0:00 And then let's just rob the guy that he owes the money to. And then if anything happens, we'll smoke him and your buddy won't have broken legs. And then I'm like, ████ I don't And he goes, "Bro, you going to roll?" I'm like, ████ I'm trying to be a ████ dictorian, dude. Welcome back to another episode of Bart from the Heart. Today we're going to speak to the man himself and we're going to ask him a question that probably will be difficult to answer because there's so many to choose from. But Bart, what is the stupidest thing you've done but you wouldn't change a thing about it because it's made you who you are today. >> Oh, ████ I got I got to think about this one. I'm like I might I might make two. >> You wrote these [laughter] questions. I know, but I don't write them for me. >> We're getting these blind, bro. >> I write it so I think cuz I think the response is going to be good. I don't write it for me. I'll pick your brain a
0:51 little bit. So like the I guess like from the outside looking in, like there could be things like getting kicked out of A&A. Like that would be a stupid thing a kid would do, but it did, you know, lead you to where you are today. Or even, you know, just making the wrong decisions with gangs or drugs or just You got a whole slew of options. I like this question because it's it's it sounds like um when at in the moment it sounds like a loss, but it ends up being a win. Yeah. You have set in fire to the table at the at the massage place. >> You burned down a massage parlor. You know what? That's a thing I always talk to Taika about. You burned down a chiropractor? Me and Taika we talk a lot like friends a lot of the times and uh people that aren't aware of it, it always catches them off guard. So we
1:41 were just at Gio's mom's house. It was me, Gio, Gio's mom, and Taika. And then something to talk about fire and then Gio's mom has a typical adult knee-jerk reaction. Oh, don't play with fire blah blah blah blah blah. And I'm like, bro, we're just going to burn down a a chiropractor's office, right? And then Taika's like, yeah, that's so true. And you see Jill's mom like, "Yeah, that's so true." Wait, what the ████ You know the old saying? >> [laughter] >> You play with fire, you burn down the ginseng. And then you see Jill's mom like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, what the what the f███?" [laughter] Cuz I think that era of parent, it's easier to just go "Don't do this." Versus like, "Let's dive deep. What's the nuance? Like, how could you have done this in >> And show an example, a consequence. >> I was telling Jill's mom, I'm like, "In the in our backyard, we've actually been setting fires every single day. But I've been teaching them like in a controlled way. So, we have like little rocket So, they start small. Oh, so you're teaching him to respect fire basically. >> him a bucket of water. I was like, "Safety comes before fun." So, he always
2:31 has a bucket of water. And I bought him that like Boy Scout steel and flint things. And I tell him what I tender, kindling, whatever, all that stuff. And so, we're just setting fires randomly in our backyard every single day. And he's getting pretty good at it. >> It's a good skill. And then I just see that and I like Jill's mom's face is just horrified. Like, just thinking about a fire in the backyard every ████ day. I guess it's better than having fire be a taboo thing that he's so like, you know, obsessed with. Yeah, that'd be me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuz he's going to play with it no matter what, right? Yeah, no matter what. We all did. >> That's good that you're trying to counteract the the DNA that he has. Yeah, yeah, or trying to like like I know it's going to come out. So, like let's nurture it or like >> blueprint. >> Yeah, like move it move it around where it's healthy. Do you think all the times you ████ yourself made you who you are? >> [laughter] >> Um I think So, there's probably a handful of stupid ass things I could tell you what I think is pretty stupid that made all of us who we are is
3:23 getting that stupid tattoo. Honestly, dude. And then I have two of them. >> It's a problem. It's a problem in our lives. >> That's one of the stupidest [laughter] things ever. >> ████ stupid. It's ████ >> wear shorts anymore. >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Um I think okay, one of the stupidest things that comes to mind right now is I can uh think of is there's a period in my life um where I was really into selling E. And I when you think about it now, like as a full-grown adult, there's so many risks, right? Like back then, I I forgot what the classes are, but even marijuana was like ████ class one or whatever. It's like having heroin. So, back then they're not as lenient as it is now. So, imagine like you go down the list having weed, meth, whatever. Like E is like for sure jail time. And then just uh the amount that I always had on me, I
4:13 had like over 100 to 500 pills on me at all times at the house. Going to jeopardize my dad's I'm living at my dad's house, you know. At all times, I'm carrying around like a couple hundred bucks for a 15, 16-year-old. A lot of money. I could have got jumped and stolen, whatever. Um I would sell it at school. That's a expellable offense. You know, there's just like Permanent record, all these things. Permanent record. And it could Like if I got caught, there's no Marine Corps, you know, there's like it's like a lot of downstream crazy ████ But I think um like looking at it with my 40-year-old brain, it was like the one of the dumbest things. And I'm not trying to promote go out and sell drugs, so >> [laughter] >> you get your own experiences. But I think [snorts] that might have been the first time I uh realized what entrepreneurship is.
