Tales from the first tee
Stories about my life experiences and others as I work at one of the premier golf clubs in Charleston, SC. Interviews with golfers around the world that have one thing in common...the pursuit of excellence on a golf course and everything else that happens along the way.
Tales from the first tee
Why the most successful people show up on time, every time
Josh Salzman shares insights about actor Kenneth Branagh's exceptional discipline and training arms dealers in London while reflecting on what constitutes true success in life.
• Sir Kenneth Branagh exemplifies discipline in his career and personal life
• Chronic lateness signals disrespect and creates an "emotional overdraft" with others
• Arms dealers were cash-flush clients who lived in opulent homes with top security
• Despite immense wealth, many clients suffered health problems at young ages
• Different definitions of success: accumulation vs valuing health and relationships
• Time is our most precious non-renewable resource that we'll never get back
To connect with Josh for physical training or "armchair therapy" consultations, email him at joshsalzmann@gmail.com—he's cheaper than a lawyer and far more effective!
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Welcome to another episode from Tales from the First Tee. I'm your host, rich Easton, telling tales from beautiful Charleston, south Carolina. This week I chat with my good buddy, josh Salzman again, as we talk about what makes Sir Kenneth Branagh different from most and highly successful as an actor, director, writer and just good human. We also get on the topic of training arms dealers. That are rarely out of the reach of their bodyguards, but when they are, I'm not certain you want to be in their company and, like every other conversation I have with Josh, we go down all these rabbit holes faster than Bugs Bunny. When we started our conversation, josh and I were talking about how he customizes his training sessions for each client according to their needs. He listens to their issues, does some hands-on balance and strength tests, finds areas of weakness through years of observation and experience and works on those areas of weakness. We're going to air that conversation at a later date, but just to summarize my understanding of his technique he finds areas of pain and focuses his energy on those pain points.
Speaker 1:Josh uses similar teachings from reflexology to manipulate the human body. As an example, if you're rubbing a tennis ball on the bottom of your foot and you get to a certain area of discomfort, a lot of people would stop rolling the ball there because it hurts. Josh would say you keep rolling it in that area until the pain subsides, and he does that with all parts of the body. He stays on areas of discomfort until they subside. He does that with the body and he also does that with the mind when he's talking to certain people. If you want to connect with Josh, he's now accepting phone consultations as part of his house call practice.
Speaker 1:Most of us in the United States wait until the symptoms of a problem get debilitating and then we go to a doctor to have them prescribe a pill to make the pain go away. Josh would tell you that while some doctor visits are necessary and I'd agree with that most of us, through a practice of good diet, exercise and stretching, can mitigate doctor visits and the reliance on pharmaceuticals. That create dependency on pharmaceuticals. They might not address the core problem. They just might have the pain go away, not address the core problem. They just might have the pain go away, and that pain going away is very short term. So I've already told you more than I know and so and I've outkicked my coverage.
Speaker 1:So if you want to perform better, feel better and even look better. I'd say email Josh, even look better. I'd say email Josh. He can be reached at joshsalzman at gmailcom. That's j-o-s-h dot s-a-l-z-m-a-n-n. At gmailcom, and then the two of you can talk about what's best for you. And I would say his armchair therapy is just about as good as his physical manipulations. So if you can't go to London, england, and meet with Josh, I think a phone call is the second best thing. So yeah, so you, you do that, and I think people, I think it would be beneficial for people to have a conversation with you about certain things and try something different than, or augment or add to whatever else they're doing to make them better.
Speaker 2:Well, that's, that's thanks for that rich, and tell everybody. All the listeners out there should know I'm cheaper than a lawyer and I'll be more effective for you.
Speaker 1:No, don't get me on lawyers, please, yeah.
Speaker 2:Call me whenever you have a chance and if you have a problem I can't do anything about it, but I can give you a big bill. And you know, the similarity between lawyers and rhinoceroses are what between lawyers and rhinoceroses are what? Where they both charge at the least provocation. And as I say to my clients, I said, if you want advice, go to a prostitute, If you want to get fucked, go to a lawyer, so to speak.
Speaker 1:All right, I'll stop here at this. Look, I have my own thing on lawyers after going to family court, so I'm in your camp.
Speaker 2:God bless them all.
