Favorite Themes From Broadway's Hamilton

Today, we dive into the revolutionary world of Hamilton. We'll explore the powerful themes of ambition, legacy, and resilience that drive this groundbreaking musical. From Alexander Hamilton's relentless pursuit of greatness to the poignant reflections on history and identity. We'll uncover how Lin Manuel Miranda's masterpiece captures the essence of american spirit and the timeless struggle for freedom and self determination. I'm Curtis, my rebel pal. Right over there is Joe, and we are dudes in progress. Hey, Joe.

Hello, you flag waving fool.

Kurt, you know how much we love american history.

Yeah, me, too. It's funny, I've come to accept that periodically, and I don't know what the regular cadence is, but periodically, we're going to have two subjects on this show, and I have my own favorites. Right. Disney's going to be brought up, and we know at some point we're going to talk about some lessons that you gleaned from a Broadway play. So I'm all in, dude.

Thanks for encouraging me. But yes, I did see Hamilton on my weekend to New York for my second time. Well, it was fantastic. We'll talk about in our win for the week and more about that. It was slow to warm up to Hamilton the musical. And it started, of course, you said Disney already, my Disney friends, it was on Disney. And I did watch it one evening on a Friday night, which is not a good thing for me to do. I find anything that I need to concentrate on or try, that's entertainment never seems to work on a Friday night. And I quit on it definitely early into it. And the music is kind of hip hop. I'm kind of rock and roll. I just didn't give it a good chance. And then my daughter, as you know, has influenced my Broadway enjoyment. She takes me and we go to New York City all the time, and she plays show tunes for me. Joe in the car all the time. I joke with her, we'll go up no matter what we're doing. She's got to play her show tunes, and I've come to enjoy them. Funny enough, I get to know the songs and the themes behind them. I love that Broadway shows have brought lots of different themes, but the Hamilton music started to catch with me, and she had always said, dad, your education in Broadway really requires. We see Hamilton at one point, and it was a funny, it's been a running joke with us, and we've done many of them. Wicked was one of those, for instance, like, she's not. She wasn't all that crazy about Wicked, but it's definitely required that you understand? Go to Wicked. But Hamilton. And then again, all my Disney friends knew it and always very fond of it now. So I watch it. We get tickets and I watch it on Disney. And now I know the music. I'm actually into the music. And now I start to pay attention to the actual show. And oh, my gosh, just like all the shock I've had from many Broadway shows, the themes are just fantastic in this show. And I was having a good conversation with one of my friends that was at the New York City geek meet, who. A couple of them are very much into american history, in history as general. One of them recently did a cruise in Europe, visiting a bunch of World War Two sites in London, and also enjoys american history. And we started talking. It's pretty true to history. There's some things in there that are pretty deep in the historical part of american history in Hamilton. But the themes there I'm going to review with you today.

I, too, was exposed to Hamilton through the Disney, and I think they did that during COVID and that was part of the offering that they did that during COVID And I watched it and I liked it a lot.

Oh, good.

And I'm not terribly fond of hip hop myself, but I was able immediately to see beyond that because it's good music. It's really good music. And I don't know, I just, I appreciate it. Alexander Hamilton's not my favorite founding father, that's for sure. But I just appreciated the production and how well it was done and how they walked you through history. And one of the most dramatic scenes for me in the movie or in the show was during the duel and how they, if I remember, they kind of, they stopped the bullet in midair. And I was very emotional during this time because of his son. So his son, of course, was killed in a duel and same as Alexander Hamilton. And that whole scene, especially when you brought in his wife, wow. I mean, it was very powerful. Very powerful scene.

Yeah. That whole part of the show is rough. It's rough. They do a nice job bringing it back to the historical.

No doubt part of this, you know what I appreciate, you appreciate about you, brother, is your ability to find lessons in just about anything. Ah, right. Other than just a book or something like that. We've talked a lot and we both have this, I think. But I'm just impressed about how well you can pull life lessons from just about anything. Broadway plays, a walk down the street, a trip to Disney, a conversation with a friend. I just, I want to let you know that I appreciate you. Appreciate that about you, buddy.

Thank you so much. Yeah, I think the same way about you. I try to be kind of even again, the yin Yang. I try to see the good. If I can find something good out of maybe something negative or something that I don't agree with, possibly all the way through, I think people will read a book and like, I. Boy, I hate that. I hate this. I hate that. Hey, I'm just looking for the nuggets in there, but Hamilton is stuffed with him. Yeah. And I appreciate that he's not your favorite founding father yet. I think you'll appreciate all the themes that are brought in. And again with the music. A lot of these are told, music is powerful and it's beautiful music, and it's not all hip hop. You gotta pay attention. Like my daughter said, dad, just take your time with it. And isn't that a cool thing, though? Cause you could see it multiple times and still, I mean, I called it a masterpiece. If you watch something several times, you may take something away. Different each time you see it.

Well, it's far and away the most popular Broadway play in history, I believe.

Wow, man.

The phantom of the opera might beat it out. I'm not sure, though, because, man, it was. Yeah, it's popular still today, for sure.

