225: Plot Twist: How to Increase Your Fortune, One Bold Leap at a Time, with Best Selling and Speaker Author Kute Blackson

In this episode of The Light Watkins Show, host Light Watkins shares a special "Plot Twist" episode from author and speaker Kute Blackson. A Plot Twist is a short clip from past episodes where guests talk about life-changing moments that took them in new directions.

In this episode, Kute Blackson tells the incredible story of moving from Ghana to America. He starts with a touching conversation with his mother, who supports him when he decides not to take over his father’s church. Despite being scared, Kute bravely tells his father about his decision, knowing it might disappoint him. This choice leads to two years of silence between them.

Kute then talks about his dream of going to America with no money, no connections, and no formal education. He shares how he won the Green Card Lottery against all odds, strengthening his belief in trusting the universe and following his gut feelings.

Kute’s determination will inspire listeners as he struggles but never gives up in a new country. He explains how he worked hard to meet Steven Spielberg to pitch his dream of becoming the next Oprah. His commitment to his vision is truly inspiring.

Throughout the episode, Kute talks about being true to yourself, staying strong, and following your real path, even when it’s tough. His story reminds us that life’s unexpected turns can lead us to our true purpose.

Tune in to hear Kute Blackson’s incredible leap of faith and discover how embracing life’s twists and turns can help you find your true purpose. And just when you think you’ve heard it all, Kute shares a surprising encounter with Steven Spielberg that changed everything—don’t miss the exciting details!

Transcript

KB: “People think that when you find your purpose in life  and you find your calling, it's easy, the angels come out. That's when the challenges sometimes begin. That's when the difficulties begin. Many times when people, they make that choice and they go in the direction of their soul's purpose and they make that choice and the shit hits the fan, things start falling apart, the challenges begin. We make the mistake sometimes of thinking, oh, I made the wrong decision. But I actually find that it's more a sign that maybe you made the right decision, because now you're moving in  the trajectory of your purpose, your soul. Our souls, I think, have to go through certain experiences and hurdles and lessons to develop the sort of fortitude, the resilience, the mental, the emotional muscle, so that we are actually capable of fulfilling the vision and the dream that we have been given. And I think that dreams and visions are evolutionary in that they will take us on the journey of having to evolve into and become and develop into the person that is capable on the human level of fulfilling their dream and the vision.”

[INTRODUCTION]
 
Hey friend, welcome back to The Light Watkins Show. I’m Light Watkins, and I have conversations with ordinary folks, just like you and me, who’ve taken extraordinary leaps of faith in the direction of their path, their purpose, or what they’ve identified as their mission in life. 

Today, we have a bite-sized “Plot Twist” episode. A plot twist is a shorter clip from a past episode, where the guest shares the story of the pivotal moment in their life trajectory. And the idea behind sharing their plot twists is to inspire you to lean in to those plot twists when they happen in your life. 

Because usually, when you get turned around from what you thought was your path in life, what’s actually happening is you’re being detoured toward your actual path. 

And sometimes that looks like getting fired, losing all of your money, or in the case of author and speaker Kute Blackson, it was realizing that he didn’t want to take over his father’s church in Ghana. And instead, he wanted to go to America, even though he didn’t have the necessary paperwork, and become the next Oprah. And in this episode, Kute shares how he navigated this new country, and it all culminates when a friend of a friend let’s Kute know where Steven Spielberg is located so Kute can go and pitch him on helping him become the next Oprah. Let’s listen in. Let’s listen in…

[2:44] KB: I’m 18. At first, I had a conversation with my mother, because my mother – mother, she just was unconditional. I said, “I'm not taking over.” Basically, my mother said, “If this is your truth, I support you no matter what.” With my mother, I've always had the unconditional love and support. I know, I have experienced unconditional love in this lifetime, because of her. It's been, I think, the ground and foundation of my life, even unconsciously.

She's like, “I support you no matter what. You just have to have a conversation with your father.” I finally muster up the conversation with my father. People sometimes think that before you take the leap, or before you do something, you have to eradicate fear, have no fear, get rid of fear. I was freaking terrified. I knew what I had to do, but I was terrified. Because I looked into my future and I saw this unknown path, this path that was unknown. I didn't have a roadmap for what I was going to do. None of my friends were going to be a self-help guy, whatever that means.

