We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jonathan Corbblah a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Jonathan, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?
Risk is something that I’ve always been heavily conditioned not to consider from the ‘what I have to lose’ perspective but rather from the ‘how I would feel if I didn’t go for it’ mentality. In my early 20s I went on the game show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’ And I had a chance to risk my winnings on a 50/50 chance at 250k. I decided I would regret way more the decision to walk away than the decision to go for it. I lost, and I never felt like I made the wrong choice. That almost was a practice of exposure therapy for me in terms of how I confronted risk for the rest of my life. In every way, I approach risk now with the verve and courage to know that I have nothing to lose and only more chutzpah to gain
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a Brooklyn native who never really had any ambition for work and early on sought to enjoy and surround myself with play. I left school without direction but realized that it was important to me to live an intellectual life. I had a dream of being a multi-time Jeopardy champion and when I was able to get on Millionaire it really normalized the idea of competing on television game shows as a career. I have currently competed on 14 different shows and even was a panelist on my own show on the Game Show Network for 5 seasons. There was no path laid out for me, or any real role model for me to follow, nor any idea what the end goal would be. I just knew that if I continued down this path I would be blazing my own trail and the idea of that was incredibly appealing.
I coach chess to kids in schools in NYC and take them to competitions and I try to inspire them to think and act independently and fearlessly in pursuit of their own dreams.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
One quality that served me well early on was knowing my station in life meant I would never settle for humdrum normalcy as a professional. I grew up one of the poorest kids in one of the poorest neighborhoods but mentally I had a silver spoon in my mouth because I deeply believed in my capacity to use my mind to avoid hardship. Outthink, outwit, but never outwork. I hustled chess in the parks of NYC and found that so many people were impressed by my gift of gab and sharpness that I could sell the sizzle rather than the steak. Doing something that isn’t run of the mill captures the imagination so immediately that people have no idea what else you are capable of.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
None of us choose our parents, none of us choose the trauma that is inflicted on us or the nurturing that we are provided, yet all of us can choose to take our experience and make of it something that feeds our spirit and helps us overcome the suffering of life. My father never had two nickels to rub together, my mother gambled away most of what she earned with her hard work. Yet they instill in me an indomitable spirit and the means to endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Wherewithal is worth its weight in gold
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/jonathancorbblah
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/jonathancorbblah
- Twitter: https://Twitter.com/corbblah
- Youtube: https://YouTube.com/corbblah
- Other: https://Twitch.com/corbblah
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