All right, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through ten themes. I got some more there just for fun from the fact.

Check me on that, by the way. Call me out on it if I'm wrong.

Well, I don't know how they would. How would you rank the most popular? Like my daughter said, the longest running show obviously could be the most popular. And fandom's got a head start. It's not.

Rank it by my opinion.

Okay, there you go.

We just do that.

There you go. Modern. The most popular modern Broadway show, for sure, I would say. And then I got three questions for each one of these to see if which one resonates with you. I didn't give you them ahead of time, but you're so good at this. I'm not worried. The first theme, and it's part of a song in Hamilton, is, I'm not throwing away my shot. There's a name for this, too. When they play a tune all the way through the Broadway show, it comes back. Then again, I think this is one of them that you'll hear more than once. But the lesson here is to seize opportunities and make the most of them. Ambition. Despite his difficult upbringing. Yeah, he had a rough start in life, for sure. This is part of the reason why I appreciate him, too. You got a root for the underdog, too, Joe, don't you think?

I agree. And when you think about somebody's shot, the opportunity may not. First of all, he created his own opportunity. He moved forward like there's no tomorrow because I think he felt that way, that he, this day is the day that he has this opportunity, and he's not going to throw it away. He was a voracious letter writer, and he just wrote, wrote, wrote. And I think that's one of the themes of the play, if I remember.

Yes.

And so when you think about, he's not going to lose his shot, or whatever the term is, the focus to recognize his shot and to know that this may be the only shot he gets, so he better take advantage of it. And I think that comes from his. I think you're right, Kurt. That comes from his upbringing, because he came from nothing.

Yeah. Mother died, parents gone. And how he ended up in New York going to college. You're right. Becoming a lawyer and significant founding father. But can you think of a time when your passion was fueled by fear or anger? That's one question I'll give you. How do you stay motivated when the odds are against you? Or what advice would you give someone who feels like they're missing their shot?

I can use my current job right now as recognizing my shot and taking advantage of it. I came into, I came into this job under not so ordinary circumstances, and I'm not going to go deep into it, but I came into it at a very low level. But I knew that I had something to offer to this job. And this was almost 20 years ago now. And I befriended a guy who was my manager, and I was. I stayed very close to him. And quite honestly, he gave me the shot, but he gave it to me and I did something with it. And I quickly climbed through the ranks and recognized where I could provide benefit and experiment it. And I knew my strengths. Once I knew my strengths and I knew what my focus was, I was able to show benefit to the organization. Does that make sense?

Absolutely. Yeah.

Because the shot that I was given, I never thought that I would be in this position with pretty much any company. I thought that I would primary. I would primarily be entrepreneurial my whole life. And I still am. Right. I have a handful of entrepreneurial ventures on the side that I'm growing and working on, but I still am. But the fact that I'm in corporate America with this position seems surreal to me. But it's because I was given a shot 20 years ago.

Yeah. I think this is something that burns inside certain people. You might be born with this to some degree, this ambition to do something better, to keep moving forward, to get better. We both have displayed that in our lives. I've talked about the chance I got to work in it. When I started as a marketing management major, I wasn't going to throw away that shot. I went for it many times in different technologies that some that dominated my life and really, that I've been come expert. At least where I work, there are people that are better than me. But I do with what I have. I do the best with what I have, Joe. And it's. Now it's the. I'm thinking about the last third. Is that. How do you call that, the last part of this final third, last part of this play of my life, last act. The last act. That sounds so morbid. I'm not describing it very well, but it's a season in life where I don't want to quit, man. I just want to, like you said to me, I want a headslide into the headstone, sliding the home plate, right.

Knocking over my headstone as I go.

Yeah. So I don't want to give away that last shot. All right, next one. So all these themes don't just come from Alexander Hamilton. They come from characters throughout the show, which makes it fun. But Aaron Burr, boy, this relationship between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, of course, very prominent throughout the show. But Aaron Burr says to Hamilton, talk less and smile more. Sometimes listening and observing can be more powerful than speaking. Can you imagine that? I know.

We talk less and smile more. Let's think about the smile part. I have a saying that my family knows and that I say a lot. It's considered a bit of a joe ism, I guess. It's, if all else fails, put cheese on it. And what I mean by that is literally, listen, if you're cooking something, no matter what you do to that thing, you burn it, you overcook it. If you just throw a bunch of cheese on there, it'll be okay. On the other side. On the other side, through life, if something bad has happened, if you just. If you're able to just be a little cheesy about it, maybe a little silly, maybe a little off about it. Right. You know what I mean by the word cheesy? When it relates to personality.

Right.

And so forth. Right. If all those fails, put some cheese on it. Right. Talk less and smile more. And I really like that advice. First of all, we all know that talking less is the best thing that you can do in a situation. Talking less active listening. Let the person know that you're. Who you're working with, feels valued, and glean the information. If you're talking the whole time, you'll never glean anything from anything. And if you just sit there and smile and take it all in, people aren't sure what you're up to. And I kind of like that.

Yeah. The personalities of Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton are well displayed. Where Hamilton is all talk and.

Right.

