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Wally Green came from a world that was not spinning out of control but was born in chaos. A child of the projects in Brooklyn New York and raised in a household filled with abuse and lack of comfort, Wally found a family in gangs and crime. While being trained for a life going down the wrong path, Wally never lost his humanity. At the lowest point in his life a pause led to a change that walked him into the most unlikely of saviors. His drive and ability to figure things, The sport of ping-pong fell on his door and ultimately saved a kid from going down the wrong road. Now his inspirational story is a map on pulling yourself up and finding passion. Passing his knowledge onto the next generation, while he takes what he learned on this rough road and shows that anything is possible.
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This has gone awry. It's time for the sufferings podcast. Salvation comes in the strangest of places, when you see no way out, and hope is in short supply gravitation towards the common comfort is the goal. We sink into a place of darkness because that's all we see. And that's all we know. When the light starts to shine, and we look back at the darkness, we wonder several things. How do we get from there to here? How did I ever think I was stuck in that place? Are there others where I once was? Everything once was thought to be impossible until it was first achieved. Once the threshold was passed, and others follow the lead. They walked the road that was chartered through a tough education. I'm Kevin Donaldson here with Mike Felice. And on this episode of the suffering podcast, we welcome our special guests wildly green to discuss the suffering of a ping pong Pro. While he has taken this sport, and really used it to get out of the darkness wildly. Thank you so much for coming all the way from New York City to join us. Hey,
Wally Green:thank you for having me. Great to be here.
Kevin Donaldson:You know, Mike, I met Wiley a little while ago, and he's, he's been a godsend to me, like I sort of, I look at his tic TOCs. And I'm in awe of how he does it.
Mike Failace:You know, I mean, when we started, I still don't have tick tock you didn't know all of a sudden your tic TOCs exploding. And it's because of Wally.
Kevin Donaldson:Because he gave me the he gave me the formula give me the secret sauce.
Mike Failace:That was that was on the table. Look at that. Before we
Kevin Donaldson:start anything, let's give a big shout out to our marquee sponsor. That's Toyota of Hackensack. We don't trust anybody, but we buy our cars from there because we trust them. So go to Toyota hackensack.com Let them find you a car. So wildly. Your city boy out in the suburbs here. You said you'd like to take adventures. So you're out here on an adventure.
Wally Green:Yeah, for sure. It was a good adventure, though. You know, I got to relax on the bus ride. Although I look to the left of me to look out the window. And on the chair was the open tampon. While I was there, I have no idea on that a tampon a maxi pad was just on the chair. I took a video of it because that's probably gonna be my next post on tick tock and
Kevin Donaldson:the buses, you shared them fall out of your bag because I've seen your tripod. So for the audience, while it
Mike Failace:comes in and we can put the tripod on the table.
Kevin Donaldson:So for the audience while he comes in here, and while he does a lot of stuff on on tick tock. So he carries around the tripod and he pulls out his tripod and it's like a nine inch sex toy. That's pretty much what it looks like. And so I don't know maybe you fell out of your car.
Wally Green:looked at it was dead. It was just sitting. No,
Mike Failace:you know what happened. It was a girl sitting next to him. She sought a tripod. She took the sheet took the maxi bed, she said oh, I'm gonna go
Kevin Donaldson:at it. But this this episode is actually what we're doing something we've never done before. And you're the you're the architect of this Pioneer is we are going out over your Tiktok live with the suffering podcast. Yeah, that's an amazing thing. It's it's a little daunting. It's a little humbling.
Wally Green:I like I think it's fun. Let's
Mike Failace:we're we're we've done over 100 shows we haven't released more yet. We've never done one live yet though.
Kevin Donaldson:No, this is it. This is so thank you can
Mike Failace:pick your notes that I like usually do. Yeah.
Kevin Donaldson:Yeah, usually they are our producer Andrew and our edits all my my fumbles out and everything. So while every week we take a question from our audience, this week's question comes from Linus. Oh, and it says, what keeps you from returning to your dark place? Now I know throughout your life, you've come from some darkness. So how do you stop from going back there?
Wally Green:Wow, man, that's a good question. Man. I think for me, what keeps me from going back to my dark place is looking at all the other kids that's probably were in my situation, and just trying to be a role model for them, you know, I, I need to do better and I need, the only way they can do better is if I'm doing better. So that's what really keeps me from going to a dark place. And we and what really drives me to just stay good. And yeah, like that. Well, you've
Kevin Donaldson:developed this roadmap, and we're gonna get into it on this on this show. You've developed this roadmap, this very odd Road, like I don't even know where to start. Like, this is the start. This is the oddest roadmap to get out of a dark place that I've ever heard of. But before we do, Mike, what do you think what keeps you from going to your dark place? You
Mike Failace:know, I generally think it's just the memory, you know, living through those dark times. You never want to be in that place again. You know, so you just you just sit back and you suck it up and you say, I don't want to go back there anymore. That's pretty much listen. We will revisit our dark place every once in a while. Yeah, you know, every couple couple months you get into that. fall into that rut again. And then you stay in that rut for a couple of days and you hate the feeling. So I guess the memory and the feeling, the feeling of being in my dark place, I don't like that.
Kevin Donaldson:I have to sit there sometimes I get locked inside my own head. And I have to sit there and consciously get myself out like, No, you're not there anymore. You're not I have to do a lot of positive speech for myself. You can't go back there anymore. You that's not you anymore. That was you for a short time, and it wasn't a good you, you know, you have the support of your family, you have the love of your family. And, you know, I I just don't ever want to go back there. Like Mike said that memory is still very fresh. My mind wasn't that long ago,
Mike Failace:that the biggest prison to escape is your own mind. Yeah. And that's, that's really what it comes down to. If you get it out of your mind. You know,
Kevin Donaldson:you know, that's the hardest person to believe in, is yourself. You believe. We all believe in certain people around in our circle more than they believe in themselves. But there are times when we don't believe in ourselves. But while we I know you grew up in some tough circumstances. So why don't you tell our audience a little bit about yourself. I grew up
Wally Green:in the projects with a stepfather who was a very abusive, narcissistic individual. And I really didn't even understand what narcissism was until, until recently, until the pandemic, when I was in clubhouse and going into these mental health rooms and just learning about stuff. But yeah, my stepfather used to beat up my mom, like, a lot, like, almost every day, he used to either choke us smack or punch her. This is in New York, this is in New York, in Brooklyn, in the projects in marble projects, and, um, I grew up as a kid just watching this all the time. And, you know, as a kid, you want to protect your mom, but you can't, because you're too small, you're gonna get beat up too. So the only thing I could do was to console her. Right? When she got beat up or she was bloodied. I go and hug her. But then what would happen was is that they would go upstairs, do the things that they do. And then I'd be in trouble. Right? So I'd be in trouble for consoling my mom, my stepfather would punish me. And that and that was the cycle. So and I didn't realize any of this stuff until like I said, until the pandemic. What how narcissists work and narcissists, they just try to control every aspect of every part of your life. That's why none of my family and it's crazy, because I just came to I'll tell you, this is just recent. I'm learning about this. None of my family has ever been to my house. Isn't that crazy? Like my mom's brothers, sister. My mom has five brothers in their house right now. No, no, no. And when I was a kid, well, you were kidding, mom? None. None. No family. My grandmother has never been there are brothers never been there. Nobody. And then I learned about the Narcissus. And what they do is they alienate the person from the family.
