South African export comedian and TV show host, Trevor Noah. Picture: Instagram.
Trevor Noah recently made a guest appearance on Jay Shetty’s award-winning “On Purpose” podcast, where he served up some pretty good advice.
On the podcast, Shetty, a former monk, interviews experts, celebrities and thought leaders among other people, so that listeners can grow their mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of the guests that they have never seen before.
Shetty asked Noah five quick-fire questions and Noah’s profound response left his fans more invested in his unique perspective.
Here’s how the conversation went:
What’s the best advice ever given to you?
Never assume.
What’s the worst piece of advice you ever heard?
Always be yourself ... ‘Know when to be yourself’ is a better piece of advice someone can give you.
What is something that you used to value, that you no longer value?
Fame. I think that I thought that it would give me something that I searched for my whole life, and that was a certain sense of belonging because there is a similarity you have with people when you see them.
I never cared for it through the lens of like ‘I’m better’, no ... You don’t think it will come from something but rather understand what you’re trying to achieve and then figure out how to get there.
How would you define your current purpose?
As being a fertilizer for everyone and everything I come into contact with. I would hope to be somebody who enriches the soil that I touch.
I would hope to be somebody who improves somebody’s life in the slight of ways, whether it’s helping you solve a problem, whether it’s giving you directions on the street, whether it’s making you laugh at a show, whatever it may be, I would hope to do what a good fertilizer does in that it enables the soil to be richer, it enables the plant to grow taller. It brings all of the pieces together.
It becomes a food that creates more food, it’s not a zero-sum game ... Even for myself, cos fertilizer even makes itself bigger ...”
If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?
I’ll create a law that said, everyone, everywhere in the world, randomly, could be given the lowest person’s bank account ...
The reason I would do that is because I think that if we lived in a society where more people felt like their fate was tied to the least of us, they would have a little more compassion, and think a little more about how those people may or may not be exist ... And I just wonder how we would live.
Noah’s responses struck a chord with followers who said that they wished there were more people in the world like him.
Te Gar commented: “Wow. Those last two answers blew my mind, like I'm shocked we still have people like this. We need more people who cares about others.”
Gry Larsen wrote: “I love Trevor ! All the answers were great , but the second last one is so important. Love it ❤️.”
Moki Lilian said: “Trevor is a genius. So intelligent and very empathetic. He sees the realities of life and understand it better.”