He's a yemenite. He's direct. And then Aaron Burr tries to play the even keel or the politics of it all. You wonder, okay, which is the best way to go? And that's going to come out in some of these lessons, too. Have you ever found that listening more than speaking led to a better outcome? Can you recall a situation where silence was more powerful than speaking up?

Oh, every day, Kurt. Every single day. And, in fact, I have a sales background, and I actively sell now, and I'm a sales manager, and I have a team of salespeople. And I don't want to call this a technique, but it's a communication method that works well in sales, and I don't want to. This is not a good way of putting it because I don't like the word win or lose, because I do like to set up sales transactions is a win win where we both get what we want or there's no deal. And I learned that from Stephen Covey, win win or no deal. But there is something to silence. And when you make a statement, a very profound statement, during any kind of presentation, and you are trying to elicit a. If that's the right word response from somebody, you got to shut up, because the first person that talks loses.

Ah, yes. Heard that.

Right. So you make a statement, you present a benefit, even if it's the price of something, you make your statement and you shut up. And, Kurt, I'm telling you, I've been in high stakes sales presentations where I did that, and sometimes minutes would go by without anybody saying a word.

Everyone knows the rule.

Now, think about this. Minutes.

That's awkward and uncomfortable.

It's awkward and uncomfortable. But what you're also doing is you're giving somebody space to pull it in, to receive what you said, to really process it. And there does come a time when somebody feels the obligation to speak. And that silence, during that silence is very powerful.

I've been watching a lot of shark tank matter of fact, last night I was up late watching shark Tank. And they do that a lot when they put their offer on the table. I think they're well versed in that for sure. All right, number three, history has its eye on you. This is from George Washington saying to Hamilton, history has its eye on you. The lesson is, be mindful of your actions and your impact on your legacy. This is one where I think you're definitely different than me. I think you think about your legacy more than I do. I don't give it much thought whatsoever. Maybe I have a little bit more. But is that something you think about, what legacy you're creating or. I went to a class that was actually pretty good. I might even do a session on this with dudes. Your personal brand. I can't believe I took an hour to go do that, but I'm glad I did. He was. It was a really good workshop where at the end of the day, you come up with a statement, you take pieces, he gives you coaches, you write through it, and you come up with a personal brand. But, yeah, what do you think of your legacy?

First of all, let's back up a little bit. It's very interesting that you bring up the term personal brand because during a meeting with a some other managers two weeks ago, I went on a bit of a tirade about your personal brand and how it's not only the brand of the company when the company fails, it's not only the brand of the company, but if you're known throughout an industry, that's your personal brand. And you have to protect your personal brand and the company's brand. And if you have integrity and you have any sense of. Of your word is your bond. If you have any sense about, then you have to take the promises that you make seriously as a person and on behalf of an organization. And when you tell a customer that something is going to happen and that doesn't happen, that not only affects the brand of the company, but that affects your personal brand outside the company and within the company. And protecting your personal brand is just as important as protecting the company's brand. And the way I made that connection was if a company is breaking the promise that you made, then you've got to do something within your organization because it's affecting your personal brand. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. And I think that's a topic you should bring to dudes in progress. And I can support you on that with my training I had this past week.

Yeah, I'm very passionate about.

I heard it.

I just. I went on a whole tirade about it because I was mad, because the. The company that I work for did not follow through on a promise. And, yeah, it happened a few times, and I was frustrated. I said, this doesn't just hurt the rand, but this hurts my personal brand, your entire industry, for delivering, for keeping my word, for understanding the customer's needs and providing solutions for those needs. And so I'm very passionate about that.

As well you should be. Why do you write like you're running out of time? You already mentioned that is one of the themes. Eliza Hamilton, of course, the mama bear, is thinking about the family. He's working all the time. Eliza and her sister trying to convince him to go upstate New York during a really difficult political situation he's got going on. This lesson is embrace urgency and passions and passion in your pursuits. Yeah, he worked harder than anybody. There's a great scene, again, learning a little bit about history. I'm trying to remember, was it the constitution? What was the. They were working something. Work and working on something really important for our country. And he wrote. I think it was the constitution.

Articles of confederation.

Yeah. Right before the constitution.

Yeah.

And he wrote what? There was three of them writing it, definitely. And I don't know, there's like, he out wrote them all by.

Oh, yeah, by far.

Yeah. He seemed to have this feeling like he was running out of time, maybe because he almost died several times in his youth, he realized he definitely had a sense of urgency that I think some of us, maybe we should have.

So is our sense of urgency right? Where does that sense of urgency come from? I don't believe that Alexander Hamilton knew he was going to die, and he only had a short period of time. But where does that intrinsic sense of urgency come from? Did you ever meet anybody, and there's some honor in this, but did you ever meet anybody that you're working with and you think, man, there's just no hurry up in you at all? There's no sense of, we got to get this done, and there's some positives and negatives to that. Let's call that out. I do respect people who can slow down, take their time, not be pressed by any external force if they don't think it's necessary or they don't think it helps the cause. But sometimes you gotta do right. And Hamilton did. He was, like I said, he was a voracious letter writer. He outwrote everybody. I think he was extremely smart, and I think he had this drive to get these thoughts out, these thoughts and these ideas on paper, for his legacy and for the sake of this country that he loved.