Mike Failace:They lead you down physically and mentally. Yeah, and separate you and make narcissist want you to feel that you're the only person in their life. Right? Right. Yeah, that's what they do. They, they separate you from everything.
Kevin Donaldson:But I've recently come to realize that narcissism is a is a byproduct of trauma. Right. And so, Mike and I, and I say, and this is, this is a recent revelation for me, when I was in my bed, bad, bad place, I had to cave up, I had to protect myself. And the only way you can protect yourself is to try to control everything around you and make it what you need it to be at that particular time. It's a very unhealthy thing, right. But that's it's a survival mechanism. And I know there's many different types of narcissism, but that was the narcissism that I experienced that I had. And I really had to just let go, right, you know, controlling my kids controlling my wife, it was it was it wasn't healthy at all.
Wally Green:You know what I think? I think because, um, my so my stepfather was illiterate, like, he couldn't read or write at all, like, it was really, like, I had never met somebody work at all or anything. So here's the thing. He was a master carpenter. He could build anything, it didn't matter, and it would look perfect. And that's how I am but my mom on the other hand, my mom was smart. My mom had the degrees. And I think that maybe I, I think like you said, um, he he felt insecure, because my mom was really smart. You know, my mom was smarter than him. I always had to, like he used to, like, audio equipment and stuff. So I always had to do all the reading. To put this stuff together. I'm the one that helped him put everything together because he couldn't read it. And yeah, and but I mean, it was weird because my mom with her mouth was very strong. But in reality, she wasn't really strong at all. So
Mike Failace:I think the key thing you said is insecurity. I think narcissism is a byproduct of insecurity. Yeah, totally insecure. People that want to put other people down to make themselves look better.
Kevin Donaldson:Yeah, and you as a young Man, you're learning some you're learning survival techniques, you didn't understand fly. Yeah, you really didn't understand what you were what you were learning. But kids see that stuff and it imprints on them. And I'm so I'm very surprised, you can go one of two ways. It's like having a parent who's a smoker. Alright, so me and my brother, my parents were smokers, my brother ran so far away from cigarettes, because he didn't want to have anything to do it where I became a smoker. Alright, and it took me a long time to quit smoking. So you see, you see people growing up and bad household and some of them exhibit that. So maybe not to give any excuse for your stepfather his bad behavior, but I'm sure those insecurities came from somewhere where down the line where he grew up, and that was a survival technique that he learned. I'm not trying to make excuses for
Wally Green:and I can understand I get it. No, I never really looked at it that way. Because I don't really know his family. I know. Like, I remember his brother. Oh, and that's another thing his family came by. So like his brother, I met his brother. But I don't really know much about your family. All I know is that I grew up wanting to kill this guy. Like, I hated him so badly that I'm talking about we're talking about as old as seven or eight, I was thinking about how I could put, you know, in a project, you know, sometimes you have a lot of roaches, and back then we would use the boric acid. It's like a powder that you get on the corner of the walls to kill the roaches. I was trying to figure out how can I put this in his capsules in his pills, and then take it and this is like, seven, seven years ago. It's crazy. You
Kevin Donaldson:know, you're you're actually thinking realistically, kids will say God, I wish I I'd like to kill him. I wish he died. I wish he'd die. But you're actually thinking
Wally Green:about Yeah, this was, this is why I thought every day like every day of my life, I just wanted to kill this guy. And I even thought of the dumbest things like you know, when you watch cartoons, you know, you see all stupid movies, you see them put the sock in the muffler, all these things that came through my head, you know, you watch Road
Unknown:Runner you watch boulder on,
Wally Green:you know, and then I mean, the abuse. It was crazy, because not only my mom was getting abused, you know, every day, my stepfather told me that I would be in jail for the rest of my life. I would never amount to anything. And not to mention he had another son from my mom. So that made it even worse, because his son was like, you know, the golden the golden child. And I was like, yeah, he was bad. It was it was really bad.
Kevin Donaldson:And that's because we weren't your blood we actually so that book right there 14 seconds written by a guy whose New York guy Charlie suffer rally. And his father treated him the same way because I don't want to spoil it too much. But his father never believed that it was his own son. So that's where his younger brother was treated much better, because obviously that was his son like he knew it. So that makes a lot of sense. Did you
Mike Failace:did you get along with you? I guess you're half brother. Did you get along?
Wally Green:Okay. So with my half brother, I think I took a lot of what was going on at home on him. So like, I was bigger. I was a big uproar. I remember I took them off the bunk bed because he pissed me off. And I was like, if you cry. I'm gonna beat the hell out of you. So So I took a lot of what his dad was doing to me. I was doing to him.
Kevin Donaldson:You're starting to exhibit the same Yeah, you're becoming what you hate.
Wally Green:I remember exactly like, if, if I broke something. I would tell him he would have to say that he broke it. Or else it's going to be a problem,
Kevin Donaldson:don't you? It's hard, isn't it? You often become what you hate. Yeah. Now how did you how did you eventually break that cycle? Wow.
Wally Green:That's it? Well, the the cycle per se, without talking about the ping pong. So what what happened was is that, um, I hated my stepfather so much. Like, I never hated anyone. At the level. I mean, even now he's dead. And I still hate him.
Mike Failace:Wait until this episode is over. You're probably gonna hate me and Kevin. No, no,
Wally Green:no, no, I hate him so much that I figured out I never want to be like him. I can't be like the person that I hate so much. And so that's how I broke the cycle because I just truly truly hate this person. I think if you really truly hate someone that you're not going to be like that person. Anything that reminds you of that person would just burn your whole soul. So that's that was where I was at.
Kevin Donaldson:That wasn't you as a seven year old. Oh, no, no, that's much later in life. Yes. So How bad did it get?
Wally Green:It got really bad. I mean it. There was one time where you I was actually got in trouble in school, I got caught with a loaded weapon in school. And, boy What? Yeah, so. So I was already at 13, I already own six guns. So I had six guns at 13 years old. And three year old mine and three were from the rest of the gang. So the way that I found solace, whatever you want to call, it was two things. One was my gang that I had. And two was sports. So it was it was those two things was the way that I was able to escape from, from what was going on. So right the gang, the gang stuff gave me family, the family plus the violence, right, you know, the violent part of it will get the anger out. Sports also did that, but it did it in a different way. And I had some problems. I had a lot of problems at school, you know, as a kid, I was arrested a couple of times. And, you know, I was always smart. So I never got caught. I was always smiles always, always a smart kid. And but I had some huge problems. And
Kevin Donaldson:I need the teachers ever pick up on this in school say, hey, look, there's a because nowadays, when the kids acting out, there's a problem at all.
