Sometimes you have to be the lion

Make Space for Your Inner Lamb - Building Better Humans

Sometimes you have to be a lion, so you can be the lamb you really are. What does comedian Dave Chappelle's powerful Mark Twain Award acceptance speech reveal about authenticity? In this week's episode, host Glenn Azar breaks down a pivotal quote and shares his own journey to self-acceptance.

00:45 - Dave Chappelle's reverence for comedy as an art form that allows us to be heard
02:30 - The story behind Dave's powerful metaphor about protecting your inner "lamb"
05:15 - How Glenn masked his true self growing up and felt pressure from his dad to "toughen up"
07:00 - The struggle many of us face "trying to become someone just so we can eventually be ourselves"
09:45 - Learning to stop performing and just be real
12:30 - Recognizing that everyone is walking around hoping someone understands them

This inspiring episode is a reminder that your sensitivity and emotional depth are strengths, not weaknesses. If you've ever felt you were "too much," listen in as Glenn explains why you might just need to be a lion for a little while to protect the lamb that you really are.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
At England as are here walking back to the building
Better Humans Project podcast. In the last episode, I spoke
about Dave Chappelle and the way he honored John Stuart
when John received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
That episode resonated with a lot of people. I think
it was the rawness, the honesty, the beauty of having
a friend who not only shows up but speaks about

(00:22):
you with love and reverence in front of the world.
But today I want to flip that lens, same stage,
same award, but this time it's Dave Chappelle himself receiving
the Mark Twain Prize. So I'll include the video clip
of the speech here because it's honestly one of the
most powerful and articulate speeches that I've ever heard.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
I was a soft kid.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I was sensitive, I crazy, and I would be scared
to fist fight, and my mother used to tell me
this thing. I don't even know if you remember, but
you said this to me more than once. You said, son,
sometimes you have to be a lion so you can
be the lamb you really are. I talk this like
a lion. I'm not afraid of any of you. When

(01:08):
it comes word to word. I will gab with the
best of them, just so I can chill and be me.
And that's why I love my odd form, because I
understand every practition of it. Whether I agree with them
or not, I know where they're coming from. They want
to be heard, they got something to say, there's something
they notice. They just want to be understood. Love this genre.

(01:30):
It saved my life.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Daieve once again doesn't just entertain. He reveals. He speaks
truth with a depth and a vulnerability that really connects
for me. And he says something that cut right through me.
It's the sometimes you have to be a lion so
you can be the lamb that you really are. That
hit hid because honestly, that's been a part of my
journey too. See. Always a really soft kid or sensitive.

(01:56):
I felt things deeply. I noticed things that other people didn't.
I wasn't loud, I wasn't brash, I wasn't trying to
dominate anyone. And growing up that softness wasn't always seen
as a strength, especially not by my dad. Now, my man,
and I know somebody who'll relate to this, didn't really
know what to do with a son like me. He
thought I should toughen up. He'd put me down for

(02:18):
being too gentle, too emotional, and truthfully, it hurt. And
I carried that for a long time. And yet here's
Dave Chappelle on stage, this brilliant, fearless, truth speaking comedian,
telling a room full of legends that the very reason
he could be who he is was because his mum
saw that softness as something worth protecting, something worth preserving.

(02:40):
He said to his mum sometimes, or he said, his
mum told him I should say that sometimes you have
to be a lion so you can be the lamb
that you really are. See, that's parenting, that's mentorship, that's love.
That line means you show strength when you need to,
not to destroy, but to defend. You become the lione
in the world, not because you're angry or aggressive, but

(03:02):
because the world doesn't always make space for soft hearts
and quiet wisdom. You become the lion so that the
lamb inside of you, the part that's tender, empathetic, creative, loving,
doesn't have to be slaughtered by a world that often
doesn't understand it. That's what this podcast is for me.
That's what my work is. It's not about being the

(03:24):
biggest voice in the room. It's about being heard. It's
about helping other people feel heard too. Because Dave Chbelle
goes on to say something else beautiful in that piece
of the speech. He said, I love my art form
because I understand that everyone has something to say and
they just want to be understood. That's it. That's the
whole game. Everyone, you me, the people you love, and

(03:48):
the people you clash with. Everyone is walking around carrying
something they wish someone would just see, something they wish
someone would get. And I think a lot of the
uggles we face in life aren't because we're broken lazy
a week. They're because we spent so much of our
lives trying to be someone just so we can eventually

(04:10):
be ourselves. Let that sink in for a second. I
wanted to become someone just so I could be myself.
That's been true for me, Maybe it's true for you too. See,
we spend years trying to prove our worth, trying to achieve,
to be respected, to be noticed, and for what so
we can finally stop performing and just be real. I'm

(04:32):
at a point in my life where I'm no longer
trying to be impressive. I just want to be true.
I want to be useful. I want to help people
rediscover their own courage, their own softness, their own voice.
And that's what I saw in Dave Chappelle's speech. Not
a comedian, not a celebrity, a human doing his best

(04:52):
to be heard while making space for others to be
heard too. So if you've ever felt like you were
too soft, to a mon, too different, I want you
to know this. You're not too much and you're not
not enough. You might just need to be a lion
for a little while to protect that lamb that you
really are. And one day, if you keep showing up,

(05:13):
if you keep being honest, if you stop trying to
become someone and just start being yourself, you realize that
your softness was your strength all along. So Team, that's
today's episode, just a reflection spark by a quote delivered
by one of the most honest voices in comedy. And
as always, I want to take the chance to thank
you for being here with me. Thanks for walking this

(05:36):
path of growth, of grit and of realness. And remember
this art form that we're a part of, whether it's podcasting, journaling, storytelling,
leading your family, chasing a goal, It's all just a
way to say I'm here, I feel something, and I
hope you understand. So that's it for me. Team, much

(05:56):
love and I'll chat to you next time.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Thanks for listening to this episode of The Building Better
Humans podcast with your host Glenn Asa for feedback. To
stay up to date or go back and find an
old episode, head over to one eighty dot net dot
au Here the Building Better Humors Project pocas this guy