And I think it also came, again that underdog sense, where I think in that time, maybe more so than now, your family was really important, the legacy that was left by your father and previous. I think maybe we have a more sense that freedom that we've. That anybody can make it today that wasn't that way in his time. You inherited from your. From your past quite a bit. That was extremely important. That was part of that, too.

I want to back up a little bit, Kurt, and make a correction, because I'm sure people will make a correction on me. I said, articles of confederation. It's actually the federalist papers.

Ah, yeah.

Is what I was thinking of.

There you go.

I had federalist papers in my head why articles of confederation came out if no idea was. Yeah, sorry about that.

That's okay. You know, there were a lot of mistakes made when they were forming this country, too, and they were trying to correct them. As the people don't realize that those things have moved on to George Washington. Another one. Dying is easy, young man. Living is harder. Life's challenge require resilience and courage, which we've talked a lot about. And I can remember movies. I kind of like this theme in movies. I can remember. I don't know, there's this movie. I don't even know what it was. There's this native american, and he says, today is a good day to die. When going into battle, you know, the trying times of the. The American west. And that has always impacted me.

Today is a good day to die. That doesn't feel like an indian said that, but I can almost see the person saying it. I don't know what it is. I can't remember the movie. But, yeah, I want to go back to George Washington and the cup a couple, because you brought him up a couple times. When George Washington says to Hamilton in the play, now, I don't know if this was an actual interaction or not, but when he says, history is watching you, is that right? Did I get that line? Yeah, history is watching you. George Washington, in his time, was revered probably more than he's revered now. He was really looked upon as, this is our guy, this is our wise man. This is our general, literally. This is our leader. This is the man that we want to please in an interesting way. And so when he spoke, when he gave advice, when he gave his thoughts, there was a literal and figurative hush amongst the world, amongst this nation. And for him to say that to Alexander, Hamilton had to. Hamilton had to take a step back and pause because, you know, in the play, it's clear that Hamilton and Jefferson are jockeying for Washington's favor.

Aaron Burr, too.

Yeah, Aaron. Aaron Burr, too. And so when he says that or anything, but when he says, history is watching you, that had to cause Hamilton take it. To take a step back and say, I need to heed this man's advice.

Yeah, he. Hamilton wanted to do everything his way. He got discouraged when things didn't go right. He wanted to go sideways. Sometimes Washington had to bring them back, keep him under wraps. But he recognized the talent, too.

Sure did.

He needed them. Alexander Hamilton, number six. I will never be satisfied. The lesson here is strive for continuous improvement. Never settle for mediocrity. I love that about him, actually. I will never be satisfied. I think that's we are dudes in progress.

I understand the sentiment, and I agree with it to a point. Sometimes you gotta. You have to accept what's where you are right now. Right. And just take a step back and rest in that moment. And I understand the spirit behind this, but I just want to be careful. When we think about never being satisfied, that's really no way to go through life 100% to say, I'm just never satisfied, because what kind of life is that? What kind of existence is that? And I think Hamilton actually struggled with that. And the people around him, the people closest to him, his family, struggled with that for sure, because he was just unstoppable. Leads me to think that how blessed we are as a country to have these men come together at that time for this purpose, to birth this country. It's amazing. You had the drive of Hamilton. You had the sensibilities of Thomas Jefferson. You had the leadership of George Washington. You had all of these. All of these personalities and geniuses come together at one time. And I really think that shows in Hamilton. Now the focus is Hamilton in the play, and I think Thomas Jefferson has not done justice in this play completely. But, yeah, when you think about somebody is just driven so much that they're never satisfied. Let's keep that in context and let's make sure that we temper that some.

I like how you. I like to twist you. I was thinking the same thing. Something I was reading. Yeah. You can be satisfied right now. You know, you may have a big ambition, but you can be happy right now. You don't have to have that big house on the hill to be happy, too, right? Yeah. For time, I'm just gonna keep moving. That's a good one. The world was wide enough for both Hamilton, me, Aaron Burr. Yeah, that's a really interesting lesson. The world was wide enough for both Hamilton and me. Such a tragedy. We've already talked about the death of Hamilton's son, but the death of Hamilton. This really happened. They had this duel. They were really friends through most of their lives.

Sure. Friendly associates.

At very minimum, they were patriots that fought against the British. They both played big roles during the revolution, and yet after the war, they became quite rivals. And jealousy, I think, played is what happened here, isn't it?

Right.

And, yeah, the lesson is, recognize that there's room for everybody to succeed.

Yes. And that's the big myth of success. That's the big myth of progress. That's the big myth even of relationships. We're not in a zero sum game here. Your success doesn't take away from my success.

Right.

