Akeem Haynes - Going from Homeless to Winning an Olympic Medal

Today's guest is Akeem Haynes, undoubtedly one of the most inspiring people walking this planet right now. I love this person.

Akeem is originally from Sav-la-mar Jamaica. At the age of 7, he moved to Canada for a better life with his mother. Shockingly, at the age of 13, Akeem and his mother became homeless and lived at a bus stop for a period of time. He learned early in his life to use his pain as fuel to push past the obstacles that came his way.

Akeem went on to represent Canada in 2 Olympic games (2012-2016), and in 2016 he helped Canada break a 25 year record and win a bronze medal in the process. Along with his athletic accomplishments, he is a twice published author and now an international motivational speaker who helps individuals and organizations develop a resilient mindset to overcome their own obstacles.

Listen as we discuss:

• Akeem's harrowing story of coming home from school one day, only to find his mother packing their belongings in garbage bags on a freezing cold day
• How they ended up living at a bus stop until an angelic woman took them in
• His feelings of gratitude for not having gone through the experience alone
• I ask, and he answers: How could humanity let that happen to a mother and child?
• Why it's so hard to ask for help, and the futility of trying to do everything yourself
• Becoming a superhero
• Sharing your story to pave the way for others
• Getting better vs getting bitter
• The inspiring evening primrose, which is beautiful, but grows in the dark
• The loss of my son Ali, and how I realized there was never a deal that assumed he'd stay forever
• Why do bad things happen to good people?
• How different perspectives manifest around you when a flight is delayed

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Twitter: @mgawdat
LinkedIn: /in/mogawdat

Connect with Akeem Haynes on Instagram @underdogakh, on Twitter @underdogakh, on Facebook @Akinspires, and his website, akeeminspires.com

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Don't forget to subscribe to Slo Mo for new episodes every Saturday. Only with your help can we reach One Billion Happy #onebillionhappy

Transcript

Mo Gawdat : 0:02

I am so glad you could join us. I'm your host, Mo Gawdat. This podcast is nothing more than a conversation between two good friends, sharing inspiring life stories and perhaps some nuggets of wisdom along the way. This is your invitation to slow down with us. Welcome to Slo Mo. My guest today is the ever inspiring, incredible man, Akeem Haynes. Akeem is originally from Jamaica. He came to Canada at age seven with his mother looking for a better life. Later on, in 2012 and 2016, he represented Canada in two Olympic Games and in 2016 he broke a 25 years' habit and actually won a bronze medal - something that we should all be very proud of. But if you know Akeem's personal story, you would be even more proud. If you know the difficulties he had to go through in life to get to that place in life, you'd be so inspired. And if you have been following him like I have, and you understand a little bit about his ideas and his values, you would understand that this man has so much to teach us. I am so excited to be talking to someone with such a value system today. So hang in there and don't leave us until the end of this conversation. Akeem, thank you so much for being with us today.

Akeem Haynes : 1:38

Hello, hello. Can you hear me?

Mo Gawdat : 1:40

My God, there you are!

Akeem Haynes : 1:42

Perfect. You can hear me okay?

Mo Gawdat : 1:43

I can hear you well, and I adore you.

Akeem Haynes : 1:46

Oh man, it's a pleasure. I've been looking forward to it. I love what the podcast is doing. I love what you're about and your energy, man. I'm excited to have a conversation today.

Mo Gawdat : 1:55

So I want you to introduce yourself to our listeners with a story that starts with minus 22 degrees.

