In Search of Gumption

Ten years ago, my dear friend Angela Quach was broke, sleeping on my couch in San Francisco, and surviving by splitting Trader Joe’s sandwiches in half. She was clinging to her ego, refusing to settle for anything less than a six-figure director role, even as her bank a ccount drained to its last $100. Today, she is the CEO of The Destiny Lab, a multi-million dollar tech company that recently closed its first round of financing. What changed?

What do Maradona, Whitney Houston, Charlie Sheen, Jerry Garcia and Andre Agassi all have in common? Today we will be discussing the uncomfortable topic of addictive behaviors, and — as always — I will share a part of my own struggles with you, alongside the research, what it says, and how to implement it towards higher levels of gumption. The blockbuster names I mentioned above are amongst a long list of wildly ambitious people who suffered from addiction at the zenith of their success.

“You choose one of two pains: The pain of suppressing who you are to gain acceptance, or the pain of rejection that comes with being who you truly are.” Gabor Mate [he said it more eloquently than that] Spring is blossoming again with wild flowers on the hills. The pond outside the yurt is blooming with lillipads standing up straight with dignity towards the sun. The goats roam freely on the hill after Destry built the gate. People are out again, hosting events, and filling out the parks.

I have been working on something for the past 2 years that I am thrilled to finally be able to share with you! We have been working diligently to produce the third season of The Human Recovery Lab (previously the Gumpcast), and it is finally here! I’ll share more on the crazy journey of creating this next week, but today I invite you to watch our trailer here on youtube and subscribe there to get notified (spotify and apple podcast links below).

I have just returned from a trip to Kenya, the land of pole pole (the famous Swahili phrase that means ‘slowly slowly’). Instead of twelve hours of screen time, my days were filled with sun, warm Indian Ocean air, simple coastal seafood, and the smiling faces of the Swahili and Giriama people. (Most of all — I did not hear the letters A or I once on my whole trip!) Before I left I was feeling quite off for several weeks → I frequently woke up with night sweats at 3 am.

‘“You have a new message,” Siri announced via CarPlay. ”It said: ‘Can you talk? I need help.’ Would you like to reply?” I was crossing the Golden Gate Bridge from my office in the city and on my way to a meeting in Mill Valley. The message was from a client of mine who had been part of our membership program for the past two years. I called her and she picked up. “Hey. How is it going?” I asked. “Omar, I am in deep trouble.

In today’s world, more is the disease, and less is the cure. If you’ve been carrying stress for too long, and looking to start off the new year fresh, I hope today’s piece reminds you that sometimes feeling better beginswith a change in environment. Today the healing Mongolian yurt turns 1 year old, and I would like to celebrate its very meaningful life so far by sharing the story with you as we go into year two.

Joseph Campbell said, “Follow your bliss.” I think that’s a bunch of horse shit. There is no bliss in the hero’s journey—only compulsion, sacrifice, and the madness of doing it anyway. The only reason I’m living my life this way is because my brain has dis-ease. I am tortured by my own volition—a perturbation of thought that numbs my sense of danger, curbs my desire for comfort, and pushes me toward desires just out of reach. It’s a lack of contentment with the status quo.

It’s been 15 years since my brain went into its first government shutdown. Isolation, internal emotional bleeding, and..ughh…impotence. I hated depression with a deep passion. If only I can surgically excise it from my brain, then I’d finally be the person I want to become. I tried to cauterize it with Prozac. It was a definite meh. Then I tried to amplify it with psychedelics and it was more of a “whoa”. Like whoa — my brain could do that?

Would you rather have anxiety and freedom, or no anxiety and no freedom? That’s not just a rhetorical question. It’s a decision most of us are making unconsciously every day. Could anxiety be the threshold to freedom? Could the current medical establishment — with its mandate to eradicate the “disorder” of anxiety — be eroding our collective willpower? Today I offer you a new way of seeing anxiety, not as an enemy, but as an important step towards freedom and higher levels of consciousness.