Brandon Clift: The Path Of A Warrior is a Tom Rowland Podcast conversation with the son of a longtime family friend whose own unconventional life first showed Tom, as a kid in Chattanooga, that you could build a life on your own terms, tracing how that same sense of adventure and optimism carried into the next generation.
Press play above to watch the full conversation with Brandon Clift.
Brandon Clift is the son of Bill Clift, a longtime family friend of Tom Rowland's. At the time of this episode, Brandon was twenty-six years old and had just spent about six months traveling around South America.
Bill Clift is roughly ten years older than Tom and was friends with Tom's sisters growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Bill lived differently than anyone else Tom knew as a kid, working as a snow ski instructor, racing sailboats at an America's Cup level, and eventually moving to Australia to build a new life. Tom credits Bill with showing him early on that you could make your own path instead of doing what everyone else was doing.
Brandon describes a roughly three-hour gathering with no phones, where a group sits in a circle so everyone can see each other's eyes and actually understand where the other person is coming from.
Brandon points out that ten thousand years ago, the worst thing that could happen to a person was getting kicked out of the tribe, which meant near-certain death. After a battle, tribes would sit together around a fire to process what happened and reconnect, a ritual Brandon believes modern life has largely lost.
Brandon grew up with his father's example of adventure and building an unconventional life, and by his mid-twenties had already spent extended stretches traveling through South America, carrying forward the same sense of optimism that Tom first saw in Bill Clift decades earlier.
There are those in your life that mean a tremendous amount to you, and sometimes you don't realize how much until many years later. Bill Clift was that person for me growing up in Chattanooga. He was ten years older, friends with my sisters, and he was doing things nobody else around me was doing, ski instructing, racing sailboats, eventually building a whole new life in Australia. He exposed me to the idea that you could make your life whatever you wanted it to be. When Bill's son Brandon came through town a couple of years ago, I got to meet him, and I have been following what he's been up to ever since. I wanted to sit down with him and hear his story directly.
I didn't realize how much watching Bill Clift live differently than everyone else played into the direction my own life eventually took, until many years later. He had this sense of adventure and optimism that you could do anything, that you didn't have to follow the path everyone else was on. Brandon grew up carrying a version of that same optimism forward, and hearing how it shaped his own choices, including six months traveling through South America, is worth hearing straight from him.
Brandon walks through a men's circle practice, three hours, no phones, sitting where you can actually see each other's eyes, and ties it back to a tribal analogy about why humans are wired to need that kind of connection after hard things happen. It is a part of the conversation that stuck with me, and it is better heard directly in his own words than summarized here.
Talking with Brandon reminded me how much of what shapes us comes from people we don't fully appreciate until years later. Bill Clift gave me that in Chattanooga, and it was good to see the same spirit still alive in his son.
Press play above to hear the whole conversation with Brandon Clift.
Brandon Clift, Bill Clift, Tom Rowland
Brandon Clift is the son of Bill Clift, a longtime family friend of Tom Rowland's from Chattanooga, Tennessee. In his mid-twenties at the time of this episode, Brandon had recently spent about six months traveling through South America.
EP 47/69 | Brandon Clift - The Path Of A Warrior
[Brandon Clift]: Exactly, something like three hours, no phones, sitting in a circle where you can see everyone's eyeballs, and you can connect with each man and understand where they're coming from. But if we take it back to the tribal example, ten thousand years ago, what's the worst thing that could ever happen to you? Eaten by a tiger. Exactly. How does that happen? Get kicked out of the tribe. Almost certain death. To not be with, because if it's not a saber tooth tiger, it's a rival tribe. We grew together, we were organized, when after a battle we sat in a circle around a fire and we processed and we connected. This is Brandon Clift, and you're listening to the Tom Rowland Podcast.
[Tom Rowland]: There are those in your life that mean a tremendous amount to you, and sometimes you don't realize that until many years later, what an impact, what a small little legacy someone left on your life. Today's podcast is kind of about that. There was a gentleman in my life, he's ten years older than me, he was friends with my sisters, he was different, a little different than everybody else. Growing up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, I didn't know anyone that was really doing anything like what this guy was doing. This guy was going out and he was snow skiing, being a ski instructor, he was racing sailboats on the level of the America's Cup. He was doing things and traveling and going to places, and his sense of adventure was more than anyone else that I knew, and he exposed me to this sense of adventure, to this sense of optimism that you could do anything, you could make your life any way you wanted it to be, you didn't have to do what everybody else was doing. And you know what, I didn't realize how much that played a part in the way that my life eventually turned out until many, many years later. But that guy's name is Bill Clift, and Bill moved to Australia and just developed a wonderful life for himself there, and he has always had this great sense of adventure and this great sense of optimism, and he was always just a real fun guy to be around. The last couple of years I met his son Brandon, and Brandon also was very impressive and has done some pretty cool stuff and has a very interesting story, so I had the opportunity to sit down with Brandon and learn all about what he's been up to, and boy the story is incredible, and for a twenty-six year old this guy has a tremendous amount of maturity and really a lot of insight on life. I enjoyed the conversation, I hope you will too.
[Brandon Clift]: The pleasure and the opportunity to do something like this is really cool for me, because having spent the past six months traveling around South America, it's always good to know that there's family, having connection to people like yourself has just been a blessing, a real blessing.
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