Wally Green:The teachers were scared to death of me. Like, because I mean, I was I was the kid, I was a very evil kid, like, like, you can't believe the level. I remember one time in class. There was a teacher that was pissing me off. And so what I did was I purposely set so he had a chair was next to the door. I purposely sat this day at this door, you know what I did, I took out a lighter, and I just held the light on the door because she's the one that's going to open the door. And I held the lighter to the like, this just sat there holding the light. And she went and got third degree burns. So that was the kind of kid I was. So teachers teachers was like,
Unknown:yeah, yeah, you didn't bring it up? Boric acid and,
Wally Green:yeah, so So anyway, um, I got some really big trouble. And I was looking at some serious time as a kid. And, um, but as a kid, I was, you remember, I told you the second part of my life was sports, right? And I loved sports, because sports was more of a healthier way to get the out of that aggression, right? Like, when I went in, like when I went into gang stuff, and, you know, stick people up, or rob people fight, or whatever, I never felt like, oh, man, it was a great day today. You know, I still felt bad. I mean, I felt a little bit, okay. But I felt bad. When I played sports. I felt like happy and I was so numb and tired, that when I went home, it didn't matter. And so in order to stay on the sport team, you got to have good grades, right? So I used to have kids do the work for me. So I had kids like taking my notes, doing doing work. And that's what saved me that no, that doesn't really saved me, because my mom put it to the judge. I don't know where she got this lawyer from. But she had a good lawyer and they said, look, look at his grades. Because like almost a straight A student, if we put him in jail for a long time is life is going to be ruined. So they came up with a great idea that they would send me to Africa to boarding school, which is, which is one of the biggest disasters ever applied.
Kevin Donaldson:But why Africa? There's a million boarding schools in the United States.
Wally Green:So because my mom had some African friends and they said, if you send him to Africa, they're gonna whip his ass straight. And that's pretty much what happened. Like I got beat up in school every day. You cannot meet violence with violence, y'all. It doesn't work. But you know what's funny, though, being the only person by yourself in a place where you have no control. I can do nothing. You don't have your friends will try to fight. I just got beat up. Yeah,
Kevin Donaldson:so were you Did you play any football in high school?
Wally Green:I played some football, I play basketball. I played volleyball. I play tennis. I was on the wrestling team because
Kevin Donaldson:you were like prime build for like a nice cornerback. Are
Mike Failace:you gonna say corners while
Wally Green:I played? I played every every sport in school, any sport that I could get my hands on. And that
Mike Failace:was to keep you out of the house to I guess to
Kevin Donaldson:Yes, but there's a difference to there's a difference. So when you're out there robbing and stealing, but you're you're saying that you always you never lost your humanity.
Wally Green:Yeah, like, like, I wasn't, I wasn't, I wasn't like, you know, like the kids today. They're very different than then than we were when I was a kid. Like, I would never shoot someone just on the basis that they looked at me, right. I mean, if I had to shoot someone it would it's not something serious would have had to happen. Right? So I always thought I never you know, if we jump somebody actually felt bad. Right? I actually like at the end of the day. I was like like, Damn, that was pretty messed up. You know, I feel bad. But some people don't feel that they don't feel bad at all. I think
Kevin Donaldson:that's a process though. Yeah, I do think it's a process where you become you lose your humanity. Right. And once your humanity is totally out of your last years, it's hard to bring you back from that.
Wally Green:Yeah. And yeah, so, you know, I got sent away to this, this boarding school for two years in Africa, and Africa sucked, really sucked. And then I came back, I came back two years later, I was very strong. Because when I was in Africa, so So you, you would think like, I went to Africa, and everything was like, Cool, besides getting beat up by all the teachers, but I experienced a lot of racism there, too. We're part of Africa, in Nigeria. So I was in Nigeria, and I experienced a lot of racism. So apparently, I wasn't the real black. And I wasn't the real black guy. And they used to make fun of me and these to say, they used to call me the kid who eats butter. They try some soft, no, yeah. So so I had to deal with this. So I spent a lot of time fighting there. I joined this thing called Men of War. And men have words like, it's like, if you took Boy Scouts, and you timed it by 10,000. It's like the closest thing to being in the most militant army, like they make you stand up and just fall like a tree. And I joined this thing, right? To get some respect. I had to do something to get some respect there because I was getting zero respect. I joined this I became much stronger, you know, bigger, and then I came back home two years later, and um, my my, my stepfather was grabbing my mom, and
Kevin Donaldson:your poor mother. When you were in Africa. Your poor mother. Listen, man, she tell you. She had to take a beatin.
Wally Green:Yeah, it was crazy. It's just, I never understood, you know. Then I come back, and I want to try to click I remember we were talking about something a little earlier. I had come back and I and he started again, with her. But this time I was different kid, I wasn't that same little kid anymore. You know, I'd spent his whole time fighting, I joined this crazy army thing. And he went to choke her by the throat. And when he grabbed her, I looked at him, I didn't say I just looked at him. There was just a work and I and he turned around and saw me looking immediately he goes, What are you looking at? You look over here, you're gonna get the same thing. And I just lost it. I don't even remember running out of the house. All I know is I ran out the hospital. This time. I didn't have any kinds of miles out of my friend's house. I ran out the house. Or when I got a gun came back, put it to his head. I was gonna I was gonna kill it. Like that was the day like because you know, it was it? Yeah, as a kid, when you watch this, it's a time bomb. Like you're gonna explode one day and that was the day and I came back. I was really going to kill him. And then, you know, my mom screaming, she's flipping out. His son's not around. And my mom called my mom because my mom calls the police. And she goes, Hey, you guys gotta hurry. My son's trying to kill my husband. And then I put the gun to my mom's head. I was gonna kill I was gonna shoot both for them. It was it was really like, I don't know, it's probably the I've been in some intense things in my life where people have put a gun to my head so shot at me. This was the most intense ever in my life because you're fighting
Mike Failace:against rage to you have so much fucking rage at that point. You're not thinking correctly. Yeah.
Wally Green:And I remember I was shaking. I started crying because you know, all my life. I try to protect my mom. And now I can do it. It's the first time that you know that I could step up and and she just turned against me.
Kevin Donaldson:Your mother sounded like your mother has a form of almost Stockholm Syndrome.
Unknown:Yeah, I think so. So battered woman syndrome. So
Kevin Donaldson:Stockholm Syndrome. If you look at Patty Hearst, she had Stockholm she gets kidnapped and then the kidnap the kidnappers assimilate them and then she becomes one of them. And she ends up going to rob a bank with them. Where your mother had just been beaten down for so long. That that's all she knew. That's normal to her. Amazing once you get used to
Wally Green:Yeah, it was I was it was crazy, man. But um, you know, something came on my shoulder. And like I tell you, I was always a smart kid. I always always a smart kid. And something just told me and said, Hey, if you do this right now, right here, everything your stepfather said about you it's gonna happen today. You know, you will probably be been jailed for up to life
Kevin Donaldson:at our worst parts. There is that one moment like you can I can pick out the one moment in my when things were at their absolute worst. And there was that pause just like you're talking about that pause. Just to bring you back one moment of clarity. That's all you need. That's all you need that some people are never fortunate enough to have that moment of clarity and they go ahead and they do the unthinkable which would have brought your life into a far far different thing.
Mike Failace:They wouldn't be here now. Wouldn't be sit with us tonight. Had you
Kevin Donaldson:not had that pause. And let's say you didn't kill your your mother and your stepfather had you not had that pause. What road Do you think you were going down like your outlook on life at that point?
