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[00:00:00] Hala Taha: You're listening to YAP, young and profiting podcast, a place where you can listen, learn, and profit. Welcome to the show. I'm your host, Hala Taha, and on young and profiting podcast, we investigate a new topic each week and interview some of the brightest minds in the world. My goal is to turn their wisdom into actionable advice that you can use in your everyday life.

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Matthew McConaughey is a Texas native and one of Hollywood's most sought after leading men, he first broke out on the scene with a cult classic dazed and confused since then he's won an academy award for his work in Dallas buyers club appeared in more than 40 feature films that have grossed over $1 billion and has become a producer creative director and philanthropist aside from being one of our generation's most popular actors, he and his wife, Camilla are the founders of the just keep living foundation.

And he serves as the minister of culture and a full-time professor at the university of Texas. On top of all of these accomplishments, Matthew is now a bestselling author. His first book GreenLights is a number one New York times bestseller. In this episode, we discuss Matthew's childhood and how his family instilled confidence in him from a young age, we'll also [00:02:00] discuss his dedication to journaling throughout his life and his early films.

Then get into how he landed his breakout film roles, why he took a break from acting to reinvent his image, the meaning behind the title of his new book, green lights and some of the great life lessons he has to share. Hey Matthew, welcome to young and profiting podcast. 

Matthew McConaughey: Hello? 

Hi. Hello. All you young profiteers out there.

Hala Taha: Matthew McConaughey. You are a guests that really needs no introduction. You are one of the biggest actors of our generation. You've been in over 40 feature films and you're coming on our show today to talk about a new book called green lights. And so I was curious to try to get insight into, with all your acting background, with your film production background.

What made you think about writing a book? Why didn't you just shoot a movie? 

Matthew McConaughey: Yeah. Good question. Shooting a movie. All right. I'm I'm doing, I'm acting in someone else's script [00:03:00] directed by someone else. Lensed in a camera by someone else and edited by someone else before it gets on screen for the viewer to watch 

that's full of filters separate from my first original rock suppression. I was like, oh, look, we'll be only one filter. It's the written word. It's a much more direct line of my art or means of communication to you because I'm directing it. I'm lensing it. I meditating it. It's my script. And I wanted to, I've always loved words, I've, I have a career where I perform. It's not necessarily about the words, only 10% of what an actor actually does. I want to just say can I get across what I want to be just the word? Can it be written in a way that you can hopefully see me performing it or you listen to the audible and that helps, but it can have my voice without actually having.

[00:04:00] Audibly my voice and performance. And that was a challenge I wanted to tackle. And I was hoping, that I had stories and some wisdom I've learned along the way that I could share that people could apply to their own lives as well. 

Hala Taha: So let's talk about the process of actually writing this book, because from my understanding, you actually went on a Trek by yourself, in the desert to write this book.

You also journaled a lot growing up all throughout your life. So tell us about the process and also journaling and your process in writing the book with that. 

Matthew McConaughey: Sure. So I've been keeping journals since I was 14, so 37 years now and just, and always have and many did them for myself trying to write like anyone at 14 years old, probably mostly confused trying to figure out what's going on.

Why don't I have pimples on my face? Why did Gretchen break up with me, blah, blah, blah, things like that. And then I also continued to journal. When maybe I felt very [00:05:00] certain about things when I was on my frequency, when I was succeeding, when I had successful relationships, when all of a sudden I began to have successful working relationships, personal relationships, when I was happy in life, I continued to journal then, and I bring that up because that's when most of us, even if you do journal, that's when most of us stop journaling, because when things are going we go, oh, I don't need to write this down.

This is how it's supposed to be. I'll always remember this, no, write down, dissect your success as much or more than you dissect your failures or when you're confused and lost, because we will forget. And I know for me, my journals have been a great tool to go back and look at times in my life safe. If I'm off, if I'm in a rut again, I can go, I've gone back and looked at my journals and said what were you doing?

Matthew habits back when you were rolling, when your relationships were good, when you were, you felt like you were in line and on time. And I found habits that I followed [00:06:00] that led to gave us sort of a science to what satisfaction I had that then presently helped me recalibrate and go I need to start doing that again so I can get back in line and they've helped me get back on track.

The writing of the book was I took all of those journals away to them. The desert for it was a total of 52 days in solitary, spread out over five different trips. And I wanted to go away alone because I didn't want to have. The luxury of going, oh, whoa, let me check my messages or the luxury of going, Hey, let me also, and so I wanted to go to a place where there was no internet connection where I had nobody to interrupt me, or even if I got bored, I had nowhere to run and only place I could run to what to look back at my journals and who I've been over the last 50 years.

And I wanted to be stuck with that person and look that person in the eye. And that was the process of writing the book. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. 

It's so cool that you journaled since such a young age. I think [00:07:00] a lot of us have interesting stories growing up and we just forget them. And the fact that you had them saved and you were able to pull them out and then reflect on them later on and write this book, I just think is so amazing and something that everyone can take away from this in terms of the importance of journaling.

Matthew McConaughey: Yeah. Keep the stories alive again. You think when something awesome happens or you across the truth or something's really entertaining or you're you individually really laugh at something you think it's really special? Again, we always think, oh, I'll always remember. But what happens over time is it gets fuzzy.

So one, I say, yes, journal, but two, if you have something the verbal telling of the story, keep telling the story over and over, keep sharing the story that also keeps it alive, but also write it down because the first way you remember it will be different than you tell it. 10 years later, stories take, they become different things.

You come over time, you give them different facts. So it's good to be able to go back and go. How did I originally feel about that? What [00:08:00] originally turned me on about that circumstance in my life. And again, just, I say in the book I write things down so I can forget them not to remember. What I mean by that is if something turns me on a life and if I write it down, I know that I can now.

Don't have to keep thinking, oh, don't forget that. Don't forget that. Don't forget that because I've written it down. That means I can forget it because I go, no, I wrote that down. It's there when I want to go back to it. So I don't have to continue to go through life going. Don't forget that thing. Don't forget.

Make sure you don't forget that I write it down so I can forget it because I know I have it written down. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. That's something that David Allen taught me. He's the author of GTD getting things done and basically you have open loops in your brain and until you write them down, you don't actually close that loop.

