1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Sheepkitsheared podcast of your host, Austin Creed. 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:09,200 My friends, I want to welcome you to the show this morning. 3 00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:15,920 I think it's incredibly important we talk about the journey that changed the world, 4 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:18,680 by the world I mean mine. 5 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:25,480 There's an old saying that I learned a couple years ago that says that if you can save one 6 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:30,840 person it is though you have saved the world, because you've saved their world. 7 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:35,100 And I know it might sound cliche, it might even sound silly to you if you're a cynical 8 00:00:35,100 --> 00:00:38,480 individual such as myself. 9 00:00:38,480 --> 00:00:42,360 But the reason I think it's important is when I talk about the trip that I've been 10 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:50,360 on in the last couple weeks, through Croatia, Bosnia, and I'm actually, I'm in Ireland 11 00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:52,800 right now on my way back to the States. 12 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:57,720 I thought it'd be important to share with you a loyal audience of the Sheepkitsheared 13 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:02,800 podcast and the great members of the community to discuss with you the takeaways of this 14 00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:09,320 journey that I've given you bits and pieces along the way and an attempt to share some 15 00:01:09,320 --> 00:01:15,120 knowledge with you that I wish I had my entire life, frankly. 16 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:20,440 And one of the things I would encourage you before you even start to talk about this is 17 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:26,760 you need to travel, you need to see the world, you need to understand that whether it's your 18 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:32,800 town, your state, even your country, there's so much more to the world than what you've 19 00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:33,800 seen. 20 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:41,320 I don't care if you live in a multi cultural city like New York City, or Chicago, or Dallas 21 00:01:41,320 --> 00:01:48,280 Texas, Austin, Texas, San Francisco, California, I don't care where you are. 22 00:01:48,280 --> 00:01:53,520 There's more to be seen, and I'll tell you something right now, when I'm in Ireland 23 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:58,560 I have seen more rainbow flags per capita than anywhere else in the world and I live 24 00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:01,920 near San Francisco for most of my life. 25 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:08,800 But I should tell you something, but again I contrast that with Bosnia, I did not see 26 00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:17,560 a single rainbow flag in Bosnia, and Bosnia is a predominantly Muslim country, even during 27 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:23,680 so called pride month, I didn't see a single one and you look and you see the stark difference. 28 00:02:23,680 --> 00:02:29,200 Even though they're both considered part of Europe, they're vastly different. 29 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:32,840 And so that's why I want to talk about lessons from the Balkans today, because the Balkans 30 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:39,260 before I went there, I had heard about Franz Ferdinand getting a fascinating starting 31 00:02:39,260 --> 00:02:43,560 in World War I, I knew a little bit about the history and the politics and whatnot, 32 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:53,000 but I had no idea how deeply rooted the conflict and the hatred is in that area of the world. 33 00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:02,920 I had no idea how much a religion or religious orientation can so deeply change people that 34 00:03:02,920 --> 00:03:10,440 are neighbors, and you know, I will remember one especially important meeting, and I'll 35 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:13,240 tell you guys a story. 36 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:17,320 One of my most important lessons that I wonder what you'll think about it, because I had 37 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:20,080 never heard of explaining like this before. 38 00:03:20,080 --> 00:03:27,400 So we went to Bosnia, to Mostar, it's actually an old, it has like an old Muslim kind of 39 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:31,920 feel to it, because it was actually the bridge there that was unfortunately destroyed in 40 00:03:31,920 --> 00:03:39,320 the 90s, had stood there for hundreds of years, it was actually financed by a guy that you 41 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:46,000 might have heard of, Suimand Magnificent, Ring of the Bell to Anybody, Ottoman Sultan, 42 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:51,400 playable character in Age of Empires 3, you know a lot of strategy games that have certain 43 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:57,280 civilizations will have certain important figures to represent that civilization, while Suimand 44 00:03:57,280 --> 00:04:02,520 Magnificent was one of the most important sultans of the Ottoman Empire, and he helped 45 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:07,000 finance this bridge that I actually walked across multiple times. 46 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:14,040 Now I highlight the war in the 90s, because that town, Bosnia in general, Bosnia, Serbia, 47 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:19,920 and Croatia, they have a very complicated history, and a lot of it is based off of religion. 