Wally Green:It would have been bad I would have definitely He either wound up in jail for life or dead because so I don't have any friends that I grew up with when I was a kid, all my friends either probably dead or in jail. So all the friends that have all new friends, and those are people I was running with so 100% I would, I would, yeah, wouldn't be here. I don't think I'd for sure. Because I think at that point, I was just so enraged, it would have went to a whole different level, because I can see how like documentary for like, that would be a cause to lose my humanity. You know, when you want to all your life as a kid, you see your mom get beat up, you want to protect her, now you have the chance to do it, now's the time to do it. You know, not that your mom calls and says, Hey, my husband and my son are fighting, come handle the situation, but says specifically, my son is trying to kill my husband. So
Kevin Donaldson:I think I think that's a that's a young child thing. Because as a child, we always try to toe that edge of the cliff to get the best view of what it looks like down at the bottom. Right, right. Right. And we will try to get as close and close closer and kids are fearless. And they get as close as they can't. Some kids fall over, and we lose them. But then some kids just get just close enough where they see the danger of what the fall would be
Mike Failace:right. And that's when they back up and say I ain't doing that again.
Kevin Donaldson:Fuck that. Now, you you back up from that situation. What happens next? The police show up?
Wally Green:No, I was already gone. How I was you were a smart kid. Yeah, I was really slow. I was I, I left and then. But I got I actually got I wouldn't say was arrested. But I got stopped and pulled into the station. I told him I said I never had a gun because there's no proof that again anyway. So I was like, that's not true. You know, my mom got beat up. My mom, you know, suffers from domestic violence. And so I just never went home. I spent a year living in the streets. And things were getting really bad during that one year, because now I didn't have a place to live because I was not going back to that place.
Kevin Donaldson:What you're what you're about is this. So at this
Wally Green:at this age at this time, I didn't see. I was 14 when I level 16. So I was 16 years old. Yeah, but
Kevin Donaldson:what's the year? Around? Ah, man, because I can't tell how old you are. And I'm not even gonna
Wally Green:tell you neither. Then I don't know
Kevin Donaldson:what was this before? Like, it was in the area you hung around? Was it? Yeah. Brooklyn was Brooklyn a marble project? Because you know, they did a lot of renovations in New York. Oh, it's very different now. Yeah. The New York has changed. And that's why I'm trying to get a lens. It's gotta be so it was before like Times Square got cleaned up by Joe. Yeah, yeah, it
Wally Green:was definitely. Yeah, Times Square is one of the places I used to hang out.
Kevin Donaldson:And that's that used to be? Geez, back then. It was like, I heard some people talking about it. You couldn't go out of the house without your wallet or your wallet. You get robbed?
Wally Green:Yeah, what people would do in Times Square? They would especially especially if you are cuz I did it with us. Especially if you're a foreigner. People would escort you to the ATM in the bank. They would escort you especially especially the guys who did the the like like the you know, the the Witcher three card. Monte those guys like you would have to be very careful because they would say, Come on, we're going to the ATM. And they took all your money. Wow, that's great Time Square. It was crazy. But um, yeah.
Mike Failace:And it's like a tourist capital world, you know? And they couldn't even clean it up back then. That's crazy.
Kevin Donaldson:And then somehow and this, this still shocks me to this day you come in from where you came from? to? How the hell did you find ping pong? Like, seriously, out of all the things and all the sports that you love? Why ping pong?
Mike Failace:I used to smack people with paddles. I'm pretty good at this.
Wally Green:Hey, that's a it's funny. You said. It's funny. You said that. That that's along the lines of what happened. So I actually hated ping pong. I made fun of all the kids in my high school played it. Like I bullied them all the time. So I hated the sport. One day, I was shooting pool at this pool hall that had ping pong tables and wasn't interested at all. But I got upset. And I took my pool stick and shattered it on. I didn't do it on purpose. I just hit it in the pool stick shattered. And I had to put someone's head around, not on the on it's a jacket. And I had to so when I was younger, I said anything that happened to me, I would take out on someone else. I would blame everyone for everything that happened to me. I could stub my toe and I'm gonna find someone to take it out on so of course after I break my pool stick I'm like really pissed off because this was a very expensive pool stick that I actually stole.
Unknown:Yeah, so I worked hard To get that Yeah, I did, I worked
Wally Green:very hard to get it. So, you know, I'm angry now. And I see some Asian kids playing ping pong. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm gonna go mess with these kids. So I go over there and I said, Hey, I want to get a hit. And the guy goes, you play this. I was like, I don't play this. I just, I just want to hit the ball. Just Just Just give me the racket. Take the racket from him. So the guy is the ball dummy. And the object the idea was to hit him in the face with the ball. And I was trying to hit him. Right? Because, you know, if I just walked up to him punched him, well, on camera, it wouldn't be a good look. So I tried to hit him with the ball and the ball went on the table, and the kid goes, Oh, my God, you're, you're, you're amazing. You play this. I was like, I don't play this man. He was because I was getting pissed off. Now the guys to get up, get up peatbog. I was like, Nah, don't play this. He was like, hey, there's a ping pong club that you have to go to? You gotta check it out. Like, everyone's so good. They stand far from the table. And I was like, You're crazy. There's no place where people gather to play this.
Kevin Donaldson:So I'm a street kid, man. I go, I robbed people. I don't play ping pong. Come on what exactly.
Wally Green:But you know, what happened was, is the athlete in me because I'm, you know, at the time is a big athlete, and I love sports. And I was like, Is it really a place where people play this? Alright, so I said, let me go check it out. So I go and check out this place. I walk in, it's a pool hall, that has about I think, remember, maybe six ping pong tables. And when I walked there, and people were playing, like playing, playing, and the thing that attracted me to the sport was that every single person that was playing was black. And I was like, wait a minute, like people played. I was like, Okay, this, this is strange.
Mike Failace:It's always like, it was always like an Asian sport.
Wally Green:That's what I thought. And I saw every person you know, they they were either, you know, from the islands or from Africa from, you know, some of the place. But nonetheless, they were black. And I was like, oh, maybe this sport is cool. So that's how I that's how I first got interested. And I started trying to play nobody would please me, everyone was like, Nah, that was really bad. I met some old guy who would play with me. I think at the time he was, he passed away. But I think at the time, he was like, I don't know, maybe in his late 50s 60s, and the guy would crush me. And I would get so angry. And I'm like, How can this old guy beat me? You know, I'm a seasoned athlete. If
Mike Failace:you go any further, I'm 56. Don't call us.
