“Everybody has a unique way of being— You can’t escape who you are. And so it’s better to be the best you that you can be, rather than trying to be somebody else.” -Steven Rudolph

 

Some people think that potential is something that you have, but haven’t realized yet. But others believe that potential is something you can only reach when you achieve your goals. Like most things in life, there’s a middle ground between these two points of view. 

Steven Rudolph dreamed of being a rockstar. Sadly, following his dream didn’t help him pay the bills so he applied as a teacher. At that moment, Steven realized that he had a knack for teaching and that he had a bigger mission to fulfill. He founded Feed Your Tigers, which is his way of saying “live your potential”. Today, Steven continues to help others discover their true selves and live their purpose. 

In this episode, Steven and I talk about how we can figure out our true potential and how to live it. We also discuss the difference between skills and talents, the truth about strengths and weaknesses, how we can balance our tigers so that it does not eat away at us nor overwhelm us, how we can overcome imposter syndrome, and why we should embrace and celebrate who we truly are.

 

Connect The Modern Man:

 

Highlights: 

  • 01:59 “I am a Teacher!” 
  • 05:11 Skill vs Talent
  • 10:04 How to Identify Your Tigers
  • 15:00 The Truth About Strengths and Weaknesses
  • 20:46 How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome
  • 26:36 It’s Easier to Be YOU
  • 28:11 Recap

 

Tweets: 

Living a fulfilled life means setting aside other things for a while so that we can focus on the things that only WE can do. Listen in as  @TheModernMan8 and Feed Your Tigers founder, Steven Rudolph discuss what potential means and how we can live our potential. #TheModernMan #podcast #menpotential #feedyourtigers #strength&weaknesses #skillvstalent #personaldevelopment #impostersyndrome #lifepurpose #discoveringpotential

 

Quotes: 

05:54 “Skills are a fine-tuned way of performing something… Talent is the raw underlying ability to be able to perform different types of tasks.” -Steven Rudolph

15:11 “There are no such things as strengths. There are just differences in qualities.” -Steven Rudolph

19:00 “Feed your Tigers before they eat you. You need to be sure that whatever your big talents are, that they get engaged somewhere in the course of your day or your week.” -Steven Rudolph

19:16 “Keep the tigers balanced because when the tigers eat too much, you get burnout. When your tigers don’t get enough you get hungry tigers, and they start to eat at you.” -Steven Rudolph

23:40 “If you have that tiger, accept it, embrace it, celebrate it. You deserve it because that’s what you’ve got. You might lack the skill, you might lack the experience, but because that’s who you are, you’re entitled to be doing that. There’s no imposter.” -Steven Rudolph

26:44 “Everybody has a unique way of being— You can’t escape who you are. And so it’s better to be the best you that you can be, rather than trying to be somebody else.” -Steven Rudolph

28:22 “A lot of us might be trying so hard chasing that dream but we ended up settling for something that we might not have wanted, but it ends up being exactly what we needed.” -Ted Phaeton

 

Meet Steven

In 1989, while pursuing a career in music in New York, Steven Rudolph took up a part-time teaching job to make ends meet. In his first class he had an epiphany: that he had an innate capacity to teach. Though he had no formal training, it was as if he already knew how to do it—as if he were a fish in water. 

The realization led him on a 21-year quest to India, where he uncovered 5,000-year-old secrets to self-understanding and achieving one’s potential. Steven has taken those principles and crafted them into an easy-to-use, enjoyable program–Feed Your Tigers.

Steven lives in Cambodia where he serves as CEO of MNI, and explores how ancient Eastern wisdom can help people (and their tigers) become more aligned.