Speaker 1:I'm in your camp. Yeah, a family court, so I'm in your camp. God bless them all. I'm in your camp. Yeah, you'll need them one day and they're good to have. I have some questions about Kenneth Branagh, so you start with any of those.
Speaker 2:Okay, so let's go to Ken because he's freshest in the mind. But friend Ken was Ken I happened to see on Saturday night, not for a workout. We're going to start working out again when he comes back from a holiday. He's going to Scandinavia a little holiday time, but we're going to work on his next pro, you know, like murder on someplace. He'll be Orient or Venice or something like that where he solves a crime.
Speaker 2:So we'll start working on it again, but we had a chance to hook up for the first time in person post his Oscar win, so we had some Chinese food, which I'm not recommending for people with bad back because there's a lot of acidity and sodium in that. But it was Saturday night, so what the hell and so it was great to catch up with Ken. So Ken's been a client of mine for 30 years and, more than that, first and foremost, a friend.
Speaker 1:So have you noticed, because he's had a lot of successes in his life. Well, he became a sir, but he's had a lot of successes in his life. Can you like, uh, could you notice any like an arc in his character, a change positive, negative, or just a normal growth pattern of an adult? Um, of what your experience with Ken has been over 30 years watching him, has he changed? Is he the same guy, just with more experience?
Speaker 2:I think he's the same guy with more experience, but what he's gotten more of is discipline. So he's the most disciplined actor that I know and he'll go through months and months and months without drinking or you know he'll if you ask him to do a regime. When I, when I got him in shape for Frankenstein in 93, the movie where Robert De Niro played the creature and he played the Dr Frankenstein and he we would meet at six o'clock in the morning at the movie studio, you know, three or four times a week, six o'clock in the morning and he'd be there right on time. When I go to his house, which he has, a beautiful house not too far from where I live and you know it's beautiful acreage. He has a beautiful pond in his yard.
Speaker 2:He's got, you know, he's worked hard for his cash. He, you know he, if I meet him at, if I say you know I'm going to be there at 630, there's no wait time with him, because what with Ken is, he's always been very disciplined with his, you know, with people showing up and he's, he's given, he's given earful to johnny depp or chris, uh, not chris, uh, what's his name? The guy that played, uh gosh, I'm trying to think of the movie, but he's given earfuls to people that didn't show up on time, because time is money when you're on the studio and you're directing a movie well, that's professionalism, that's I've heard that's like man, yeah, I've heard actors talk about when they.
Speaker 1:That's professionalism. I've heard that's like, yeah, I've heard actors talk about when they talk about professionalism. I think part of that is showing up on time and not causing stress for everybody else and causing delays just because you think you're all that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. And you know Ken, he could tell people because he's respected in the business and he's worked hard for that respect. But what he has with himself he could tell people because he's respected in the business and he's worked hard for that respect. But what he has with himself he gets up early. He likes his Tottenham Hotspur football. You know he goes to the football game but he's very measured as far as how he drinks and how he eats and he does yoga. When I don't see him to do my little joshuatron stuff and the guy is disciplined and his discipline you know he. You know he gets up early to do his. You know walking and exercise and he writes and it's all discipline and uh, he has that and and what and with that ken has and I'll say this quite honestly he's one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. He's down to earth as you could ever get and he respects people. You know he doesn't. He never looks down on anybody because you know the guy's from Belfast man, you know he's like, you know his. You know he's comes from a working class family and he respects people that you know that are honest and true and good workers, whatever they do, whether they're waiters or whether they're pushing a, you know, you know a broom, you know on the street, you know I mean I think that came out in his movie, you know his honesty about belfast yeah yeah, yeah, so that's cool, it's cool when you have somebody like, that's had success
Speaker 2:but, discipline has added to the success, like showing up for yourself and for others 100, 100 and what I like about ken if you say you say he's got an hour, he starts in an hour, he's finished in an hour. You know what I mean? There's no, you don't have any hang time, which I have with some of my other clients. They're not quite ready. Oh, let me send one more email. I got to make a phone call, that kind of thing. Ken is totally engaged.
Speaker 1:I worked for a boss once that he was the most disciplined, time managed human being Like he would before you'd start your meeting and you'd start right on time right, because the one before you ended right on time. And he would just say to you okay, we have 30 minutes I have a hard stop at and he gives you the time and let me tell you what. He starts looking at his watch a few minutes before the end and you could tell that if you haven't gotten what you needed to get done in that time period, it's going to end at that time and the guy was highly successful too rich, because you don't have to have all day long to do stuff.
