Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sam Taha. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Sam, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?
Wishful thinking leads to disappointment.
For a very long time, that was my favorite quote and only moto in life.
My answer to the conundrum of “Is the glass half full or half empty?” was:
Who cares, the glass is actually broken!
Look, there is a giant crack and a chip on its side!
Am I the only one who sees that?!
Where does all of this positivity and optimism come from? I’m a man of science, and I can SCIENTIFICALLY prove to you that life sucks…
And I’m not going to tell you that this version of me is dead, “Oh yeah OLD SAM used to think this way”, No, Sam STILL thinks that way! I even scoffed at the question when I received this article, I was like “Psht, you of all people should not write about positivity!”
But after I spent half of my life listening only to the negative but realistic voice, life taught me to also listen to the naïvely hopeful positive voice, and find the balance between both.
We all have voices, and none of them should be suppressed. It’s when the negative voice becomes the dominant voice and puts a rag in the positive voice’s mouth, and you start seeing your empty glass crack in front of your eyes.
I think we’re all born optimistic, but life just beats it out of you. By the time you reach your twelfth disappointment or heartbreak, someone tells you “Life doesn’t work that way, kid”, and you realize that hope is naïve and childish, and optimistic people are unrealistic, and disgusting.
These are all just words, so here is my story. In September of 2022, I was working for food delivery company. I’m broke, tired, and disappointed because I just came back from a failed business venture in San Francisco, AND lost my wallet!
I have to work in delivery because I can’t find a job, and I need to come up with 500 dollars to pay the car installment. I was delivering some BBQ, and lamenting my life, and reviewing every choice that got me here, when another driver T-boned my car. The car rolled over three times before landing PERFECTLY upright again.
I was unscathed by the accident, but I didn’t want to leave the car and go back to my life. I was so frustrated and angry at the universe and what it’s doing to me. I thought I can just spend the rest of my life inside the car, and never face these events. But when bystanders started gathering around my totaled car, I begrudgingly got out to face reality.
I got the remains for the car towed and started dealing with insurance and the delivery company. Later, my American friends will convince to do the American thing and get a lawyer. I listened to their council, and found beat up used car and continued my delivery boy existence to pay an installment on a totaled car.
I just couldn’t believe how unlucky I am, and how much the universe hates me.
And the universe was like “Hold my cosmic beer…”
Because fast forward to the end of November, where the rain has damaged the roof of my house, and I was about to be homeless. The only place I can live at on such a short notice was with some longtime friends in Portland, Oregon.
I call the lawyer and ask him if my move to Portland is going to affect my case, and he assured me that it is totally fine, and based on this, I packed my life and headed to Portland in the harsh winter.
The car I had wasn’t in good shape either. It had bent axel, and a door that was damaged from previous accident, and when it rains the car gets soaked. I managed to pack my entire life AND a dog in that car and travel a thousand miles to Portland. It also seemed that I packed my misfortune in the car, because the next three months were hell on a frozen Earth!
I’m broke and barely have enough money to eat and pay rent, but the catastrophes kept on coming. I had three punctured tired, 1 dead battery, 1 broken axel, 1 broken windshield, and a partridge in a pear tree.
I had to give away my dog, and I lose my car insurance AND the car because the insurance company informed me that my PERSONAL car insurance doesn’t cover BBQ delivering activities.
And turned out that my move to Portland DID affect my case, and the lawyer settled the case for way less money than he promised and I only got 6k back, which would put a tiny fender bender in my credit card debt.
Isn’t life grand?
Now that same story can be told a different way.
I hated the car I was driving so much! It never felt like my car, you know? I tried selling the car and cut my losses, but I couldn’t sell it for more the $13,000, and I still had $19,000 left on its installments.
When the accident happened, the other insurance company paid for the car, and they paid exactly 19,000K. Am I the luckiest or the unluckiest?
My dog found a better place to live with a family that is always around to take care of him, instead of being stuck in a Hollywood apartment all day while I try to make some BBQ delivery money.
The tires would puncture RIGHT in front of the tire shop as if the money is destined to them.
If it wasn’t for the awful lawyer that told me going to Portland, none of that love would’ve gotten to these people.
I know this might sound a little Jesus-ey of me, but It’s all love. All of my misfortune was love to others, and was love to me. The amount of growth I went through, the people I met, the friends I relied on who carried me in my dark times, that was also all love. If you’re able to see things that way, you will realize the you will never lose. I now have the ability to see things from a positive angle. There is always good in every situation, you just need to learn to find it and stick with it.
It’s all in the perspective. If you accept that life is change, then changing your perspective will help you bounce off the pendulum of change as it swings.
Change your perspective, change your life, and I’m not even in a AA program!
life is a poem and its meaning is up to the interpreter.
The glass is half full AND half empty, you chose.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Sam Taha is a human being / Comedian from Egypt. In 2014, Sam abandoned a miserable career in Engineering to pursue a miserable career in Comedy. He went on to preform Stand up, Improv and Sketch comedy at Second City, and has performed Stand up in major clubs all around California, and Oregon. He has gained multiple awards and praise from notable figures and institutions and yet, he was not able to gain the approval of his own mother.
He is the host of the Podcast Sam Taha’s Conundrum. You can find him on Youtube, Instagram, or TikTok under the handle
@SamTahaHaha
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
When you keep an open mind, you judge people less, and then you will be able to listen to what they have to say. This idea was the key that made me open to gratitude, and open to self love, and open to optimism and positive thinking. In the past when these ideas would come across, I would dismiss them because they are unrealistic.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
YouTube is a library if you use it that way. I found a lot of wisdom on their from Marcus Aurelius, Alan Watts, and Jack Kornfield. If I have to name a book, and If you keep an open mind, read a 1908 book called the Kybalion.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.samtaha.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samtahahaha/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SamTahaHaha/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-taha-711667139/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SamTahaHaha
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChNhuk2N4xXy2QE4J5B7hKA
