Validation Games: Why the Roys (and Maybe You) Can't Stop Seeking Approval

Title:  Validation Games: Why the Roys (and Maybe You) Can't Stop Seeking Approval

Craving a podcast that dissects the human psyche with the ferocity of a media mogul battling for his throne? Buckle up, because Jana and Jason are peeling back the layers of HBO's "Succession," a show where family drama is a high-stakes chess match played with billion-dollar pawns.

Forget sunshine and rainbows. This podcast plunges you into the Roy family's toxic cesspool of ambition, betrayal, and an insatiable hunger for their father's approval. Prepare to be both horrified and fascinated as Jana and Jason dissect each sibling's ruthless maneuver for control, revealing the universal truth about how far we'll go for a pat on the back, even if it means sacrificing our integrity.

This isn't just a recap; it's a psychological autopsy. Each character's twisted desire for validation becomes a mirror reflecting our own vulnerabilities. You'll question your social media addiction, examine the fine line between family and fortune, and maybe even recognize yourself in Greg the Egg's awkward brilliance.

But wait, there's more! Jana and Jason celebrate the show's genius - the sharp writing, the nuanced performances, and the undeniable parallels between the Roys' ruthless climb and our own everyday struggles. You'll laugh, you'll cringe, you'll be left wanting more.

So, whether you're a "Succession" superfan or simply intrigued by the dark side of the human condition, tune in and join Jana and Jason as they explore:

• The psychology of power plays: How a single nod from Logan Roy can unleash chaos and reshape destinies.
• The price of validation: When family becomes a battlefield for approval, who truly wins?
• The seductive trap of backstabbing: Is victory worth the soul it costs?
• The brilliance of character design: From Kendall's tortured ambition to Shiv's icy pragmatism, every Roy resonates with a chilling truth.
• Lessons for living lucky: Can we learn from the Roys' mistakes and build success on a foundation of trust and collaboration?

This podcast is your ticket to the front row of "Succession's" twisted brilliance. Hit play, let Jana and Jason guide you through the opulent corridors and grimy back alleys of the Roy empire, and emerge with a deeper understanding of yourself and the world around you.

Remember, in the game

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Are you ready to create a life you crave? Let's spin that doom loop of negativity into an upward success cycle and start living lucky. Good morning. I'm Jana, I'm Jason and we are living lucky. We have been addicted to this show called Succession.

Speaker 2 0:24

Succession.

Speaker 1 0:27

You kind of emphasized the success. You made it sound like there's a lot of sex.

Speaker 2 0:32

Succession.

Speaker 1 0:33

You said succession.

Speaker 2 0:36

Maybe I did. I don't even know how you said it, maybe it was a lisp.

Speaker 1 0:40

I think it was a Freudian slip. We heard about this show when we were watching the clips from the reruns of the Golden Globes because we don't have cable. However, we do have HBO and on the Golden Globes success. Now, I can't even say it.

Speaker 2 1:01

HBO, also known as Max now.

Speaker 1 1:03

Succession was getting all of these awards and I thought you know what we need to watch this. Well, we have been glued to this show because it is about running a multimedia conglomerate company and it is run by four siblings and their father who is in his last years of life, and it is all about who's going to run the company.

Speaker 2 1:34

Who's going to be the next king of the castle?

Speaker 1 1:36

When he decides to.

Speaker 2 1:40

Turn it over, retire, kick the bucket, whatever.

Speaker 1 1:43

Yes, and it is so juicy.

Speaker 2 1:47

And disturbing how it is disturbing.

Speaker 1 1:50

It is juicy. There are so many life lessons about not only running a business, but about how people jockey for positioning oh my God. About how people are not afraid to step on other people's Brutes Shoulders, how they backstab, how they'll say one thing to your face and then turn around and say another thing behind your back, how greed gets in the way of loyalty and love, and how family bonds. When it really comes down to family versus money, there's a very fine line there.

Speaker 2 2:29

Yeah, there's a huge service of self noted in throughout the whole theme of the oh yeah.

Speaker 1 2:37

I mean, people have their self interest above all other things when it really comes down to it. But the one thing that I found in almost every single character, which, I have to say, these characters are brilliantly designed.

Speaker 2 2:55

Yes, designed and portrayed in the depth of them is amazing.

Speaker 1 3:00

Oh, I mean the reflection of what they project on the people around them and how you can see how they're all connected and yet they have dualities among the family.

Speaker 2 3:17

It's beautiful to be the observer.