Akeem Haynes : 2:02

(Laughs) Okay. Yeah, so minus 22. Right? So I came to Canada obviously for a better life. And you would think when you come to a different place, you know, that things will start to get going. So, we moved to Canada in '98 and we first went to Yellowknife. We went to Yellowknife because my uncle was in the army and that was our way into Canada in that time. Very easy to get into Canada in the 90s. And so a couple years later, we actually moved to Calgary. And Calgary was a bigger city. Bigger city, more people, more opportunities. And so for a good six months that we got there, really seemed like things were starting to be stable in some areas. And then all of a sudden, one day - regular day - I go to school, go to training, go to practice, come back home. And I come back home, and I open the door. And I open the door and I see three different garbage bags there. And I said "Wow, this is interesting because we don't eat that much. Like, what is all this about?" Right? And so I'm looking at the garbage bags and I'm like, wait a minute, this looks a lot like my shirt. This is my hat. This is my pair of shoes. Like, I only got a pair of shoes, so I know what my shoes look like. And so my mom comes down the steps and she has another bag in her hand. I said, "Mom, what's going on?" And she says, "Akeem, go upstairs and get your stuff." I said, "Mom, what do you...get my stuff for what? Like, what are you talking about?" She says, "Son, go upstairs and get your stuff. Don't make me repeat myself. Go upstairs and get your stuff." And I looked at her and I looked outside. I said "Mom, it's minus 22 outside. What do you mean get our stuff? Where are we supposed to go?" And so when I was 13, man, I found myself with one bag in one hand, one bag in the other hand, my backpack on, my mom had a bag in her hand, and in minus 22 we were walking outside to find shelter at a bus stop. At 13, we were now homeless. And even as I explain the story, like, I get shivers about it because I still remember the cold shivers down my spine. Like, I still remember the breeze. Like, I still remember the look of "Man. Where do we go from here? Are we going to freeze to death? When are we going to eat next?" Like, I had no idea what was about to happen. And so every time I share the story, it just reminds me... because at 13, during that time, I really was introduced to the power of gratitude. Because for me at that age, I realized, you know what... people ask me all the time - whether I go to speak high schools, corporate, whatever - they say, "Akeem, man, you must have developed this strength from an early age man, it was crazy!" And for me, my response is always is this: I am so grateful to this day that I did not have to go through it alone. I had my mom there. I don't know how I would have handled it if I had to go through it alone. But even though she didn't know what we're going to do, and I didn't know what we were going to do, we were in this whole thing together. And so for me at that moment, I said, "It is very dark, but I'm not going through it alone. I have my jacket with me, I have shoes, I have laces, I have socks. I may not have food, I may not have stability, I may not know how long we are going to be homeless for. I don't know any of that. But I know that I have a couple of things here and I got to hold on to these couple of things. Because these couple of things that I have are providing me and it's giving me hope."

Mo Gawdat : 5:29

That is amazing. I heard this story many times. Every time I hear it, I swear to you my heart shivers because I can't even imagine how you go from a child - safe, good life, practicing, doing everything, and then poof! In a minute, you're in the streets, minus 22. And I have to say, sometimes one of the things that completely kills me about humanity, and one of the topics that I really champion is homelessness. It's not only the experience that you went through, but it's in our inability as humanity to have the compassion for a child and a mother that are homeless at minus 22. I mean, how can we humans let that happen? Have you ever thought about, what does it mean? There must have been someone out there that could have said, "Hey, here is something that could help you." But that didn't happen. Why do you think that has become our reality?

Akeem Haynes : 6:28

You know, I think sometimes people are so caught up in their own things and their own stress and their own worries that they don't necessarily have the capacity to think about anything else. And it's not that they may not have thought about, "Oh, I should help this person. But we got to worry about ourselves right now. We don't have enough to be able to handle other people's problems, other people's issues." And so one of the things that helped us during that time was I went to school and I had met this person. He name was Roman. Didn't really know him well. I didn't know him well. He was in my class, we'd play sports together, but I didn't know him very well. I came home from school one day, I was going back to the bus stop. And my mom said, "Man, we got to do something." Out of a whim, she calls this young man's mother because they had met each other. And she asked her out of desperation, "Can we stay with you?" Now keep in mind, this lady had five, six other people in her own home. But something in her heart, the God in her heart said, "You know what, we got space for you." And my mom and I, we stayed. And this is the same mother, who's the godparents of both my siblings. Her name is Sophia. She took us in. And I'll always, always be grateful, and I'll always be whatever that she needs because she helped us when we literally had nothing. So my mom and I spent two and a half years on a mattress together in the basement.

