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This is the Jocko Underground Podcast number 164, sitting with Echo Charles, going to...
Provide some insight hopefully some courses of action for you all what do we got? Let's get some questions from the from the troopers courses of action. Okay, I'm looking for purpose in my life I want to help people and feel like I have aligned with my strengths as an individual to where my income is from is from something I really enjoy and I feel like I'm making a difference I have a beautiful wife and one year old son and I work as a wildland firefighter. I
I enjoy the physicality of the job and the team aspect, but I don't feel like it's my true purpose. It's hard on my family to be gone for a good portion of the summer as well. I wanted this job because I want to make California safer and enhance the health of the forest. I'm taking forestry classes at a local college and I'm on the path to get a good job. Before my family or my job as a firefighter, I had a dream to be a stand-up comedian.
I felt a lot of passion and purpose in the pursuit of that goal. However, as life has gotten busier, that dream has got pushed to the side. I'm not sure which direction to go now. I'm squared away in life, have good discipline, and I just need a direction. I'm trying to listen closely to my intuition as to where to go next. I'm starting back at comedy.
I'm doing it very consistently now, and I've given myself this year to see if it's still something I want. I don't see myself dropping everything for it, though. I have a family to provide for. I've always dreamed of owning some type of business that helps people or really just play into my strengths to help at a job that I really believe in. I know firefighting, you're helping and giving. I just don't think it's for me long term. Any advice would be appreciated.
Well, yeah, starting off, thanks for your service as a wildland firefighter. That's a freaking rough job. And especially if you've been out here in California, you've had a busy season. So thank you. Here's I guess my thoughts are like, OK, you like the comedian thing. I would say keep trying the comedian thing. But entertainment is hard. And I don't know the percentage.
But I'm going to guess that 99% of people that try and be comedians cannot make a living by being a comedian. Most people aren't going to make it. And so that's why when you have that little thing about I'm starting back in comedy doing consistently to see if it's something I still want. You also have to see if it's something that you have potential in.
And it takes a long time to become a successful comedian too. Like I want to say Theo Vaughn was like a comedian for 15 years before anybody heard of him. Before anybody like in the mainstream heard of him. Before he could make a good living from it. You know, like in this case, you got a wife and kid. Probably got more kids coming. He wasn't supporting a family. I can tell you that much. So I would say keep... See where that takes you. What kind of opens up. You know, maybe you start...
You know getting your name out there and people are really into it cool So that's I think you just I think you that's let me do is it on the side, right? That's just a side thing and you see where it goes Sometimes it works for people. Sometimes people are doing something on the side. They're making music on the side. They're painting on the side They're they're shaping surfboards on the side. They're building guitars on the side. They're doing some side thing and
It can grow dude. You did that. Yeah, remember when you were making videos as a side thing totally then it became your real thing So I would say that's what you do with comedy you do it on the side you practice you train But you know you don't you don't quit your job to go be a comedian now as far the same thing as far as being a business owner and growing it just start a business man, like
You know, start shaping surfboards, start being a builder, you know, building decks for people, woodworking, start a food truck, be a landscaper, start catering. I don't know. Like, what are you into? You know what I mean? What are you into? Because as a firefighter, you got some time to start some stuff. And this day and age, you buy the URL. Hell yeah. You know, landscapefirefighter.com. And all of a sudden, you got a little business. Hell yeah.
Just whatever but you just start a little business, you know, you've got a little bit of income You don't don't over invest in it, but you start a little something you see how it does and just like comedy probably not quite as harsh as Entertainment because a lot of people want to be entertainers, right? They want to be movie star. They want to be in a movie They want to be write a movie make a movie. They want to write a TV show They want to write a song they want to do a bunch of entertainment stuff. Yeah
Less than 1% of people actually ever make it in that industry. Business is also difficult. 25% of businesses fail in the first year, 50% fail in the first five years, and 65% are dead in the decade. So that's not great percentages. And you got a family, so you keep your job and you don't let go of your job as a wildland firefighter.
Until one of these things just gets so much traction that you're like, all right, cool. I got something else going on. So you're doing that. And then on top of that, I think it doesn't sound like you want the profession of being a firefighter long-term. So then you say you're taking classes right now, keep taking classes. And you figure out what your other new career could be, whether it's being in forestry, maybe you could be in the
the park ranger scenario, you know, live up there at Yosemite with your family. It's pretty cool. Or you learn how to weld or you learn dentistry or electrical. Like there's a bunch of different actual jobs you could get that you're into. You know, if you're, if you're an electrician, you get to be outside, especially big commercial electrician. You know, you're kind of outside working on buildings. You're inside a little bit too much, but yeah,
Maybe you're a framer. Like there's a bunch of jobs you get. So study and figure out which other career path you might like. So that's my recommendation. Keep your options open, open some doors and keep chasing your dreams without abandoning reality. That's my overall recommendation. Chase your dreams for sure, but don't abandon reality. And that's what I got. You like that one? I very much like that one, yeah.
But what about the person that says, yeah, but if you don't commit 100% to your dreams, then you won't make it. I call bullshit on that because there's 24 hours in a day.
And you can, you can, if you commit those hours that you're not working or sleeping, you can get a lot of stuff done. Yeah. So, yeah, I feel like a lot of times though, that, that sounds good because under some circumstances I would believe that that is correct where it's like, Hey, let's just go all in a hundred percent. But I think the reality like in real life,
You can still commit, like, for example, you want to be a standup comedian. You can still commit to that. Yeah. You don't have to just burn your, what do you go burn the boats, right? You don't have to burn the boats, but if you're committed, you're committed. There's very few instances where I can think that burning the boats is the right move because I actually think you'll end up in a war spot. Greg train. When he came to me, it was like, Hey dude, I got this opportunity to go to the school and learn, uh,
what is x-ray tech or I can commit 100% to MMA and he had all kinds of potential because he's a badass wrestler he's freaking strong as hell he's a good striker he was great jiu-jitsu and so he was like you know what should I do and I said well how many you know you've heard me say before how many hours a day can you train I don't know maybe four five at the most okay
So how many hours do you go to school? And we just broke down the numbers. And not have to worry about food and not have to worry about health insurance because you're an x-ray tech now. You've got a paycheck coming in. You can get the best food. And you can still train five hours a day. No problem. No problem. Now, would it be optimum if you could spend those eight hours that you were at work getting a massage and doing saunas and ice baths to recover? Sure, that'd be optimum. But guess what? When you're doing that, now you don't have good food because you can't afford it.
So I guess people like if you want to move to L.A. or New York because you want to be an actor, right? Like, okay, I got to move to L.A. Okay. But when you get to L.A., man, like now you're worried about food. You can't really commit so much because you got to work as a waiter. So I'm just saying be careful. Yeah, and agree. That's all true. And that's exactly what I mean where it's like,
I see how that could kind of be beneficial to be like, fuck yeah, burn the boats. And I see, but I think generally speaking, no, like if you're committed to something, you can make iterative decision decisions in the direction of that commitment. A hundred percent. And that's actually the smarter way to do it. Most of the time. I think you're right about that. I was committed. I wrote extreme ownership in airplanes, in hotel lobbies, on trains.
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