Wally Green:But yeah, I was like, This is crazy, man. So that made me want to play more. Because like, this guy was just killing me. And, um, eventually, down the line. I mean, the Israeli guy comes up to me says, Hey, do you have a partner to play? And I said, No, I'm not really he goes, Well, I'll pay you $20 If you can't be my study partner, because he's in and out of town, and he wants to come in. I'm someone who is and at that time, I could hit like a hit forehands. I could hit okay. And I said, Yeah, of course, $20 was a hustle, you know, because mine, you remember, I was like, pretty much in the street. And I was like, get $20 Let's go. And I would play with this guy, he would pay me $20. You know, every time we played, and then, you know, I became a little close with him, right? And I was always open about my life, and like, what I'm going through and the things I was going through, right, I just didn't care. I'm just like, you know, and, but for him, it was more like a TV show. Right? Like, if you if you don't know anyone who's lived that life or been in that life, it's very hard to understand how, you know, a kid at 13 has guns. But it's really easy. It's not difficult. It's something that just like when people tell me say, oh, yeah, I know. Right? So for him, it was more like a TV show. So he was listening, but he wasn't hearing. And then one day, I went to the club, a 22 fold on my bag. And he saw it. He looked at me, I looked at him. And he had this look on his face. And it was almost like, I still remember till today. It was like, all the puzzle pieces had just clicked together. And he gave me this look. And I was like, Yeah, I'm out. Cuz I don't know what he's gonna do. In a couple days. I know he's gonna do so. I left. I thought, well, you know, there goes my $20 I'm never gonna see this guy again. Okay, whatever. And he calls me two days later, he says, Hey, are we still playing? And I was like, alright, let's Yeah, I guess. So I go meet him. We play and then the guy goes to me. Hey, I want to invite you to my house. I was like, okay, that's weird. Right? Like you just saw gunfire in my bag. You want to bring me to your house, but your family is that not to mention his house was near Hunter Mountain, which is two and a half hours away from New York City in the woods, and I'm like,
Unknown:This guy's so he's got some kind of intention. Yeah, I was
Wally Green:like, what's going on? So I wind up going with him meeting his family, you know, they they, his family lived up there all the time. He's in New York. They're in Israel. And um, I played ping pong with them and and, you know, ate with them and I think he wanted to show up Me what? Family was like what real family was see? What's your custom motto? Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then he tells me, he says, Hey, I really want to help you. Because at that time, I was really interested in ping pong. Like, I really want to help you. I have a connection in Germany, and I'm gonna pay for you to go to Germany to learn ping pong. And I was like,
Kevin Donaldson:what? Didn't you know, coming from where you you came from? Did you think there was an ulterior motive? Because I'm sure Yeah. In the neighborhood that you grew up in? Nobody
Wally Green:did. Nobody gave. No, no, no, no, no.
Kevin Donaldson:Do you think he was like, you know, he's little, maybe he was into
Wally Green:you. I thought in the beginning, when he was when he was telling me I want to, I want to invite you to my home. I was like, we didn't invite me to your home is like to meet my family. So he said to me, my family. I was like, but even even then I was still like, okay, that's weird. Like, why would you bring a kid like you should be running far away from me not like trying to get closer to seeing a gun fall out of your bag? Yeah. So it was kind of weird, man. And he was funny. You know, what the craziest thing about this is? The craziest thing is that he never mentioned that gun that fell on my bag. It never kicked because I don't know. I don't know, if he did it on purpose, not mention it. Or if he just never did, because if he would have mentioned it, I would have never talked to him again. I'd probably still been in the same situation.
Kevin Donaldson:Or maybe is there a possibility that this guy understood.
Wally Green:I tabs the I guess I'm still trying to figure it out right
Mike Failace:now. Apparently, to me, it sounds like the guy just had a big heart and he saw something in you and wanted to help you out.
Kevin Donaldson:Like if I if I saw I grew up in a house full of abuse. And if I saw a kid, and that's kind of helps me out when I coach young kids, if I see a kid that's acting a certain way, I sort of I won't say nothing to him, but I'll look at him, I might spend a little extra time with him. Because I know what he's going through at home. Or if the kid is misbehaving in a certain way, or doesn't listen in a certain way, because I understand it. If I'm from an outsider looking in on this situation, and I see this guy taking an interest in you in a certain way, it might be him his way of paying something forward that happened to him
Mike Failace:that that's the only thing I was gonna say Did something happen to him? Oh,
Unknown:I never even thought about that. Yeah, that's that's why we brought him we're trying to learn this stuff here.
Wally Green:Never came I never even never even thought
Mike Failace:about how he could add something in his childhood where he just you know, saw something in you that maybe saw himself as a child
Kevin Donaldson:not all Israelis or you know, their military people going into wailing wall. I know some some true blue criminal Israelis know. And they deal with some stuff if he was a true Israeli, they deal with some stuff that we that the cameras never show and never say. So maybe it's a possibility where he was heading down that path and saw you in a similar situation. And you know, those are those are the important people that we need to pay attention to in our life. Yeah, yeah. Do you still keep in contact with him?
Wally Green:So I lost contact with him, like many years ago, when Israel had that big war. So and then we've been trying to we spent a lot of time to try to find them because we made a film. Not that long ago, maybe like three years ago, documentary about these ping pong tables I put in Brian Park. And as part of the film, we wanted to find this guy, though, so that we could it could tie into the story about Look what you did,
Kevin Donaldson:if you want to shout out his name, so if he's out there, I mean, hey, let's so his last name,
Wally Green:but his first name is Alec. His first name is Ali took me many years to remember his first name actually.
Mike Failace:So think there's maybe only one Israeli named Alec out there. So maybe
Kevin Donaldson:it was about what age would Alec be
Wally Green:now? Maybe it's gonna be the seven ds. So if
Kevin Donaldson:anybody knows an Israeli gentleman about 70 years old, first name Alec deadliest deer hunter mountain? Yes. Right across the street from Hunter, that, you know, please reach out to us. There's somebody out there that's going to listen to this or maybe watch one of your tech talks. And know this person. So
Mike Failace:I just want to get back to you did go to Germany.
Wally Green:Yeah, I went. And he sent me i He didn't go well. It just sent you on your own. Yeah, yeah, he paid everything. Everything was paid for. I lived in a school with like the top athletes of different sports and not just ping pong. I went different ping pong, but I lived in a school with like the best athletes. But even then it I mean, just just because you take the kid out of ways from him put them stick them in somewhere it doesn't mean that I changed like I was still this filing kid still got Street. Yeah. And I was still smiling kid and if not even a little bit more, because I didn't know any of these kids and everyone, but the thing was, you know, everyone was was always being extra nice. You know, you're from America. Oh, you're so cool. Blah, blah. So it took me a little while to adjust because I didn't know how to I'm not used to that. Like, you know, everyone was just genuinely a man. You're cool. You From New York and this and that, and you know, there's a thing they call it's called Killing you with kindness. Right? Yeah. So that's what happened. You know, it's a real thing. I became confused. I didn't know how to react. You know, and I always say this all the time, it's really hard to punch someone in the face when they're being extra nice to you. It's so difficult. I mean, some people can do it. But that takes a different kind of person to do that. I can't do that. Because like I told you before, even when I was doing my gang stuff, I still had, you know, I started humanity in the right. So little company, how
Kevin Donaldson:long did it take? How long did it take for you to do this?
Wally Green:It took me it took me the first maybe like a month, a month, a month and a half of, of just like, you know, listening to these kids, because everyone's so nice. And then like I said, just like back in the house, something comes to me and it says, Hey, why are you upset? Why are you angry? You're not in your abusive home anymore? You're so far from it. You're not even in the same country? Why are you angry? Here? You're with people who actually liked you, and they liked you. Not because they can? Not because of what you can do for them, not because you can pick up your gun for them. But they like you. It's unconditional. You Yeah. And so once I was able to figure that out, then I started to let down the guard a little bit became
Kevin Donaldson:did you want to print friendly? Did you appreciate their friendliness after a while?
