#220 — Wild But Teachable 2023

The NonProphet Podcast

We first released this podcast in September 2019. I've been thinking about reposting it since we ran into West and Kami Taylor at the Tactical Games in St. George where Erin and Cinnamon and Michael were competing. West was far more fit in March 2022 than when we first met, happier, vibrant, and spoke excitedly about his obsession with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the nagging injuries that always come up when practicing hard. It was wonderful to see them and to be reminded of how they climbed up from bankruptcy, discovered an entirely new way of life, with very different values from those they had lived by or chased before market circumstances took away all of the material things they believed were the key to being happy. As dire as this loss sounds, as awful as it is to imagine starting life over at the age of 40, it's exactly what West and Kami did, and their story is an inspiration, incredibly motivating, and a valuable reminder that it is never, under any circumstances, over, until you choose to quit.

If nothing else, hearing West's descriptions of installing early dial-up internet connections — where the quantity of phone lines limited simultaneous use to 96 people — is a fine example of how much has changed since the early-2000s, and how we take gigabyte level up and download speeds for granted.

These days (as was the case in 2019) West and Kami train wild horses, having spent the last 13 years dedicated to the human-horse relationship and science-based horsemanship. In 2019 they took a few of the NonProphet crew out on an overnight, backcountry horse experience after which we invited them to drive up to record a conversation. They joined Mark, Michael, and Josh Tyler in the NonProphet podcast studio (known as the Dissect podcast studio back then) to talk about what it means to be wild but teachable, to start all over, and to thrive.

His motto is, "Slow down faster to get done sooner," and I think we could use a heavy dose of that lesson when the world is racing all around us.

https://wildwesttaylor.com