoughts and needs

00:32:00.186 --> 00:32:04.603
and imperfections and flaws, and also
points that are so admirable and worthy

00:32:04.686 --> 00:32:07.058
of what doesn't mean to live with purpose.

00:32:07.141 --> 00:32:10.565
Jay Shetty is coming to Australia
and his message is simple.

00:32:10.648 --> 00:32:14.949
Your best life starts from within,
just like Wanderlust premium supplements

00:32:15.032 --> 00:32:19.650
crafted to support your mind, body and
energy so you can show up as your truest

00:32:22.470 --> 00:32:25.125
CJ Shetty live.
Tickets are on sale now at Ticketek.

00:32:25.208 --> 00:32:28.442
And find Wanderlust supplements
at all great grocery, pharmacy,

00:32:28.526 --> 00:32:32.339
health food stores and chemist warehouse.
Always read the label and follow

00:32:32.422 --> 00:32:36.130
the directions for use. Your heart
can tell you a lot about your health.

00:32:36.213 --> 00:32:40.290
Apple Watch Series 12 measures your heart
rate every five seconds with the most

00:32:40.373 --> 00:32:43.555
accurate heart rate sensing
in a wearable. So your vitals app,

00:32:43.638 --> 00:32:47.135
now with heart rate variability,
can tell you when something is off.

00:32:47.219 --> 00:32:51.010
And your readiness score can let you
know when to rest and when to push.

00:32:52.470 --> 00:32:54.285
Every heartbeat with
Apple Watch Series 12.

00:32:54.368 --> 00:32:57.418
The features described are not
intended for medical or therapeutic use.

00:32:57.502 --> 00:33:00.994
iPhone 11 or later required based on Apple
conducted study of heart rate accuracy

00:33:01.077 --> 00:33:04.377
August 2026. Visit apple.com slash
au slash Apple Watch Series 12.

00:33:05.450 --> 00:33:09.260
Got a holiday coming up?
Weekend getaway, month-long adventure,

00:33:09.343 --> 00:33:13.091
doesn't matter. While you're
off having the time of your life,

00:33:13.174 --> 00:33:15.748
your home could be
earning you extra money.

00:33:15.831 --> 00:33:19.579
List it on Airbnb and put
the extra cash towards your flights,

00:33:19.662 --> 00:33:22.483
accommodation or those
bucket list experiences.

00:33:22.567 --> 00:33:25.264
Your home might be worth
more than you think.

00:33:25.347 --> 00:33:28.190
Find out how much
at airbnb.com.au slash host.

00:33:29.880 --> 00:33:35.450
With Zip, you can get the filling you
need and the flights to Fiji you want.

00:33:35.534 --> 00:33:37.807
You can get what you need want.

00:33:37.890 --> 00:33:41.061
It pays to ZEPP. T's and C's
credit approval criteria apply.

00:33:41.145 --> 00:33:43.828
Credit provided by ZEPP
Money Payments Pty Limited.

00:33:43.911 --> 00:33:46.757
Australian Credit License 441878.
Copying, the better.

00:33:46.840 --> 00:33:48.630
What are your thoughts now, ZEPP?

00:33:49.410 --> 00:33:51.974
before you start skiing,
before you're competing?

00:33:52.057 --> 00:33:55.730
What are the thoughts that you
program into your mind? Contest mode.

00:33:55.920 --> 00:34:00.892
Oh my gosh. I'm extremely psychological.
I want to know everything.

00:34:00.975 --> 00:34:06.928
I have a saying where I say, I train like
I've never won and I compete like I've

00:34:07.012 --> 00:34:12.520
never lost. Say that again. That is so
good. I train like I've never won.

00:34:12.810 --> 00:34:17.010
and I compete like I've never lost.
And that's important because I'm

00:34:17.250 --> 00:34:21.276
A, I find it's difficult to win, but it's
way harder to stay there. And for me,

00:34:21.359 --> 00:34:25.489
you know, now through two Olympic cycles,
and also so much happens between age 18

00:34:25.573 --> 00:34:28.923
and 22, like staying in peak form
during that period of your life,

00:34:29.006 --> 00:34:32.980
specifically as a woman is very, very
difficult. From my last Olympics to now,

00:34:33.063 --> 00:34:37.245
I went through all of college. Like I was
a high school grad and now I'm a college

00:34:37.329 --> 00:34:41.490
grad and that's just two different people.
So that's one. The second thing is...

00:34:41.940 --> 00:34:43.440
It's. Keeps you hungry.

00:34:43.830 --> 00:34:48.330
And that's what allows you to perform
over time. The third thing is...

00:34:49.320 --> 00:34:54.747
In order to be a winner,
you have to have this insatiable,

00:34:54.830 --> 00:34:58.440
almost obsessive, religious, all-in...

00:34:58.650 --> 00:35:03.850
mentality when you compete, but because
it is so intense, you cannot sustain it.

00:35:04.230 --> 00:35:07.081
Always, because that's what
creates really dangerous egos.

00:35:07.165 --> 00:35:10.269
It's what creates the hubris
and overconfidence and complacency

00:35:10.352 --> 00:35:14.266
that undermines good training, because
you have to be very critical of your own

00:35:14.350 --> 00:35:17.252
training. For me, I see only
my mistakes when I'm training.

00:35:17.335 --> 00:35:20.490
I can never do anything right.
Every single thing, I'm like, oh,

00:35:20.574 --> 00:35:24.589
I'm two degrees off on that. Oh, I was a
second early. Oh, look at my upper body.

00:35:24.672 --> 00:35:26.190
I was three degrees. Whatever.

00:35:26.910 --> 00:35:29.174
that's all I think.
But when I'm competing,

00:35:29.257 --> 00:35:31.550
you need to make the switch. And I'm like,

00:35:31.650 --> 00:35:34.151
I am the best person who
has ever stepped foot here.

00:35:34.234 --> 00:35:37.480
Nobody's even going to touch me.
Everyone's competing for a second.

00:35:37.563 --> 00:35:41.008
Doesn't matter. That's it. But what's
so important is to separate that.

00:35:41.092 --> 00:35:43.741
I would say it's like 95%
the former and 5% the latter.

00:35:43.825 --> 00:35:47.568
And creating that really conscious
distinction is what protects me from going

00:35:47.651 --> 00:35:50.847
absolutely insane. I'm also not
that competitive in my daily life.

00:35:50.931 --> 00:35:54.475
I'm like a normal amount of competitive,
right? But you can imagine like,

00:35:54.558 --> 00:35:58.450
oh, you're so competitive when you ski.
Are you not insufferable with lawn games

00:35:58.534 --> 00:35:59.367
or whatever?

00:36:01.650 --> 00:36:06.209
super annoying to be around and I'm not.
It's only when I compete, I'm like,

00:36:06.293 --> 00:36:07.270
okay, alter ego.

