Bobby Bones: “Tenacity is a talent.”

Let's talk a little bit about ambition and expectations.

When you were growing up in Mountain Pine, did you think you'd be successful as an adult? What kind of dreams of the future did you allow yourself to have?

Oh, yeah.

I thought I'd be so successful, only because if I didn't believe that, I don't think I would have got out of there.

So there was never a lack of confidence.

At times, there was a lack of understanding how I was going to do it because nobody else around me was doing it, that was TV.

Like moving out of your town, moving out of Arkansas, that was television only.

That wasn't real life.

I was never told I couldn't do something.

I think that's pretty cool.

I was not shown how to do anything, but I was never told I couldn't.

And so I was just naive enough and just confident enough to lean into it and really not have a plan B.

And that's what I did.

You know, it's interesting.

There's a lot of talk in America about people and living in poverty, etc.

But all of us who are poor, I think probably share one trait is we all dreamed about doing really well.

To me, it was more...

I just want to be fulfilled and not hate my job.

Everybody hated their job.

Like my stepdad, when my mom got married, he hated going to the mill.

But he did it every day.

And so I didn't want that.

And I had crazy aspirations.

And I knew they were crazy then, but I also knew that every once in a while, something crazy happens to people that have crazy dreams.

And so it also didn't happen overnight.

Let's talk a little bit about ambition and expectations.

When you were growing up in Mountain Pine, did you think you'd be successful as an adult? What kind of dreams of the future did you allow yourself to have?

Oh, yeah.

I thought I'd be so successful, only because if I didn't believe that, I don't think I would have got out of there.

So there was never a lack of confidence.

At times, there was a lack of understanding how I was going to do it because nobody else around me was doing it, that was TV.

Like moving out of your town, moving out of Arkansas, that was television only.

That wasn't real life.

I was never told I couldn't do something.

I think that's pretty cool.

I was not shown how to do anything, but I was never told I couldn't.

And so I was just naive enough and just confident enough to lean into it and really not have a plan B.

And that's what I did.

You know, it's interesting.

There's a lot of talk in America about people and living in poverty, etc.

But all of us who are poor, I think probably share one trait is we all dreamed about doing really well.

To me, it was more...

I just want to be fulfilled and not hate my job.

Everybody hated their job.

Like my stepdad, when my mom got married, he hated going to the mill.

But he did it every day.

And so I didn't want that.

And I had crazy aspirations.

And I knew they were crazy then, but I also knew that every once in a while, something crazy happens to people that have crazy dreams.

And so it also didn't happen overnight.