Speaker 1 3:19

It is, it is. And I'm telling you, hollywood is just. They have a formula. They are getting better and better and better, and the more that I study psychology, self development and learn about enlightenment and spirituality and how all of this fits together, I'm realizing that there are certain writers and certain shows. Hollywood.

Speaker 2 3:43

Hollywood's got the cream of the crop when it comes to actually how to create the life you want to live or the design system.

Speaker 1 3:54

They've definitely got the character development, psychological development.

Speaker 2 3:58

They understand how it works. Low all of it.

Speaker 1 4:01

They understand how it works, Anyway. What I want to talk about, though, is seeking validation. That's all over it, and it felt like almost every character, had that in common they were all seeking validation from their father. Logan. They were all seeking validation from their father, who wasn't really an outstanding man.

Speaker 2 4:29

And he really wasn't one to give validation.

Speaker 1 4:32

Oh, he rarely gave it. He's like you rarely gave it. And if he did give it, he gave it in a backhanded way.

Speaker 2 4:39

It felt to me like Logan was one of those guys. It's like I'm not gonna give you validation. You go out and earn it.

Speaker 1 4:47

Earn your like, make your own, or he would make them do things to earn his validation that made them feel Crappy about themselves. It was against their own integrity, their own boundaries.

Speaker 2 5:04

It's almost like Logan would test some boundaries and then say that's a boundary of yours, okay, well, if you want to earn my validation, then you're gonna have to cross that boundary go kill the dove, go kill the bird, and then that like hinting that that's gonna make me proud, and then you go kill the bird, bring it back to him and he goes you killed a defenseless bird why would you think that that would be acceptable? Like your. That doesn't make you a man. That makes you nothing. You killed a defenseless animal.

Speaker 1 5:36

And it's just not enough me to eat, it is mine it is such a mind game why would you, why would you kill that without making money off of it first right?

Speaker 2 5:47

yeah, that duality of validation and success, or money in their case. How do I make the most money? How do I, how do I do create the biggest empire?

Speaker 1 5:59

because, not because it doesn't matter how big it gets, though, it's never gonna be enough okay, so what I want to talk about, though, is, even if you haven't seen this show, we all seek validation. We all seek validation in our lives in some way in some way, shape or form, and if you don't think that you do this, or if you don't think others do it, all you have to do is open any social media app and people are wanting likes because they get a little hit of dopamine yeah, they get a little hit of dopamine and I have to be completely transparent here.

Speaker 1 6:44

There are times when I Get off of all social media. I will go radio silent on social media because I am one that feeds into that dopamine hit and I'm like you know what. This isn't healthy for my ego and it's not. I need my power and my favorite not working for me, like I don't need to feed my ego in any way, shape or form. I just I'm better off sometimes just not even Taking part and I know that sounds bad, but it's almost like an addiction sometimes.

Speaker 2 7:24

It is almost like an addiction obviously, and we see it throughout the world. Yeah, and I think also when you're seeking validation, yeah, especially if you're in a group dynamic, which, hello, civilization, is a group dynamic. So if you're seeking validation, that's a, you're seeking some way to win for yourself yeah. I want to be the winner. I want to have the approval for me because I'm trying to fill this little hole, void whatever.

Speaker 1 7:56

Yeah, we all have these little holes inside us, gosh.

Speaker 2 8:01

If I don't know, then what I know now, and it's not about learning it through succession, but we, and we all, have these little areas, but we're just trying to fill that hole we're all trying to fill holes, yeah, and whether that hole is love, or whether that hole is acceptance, or whether that hole is, safety, security safety, security, significance, fitting in.

Speaker 1 8:27

We all have these little holes inside us and we just want to somehow Fill them. Fill them. I know that there's one scene in succession that really hit home for me, and it was when Shivana and her husband, tom, were on the balcony and they were having this are this really heated argument? And tom says so. Tom says to shivan shivan, you're always seeking the approval of your dad, logan, who is the owner of the empire. You're always seeking Approval. That is what you are always seeking, and the thing is, you will never be satisfied with any approval that tom, the husband, is giving her.

Speaker 1 9:21

Yeah, he's like, I married you and from the minute I married you, all I do is give you approval. I am pouring approval into you constantly and it's it's like there's like a gaping leaking out in the canoe, the approval that she wants from her dad.

Speaker 2 9:39

yes, yes and she, and only person that can fill that hole is her. But she doesn't see it leads to just disaster All around every corner and we all have this in some way shape or form for shivan.