Speaker 2:And a guy like that will definitely teach you, won't he, buddy? To be to get direct, because you know this that sometimes people can waffle around which I can, for sure but you learn you're going to lose people's attention after a certain time, just even to sell yourself or to make a point to your girlfriend about things, if you just go on and on.
Speaker 1:You know, be kindly direct. Do you think being chronically late is a sign of disrespect? And you know, what else does that tell you about a person that's chronically late?
Speaker 2:I just think you know I know this from the people that are the most successful around me and really they don't have to backtrack on themselves all the time is that you want to get something done. Give it to somebody that busy and the busier a person is, the more chance they're going to show up on time. And and showing up at time for for somebody, for themselves or for somebody is showing up time for themselves because it's not honoring themselves. Because you know, and you're gonna, something's gonna go wrong if you're doing that, because you're either gonna lose friends, you're gonna lose relationships, you're gonna piss people off, which is bad karma, shot a short-term or long-term basis in the universe, but you're never gonna, you're never gonna achieve what you need to achieve. I mean John Wooden, you know the great basketball coach. He was a stickler for showing up on time.
Speaker 2:You know, and I think you know, they talk about the military. You know making you. You know people are militaristic, they're militant. I mean I've been accused of being militant on my nutrition or militant on my timekeeping. Well, I have to be, because otherwise I can't get to people rich. I used to see 12 people a day. I don't do that anymore in london traveling to them. You better be disciplined enough to be able to get to people, because part of the anxiety is making sure you can get through the traffic on time. Because you only allow yourself 20 minutes or a half hour between people, you still have to eat. You know when people say I don't have time to eat, well, fucking hell, listen to this. That was it.
Speaker 2:Fucking hell. You didn't have fucking time to eat. Listen to that. That's what it took. So drink something. So people make up excuses and, and I think you know, there's a thing called emotional bank accounts with people. I call it rich, you know where. If you're you're, you set the intent every day to do the right things and be on time. But if something happens and you've been on time like 95 percent of the time, then you're not on time one time but the person goes. Well, you know, something terrible must have happened or they must have had a traffic jam, because that's not like them. See, you don't want to like, you know, you know quantum energy, neuralistic programming. You don't want to like be in that, in a, in an overdraft with a person's patience, and you know emotional patience with you. You know I'm saying because they won't, because we're on that gray area in life sometimes where people can say, well, fuck, you know, fuck him, he's fucking, he's always late, fucking schmuck. You know I mean that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:You know it's not a good thing yeah, I think, yeah, I think it's a sign of something else. Certainly disrespect would be one of them, because if you highly respected somebody or whatever it is you're in, you'd be there on time, because if you're on time or early, you'll never be late. And if you're not late, then things tend to go a lot better and you don't um, people don't get sideways with you, but there's something else. It's it's something else with people and I just haven't uh put my finger on it and just uh, I see it in golf, I see it in, you know, going places to meet people and, um, you know, people treat you differently when you don't arrive on.
Speaker 2:Time is time is our most precious commodity, that we never non-renewable resource. You'll never get back the time, you'll never get back any time, and so you're not respecting my life, motherfucker. You know what I mean? Yeah, my fucking life is going down the tubes here with your fucking laziness behavior, right? So you know? That's the key. So I think it's all of that, buddy you know, it's all that.
Speaker 1:So if you're a golf friend listening to this, show up to the first t-box on time. Hey, let's move on to um, your arms dealer. I've never first of all, I've never met or dealt with an arms dealer. They have to be a different kind of cat, I would think yeah, well they're it's.
Speaker 2:It's kind of works on the same basis of a car sales. The percentages are higher, you know, of the money that they get. So it was quite interesting because when I first came to London, I came to London with my ex. We've heard these stories before, but people that are new to the podcast and are completely board shitless and listening to Josh Salzman today when they could have been listening to more rich tales from the tourist tree that are a little bit more interesting than our podcast.