00:36:08.310 --> 00:36:10.850
Go time. How did you discover?

00:36:10.950 --> 00:36:11.737
That.

00:36:11.820 --> 00:36:16.397
balance. What you just spoke about feels
like something an athlete figures out

00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:21.057
after 25 years of competing where they
realize they've carried this aggressive

00:36:21.141 --> 00:36:25.419
competitive mentality and critical
mentality far too much into every area

00:36:25.502 --> 00:36:27.928
of their life where their family feels it,

00:36:28.012 --> 00:36:31.573
their partner feels if they're
married or dating or whatever.

00:36:31.656 --> 00:36:34.560
Whereas you've realized
this early in your career,

00:36:34.644 --> 00:36:39.161
how did you discover that you need
to train like you've never won and compete

00:36:39.244 --> 00:36:40.260
like you've never

00:36:41.820 --> 00:36:43.790
Discover that. Well, for one...

00:36:44.340 --> 00:36:48.828
my mom just works. The way she instilled
work ethic in me is just unparalleled.

00:36:48.911 --> 00:36:53.515
So I will never be afraid to work harder
than other people if I know my direction

00:36:53.598 --> 00:36:56.871
is correct. And so much
of the direction is then cerebral.

00:36:56.954 --> 00:37:01.500
Maybe because I've gone to school, I have
a different perspective on psychology,

00:37:01.583 --> 00:37:05.460
or I'm seeing the physics of a trick
in a different way. So I think

00:37:05.700 --> 00:37:09.291
A, the underpinning is very academic.
And I think that's definitely

00:37:09.375 --> 00:37:12.034
a differentiating factor
for me. I agree. Yeah. B,

00:37:12.117 --> 00:37:16.312
I think then applying the work ethic
layer on top of that totally supercharges

00:37:16.395 --> 00:37:19.219
the whole thing.
That's like the direction, you know,

00:37:19.302 --> 00:37:21.880
momentum thing we were
talking about. And then,

00:37:22.110 --> 00:37:26.555
C, I think I just am so introspective.
I just, man, I just sit and think.

00:37:26.638 --> 00:37:31.020
I just think about my brain all the time.
And I think about who I am and

00:37:31.104 --> 00:37:35.486
the direction I'm moving in. I'm
self-assessing and I'm error correcting

00:37:35.570 --> 00:37:39.394
and I'm criticizing all the time.
I am my own greatest project.

00:37:39.477 --> 00:37:44.294
There is no project in my life that I
will ever build that is as time-consuming

00:37:44.377 --> 00:37:45.990
as living in my body every

00:37:52.110 --> 00:37:57.550
creating that obsessive mentality around
it. The only way other people can beat

00:37:57.810 --> 00:38:02.113
you is if they are really good
at doing themselves. And so for me,

00:38:02.196 --> 00:38:04.864
I just have to be the very
best version of myself.

00:38:04.947 --> 00:38:09.045
So I picked all of the best qualities
or things that I think make me unique,

00:38:09.128 --> 00:38:13.530
and then just put them together in this
like unique pattern matching type style.

00:38:13.860 --> 00:38:18.500
i believe you and at the same time i
feel you hold yourself gracefully too

00:38:18.900 --> 00:38:21.933
Like, talk to me about that.
Is it you are hypercritical,

00:38:22.016 --> 00:38:24.666
you are error correcting,
you are fixing yourself,

00:38:24.749 --> 00:38:27.920
but I don't feel like it sounds
like you beat yourself up.

00:38:28.470 --> 00:38:32.050
you know what I mean? And talk
to me about that because I think that

00:38:32.280 --> 00:38:35.844
athletes but even all of us like
non-athletes i think we don't know

00:38:35.927 --> 00:38:39.980
the balance i think a lot of people
who are listening and watching right now

00:38:40.064 --> 00:38:44.498
struggle between trying to push themselves
to be better and then pushing themselves

00:38:44.581 --> 00:38:48.798
so hard they break yeah talk to me about
how you hold those two things together

00:38:48.881 --> 00:38:49.627
in order to

00:38:49.710 --> 00:38:53.681
incrementally improve and become better
every day and at the same time not burn

00:38:53.765 --> 00:38:56.690
yourself out or beat yourself up.
You are not your craft.

00:38:57.210 --> 00:39:01.038
And I think that distinction is so
important because I can beat my craft

00:39:01.121 --> 00:39:05.220
to death and I will never die. And so
the point that I'm trying to make there

00:39:05.303 --> 00:39:09.348
is like real resilience is being able
to take constructive criticism without

00:39:09.432 --> 00:39:11.738
the emotions.
And so it's the sense of like,

00:39:11.822 --> 00:39:15.649
how quickly can I actually implement
usable material instead of spending

00:39:15.732 --> 00:39:18.908
that energy to metabolize
something that made my ego bruise?

00:39:18.992 --> 00:39:23.308
You'll laugh at this. I have a practice
that I do with my friends called the CCC.

00:39:23.391 --> 00:39:25.890
It's called the Constructive
Criticism Circle.

00:39:27.210 --> 00:39:30.443
greatest act of love that you can give
anybody is to give them constructive

00:39:30.527 --> 00:39:33.760
criticism if you love them and you
know them well enough to give meaningful

00:39:33.843 --> 00:39:36.293
advice. Because anybody
in the world can be like,

00:39:36.720 --> 00:39:40.734
Jay, I love your jacket.
You're so smart. You're so interesting.

00:39:40.817 --> 00:39:44.255
That's not that difficult,
right? Anybody can say that.

00:39:44.339 --> 00:39:49.313
What's more difficult is for me to know
you well enough to know what your goals

00:39:49.396 --> 00:39:54.243
are, what your shortcomings are, and
to then help guide you and kind of match

00:39:54.326 --> 00:39:59.364
those points in a way that you yourself
didn't even see or know or are not ready

00:39:59.448 --> 00:40:03.544
to hear. Like that is so much more
meaningful and so much more powerful.

00:40:03.627 --> 00:40:07.161
It is like the deepest act
of service I could possibly imagine.

00:40:07.244 --> 00:40:11.640
And so you can imagine this was probably
like not the most popular idea when I

00:40:11.723 --> 00:40:14.166
was like, hey, guys,
it's like Friday night.

00:40:14.249 --> 00:40:18.472
Let's all sit in a circle and criticize
each other. And they're like, what?

00:40:18.556 --> 00:40:22.721
This sounds like a terrible idea.
And I was like, no, no. Like, obviously,

00:40:22.804 --> 00:40:27.570
the goal is not to insult another person.
It's just like, hey, I know your goal is.

