Tupac & Marcus Aurelius | Ain't Too Proud To Ask

It's okay to ask for help when needed, so today's episode is all about the importance of doing just that. To quote hip hop and stoic legends Tupac and Marcus Aurelius, Dramos speaks on how asking for help can lead to empowerment and strength. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yes, Yes, I am Dramas And this is the Streeked

(00:26):
Stoic Podcast, bringing you your daily dose of timeless stoic
philosophy remixed for the hip hop generation. We are combining
hip hop lyrics and quotes from some of the greatest
who ever graates a microphone with ancient stoic philosophy. Now,
with that in mind, let's get things started with your
daily shot of inspiration. So today we're gonna be focusing

(00:54):
around the idea of diminishing your ego. Right. I think
this is oftentime. I'm such a reminder that all of
us need throughout the course of our lives. Right. And
today's quote that we're going to be pulling from is
from of course tupocshre Core and none other. And he
says a very simple quote here, even the genius asks questions, right,

(01:17):
and this is a very obvious one. But I think
what's powerful about this one in particular is the messenger. Right.
You have tupocsrecor regarded as one of the greatest of
all time at his craft and also one of the
most brilliant minds, is not only in hip hop but
to me of a generation. Right, And he makes a
living rapping about bravado and being braggadocious, you know, and

(01:38):
being the best, and still even he has to humble
himself enough to admit that it's okay to ask for help,
that even you know, the person who is revered as
the best at what they do, they sometimes need guidance
just like anybody else. Right, And this leads perfectly into
a still quote from Marcus Aurelius where he says, don't

(01:59):
be a shame to need help like a soldier storming
a wall. You have a mission to accomplish. And if
you've been wounded and you need a comrade to pull
you up, so what? And I love that that last
slide right there, right like so what? Right? Like? We
live in this culture where where so many people, you know,
like to claim this term of self made. We wear

(02:19):
it as like a badge of honor, right, and and
not to discredit anybody's work, but the reality is, no
one is one hundred percent self made. We all had
people along the way who extended a hand, or people
who taught us lessons, both directly and indirectly. And listen,
there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, right Like that that
speaks so much to me and where I'm at in
my life right now. You know, I relate to this

(02:41):
idea of diminishing your ego and humbling yourself for the
greater good, because you know, one of the biggest life
changing events that I've ever had for me was getting
my podcast deal right, and while I put a ton
of work to get here, it probably would have never
happened without the help of Charlotmagne, the god right that
is just a reality, like he connects me to the
right people. He even you know, took the time to

(03:03):
read my contract and even had his own lawyer read
my contract, and both of which made suggestions for me
that were, you know, incredible, And had I have been
too proud to take his help and advice, I wouldn't
be here right now, right at least not in the
position that I'm in today. And of course, you know,
are there going to be some people out there who
may use that against me, the people in the Instagram comments, right,

(03:25):
and they may say I'm only here because of Charlemagne.
Sure those people are going to exist, But guess what,
it doesn't change the fact that I am here now,
and it does not change what I have gone on
to accomplish right for me as it should be for you.
Living out my dream is far more important to me
than claiming some title of being completely self made or

(03:48):
being able to tell people that I had no help
getting where I am. You know, all of those things
are absolutely useless to me in the real world. And
I have no problem acknowledging the help that I had
along the way to build what I'm currently building, and
I have no problem accepting more and more help down
the road as I inevitably will need. Right and listen,
I'm lucky it panned out the way that it did right,

(04:09):
because it could have gone left. I mean, the reality is,
before I even had a podcast deal on the table,
I was unhappy with where I was at, and you know,
rather than expressing that and asking for advice on how
I could go about possibly renegotiating my current contract, like,
I just sat there bitter each and every day, my

(04:30):
performance became, you know, more and more lackluster. And I'm
lucky that the podcast deal came along because I could
have easily been fired for not being great at my
job anymore. But again, had I have asked for that
helping hand, somebody could have put me onto some game
and said, listen, you don't have to wait till your
contract is up. If you feel like you are progressing
beyond where you know you were when you signed it,

(04:51):
why not go have a talk. And this is how
you can renegotiate your contract so that you are happy
in your position and you feel valued and you feel
like you are getting what you deserve. But went on
for far longer than that. I'd like to admit just
feeling undervalued and underappreciated when I could have easily just
humbled myself enough to ask for help on what I
should do next, you know, rather than being too proud

(05:13):
to talk about the fact that I wasn't making a
lot of money, or that I was, you know, not
happy where I was at. Right, Like again, I got
lucky the podcast deal came along because it could have
gotten completely left because I was too proud to ask
for help at one point. Now we've heard from from Tupac,
you have heard from Marcus Urrelius. I've connected this to,
you know, being a real foundation in my own life.

(05:35):
Now let's talk about how you can make it your
mantra for today. But first let's take a quick break,
and then we'll be right back. All right, So we

(06:13):
have heard the words of Tupac Shakur. We have heard
from one of these stoics, Marcus Aurelius. I've given you
a lot of insight into my life and why I'm
sitting here right now. Now, let's talk about how you
can make it your monstra for today. And we are
talking about the idea of diminishing your ego. And first
and foremost, it starts with acknowledging the fact that you
don't know what you don't know, right, That's it. No

(06:34):
one is is one hundred percent self made. And that's
the other thing we all have to come to terms with. Right.
And even if some slim chance in hell, you know,
somebody stepped into ship and they had that blind luck
you know where they have all the bragging rights because
they were in fact self made and nobody helped them
out along the way. Again, that is all that they have.
They just have those bragging rights, which here in the

(06:57):
real world where you and I exist in bragging rights
have little to no actual value. Right, And we, of course,
you know, we have to at times make our own
mistakes to learn lessons. But but also with that in mind,
why not try to learn from those who have been
there before. You know, why not accelerate our growth through
the help of others, especially if they're willing to give

(07:20):
us a helping hand. You know that, right, there is
a gift in itself. And now to summarize, you know,
you have Tupac with a very simple quote, right talking
about the idea that even geniuses ask questions. Right, even
the people we regard as the smartest, the best, they
have to be humble enough to ask questions because no
one knows it all right. And just like Marcus Aurelius

(07:42):
talks about, you know, if you were injured and needed
help getting over a wall as a soldier, why wouldn't
you ask your comrade to help pull you up? Right,
at the end of the day, you are both going
to achieve what you set out to do, and that
is getting over that wall. You know, nobody's gonna hold
it against you that you needed a little bump up
to cross that finish line. And again, how I relate.

(08:03):
I am here because I was humble enough to sit
there and ask for help along the way and acknowledge
that I did not know shit about contracts or the standards.
In the podcast, world, and I was lucky enough that
I was able to enlist someone who did and they
could help me out. But all that came with diminishing
my ego and not being too proud to ask for advice. Right,

(08:25):
and lastly, you basically have one choice to make right.
Do you want bragging rights or do you want actual greatness?
And if it's the latter, then you need to have
no shame while you soak up game from anyone who
is willing to give it to you. Now, with that said,
thank y'all so much for checking out the Street Stoic podcast.

(08:45):
Do your best to apply these concepts that we've discussed
today into your everyday life, and I would catch you
next time. The Street Stoke Podcast is a production of
Ihearts Michael Blura Podcast Network