Speaker 1:Josh is fun to talk to. He's got good things to say. It's definitely a departure from golf stories, so go ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it's a metaphor for golf too. So I came to this country and my first person that I had actually I had a card from this guy in Israel and there was a guy called Ronnie Fuhrer, believe it or not, and he was Jewish. Fuhrer was his last name.
Speaker 1:Fuhrer, fuhrer. Well, fuhrer is how it is said in English, but in German Fuhrer, yeah, and if you're from New York it's hey, fuhrer.
Speaker 2:Now, fuhrer was actually a very popular German name until obviously the wrong Fuhrer got the name and then nobody wanted to be called Adolf the Fuhrer anymore, so to speak. You know so. But having said that he, before we left, he said listen, I know you're going to try to get work with professional football teams and give an aerobics class and open a gym, but we could use a personal trainer, because our personal trainer this was like 1980 and 83, has gone back to Cyprus and you could be our personal trainer. And I thought, fucking that's. You know Jake Steinfeld from California is doing that. You know, body by Jake guy was doing that stuff. I thought, you know Josh Salzman was going to do that. I thought, well, okay, I did a little bit in Israel where somebody would give me a little extra cash when I'd be there, and he was a.
Speaker 2:There used to be some Israelis that would come in there. There were, there were some dodgy Israelis would come to the Tel Aviv Hilton. This one guy, ronnie this is a different Ronnie, but his Ronnie he said this I was king of the cocaine in Amsterdam and every time he used to come into the gym I'd only get paid, I'd only dollar bill, and he'd say look after me while I'm here. Well, fucking damn right, I'd fucking look after you.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, he'd be the first guy you'd look at when he came in the gym Fucking big gold chain and big, wide nostrils too.
Speaker 2:That guy had actually bless him. But having said that, the other Ronnie, was a guy that was an art dealer and he was a very wealthy Israeli that also lived with his wife, whose name is Delisa. They were lovely people and they gave me a card and they said you could be there, our trainer. So when I got to London all this aerobic class, you know I I eventually became popular, but in the beginning it was too tough. I didn't find the tough people to give classes to. So people keep my class.
Speaker 2:The conditioning coach work you know there wasn't paying at the time like they do now conditioning coaches for big professional soccer teams over here. So I got this guy's number after a week staying at this guest house and I pulled it. I said come over. So I trained him every day and and him and his wife literally seven days a week and from him led other people. But I quickly got involved with, for some reason, a property people and the property people were also connected to arms dealers. Property people were also connected to arms dealers. So I had the owner of Harrods in 86, this guy, muhammad Al-Fayed. Who have you ever heard of this guy Khashoggi. Khashoggi was one of the biggest arms dealers ever in the world. He passed away a couple of years ago. He was a Saudi guy, saudi or Syrian, but he was, like you know, multi-billionaire from selling to, you know, countries that are fighting each other, like you know, in Africa and outside. Tiny Roland was the guy that Mohammed Fayyad actually was, was.
Speaker 1:Fayyad, was that related to Princess Diana, that's?
Speaker 2:right, dodi Fayyad was his son. Yeah, right, ok, so go ahead. So, yeah, so I met Dodi Fayyad. I never took him through exercise, but yeah, so these guys were property guys and then my name would go around to. So here I was, coming right off the boat from, you know, from the land of Israel, and here I am going around to these guys that are Egyptian, syrian, Lebanese arms dealer. I had this Palestinian guy that that that I used to see that was actually. He was actually kidnapped a couple years before I went to see him by the PLO and held for ransom, really literally. And there was this one guy I remember, you know, when you asked me about people when I trained them the first time. There's a guy called Baja, and Baja was an arms dealer that used to live in a very fancy house with a very beautiful wife, although he was only about, I think his head was taller than he was, almost, yeah, but he, he, he had and then he had money.
Speaker 2:But he said to me I said, dan, you know, I came in there. I said so, uh, so you know, his house looked like the inside of a godiva chocolate box. You know, gold, this gold, that his wife was this elegant french woman, that was a model, and he was this little fat, little hairy, little syrian guy, right, and he said to me, he said that, you know, I had a couple injuries. I said, really, he goes. Yes, I had, uh, somebody tried to kill me once. I said okay, and inside I'm going like fucking hell. This is not the usual thing that people would expect personal training to be doing. He goes. I said what was the injury? Goes and he pulls his chin up and it a there was a scar that went from one ear to the other ridge, right, and somebody tried to slit his throat, you know. And I, and I thought to myself you must've pissed someone off, okay, and um, and so he was an arms dealer. And there was another guy.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you a question about arms dealers Are they are they selling um arms to certain countries where those countries can't get it from other countries or directly from manufacturers because of some kind of embargo or limitation, or you know? I know nothing about arms dealership.
