Paradox of Cool: The Pursuit of It Defied What It Essentially Is

Welcome everybody to another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and this is the podcast that recognizes that in the middle of your game of life, whether you’re up by 10 or down by 20, we all need halftime talks to uplift us, empower us, and challenge us to bring that level of performance that you and I know it’s going to take to finish the game.

All I want to do is

Rahim, this is halftime talks. Welcome back the way we begin it, and I love doing it this way gets our minds in the right place. It’s with some appreciation. Here we go. Today. I want to appreciate the emerging generations. So many times, everybody gets mad at the old people because there’s that intergenerational disconnect. But more than anything, it allows us to understand what we truly value and to radically get a different way of seeing the world with the meek who shall inherit the earth. As meek are the young that are the new ideas. Are the people who are not constrained with how things are done have been done or will be done.

They are creating their own path, and that inspires me, that gives me life to see somebody take on the world with such zeal, to look with the idealism of youth into what is and shatter that crystallized way that we do things so you. I thank you. I appreciate you. That’s what I appreciate. Buenos dias Bon dia Bonsoir. Bonjour all those welcoming phrases that I’ve picked up along the way. Welcome. Welcome to another episode of halftime talks. Thank you for joining us this week. If you guys haven’t subscribed or haven’t left us a comment or told us what we can do on iTunes, then, without further ado get over there and do it, please.

Thank you for joining us this episode where we’re going to be bringing forth the topic that I jotted down a few months ago as something I wanted to talk about. And I think right now, I have the framework for how I want to present it, and it’s about the paradox of cool. I’m not talking about temperature. I’m talking about being relevant, being at the center of attention. And I think this is something that right now, attention seems to be one of the biggest commodities ever. And so sit back, enjoy this episode, and I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.

This episode is titled The paradox of cool. Right now, the year is 2019, and what could be more cool than that, to think that 19 years ago we were worried about why 2k but that’s neither here nor there. We’re here to talk about the Para docs of cool. One of the interesting things that I noticed growing up is every body wanted to be cool. They wanted to fit in. They wanted to align themselves with a group of people who could Christen them cool, popular on the in crowd. But what I’ve come to discover cool to mean in my life, where I am now, at the young age, only older people would say that at the young age of 41 is that most of the people who end up being really cool, never sought adulation or attention from the people bestowing cool on like, think about it like, who are your some of your favorite artists, some of mine are like Erica Badu do the roots Andre 3000 Janelle Monae and these are outsiders.

These are outsiders who have discovered, fought, wrestled themselves to find their voice. Yeah, they were the people who were going to Goodwill and putting together that outfit that wasn’t on the inside. They had constraint, or they just had a way of creativity about them. But I guarantee they were not seen as cool when everybody tries to rush to a standard. Everybody tries to wear a particular thing that is not cool, that is common. Cool is stretching the limits. Cool is evolving the domain. Cool is pushing forward the leading edge. The paradox of it all, the paradox of it all, is that there’s never a big crowd on the leading edge, and we have trends, we have waves, we have fads.

And I guarantee the people who have their voice understand their voice, understand their style. No matter if it goes away through popular culture, they will still embrace what it means to them to express themselves. What I want to say is that we all have a voice. One of my four ethos is about discovering your voice, and as you discover that voice, you recognize and realize that you are one of 7.5 billion people on this earth. You are meant to sing your song. You are meant to be you, but it is so difficult to be you when you try to be someone else. There is only one of me.

I do not want a replicate. I do not want somebody parroting me. I want you to discover you. That is when cool comes to the surface. And cool might not be recognized by the masses. It may not be Vogue in popular culture, but cool is you. Cool is the curiosities that you are spurned by, curiosities that you want to satiate, curiosities that you want to explore, fashions and combination of things that you want to put together. You want to try it out, not necessarily because you know it’ll work, but you want to see if it can cool is owning who you are. So you like to put peanut butter on your pickles.

Who cares so you like to wear Mitch Mac socks. Who cares so you like to wear plaid and polka dots. Who cares be your cool? Because what we have found over time is that there are only a few out there on the leading edge. The people that we view as cool in popular culture are the people who are unapologetic, not necessarily unapologetically pandering, seeking that attention, that that everybody seems to be clamoring for, but those People who are unapologetically themselves in front of the camera or just by themselves, and we’ve all known a few of these people. And right now, if you’re young or younger, or if your definition, your definition of young, is under 25 then that’s who I’m talking about, because you have an opportunity right now to punch your ticket.

You don’t want to be a drone, you don’t want to be a zombie. You don’t want to just be one of the huddled masses. You want to be you that dubious distinction of cool we grew up thinking that cool was synonymous with popular, but the popular kids are chasing the fads. Are chasing the hype, because they’re so scared to step out there outside of what has been accepted as All right. As you find your original voice, as you no longer seek to chase validation, you remove that chip on your shoulder, you remove that subscription to. Good, because they’ll always be another person wanting to chase the crowd, but they’ll only be one of you.

You can choose to influence, you can choose to emulate, or you can choose to imitate influence shows how it can be done, not necessarily what to do. I remember there was a hip hop artist out of Ohio in a group, fly union, and he said, You can buy fashion, but you can’t buy style, so find your style, find your voice, and spread it. Cheers. This has been another episode of Halftime Talks. My name is Rahim Rasul, and in case you’re not subscribed, go to iTunes. Subscribe, rate and review. Let us know what you’re thinking, and if you’re so so prone to so kind to share with a friend, the more we know, the more we grow.

And this year marks five years of halftime talks. Those of you who’ve shared it with others, I appreciate it, and those who will I appreciate it too. So until next time, have a little bit of perspective. Find your cool peace. You