So really good point. So let's talk about the title of your book. It's called green lights. And I just want to get my listeners some context in terms of what does a green light mean? What's the difference between a green [00:09:00] light or red light. And is there something called a yellow light? Tell us all about that.

Matthew McConaughey: Yeah. Green lights. I mean go, they earn our way. They say, carry on please. More, yes. Freedom at a boy and a girl. Keep on going because they keep us in our flow. They don't interrupt us. Yellow light slows us down. We don't really like it. We don't want it to have a wait. Why am I getting this? Why am I getting interrupted right now?

You know what I mean? Get out of my way, red light makes us stop. Those are crisises or times of retrospection or introspection in our life. We need those. We may not want them, but we need them. If we're going to evolve as individuals and as humans, the red and yellow lights I've found eventually turned green in the rear view mirror of life, meaning hardships we've had, or times where w we've had to [00:10:00] be introspective and look back over our shoulder and assess why we keep failing at something or why we keep running into the same problem or practicing the same bad habit.

We find out later, oh, I needed that. I needed that, that turn the page. I need my own life. I needed that to evolve. I needed that grow. I needed that introspection because if it was all just green lights and life was one big summer, Saturday Shula's summer. And like I said then what's it all forward.

It's it's all for entertainment. There's no evolution. And then we'd get we'd eventually get bored. So you need the reds and the yellows and even hardships in tragedies in the red light's life there's gifts in there. And to realize that there's a Greenlight asset in my life because my father died.

No, wait a minute. How's that? A green light? No, I'm not saying his dying is a green light, but boy, did I learn a bunch of courage? [00:11:00] Sooner than I would have if he'd still been alive, because I was trusting that he had my back, that he was a crutch for me and his passing way. It made me go, you better start becoming the young man.

You want to become and quit acting like one and start being one. So there was a green light asset in his passing. Again, I'm not, it doesn't deny the red light, but there's a light asset in our red and yellow light. 

Hala Taha: I totally relate to that. My dad actually passed away this past may. And since then, I remember in your book, you were saying, it was serendipitous when my dad died because his closing of his life really led to the opening of my life.

And I thought it was just like a nice, beautiful closing of that chapter and opening of yours. And I can totally relate because right after my father died, it's like my downloads 10 X day. I launched pretty much a million dollar business. I landed a Ted talk, like all of these positive things started happening.

And it's because like you said, I lost that crutch of my father being there for. [00:12:00] I just found this new passion for life and thought, let me just work even harder than I was working before. And I really believed in myself and I think believing in everything and believing that life is limitless is really how you end up just accomplishing your goals.

I know that you had this speech at Houston, you did like a commencement speech or something like that, where you talked about unbelievable being a word that you dislike. So can you talk to us about that word? Unbelievable. And why you don't like that word? 

Matthew McConaughey: I think it's the stupidest word in the dictionary.

Unbelievable. What an unbelievable play. What an unbelievable movie. What an unbelievable sunset, what an unbelievable, beautiful person. What these things in life that are all some, why would we call them unbelievable. These are the things that make us believe more in the all of life. So it's the antonym and we it's it discredits the [00:13:00] limits of beauty.

It discredits the evil mankind can possess. Let's go to the negative. Let's go to the, let's go to the ugly side. Somebody flew on nine 11, flew a plane into the twin towers in America. Unbelievable. Now it just happened. Give more credit to the evil mankind can possess as well as give more credit to the awe and the beauty in life.

These things are not unbelievable. And so I think the word unbelievable can be used so often that we actually, it makes us numb and in denial of the extreme beauties and the extreme tragedies that life just has, an earthquake pumps, a tidal wave comes. It was unbelievable. No, it was. It just happened.

Look that in the eye. And so that's why I don't like the word. It's a cop out word. 

Hala Taha: Yeah, totally. Okay. Let's take things back to your childhood. I want to get into some of these really amazing stories that are in your book. Green [00:14:00] lights. One of my favorite stories that I heard on there was your mother telling you, since you were a child, that you were little Mr.

Texas, right? And so she told you that growing up and all throughout your life, your childhood, your teens, you believed that you were in a little Mr. Texas, but then later on in life, when you were much older, you looked at that trophy, you dusted it off and realized that you were just the runner up.

So I thought this was a great lesson in terms of parenting and the fact that you can really instill confidence in your children. And that's really important. And I want to know, do you think you would be who you are today? If you had never if you never thought you were little Mr. Texas, 

Matthew McConaughey: That's a  fun question and I throw it out there and funds look, I think I would be where I am today, if I'd have grown them, but it's a fun question to entertain.

In 1977, I entered our little Mr. Texas contest. I get a trophy. I'm holding the trophy. I got a picture taken me, my mom percent trope that picture up in the kitchen. And every morning tells me, look [00:15:00] at you. You are Mr. Texas. And I grew up I'm a little Mr. Texas. I'm. It was just a couple of years ago that I come across that picture cut to 2019, 2018.

And I zoom in on the name, played on the trophy and it says runner up. I'm like, wait a minute. 19 77, 87, 97 0 7, 17 or 41 years later

and you know what? I remember, I went to my mom and I'm like, mom, I was runner up all these years. She goes no. You were a little Mr. Texas. I go, mom, it says runner up. She goes, no, the kid who won his family was rich. And they had enough money to buy him a really expensive suit and we call that cheap.

So you're a little Mr. Texas. So she's still like he gets in there and says, no, you're still it. So that's my mom is a great Maller proper, and that's what I grew up believing. And, when we grow older, we all find that little white lies that were told us, hopefully they're harmless.

Some of them can be harmful, but we find [00:16:00] that, I'm sure maybe you found out things about your father had just passed away things where the message was different than the messenger. There's a gap between those. And I know I did when my father moved on, I've done that. I felt that way in many levels moved on.

And the first feeling that sometimes we get is how dare they didn't live by that, but they would tell me that we'll get over that part and go now, you know what? They want to be a bit, little bit better than that, right? They maybe weren't able to act it out, but they wanted me to be able to, and there's grace in that.

So that was an innocent little white lie that my mom told me for 41 years. But it all worked out. 

Hala Taha: So how else did your parents instill confidence in you? Because as an actor and you were actually a very natural actor, you just walked on set basically to start your acting career and you didn't really go to school before you started first acting.