00:40:27.790 --> 00:40:31.367
music. You're really passionate about
this. You're really interested in it. But

00:40:31.450 --> 00:40:33.968
you keep saying you're going
to like put stuff out on TikTok,

00:40:34.051 --> 00:40:37.051
you're going to do like,
whatever to like reach people. But,

00:40:37.150 --> 00:40:40.076
you're not very consistent with it.
And you're not holding yourself to

00:40:40.159 --> 00:40:43.300
that standard. And I, I know that you
could, you know, something like that.

00:40:43.383 --> 00:40:46.351
Or, hey, the other week, when you
said this thing to this other person,

00:40:46.435 --> 00:40:49.661
it wasn't even to me, I think the other
person kind of like bristled a little

00:40:49.745 --> 00:40:52.584
and you maybe you could have had
a nicer tone of voice. You're like,

00:40:52.668 --> 00:40:56.066
I didn't even know. There's so many things
big and small that you genuinely don't

00:40:56.149 --> 00:40:59.677
even know. And that just cuts the work. It
cuts the work if people can just tell you

00:40:59.760 --> 00:41:02.256
and you can be like, wow, okay,
I'm just going to change it.

00:41:02.339 --> 00:41:06.539
And it's not about you. It's not like, oh,
my ego is gonna be hurt. When I'm talking

00:41:07.150 --> 00:41:12.282
trick. I'm not like, "Oh no, my double
quirk is bad. I'm stupid." I'm like,

00:41:12.365 --> 00:41:14.590
"Oh no, my double quirk is bad."

00:41:14.830 --> 00:41:17.905
It's really bad. Like, that's it.
That's the end of the sentence.

00:41:17.988 --> 00:41:20.431
There's no more extrapolation.
There's no more like,

00:41:20.515 --> 00:41:23.152
and this is what it says
about me as a human. It's like,

00:41:23.236 --> 00:41:25.679
I'm rushing the trick.
This is what I'm doing wrong.

00:41:25.762 --> 00:41:28.497
I'm not committing at this point.
I'm not truly believing.

00:41:28.580 --> 00:41:31.780
Maybe like it's not penetrating
my subconscious layer. Whatever.

00:41:32.080 --> 00:41:36.112
That is not who I am. And so again, this
is another thing that I see in like really

00:41:36.195 --> 00:41:40.178
successful people or athletes where it's
like really hard to distinguish those two

00:41:40.261 --> 00:41:43.004
things. So it's like if your
career is going really well,

00:41:43.087 --> 00:41:46.375
you feel like you're really great.
If your career is not going well,

00:41:46.459 --> 00:41:49.846
you feel like a failure. And for me,
those are pretty separate things.

00:41:49.929 --> 00:41:53.515
Like I am me and my career is me.
And also that means when people say, oh,

00:41:53.599 --> 00:41:57.333
Eileen, you're so good at skiing. I
don't translate that to like, oh, Eileen,

00:41:57.416 --> 00:42:00.566
you are so good. And so I don't
really feel like I am all that.

00:42:00.880 --> 00:42:03.635
even if I think that my skiing
is all that. I love that answer.

00:42:03.718 --> 00:42:05.718
And what's going to blow your mind is...

00:42:06.250 --> 00:42:08.440
I didn't have a cool name like CCC for it,

00:42:08.524 --> 00:42:12.176
but I made my friends do exactly
the same thing a few years back. No,

00:42:12.259 --> 00:42:16.590
you didn't. Here was my version. So what
I said to them was, we've got to say...

00:42:16.900 --> 00:42:19.345
to everyone in the room. This is my
closest group of friends. Of course,

00:42:19.429 --> 00:42:21.277
you can only do it with your posters.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:42:21.360 --> 00:42:24.497
So it's my closest group of friends
from London that I grew up with. I said...

00:42:24.580 --> 00:42:27.690
We have to say... to each other's face,

00:42:27.820 --> 00:42:30.103
the thing we all say
behind each other's back.

00:42:30.186 --> 00:42:34.372
So if me and you were together and we're
talking about our other friend and we'd be

00:42:34.455 --> 00:42:36.738
like, oh, he's really
ambitious, but you know,

00:42:36.821 --> 00:42:40.955
we know he's not putting in enough work.
We actually have to say that to him right

00:42:41.038 --> 00:42:44.658
now. And so that was what I made me
and my friends do on a Friday night.

00:42:44.742 --> 00:42:47.847
And it was unbelievable.
And I could see who was scared by it,

00:42:47.931 --> 00:42:50.213
who was nervous about it,
who really owned it,

00:42:50.296 --> 00:42:53.916
who opened up and had the humility
and put their ego aside on both ends,

00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:57.240
because you also have to have
vulnerability to tell someone the

00:42:57.820 --> 00:43:00.500
And you've got to be humble
enough to take it yourself.

00:43:00.583 --> 00:43:04.469
And then you start seeing the exchange
make sense when everyone has permission.

00:43:04.553 --> 00:43:08.036
So when you started to say that,
I was like, I need to steal your name.

00:43:08.120 --> 00:43:11.252
It's better. But I didn't have
that for it. That's unbelievable.

00:43:11.335 --> 00:43:14.920
But I just felt it. I was like,
we actually can't go to the next level in

00:43:15.003 --> 00:43:18.437
our relationship if we don't do this.
Right. We all think we're close.

00:43:18.520 --> 00:43:22.105
We all pretend like we're close.
But this is the test of actual intimacy,

00:43:22.188 --> 00:43:25.973
vulnerability, and friendship after 20
years that I've been friends with some

00:43:26.057 --> 00:43:26.890
of these guys.

00:43:27.820 --> 00:43:31.274
I'm totally aligned. That is incredible.
I mean, you came up with it.

00:43:31.357 --> 00:43:35.221
But I've just never like, that's insane.
I'm like, wow. But I agree with you.

00:43:35.304 --> 00:43:38.656
It's the only way of showing real
care and depth in a relationship.

00:43:38.739 --> 00:43:42.757
I love the way you framed it, too, because
also then there's like a group aspect

00:43:42.840 --> 00:43:46.755
to it. I think it's harder if it's like
one person, like put them on the spot.

00:43:46.839 --> 00:43:49.370
And then there's like kind
of responsibility there.

00:43:49.453 --> 00:43:52.856
This is just like truly fostering
like group connections and growth.

00:43:52.939 --> 00:43:56.220
That's so special. It's a much
more sensitive way of doing that.

00:43:57.820 --> 00:44:01.499
is better named. It's smart.
I wanted to ask you, you've said before,

00:44:01.582 --> 00:44:04.989
evidence over affirmation.
Explain that to me. I'm very realist.

00:44:05.072 --> 00:44:09.133
And I think I definitely get that from
my mom. But it was the sense of like,

00:44:09.216 --> 00:44:12.350
you want to shoot for the moon?
Okay, how do you get there?