Mo Gawdat : 7:52

I love Sofia, I think the world needs more Sofia's, to be honest. But I also love your mom for being able to ask for help because some of us are unable to say, "Look, there are others out there. I'm not alone." And I think that idea of "not alone" is really something that, sadly, our western world has sort of dampened a little more than it should. Right?

Akeem Haynes : 8:16

Yeah, it's hard to ask for help, right. And to be honest, I've been guilty of this for 18 years. Because for me moving from Jamaica to Canada, the way how I was brought up, you've got to do everything yourself. It's not that you don't know you need help. You do need the help, but you're just so wired to just, you know, figure it out, figured out. You know, you can't do this? Just figure it out, just figure it out, just figure it out. So we don't necessarily ask for the help, so I grew up not doing the same thing until I realized that - I had a football coach who said to me one time, he said "Akeem, if you try to do everything by yourself, you will walk the loneliest road that you will ever walk." And it kind of stuck to me to the point where I just said, "You know what, I have to let my ego go, and know that everybody needs help." Regardless of what you're trying to do, you're trying to be successful, whatever success looks like for you, we all need a little help to get there. And so we just have to let our egos slide to the side and know when to say, "You know what? I can't figure this out. I need some help."

Mo Gawdat : 9:19

But on the other hand, I hear you saying sometimes that you're your own superhero. I love the story when you said that you find yourself in this bus stop. And now that you've been to Canada, and you're watching all of those superhero movies, you tell yourself, "Anytime now. Anytime now, Superman is gonna come down and save the day."

Akeem Haynes : 9:39

Yeah.

Mo Gawdat : 9:40

But Superman doesn't come.

Akeem Haynes : 9:41

When I first came to Canada, you know, I saw Superman movies. Like, first time I'd ever seen superhero movies. And so when I saw these movies, it just seemed like right in the nick of time, like, Superman would come and he would save the day, and everything would go back to normal. And he never failed in the movies! It never failed!

Mo Gawdat : 10:01

(Laughs) Exactly. And it's like, minus 22. It's like, "Where are you man?"

Akeem Haynes : 10:05

And I was like "Wow!" So me being a kid, I expected the same thing until I got into the position where I saw time fly by. One hour passed. Two hours passed. Three hours passed. Three hours turned to six hours, to seven. And at that moment, I realized "Man. Ain't no Superman coming, Akeem." But I also gave me that internal spirit inside where it said, you know, "Akeem, if anything is going to happen in your life, you are going to have to be the one to initiate it, and you're going to be the one to have to walk that path." And so when I looked at it like that, I said, "I can only control what I can control, and have faith in God that he's gonna put me in the right path. But I can only control my preparation. I can only control everything that is in my hands. And I gotta use what's in my hands and I gotta move with it, even if I don't know what's going to happen next."

Mo Gawdat : 10:55

And being your own superhero, doesn't that require some super powers?

Akeem Haynes : 10:59

Oh man, we all have a superpower, you know?

Mo Gawdat : 11:03

Do we?

Akeem Haynes : 11:03

Because I believe that there is a... there is a spirit and an essence about all of us. The spirit and the essence is the mention when somebody says our name. Put it this way: we all know somebody who, when we hear their name, we're just like, "Oh, man, not this person again, you know?" They're just not authentic. They're just talking noise. But then we all know somebody who is that person where he says, "I am so glad to see you. I heard you were coming, I heard your name, and I just got excited because I just want to have that conversation." And so whenever I go and speak, I say, "How can we be more like that person? How can we be the person that when someone says our name they think a word, they think something? And so our superpower first starts with understanding that we're all here for a purpose.