So you had this natural confidence and I think little things like this add up. So what else did your parents do to instill confidence in you? Do you think, 

Matthew McConaughey: We were always pushed to [00:17:00] be ourselves, no ourselves. And it's true. It's true to this day. Who else is more interesting or should be more interesting to get to know then ourselves?

And if we can then be more of ourselves, we are inherently becoming more original. Daily because there's only we see people, we look up to people, we see things. We want to be more like them. I wanted to be more like my older brother. Yeah. All that's fine. But boy, if you can sit there and go, who am I?

And I know my parents are still like, wait, you get to know yourself. You be confident with who you are as much as you can be. And that's not easy. That's not easy to do, but it's a task worth taking up. It's a challenge worth taking. And it's a challenge it's never over. I'm still doing it.

I'm going to be doing it. Hopefully until the day I die. It's a challenge. It's never over to constant in infinite quest that we never really [00:18:00] arrive at being completely our true selves, but boy, what a race to be chasing, after our true selves,  our, my mom would throw at quotes.

We'd be nervous to go to the dance in junior high with our first date. And she'd be like, don't you walk into that place. You want to buy it, you walk in there, like you own it. You be like, whoa, what? So she threw that line back at me before my time to kill audition, which I was very nervous, which I ended up getting, I called her and she was like, don't you walk in there?

Like you, you want that part? You walk in there, like you are that part. And like just great mental perspective to go. Okay. And that has probably helped me. I think it's something that can help all of us, not let moments become bigger than we are. And then, which is, I think is a very good thing. Diverse. All the China understand don't let the moment become bigger than you.

You gain self respect from that. You gain self trust from that gain confidence from that. 

[00:19:00] Hala Taha: Yeah, I think that's really good insight. And it goes back to like your journaling. You seem to be very introspective, like you like to reflect on your life, write things down, think about it. And that probably also helps your confidence too, because you get to know yourself 

better.

Matthew McConaughey: Yeah, I've also, in the writing of this book to go back and look at my journals from 36 years of being in the past was a daunting task. I'm not algae guy. I don't really like to look back. I don't even watch all my movies. I don't watch any of my interviews. I'm like why? But I don't want it uncomfortable.

I'm like, no, I was there. I know what I did. I felt it. I don't need to go back and look at it and be avoider on it. I know I felt what I did, but I don't like to look back and see replays of things I've done or look back in my life and see who I was well to do that. I went back and I was like, man, I'm going to be embarrassed of who I was at times.

I'm going to feel shameful. I'm gonna feel guilty. I'm going to see times where I was an arrogant little person. And I'm not going to who I was. And I was like I dare you. I [00:20:00] dare you to go look back. And I was all those things, but I found out that most of the things I thought I'd be embarrassed about.

I last that most of the things I thought would be shamed about and feel guilty about I'd either already forgive myself for, or forgave myself for and times where I was like, yeah, you were an arrogant little, know at all, boy, what? That was ugly. Boy, you were such a know it all. It was ugly. But then I noticed actually your arrogance at that time in your life, Matthew gave you the confidence to put yourself in a position to get humiliated, which we did, which you wouldn't have had the confidence to put yourself in position to get humbled.

If you wouldn't have been that arrogant. So everything had its own little green light, 

Hala Taha: Yeah, it's so interesting. And speaking of red lights, green lights, let's talk about our red light that you had. And it's another one of my favorite stories from your book. It was your trip to Australia.

So you went to Australia for one year, a rotary exchange program after you graduated high school and you stayed with a very [00:21:00] unusual family, you were a very nice kid. You were trying to be respectful to them and you didn't really know if it was just cultural differences or if something really was going on.

And tell us about that story, how it was a red light and how you turned it on its head and turned it into a green light. 

Matthew McConaughey: So I just come out of high school where I was catching all green mix, meaning. I made straight A's. So mom and dad were happy in high school. I just turned 18, which means for men for the first time, I no longer had a curfew.

I had a car, it was paid for job, had 45 bucks in my back pocket. At all times I was dating the best of of girl in my school day, the best girl across town. I had a four handicap in golf. I was rolling like Australia and it's like a screeching halt. I'm in this little town in the middle of nowhere. I got no car.

I got no friends. I've gotten a girlfriend. I do have a curfew. I have no job. And I don't even have a [00:22:00] golf clubs. And I've got nothing around me. And I was with an extreme circumstance with an unusual family and it went a little bit insane while I was working. And the reason I was going to saying is because I only had me to rely on, I was writing 14 page letters.

To me and returning them, re writing a 14 letter pages a back to me. This was, I was in a Socratic sort of implosion, but I felt at the time, cause everyone was like, why didn't you come home when he come home? When he come home? One, I told the rotary people, I said, I'll go, I'll give you a handshake that I'm not coming home before the year's over.

So I felt part of the challenge I wanted to live up to. Secondly, I felt like even while I was losing my mind, I was like, I had a hunch. This is a penance for a reason. There's light. There's something. If you can survive [00:23:00] this and get out of this because I was forced to get to know myself, I didn't have anybody else to go, Hey, is this cool?

What they're saying or what they want me to do? There was the, I had no sounding board. I didn't have mom and dad. I didn't have friends. I had to ask myself. So I had to form my own identity and for my own job. And for my own discernment of things that I would stand up for, or wouldn't stand up for things that I would let slide or wouldn't.

And it was hard because I'm an 18 year old kid just figuring out just becoming an adult. But it was wonderful because I was forced to, I was forced to by hook or by crook make up my own mind and figure out how I was going to navigate through this hairy situation without anybody else's help. And it was a great Rite of passage for me and a year, he brought up a little Mr.

Texas earlier, would I be here with that little if I'd thought I was runner up? I think so. Would I be here with that year in Australia? I died. 

Hala Taha: What makes you think that, like what happened in Australia? Tell us some of the stories in terms of some of the weird things, 

Matthew McConaughey: Just [00:24:00] read the book for the story, because the story is really well-written I think, and it's got great details in there, so I'm not going to go into those because they're better to read those.

But again, it was a year in my life where I was lost lonely, alone, losing my mind, taken up odd disciplines that when I look back are hilarious and horrific at the same time, I did not think I was losing my mind, but I look back at the letters I was writing and I looked back at letters. I even wrote my mom kept ones.