5:05 Crash course. Crash course entrepreneurship. And then also how uh like money can't buy happiness, right? But money can solve problems. So, the So, I'll start with how I first So, I was selling like probably a small amount before I remember a couple dubs sacks of weed, a O of weed here and there. >> How much money were you making a week at the highest? >> Oh, dude, at the highest and I thought I was balling out of control, but I was like 16 and maybe like 900 a week. That's really good. >> that was a lot. To me, that was It's at 16. I don't know how other people view it, but to me, that was a ████ ton. For doing what you love, too. At 16 at in the 2000s. Dude, that's crazy. That's probably like eight, nine grand now. I didn't even make 900 in the 2000s. >> [laughter] >> So I got a I got a jump start and this is all allegedly. But uh so the jump start was so
5:55 um while I was going to Army and Navy Academy, I already severed ties with the old group I used to roll with. And um but we were still friends. And I don't know if you remember but I was talking about when I got to Army and Navy Academy, one of the dudes that used to be in my group, I saw him there. I'm like, "What the f███?" And it was like, "We're going to rule this school." >> to rule this together, right? So we severed ties and we all split up. One guy went back to China or whatever. And it's kind of like Joe's story. If everyone disbanded, the Diilos can't do nothing. We leave and then somehow we arrive back at Army and Navy Academy together. So I'm like, "Wait, what the ████ This is crazy." Um and the funny thing is I always felt like I had a good moral compass. I just not disciplined to stick to the compass. So every fresh start, I'm like, "I'm going to be so good here. I'm going to ████ 4.0. Like I'm going to be unrecognizable. I'm going to be ████ valedictorian."
6:46 And then it all it takes is like, "Hey, where are you from?" "Hey, ████ you." And then it just ████ just ████ crash, right? [laughter] That's how that's that's how it always is. But I got there. I'm like, "Okay, cool. Oh ████ Red. We're going to ████ rule this place. ████ valedictorian. ████ all that ████ Throw that ████ out the window." >> was whack anyway. I don't know what I was thinking. And um but I did tell myself I was like, "Okay, I I try not to get into too many crazy things at once. So I don't want to like sell weed and sell this and like like rob houses. I'm like that's I I got I got to be like I got to be committed, a loyal guy. Not not not be promiscuous in the crimes." It's like, "I'm just so scattered. I need to finish I I I just need to be good at one crime." >> Got to be organized, right? Yeah. And this all is done selling everything. >> [laughter] >> But then uh one thing happened where uh so on the weekends I would go back to Rowland Heights and we would all hang out when I
7:36 could leave. And then our crew, our Diilo owned like a PC bang place. You know PC bang? Where you play Counter-Strike and all that stuff? The internet cafe, yeah. So, I'm hanging there one night and then uh we get this phone call of like um some one one of my one of my homies from back in Cerritos he was like, "Hey dude, like do do you know anybody that wants to buy a boat? A boat means like a thousand. Uh a boat? Cuz uh I I got a hold of this and then the the guy that sold it to me is uh told me he's going to break my legs if I don't pay. And then and and but the guy that was supposed to buy it from me, he bailed out." And then I was like, >> [clears throat] >> "Well, what what I'm just kind of stuck in the middle. What are we going to do?" And then you know like no good things come at ████ like 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. in the morning. So, I'm just sitting there. I was like, "Oh ████ this guy like my friend" he's not like a close close friend, but he I guess it was close enough where he called me to see