There was no roadmap. I just knew that this path was calling me. I couldn't see how I was going to get there. I had no idea where it's going to lead me. All I knew is, turn right. That was it. I climbed the stairs to my father's bedroom. He's lying down after Sunday service. This is like going into the dragon's den. I walk up to him. I said, “Dad, I want to speak to you.” Like, “Okay.” “I don't think I could take over the churches. It's not for me.” I'm expecting him to go –

[4:13] LW: You rehearsed it a few times before you went in there?

[4:16] KB: I was so terrified, man. At 17, I went to a freaking psychic. I've never been to a psychic before at 17. I went to a psychic, I'm like, “I have this situation.” The psychic, basically, all I remember was, “Everything will be fine in the end. Don't worry.” I didn't believe him. I rehearsed it, and how I'm going to tell him and how I could say it. Basically, what came out of my mouth was, “I love you, but I don't feel to take over the churches.”

I'm getting ready for the backlash and the screaming, because my father was a very intense character. It was just silence. Silence. All he said was, “Are you sure?” It was even more terrifying. In that moment, I realized I had a choice to go back and retract my statement. That was like the universe testing me. Like, “Am I going to own my truth?” Am I going to acknowledge my truth? Am I going to claim my life? Or am I going to live the life that was carved out for me?

I really felt like, you can't be truly fulfilled and happy in life living someone else's version of your life. You can't be truly fulfilled and happy being someone that you're not. I see so many people being someone that they think they should be, being someone that they're expected to be by society and social media and parents, and wondering why they're miserable. Even though you might achieve and have things and have stuff and have success, if you don't have yourself, it's meaningless.

To me, real success is being your authentic self fully. Real success is learning the lessons for why your soul incarnated into this existence. Real success is being able to express your most authentic self to those around you. Real success is that realization of what you are and expressing that in the world. I think, it wasn't conscious, but because I didn't have that, it was so painful. When I finally spoke to him, he said again, twice, “Are you sure?” There was a hesitation when I said, “Yeah.” “Okay.” Silence. Looked around. That was it. I'm like, “Oh, shit.”

Before he said anything else, I left. I was trembling. I’ll never forget, I went to my bedroom, tiny room, and I cried. I cried out of relief. I cried out of gratitude. I cried, because I knew I had shattered my father's heart and his dreams. The pain of that, I knew I had to do it. I knew I had to kill my father, so to speak. The heartbreak and the pain of that was intense. I cried. I should have been happy and ecstatic. I wept and I cried, and there was a lot of deep grief in that moment, because I’ve broken my father's heart.

We didn't speak for two years, pretty much after that, Light. Sometimes, people think that when you find your purpose in life, and you find your calling, yeah, it's easy. The angels come out. That's when the challenges sometimes begin. That's when the difficulties begin. Many times when people are faced, when they make that choice and they go in the direction of their soul’s purpose, and they make the choice, and the shit hits the fan, things start falling apart, the challenges begin, we make the mistake sometimes of thinking, “Oh, I made the wrong decision.”

I actually find that it's more a sign that maybe you made the right decision. Because now, you're moving in the trajectory of your purpose. Your soul, our souls, I think, have to go through certain experiences and hurdles and lessons to develop the fortitude, the resilience, the mental, the emotional muscle, so that we are actually capable of fulfilling the vision and the dream that we have been given. I think, that dreams and visions are evolutionary, and that they will take us on the journey of having to evolve into and become and develop into the person that is capable, on a human level, of fulfilling the dream and the vision.

You look at Mandela, had the dream and vision, had to go to 27 years of cooking, and having the cosmic chef cook him and prepare him to cultivate the forgiveness, the insight, the vision, the creativity, the compassion, to become the person to serve a world and have an impact. I would just say to anyone, if you're going through some shit, some challenges right now and you think you're on the right path, don't doubt it. Don't question it. Learn the lessons where you are, because learning those lessons will enable you to graduate from the level that you are, and will also enable you to become the person you need to be to fulfill what you're here to fulfill. It was difficult, man. We didn’t speak for two years.

[8:52] LW: You told the story about that in the book. I believe, the guy's name was done Gangali, or Dangali, the Indian guru.

[8:56] KB: Guru Gangoli.