I wrote her. I look at I'm like, did you know I was losing my mind mom? And mom's I had a hunch. You just it's a 17 line run-on sentence here. You wrote, when you're going and saying you like advert too many actors and adverbs just be overly, just mentally midget dicing, almost just imploding.

And it was just, it was a year where I was forced to get to know myself. It was a year of forced introspection and men till then I had, I guess I'd been an introspective person, but I was much more of an [00:25:00] extrovert. I was not a writer, not a reader. I was at a contemplator that year. I was forced to, because my only form of entertainment or freedom or sanity was me and I did not always enjoy that company, but I was forced with me, so I had to get through it. I went through

So coming out of that, I ran into hardships in life and still do today, but I'm like, oh, that's nothing. I am what I endured that year. This is nothing. And so I have gone through things that may, if I wouldn't have had that year, I may have thought some crisises and arches of bad in my life. I'd be like, if I didn't have that year and be like, oh my gosh, this is daunting.

But because of that year, I looked at things that maybe that otherwise would have been daunting. Oh, no, I got this. I'll handle this. This is nothing. 

Hala Taha: And I totally agree with you that the story and the book is so entertaining. So everybody listening right now, go check out. GreenLights make sure you buy the book.

Listen to the audible. I was [00:26:00] cracking up during the story. He basically was like, oh, was kidnapped by this family that basically wanted him to be their son. And it's just a crazy story. You've definitely got to listen to it. I loved it. So let's talk about when you, so you came back to the U S and then you were going to go to college, right?

And you wanted to be a lawyer for a while. I think since you were in high school, you wanted to be a lawyer. So you were going on that path and there was one school that you wanted to go to. That was quite expensive. And one that was more local, that was more affordable. And your brother actually told you like, Hey, you should probably go to the cheaper school.

Cause your dad's having some financial struggles. And you quickly made the decision to. Respect your father. You never told him why you made that decision, but you went to the cheaper school and you listened to your brother. And to me as like somebody that young, that really showed me that you were mature, you had really good decision-making skills at that age.

So talk to us about that decision. Talk to us about your decision-making process in general and how you were able to have that good [00:27:00] judgment. So young 

Matthew McConaughey: we're a close family, and I knew the school I wanted to go to was SMU. It was in Dallas, Texas. My idea was that as a lawyer in the big city of Dallas, I'll be able to get an internship early on.

So when I get out of school and I'm in law school, I'll jump right into the job because I'll already have a planted my feet and I've planted seeds within a law firm that I want to work in because it's a big metropolis. This other school know Texas was in a much smaller town in Austin, but it was a state school.

So it was about a third of the price. My dad said, oh, you want to go to the university of Texas at Austin? I'm like, no, sir. I want to go to Dallas. He said are you sure? And I'm like, yes, sir. And he goes, okay. Okay. And I remember he questioned, but I was wondering why is he questioned? But he didn't ever say, you'd be, do me a big favor because it costs a lot less.

But my brother calls me and we're a close family. My brother says, Hey, man, dad's not going to tell you this, but he's in [00:28:00] businesses tough right now. And it's going to cost 18 grand to go to SMU. It'll cost five grand to go to Texas. You'd be doing him real solid. If you chose University of Texas, the night, my brother didn't call.

But those things I wouldn't have got that call on whimsy. You know what I mean? My brother to tell me that. And then didn't then to also know that my dad had too much pride to let me know that I'm like, Oh, okay. Yep. Got it. It was it was very quickly made decisions. Got it. Yeah. I'm going to restate it.

Never told my dad. That's why. So I call my dad. I go, dad, I'm decided to go to University of Texas. He's oh, great idea, buddy. Idea way to go. And I was like, yeah, just changed my mind. So another decision that, Hey, would I be here now? If I didn't go to university of Texas or Austin of a city in a university that had been very good to me and I love a lot.

I don't know if I'd be here now, would I have ended up going to law school and become a lawyer, if I gone to SMU. But that decision probably based on [00:29:00] my, how tight we are as a family, my dad never asked anything of me. My dad had too much honor and pride to tell me or to tell anybody in our family. We, I found that since he's passed away, there were many times that he was almost bankrupt

we couldn't tell. We had no idea. We never went out. We were middle-class and live and live more like upper middle class. Probably. We never knew he was financially strapped. Now does that, the lead up to part of the stress he had that led to him having a heart attack at 62, probably, but he never showed us.

We never felt like we were going. He never once said we can't afford that. And so are you at that age at 18? I'm like what an honorable, cool thing of a father to do. He's not even letting us know. Oh. That he can't afford the school and he knew he would find a way I would have known if I was gone to that other school, he would have paid for it.

He'd have found a way. And I would never know that it was taxing on his [00:30:00] finances. So that was obvious to me when my brother said that. So that was a quick decision to go. Oh yeah. Let's do that and sold here and I'll make. This other school work, which turned out to be a gift that I went to the school, even if it was even if it would cost three times more than the other one, I'm like, I'm glad I went to this one, but it didn't.

It was three times less. 

Hala Taha: How about another tough decision when you decided to go to film school, what was, why did you decide to just switch gears? Let go of the dream of being a lawyer and how did your father take that information? 

Matthew McConaughey: I was not, it was, I was not sleeping well for the first time with the idea of becoming a lawyer.

And I had been, I had that's all I ever wanted to be. And now here I am, what, a 19 20, 20, 21 years old. And I'm starting to think, I don't know if I want to go to law school. I got to graduate here. Then I go full more years to law school. Then they get out. Basically I wouldn't be working, putting my stamp or my fingerprint in society until I'm in my thirties.

I don't know if I want to spend my entire twenties learning. At the same [00:31:00] time, I've been writing a lot, writing short stories and sharing short stories with a writer friend of mine who was telling me, Hey, those are pretty damn good. Probably secretly enjoying, performing in front of the camera, but not even able to admit it yet.

So I sat, I want to go to film school, to get in behind the camera, to learn the art of storytelling from behind the camera and get into the storytelling business. I'm very nervous to call my father. Who's paying for my school to tell him I don't want to go to law school anymore. I want to go to film school and where I come from a blue collar family, which is you get a job and you work your way up the company ladder, you get something that's dependable.