00:44:12.433 --> 00:44:16.112
Who's going to build the rocket ship?
How are you going to design it?

00:44:16.195 --> 00:44:19.874
Who's going to power it? Like,
how are you going to get there? Right?

00:44:19.958 --> 00:44:23.120
And so the sense of like,
I can't convince myself that I'm

00:44:27.820 --> 00:44:31.755
Even if it's just conceptually, because
what's important is like technically every

00:44:31.839 --> 00:44:35.382
time I learn a new trick, I'm doing
something that I've never done before.

00:44:35.465 --> 00:44:39.008
So there is that kind of like final leap.
But most of the work, the basis,

00:44:39.092 --> 00:44:41.851
the bulk of it needs to be
ready so that you have that 5%.

00:44:41.934 --> 00:44:44.791
It's a lot of people talk about
like you make your own luck.

00:44:44.875 --> 00:44:46.997
And I think it's
in the same vein where like.

00:44:47.080 --> 00:44:48.500
You can only...

00:44:48.730 --> 00:44:53.357
succeed insofar as you are prepared and
you're kind of setting your own ceiling

00:44:53.440 --> 00:44:56.934
there with the base that you
have accumulated. And so, yeah,

00:44:57.018 --> 00:45:01.287
I would say I ask 5%, the last 5%,
but I feel good in the 95. And skiing,

00:45:01.370 --> 00:45:06.057
because it's just so visceral and literal
where it's like the difference between

00:45:06.140 --> 00:45:10.350
success and failure is like quite
literally broken bones and like top of

00:45:10.433 --> 00:45:13.391
the podium, right?
And so it is so clearly defined.

00:45:13.474 --> 00:45:17.290
And the difference in that is
sometimes just this sense of like,

00:45:17.680 --> 00:45:20.439
subconscious buy-in?
Do I feel like I had the reps?

00:45:20.522 --> 00:45:24.062
Do I genuinely believe to my core?
And so the top layer, I think,

00:45:24.145 --> 00:45:27.796
is the conscious thing. Anybody
can convince themselves like, okay,

00:45:27.879 --> 00:45:31.976
I'm going to jump. That's easy. But
the subconscious thing of buying in all

00:45:32.059 --> 00:45:34.372
the way down to actually
commit the action,

00:45:34.456 --> 00:45:38.608
that is the true test of trust. And you
can only build trust over repetition

00:45:38.691 --> 00:45:41.116
and over practice
and true preparation. Yeah,

00:45:41.199 --> 00:45:43.540
you're saying that you can almost feel it.

00:45:47.680 --> 00:45:51.789
Yeah. Whether you've actually bought into
it rather than just repeating something

00:45:51.873 --> 00:45:55.309
that may make you feel better
in the moment before you go out there.

00:45:55.392 --> 00:45:59.740
But everything about your body knows it's
false and is rejecting that idea. Exactly.

00:45:59.950 --> 00:46:04.405
And because it's so unnatural already,
and because it all happens so fast,

00:46:04.488 --> 00:46:07.348
like in skiing,
the takeoff is like 0.1 seconds,

00:46:07.432 --> 00:46:12.193
but the angle of your body and the torque
and the timing determines everything.

00:46:12.276 --> 00:46:16.669
And so if your timing is slightly off
because you're nervous and you rush

00:46:16.753 --> 00:46:17.586
a trick, then

00:46:17.860 --> 00:46:21.584
You can do the same thing, but you just
rush it a little because literally just

00:46:21.667 --> 00:46:24.524
because you're nervous and it's
game over. And so, of course,

00:46:24.607 --> 00:46:27.656
you're going to be nervous,
but it's like controlling the degree.

00:46:27.740 --> 00:46:30.211
And so that's what I'm
talking about with the buy in.

00:46:30.294 --> 00:46:34.018
It literally happens so quickly that it's
too fast for you to make the decision

00:46:34.101 --> 00:46:35.657
consciously at the end of the day.

00:46:35.740 --> 00:46:36.690
The results will...

00:46:36.910 --> 00:46:40.864
tell you what you really believe.
This episode is brought to you by Mazda.

00:46:40.947 --> 00:46:44.330
Some of life's best moments
happen because nothing went wrong.

00:46:44.830 --> 00:46:47.597
The drive home,
the conversation that continues,

00:46:47.681 --> 00:46:51.695
the plans that stay exactly as planned.
That's the feeling of safety.

00:46:51.778 --> 00:46:56.327
Every Mazda is designed with proactive
safety features that help keep you more

00:46:56.411 --> 00:46:59.593
aware, more connected and more
engaged with your drive.

00:46:59.677 --> 00:47:04.285
So you can feel confident on the road.
That's why Mazda has been named Consumer

00:47:04.368 --> 00:47:06.150
Reports' safest new car brand.

00:47:14.830 --> 00:47:19.631
visit www.iihs.org to learn more a lot
can happen when an accident doesn't visit

00:47:19.714 --> 00:47:23.904
mazda usa.com to learn more consumer
reports does not endorse products

00:47:23.988 --> 00:47:28.849
or services talk to me a bit more about
the technicalities of free skiing because

00:47:28.933 --> 00:47:33.611
i feel i've been fortunate enough to sit
down with novak and talk about tennis

00:47:33.695 --> 00:47:38.312
and talk to lewis hamilton and charles
leclerc about f1 and hearing about how

00:47:38.395 --> 00:47:43.135
much drivers lose weight and like how
much their weight impacts the movement of

00:47:43.218 --> 00:47:44.052
the car and

00:47:44.830 --> 00:47:48.210
Thank you. I've never interviewed
someone who's a free skier before.

00:47:48.293 --> 00:47:51.569
Talk to me about that. Because as you
started talking about the angle and

00:47:51.653 --> 00:47:54.791
the mechanics, I'm starting to think,
wow, the room for error is tiny.

00:47:54.874 --> 00:47:57.368
And like you just said,
if you go too early or too late,

00:47:57.452 --> 00:48:00.590
talk to me a bit more about that,
of something as a complete novice to

00:48:00.673 --> 00:48:04.455
this world, I would be unaware of, so that
we can really appreciate what's happening

00:48:04.539 --> 00:48:07.723
out there. Because I think we watch
you, and I've watched tapes of you,

00:48:07.806 --> 00:48:11.656
and I'm like, how does she just do that?
That's incredible. But you almost...

00:48:12.070 --> 00:48:14.550
undervalued because we're uneducated the

00:48:14.770 --> 00:48:19.337
physics behind it and the amount
of analytics behind pulling something like

00:48:19.420 --> 00:48:22.210
that off. Totally.
A couple of things. One of

00:48:22.930 --> 00:48:26.586
The biggest saying you will hear
in free skiing is patient on the takeoff.