8:27 if like we can help offload some of it. So, I tell my homies that are there that I don't really roll with anymore. Uh and you know in every group there's always one crazy ass ████ The crazy ass ████ he was like, "Why don't we just like bypass your homie, get him out of the situation? And then we'll just rob the guy that he owes the money to. And then if anything happens, we'll smoke him and your buddy won't have broken legs." This is like 15, 16-year-old brainstorms, right? And then [laughter] and then everyone's like yeah, everyone's like, "Oh yeah, that sounds like a great idea." Logically sounds good. Yeah, logically sounds like cuz you're just ████ ████ And then I'm like, "F███, I don't" And he goes, "But are you going to roll?" I'm like, "F███, I'm trying to be valedictorian, dude." >> [laughter] >> ████ But then you know like something crazy >> 4.0. And then something and then they're your boys from back in the day were like, "Oh, let's just do like one more
9:17 thing." You know whatever, you know that kind of ████ >> [snorts] >> So, we're like, "Oh ████ all right." >> One last gig. >> I'm like, "All right, let's go do it." We go do it and then uh so now it's like three, four cars deep rolling from Rowland down to uh what is it called? Cerritos. And then we told that guy, "Hey, like we'll meet you here um and just tell him we're going to do the transaction, but you do have the buyer and the buyer wants to meet the other guy face-to-face. And he's like, all right, cool. So he set all that up, and then we thought we were all ████ slick. Uh so there's a car at the park, the guy's car that was going to make the drop, and then every intersection we blocked off with our cars. So that if anything happens and tries to escape, we'll just like smash their car and like, you know, try to like block them all in. We're agents, we're smart. So my of course my homie, um I don't want to drop his name, but the crazy guy, he's like, "I want to be the
10:07 one to pull the gun on him." I'm like, "Go ahead, dude." Your plan, dude. >> That's your ████ [laughter] plan. You go you go do it. It's He's the smallest dude, too. But he's ████ cuckoo. Does he have any enemies? No. He's It's What's funny is like he's this bald Chinese guy, skinny, looks kind of crazy-looking. Like he looks kind of scary, like, oh, this his screws are loose. But then uh he has the "Chur chur chur chur" type of accent. So when he speaks like >> ma. Yeah, yeah, like when he speaks English he has a "Chur chur" like that kind of like So it's weird. It throws you off cuz like, dude, this guy's ████ like Joe Pesci loco. But his accent sounds funny as You think I'm a funny guy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You think I'm a funny guy? >> [laughter] >> So the car rolls up, they you see it the you see like the the windows roll up. I see I'm like I'm parked in the other the kind of like if the street's like a T, I'm parked on this side. I'm watching. And then uh you see him pull the gun on
10:59 the ████ "Give me all your ████ s███." That guy just ████ freaks out. So my other homie uh that was in the bind, he's not a gangster. So I think in his mind the other guy that was going to break his legs was like some crazy-ass like ████ That's what we thought. We were like, "Oh ████ who's this guy? ████ El Chapo?" It just That guy was just a uh crooked like customs TSA agent-type guy. So he was able to smuggle ████ in, but because he's a little bit older, he's 25, he's really scary to the 17-year-old. Cuz when the guy pulled up, all of us were like, "That b████-ass ████ Like, you're scared of that fool?" So, my friend pulled out the gun, obviously. ████ pistol-whipped him whatever. And then we ended up taking all of all the pistol-whipped him, all took all his pills, whatever. And that guy was like all crying and ████ And then the other
11:50 guy the guy that was in the back, "Thank you guys for saving my life." >> [laughter] >> And then that And then when we got back to to our base our PC bang bang base Yeah, your base. we divided up and you know, all the pills. And then so that was my jumpstart cuz like, "Oh, no, Bart rolled with us. You have to get some, too." And then so it was me trying to be Val Victoria. I was like, "Well, I guess I'm going to start ████ selling E again." And then so that >> [laughter] >> Val Victoria turned a robber ████ And then so to getting like that much amount of E all at once >> Cuz your supply just went up. >> Yeah, I was like, "Oh, okay, I'll stick with this." But then what was cool is I got kicked out of the military school. And then when I came back to the homie the peacemaker homies at Mark Keppel I realized almost every problem you can solve with money. Cuz we'll try to throw these kickbacks. Oh, ████ car insurance