Your ambition doesn't take away from my ambition. And I've always felt that when you can really test a friendship, not that you want to test friendships, I like friendships because they make me feel good. Right. Organic. You don't want to test a friendship, but if you want to test a relationship at some level, give them the $15,000 test. That's when you say, hey, Bob, I just want to let you know, I just won $15,000. And look at their initial reaction. If they're like, joyful for you, you got somebody special there. But if they say something like, oh, you always get lucky, or, man, that never happens to me. That's somebody you might want to, you might want to look deeper into.

Interesting test.

I I want people to. I want to be that source of inspiration to people and that source of encouragement and that source of celebration for people. But I'll be honest with you, sometimes I feel a little, feel a little Aaron Burrish, you know, that this makes.

Me, I think about this in the world of podcasting. When I was learning how to be a podcaster, and the world is wide enough because I'm in a space that's a popular place for Disney podcasts. There's over 200, someone said to me one time, but I've always embraced other people who are trying to be podcasters and thought of them as comrades, as friends. And I love working with other podcasters, and it's on me. If I can't get listeners, listeners are going to listen to whatever they're going to listen to. I can't. There's nothing I, they're not going to be exclusive to me anyway, right? And if they're going to be attracted to me and my podcast, that's all on me. If they write, if I can't rise to the top of their playlist, that's my fault, not the fact that people are going to do what they're going to do. So I'm okay sharing my space with other people, and I like it that way better.

Well, in that space, you've become known, renowned, quite honestly, as a friend to that space. You're more than willing to go on other podcaster shows. You're willing to have other podcasters on your show. Heck, I know for a fact that there are Disney podcasters that are very active in your community that you embrace, and they embrace you for what you bring to the community. You're absolutely right. That position that you hold in this community is well deserved.

Not nearly as important as the founding fathers, but it's just, well, you know what I was thinking about when I read that one? Number eight, look around. How lucky we are to be alive right now. The singers, Eliza Hamilton, this comes from this particular theme. And my gosh, they were so incredible. Joe. I just appreciate good talent, but they were fantastic. The three Schuyler sisters, if I'm saying that right, but appreciate the present and the opportunities it brings. We were just talking about that. She's the opposite of what Hamilton is or never being satisfied.

You do have to take some time and appreciate the moment in history in which you live. We live in an incredible moment in history. Even some of the strife of our political process right now, people are going to look back and say, man, what was it like to live through that mess?

Probably true.

What was it like to live through a time where a sitting president was asked to set aside his campaign and the whole political dynamics? And we're not going to talk about political opinions, but the fact that we're living through this right now is very interesting. People are going to ask, what was that like? And we can look at all around us and see where our place is in history right now and appreciate that and understand that we are in this moment. We're in a very special place in history, not founding father's special place. I get that. Not in the history of the nation. When you think about, and I said this before, how blessed we are to have all of those people come together, those geniuses come together at one time, that was a very special moment. And for her to recognize that and to understand that they are living in one of the most important moments in the history of the world is pretty significant.

Well, I'll tell you, there's something going on right now that's really significant, and it's. It is in technology, and that's where we see a lot of this artificial intelligence. We're at the very beginning of this explosion and lots of other technologies that could be really significant. So appreciate that we're at the beginning of that right now.

You're gonna look and embrace it.

Yeah.

Appreciate it and embrace it. Yeah.

See where it goes.

Understand? Hey, look at this opportunity that we have right now in this moment, especially with AI. Look at this opportunity. Let's not fear it. Let's watch where it goes. But, wow, what a place we live in when it comes to technology.

Well, it's the same thing. And hopefully I get a little chance about this. This came through the king in his themes, which is one of my favorite parts of this whole show is King George, and there's three songs that he has. They're just whimsical and snarky and. Yeah, yeah, hooray, you won the war. Now what's next? Right. Leadership isn't that easy, is it?

Right. And they found it wasn't. Yeah, there was snarky. Right.

But true. Who lives, who dies? Who tells your story? This is from the ensemble. Consider the legacy you are creating and how you will be remembered. While we already talked about that one, I am the one thing in life I can control. Alexander Hamilton. I don't remember that one off top of my head. This is from research that I did. But focus on what you can control and take responsibility for your actions. So important.

Yes. And that's a hard lesson to learn, because we don't want. I'll speak for myself. There's sometimes that I just want to blame a system, a process, another person to protect my own ego, and you have to take a step back. We have to take a step back. And I believe in extreme accountability. To say this was your responsibility, whatever it might be, even if it doesn't appear to be your responsibility, your role in this is your responsibility. There's a book written about that. I can't remember the name of the book, but it was by, like, a Navy SEAl or something.

Oh, yeah.

Extreme responsibility or extreme leadership. Something like that. No, it's about taking responsibility and accountability.

Yeah, it's extreme leadership by.

Is that it?

Yeah. What's his name? He's got good name. He's got a podcast. Jack.

Jack. Willow link.

Yeah.

Is that it? Okay.

Extreme leadership. He's got a co author, too. Who's a Navy seal.

Yeah. There's one called extreme ownership. I just looked it up as we were.

There you go.

Extreme ownership. And that's. Yeah. Yes, that's it. Extreme ownership. That means that you take 100% responsibility for your role in this and you don't blame anybody else any other time.