Mo Gawdat : 11:57

Are we? Oh man, that is a topic we have to talk about. Are we?

Akeem Haynes : 12:02

All here for a purpose. I just don't believe that God put us here just to exist, just to do nothing. There are 7.6 billion people in the world. You think you're just here to just exist? There is a purpose here for you. But it's just often that people don't take time to spend and figure out what that purpose may be. And not the world's purpose. Not none of that. I'm talking about that internal purpose. Some people find their purpose earlier than others. But for me at 13, I always search and I always seek because I knew, right? I was able to have a very successful athletic career. But I knew that wasn't my purpose on this planet. And so I found it in forms of ways. I said, "You know Akeem, your purpose is to share your story to remind people of their true strength."

Mo Gawdat : 12:43

Totally. Do you believe that we have to go through those difficult stories - stories of loss, stories of challenge, being homeless - do you believe that this is mandatory for us to launch into that purpose?

Akeem Haynes : 12:54

I think there has to be a life-changing moment for that to happen. And we don't get through life without being scratched, without being scathed, without going through something. And even if you haven't been through something, trust me, life will put you through something. And so you have to in that moment decide: What is the good that I can extract from this moment? Everything that I've been through, the good that I extracted from it is I'm still here. If I'm still here, I know that there's something else for me out there. And if I'm going through this - there's 7.6 billion people in the world - somebody else must have gone through similar things, and they want to quit, and they want to take their lives, and they want to throw in the towel. But maybe they come across my story, and maybe they say, "Man, if this guy can overcome that, and find his purpose, and find a way to use his pain for good, then maybe I can too."

Mo Gawdat : 13:46

That's such a beautiful way to live life, if you ask me. It's not about the athletic achievement. It's not about, you know, in my case, getting to Chief Business Officer of Google X or whatever that is. It's really - at least in my belief - it's about finding that other person that can benefit from your life experience in a way that can save them the hardship that you went through. I mean, at least for me, I think this probably is the biggest reward I ever found in life. It's that moment where you actually feel you matter. You made a difference. You're worth something. Every other achievement somehow in my experience fades. It's like, "Yeah, so I bought this car... great." Like, seriously! I mean, it's like, "Oh okay, so now, yeah, now I can wear an expensive watch." What does that mean? And somehow we take our selves and chase those things, chase them as if they matter. When in reality, what matters is - I don't know - is no other 13-year-old child being stranded in a bus stop. Or, you know, maybe even another 13-year-old child smiling or another person thinking of taking their own life and listening to you and then deciding, "Oh my god, I can actually have an amazing life! I can actually persevere."

Akeem Haynes : 14:58

I learned a lot of things at an early age when I was in Jamaica, right? Like, I didn't understand certain things, but my grandfather and my grandmother and my dad and my mom, they would, like, say certain things. Or, like, my grandfather would always say "Akeem, people will never forget how you treat them." I'm like, what does that mean? I'm like four or five years old. I'm worried about what snacks do you have? Like, are we gonna go eat mangoes? Like....but they would always say "Akeem, treat people the right way, and God will see it." "Hey, don't forget to take care of you today." "Hey, what are you thankful for today?" And I learned all these different things. But then you make a see there's a lot of people chasing worldly things. I think everybody should want something. There's nothing wrong with wanting what it is that you want. But let's not lose sight of what truly is important. You take away all of the external things - what do you have? You got to know what you have. Right? And if you have love inside of your heart, you will get those things. There's certain intangibles that you have. Absolutely, you got to have a business plan, the business structure, all those different things. But if you aren't who you say you are, you won't keep any of that anyway,.

Mo Gawdat : 16:04

Can I ask you a question? So, when we go through those experiences, when we start to tell ourselves, "Life is hard," some of us take this as an opportunity to get up and do something - "get better", as you say - and some of us get bitter. I love that comparison of getting better versus getting bitter. And you know, some of us really stay bitter, almost for their entire life.