[8:59] LW: Yeah, exactly. He talked about how your breakdown is really the beginning of the breakthrough. I just really love that story. You moved to America at 18-years-old with nothing? What does that mean, with nothing? Can you give us some context around –

[9:14] KB: Okay. My vision was to come to America, because of that. For four years, I knew I was going to come to Los Angeles. I wanted to meet the self-help gurus. Tony Robbins, the Chopras, Marianne Williamson, and go into this field. Los Angeles was the place. They all lived in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara. I told my mother, I want to go to America, but I don't know how. Because at 18, I went to a very prestigious school. I got a scholarship at the school. Free. free scholarship.

Everyone was doing their A levels and doing university. I was probably the only kid out of a 150 in my class that didn't go to university. Again, being an outcast, and I told my mother, I want to go to America. I don't know how, because I don't have my father’s support. I don't have a college education. I don't know anyone in America, and I have no money. But I feel it in my soul. I can feel it in the depth of my being that this is my path. This is where the energy of life is going. I don't know how I'm going to get there.

One day, I just said a prayer to the universe. I said, “God, you've given me this vision, but I felt so alone in this moment, because how am I going to get there?” I said, “Universe, if this vision is real, provide the way. I of myself don't know how to do this.” I started meditating, which I tended to do back then; a lot when I was facing a mountain. I'm in the library of my school, age 17, 18. I’m in the library. Meditate, like literally. Someone walks up to me, hands me a magazine, called The Economist. I know The Economist, famous magazine.

I feel the energy. I think, it's so important that we learn to follow the flow of life. I opened the magazine, and something's here. I look at the back of the magazine and says, the American government's giving away 55,000 green cards in the Green Card Lottery. My eyes popped out. I felt chills in my body. I feel the sense that I'm going to win this thing. I'm going to win this thing. I enter it. I applied through this law firm. Cut a long story short, this was in April. I was told by September the 18th, or the 19th, “If you don't hear, then you haven't won.” Every day. I'm like, okay. I’m going to practice and see if this spiritual stuff that I've been reading about, the law of attraction, creative visualization, if this stuff really works.

I start visualizing myself in the US. I draw a fake green card on a piece of paper, color it green. I'm imagining Bill Clinton shaking my hand and welcoming me to the US. I'm visualizing everyday, everyday go to the mailbox, haven’t won. Everyday I go to the mailbox, no letter. By September the 18th, I'm now pissed off. This shit isn't working. God, you just abandoned me. What the hell's going on? The next day, I think it was the 19th. I go to the mailbox, I'm sure that it's going to be there, nothing. Now I'm mad. I'm pissed off, mad, upset. I feel totally abandoned by the universe.

I said, “Screw it. I'm going to pack my bags, and I'm just going to go to the US. I mean, it's illegal, but I'm going to just go. That night, we get a phone call. My mother picks up the phone. She says clearly, “It’s for you.” Turns out to be the law firm I applied for the green card through says, “We don't believe it, but you have won a green card. We just got the notification yesterday. You won a green card.” I was hugging my mom and I'm screaming and I'm jumping and I'm so excited, celebrating. Then I hear this voice in the middle of my jubilation. He says, “Why are you so surprised? Did you think you weren't going to win? Why are you acting so surprised?”

It was one of those sobered moments of like, trust the universe. That moment, man, of winning that green card has been a pivotal moment throughout my life, because there's been many moments I felt like giving up along the way, especially in the beginning stages. Remembering that moment, feeling there is a deeper intelligence function in my life, there is a deeper guiding force that is unfolding my destiny. That moment of winning the green card is what gave me so much faith when I felt like giving up.

That's when I packed two suitcases and did my interview and what have you, but packed two suitcases. One suitcase full of books, self-help books, and one suitcase full of clothes. Told my mom and dad, “I'm leaving.” My mom gave me, I forget if it was $800, or a $1,000. Let's say, a $1,000 at most. Showed up in LA. 18 and a half, 19-years-old, showed up in Los Angeles, landed, asked the taxi guy, “Take me somewhere safe and cheap, where I can stay for a few days."