48 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:27,200 Bosnia is very predominantly Muslim, Croatia is predominantly Catholic, and then the Serbs 49 00:04:27,200 --> 00:04:30,400 in Serbia are predominantly Orthodox. 50 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,240 And you might think, oh that's not a big difference, because you know in America, we're 51 00:04:34,240 --> 00:04:41,240 pretty used to being surrounded by religion, now arguably since 9-11 there's been a heightened 52 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:48,880 sensitivity to Muslims because of the rise of radical Islam and its influence around 53 00:04:48,880 --> 00:04:53,760 the world, but when you look at those three countries, Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia, they 54 00:04:53,760 --> 00:05:01,920 have a history that spans hundreds of years of war, raiding, conflict, racism, everything 55 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:07,560 you could possibly imagine, and the war in the 90s was a huge catalyst that brought 56 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:15,080 neighbor against neighbor over the most trivial things, ethnicity, religion, things that would 57 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:19,840 be almost inconsequential to the average American. 58 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:24,480 And I highlight this not to show that America is inherently superior, which I mean arguably 59 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:27,240 of course it is, but that's not the point. 60 00:05:27,240 --> 00:05:32,720 The point is, the underlying human challenges will always remain, we like to think that 61 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:37,920 we're immune to things because we live with a smartphone and a developed country, we like 62 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:42,440 to think we're different than everybody else, we like to think that you know what, I don't 63 00:05:42,440 --> 00:05:47,480 have to worry about all this, these historical events, yeah you know they're kind of important 64 00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:52,520 I guess, you know I don't think it's all that important to me, it doesn't affect me 65 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:56,960 directly so it's not important, it's not a warning of any kind, you know kind. 66 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:02,600 It's so important when you look at the gender debate, the cultural differences, the war 67 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:06,400 that happened in the 90s right before I was born. 68 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:10,160 These are, and some of you who are older who listen to the show, maybe you lived during 69 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:17,440 that time and you heard about the violence, the genocide, all this stuff that was happening. 70 00:06:17,440 --> 00:06:24,880 To me it was shaping my life as a younger guy, I feel old but people keep reminding me 71 00:06:24,880 --> 00:06:30,320 that I'm a younger guy, that the historical scars are still left in places like that. 72 00:06:30,320 --> 00:06:36,440 The guy who was served in the military, I never actually saw combat but when I go to 73 00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:45,320 places like New Brovnik or I go to places like Mostar, I go to places like Sirievo, 74 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:52,560 I see the effects of war, the shrapnel in people's bodies, I see the effects that war 75 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:57,280 has on people and that's not a new thing per se, it was just a different perspective 76 00:06:57,280 --> 00:07:00,160 that I had not yet seen. 77 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:04,640 And so my friends, these are just a couple of the lessons I pulled away from this and 78 00:07:04,640 --> 00:07:09,160 I know this is not what we normally talk about, normally we talk more about relationships, 79 00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:13,400 normally we talk more about politics and you know what, trust me there will be a lot of 80 00:07:13,400 --> 00:07:14,400 that to come. 81 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:20,520 But I wanted to tie this all together because a lot of people don't really travel much 82 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:25,280 and even if you read about it, reading about it's great, reading is wonderful, it gives 83 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:28,480 you a perspective that you could not give yourself. 84 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:36,320 But it's different to walk down these streets, talk to these people, get a view that you 85 00:07:36,320 --> 00:07:42,120 cannot replicate through your own mind's eye, which is what you would do through a book. 86 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:49,640 And another aspect that I wanted to share with you gentlemen is I met this older guy 87 00:07:49,640 --> 00:07:55,160 who was a, he was a kid when the war was going on. 88 00:07:55,160 --> 00:08:00,320 My older, I mean he was about in his 40s, 45 I think something like that. 89 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:04,600 By my standards he was a little bit older, he wasn't old, but you get what I'm talking 90 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:05,600 about right? 91 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:06,600 Golly. 92 00:08:06,600 --> 00:08:13,800 But anyways, he was a, he's a coffee shop owner, he loves coffee, coffee is his passion. 93 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:17,440 And when I asked him, why is coffee your passion? 94 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:20,600 He stopped me and he said Austin, I want to tell you something. 95 00:08:20,600 --> 00:08:23,560 It's not the coffee that's my passion per se. 96 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:31,840 Coffee is great, but what I love is sitting with my cup of coffee and just meditating with 97 00:08:31,840 --> 00:08:36,720 it, not grabbing it so I can run to my job, not grabbing it so I can run to the grocery 98 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:42,360 store, not grabbing it so I can go somewhere, go from nowhere to somewhere less important. 