Akeem Haynes : 16:30

Absolutely.

Mo Gawdat : 16:31

What's the difference between the two? Why do some people do this and some others do that?

Akeem Haynes : 16:35

I think it's a perspective. You know, I think everybody knows that life is hard. I think everybody knows that getting your dreams are hard. All the things you're trying to accomplish, I think they know that's hard. But I think you have to know why you want those things. Like, why are you going into it? I remember when I was getting my scholarships. I was one of the top recruits in the country, but I wanted to know what was the percentage? Like, what was I up against? In order to get a full athletic scholarship to go and to run track and field or play football in America in a division one school. Like, I had know what I was up against. And so I did some research, and I did some calculations and did some things like that. And then I found out that for me to get a full athletic scholarship, it was a 1.3% chance.

Mo Gawdat : 17:20

Wow!

Akeem Haynes : 17:21

That's almost impossible, right? But, while most people would say, "I'm not gonna do that anymore, like what's the point of it?" I said, "Okay, there's 1.3 chance, that means that there's still hope. May not be a lot, but there's still a little bit of hope there." And so, I think you have to go in with the intention of: what is the core reasoning that you're going into something? Do you just want it just to want it? Or do you want it because you're pursuing something bigger than yourself? I knew that if I graduated from school, my siblings can see that it was possible. I knew if I wrote a book that they could see it too. And if they wanted to write a book, then they would have the blueprint to do it, too. So everything that I pursue is much bigger than myself. So I'm not necessarily thinking about me in my time of adversity; I'm thinking about "Man, if I overcome this, I'm going to figure this out and then whoever's coming behind me, I'll be able to help them get through it as well too, because I went through it." But sometimes, you know, we get too stuck on ourselves. And when we think about ourselves, we become a little bit bitter towards whatever it is that we're facing. Rather than thinking, "You know what, we get to go through this. And because we get to go through this, we will learn the lessons...

Mo Gawdat : 18:37

Oh, wow!

Akeem Haynes : 18:37

...and we will be able to help way more many people."

Mo Gawdat : 18:40

Oh, wow! That is a big statement, my friend! So are you saying that being homeless at 13 is a privilege? I "get" to go through this? Because then it gives me the opportunity to learn, it gives me the opportunity to be a better person and then be of benefit to the world?

Akeem Haynes : 18:57

At the time, no. But right now, yes. Because I realized... at the time I was young, I was, I was a little confused, I was trying to figure out what the heck is going on. But now I realized, "You know Akeem, man, you didn't know how strong you were until being strong was your only option." And so I needed to go through that. I needed to go through it. And because I had to go through it I realized, if that ever happened again, I'd know how to get through it again the second time.

Mo Gawdat : 19:27

Ah, man! That is a life-changing statement here! This basically says: any hardship you go through, including lockdown and COVID-19 and economic crisis and all of the stuff that we are all so crazy about, like the world is going to end is just an opportunity for me to go through it. Because in an interesting way, I have to say when I think about my own loss, you know, losing my child, one of the things that really made me strong was, "Okay, do I have an option to bring him back? Sadly, no. So the only option I have, really, is to go through it. The only option I have is to is to persevere, right? And when you see it that way, you know, you start to learn something about yourself and about life that you may have not ever discovered otherwise.

Akeem Haynes : 20:12

Wow. Yes. Absolutely. As the old saying goes, "You gotta go through your go-through so you can get through your get-through."

Mo Gawdat : 20:20

Yeah.