The arts film, production storytelling. That's a hobby on Saturday. Yeah, you can do it, but that's not the way that I'm not going to pay for you to go get educated in that it felt too avant-garde to European, to too whimsical of an idea to even do well. I decided to call him one night and tell him that's what I'd like to do.

Ask tell and [00:32:00] I called him and I said, dad, I don't want to. I decided I don't really want to go to law school anymore. I want to go to film school and he goes, you sure that's what you want to do? I said, yes, sir. And the next three words you said to me were incredible. He said don't have assets. And I remember getting tingles at the time and almost crying because my dad in saying, don't have assets.

He didn't just approve my choice. He gave me responsibility, accountability, more than privilege. He gave me freedom, courage, and a challenge to go do it. And in looking back at that moment, because I really did not think that telephone call is going to go. I thought he was gonna be like, you want to, what boy what are you talking about?

But in a matter of a 22nd conversation, he said where I told him that I wanted to make a complete career choice change in school. 20 seconds later, he said, don't have asset. I think what it was is that like any parent out there, we built structure for our [00:33:00] children. Here's what you should do. Follow these rules, stay within the lines.

And that's good because a lot of us will succeed to a certain extent if we do that. And that's, that is a very worthy thing to do. But when a parent's really, I think happy is when a child may be supports enough to come to them and go, I'm breaking out, I'm going on my own. I'm doing it. And I think he heard in my voice when I said, I don't want to go to law school anymore.

I want to go to film school, even though I was calling to ask permission, I really wasn't. And he heard the certainty in his son's voice because if I would've gone, I think I do. I don't know. He'd probably say. Hell no, because I would have been bluffing. He had heard me bluffing. So he heard my voice that I was not bluffing, that I really wasn't asking permission.

And that's what gave him, I think the pride, the honor and the pleasure to go yes. That my son is letting me know I've raised him well enough to, for him to [00:34:00] have the confidence to come to me and go, dad, this is what I'm doing. And that made him very happy. And I think that's something makes any parent happy.

Hala Taha: Yeah. And it probably really helped you, because I think he passed not too long after that. It probably really helped you that he supported your acting decision. And that probably gave you the confidence to keep on going down that path 

Matthew McConaughey: confidence and courage. And, I had my own bit of honor and pride to say, Look that gave you more than approval to go chase down this as a career path.

And now that he's gone, it gave me more courage to go well, now you really better not half-ass it. You really better not quit at this. You make this happen. You really better succeed. You really better do everything you can to be as good of an actor as you can. So inherently I'm sure that was part of it too, of me going, I've got more, I'm doing this for more than just me.

Hala Taha: So let's talk about your, the beginnings of your acting career. Like I mentioned before, you were very natural. You ended up forcing your way to get [00:35:00] your breakout role days on days and confused. So tell us about that. Tell us how you convince the director to give you that 

part. 

Matthew McConaughey: I go out to this bar in Austin one night with my girlfriend at the time Tonja and I knew the bartender who was in film school with me and he says, Hey, there's a guy down at the end of the bar named Don Phillips.

He's in town producing a film. He's been coming here every night. He's staying in the hotel. Go down and introduce. I introduced myself well, three hours later, he and I are talking golf and telling the stories and movies. We like, et cetera. We get kicked out of the bar .On the cab ride home to drop me off that night.

He's riding with me and drop me off at my apartment. And he says, Hey, you ever done any acting before? And I sit down and I was in this Miller light commercial for bet long. And I was in in this music video. And he was like, oh, you might be right to this part. There's a guy called  here.

I'm going to leave this script for you at this address. Come down tomorrow morning, pick it up. It's three [00:36:00] lines, but it's cool character. You might be right for it. I go pick up that script. There are three lines. I study those three lines for two weeks. I come back, I auditioned for the director, Richard Linklater.

I get the part. Now all of a sudden I'm on set one night. I'm not supposed to work. I'm doing a hair and makeup and wardrobe test, which is what you just put on your makeup and your wardrobe and your, and when the director has free time, he walks off the set and comes and looks you up and down and gives you note to  have you not supposed to work this night first

my first day of work is a week late. The director comes up, looks at me. He goes, yeah, this is worse, and I like it. And all of a sudden, as I'm about to say goodbye, he goes, Hey, you think what are some would be interested in the redheaded intellectual girl in school? And I'm like, yeah, man, what is she likes all kinds of girls.

He goes there's a girl, Marissa Ribisi, who's playing the role of Cynthia at the redheaded intellectual. And she's over here in the car and she got her three nerdy friends. And I don't know, maybe one person pulls up, tries to pick her up, tells her there's a [00:37:00] party later on. I'm like. Give me 30 minutes.

I took a walk with myself and I was like, who's my man. Who's Wooderson. Who's this guy. There's this scene. I'm being invited into. There's no lines written for. Next thing I know I'm in the car. I bet. Shoot. My first scene ever. There's not a line written for it. All I know is this scenario. And I'm telling myself, who's my man.

Who's whose Wooderson the character I'm playing. And I'm getting nervous. And I tell myself to myself, I say, I'm about my car. I said I'm in my seventies, Chevelle, there's one. I said, I'm a back getting high. I said it's sliders riding shotgun. He's always got a Doobie wheeled up. There's two.

I said, I'm about rock and roll. I said, I got Ted news stranglehold in the eight track plane right now. There's three. And all of a sudden I hear action. And I look up cross the parking lot at the red-headed intellectual, Cynthia and I go and me Wooderson, I'm a bad picking up chicks. And as I said that, it went through my mind as I put it in dry.

I've got three out of [00:38:00] four and I'm going to get the fourth hour, alright alright and pull that and the first three words I ever said on camera, in a film 1992, and then we did the scene and then I kept getting invited back every night, the director kept inviting me back and that whole cast would involve me in the scenes.

They'd asked me questions in the middle of asking my character questions in the middle of the scene and they wrote me into the picture. And all of a sudden I worked three weeks, three lines turned to three weeks work and it was awesome. And I had a great time doing it. People were telling me I was good at it.

I'm getting paid $300 today. I'm going, is this legal? It's so much fun. And people were telling me, please, I go back. I graduate college and I drive out to Hollywood with you home 3000 bucks the next year. And here I am. 28, 29 years later, it turned into curl. 

Hala Taha: Wow. It just goes to show that you need to really [00:39:00] like, take your opportunities because that opportunity you could have just chickened out.