Wally Green:Yeah, because it was it was it was just like, I don't know if the word is wholesome, but genuine genuineness very genuine. It was like,
Mike Failace:you know, I mean, coming from your upbringing, you probably didn't have too many people that were nice and showed you attention, right? Like you said, because you're wildly green. Right? And they're, they didn't know, you know, preconceived notions and just looked at you as a person, and you were
Wally Green:great. And I never had to ever think of, Oh, what am I going to have to do for this person? Like, I never had to ever think of that. Whereas when, you know, when I was doing my gang thing, that's always in your mind, you know? Alright, I know, I gotta do said, Oh, this guy favorite. Yeah. But there was just like, I don't do anything. Just be me. And people just nice. And yeah, so that was, that was the first change in my mindset, which actually set me up to be a nice person.
Kevin Donaldson:That's a That's amazing, because it probably gave you after a while when you finally dropped your guard to give you the appreciation, because you can only appreciate things when you know the other side. Yeah, you know, you can only appreciate good things in life when you know the suffering. And not to be not to give us a shameless plug, but you're on the suffering podcast. So I'm going to do it. Yeah, that's what we preach on here all the time. You have to look at the bat, you have to know what the back of the page is in order to appreciate the front. And that sounds like what you what you did. Now, how did this become a profession for you?
Wally Green:Yeah, so I got really good at ping pong. And I came back to America. And my big break came I was I was starting playing tournaments, a lot of tournaments in the US. And there was one tournament, it wasn't even like a ringtone. It was just like some put together tournament that was put together in Chinatown. And, um, I went there, and some kid was visiting from China, and we got to play against each other. So as we're playing the match, the kid was really loud. He was going oh, and then I started getting pissed off. So yeah, that's exactly exactly what was happening. Then, you know, the, because like, like I say, even though my mindset was changed, I was still hooked. And I was like this dude, bro. Alright, we're gonna play this game. So then I would make a point. I'll go that's it, boy, send them back, send them back. And I'll just start talking about trash. And we're going back and forth. Me and this kid and I'm after the match. Rockstar Games actually have you guys know Rockstar order. They happen to be there scouting. And they came up to me and says, Hey, you didn't know Rockstar Games? Hell yeah. Grand Theft Auto man complete the whole time. I love it. And they were like, before they even finish the sentence of we're gonna make I was like, yes, you're for sure. So they they wanted to make the world's first real ping pong game called Rockstar presents table tennis. So I was like, hell yeah, I got on it. Um, I did like 90% of the motion capture. And then and like I said, I was always smart. So when I said Yes, I said yes with some intention. Because I liked ping pong a lot. And I wanted to be a pro. And the only way I could be a pro is if I had money to do it. Right because to travel around the world is no chance if you don't have any money. And so I did this game with them. The game beat every sports game. Actually Madden. NBA Live all of them for best sports game is it was the most talked about sports game of the year. Because Rockstar doesn't make any games that were in violence. And here, they're making a ping pong ball and people like what? There's no way that. So I made this game with them did a lot of promotions for it in Japan and around the place. And then I said, Hey, I want to play pro I want to play on the pro tour for USA. Would you guys sponsor me? And the answer was like, yes, immediately, because sponsoring me would also get the game around the world. Right? So I was like, alright, so they were like, well, I need to come up with a budget. And I was like, what's that? I don't even know what a budget was.
Unknown:I didn't know. I'm used to $20 from Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I
Wally Green:had no idea. But I you know,
Kevin Donaldson:what you've made work throughout your life. Yeah. And this just sounds like another thing that you just made work. Yeah,
Wally Green:put together a budget. And they agreed, and they sponsored me and I traveled the entire world, just playing ping pong. And I suck. I still traveled the entire world plague.
Kevin Donaldson:I seriously doubt you sucked. You don't you don't get approached by Rockstar Games.
Wally Green:I mean, I was good. But I wasn't. I definitely was not. When I when I first started. I was definitely not the level of the top players in the world. But I mean, and I also had a weird, I also had a really bad mindset that I had to change because like I said, I was like a superstar athlete. And everything I did, like, when I was in school, I was MVP for volleyball, basketball, anything I ever played or touched, I was the best. And I thought for sure I'm gonna have these ping pong, of course, I'm going to be the best
Kevin Donaldson:player ever. I sort of understand gravitation towards what some would consider an odd professional sport. In college, I had to take a gym, and I'm looking through them and you know, I take badminton. Alright, I take badminton and ever all my friends I was I played football. You know, I all my friends making fun of me like you playing? Well, there was about a group of five of us that could really play. It was the most fun I've ever had, you know, most of the people are off in the corner doing their thing. But there was a five of us who really, really played and it was so much fun. It was it was a dynamite experience. And I don't you know, I don't look back on it at all. So how do you? How do you go? Further? How do you you're on the pro tour.
Unknown:Now, are you winning these tournaments? Hell no. getting destroyed at
Mike Failace:least placing and getting money out of them? Oh, no.
Kevin Donaldson:But it doesn't matter. You got to matter.
Wally Green:See, so So what happened with me is I had to, I had to fix my mindset, right? I had to realize that I was probably the worst player, the worst pro in the world. And once I figured that out, then I had to make goals that actually made sense. Because the goals I was making, were not making any sense. I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna beat this dude, this dude's been playing since three, bro. You're not beating them. So I started making goals that made sense. So the first goal I made was, I gotta get five points. If I can get five points. In one game out of four. I'm the champion. And I made myself believe this. So I would go and I would just play for five points, five points. And I would get five points. And I would go Yeah, and I would make this noise. And people would be like, what's wrong with this dude, he just lost. But no one understood that. No one understood what I was doing. And the whole point was just to make goals to actually make sense. And then celebrate the goals. So me jumping up and down was a celebration of making those small goals. So that's how I started getting better. I started going from five points, one game to five points every game to one game to two games, three games to a match. And that was the only way that I could get better. And that's how I started getting better. But people were just making fun of
Kevin Donaldson:me. What was what was your top accomplishment as a pro ping pong player?
Wally Green:Oh, man, I think I won a lot of tournaments. stuff in America, like a lot of raiding events. But uh, I think my, my best accomplishment on the table didn't come as a pro. Didn't Well, I was a pro, but it didn't come on the pro circuit. It actually came in just a normal American tournament where I was playing this kid who was actually not even as good as I am. But he was really fast. And just everything was just so quick. And I was very slow behind them and the kid. And he was also I think was maybe 200 rating points lower than me. So similar to similar to chest. And um, he was beating me to 096 and a games go to 11. So 2096, I had no chance. And then I remember that I sat down. I thought about what I was doing. And I said, What can I do different? How can I win this? What? What can I do different? And then I say, You know what? I'm gonna slow this game down. I'm gonna play as slow as humanly slow as possible, right? Because the key was so fast. And so what I would do is I would take extra time when I would serve I would look at him, the boss the boss and take a look at him again. And when I would say I was slavering a slower motion, and I wind up winning that match. And I think when when people ask that, I think that is the biggest accomplishment get in his head and taken him out of his game. Yes. Just being able to adjust and
Kevin Donaldson:you've adjusted. Yeah, but you've adjusted throughout your whole life. Yes, you've had to. And did you ever get a sponsorship deal for flexure like ping pong paddles? Oh, all right, but that's what Forrest Gump. Yeah, no, right. Yeah, it was his thing.