00:48:26.669 --> 00:48:30.679
And it's like the most frustrating thing
to hear because it's so obvious and it's

00:48:30.762 --> 00:48:34.418
like a just do it sort of thing.
But the reason why it's so frustrating is

00:48:34.501 --> 00:48:37.349
that because it's not conscious
and it happens so quickly,

00:48:37.432 --> 00:48:41.088
a lot of it is like you're at the top
and you're like, I'm going to do it.

00:48:41.171 --> 00:48:44.928
I'm going to do it. And at the very
last thing, it's like, oh, no, I bailed.

00:48:45.012 --> 00:48:48.617
I didn't do it. And there's this almost
sense of betrayal that happens in

00:48:48.700 --> 00:48:51.530
that moment because you're like,
I swear, why is my body

00:48:52.930 --> 00:48:56.862
so much of it is identifying the kinds
of fear that you have. For me,

00:48:56.945 --> 00:49:00.936
I can like logic my way into things
because I can understand like what

00:49:01.019 --> 00:49:03.554
different kinds of fear
feel like in my body.

00:49:03.638 --> 00:49:07.861
And so discerning that often is the
difference between injury and success.

00:49:07.944 --> 00:49:12.400
As far as mechanics go, this is kind
of interesting because if you think about

00:49:12.483 --> 00:49:16.008
gymnastics, the body type is very
different than my body type.

00:49:16.091 --> 00:49:19.990
And so if you think about like
the physics of rotation, when you're

00:49:22.930 --> 00:49:26.717
longer and higher and your limbs
are a lot more dispersed,

00:49:26.801 --> 00:49:31.656
it means that the timing is even more
precise and it's even harder to kind

00:49:31.739 --> 00:49:36.661
of grasp. It's just like there's so
much of you in the air. On top of that,

00:49:36.745 --> 00:49:41.867
it's an outdoor sport. So like wind
impacts you more and like weather and like

00:49:41.950 --> 00:49:45.003
just all of these little
things. And so for me,

00:49:45.087 --> 00:49:48.290
I felt like because I'm
so much taller than most

00:49:52.930 --> 00:49:57.094
that were initially working against me.
But then, if you think about physics,

00:49:57.177 --> 00:49:59.990
and you think about a whip,
the longer the whip is,

00:50:00.410 --> 00:50:02.766
the more force is generated
at the very tip.

00:50:02.850 --> 00:50:05.317
So if I can get the timing
right, technically,

00:50:05.400 --> 00:50:08.256
I can generate more force.
It's just harder to do it.

00:50:08.339 --> 00:50:12.914
So I just have to be so precise. And I was
very aware about that from the beginning.

00:50:12.997 --> 00:50:17.072
And how are you keeping time? Is it
something you're counting in your mind?

00:50:17.156 --> 00:50:19.789
Is it a feeling in your body?
Like, where's time?

00:50:19.873 --> 00:50:23.782
Because you can't see anything.
I visualize a lot. And when I visualize,

00:50:23.865 --> 00:50:26.970
I visualize in four angles
or like dimensions. I will do

00:50:27.200 --> 00:50:32.183
follow cam, I will do deck angle,
I will do my POV, and then top angle.

00:50:32.266 --> 00:50:37.760
Then I will do fast motion and slow
motion. And get this, I will do all black

00:50:37.970 --> 00:50:41.227
proprioception. So it's like I will
visualize what the G forces feel on

00:50:41.310 --> 00:50:43.626
my body pulling apart
at certain points in the air.

00:50:43.709 --> 00:50:45.884
And that will help with
my timing and grounding.

00:50:45.967 --> 00:50:49.459
Because the first time you do a trick,
you can't say anything just visually.

00:50:49.542 --> 00:50:53.363
Right. So you really have to trust. That's
another thing you have to trust when you

00:50:53.446 --> 00:50:56.562
can't say anything. You're totally blind.
You have to trust in this.

00:50:56.645 --> 00:51:00.043
Your body's going to do something,
but it hasn't even done it before also.

00:51:00.126 --> 00:51:04.041
So like, how can you trust that? Right. So
there's something kind of counterintuitive

00:51:04.124 --> 00:51:04.958
about that. And

00:51:07.970 --> 00:51:12.394
So I do so much visualization. I just I
just think and that visualization is based

00:51:12.477 --> 00:51:16.352
on you watching footage of yourself
watching footage of myself know what

00:51:16.435 --> 00:51:20.529
the different angles and cams look like
those four that you experience. Yes.

00:51:20.613 --> 00:51:25.010
And what's interesting also is sometimes
I'm the first woman to ever do a trick.

00:51:25.160 --> 00:51:29.061
And so that adds complexity also,
because then I'm watching videos of men.

00:51:29.144 --> 00:51:32.883
And of course, there's going to be
differences in those mechanics, too.

00:51:32.967 --> 00:51:37.220
And so I have to be noticing what points
I can kind of take and what I have to.

00:51:37.490 --> 00:51:41.571
innovate almost on my own, just given
my own, you know, phenotypes there.

00:51:41.655 --> 00:51:46.364
So there's kind of like intricacy there. I
would say also we do have like foam pits,

00:51:46.447 --> 00:51:48.760
we have airbags. So like that helps a lot.

00:51:48.843 --> 00:51:52.924
But really doing something on snow
for the first time, there's something,

00:51:53.008 --> 00:51:56.804
I mean, yeah, like when is the last
time you felt like genuine fear?

00:51:56.887 --> 00:52:00.740
And I think a lot of people would
struggle to think of the last time.

00:52:00.824 --> 00:52:03.130
But in skiing, it's like, Every day.

00:52:03.710 --> 00:52:06.395
literally every day.
I'm so glad I asked that question.

00:52:06.478 --> 00:52:08.559
And thank you for taking
us into your mind.

00:52:08.642 --> 00:52:12.786
I want to take you back to the moment you
won your gold medal at the Milan Olympics.

00:52:12.870 --> 00:52:16.712
And that was such an incredible moment.
Walk me through the euphoria you felt.

00:52:16.795 --> 00:52:20.335
You're just talking about the fear
you feel, the trust you have to have,

00:52:20.419 --> 00:52:23.690
the looking at it from four angles,
the surrender in that moment.

00:52:24.050 --> 00:52:27.646
Talk to me about how that felt. I think
it's really important to contextualize

00:52:27.729 --> 00:52:29.129
that moment, actually. So...

00:52:29.270 --> 00:52:31.956
In free skiing, there are
three disciplines, half pipe,

00:52:32.039 --> 00:52:35.430
slopestyle and big air. I'm the only
woman who competes in all three.

00:52:35.514 --> 00:52:39.290
What's particular about that is no
other woman who competes in free skiing.

00:52:39.440 --> 00:52:42.382
half pipe at this Olympics
competed in any other event.