You could have just been like, you know what? I'm not ready. I didn't get my lines. I've never done this before. You could have just chickened out. And you had that one moment, whatever, how many minutes that was 30 minutes, you said to figure it out and get the balls to just do it. And I just think that people need to realize that sometimes you need to take the opportunities that are in your face.

Cause they could just go away forever. 

Matthew McConaughey: They can. And you know that window of opportunity. So many times it opens up and we see it. And if we start to go should I take it? That can sometimes already be too much time. It closes. I remember he goes, I was just answering the question. Yeah. I'd like to do, think about my Mandy. Want to do this. I'm already seeing this as it's going to be an opportunity. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do, but this is, let me go try and figure it out and then try and relax and just be my man be my character. But yeah, they do open up and, I could've said no and still been invited back and done the three [00:40:00] scene, the three lines and the three scenes and could have done well, but I don't think I wouldn't be sitting here right now with the life I have or the career I have.

And, but I've tried to take that into my acting career throughout is even if it's one line character,  think about what that whole character is in every scenario, we'll call that character. So if you're in any position and someone throws you an improved line and asks you a question, you got an idea of what you've got.

What's your person would say your character would say, and I guess as I'm saying this, it goes along with who we are in life as well, know ourselves well enough. Play ourselves up and project ourselves in the different scenarios to where if we're in them, we can improvise and be ourselves. 

Hala Taha: Yeah. And be so it also goes back to be so prepared that nobody has a choice, but to give you that opportunity because they just know, oh he's got it.

He's so good. Give them no choice, but to give you that opportunity, if it comes up, 

Matthew McConaughey: if it comes up and it's a [00:41:00] fine line, because look, you can, say, oh, I gotta look for opportunities. So I've got to, yes, we do create opportunities, but you've got to, you gotta know your zone, you gotta read the room.

You gotta know who you're dealing with. Meaning say, if I wanted to be in that scene that night, but wasn't invited whichever isn't what? And say, I went up and they were like, okay, your car, you can go home now. I'm like, no, I'm going to stay on sex. I'm looking for my opportunity. And then maybe they're not getting the scene down and they're having trouble getting the scene.

And I'm saying I'm over there on the sideline, nervous thinking, when am I going to find my opening and say, Hey, can I get in here? And maybe I say it and they're like, look at me like that. Who the hell is this guy trying to get in here? And we're trying to think, hell no, you can't. Then I go home and then they're going, do we, you want to invite this guy back to do the three lines we hired him to do.

He's at me in the ass. He's trying to he didn't gracefully. So it's a bit of go after what you want, but also sit [00:42:00] back and be prepared enough where if the opportunity comes you, like I got it. Put me in coach, give me the ball. Okay. She can't be overbearing because sometimes it would be overbearing and you're a nuisance, but it's, so it's a balance.

Hala Taha: I love that. I think this is such good advice for my listeners. I hope everyone is paying attention. Okay. So let's take it a little further down in your acting career. Mid nineties, you're like the biggest rom com actor ever. You're in every single movie. That's when I was a teenager, I was watching you all day, and so talk to us about that. Did you like doing romcoms? You also say that romcoms were GreenLights for you or like the green light of movies. So tell us about that and your experience there. 

Matthew McConaughey: Yeah, I did enjoy romcoms. They were light. They were fun when I prepare for them enough, the actual making of the movies, the acting, those were [00:43:00] easy.

They were supposed to be easy. It's a flow. It's the romcom is not the characters. Aren't, you say hell, there's a guy, I'm an advertising agent but the characters, not about my character as an advertising agent, it's just, that's a job I've got. So it's not what I talk about. It's not have to be job specific.

It's all about the lingo between the boy and the girl or the couple, whoever they are, they have the sauce. Are you looking at them going, oh, this is good. And you got to have adjust. There's always a blast. In a romcom boy meets girl. Usually they go on, they break up for some reason at the end and the third act, boy chases girl gets her roll the Crips.

That's gonna happen. The couple's going to get together. You just want to have a good time seeing them do it. We want to think that it's going to fail, but then be happy does succeed. You want to be in on the joke when Kate Hudson's going to try to trick me. You want to be in on it.

And I don't know it, but you, the audience [00:44:00] know it. And she does. You want to be in on the joke when I'm about to trick her, but she doesn't know it, but you, the audience knows it. You want to have fun seeing each other. as duped each other. In an innocent way. So there's, it's about lingo. You can improvise in those things.

And I had always been a very comfortable improviser and you play at the scenario and trying to wiggle your way out of the trouble and try to come out of the scene winning. And that's part of the fun of watching romcom, seeing each character try and win and not always winning, watching someone fail, get duped and then maybe recover or not.

So there were great fun. And I did, there also medium budget in Hollywood terms. At that time, they were like $35 million budgets, not $80 million budget. So you could put them out. They didn't own the studio. Didn't have to put up so much bank. And the ones that I was doing were doing very well. And then they were getting played on at the time, cable, TV, and DVDs, and now they're still playing.

So that's also money back to the studio and [00:45:00] they were succeeding. I was the romcom guy to go-to guy. And I'd done that three to four now that it all succeeded. And I was starting to feel like, and I feel like I've read the next round comes given. I feel like, oh, that's a good one. But I feel like I could do this tomorrow morning.

I want something that I'm looking at and going I don't know what I'm going to do with this character, but I can't wait to find out. And that was not romcoms. So I decided to take a sabbatical from romcom. I was so bad. I just decided to say, look, the dramatic fare. I want to. They're not offering me that no one wants to finance the Matthew McConaughey  a drama.

So I said, if I can't do what I want to do, I'm going to quit. Do we, what I've been doing. So I said, no more romcoms. That meant I was going to go without work for awhile. And I did have to go with that work for awhile. I didn't get offered anything but romcoms for the first six months, I said no to them all.

And then for the next year and a half, I [00:46:00] got offered nothing. So I go basically two years without working, wanting to work, but not working. And then after two years, I think I gained some anonymity, I think, in the audiences eyes and the studios eyes that make the movies. It was like, where's McConaughey. Hey, has it been in a romcom in front of us on the screen?

We don't know where he is. We haven't seen him shirtless on the beach in Malibu. Where is he? I was uh, down in Texas. Hi now saying no to romcoms waiting, hopefully for something else to come well. After two years with that anonymity that I gained, I unbranded and I became a new, good idea for those dramatic roles that I wanted to do.