Akeem Haynes : 20:20

And while we never ask for anything bad to happen to us or anything like that, life does happen to us. But I've always found that there's this flower. The flower's called the Evening Primrose. Now the Evening Primrose is one of a few flowers that grows - literally grows - in the dark. And you can't see it from a distance because it's dark, but it's blooming and it's beautiful. And we have to find a way to be able to be as beautiful like that flower in our darkness. One of my friends, like you, his son passed away a couple years back. And so I asked him, I said, "Man, does the pain ever go away?" Man, he said, "No, man. You just learn how to deal with it." And so I said, "Can I ask you one more question?" He says, "For sure." I said, "What memories and what feeling did you take from that moment?" And he can explain from day one, what it was like to the time that he passed away. And I said, "Those are the feelings and the memories that will never be taken away from you." And so we always have our memories, even if they're dim and even if they're dark...we can still find something to take from those bad moments because everything we go through transforms us into who we are going to become.

Mo Gawdat : 21:39

You know, the way I think about it, which I think applies to almost all hardship, is that I never had a deal that I signed with life or God that basically said Ali was going to stay forever. I never had that deal. And sometimes you feel bitter. It's like, you know, "Why would you take away my son?" No, no. First of all, he was never my son. But then he was himself, that he came for his life. It was his life. But the more interesting thing is I also never had a deal that he was going to come in the first place. And somehow I forget that. Somehow I forget that I was blessed with this wonderful being in my life for 21 years, with no guarantees whatsoever. That was a massive stroke of luck, to be honest, to have.

Akeem Haynes : 22:23

Yes.

Mo Gawdat : 22:23

Right? And so maybe the right way to look at it is to say, not to say "Life was harsh to me." You can say, "Life was kind to me because he came in the first place. And then when he left, that was his journey. This is his way, his path. This is what he is going to fulfill because this is his life, not mine. It was never mine in the first place. And I think that's the difference between being bitter about it and really being grateful for his visit in the first place. I think this is, to me, what really, really got me to stay solid, to stay content and to stay... happy, if you want...that he went on to the rest of his journey. Can I ask you a really, really important question? And I hope you're open to talk about this.

Akeem Haynes : 23:06

Absolutely.

Mo Gawdat : 23:07

We live in a world where there is a lot of debate about someone that is clearly dear to your heart, which is called God. You bring God into everything. It's funny because most people who sort of don't want to believe in God, they go, like, "If there was a god, there wouldn't be a homeless 13-year-old child." Coming from you, it's quite an interesting perspective here. Tell me a bit about "God" to you. What is God to you?

Akeem Haynes : 23:33

Yeah. So, I always wondered that same question. And one of the questions that always, that always comes to my heart is why do bad things happen to good people? And you question certain things like that, and the first thing you say is "God, why do you let these things happen?" But in retrospect, if you even think about it, God gave us his only son, sacrificed his only son, Jesus. And even when Jesus was on the cross, he was upset at God. He said, "Come on!"

Mo Gawdat : 23:59

(Laughs) "Why are you doing this to me?"

Akeem Haynes : 24:01

"Why are you doing this to me? Like, why are you making me go through with it?" There's so many times in the scripture where Jesus said, "If there's any other way, let's do that way... but not my will, let your will be done." And so, you know, for me, my faith has been the one thing that has helped me get through some dark moments. My faith has been the one thing that has helped me gain direction. And for me, I'm a firm believer that you have to read the scripture in different ways. You can read the scripture in a principle standpoint, motivation, inspiration, however you do it. But for me, there's two things that has helped me in my journey. And one of those things is "Be faithful over a few before I make you ruler over many." And when I read that, that talks to me about gratitude. That talks to me about everybody who says, "Man, I want to reach this pinnacle. I want to reach here." But it's like, how do you want to reach that part, if you aren't first grateful for all that you have in your life? If you aren't grateful for the things that you have in your life, why would God give you more? So you can take advantage of that too?

Mo Gawdat : 25:08

So interesting, yeah.

Akeem Haynes : 25:09

You know? And then just because you believe in Christ and you believe in a higher source does not mean that things aren't going to happen to you. I'm a firm believer that 97% of the time, there's a reason for it. But I think there's that 3% that life just happens. Like, sometimes life just comes and it just... it just happens. And so when I think about the question that you asked, there's a scripture that says, "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." And so for me, what that says is, "Look, you gotta take the good with the bad, but you still gotta be grateful for life.You still gotta be grateful for it."

