Dan Bilzerian is an American social media personality, poker player and businessman, born in Tampa, Florida in 1980, who became famous for posting an extravagant lifestyle of guns, yachts, models and high-stakes poker. He founded the cannabis and CBD company Ignite International and published a memoir, The Setup, in 2022.
Brian Rose has interviewed Bilzerian twice on London Real, in 2019 and 2022. They talked about why pleasure is not the same as happiness, how social media built his image, the gap between headlines and reality, why fame is isolating, his time in Navy SEAL training, and the stories he tells in The Setup.
Both conversations are listed below with a short summary.
Pleasure Is Not Happiness (August 2019). The more reflective of the two: Bilzerian on fame, attention and what lies behind the image. For his memoir, watch The Setup (2022).
The title of his 2019 interview sums up the question at its heart: whether a life built around excess and pleasure actually brings happiness.
Responding to Thoreau’s line about lives of quiet desperation, Bilzerian described himself as unapologetically himself. He said he admires public figures who speak their minds rather than follow political correctness.
Bilzerian said many stories about him are exaggerated or taken out of context, and are written to grab attention. He argued that his audience follows him partly out of envy of a lifestyle that most people feel they are not allowed to live.
He told Brian Rose that the more the spotlight is on you, the less you want it. He traced his flashy persona back to wanting attention as a child, and said social media began simply as a way to meet women.
Dan Bilzerian is an American social media personality, poker player and businessman, born in Tampa, Florida in 1980. He became famous for posting an extravagant lifestyle online and founded the cannabis and CBD company Ignite International.
In two interviews with Brian Rose, in 2019 and 2022, he talked about fame, social media, the headlines written about him, Navy SEAL training, poker, women, money and his memoir The Setup.
Start with Pleasure Is Not Happiness from 2019 for his views on fame and attention. Watch The Setup from 2022 for the stories in his memoir.
Twice, in August 2019 and August 2022.
The Setup is Bilzerian’s memoir, published in 2022. It covers his upbringing, poker, parties and business, and he discussed it with Brian Rose in the 2022 episode of the same name.
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