Speaker 2:Well, not that you should, because it's not the time to enter that career, rich, I think, unless you, you know, no-transcript. Forget about the weapon, but, but you know, let's just blow up the whole supermarket.
Speaker 1:God forbid you know, kill everyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just sick. But having said that, it's horrible. But having said that, the arms dealers a lot of them were that type. For instance, you know, say a country was being embargoed by the United States, right In Africa, right so like Sierra Leone or someplace like that, and then these guys would have a way of getting the arms from someplace to them. Now, I'm sure, even though I was a slightly naivete at the time that I didn't know about how close it was, was a slightly naivete at the time that I didn't know about how close it was, maybe even affecting, you know, our promised land there, buddy, you know back in where I was, in Tel Aviv. So, but it was interesting because a lot of these guys kind of knew where I came from but they kind of like just thought, well, you know, they didn't really care, they didn't have any politics. The politics was cash. Right, there was their politics, cash.
Speaker 2:And I remember going to get my first bit of money from this Christian Lebanese guy and I went down to his basement a very fancy part called the Bolton's here and he had this. His hobby was literally adding another annex onto his house all the time. Right, he had a very beautiful wife, you know, had a couple of children and he lived, you know he was, he was always kissing because he was a maronite christian and and I remember going down to get some cash from him and he said I said what do you do? And he goes, I sell stuff. So I looked on the wall, I said, you mean, like this kind of stuff, and there was a katusha rocket, there was a harrier jet, there was a tank, uh, and there was some other stuff, you know, like different arms, and they were all pictures, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, and that's where I met kashogi, who was a very famous arms dealer over there a couple times because they used to hang together, uh, but also it was the deal, it was I, I lost the client, I lost the guy that owned harrods because of these guys because they were all working with tyrolin and tiny rolling was in the 80s was fighting muhammad faeed over ownership of harrods. So there was a lot of dirty stuff going on between these guys and I was one of the fallouts between Mohammed and this guy, charlie Riachi, because they didn't like each other.
Speaker 1:Are they selling to the highest bidder? Is territories, political territories, not as much important to them, as much as who's going to pay the most for whatever they make? Like I can't imagine there's loyalty in that industry for whatever they make.
Speaker 2:Like I can't imagine there's loyalty in that industry. No, there's not. And not only that, but one of the guys I worked with was a guy called Wafik Saeed, and Wafik Saeed and Mark Thatcher Maggie Thatcher's son did a deal to sell something like 100 Harrier jets to Saudi. You imagine what Mark Thatcher made out of that. It's it's business and, like I say, at the end of the day, this guy Baja. Somebody didn't like him. So they have a lot of bodyguards, a lot of bodyguards around, a lot of security around and just for their house. Whenever you have a house that looks like the inside of a Godiva chocolate box, you better have good security around it, because somebody wants to get into your Godiva chocolate box. You better have, you know, good security around it because somebody wants to get into your Godiva chocolate box and take your shit?
Speaker 1:Did they pay you on time? Did they pay you up front?
Speaker 2:They paid me on time and they paid me cash all the time. These guys, they paid me. I didn't ask for what I could have asked for, you know, because I was like on my little you know kind of rates back then and I say you, you know, 10 or 20 workouts up front or 50 workouts up front, but it was always an envelope and it was always this and it was always a little extra christmas and another envelope, and another envelope and another envelope, you know, I mean kind of thing. And sometimes if I did a real good job, they just go get an envelope and I there was a what there was one kuwaiti guy that I was working with that never, I never, never, kept score about how much I used to train. He's come to come once in a while. If I brought him a tin of mackerel, they were very gracious, this guy guys, if I brought him a tin of mackerel to tell him to bring his diabetes, because they all had diabetes at like 45 because of lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Is mackerel just a healthier food?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I bought him two tins of mackerel from be. Once you're in their house, they do anything for you, you know. You know I'm thinking like, okay, I got a couple problems. But the point I'm making is this one guy, literally when I'd show up he would just go. You know, I'm going to give you some more money today and so you know, and I'd say to my wife I said she goes, how much goes, how much you got? I said, well, you know, I got a thousand pounds from this guy.