So it took two years of being gone to be able to be seen for the first time as, Hey, it'd be interesting casting, original cool casting for Lincoln lawyer killer Joe paper, boy magic, Mike mud burning true [00:47:00] detective Dallas Periscope Hey, it wouldn't happen unless I took the two years off unbranded.

Hala Taha: Yeah, it's so interesting because you're a celebrity, right? And so you need it to do that because everybody knew who you were. They recognized you as a certain character and you needed to unbrand yourself. And that's something that I think like the average person doesn't really have experience with.

We can just reinvent ourselves continually. And it doesn't really people aren't paying attention that closely where that would ever be an issue. 

Matthew McConaughey: And look, and I understand, and some listeners may be out there going, yeah. Lucky you were able to take off work for two years to unbrand.

Not everyone can do that. I get it, I had invested well and been very conservative with my money, enough to be where I could maintain a certain lifestyle without working. And I was trying to do I'll do some voice work during that time, but no acting. So yeah, I was in a privileged position to take time off, but the concept is still useful for anyone is to go.

Boy. If I can't do [00:48:00] what I want to do, maybe I need to quit doing what I'm doing. It's again, it's about when I talk about the book about finding our own identity, it's not always about knowing what we want to do. That's hard. What's easier is to eliminate the things in our life of who we are, not, whether that's work, whether that's, who we're hanging out with, where we're going, how we're greeting the day, what we're drinking, how much we're sleeping, whatever that is.

Hala Taha: So let's continue on this topic in terms of celebrity and some differences in terms of what you guys have to deal with in my boyfriend's actually a very famous hip hop producer and I've dealt with it with him over the years. Now I'm starting to gain a fraction of celebrity, not anything compared to you or him, but I know that your mother actually, you had a falling out with your mother for quite, quite some time, because she was really interested in your celebrity and even invited tabloid newspeople into your house.

And you felt like you couldn't be yourself around your mother for that reason. And I know a [00:49:00] lot of celebrities are very private about their life and really just try to keep that separate because I'm sure it can be really hard. So talk to us about that and maybe some of the things that you've struggled with your celebrity and how you deal with it.

Matthew McConaughey: Sure. I became a celebrity over one weekend and it was when a time to kill Cayman. I was a bit of a celebrity before maybe to a certain extent, but I became famous when the time to killed him that weekend, I was the lead and they major studio Warner brothers picture that did well.

And that when that film opened on that Friday, my life changed. From that Friday to the following Monday over the weekend, when that movie came out, the world was a mirror. All of a sudden, everyone was looking at me and had an idea and a biography of who I was, what they thought about me. People come up and go, oh my God, I'm so sorry about this.

And I'm like going, I've never met you. How do you know I have a dog? How do you know her name is Ms Hud, how do you know she has cancer? What's your name? You just skipped like four things. And you jumped right [00:50:00] into my life. I'm I going? Whoa. Three days ago you were a stranger now you're not, or you're at least acting like you're not, you lose anonymity.

So I had to go, it was to go off on my own to take some walkabouts to the backpack, to gain my anonymity and to sit with myself and go, okay. All of a sudden you have all these new options in your life. You have all, what was 99 nos and one? Yes. Last Friday is now 99 yeses. And one No. Wow. That's great. But at the same time, it's oh shit, what do you want me to do?

Three days ago? I would have done any of this, but I couldn't. And now you're telling me I can do almost all of it. And you want me to decide with all the options, and then when the roof was taken off, I was like there's only 24 hours from the day. What do I want to, I need some discernment here to decide what it is I want to do.

I needed to go off, spend time with myself, figure out what the hell mattered to me. And what did another lesson [00:51:00] that I learned with fame seven years in, after that become famous, is that with fame, you start to get a lot of things. You, all of a sudden, you get the backstage passes, you get to the front of the line, you get things carte blanche handed to you.

And it's awesome. At the same time, I went through a bit of an imposter syndrome, non deserving complex, I'm like why me? Am I getting this? Do I deserve this? And I was a little awkward with the champagne and caviar that were now being handed to me for free. And I was like okay. Again, a few days ago, I couldn't even have this, but I learned to, and all of a sudden people say, throw the word.

I love you around more. I'm like, that's a word. I've only said to four people, but everyone's telling me they love me. And I don't even know what's this mean and I took it personally to some extent, but I learned seven years after my fame that, oh, it's not none of it's personal it's business. I had in the height of my fame.

I could get anyone, on any [00:52:00] studio, head on the phone, anybody on the phone? Then I go do a few movies that don't do it. They don't return my calls. So my career picks back up and I'm doing well now they're calling me. I could either choose to go after you, man. I remember when you wouldn't come or go.

It's cool. It's all business. I got it. So when I made it less personal and said, oh, it's all business. Just roll with it. Just how the flow goes of my career. And if someone who becomes famous or less famous at the time in the more famous, again, it ain't personal it's business. If you get that joke, that's the joke to get with them it ain't personal it's business.

If you get that joke, you'll be a lot less stressed. You'll be able to accept all of the adulation better. You'll be able to accept the champagne and caviar easier with grace, but you'll also for me, not necessarily need that for your sense of identity as much because it's fleeting. You got to watch it with [00:53:00] fame.

When you go to that and you need the attention. Look at musicians. I get it. You're on a stage. With thousands of people looking up, adoring you in a show. And what happens when you don't, when you're not doing lab anymore or no, one's buying your albums, huh? Real life, regular life. It's not enough to get off too.

I need more of a buzz. I can't get off to this because I was so high. Then you gotta watch how much we get our identity and our sense of satisfaction and pleasure from things that you get at the height of fame. You gotta appreciate them, I think, but make sure that they're not just completely making up your sense of who you are because in fame, it's infinite yeses.

Now that's where the devil will be living. The dead will be living in the intimate. Yes. It's not the nose. Too many options can make a tyrant of any of us. So that's what you got to watch with things. You have all [00:54:00] access. If you got all access. Ooh, you can Peter out and burn out because you don't have the energy or you got to watch your health and your mental health and your spiritual health and your physical health.