Yeah, that's a great book on that topic, for sure. Well, there's my ten there. I just want to give you a couple bonuses here because I said, king George is one of my favorite. The songs. I play these songs all the time. These are some of the songs that caught my attention when I was learning to be a fan of Hamilton. There's three of them. You'll be back as King George comes up. At first, it's just fantastic. You'll be some of the lines that. You'll be back soon. You'll see, you'll remember. You belong to me. Dominance and control and power that the king had on the colonies. Loyalty and betrayal. When push comes to shove, I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love. The snarky of this. Maybe that's why I love it so much. And the way he delivers these songs, really. And then denial and delusion. What comes next? They say the price of my war is not a price they're willing to pay. Or I know him when he mocks John Adams, that little guy who spoke to me all those years ago, what was it, 85? Oh, my God, they're going to eat him alive. That line cracks me up.

Darn it. I like John Adams a lot. And he's an underappreciated founding father. And, you know, he did a. Paul Giamatti, did a great series on HBO with John Adams. And I just think John Adams is awesome.

Yeah, there's a great HBO series. Yeah, I would love to watch that again. Oh, my God, they're going to eat them alive. I like when they say George Washington is stepping down. Who does that? I didn't know that was something you could do. Who comes next? And she whispers in his earthenhouse, John Adams. That little guy? Yep. Like you said, george Washington was so popular, he left in the height of his popularity, gave up power, which is what he's mostly known as the best president ever, because he started that trend of relinquishing power. And nobody else does that. Congressmen don't do that.

And it's that roman. It's that roman general. He was. His model was the roman general Cincinnatus, who was a farmer who was called back to. To lead an army he won and then went back to being a farmer.

Ah.

He didn't dwell in that glory.

He didn't. I think that's.

The city of Cincinnati is named after Cincinnati.

Okay. Yeah. That's the fascinating thing. Like you said, the genius of the founding fathers who had all this history that they knew from reading and the mistakes of places in the past, like this line from, you'll be back. Oceans rise, empires fall. We have seen each other through it all that empires rise and they fall. Maybe pay attention to what you're doing and don't repeat the mistakes of historical past.

At least be a student of history to understand.

Yeah, right. See what has not worked before. There you go. Thanks, Joe, for encouraging me and indulging me in my love for Broadway. Hamilton, and all of these themes.

Well, this was a good show, Kurt. This was. I liked it a lot because on two levels, number one, I like. I do like the Broadway production, Hamilton. I think it gives a good message. I think that the themes, through Hamilton, we can learn from both on, from all founding fathers, but also the relationship between Hamilton and Eliza. Many people say that whole play is about her. Right. And it's very interesting. But also, I'm going to echo something I said before. What I mainly appreciate about this show and many shows is your ability to find value in just about anything and including this. When I take a. When I took a step back and looked at Hamilton, I'm thinking, Kurt's right, man. There are a lot of themes that we can learn from as guys, as entrepreneurs, as people trying to make their life better, both themes of mistake and progress. So thank you, man. This was a good one.

Thank you. You're always good. You're good to me. Let's finish up with our wins for the week, our resources and quotes.

This past week, Kurt, I completed a very important coaching project, and it had fantastic results. I'm not going to go too deep into it because I'm not sure he wants me talking about it, but I've been in a coaching situation for the past several weeks, helping somebody with a project, and that project released last week to great results, ten times better results than we thought it would be. And really proud of the person that I was coaching and really proud of, quite honestly, the job that I did as we pushed forward. So there we go. I know it's a little generic and a little ambiguous, but I'm just not sure he. I don't have his complete permission to share the project. So there we go.

Maybe you can find that out and we can promote it, too.

Yeah, that'd be awesome.

I know. I'm really proud of you. That was fantastic. I know how in depth you went. I played a little bit in during that, which was fun, but it's something.

Well, you're going to come in. You're going to come in, because as he moves his project forward, we're going to talk about how to build a community.

Okay.

And we did a whole podcast on that, and I referred him back to that podcast. Now he. Whether he wants to build a community around this particular project or not, but we can take those same themes on building a community, and I think you'll be very valuable there. So you're not out of it.

That's how you get started. I know it's a side hustle. You're looking at doing more coaching. So if you're looking for a coach, I think you could find no better than Joe. Simple Joe.

Thanks, pal.

Speaking of community, I had a. I've been promoting something for all year, and it finally happened. Something way out in the future happened a couple of weekends ago, and it's the New York City geek meet. And we had about 15 people at one point altogether. I know I got a picture of us all at dinner, but it was fantastic. When you put a bunch of strange Internet friends together, you never know if it could go south or everyone have a great time, but it was a great time. A lot of people. It was a first for many. Like one of our ladies. She'd been to New York when she was a kid, but absolutely loved Hamilton, and it was a big bucket list item to go to New York City. We had people who'd never been in New York City before. Our good friend Kevin Curtis Allen. Shout out to Kevin, who listens to our show, the dudes. And he's in Disney world right now, but him and his wife were there. That was the catalyst for that meetup. I got to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time in Battery park and the 911 memorial. Oh, my gosh. There was something I was not too crazy to do, and I wouldn't have done it unless I went with this crew, and they encouraged me to go. And it was rode this New York subway, too. So it was just a fantastic. My daughter was there. We stayed two nights in New York City. Fantastic weekend.