Wally Green:I my my table tennis sponsors a company called Yola is J. Oh, LA. And they sponsor me for a long time. It's been a long time. They sponsored me and um, they're really good company. Really good group of people. Yeah, so that that's my table tennis sponsor. It's called the hola
Kevin Donaldson:but it's one game that everybody has played has played. Yeah, every buddy has played and we were talking a little bit before the show how everybody's played cornhole? But us cornhole on ESPN, the OHL difference. It's different. It's the same thing with ping pong, but it's it's a relatable game. You know, it's like bowling. Everybody's going bowling, but you watch the guys on the Pro and the pro bowling tour. It's it's a lot different. Right, you know? But you've taken it to the next level. Are you your Are you still actively in tournaments?
Wally Green:No, no. Now now I just kind of you're officially retired totally with a tie. But I mean, I, I play mostly for fun. And I play pro Paddle Tennis. That's my other sport is paddle tennis. I play pro paddle tennis because you didn't pick up that pickleball it's not gonna happen.
Kevin Donaldson:Well, you said that about ping pong. Yeah, exactly. True. And you said that
Mike Failace:next year when it comes on
Kevin Donaldson:Lolly green to pro Pickleball
Wally Green:is crazy. I'm under a lot of pressure to play pickleball a lot. I have a lot of people in my area and my DMs
Kevin Donaldson:because everybody says it's so much fun.
Wally Green:Yeah, it's for me, it's it's a bit slow. And it's not fun for me, like you know, I play I play ping pong, which is super, super fast, super, you know, aggressive. And then I play Pendleton's, which is even more aggressive. Pickleball is just very slow.
Kevin Donaldson:It's for an older generation. Mostly, it
Wally Green:was created for that. But now you got a lot of younger people playing it. And it's just not fun for me like I trust me. I just came back from Vermont. I was in Vermont, giving a talk. And I met the guy who runs the number one agency for the agent for pickleball players. And I'm like, Man, I just can't get away from this. Everywhere I go,
Kevin Donaldson:Oh, it's calling you. It's
Wally Green:not even my sponsor. Even my sponsor right now. Makes pickleball paddles.
Kevin Donaldson:You have to you don't even play paddles anymore. Yeah, play on my cell phone. So if you go if you go on your tic tock, tick tock. It's wildly green NYC. Yes. official official official. You will see Wiley playing. I don't think I've seen one on there where you're playing with a with a paddle.
Wally Green:Oh, man that they're there. But but it's either my little paddle you'll see or my cell phone. There is a couple playing with my paddle. But that's and you
Kevin Donaldson:were playing with a sword on one of them? Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah, I checked out that I looked through a lot of those different things and you got to one of the one of the craziest catchphrases I've ever heard. You'll hear it on every single one of them. I'm gonna give it away. Those people watch it on tic tac live right now. I'm sure
Mike Failace:well aware of that. But just think pickles are green. Right? Pickles are great. Molly green. Now can't
Kevin Donaldson:get away from it.
Unknown:I mean, just thinking of marketing is just not happening.
Kevin Donaldson:Now before before we go. They've recently made a few movies there where they've integrated ping pong Forrest Gump and one of them one of my favorites balls of fury. I know about it very well. Balls of fury is one of it because Oh God it's fun. That's a funny funny movie.
Wally Green:I know about it very well. When when when the balls of theory balls a fairy came out.
Kevin Donaldson:Randy Montana. Was that what what was his name right was Randy some and
Wally Green:yeah, for that. Put that came on configure our clubs been open for 13 years, then we didn't make it ping pong another
Kevin Donaldson:three years making 16 Naked ping pong. Yeah, here we
Wally Green:go. 16 so that came out like 15 years ago but see now that was a ferry.
Mike Failace:That's like pickleball
Kevin Donaldson:that's the that's how pickleball was started.
Mike Failace:Yeah. I know you've played with a cell phone you play with a little paddle you never play with that. You never played with that before? Did
Wally Green:you? Forget about forget about forget about pickleball I tell everybody just play paddle tennis or pop tennis is the new name for a much more fun sport.
Kevin Donaldson:But that that it was a it was a comedy obviously it was a fun. Yeah. Like it was right Have around this game that everybody knows that you have brought to the forefront and now your your clubs, these amazing ping pong clubs. People go in there. And it's it seems to be always crowd. I don't know if that's just the appearance, but it seems to be always packed and always crowded. Yeah. And what tell us a little bit about those,
Wally Green:we used to have a party in our apartment called Naked ping pong. So that's where the naked ping pong comes from. And all it was it was just a ping pong party, you know, it's just like, bring your own there. Bring your own drinks. Just have fun, you know. And before we call it naked is just a party. And then we had to come up with a website, we call it a naked ping pong, which means the state of mind was just enjoying life and doing what you want and not really caring. And we would have these parties and the parties would get really big. We even had our DJ was, you know, Dame dashes. Yeah, it was do dash a sudden was our DJ. Yeah. So we had a DJ. And, you know, we made his website websites got so many hits. Then we started getting a company saying, hey, you know what? We would like to sponsor you guys. We, they wouldn't give us any money. But they say we'll give you all the product you want. So alcohol, beer, Red Bull. Perfect, right? And then we said, Okay, well, you know, we can't sell alcohol in apartments illegal, and you get kicked out. What we can do is we can make something official, make a tournament, you know, around seven o'clock, you know, and charge people $20 To get in, and all you can drink free. Wow. So it was a pregame spot, people would come. And we used to have a line. They used to go around the block. Like it was crazy. To one point we had to hire a bouncer. But then the bouncer kind of killed the vibe, because, you know, naked Ping Pong is just about being free and having fun. And that's how we started this business.
Kevin Donaldson:Well, there's not I don't think there's a big gang population in the ping pong world. You know, the jets in the shark playing against each other warriors. Yeah. So you do you understand something? Was something I've noticed about you is there's just something around you. Where you dream it? And you do it?
Wally Green:Yeah, it's Yeah. So that's yeah, that's that's been pretty much my my life, I think. I don't know. I think some people say manifestation. I'm really good at that. Like, I just believe, like, if I want to do something, and I really passionate about it some way it's gonna happen. You wish it into existence? Yeah. Like, it may not happen today may not be tomorrow, but eventually, it's gonna happen. It always happens. I just happen to be at the right place at the right time. Always.
Mike Failace:And you have such a positive outlook on things now. I mean, I can't picture you being from the streets. I mean, you're just a hell of a nice guy.
Kevin Donaldson:While you always work the right place at the right time. Yes, yes. It's true. Even when you were living with your mother and your stepfather, you you had to be there, again, needed to be there. I think so. Because if you weren't there, and things didn't transpire, the way you would have never been living on the street would have never met. Right, Alex? Yes. That means that this chain of events, there's there's a reason for this chain of events. And now you're, you're this superstar. Like, this is crazy. Yeah. Do you ever think back and say, you know, how did I get from there? To here, sort of like recap in your life?
Wally Green:I look back at it. And it's like, Wow, that's crazy. I always say, that's, that's great. I've
Mike Failace:been sitting here at all times, and it's crazy.