Mo Gawdat : 25:51

Yeah. Tell me about that journey. How does one go from being homeless to being the sweetheart of Canada. Right? The champion.

Akeem Haynes : 26:03

(Laughs) Yeah.

Mo Gawdat : 26:04

And everyone loves you, man. So how do you go from this to that and stay humble?

Akeem Haynes : 26:09

I've always been. So I have the Olympic medal, and I've probably looked at the medal on my own... maybe like five times. Like, maybe like five times.

Mo Gawdat : 26:19

Seriously? It's like you spend your whole life working for this and then you get it and you just put it in the drawer. (Laughs) Is that what we do with medals?

Akeem Haynes : 26:26

But that whole journey... I've been a dual-sport athlete my whole career. You know, football and track, that's kind of what I wanted to do throughout the time. And so when I stuck with track... I just use everything that I've been through, and I took that same mindset and brought it to training. I'm very calm, I'm very collected, I'm very even-keeled. I'm that guy who will come in the room and I'll just sit in the back and I'll just observe. I've never been a spotlight guy. That's just not my thing, even to this day, even though speaking is... your front and center. But I just took those same philosophies -hard work, consistency, discipline - and I brought that to training. But I amplified it a little bit more. I knew that I had to do more. I'll never forget, I remember I was coming home one time from a football game and I got home and my mom was coming in. This was about 9:30 in the night, and she says, "Akeem, where are you going?" I said, "I'm going to the field." She says, "Going to the field for what?" "I got to go do some extra work. I got to go do a little bit more training." And she says, "Okay." But what I realized was: when I'm sleeping, Australia is up. When I'm sleeping, Japan is up, the UK is up. Like, all these guys are up, so I gotta maximize my time now. And I gotta do what others won't, so I can have what others won't have. And so I would go there and it would be - it would look crazy because I would be in the dark with my headphones on and you have this kid running, doing drills and stuff like that. But I loved it. The reason why I loved it was because there was nobody there to tell me that I was crazy. There was nobody there to tell me "Man, why are you doing that?" It was me and my thoughts. So I could get intertwined between what my heart and my mind was saying. My heart needed to say "Akeem, do you truly believe this?" Because if you believe something in your heart, eventually your mind is going to follow you and the rest of your body's going to do the same. So I had these quiet conversations with myself and I started creating this different person. I said, "You know Akeem, you don't want to be great that bad, man. You were tired on that last rep, you got to go harder." So I would create this alter ego and this person inside my head. And I just took that in the sporting field. And I had some tough moments, with some injuries and I just wasn't running well, some different things like that, but I kept moving, kept being consistent, and kept learning and become a student of the sport. Until eventually I finished my athletic career with two-time Olympic bronze medal, all-American in school, I graduated University of Alabama in three and a half years instead of four. So I just knew I was working towards something bigger, but I gotta take care of the present.

Mo Gawdat : 29:03

I want to finish with one very dear statement that I heard you say, but before I do that I want to send a message to our listeners, because if you're still here, then you're as inspired as I am with this wonderful human being. And remember, the mission of Slo Mo is to reach a billion people with a message of inspiration and happiness. So please - do your part. Okay, if you love this, rate it positively so that others know that it's worth their time. Tell your friends about it. This episode needs to be heard by thousands and thousands of people, so spread the word, please. Put it on social media. It's a small act on your side that might actually change someone's life. Akeem, I want to finish with that story that I adore: when I heard you talk about perspective. Remember the story of being in an aeroplane? And it's the same event, but people around you see it so differently?

Akeem Haynes : 29:59

Yeah.

Mo Gawdat : 30:00

The half-empty of the cup or the half-full of the cup or...