What a good time. I know your community. I'm not terribly engaged with your community. I'm not much of a Disney fan. We've talked about that. I'm not anti Disney, but I'm certainly not even close to the level of your community. As a fan, I wouldn't even call myself a fan, quite honestly. But this is one that I would have liked to have gone to because I know most of the people there, and I know Kevin, and he's a really good guy. And I've never met Kevin in person. We've interacted a lot. In fact, he was on the simple Joe podcast a couple times, correcting me on my, my UK knowledge. I always called him my UK correspondent. And that's right, I like Kevin a lot. So, Kevin, I'm. If you're listening, and I'm certain you are, I'm sorry I missed you, pal. But I'm going to be in UK next week. Maybe I'll be in London on Saturday.

So he won't be there.

How close is.

He's in Disney World?

That is. That'd be awesome. Oh, yeah. Is that next week?

How long is he here doing 18 nights in Disney World?

I'm probably going to miss that. Gone.

All right, we'll see.

We'll try to make this happen. Kevin, if you're listening, we'll try to make this happen.

What's your resource tipper hack this week?

This is an interesting resource, and I've. I talked about this a couple shows back. I'm always one to look for a deal. I'm always one to say, okay, do I have to buy the cadillac when the. When the Corsica will do. Right.

Non brand.

And it's not always about utility, but this, for me, is about utility. I'm just trying to make something happen in the best way I can make it happen. You've heard of the yeti cups, right? And I have a couple of them. And I know you do, right?

Yes, I have. I've actually won them during things at work. I have one that's like a koozie that's made of metal. That is really good. And I have a bigger, like, tumbler. It's not necessarily a coffee mug, but I have a water carrying one, too.

The yetis that I have, I received as gifts as well. They're very expensive.

Yeah.

For what you. For what it is. When you think about, okay, this is a coffee cup or this is a. Something to keep drinks cold.

That's right. I do have one of those, too. My son got, gave me for Christmas. Yep.

The truth is they do a great job.

Oh, yeah.

They keep what's hot and they keep what's cold. There's been times I've put stuff in a yeti ice water or a drink with ice in it, and it sat there for a day, easily.

Right.

And the ice wasn't even melted. I know, but I heard a rumor that there is a much less expensive alternative to yeti. And I started looking into it, and I started trying it, and I tested it back and forth, and I did side by side comparison tests, and I bought one. I bought this less expensive. I don't want to cut a Lenoff brand, but this less expensive brand, and I'll tell you what it is here in a second. And I put ice in a yeti and ice in this less expensive brand, and it performed. The less expensive brand performed just as well.

All right.

I put hot coffee in the yeti, and in this less expensive brand, specifically, a ten ounce tumbler is what it was. Put the lid on it, kept it just as hot. And in fact, a couple times, the less expensive brand outperformed the yeti. So, that being said, this a ten ounce yeti tumbler is about dollar 20.

All right. Yeah.

There'll be people that say that's well worth it. Have you heard of Ozark mountainous? Sounds like brand Ozark Mountain.

I think it's a Walmart brand.

It's a Walmart brand. Absolutely. It's a Walmart brand. And it's. I see it primarily in their hunting stuff.

Right.

Or their outdoor stuff. The Ozark mountain brand. These Ozark mountain stainless steel tumblers, they look just like yeti. Other than the. Other than the label.

Right.

Performed just as well as the Yeti tumblers. The Yeti ten ounce tumbler is not as $20. The Ozark ten ounce tumbler is $9. Actually, it's $8. And some odd sense, and I did a side by side comparison. So if you don't care about brand, and I really don't. If you really don't care about brand and you want a good tumbler, a good stainless steel tumbler that'll keep hot and cold. Give those arc mountain a shot. I'm telling you, man, no difference.

I wonder if consumer Reports is looking for any side hustlers, Joe, like you think it'd be a good fit there. That's awesome. Thank you for that. Unfortunately, I have many of these, but service has been the ones I've been using lately, too, that do a pretty good job.

Yeah, that was my. That was what prompted me to bring up for my last dark mountain, because I know you talked about turvuse. I kind of water dropped it last time, so I love it. I'm telling you, Kurt, they work great.

Yeah.

Ozark Mountain. Look for that ozark. If you can bring yourself to go into the Walmart and set aside the visuals that you might experience there. Well, I'm a Walmart fan. I shop at Walmart all the time, by the way. I'm just thinking a joke. I go there a lot.

Me too.

And. But if you're not. If you're not a brand type of person, or you. But if you have some ego invested in your yeti mug, then okay, God bless you for that. But if you're just you looking for utility, give that Ozark mountain brand a shot.