Speaker 1 9:55

It was approval. For a lot of people it's love. For some people it's success. For some people, like you said, it's safety, or it's money or it's value or worthiness or being deserving. You know it.

Speaker 2 10:12

I mean we all have things everybody's got something, and that's why I believe that if we have this team, I give we, if we can form a unit, then we can kind of build each other up, point out these little areas where we might be looking at for approval or are weak spots, then that allows us to protect.

Speaker 1 10:37

You know it's a different time. Jason is bringing in a different topic because also in this, in this show, another theme that we constantly Found is that they didn't lift each other up. They were constantly tearing each other down to get the approval, jockeying for position, and they constantly were stepping on each other's shoulders. They were constantly.

Speaker 2 11:04

They have this in the ocean they would. They're pushing the other one down so they can get further out of the water and it's a fixed mindset what it is.

Speaker 1 11:13

It's a fixed mindset that there it's scarcity mindset that there's only enough for.

Speaker 2 11:19

One of very few.

Speaker 1 11:21

Yes, if only one at the top. You know there's one at the top, there's a pecking order and I don't want to be at the bottom I have to be at the top that's the mindset where, as If you step back and you realize you know what we all can work as a team, we can collaborate, we can lift each other up and if we develop an abundant mindset or a growth mindset, we all can be successful and in fact, we will be ten times more successful if we learn it's a magnifier each other's strengths instead of magnifying each other's holes or weaknesses yes, like that's what you are trying to say.

Speaker 2 12:06

Absolutely, because they always came back to. Whenever things just break in life, like whenever there's a breakdown in a relationship, whenever things break, it's let's go back to the basics, like if you break up a piece of furniture, something is like our toy site. Okay, let's get the directions out and see how it was supposed to work. Right, you know, and we always go back to the basics and but then we leave again.

Speaker 1 12:38

Some missing links that Jason is skipping over, and in this season, because there were four seasons of succession, and so every time that it would, it would definitely get to the absolute worst, where they were about to lose the company. Instead of Fighting against each other, they would realize oh my gosh, you know what we are on. We are on our last string here, let's regress, and if we don't work together, we're gonna lose the company.

Speaker 1 13:08

So for just a second, one little micro second, they would say oh my gosh, I need your help I need your help and then, as soon as they would see the other one getting any kind of recognition traction, or anything for that one minute, then immediately they would fall back into the patterns.

Speaker 2 13:30

How can I jockey in front of them? How can I? Yeah, we're not even anymore.

Speaker 1 13:35

They would get enough to just save the company and then, as soon as they would save it, instead of like turning it around and really growing from that new foundation, they would fall right back into their old patterns like oh, you know how dare you?

Speaker 2 13:48

I gotta be first. How dare you, that's right?

Speaker 1 13:51

Oh, I highly suggest it.

Speaker 2 13:53

It reminds me of the Saturday Night Live episode where they're whispering behind each other.

Speaker 1 13:58

Oh, I know, I know Like oh yeah, my sister's great, she's awesome.

Speaker 2 14:04

But you know what's really funny as she talks?

Speaker 1 14:06

to the kids. She's really kind of a bitch, you know.

Speaker 2 14:10

I don't know if I really like it when she brings those salads over to the dinner parties that we're having. Meat.

Speaker 1 14:15

Yeah, sometimes you know. I mean, if you like being asked questions in a backhanded put-down way, I love it. We highly suggest it. Seriously, we started binge watching.

Speaker 2 14:30

You know, just bring a sparkle of joy to your eyes Maybe not joy.

Speaker 1 14:34

What happens is but it will make you think and you will learn so many lessons. And it will. It's brilliant. It is brilliant in the way it is written. It's funny. I mean there's a couple characters there. Will Ferrell is one of the writers, whether it's producers or something. He's an executive producer, so it's got some comedy in it. There's one character that every time he came on we laughed.

Speaker 2 14:58

Oh, Greg.

Speaker 1 14:59

Greg, yeah, he's just delivering.

Speaker 2 15:02

Everything was great.

Speaker 1 15:03

Yeah, greg the egg. So anyway, we highly suggest it and we just wanted to talk about it because it was just that fabulous, absolutely.

Speaker 2 15:14

All right.

Speaker 1 15:14

Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 2 15:16

We're living lucky. If you spot it, you got it.

Speaker 1 15:19

Bye-bye. If the idea of living lucky appeals to you, visit us at startlivingluckycom.