Memorable Quotes
We all have some sort of superpower because we’re all fucking mutants – @jerrycolonna
Nobody can label you. – @jerrycolonna
Have I been labeled before? Yeah. I’ve been labeled a thief before. – @IamJohnGuydon
You gots to kiss this particular dragon because when you kiss the dragon, it’s just a princess waiting to be loved. – @jerrycolonna
When we own our superpowers we’re superheroes, and then we have our tasks. – @jerrycolonna
People ask me who my hero is. It’s me, 10 years from now. – @IamJohnGuydon
[The Dark Dollar] is about showing people that they have the capacity to save themselves. – @IamJohnGuydon
I am just a mirror for you. That’s my superpower. – @jerrycolonna
The path that we choose to follow that purpose has to evolve, because life changes. – @jerrycolonna
It’s powerful to find your inner compass, isn’t it? – @jerrycolonna
Key Takeaways
John first appeared on the podcast last year in episode 41. In the time since that recording his company has closed and he has started two new projects; a documentary and a company, Master the Book.
The Dark Dollar is a documentary John is producing on black economic power.
In John and Jerry’s first conversation on the podcast Jerry challenged John to embrace his own superhero–to let go of apprehensions and own his super powers.
John is now working on a project called Master the Book, where he creates engaging short video synopsis of books he reads. He finds the project both energizing, but is apprehensive about putting himself out there.
John has felt labeled and judged in the past, specifically as an aggressive person. This fear of being judged again has caused John to hold himself back from putting himself out there. When it comes to this fear, Jerry reminds John of something he said at the CEO bootcamp he attended, “What do you gots to do?”. Jerry tells John that in this circumstance, he has to kiss this particular dragon, because when you kiss the dragon, it’s just a princess waiting to be loved. The dragon is fear of someone misjudging him. No one fears being judged well. Most people don’t even fear being judged accurately. What we fear, is being misunderstood, because our sense of love, safety and belonging is threatened. Jerry reminds John of the Rilke quote, “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
To truly harness our super powers, we must be willing to look at our fears, our shadows and deal with them.
Jerry suggests that The Dark Dollar is also about showing people that they have the capacity to save themselves. Dark Dollar, isn’t just a story about what happened in the past, and it’s not just painting what the opportunity for various communities are to seize their own economic power. It’s about showing people ways in which they can save themselves, or participate in their own rescue. It’s about actually taking the power back, and John’s sacred superpower task is to do that, whether it’s by showing people the power that’s implicit in a book, or a set of knowledge, or the story of the Dark Dollar.
John echoes that all his endeavors, even selling candy to other kids in school, has been about actively participating in saving himself.
Jerry explains to John that this is his purpose. He reminds him that an easy litmus test by which to judge the random ideas he comes up with is to ask, “Does it further the purpose or not? Does it take me away from my north star, or not?”