“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.”
The Rich Roll Podcast · Health & Longevity · November 2026
Context
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.
Transcript
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.
You got lead in your head.
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…
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