00:52:42.465 --> 00:52:44.747
So it's like one event
versus three events.

00:52:44.830 --> 00:52:47.937
And if each event is a week long,
you're skiing every day,

00:52:48.020 --> 00:52:50.357
the accumulated fatigue,
the just emotional,

00:52:50.440 --> 00:52:54.840
you're literally having like the highest
highs and the lowest lows of your life.

00:52:54.980 --> 00:52:58.160
Every day for two weeks.
And then sometimes it's at night.

00:52:58.243 --> 00:53:00.804
Sometimes it's in the morning.
You're in Italy.

00:53:00.887 --> 00:53:05.361
Like everything is kind of just different
and foreign and you're managing so much

00:53:05.444 --> 00:53:09.130
load. The last part is the Olympics
actually scheduled my trainings

00:53:09.213 --> 00:53:12.420
overlapping because they
thought that it wasn't possible.

00:53:12.770 --> 00:53:16.370
essentially to do all three events.
And so I tried to petition it.

00:53:16.730 --> 00:53:20.586
Obviously, it didn't work. So since I
made finals and actually ended up meddling

00:53:20.669 --> 00:53:24.623
in big air, which is the event before, I
actually missed out on a training in half

00:53:24.706 --> 00:53:27.134
pipe. And there's only three.
And then very lastly,

00:53:27.217 --> 00:53:29.891
it supposedly never snows
in this valley. But of course,

00:53:29.974 --> 00:53:32.501
if you want it to snow,
schedule the Olympics, right?

00:53:32.584 --> 00:53:36.440
So it was scheduled for night originally.
And so you can imagine your adrenaline

00:53:36.523 --> 00:53:39.788
super high all day. You're like,
okay, this is like the culmination.

00:53:39.871 --> 00:53:42.299
I'm gathering all of my strength,
all of my energy.

00:53:42.382 --> 00:53:45.782
I've competed five times already,
qualities and finals for big time.

00:53:46.100 --> 00:53:48.100
the other two events and the qualifiers.

00:53:48.230 --> 00:53:51.609
last minute, like an hour before
training starts for the contest, they say,

00:53:51.692 --> 00:53:54.567
okay, we're canceling it.
Like it's moving to another day.

00:53:54.650 --> 00:53:56.930
And what's even crazier is they said,

00:53:57.290 --> 00:54:00.374
if we can't do it, we're just
going to take qualifier results.

00:54:00.457 --> 00:54:02.621
And I had fallen in qualifiers.
I got fifth.

00:54:02.704 --> 00:54:05.737
I was qualifying in fifth place.
I've never done that before.

00:54:05.820 --> 00:54:08.087
I almost always qualify
in the top one or two.

00:54:08.170 --> 00:54:12.173
And so I was just losing my mind because
I was already so tired that I was like,

00:54:12.256 --> 00:54:16.157
just make finals, just make finals,
land something and make finals. And I did,

00:54:16.241 --> 00:54:20.193
but I was in fifth. And so I was just,
you can imagine, crashing out all night.

00:54:20.276 --> 00:54:23.053
And then the next morning,
thank goodness it went ahead.

00:54:23.137 --> 00:54:26.610
So I'm going into this contest very
frazzled. I am not in peak form.

00:54:27.290 --> 00:54:31.545
really holding on by a thread. And
this has never happened before in other

00:54:31.628 --> 00:54:32.461
contests, but

00:54:32.690 --> 00:54:36.914
For some reason at the Olympics, I fell
on my first run in every single contest.

00:54:36.997 --> 00:54:41.006
I don't know what the reason was.
I genuinely have this theory that I needed

00:54:41.089 --> 00:54:44.936
to wake up. And there's something so
otherworldly and surreal about being

00:54:45.020 --> 00:54:48.950
at the Olympics that I needed something
so harsh that my body to be like,

00:54:49.310 --> 00:54:52.704
You're actually here, like wake up,
lock in to be like, OK,

00:54:52.788 --> 00:54:57.361
I'm here and like jolt me into reality.
I have no idea what that situation was.

00:54:57.444 --> 00:55:01.251
That's what I've kind of decided
was the case. So needless to say,

00:55:01.334 --> 00:55:04.900
I fall on my first run.
And now I'm in last.

00:55:05.420 --> 00:55:08.589
And this is supposed to be
like my, you know, best event.

00:55:08.673 --> 00:55:11.640
I haven't lost a final
in this event in seven years.

00:55:11.780 --> 00:55:14.526
So there's four events. There's
men's and women's ski and snowboard.

00:55:14.610 --> 00:55:17.037
So four events total.
The favorites for the other three,

00:55:17.120 --> 00:55:20.944
None of them won. And so, of course,
I'm going into the last event. I'm like,

00:55:21.027 --> 00:55:24.800
OK, great. This is not boding well for me.
And so it was just so much doubt.

00:55:24.884 --> 00:55:28.606
And just even if I was so prepared,
I've never felt dealt like that before.

00:55:28.689 --> 00:55:32.140
And I just remember at the top
being like, please, please, like just

00:55:32.660 --> 00:55:36.202
Get the feeling, get the feeling. Because
I talked about like having that switch

00:55:36.285 --> 00:55:39.193
and I just wasn't getting it.
I was like, I don't know where I am,

00:55:39.276 --> 00:55:42.547
like where she is, like the competitor.
Like, I don't know where she went.

00:55:42.630 --> 00:55:45.402
Like it's maybe I'm too tired.
Maybe like something's going on.

00:55:45.485 --> 00:55:47.939
I'm like burnt out from five
other events. I don't know.

00:55:48.023 --> 00:55:50.205
I like couldn't find her.
And before my first run,

00:55:50.289 --> 00:55:52.089
I actually knew I was going to fall.

00:55:52.250 --> 00:55:55.925
I knew I was not going to land it
because I was just not in my competitive

00:55:56.009 --> 00:55:59.277
headspace. And I remember going
up to the front. I was like, okay,

00:55:59.361 --> 00:56:02.934
there it is. There's a moment.
Hold on to it. Hold on to it. I found it.

00:56:03.018 --> 00:56:07.049
I found it. I get to the front and they're
like, commercial break, eight minutes.

00:56:07.132 --> 00:56:09.537
Oh my God. And I'm just
like, are you kidding me?

00:56:09.621 --> 00:56:12.737
So there's video of me fake
punching a wall. I'm running alone,

00:56:12.821 --> 00:56:16.648
staring at a corner, just doing absurd
things to try and just get myself into

00:56:16.731 --> 00:56:20.490
this headspace. And it's very narrow
and it's fleeting and I was there and

00:56:22.250 --> 00:56:25.764
And then it just clicks and I'm like,
hold it for 30 seconds. And I do.