Akeem Haynes : 30:03

Yeah, so I was on a way to an engagement. And there was this lady sitting beside me. And we were flying and I asked her - or she asked me - "Where are you going?" I said, "I'm about to fly to go speak." And I asked her how she's doing. And she said, "You know, you know, doing well, I'm on my way to a little business conference." And then, you know, she goes to tell me about her sons and she's remodeling the room and her sons are off to college and do I have any advice for them.... I said, you know, so we had a good conversation, and then the plane landed, and she called her team and said, "I'm running about 45 minutes late." You know, usually people are running late, they're like, "Oh, man! I'm running late!" But she was like, "Oh, no, it'll be fine! It'll be fine!" Like, she was fine with it. But then as we got up, you know, there was a person right next to me, and he was trying to get to the front of the line, but not knowing that we can't even leave anyway because they haven't came and pulled the tarmacs up. So even if you got to the front of the line, unless you jumped down, you're still stuck. And there was this dad and his son were like kind of playing catch, but he wasn't really paying attention. But his son was just throwing this ball, like, off of his head. But the dad wasn't really... he didn't really seem too fazed. He just kind of just dealt with it. But the son is just throwing it not too hard, not too hard. And so what I saw was, here is someone who was running late. And she wasn't angry, she wasn't negative, she was just rolling with it. Then I had the person to the right of me, who was about to have a fit. He was blowing down, he was saying, "Oh, man, these people, this airline is so crazy, it's so ridiculous," having a whole attitude, creating this persona. But the people in front of me, this young boy, he didn't know that the plane was late. He was just throwing the ball at his dad. He was just chillin'. And it was at that moment where I realized that I'm seeing different perspectives, right? And life is ultimately about those perspectives. And I realized that we've all heard the saying "You either see the cup as half-empty or half-full." But I started to think. I said, "Man! What if... what if we look at life as us being the cup?" Because the cup is the one constant in every single variable. Whether there is something in it, or there's nothing in it, the cup is still there. How can we be more like the cup? How can we still be there, despite our toughest storms that we may face? Because if we're still there, then we can fill our cups with whatever liquid that we so choose.

Mo Gawdat : 32:29

And that's exactly - isn't that what life is all about? It's not about how much water happens to be in your cup, how much juice happens to be in your cup. You're the cup. Go and fill the cup. Go and choose. Go make a difference. Take charge. Isn't that what it's all about?

Akeem Haynes : 32:47

Some of us like juice in our cup, some of us like pop, some of us like wine. Whatever you want in your cup, as long as it's something positive, then you go and fill your cup. And you do nothing but make the world a better place when you pour a little bit of your cup into somebody else's.

Mo Gawdat : 33:05

Ahhhhhh. You know what Akeem? I'll tell you hands down, man. I love you. You're my favorite cup.

Akeem Haynes : 33:11

Oh, man, I'm so honored to hear that.

Mo Gawdat : 33:13

I'm honestly so honored to have you with me today. I am almost certain we will inspire so many people with this conversation. You're wonderful in every way. Next time I meet you, I will race you. So keep training! (Laughs)

Akeem Haynes : 33:29

(Laughs)

Mo Gawdat : 33:30

Didn't say I will beat you. (Laughs) But I will race you because I need to prove a point here. I will take charge. I will work out. And I will race Akeem Haynes. So... there we go.

Akeem Haynes : 33:42

I am going to hold you to that. And when that happens, I'll bring the medal so you can wear it as well.

Mo Gawdat : 33:48

(Laughs) That's the man. Love you man. Thank you so much for your time.

Akeem Haynes : 33:52

Oh, it's a pleasure, anytime. Thank you again for having me, man.

Mo Gawdat : 33:56

And for all of you who joined us, thank you so much for listening. Be sure to follow me on social media. Search for Mo Gawdat, Slo Mo, Solve For Happy, or One Billion Happy. I know you've got a lot going on. But remember, there is always time to slow down. Until next time, stay happy. Transcribed by https://otter.ai