An interview with Diamond Dallas Page about the lessons he learned from his family, how his dyslexia is both a strength and a weakness, his favorite and least favorite part of being a wrestler, why he decided to start a yoga business and his best career advice.
Welcome to the 76th episode of 5 Questions with Dan Schawbel. As your host, my goal is to curate the best advice from the world’s smartest and most interesting people by asking them just 5 questions.
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This episodes guest:
My guest today is former pro wrestler turned entrepreneur, Diamond Dallas Page. Born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey his name came from his love of the Dallas Cowboys football team. After attending Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, he started work full-time running a nightclub in Florida, while being a wrestling manager in the American Wrestling Association. A year later, he worked as a color commentator in Florida Championship Wrestling, which became Professional Wrestling Federation, working alongside Gordon Solie before becoming a wrestler himself. He was eventually brought into World Championship Wrestling after Dusty Rhodes offering him a contract. At WCW, DDP started as a manager then eventually rose up the ranks to become the United States Heavyweight champion. He continued to wrestle for the World Wrestling Federation after they bought WCW and went on to win the WWF Tag Team Championship and WWF European Championship during his time there. After suffering from a neck injury, he retired, but eventually came out of retirement and has made appearances in WWF, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, All Elite Wrestling and others since. More recently, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of fame, published his second book “Positively Unstoppable” and launched his fitness program DDP Yoga. DDP was my favorite wrestler when I watched WCW so I was excited to learn more about his experience as a wrestler, life lessons and what he’s working on right now.
The 5 questions I ask in this episode:
- As a child, you were raised by your father and then your grandmother. What impact did they have on your life and what life lessons did you learn from them?
- In your autobiography, you admitted your dyslexic and it’s common that many of the world’s most successful people are dyslexic. How was your dyslexia both a strength and weakness as you grew up?
- Even though my friends loved the WWE, I was a WCW fan and you were my favorite wrestler because I enjoyed your charisma and of course the Diamond Cutter finishing move! What was your favorite and least favorite part of being a pro-wrestler and what would you say your legacy is?
- When did your wife introduce you to yoga and what transferable skills from wrestling enabled you to create a successful yoga fitness program?
- What is your best piece of career advice?
Follow DDP’s journey:
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