Math, Kindness, and the Red Helicopter Story with James Rhee

The Angry Therapist Podcast

John Kim

Mental Health, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, John talks to James Rhee about his journey as a Korean American and experiences in leadership. He shares the story of the red helicopter and how it impacted his perspective on kindness. James explains his philosophy of kindness in math, how he designs systems that reward true agency, the importance of joy and finding contentment in everyday moments, the significance of championing Asian-Americans in media, and the positive changes happening in representation. James Rhee is a high school teacher turned private equity investor and CEO. James’ leadership story first grabbed global attention during his unlikely seven-year tenure as Chairman and first-time CEO at fashion retailer Ashley Stewart. After his radical approach fueled a transcendent comeback story for the company, James concretized his leadership philosophy—kindness plus a little math—in the form of red helicopter, his media-education platform. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is now a Senior Lecturer at Duke Law School and MIT Sloan School of Management and the Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship at Howard University—the first joint appointment of its kind in history. His TED Talk and Dare to Lead interview with Brené Brown have captured the imagination of millions. He is the author of red helicopter (HarperOne; April 9, 2024).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, my name is John Kim. I'm a therapist who went through his own
0:04.3	rebirth many years ago and I've been documenting my journey ever since sharing my life
0:08.9	lessons and revelations. I believe in casual over clinical with you instead of at you. I come unrehearsed on purpose
0:16.4	because self-health doesn't have to be so complicated.
0:21.1	James just reminded me of the difference in temperature. He's wearing a fleece and a shirt underneath the fleece and I'm just wearing a t-shirt and nothing downstairs.
0:31.0	You know when people do this I think 50% of the people who do this online
0:35.4	like Zoom and stuff they're probably not wearing pants. Anyway, James I want to start
0:40.9	I want to start with this don't answer it and then I want to give you another question.
0:45.2	Okay, so what I want to start with is, kindness and math, I think for most people would be oil and water but for you it was peanut butter
0:54.6	chocolate eventually leading to a character arc and of course your new book
0:59.7	Red helicopter but before we get to all of, the first question I asked my guess just to throw them into the deep end is,
1:07.0	what is your current greatest struggle in your life, would you say?
1:18.0	I think my current greatest struggle, okay. Yeah, it could be anything.
1:19.0	It could be, you know, an inner struggle, it could be...
1:22.0	I don't know. I think that as you probably know by now I'm a fairly big
1:28.6	empath mhm and I sense other people's issues or sadness or
1:37.0	I do.
1:38.0	Globally?
1:39.0	Globally or people around you.
1:41.0	But also on a micro level, right?
1:42.0	It's sort of just this the expression I refer to in the book is like Nunchi.
1:46.0	It's sort of like a high speed intuition of just sensing something.
	...

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