Words of Wisdom: Tablo and his life lessons

Armed with a degree and honors in English literature and creative writing from Stanford, Tablo is known for his expertise in lyricism. His writing often carries emotional weight and makes the listener wonder about life on a deeper level. Time and time again, Tablo has given fans powerful lessons to carry through good times and bad. Check out a few bites of universal advice that you can apply to your life.

Finding a Sense of Self

“It’s very difficult to know what ‘self’ even means anymore because of the way the world is right now. Everything that we do and we are is somehow connected to others, it’s within different communities or gatherings because of the internet, social media and all of this. It’s really hard to truly know your place. But luckily for me, I’ve always been sort of in my own world, ever since I was a kid. I am blessed with a personality where I have never really been afraid to be myself and many times that has worked against me because not everyone is gonna like who someone is, not everyone’s gonna like everything about you. For you to be open enough and for you to be self-confident enough, to truly be yourself, means that at times some people are gonna be against that, and some people are not gonna approve of it. Many times, because we are afraid to deal with that kind of negativity or try to get validation from these people who obviously don’t really care, we often sacrifice bits and pieces of who we are, and then it goes on and on until one day you’ve become someone that you are not.”

Experiencing Insomnia

"I don’t think I’ve gotten a good night’s sleep for, maybe, decades. Sleeplessness is something we all have personal experiences with and it occurred to us that sleeplessness, like love, is a very universal thing. Everyone experiences it, everyone has heartache because of it, everyone has troubles because of it. Sometimes it’s great — just like love — when your sleeplessness leads to ambition or when it leads to your dreams being awakened because you’re working hard and you’re grinding.”

The Importance of Friendship

“I think the thing behind that is that we’re actually friends, which allows us to love and hate each other on and off constantly without ever calling it quits. Cause that’s what friendship is.”

Universal Hardships

“That's why I say, "Same here," because I feel like a ton of people are feeling this way — having anxiety attacks or just very lonely, dealing with depression. I just wanted to say, well, same here. I'm also saying this for myself to remind me that I'm not the only one. There's a world of people that can relate to me and vice versa. I'm hoping that they can find some comfort in knowing that I do too, which I think is a very important thing.”

Allowing Yourself to Make Mistakes

“Things have not gone the way we wanted it to, but it was because we tried to build a better future. We tried. I think that is something that's very important to me just overall, not just about love, but even outside of the song. I believe firmly that people should be allowed to make mistakes and that people should be allowed to break as long as we understand that they were trying to build something.”