Takes me to Venice, freaking beach, which was bonkers back then. That began my journey in the US. It was tough and hard. First weeks, I cried my eyes out. Wondering, “What the hell am I doing here?” And called my mother. Here's the thing. I knew. I knew I couldn't go back. I knew there was no way back. It's like, I think when we have this hesitation and we take action with the sense of, well, there's always a way out. Sometimes when you do burn that bridge, and you commit fully to something, it forces you to tap into an internal resource. When you know there's no choice. It's like, no retreat. No retreat. You have to move on.

It forces you to tap into an inner resource that sometimes you don't have to when you make excuses, or you're rationalizing, or you think, “Well, if it doesn't work out, well, you're not 100 percent committed.” Because I knew that there was no way back, my father was waiting for me to crawl back. I knew there was no way back. It made me dig into parts of myself, into parts of my resilience that I think I didn't even know were there. That began my journey.

[14:41] LW: You also mentioned an experience with your soccer coach, Mr. Johnson, Coach Johnson, and how that stayed with you, when your developmental years as speaker and a coach and everything that you're doing now. What was that experience that that lingered in those days?

[15:00] KB: Yeah. I mean, the story being, you’re talking about the soccer story on the field. Yeah. It was such a small experience, but you never know how people impact you. I was really into soccer as a teenager, and even thought of – had dreams of becoming pro. I was pretty good, but obviously, on a different path.

I remember, we were in practice at school one day, and we were playing. In practice my team, our team was losing and a disaster. The soccer coach, Mr. Johnson, goes inside. Being kids, we just basically gave up and just started being stupid and started throwing the ball like American football players. We were being idiots on the field. Completely disrespectful, because we were losing. All I hear was this loud yell from Mr. Johnson. Like, “Boys, what are you doing? Come inside.” We were caught red handed, being stupid.

He sits us down, and gives us this whole lecture and says, “I was watching you guys for the last 20 minutes. You act like idiots and you're a disgrace.” For two hours, he puts on a videotape of this soccer team called Liverpool. He really instilled into me, the level of excellence, the commitment to excellence, the commitment to being brilliant. I'll never forget.

I mean, the essence of it, what I took away was, you don't show up and give your best for anyone else. Whether anyone else is watching on – we thought nobody was watching, so it didn't matter. We were just being mediocre. You don't show up and give your best for anyone else. You do it for yourself. Because when you do it for yourself, you develop the internal trust, you develop the internal resilience, you develop the internal respect. When you commit to excellence for yourself, that's the commitment. That's what it really takes to be truly great. Real greatness isn't because someone's watching. Real greatness isn’t because you're on TV, or on social media, or on a stage. Real greatness is how you live your life moment-to-moment. It's how you treat people. It's how you live your life. It's how you do your everyday life. That's what greatness is, every moment.

From that conversation that he had with me, it really inspired me in a very profound way to dare to be great. To dare to be great, not for anyone else, not because someone's going to tell me, “Good job,” or people are going to see on social media. Just because that's what I'm committed to. If someone happens to be around, great. If not, great. This is how I'm living. It really had a huge impact on my life in a huge way.

[17:31] LW: How did it show up in those first couple of early years of LA, when you were selling cars, working at restaurants?

[17:37] KB: For instance, I was a fat kid. Then, I started running every day. I'm talking like, every day. Every day. Simple things, like whether it was snowing, whether it was 3 a.m., whether it's 5 a.m., whether it's 11 p.m., whether I'm teaching, whether I'm working 20 up, I wake up, and I run every day. When I was going to Japan with my mother to see my grandparents and we had to wake up to be at the airport at 6, I wake up at 2. It didn't matter.

For me, the commitment to myself, and that internal showing up, it creates an inner alignment, that over time, we begin to generate a sense of internal power within ourselves, so that when we show up for ourselves, and we show up for ourselves, and we show up for ourselves, and we commit to living in a certain way that is consistent with our truth, because we are in alignment. Then, I really believe, when we act and when we speak, because all parts of us are in coherence, in alignment, and we act and then we speak, our words have a different frequency. Our words have a different power. Our words have a different potency, because we're not fragmented.

For me in LA, I came to LA, had nothing. I mean, I had nothing. There were days when I was eating bread for a week. I'm embarrassed to say, stealing food from supermarkets. One simple thing I did every day was I ran every day. Six miles a day, every day. Poor, homeless, depressed, lonely, I ran every day. I knew that if I could do that small thing every day, if I can get myself to do that small thing every day, then there was a level of mastery I had over my mind and my body.