I agree with you 100%. My resource. This is something I've been struggling with. I know many people do. I don't know how highly I want to recommend this. I can only say it's working better than my old system, and I got fed up. I really determined that some of the Internet problems I've had in my office, and even sometimes when Joe and I recorded during podcasting meetings, I've had situations where I just dropped for, like, a minute. There's just like a break. It's not like a constant Internet problem, but it was just intermittently was just blip on me, and I believed that. My daughter is, I'll say, semi hooked right into the router through the house wiring. There's a system that she uses, and she never had the same issue. So I determined it probably is my Wi Fi that I was using, which wasn't that old, and I didn't spend top of the line money on that and did some research there. My daughter's actually really good at this kind of computing, whether it's iPhones or mobility and wifi. But I just. I didn't spend a lot of time, but I got the Amazon aero mesh Wi Fi, and all I can say is it's improved. So awesome. Awesome. It's not. And I got it. Speaking of getting a little bargain, I had a $25 gift certificate from work. It was on sale for 160. So with all that, I ended up going with that again. Maybe there's better out there. It's a dollar 200 system. I got it for, what, 160 or something with tax and out the door. But it's working better. It does. Definitely has the mesh part of it I like because there's a repeater. There's two of them that came with. I got the package that has the main base, so I got one in the family room where my wife works most of the time, and one upstairs where I work, and it's working fantastically. So the Amazon aero mesh Wi Fi is improving my service.

Does it replace the actual modem from your service provider? So it connects to the modem of your service provider. So it's a router?

Router, yeah. Let me start just as the Wi Fi.

Let me start that over. Does it replace the actual modem from your service provider, or is it a Wi Fi router?

It's just Wi Fi router. Okay.

Okay. So it plugs into the. Your modem from your service provider, and then it has repeaters that you've set up.

Yeah.

To the house.

Yeah.

Is there any. Sir, is there any signal degradation?

No, it's not. But like I said, it's much better. And I was having this, again, intermittent blip most of the time that would interrupt my service and then come right back up. So it's done a much better job in that regard. And, yeah, so it's working better. I probably go with fiber sooner or later. I'm trying to convince my wife to get the fiber. Maybe that would set up differently and maybe improve things, too. My son's theory is they're doing something on their end to ruin our Internet service. So you upgrade, which I don't disagree, because he's having some similar problems, too. And I know I've talked to a lot of people with this, but it's working quite well. All right, Joe, down to our quote.

For the week, since I assumed, and I didn't even look, quite honestly, but I assumed that your quote would come directly from Alexander Hamilton. I had to be a little bit of a contrarian here. And my quote is from Thomas Jefferson, my, of course, my favorite founding father. But this is from Hamilton. It comes from the. The cabinet battle number one. They call it the cabinet battle number one song. But I like what Thomas Jefferson says here because it does set priority. It does address what we're willing to, except life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We fought for these ideals. We shouldn't settle for less.

Yeah, everyone knows that line, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. And it's not just a line, is what he's saying. And it's. We talked about this during this themes for. From Hamilton. Just because we won the battle now the real work begins and continues to this day, as we all know. This is fantastic, Nate and I just.

Love it, because this is what people died for, and this is the foundation of our country. And things change, right? As cultures grow and as we learn more things about people and about ideas, things can change, and I'm okay with that. In fact, Thomas Jefferson Washington, completely comfortable. And he promoted change even in the constitution itself. But these foundational principles, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we fought for these ideas, and we shouldn't settle for anything less.

Yeah. It's interesting how that has pervade all these years to that foundation. And there's a song in Hamilton, if we build a strong enough foundation, our kids will thrive. They'll be the best. They'll do. Awesome. Yeah. Love it. My quote is from Alexander Hamilton, and it's the opposite of what we were talking about. Burrs, be quiet and listen. And it's just as true. These are polar opposites, aren't they, of what Burr was and what Hamilton was. But if you stand for nothing, Burr, I. What will you fall for? Isn't that true? Also? Two things could be true. There must be a balance, I suppose. Right?

And I don't remember, but I get the sense that Aaron Burr was a little wishy washy. Right. A little.

Tried to play both ends of things. Yeah.

As he was portrayed. And that frustrated Hamilton because Hamilton, God bless him, was nothing. And he was hyper focused and had his direction. So I like that there's that old, there's that old saying that if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. So it's very. I guess that comes from Hamilton. I don't know very well.

Could be. Well, there you go.

Yeah.

Thanks, Joe. Take us home.

Awesome. Well, our website is dudes in progress.com. dudes in progress.com. our email address is dudes in progress.com dot. If you want to contact us about the show, about coaching services, about subjects on the show, your thoughts on this show or past shows, just email us dudes in progress.com and we will respond very quickly. Remember, progress is better than perfection. Thank God these founding fathers made progress. Right? Thank God Alexander Hamilton, as much as I might disagree on some of his fundamentals and the size of government and all that stuff, thank God that he had the passion, that he had to work on our nation and build our nation, because they didn't end up with something perfect, but they made progress. And we are the beneficiaries of that progress. So progress is always better than perfection. We got to keep moving forward.

Yeah. I think if we just look at. I appreciate you noticing my ability to. To look at nearly anything. If I don't agree with something, I can find something good out of those things and then try to do better next time, which we'll do next week. Joe, awesome.

Talk to you soon, pal.