All right, all right, all right! Matthew McConaughey dishes on life, learning, and his traffic light metaphor on ‘Never Stand Still’
“Never Stand Still” is a business podcast hosted by Dan Schulman, PayPal’s President/CEO and Krav Maga aficionado. In episodes, Dan chats with creators, leaders, entrepreneurs, and change-makers about their careers, ideas, motivations, and more. Dan loves sharing the lessons he’s learned in business and in martial arts, and was recently joined by actor Matthew McConaughey.
Matthew shared how he navigates life’s proverbial highway, takes risks, and stays true to himself. Matthew explains his determination and humility, and uses the traffic light as a metaphor for life in this eye-opening episode. In conversation with Dan, Matthew also unpacked his New York Times best-selling book, Greenlights, filled with wisdom, prose, philosophical musings, and journal prompts encouraging readers to dream on and venture forth. Fun fact: Matthew has journaled for over 36 years!
Dan and Matthew’s 32-minute conversation explored honesty and finding lessons through life’s difficulties. Matthew explained that without hardships, it’s possible he would not have attained greater understandings of various principles. Matthew said: “What I’ve noticed is we love green lights, in the literal term, on this highway of life. A red light actually stops us in our tracks – that can be death, that can be getting fired, that can be getting sick.” And by acknowledging these lights, he’s learned to keep going.
Matthew reflected on difficulties that he classified as red or yellow traffic lights in his life, such as his year alone in Australia or grieving after his father’s death. Matthew said these events were meant to teach him lessons that might not have been available to him if he had not experienced struggles, and these lessons might even be passed to future generations in his legacy.
Dan asked Matthew about privilege, since it would appear that Matthew experiences miles of green lit roads. Matthew also expressed how people take yellow light situations and create more drama to make them unnecessarily red while playing the victim. Matthew explained the power of determination, believing in yourself, and the role of luck.
Matthew explains he’s witnessed the opposite of Icarus’ problem with himself and others, such as choking at the end of “immortal finish lines” and “tripping yourself while running downhill.” He cites the prime example when he made the career decision to shift from rom-coms to dramas and did not care if that meant fewer roles at the time or lower paychecks.
For more from Dan and “Never Stand Still,” tune in for more episodes featuring Abby Wambach, Tory Burch, Mark Cuban, Maria Sharapova, Howie Mandel, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, and more. Check out over 30 episodes, with episodes averaging under 30 minutes long.
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