If I could get myself to do that small thing, I could get myself to direct my energy to do the bigger thing. If I can't get myself to do the small thing, then how am I going to get myself to do the big thing? I think, that greatness starts with the small. Sometimes, we think that, “Ah, Bruce Lee, born that way. Muhammad Ali, born that way. Ghandi, born that way. Buddha, born that way.” We don't realize that most of these people, greatness, I think, is a moment-to-moment choice that we make all the time that we start to cultivate our internal resilience through the choice we make.

Every time we make a choice, we access a deeper dimension of our greatness. The challenge is many times, we want to be great, but we don't want to make the sacrifice, or dedicate ourselves in the way that's necessary. We want to be like Mandela, we want to be like Buddha, we want to be like Jesus, but we don't want to do what they did, but we want the result. To me, freedom, that level of freedom or power isn't free. It requires a level of sacrifice to a degree, or shall we say, dedication, being dedicated to a vision, a purpose, a reason that is often bigger than our limitations, to something that is bigger than ourselves.

One thing that saved me is the simple act of working out and physically exercising every day, even in those moments from the beginning. Because I knew if I could do that, I could do the next thing.

[20:48] LW: You have this really beautiful reframe that you posted many years ago, after running one of – it was a marathon in LA. I don't know if it was your first marathon. It was a marathon that you ran. I’ll never forget this. You posted on Facebook. It was very short. You said, “I just ran a marathon. I didn't run it in 26 miles. I ran it in one mile, 26 times.”

[21:08] KB: That was the first marathon I ran. Yeah.

[21:09] LW: I was like, “Man, that just hit me.” I think about that all the time. Whenever I'm doing anything that's tedious, that I want to quit on, I always come back to that reframe. In fact, the habit in my book. I quoted you in my book, Knowing Where to Look, which came out about three weeks after your book came out.

[21:27] KB: Amazing. It's not the big things we do once in a while that make the difference. It's the small things we do consistently over time, that in the time that we do them, don't seem to make a difference. That really compounds over time, to sculpt and create the foundation of our being and our personality. I think many times, as human beings, we underestimate the power of the small. We want the big. We want a 100, but we can't manage 10. We want to save the world and make this huge difference on humanity, but we can't help the neighbor next to us. We can't respond to the need in the moment.

I think, in our culture today, we've become obsessed with speed and exponential growth. You got to hack your way there. Just hack it. I don't think you can hack integrity and hack greatness. It requires putting in the daily discipline and the work and the meditation and that daily dedication. I think, when you do that, you build a foundation inside of yourself that is so strong, that there's dimensions and layers to you that builds. That when the winds blow, and the storms of life blow, people that don't have the foundation, collapse. The people that do have that foundation that is built over time, are able to be resilient and stay connected.

[22:52] LW: Now, is it true you went up to Spielberg at his kid’s soccer game, to try to… How did you find out where Spielberg’s kids are playing soccer? What does that –

[22:58] KB: Just a little backstory. I had this vision in my early 20s of I wanted to be like Oprah. I really wanted to be like Oprah. I was serious about having a TV show and being like Oprah, and came very close. Was offered shows. Before I was offered my show, I started researching Hollywood, because I knew nothing about Hollywood. I started reading about all of these visionary people with the intention of seeing who could give me my break.

When I read about Spielberg, I thought, he was unconventional. This was a guy who jumped the fence at Universal and did unconventional things. I thought, “Okay, this guy might understand.” He's a visionary. He's rich, and he owns DreamWorks. I read his book. I had a crazy friend who knew someone, this guy believed in me, but he knew someone who knew Spielberg, producer. He calls the producer and says, “Can you introduce Kute to Spielberg?” What kind of crazy question is that?

I called the guy up and said, “Hey, can you introduce me to Spielberg?” He's like, “Are you nuts? I can’t just call Spielberg and just introduce him to some random guy.” I said, “I want to be the next Oprah, change the world, inspiration, this entertainment.” Pitch my whole vision into this guy. I think he was charmed, and he said, “Look, I can't introduce you to Spielberg, because I just can't do it. But I have a friend that his kids play soccer with Spielberg. Let me introduce you to my friend and just chat with him.”