Speaker 1:Does he?
Speaker 2:owe you a thousand pounds. I said, no, he doesn't owe me anything. He just gave me a thousand pounds today, you know so. So if you get on the good side of those guys, because money is like you know- times are good.
Speaker 1:times are good. So let me ask you this because you're doing something well, that day they feel better. Do you develop expectations the next time you're with them that they're going to do the same thing, or do you realize this might've been a one-time thing?
Speaker 2:No, well, you just take your bets because, given the fact that a tenant macro costs 75 P, I figure taking that punt, as we call it over here, taking that bet, wasn't a big bet I mean, I didn't wager the farm on it. But I would say this that you've got to be aware of the fact that these guys can go anytime they go, and you're better off in the long term with people that actually you know, you send invoices to and you have records of payments and all that kind of stuff. But to be honest with you, rich, you know, just like you and I, it was fun. I mean, I remember going into, like Park Lane, which is the big street here, and going into the Dorchester apartments where I used to see this guy, muhammad Al-Fayed, and you know he was carrots but he had a lot of the stuff going on to Dodi's you know Diana's the one she died.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, I don't know. Were they married? Did he marry her? No, they weren't married.
Speaker 2:They were dating, they weren't married and, as a matter of fact, he was one of the only guys that he could never get a British citizenship because they didn't like him. You know, could you imagine? You know that was their big fear. That's why the conspiracy theories I don't buy into them that you know they had him, they had them taken care of. The men in black they say because they didn't want. You know that going on with the royal family, you know making him the, the in-laws of the queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the time. You know. So you can imagine all that stuff.
Speaker 2:So, but I think the thing about it is is that I was so close to a lot of that stuff and what I saw, rich more than anything else, was I never wanted to. I never want to train places with these people. I wouldn't want to have this guy's bank account and have his wife even and be not in good shape or have diabetes too. I went to houses, buddy, they had the best equipment. They had whole gyms that you would only see at these really nice spas and they never went into them and I trained the guy in the living room or in his bedroom. I said no, we don't need the gym, let me get a ball or let me do something. Or in his bedroom, I say no, we don't need the gym, let me get a ball or let me do something. I can do it here. Let me show you how to do some push-ups on your knees or against the wall. That's better for you than half of this equipment here.
Speaker 1:I have to venture to guess that he values himself differently than you value yourself. He values himself on the things he can buy and the type of spouse he can attract and maybe the shoulders he could rub with. That's his stock, his personal stock price is that Yours is not. That Yours is completely different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so is yours, Rich, because you know, I think the thing about it is, you know, there's a great stoic line from stoicism where they say enough is enough. And I think when you're in the business of accumulation, which we all like, to have a bit of extra. We don't want to be skint row, we don't want to worry about having to pay our mortgage or our or our apartment rent or whatever you're doing, or to have put gas in your car, petrol to be called over here. But once you have a certain amount, how many beds can you sleep in? How many cars can you drive? You know, how many can you do? What is your quality of life? Are you only going out with people because they like your cash and they're hanging around with you because of your money, because everybody's on the payroll? Oh, because they really like Rich, because they like his company, they think he's funny. Like his company, they think he's funny. You have a girlfriend because you're not just using cash as a kind of aphrodisiac for people.
Speaker 1:It's a different scorecard. You and I work with a different scorecard than they do. And look, I've worked with scorecards in the past where accumulating was part of a growth. But then it gets to a certain point where what is at risk? By trying to accumulate more? What am I putting at risk? It could be relationships, it could be health, whatever that is For different people. You put things at risk that you value.
Speaker 1:I value health. I value my ability to go out, make friends go out play golf. I value health. I value my ability to go out, make friends go out, play golf, whatever. Go out for a few drinks that to me and be surrounded by people I want to be surrounded by.
Speaker 1:And in the process of accumulating, you tend to find yourself sometimes in the company with people you would not choose to be with. It's like business creates odd bedfellows and you get to a certain point to me where it's like I just don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to spend time with people just because maybe I get something more out of it, but I really don't like their company. All right, not to contradict myself, I often go over to the golf course uh, sometimes as a single, hoping to be matched up with others so that I can meet new golfers, perhaps enrich my friends group of golfers and also in hopes to find a story. Maybe there's a group that's playing a different game, maybe there's some really odd behavior or somebody has a personal story that I just think the world needs to hear.