99 00:08:42,360 --> 00:08:50,600 Now he says I get it so I can sit there, I can make my coffee with very precise movements, 100 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:58,360 I then can sit there on the porch at my restaurant, I can get to know the people who also like 101 00:08:58,360 --> 00:09:04,640 coffee, I can understand them, we can have a conversation, I can get to know an experience 102 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:09,320 that I myself do not know or do not understand. 103 00:09:09,320 --> 00:09:14,600 But it was so powerful that he said that was my, that's my me time every day. 104 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,720 He told me I don't drink like four cups and a lot of Americans do. 105 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,400 I'll keep in mind this guy is a Bosnian. 106 00:09:20,400 --> 00:09:22,360 He was, he comes from Muslim heritage. 107 00:09:22,360 --> 00:09:28,240 He told me he's not a Muslim, but he has Muslim ancestry and he's growing up in a 108 00:09:28,240 --> 00:09:29,720 predominantly Muslim country. 109 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:35,200 And he's sitting there, he's talking to me and he's saying, look, I am my own guy. 110 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:46,080 I do my own thing, but coffee is my me time every day, every morning. 111 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:51,400 And he talks about it like it's his ritual that like taking your vitamins or going and 112 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:55,320 having like what Marcus Aurelius might be talking about when I'm constoicism and having 113 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:57,840 that time to meditate. 114 00:09:57,840 --> 00:10:01,440 And a lot, you look at Americans, you look at Brits, you look at a lot of people in the 115 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:04,920 West and what we do is we just grab coffee as a way to pick me up, get me through the 116 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:06,440 rest of my day. 117 00:10:06,440 --> 00:10:12,120 It's not a slow, almost meditative process for most people. 118 00:10:12,120 --> 00:10:13,480 And for me, it was so powerful. 119 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:17,600 It was a lesson that I learned from this man. 120 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:23,120 Just like how people might smoke a cigar and have a conversation, he uses coffee to do 121 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:24,120 that. 122 00:10:24,120 --> 00:10:25,120 And for me, that was so powerful. 123 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:26,720 I never thought about that before. 124 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:29,600 And he said, I brought neighbors together. 125 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:33,320 It helped to bridge a gap between people who were different than him. 126 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:36,200 I thought that was so powerful. 127 00:10:36,200 --> 00:10:39,640 If little things that you might think, oh, you hold some giant piece summit. 128 00:10:39,640 --> 00:10:42,840 Well, we're just, we're just another, we're just guys. 129 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:45,960 We're just another, we're just other men. 130 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:49,840 Average Joe's going around our day. 131 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:57,640 And to bond over something as simple as coffee or a cigar or even a drink is powerful to 132 00:10:57,640 --> 00:10:58,640 me. 133 00:10:58,640 --> 00:11:03,320 And you might say, Austin, I already know this, this is nothing new. 134 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:06,200 Well to me, this was something extremely powerful. 135 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:10,400 It was part of the journey that changed my life. 136 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:15,720 And my friends, I think if society, if as a society, we focused more on things that brought 137 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:19,800 us together, because trust me, the differences are always going to be there. 138 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:22,600 Differences are always going to be present. 139 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:29,320 But if I can study a region like Bosnia and the Balkans and Croatia and Serbia, and they're 140 00:11:29,320 --> 00:11:32,840 all inherently neighbors. 141 00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:36,560 It's very easy for us to isolate ourselves from our neighbors, whether it's due to scars 142 00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:44,760 left by others, whether it's by preconceived notions, economic problems, politics, gender 143 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:48,880 differences, my friends, we need to be able to live with our neighbors. 144 00:11:48,880 --> 00:11:53,640 That's why I'll tell you when I was in my rage phase of the of the red pill, I had such 145 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:57,840 a hard time talking with people because I was so angry. 146 00:11:57,840 --> 00:12:03,280 But now, now I can easily have a conversation with people, even though I can hear what they're 147 00:12:03,280 --> 00:12:07,000 actually saying, not what they're telling me, because that's when you know you've reached 148 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,960 the next level is when you can hear the normies kind of give you the chickenbock of classic 149 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:14,640 garbage that you hear from everybody, but you don't get there. 150 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:16,120 You're not mad. 151 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:18,440 You understand why they're doing it. 152 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:23,200 You understand that they're talking in code, but you got the decipher, you can understand 153 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:24,560 what they're saying. 