I call the friend up, the producer’s friend and I give him my whole pitch again. “I want to do this talk show and change the world and da, da, da, bring people together and I want to meet Spielberg. I know, your kids play soccer with Spielberg.” He's like, “I can't introduce you to Steven Spielberg. You are crazy.” “But I hear your kids play soccer with Spielberg. You know what I'm saying?” I said, “Could you at least let me know where they play soccer?” He goes, “If you tell anyone that I told you where, I will kill you. But you didn't hear it from me.”

Another angel. He literally tells me. Goes, “This is where we play soccer.” It was in the Pacific Palisades. This is where the post office is, that little park. I’m 22-years-old, something in my mid to early 20s. I put my suit on. I have a suit. This is back in the day, man. I have this beige suit. I thought I was pimping. I put together a Kinko’s, go to Kinko's, put together a press kit with my picture on it. Typed my bio. I had this VHS tape of being – I was on one TV show at the time for two minutes. I wrote a handwritten letter to Steven Spielberg. Four pages, handwritten letter, referencing why he should give me chance. Referencing his books. I’m selling Spielberg in this letter. Handwritten. “Dear, Mr. Spielberg. Would you like to launch the global number one TV show that changes the world?” On and on.

I show up the first week on a Saturday, 8 a.m. Spielberg’s not there. The kids are there playing, Spielberg's not there. I come back the next week, park in this parking lot. Granted, I'm trembling, okay. I think, we have to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. This is something I've consistently done in my life. I haven't been the smartest person, the most intelligent person, the richest person, the fill in the blank, but one thing I do do is I consistently trust my intuition. Don't question and push myself outside of my comfort zone, probably more than most. That's been a secret for me.

I show up at the freaking park. Parked my car and looked around the corner of this park. Lo and behold, I see Steven Spielberg in the park, in the middle of the field with his wife and his kids are playing. One of his kids. He adopted an African-American kid, so I'm like, “Okay. He's not going to be racist. Okay, this is good. All right, let's go. Okay.” I'm thinking to myself, “Do I approach him in the middle of the game?” I don't know how to do this. Do I approach him in the middle of the game? It would be weird approaching in the middle of the game.

I wait till the end of the game. I'm hiding behind a freaking tree. I’m hiding behind the tree and 30 people, the parents are walking. What I didn't know was there was a stalker in the news. He was being stalked by a stalker at this time, okay. It was in the news. I didn't know. I'm hiding behind this tree and I see Spielberg with his kid and his wife walking. My heart is beating out of my chest. This is the moment, man. Sometimes, you have to just seize the moment. You only live once.

I mean, hey, so I just jump out from the tree and I'm in front of Spielberg. I just start pitching him, okay. “Mr. Spielberg. I'm-23-years old. I’m from Japan, Japanese-African. Grew up in London. I have this vision to change lives and inspire people. I want to be the next Oprah. I'm [inaudible 01:03:48]. I’m going a 100 miles an hour, like [inaudible 01:03:51]. Everyone freezes like, “Oh, shit. He’s going to get killed. What's going to happen?” All the parents freeze, he freezes. Everyone turns white. 

[END]

That was bestselling author and speaker Kute Blackson. To see what happens after Kute jumped from behind the tree and scared the crap out of Steven Spielberg, go to episode 75, minute 1:02. And I recommend following Kute on the socials at @kuteblackson. 

If you know anyone whose making the world a better place, and they had an incredible plot twist in their life, email me your guest suggestions at light@lightwatkins.com. 

My other ask is that you take a few seconds to leave a rating or review for the show. You hear podcast hosts like me ask listeners like you for ratings, because that’s how guests determine if they’re going to come onto a podcast. So it makes a huge difference. And all you do is look at your device, click on the show name, scroll past the first five episodes, and you'll see a place with five blank stars—just tap the star all the way on the right to leave a 5-star rating. And if you're feeling generous, leave a quick line about the show, and that can go a long way as well.

Also, you can watch these Plot Twist episodes on my YouTube channel if you prefer see what Arjuna looks like as he’s sharing his plot twist. And don't forget to subscribe on youtube as well. 

Okay, I’ll see you on Wednesday with the next long-form conversation about an ordinary person doing extraordinary things to leave the world a better place. And until then, keep trusting your intuition, following your heart, and keep leaning into those Plot Twists in your life. And if no one’s told you lately—I believe in you. Thank you, and have a fantastic weekend!