Speaker 1:Like the other day, I get matched up with these two pro tennis teachers and one of their wives and we go out to play and they teach me a new game and it was really cool. Instead of, you know, creating partners every six holes or you know, two against two, they had this game. They taught me about all. Four people tee off and then you decide your partner on which two balls are closest to each other once the balls lay to rest. So I think that's cool.
Speaker 1:So I do sometimes match up with people, and not in this case because I really enjoyed these three people. They were a hoot. But sometimes I'll get an asshole. I'll play with an asshole, like this one guy, gary Joubert, that I played one time with Justin, a friend of mine who used to play at the course and work there, and this guy was. He was a living contradiction and he was full of himself and never stopped talking. Here's a guy I wouldn't ever want to play with again. So I do like to surround myself with people that I want to be around, but there's always the exception, and maybe it's just the story.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100 percent. I mean, at the end of the day, what do we say? You know you get like. You know you can put up with assholes when you're a certain age because you're on. You know. You know you've got to play the game and, whether it's working for a company or working at a gym more talented and having a better time, you know why shouldn't you be on a golf course and join yourself? Why shouldn't you be having a good relationship with Tracy? Why shouldn't you have a good laugh? Why do you have to surround yourself with people where you're always in your?
Speaker 2:You know you're thinking, you're rolling your eyes in the back of your head, going do I fucking? This is so fucking boring. I'm fed up with this shit. They are draining me, these people, and not only that. You know, listen. You know, the point being that you know if you're getting paid to be around assholes, fine, but if you're not, fuck off. No, no, no, rich, rich. This is what we got to do. We got to say, like a stoic, you got to grab the day like a roman. You're going to say I am going to pursue this and I'm going to get myself a sponsorship and anybody that doesn't come along with rich easton. They're fucking stupid man. That's what they are.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm thinking all right, so I'm looking for smart sponsors yeah, and podcasts are the best way, because people like to listen to podcasts while they're while they're driving buddy I think that's mostly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what I found with most of my listeners are somewhere in the cars going someplace that's right.
Speaker 2:That's right and it's. You know what it is? It's brainwashing people. Back for more barry. Yes, I am thurman.
Speaker 1:Only this time I brought my secret weapon my brain what are you talking about?
Speaker 2:He's talking about brain control, brain control there ain't no such thing as brain control. There's mind control. Brain control is ridiculous. You're brainwashing people every time, every 20 minutes or 10 minutes on your you know before you start. We're sponsored by today. You know this Gillette Manscape or whatever it is. New commercial ideas to promote the Lawn Mower 4.0 below the waist trimmer. Now we're really trying to avoid any testicle or butt shaving innuendo for this ad, so let's try to keep it classic okay, but why, sir, should we beat around the bush?
Speaker 1:May I offer?
Speaker 2:a rebut poll. I'm sorry, but this is an asinine idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's completely cockamamie, if you ask me.
Speaker 2:Guys, now listen, I don't want to be a dictator here.
Speaker 1:If you're a dictator, does that mean that you can punish us under the penal system? Yeah, hey, josh, I'm starting to see your point.
Speaker 2:You know, before you start, we're sponsored by today. You know this Gillette Manscape or whatever it is, or this thing or whatever the thing is that could be good, could be a golf. Why not go to the golfing thing? You know say, you know clubs. I mean they got plenty of money. They're giving money to all these people. You know play around the golf. You know so they're handing out. You know sponsorships like candy with, uh, you know with some of these, uh, you know golf affiliated things. You know who knows a golf club. You know that's in your area. You know what I mean. Who knows that needs once, once. You know the the day fees. You know who knows anything. So I could be your agent rich.
Speaker 1:But you know we, we, I, I might, I might, uh, I might you know I might not get you the right sponsorships, but I like the Viagra one. That's good. Hey, buddy. Thanks, thanks for taking the time, and it's always a slice of life talking to Josh Salzman and, as always, I'm your host, rich Easton, telling tales from beautiful Charleston, south Carolina. Talk to you soon, thank you.