12:40 is going to cost 50 bucks. I'm like, "Dude, I got you." You know, just like almost I was like, "Oh, s███." That's when I really started to connect life problems with like entrepreneurship. >> Yeah. Like a homie, but oh, dude, my ████ sub ran out of blue again. I got you. I'll get you sub ran out of blue. You know, just And I think that started to like take little steps towards understanding um how entrepreneurship and like creative problem-solving how it's like all kind of tied together. >> you're like brain stem bypass the violence and went straight to money solves a problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's other [laughter] means like a lemonade stand or selling candy bars at a elementary school will probably get you there, too. Um but that was the world that >> are a little higher, though, dude. >> Yeah, that was the world that I was in or that like we were in. So, that's the only way that I could experiment.
13:31 >> You can outsource. >> [laughter] >> That's what built that logic and made it stronger for you. That's funny. I also realized when I stopped selling all those problems came back and I couldn't pay for it. >> [laughter] >> You know what I have like a car now that kickback whatever I'm like, "Sorry guys, I can't get the Cali this time." >> [laughter] >> Cuz I I'm vowed to not do it, you know? That's cool that you can trace when that started to make sense for you in your mind. Okay, when did you really put your foot down? When was the last time you made your final step? Cuz I'm sure that's part of it was is how easily you could make sales and make money selling it and then it becomes like a almost like a crutch for some people. That's why they never get out the game, right? >> It took my second year at Elac, I think. Cuz I think you put your foot down each time and you realize you didn't put it down hard enough. Ah, yeah. >> So, my So, when I got out of the Marine
14:21 Corps, obviously no crime. I didn't even do drugs, nothing, right? I'm on the straight and narrow. But like all it takes is if I'm in class and one of the homies like, "Yo, you want to go whatever?" You just ditch class. Pack up your bags, you just leave. I'm out in 15 minutes. And then so it's like you still have really bad habits. It's hard to say no cuz you're you've been saying yes your whole life. And then it wasn't until um uh my my second year at Elac, I think I really got good at like saying no to the friends that want to randomly drink on Tuesday nights or whatever and then um really getting my ████ in order. Like if I have to study, I don't care like how hot the girl is, I got to go study, you know? It took It took a long time. It was like baby steps and each time you have to go >> But that's where you started. It was just saying no to people. Just saying no and like like knowing what your goal is and then saying no all around the goal.
15:12 Yeah. It's hard. It's the hardest part. Imagine you get There's like a cute chick you just got her number and wants to like do all sorts of fantastical things to you. Yeah, you're like, "I'm out. I'll see you there." And then you have midterms and you're like, ████ Back then it was also hard to you know, when people call you gay for not going out. Yeah. I'm not gay, DUDE. >> [laughter] >> I SWEAR. OR LIKE I I I GOT financially like 4 Gs and I'm like, okay, I could turn this. I could do I could No, I just I could save it. I started to learn about stocks. But then you see this sick ass set of wheels, so you go buy ████ rims and tires. >> [laughter] >> I'm still that dumb. It's just so hard, you know? Well, I mean, that's really crazy that you were able to turn that series of events where most people would probably just continue a downward spiral and you flipped it around. That's very impressive. Can't wait till
16:02 Titus older and I can share that story with him. It'll blow his brains. >> Well, that was another episode of Bar from the Heart. We are here with the valid tour of Ilec, Bart Kwan. Hope you guys learned something from that. If you have any suggestions for other deep questions you want to ask, just put them in the comments below. Rob them drug dealers.
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