Wally Green:And it's ping pong. I'm like, that's really crazy. But um, you can change your world with anything. Yeah, it's not changed what one paddle. But something he said, just for fun. I was just thinking about what was really funny. You know, when when you talk to me now, like you, you kind of don't feel, you know, people don't feel like, oh, yeah, this guy was gang banging harder when he was young. Because, you know, like, my character is totally changed. You know, and sometimes I do get out of character when, like, when need be. Yeah. But the funny stories is actually a funny story. Um, a couple of weeks ago, I was practicing Palatinus. And, you know, you see me walking with my paddles. And there was a kid, a young kid, too. And I was pushing a city bike in the city of bikes started making an alarm. And the kid just saw me and thought that I was the guy that he could pick on. I don't know why he would assume that. But anyway, he started laughing. And so I went, it sounds like Yo, you know, you have a problem, like, like, what's wrong? And he's like, What? Do you know who I am? And I said, bro, so listen, I'm not to do draw. I said, I would put you away right now. Like, I'm not even doing he said, like, what? You're no gangster. And when he said that, it just made me kind of live it. So, you know, I knew this kid was young, and I really didn't want to hurt him. So I said, Listen, bro, take out your phone. This is really sweaty. He goes why's he just take out your phone? Right? Just take out your phone. You take out the phone. I said, my name is Wally Gree. I say Google, Wally green formatting gangster. And let me see what you see. He Googled it. He was like, Oh my God. Wow, you really? And I was like, bro, listen, don't judge people, by the way they look you because you never know who you never know who's in front of you in anything could be good. It could be bad. never judged people, bro. I say, you know, just be real, be authentic. Be yourself and no life is good. You know, and we shook hands. And that was it. But it was kind of funny, like, those kinds of situations can go a different way. But I suppose I was still in that life. Right? I would have hurt that kid really bad. Like, really? For what? Because he wasn't going to do anything. He's a young kid who was high and now just being a kid. But that situation could have went really bad. And you know, it's funny
Kevin Donaldson:that happened with Paul Castellano, the my boss, so he was driving from his home. And some kid, most humans hit the kid on the bike when in his limousine, and the kid started yelling obscenities at the guys get out of the car, they throw the kid in the back of the limo and he takes him to the house. And he goes, said exactly what you said. Exactly. It's like, Do you know who I am now? Okay, never, never underestimate who you're talking to. Who's in front of you all. So that's, that's that rings true. Yeah, imagine that. Wow. So what's next for you?
Wally Green:Man? Now, you know, I'm all about right now. And just inspiring kids. Man, I really love I really love inspiring these kids and motivating kids. Like, that's like my new thing. Now I want to talk to kids. And just a couple of weeks ago, or maybe a month ago, I did something with this company called Andras children, and they help kids who suffer like PTSD and trauma. And I got to hang out with these kids or these kids has been, you know, family abuse, and just hanging out with them and talking to them. And, you know, seeing that they know that you've been through it, and they're opening up to you like that was like one of the I mean, it was tough. It was hard. Because it brings you like you said it brings you back to that like doing that kind of stuff brings you back to that dark spot. But you need to do it because these kids are suffering. Like it was such a such a great time to be with these kids. And you're doing what
Kevin Donaldson:I love doing for you. Yeah.
Mike Failace:You're you become so many kids who aspire to want to be like, can you could you think about that when you were 12 or 13 years old?
Kevin Donaldson:So where can we find you? I read some plugs because I know you gotta you got so many calls into fire right now. It's crazy
Wally Green:stuff going on. Instagram is good place people can follow me on Instagram. So that's Wiley, green NYC of course. But I got some stuff coming out. I got some. You know, I had the New York Times article, you know, Stefan Curry's podcast that I'm on just came out a little while ago. I've MSG o MSG network stories coming out. This month, I think and Scholastic, Scholastic, can you believe that?
Kevin Donaldson:One of the things I got to recommend
Mike Failace:to you this whole way through school, high school as one of
Kevin Donaldson:the one of the things I got to recommend to you as a pop up card, you know what the purple card is? Because you got mine. Because that's how that's how I that's cool. So if you go to Papa Papa was one of our sponsors. So if you go to paypal.com and put in tsp 20, the suffering podcast 20, you get 20% discount, all these little links that you're given out right now you can give with a with a tap of a digital business card. That's what you showed me? Yeah. And the big thing is, is when they change, they get updated.
Wally Green:Yeah, that was really cool. I was like, Well, why did you get this wrong?
Kevin Donaldson:Yeah, so go to go to paypal.com. And you can do that. So that's a really big deal. Wiley. Like I'm at a loss for words right now. Because you're you're pretty pretty freakin amazing. And I don't mean to be on your, you know, on your pickle. But you've lived this life, you've gone from here to here, you've been to the top, you've been to the bottom. And that's why people listen to what you have to say right now. It's because you come from a place of understanding. If you were never in those places in the projects, you think you're worth would
Wally Green:have that big of a no, for sure enough course. 2% 100%.
Kevin Donaldson:So this life that you've lived in the suffering that you've gone through to where you are now what do you think it's taught you?
Wally Green:And I mean, honestly, what it what is really taught me was that, you know, everyone's not out to get me that's the first lesson I ever learned was that because that's what I thought, everyone's everyone's not to get me and I'm responsible for my own behavior. And then after that, it's taught me that, you know, that I need that I need not want or I need to tell my story, so that I can help other people who've been through it too. So you know, all the crazy stuff that I went through in my life. Sometimes I think yeah, man, you know, you went through this But now you can share with others who are going through this right now, and maybe hopefully change their lives before they get into the kind of things I would have probably gotten to
Kevin Donaldson:you. You seem like a person. So the first time I met you, I knew who you were. And I did not approach you. I kind of stayed away from you. Because you're, you're, again, I just knew who you were, I knew what you've done. I knew what you've been through. I've seen your story, and I've seen you on different shows and stuff. So I never came up to you. I was introduced to you through our friend Chris comatose. And what I found is that person in front of me is not what I thought you weren't. It's not that I thought you were a bad guy. I just thought you're who you're not going to talk to me. Yeah, who the hell am I? But you're the most approachable, nicest person most giving person that I've met in a very, very long time. And I get it. i My hat's off to you.
Mike Failace:Yeah, I mean, easy going, you know, soft spoken. You know, your funny hair. Yeah. He's a Bengals fan.
Wally Green:Tell tell, tell, tell that to tick tock, tick tock. Day, they'll be like, I got my live band, like, twice this in the last three weeks. One said hateful behavior. I was like, okay, and the other one was like, some other crazy thing, but I'm like, come on. I'm the least hateful place in here. And I joke around a lot.
Kevin Donaldson:You know, I actually love your shirt problem is me. Solution is way solution is we That's true. And we're gonna leave it with that. Thank you so much for coming in today.
Wally Green:Thank you. Appreciate it. It
Mike Failace:was an absolute pleasure. Absolute pleasure.
Kevin Donaldson:That's going to do it for this episode of the suffering podcast. And as always, we talk about what we learned. Don't become what you hate. Keep your humanity those little pauses in life or what's essential. It takes that one person to believe in you but most importantly, small goals can equal big rewards. And that's going to do it for this episode of the suffering podcast is suffering of a ping pong pro with our friend Sally Green. Follow mike on Instagram at Mike underscore Falaise. Follow me at real Kevin Donaldson and of course, follow the suffering podcast. Don't forget you can always listen before you watch. All our episodes will air on Sunday mornings and you can watch on YouTube on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. And that's gonna do it for this episode. We'll see you on the next one.