00:56:25.848 --> 00:56:29.261
And as soon as I land, I'm like,
okay, I won. You knew it. I knew it.

00:56:29.344 --> 00:56:33.314
And then I went back up and did a better
run and then got the two highest scores

00:56:33.397 --> 00:56:37.165
of the contest and ended up winning.
But what was really important, I think,

00:56:37.248 --> 00:56:41.150
about that contest is it was not about
my skill. It was totally me versus me.

00:56:41.420 --> 00:56:46.928
It was like I could have just not landed
a run and it would have been me betraying

00:56:47.011 --> 00:56:52.178
myself. And so much of it came down
to trust and willfulness of just like how

00:56:52.261 --> 00:56:57.564
consciously can you enter flow state,
which is totally counterintuitive and you

00:56:57.647 --> 00:57:02.247
just can't do that. And so this is
like the next best thing. And yeah.

00:57:02.330 --> 00:57:05.889
All I can say was extremely difficult.
And when I fell to the ground and started

00:57:05.972 --> 00:57:08.067
crying, it was because
I was totally spent.

00:57:08.150 --> 00:57:10.868
It was just like nothing
I've ever done before. Yeah,

00:57:10.951 --> 00:57:13.299
it was really difficult.
That is unbelievable.

00:57:13.383 --> 00:57:17.105
Thank you for walking us through
play-by-play because you just don't get

00:57:17.188 --> 00:57:20.382
that insight. I mean, there
needs to be a documentary on this.

00:57:20.465 --> 00:57:24.346
I hope you're working on it. You need
to be able to see that just that kind

00:57:24.429 --> 00:57:28.574
of stop, start, stop, start, stop, start
that what it does to an athlete's mind,

00:57:28.657 --> 00:57:32.644
even when you're so clear, even when
you're so focused and driven and trained

00:57:32.727 --> 00:57:34.630
and prepared, there's so much to it.

00:57:34.880 --> 00:57:38.560
Moments later from winning,
your whole day changes. Yes.

00:57:39.050 --> 00:57:42.300
you get some big news.
I remember watching that press conference.

00:57:43.490 --> 00:57:47.830
we see you breaking into tears,
Talk to me about that moment and...

00:57:48.140 --> 00:57:53.012
experiencing both that incredible high
after so much sacrifice training prep all

00:57:53.095 --> 00:57:57.740
the ups and downs you just walk through
and then experiencing such a low in

00:57:58.040 --> 00:58:01.898
pretty much in the next same day. This is
like my first time really speaking about

00:58:01.981 --> 00:58:05.647
this publicly since. And it's just been
so hard for me to metabolize after all

00:58:05.730 --> 00:58:09.684
this time, because like you said, it's the
highest high and the lowest low separated

00:58:09.767 --> 00:58:13.817
by a matter of minutes. My grandma had
been sick for a long time and we knew that

00:58:13.910 --> 00:58:17.705
Um, there was a chance that it was our
last time saying goodbye to her when I

00:58:17.789 --> 00:58:21.735
left for the Olympics. And so I said all
the things that I wanted to say to her.

00:58:21.818 --> 00:58:23.430
I told her I'd be brave for her.

00:58:23.750 --> 00:58:26.048
And made her a bunch
of promises, essentially.

00:58:26.131 --> 00:58:28.429
But my mom and I had
actually spoken about it.

00:58:28.512 --> 00:58:31.897
And we'd agreed that if something
had happened to my grandma during

00:58:31.981 --> 00:58:35.987
the Olympics, I didn't want to know during
the contest because it has happened.

00:58:36.070 --> 00:58:36.950
And I'm not sure.

00:58:37.340 --> 00:58:42.027
mourning prematurely and just like ruining
this experience that I've trained for four

00:58:42.110 --> 00:58:46.600
years, like it's not going to help. I
just cannot believe that my mom knew that,

00:58:47.030 --> 00:58:48.030
the whole time.

00:58:48.680 --> 00:58:50.960
during my other events. And, and,

00:58:51.680 --> 00:58:52.620
did not

00:58:53.060 --> 00:58:57.733
break a sweat or a tear or anything.
And she was so strong the entire time.

00:58:57.817 --> 00:59:02.173
That is unbelievable to me.
Like it's her mother. That is just absurd.

00:59:02.256 --> 00:59:05.281
Like I genuinely cannot
wrap my head around that.

00:59:05.364 --> 00:59:10.038
I actually get her emails. And so I
checked my phone right after I had won.

00:59:10.121 --> 00:59:14.985
We hadn't done the podium ceremony yet.
And so I saw an email from the funeral

00:59:15.068 --> 00:59:17.870
home and I just knew. And it was just...

00:59:18.050 --> 00:59:21.299
like my ground was like cracking out
from underneath me. And it's like,

00:59:21.383 --> 00:59:25.196
you think your reality is what it is until
something just comes along and makes you

00:59:25.279 --> 00:59:27.637
feel like you were living
in like a little fishbowl.

00:59:27.720 --> 00:59:30.969
I thought the Olympics was the most
important single event that I could

00:59:31.053 --> 00:59:34.490
possibly imagine. I couldn't think
of something that would be more gripping

00:59:34.573 --> 00:59:37.166
and compelling than that.
And all of a sudden I was like,

00:59:37.249 --> 00:59:40.592
this doesn't matter. And all of a sudden
the thing that I held to be like

00:59:40.676 --> 00:59:44.526
the epitome of all of life just like
fell away underneath me. And so that was

00:59:48.050 --> 00:59:52.320
I had to do the press conference.
I couldn't skip this press conference.

00:59:52.403 --> 00:59:54.980
And so I took a moment
to mourn with my mom,

00:59:55.064 --> 00:59:58.510
and then we just went to this
press conference. And so...

00:59:59.000 --> 00:59:59.917
I actually think

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:03.178
But those viral interviews where
I have the gold bow in my hair,

01:00:03.261 --> 01:00:06.694
because I had that in my pocket
as a lucky thing. And I was like, oh,

01:00:06.778 --> 01:00:10.873
in case I win, I'm going to put it in my
hair to represent femininity on the world

01:00:10.956 --> 01:00:12.740
stage in this male-dominated sport.

01:00:13.710 --> 01:00:16.442
All of those gold bow interviews,
I actually knew already.

01:00:16.526 --> 01:00:20.229
And so when I'm smiling and talking
about neuroplasticity and when I'm smiling

01:00:20.312 --> 01:00:23.142
and talking about like, oh,
I'm going to continue competing,

01:00:23.225 --> 01:00:24.775
like this is what I love to do.

01:00:25.950 --> 01:00:28.941
That was all so compartmentalized.
And then at the very end,

01:00:29.025 --> 01:00:31.606
I wanted to like honor her
and say, hey, by the way,

01:00:31.689 --> 01:00:34.732
one of the most important people
in my life just passed away.