So take some time. If you're fortunate enough to get things, take some time to go check in with yourself and go what matters to me, because I write about this in the book for the first time. You're you can do things that you never could do before. So your first instinct is go well. Yes. Why? Yes, because I never had the option before.

So of course just yourself, if you want to, before you do, when you can. 

Hala Taha: I think that's excellent advice. And I just have to say that you've been so humble, I didn't know what you're going to be like. You're obviously very famous. You've got a lot of privilege, but you do give back to the community.

So I did want to give you a chance to talk about your foundation. Tell us a little bit about your foundation and its mission. 

Matthew McConaughey: Sure. Just keep [00:55:00] living foundation. We're an after school title one schools, which is schools with lower income families and students, a lot of single parent homes, 50% drop out rate.

So we have a curriculum in those schools after school days where kids and young men and women come to set a exercise goal. Maybe that is, I want to get in shape so I can make the football team. And I'm not in shape. We'll help you get in shape or maybe it's. I need to lose four pounds so I can fit my prom dress.

We're going to have to do that. We teach nutrition goals. Okay. Instead of five cheeseburgers again for dinner, let's take that $38 and we're going to take you to a supermarket and you can buy vegetables, rice beans, and maybe even some meat, a healthier meal. And you also get to cook it with your family.

Third thing, community service, all the students have to do community service within their own community. And fourth thing is we have what we call a gratitude circle, which at the end of each curriculum, all the students sit around and [00:56:00] openly share something they're thankful for in life. And the coolest thing about that is the students come.

And they're saying, I love the gratitude circle because I'm hearing my friends say thank you for things in their life that I have in my life that I've always taken for granted and never said, thank you for, so we believe that the more you're thankful for the more you're going to create in your life to be thankful for, I think gratitude creates responsibility, because if you give more value to things you want to take care of them.

And if you want to take care of the things that matter to you. That's actually how you get more freedom. So that's what we're providing in our curriculum, given all the way down to giving these kids. Some of them, it's just a safe place to go after school that they didn't have before.

Hala Taha:  And 

where can people go to contribute to that foundation?

Matthew McConaughey: Just keep livin no G on the end foundation.org or Jacobfoundation.org. Thank you. 

Hala Taha: Cool. I'll [00:57:00] put that in the show notes. Okay. So the last question I ask all my guests is what is your secret to profiting in life? 

Matthew McConaughey: Sometimes it's a greater risk to go for something you want. And sometimes it's a greater risk to sacrifice and say, nah, I'm going to go with that back.

That's really another place for the art I think of living is. And we've been talking about that generally in the end for the last 30 minutes. Try if you can. To say, okay, look, we all want to make money. Money's good. It's a great tool. It does help the world go round. And a capitalist said it, we need money. I'm all for that.

We want to fill our bank account, but let's ask herself when we're filling our bank account. Can I also fill my soul's account at the same time? Boy, if we find a way where we can fill our bank account and soul's account where we don't feel our bank account at the expense of who we are, what we believe in, [00:58:00] we don't lie, cheat and steal and screw people over and burn bridges and to get what we want.

That's long money. That's real profit. 

Hala Taha: That's so beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you so much for joining us today. Matthew, where can our listeners go to learn more about you and everything that you're doing? 

Matthew McConaughey: I share some pretty cool what I think some pretty cool stuff on my Instagram and officially Hey, if you want to find out about the foundation, just keeplivin.org.

And if you want to find out more about the book, hopefully go check it out and read it and get something from it. But that's, GreenLightsthebook.com or greenlights.com. And Hey I'm still here, living life. Hopefully I'm only halfway through this big thing called life. We'll see. 

Hala Taha: Awesome.

Thank you so much, Matthew. 

Matthew McConaughey: I appreciate 

it. 

Hala Taha: Whoa. It is so surreal that I just interviewed Matthew McConaughey on young and profiting podcast. It just goes to show you that with a lot of hard work, anything is [00:59:00] possible. And honestly, I wasn't even nervous. I felt fully prepared. Like I've been preparing my whole life for that moment and everything is just so serendipitous lately.

Matthew is technically my hundredth guest interview on young profiting podcast. Since my hundredth episode was a solo episode, he was my hundredth person that I've interviewed on this podcast and who better to be number 100 than Matthew frickin McConaughey. In fact, I landed this Matthew McConaughey interviewed just a couple of weeks ago on the day that I quit my full-time job.

Can you say green lights? The signs are clear that I made the right decision and I can't wait to see what happens next. And I hope you guys follow along on this journey, life is full of green, yellow, and red lights. The best way to live is to just keep on looking forward. And I hope Matthew's life stories have encouraged you to just all keep on living.

If I had to just pick one favorite part of this interview, it was when Matthew was talking about [01:00:00] how he thinks the word unbelievable is stupid, and it is stupid. Everything is believable because anything is possible. Always remember that and try not to put limiting beliefs on yourself. I encourage all of you to go out and grab GreenLights by Matthew McConaughey.

The audible version was especially amazing. We are so grateful for all our young and profiting podcasts listeners, if you haven't done so yet, please subscribe to our podcast. So you can be alerted every time we drop a new episode. If you love YAP and you find value in these episodes, please take a few minutes to write us a review on apple podcasts, especially if you have access to an iPhone, apple podcasts reviews act as social proof for new listeners, and they largely impact our podcast rankings.

As always, I'm going to shout out a recent review from apple podcasts this week. Shout out, goes to Kate Geo, moving an inspirational ,Hala [01:01:00] asks all the right questions, plain and simple. Every episode leaves you with that feeling like you just walked away, learning something new and valuable, whether the overall topic relates to you or not.

I think this is a podcast that any professional of any age would enjoy and grow from. Thank you, Kate, for your amazing review. And I totally agree. Young and profiting podcast is for all ages. And in fact, one of my biggest regrets was calling it young and profiting podcasts because I think my listeners are really all ages and anyone could find value from this show.

And if you're out there listening, don't forget to share it young and profiting podcast with your friends and family. And remember to follow us on social media, you can find me on Instagram @yapwithhala or LinkedIn, just search for my name. It's Hala Taha. And now I'm on clubhouse. Follow me @halataha and tap the bell for always.

When I open up my rooms, I'll be hosting podcast, office hours every single week for upcoming [01:02:00] podcasters and live  YAP events as well. Big, thanks to the YAP team as always. This is Hala signing off.