Learning to Live Without an Umbilical Cord

·21 min·2 clips

Michael Crose asks if you still have your umbilical cord, hinting that some people never cut it off.

The episode opens with Michael Crose posing a provocative question about whether adults still have umbilical cords, introducing a metaphorical theme. He shares a personal anecdote about his son Zach's birth and his refusal to cut the umbilical cord. Crose then transitions to a story from the early 1970s, when he attended a sales seminar in St. Petersburg while working at Ace on the Ball Pest Control. At the seminar, he was offered a motivational record album for $5, featuring speakers like Norman Vincent Peale and Zig Ziglar. He specifically recalls an album by Cabot Roberts, who used the umbilical cord metaphor to describe people seeking external leadership. Crose connects this to his personal philosophy, learned from his Uncle George, to 'find a way to make it work,' which he passed to his children. He discusses how some people outsource responsibility by attaching to gurus, movements, or systems. The episode then shifts to the book 'Think and Grow Rich' by Napoleon Hill, which Crose's boss received after the seminar. Crose recounts the book's backstory, where Hill supposedly interviewed rich people for Andrew Carnegie, but research suggests this was fabricated. He details Hill's failures, multiple marriages, and penniless death, contrasting with the book's influence. Crose critiques the book's later chapters as weird, mentioning topics like sexual transmission. He notes that the book is now in the public domain and available for free on Archive.org. The episode concludes with Crose advising listeners to cut their metaphorical umbilical cords, rely on themselves, and embrace self-reliance, echoing his uncle's wisdom.

As heard by us

A loose, personal monologue turns the umbilical cord into a grounded argument for taking responsibility.

The Daily Grateful uses the image of the umbilical cord as a plainspoken metaphor for responsibility, resourcefulness, and the comfort people can take in letting others carry difficult choices.

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Why you'd press play

If you keep looking for something else to make life work, this episode hands you metaphysical scissors and a blunt family motto.

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