01:00:34.815 --> 01:00:38.729
I promised her I'd be super brave. I
wanted to uphold the promises that I made

01:00:38.812 --> 01:00:42.725
to her. And it's like, this is my moment
of closure. I broke down during that.

01:00:42.809 --> 01:00:47.273
But like, I had to just turn something
off in my brain to get through that press

01:00:47.357 --> 01:00:51.410
conference. And then you can imagine
afterwards, it was just devastating.

01:00:52.530 --> 01:00:56.411
And then it was just horrible. Like
there were people online who were like,

01:00:56.495 --> 01:01:00.799
why is she at, you know, this event when
she's like skipping her grandma's funeral,

01:01:00.882 --> 01:01:03.336
like horrible, horrible
things where I was like,

01:01:03.419 --> 01:01:05.979
I will take just about
any kind of hate, but like,

01:01:06.062 --> 01:01:10.155
you are not going to put my grandmother's
name in your mouth in this situation.

01:01:10.238 --> 01:01:11.190
Like that is just,

01:01:11.520 --> 01:01:15.309
like a line I will not cross. So I did
keyboard warrior a little bit on that.

01:01:15.393 --> 01:01:18.679
But yeah, I planned my grandma's
funeral. I found the choir for it.

01:01:18.762 --> 01:01:22.551
I selected the Bible verses for it.
I picked the flowers. I did the ceremony.

01:01:22.635 --> 01:01:25.468
I did all the invites.
It's my mom's mom. It's my grandma.

01:01:25.552 --> 01:01:28.720
It was really difficult, but I
could not ask my mom to do that.

01:01:28.950 --> 01:01:33.947
And so I think my act of service to my
family and like to the honor to like honor

01:01:34.030 --> 01:01:36.957
my grandma was in service
of that. And so, yeah,

01:01:37.041 --> 01:01:41.870
I had to do a bunch of things after
the Olympics for like a week or two. But.

01:01:42.240 --> 01:01:44.557
Immediately after when we
went back to the funeral, I'm

01:01:44.640 --> 01:01:49.269
I had planned everything and we'd
metabolized it. And that was just so,

01:01:49.352 --> 01:01:53.600
so challenging for the days after
the Olympics. I would say that

01:01:54.270 --> 01:01:58.297
you showing both those sides of yourself
when you're answering the questions about

01:01:58.380 --> 01:02:00.140
neuroplasticity in your mindset.

01:02:00.510 --> 01:02:05.015
are you as your superhuman self, and then
you being honest about the loss of one

01:02:05.098 --> 01:02:07.450
of the most important women in your life,

01:02:07.560 --> 01:02:11.410
was the most human thing you could have
done. And to me, seeing those both...

01:02:11.670 --> 01:02:13.030
on center stage,

01:02:13.650 --> 01:02:18.430
as a gold Olympic winner. To me, there's
nothing more powerful that could...

01:02:18.900 --> 01:02:22.520
set a better standard for young athletes
and young people all over the world.

01:02:22.603 --> 01:02:25.370
I mean, to be superhuman
and human in the same breath.

01:02:25.920 --> 01:02:29.572
That's my grandma. Just channeling her.
Going to end on a final five.

01:02:29.655 --> 01:02:32.969
These questions I've been answered
in one sentence maximum. Hit me.

01:02:33.052 --> 01:02:35.080
So Aileen Gu, these are your final five.

01:02:35.760 --> 01:02:39.451
Question number one, what is the best
advice you've ever heard or received?

01:02:39.534 --> 01:02:42.169
It will never be embarrassing
to try. Second question,

01:02:42.252 --> 01:02:45.020
what is the worst advice
you've ever heard or received?

01:02:45.360 --> 01:02:48.581
Waking up at four in the morning
makes you more productive.

01:02:48.664 --> 01:02:52.837
That's a good one. Question number three,
your advice for young women today?

01:02:52.920 --> 01:02:54.320
Define your own category.

01:02:54.870 --> 01:03:00.291
meaning for women, there's a lot of boxes
that feel more rigid as far as career,

01:03:00.374 --> 01:03:03.387
what being a mother means,
what being a girl,

01:03:03.471 --> 01:03:07.530
just like it can feel very rigid.
And so I think it's like,

01:03:07.890 --> 01:03:11.179
Define your own categories.
You can be N of 1. Question four.

01:03:11.262 --> 01:03:15.545
When you have a crash out or a bad day,
what does Aileen Gu do? Cry. Oh my God,

01:03:15.629 --> 01:03:18.033
I cry. I cry so much.
And I think it's great.

01:03:18.116 --> 01:03:22.344
I think it's the most efficient way
that you can release emotion and return to

01:03:22.428 --> 01:03:26.601
a logical state. The sooner you can get
the irrational out, the better. Also,

01:03:26.684 --> 01:03:29.890
I run a lot. So both of those,
sometimes at the same time.

01:03:30.150 --> 01:03:33.036
Running and crying? Wow, all right.
When it's really bad. Yeah.

01:03:33.120 --> 01:03:36.854
Fifth and final question. We ask this to
every guest who's ever been on the show.

01:03:36.938 --> 01:03:40.327
If you could create one law that
everyone in the world had to follow,

01:03:40.410 --> 01:03:42.660
What would it be?
Maybe some kind of, like...

01:03:42.990 --> 01:03:46.130
independent study program early like

01:03:46.500 --> 01:03:50.787
at age seven or eight, you have to pick
a project and stick with it for a year.

01:03:50.870 --> 01:03:55.267
And it's not in a career. It's not like
every seven-year-old needs an internship,

01:03:55.351 --> 01:03:59.471
but some kind of self-guided, high-agency
exploration that values curiosity.

01:03:59.555 --> 01:04:03.233
Alingu, I know you're extremely busy.
I'm so grateful for your time,

01:04:03.316 --> 01:04:07.382
your presence, your energy. I hope
this is the start of a great friendship.

01:04:07.465 --> 01:04:10.092
And I wish you all the best.
I'm rooting for you.

01:04:10.175 --> 01:04:12.720
I'm in your corner
and here whenever you need.

01:04:16.500 --> 01:04:19.972
I'm so grateful for our conversation
today. I feel like I learned.

01:04:20.055 --> 01:04:24.066
With Zip, you can get the feeling you
need and the flights to Fiji you want.

01:04:24.149 --> 01:04:26.597
You can get what you need want.
It pays to Zip.

01:04:26.681 --> 01:04:30.691
T&C's credit approval criteria apply.
Credit provided by Zip Money Payments,

01:04:30.775 --> 01:04:34.516
Pty Limited, Australian Credit License
441878. So much. I'm so excited.

01:04:34.599 --> 01:04:36.700
I feel invigorated. Amazing. Thank you.