154 00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:26,240 And you just keep it to yourself. 155 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:27,240 You don't get mad. 156 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:29,120 You don't try to translate it to them. 157 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:34,120 No, no, you just sit there and you listen and you glean what you can't. 158 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:38,640 This is how you learn and how you grow as a man, and you can build your own future by 159 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:44,600 using what others give you to create and enhance what you already possess. 160 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:48,040 I hope this isn't coming across as too preachy, because that's not what I'm trying to do. 161 00:12:48,040 --> 00:12:51,640 I'm not trying to see here and tell you that I'm just wise, see you now and you have to 162 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:52,640 listen to me now. 163 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:54,920 No, I'm just trying to. 164 00:12:54,920 --> 00:13:00,840 I hope that you can gain something and we can bond over an experience that I wish you 165 00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:04,480 were along to share with me. 166 00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:08,960 Frankly, but my friends, the future of America, the future of the West, the future of your 167 00:13:08,960 --> 00:13:12,880 existence is important to me. 168 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:17,080 And so I hope that you learn something from this brief little talk about one of the two 169 00:13:17,080 --> 00:13:21,280 about some of the darkest times of the Balkans I learned about and the little nuggets of 170 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:25,280 wisdom that were taken away that I wish you were there to experience because it would 171 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:27,600 have changed your life as well. 172 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:32,080 But my friends, I do have a couple of things I want to say before I wrap this show up. 173 00:13:32,080 --> 00:13:36,600 Number one, I'll be traveling so I might not be able to print out a show tomorrow, but 174 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:38,080 I will try my best. 175 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:45,760 Number two, I have great per multiple people's request on the channel and my own desire to 176 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:47,160 step up my game. 177 00:13:47,160 --> 00:13:52,400 I have blown my entire budget out of the window of money that I've been saving up doing my 178 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:54,160 side hustling gigs. 179 00:13:54,160 --> 00:14:00,920 And we're going to totally upgrade the entire podcasting hardware. 180 00:14:00,920 --> 00:14:05,960 I got I got the whole thing in the mail and my old home setup. 181 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:07,440 We're going to make it 100% better. 182 00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:12,320 We're going to step up the game because I'm sick and tired of the sound being not good 183 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:13,320 enough. 184 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:15,520 I want this show to be a community. 185 00:14:15,520 --> 00:14:17,920 I want all of you to be a part of it. 186 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:19,800 And so you were already a part of it. 187 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:25,240 Despite the fact that we were still very early on. 188 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,760 But my friends, I wanted to say that I appreciate you. 189 00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:31,120 I appreciate your continued support. 190 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:33,600 All of you are a blessing. 191 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:35,720 I don't take you for granted at all. 192 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:36,720 Not for one second. 193 00:14:36,720 --> 00:14:38,240 I take you for granted. 194 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:40,800 So anyways, I'm not sure to flatter you. 195 00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:43,920 Should I tell you how I actually feel, which I don't normally do. 196 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:48,360 I'm normally talking about my feelings because I never want to cares. 197 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:50,720 But number two, I just want to be honest with you. 198 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:54,600 So I hope you'll enjoy it and you'll see it in the next coming days. 199 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:56,360 But my friends, you take care of yourselves. 200 00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:57,760 I appreciate you. 201 00:14:57,760 --> 00:14:59,160 Think for yourself. 202 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:00,640 Let me know what you think about the little lessons. 203 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:04,320 And if you want to hear more about it, I have multiple more stories to tell. 204 00:15:04,320 --> 00:15:07,800 But this show would be an hour long and I did that. 205 00:15:07,800 --> 00:15:08,800 So just let me know what you think. 206 00:15:08,800 --> 00:15:12,160 If you want an hour show, I can do an hour show. 207 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:14,000 My friends, you take care of yourselves. 208 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:15,000 Let me know what you think. 209 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:16,840 Anything you wanted to add, subtract, you let me know. 210 00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:17,840 I'm out. 211 00:15:17,840 --> 00:15:42,960 Thanks.