Things Cedric King Has Said on Podcasts

“The more time you spend wanting to be at 26, the more you're going to burn through way more energy, because you're wanting to be somewhere where you're physically not. You are all in this mile right here… Let's get to that fire hydrant right there. Now your race is to that stoplight right there.” — Cedric King, The Rich Roll Podcast

The day after running the NYC Marathon, Cedric King explains what he wished he could have told a struggling runner around mile 14. He credits his running partner's method of breaking the race into small landmarks.

The Rich Roll Podcast · 2026-11-05 Permalink → Listen →

The Rich Roll Podcast Around 1:43:58 into the episode

Cedric King

I couldn't help it. I just saw that there are people. And I like, I don't know if you saw it, but yesterday I did it with the amputee that was slower than me. Yeah. I couldn't help, but that's part of who we are as people.

Rich Roll

That was an interesting encounter, actually.

Cedric King

He was hurting just like I was hurting in 2014. My running blades had broken. Everything had gone wrong that particular day. And I just saw myself and him where nothing was working, but I still had. I think we must have ran to him at like mile 14 or something like that. Maybe somewhere in Brooklyn or somewhere in Queens. But it was like, I've been that dude before, and I know where it feels like it's not going to happen today. I'm doing the very best I can. I'm giving everything I got. And that finish line isn't budging. It's still so far away. These mile markers are not happening fast enough. I want to be at the end, but I'm right here. And I wish I could have told the guy, hey, look, and this is what I would have told me back then: hey, forget counting the miles, man. Just be here right now. Like, be here, present right now. Be right here on mile 14. If you're on mile 14, be right here. The more time you spend wanting to be at 26, the more you're going to burn through way more energy because you're going to be wanting to be somewhere where you're physically not. What you do is…

Rich Roll

He was, uh, I mean, the energy that I got from him is he was pretty closed down. Yeah,

Cedric King

like he couldn't

Rich Roll

even receive what you were, what you were trying to say to him.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

“I am the pencil. Without the pencil sharpener, this pencil, as good as it is, never truly achieves its purpose… It'll always be buried under the ego or the money or the fame or the fortune. But the moment you go into the sharpener, the best parts of you don't stay on the inside anymore. They come on the outside.” — Cedric King, The Rich Roll Podcast

Cedric King, a soldier who lost both legs in a blast, recalls finding pencils but no sharpener in a care package during his hospital stay. He explains how that image turned him away from despair.

The Rich Roll Podcast · 2026-11-05 Permalink → Listen →

The Rich Roll Podcast Around 46:05 into the episode

Cedric King

I said the same thing. I said, what is that? Bro, it's almost like we switched places. What does that mean? I'm the pencil. But this is what are you supposed to do with that? Let me tell you, man, those pencils.

Speaker 3

You got lead in your head.

Cedric King

I got lead in my head. That's exactly what I felt like. Is that what it means? No, man. Those pencils, it was like a pack of 10 of them. And because I didn't have the sharpener, I wish I looked on Doordash and Uber Eats all over Manhattan for somebody who would deliver me a pack of pencils for this interview, but it's supposed to be like this, I guess. But in this pack of pencils that was on this, in this care package, I said, man, I'm the pencil. But without the pencil sharpener, this pencil, as good as it is, it never truly achieves its purpose. Without the pencil sharpener? Yes, great. The pencil will always be a pencil. The pencil will always have meaning, but it will never achieve purpose unless it meets the sharpener. You, you, you would have never been the rich that you are today had you never gone through your sharpener experience. I am the same way. This was my sharpening experience. And for one slight moment, it took the pain away from what happened and it gave this pain purpose. Oh, wait a minute. You mean to tell me that just as that pencil needs that sharpener, I need the sharpening…

Speaker 3

This episode is brought to you by Rivian. When I got behind the wheel of the R2 with RJ, the founder, the thing that stuck with me wasn't the exterior. It was realizing that there was a place for everything. All the stuff that usually ends up loose on the floor of a car had a spot specifically…

Rich Roll

We talked about it a little bit out on the course, this thing that my wife always reminds me of, which is that everything that happens to us is neutral until you apply perspective. Meaning, things happen. We make mistakes, we succeed at things, we fall short, and then the world has its say. And…

Cedric King

That's right. Yesterday, before we started, or maybe in the first few miles, we got to Brooklyn and I was like, yo, I just want to be a billboard for what's possible in someone else's life. Like, I told you, God gave me a second chance, man. It ain't about me no more. And to your point, yes, it's…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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