He Gave Away Almost Everything to Become An Extreme Minimalist

[Applause] welcome back tamam what a show this is a judgment free zone we are back meeting people who are living you might say unconventional lives like our next guest Robin Greenfield the 37 year-old says he understands why some may be judgmental of his lifestyle 12 years ago he decided to give up most of his worldly possessions and go completely off the grid and started Living what's called Extreme minimalist take a look dying with nothing is my goal in life really that is my life's dream to die with nothing my name is Rob Greenfield and I am a minimalist who has lived with as few as 44 possessions I don't have a car no bank account or credit card and no cell phone I eat nothing packaged or processed but instead herbs and greens that I forage and then occasionally a deer that's been hit by a car the US has 5% of the world's population but consumes 25% of the world's resources we are destroying this Earth this one home that we have and it makes a lot of sense to change our ways I want people to see that another way is possible wow fascinating okay judgment free zone please welcome extreme minimalist Robin Greenfield come on out Robin oh my gosh Hi how are you okay good so nice to be here you did look at to you did it wow well this feels a little weird no don't this is you know what this is my tan fam and you walk out that door you're a member of the tan fam too that's how we look at okay all right so you don't have a bank account you cut up all your credit cards your social security card driver's license you don't own a cell phone you do not own a pair of shoes which is why you have no shoes on yeah how are your feet not blistered well um I just want to say I'm so grateful to be here with all of you yeah it's uh when when I was sitting in a Off the Grid cabin in northern Wisconsin in this like peaceful quiet life and then I got an email to come join you Tam and I was like I'm on my way to New York City so 20 and I should tell people you are so pure in this journey he did not accept our flight you wanted to drive because you wanted to minimize the pollution that you were putting out in the air yeah so but but I'm happy and no offense you did accept our hotel so you could get a hot shower yes so so did that feel good to have a little hot water on you I did and as you saw from the photos I usually swim in the lakes and rivers I went to Central the park this morning hoping to take a swim but I didn't find the lake so it's illegal don't do that okay don't do that but as I said you have no shoes you live off the grid in the woods this is your life but this was not always the journey you wanted to become a millionaire by age 30 MH what changed in your life yeah so that's you that's just the same guy yes that is me so I was very focused on material possessions and financial wealth I was pursuing the American dream and I was I was on the path of becoming a millionaire by the time I turned 30 what were you doing for living I ran a marketing company in San Diego and what happened was I started to watch a lot of documentaries and read a lot of books and I learned that the American dream is in many ways the world's nightmare you know the way that we're living is causing such destruction and it's so dominated by just corporations telling us that we need to buy this in order to be me contributing happy healthy members of society and I just wanted to break free from all of that I wanted to live in harmony with the Earth with harmony with the people that I share this Earth with and I love that I know a few years ago you did an experiment to shine a light on the amount of trash we create take a look I'm here in New York City and I'm going to do a little experiment for the next 30 days I'm going to wear every single piece of trash I create I'm going to live just like the average American creating 4 and a half pounds of trash per day I'll eat shop and consume just like the average person does I won't turn down any Trash that's offered to me from flyers and plastic bags to straws and cups wow so that experiment was to help change our perspective but obviously you had to buy things to fill the bags how do you take how do you get money where's the money coming from I guess if you're minimalist well so for me personally I've committed to earning less than the federal poverty threshold per year not to simulate poverty but to keep myself from overc consuming to keep myself living really simply but I also own a nonprofit or not own but work with a nonprofit and projects like this are funded through the nonprofit my job is to live simply and sustainably to show another way as possible but my job is to reach millions of people and show this other way as possible so how much do you make right now to live minimally so right now my net worth everything that I own is $6,500 and I have $2,500 cash no bank account no credit card that's sitting in the room right next I'll be right back so um each year I earn less than $10,000 and I've committed to earning less than the federal poverty threshold for my entire life Wow and one of the reasons why is because federal taxes when we pay those we contribute to police brutality and mass incarceration and the military-industrial complex so for me this is about saying I'm not going to contribute to that instead 100% of my media income is donated directly to nonprofits so that the money actually goes to the people who are serving the people rather than War wow you've become so self-sufficient that you don't use anything bought in the store including toilet paper you grow how do you grow see see # grow your own TP how do you grow your own toilet paper so this is a beautiful plant it's called the Blue spur flower I call it the charman of the garden and it's way softer than anything you can buy at the store sh of the garden the leaves are just the size of a piece of toilet paper it's in the mint family so it even has a minty smell some people on YouTube Call me Captain minty bottom which is you know it's like so you just use the leaf yeah you just use the leaf nature provides us with everything we need W oh I think that's phenomenal um family loved ones friends did everyone in Your Love Circle Embrace this there's certainly been plenty of people who have embraced My Lifestyle but there's certainly plenty of people who don't a lot like people who are related to you yeah definitely some of the people who are closely related to me have had some differing opinions and some actually we aren't we aren't in connection anymore but some uh our bond is stronger than ever like my mom right now you know I'm 37 years old and I love my mom more than I've ever loved her in my entire life and that's come through um it's it's come through developing a more Universal love in general and so yeah there's there's always a struggle in living different to society every day I walk against the grain of society and that's going to mean that sometimes the grain is is going separately for people close to me but sometimes that's a sacrifice that needs to be made and also there's 8 billion human beings I live as part of a global Humanity if someone doesn't like me there's 8 billion other people out there I love that it's impossible to live in this society and live out your beliefs perfectly it's it's just not possible so my message to people is one step at a time how can we take our lives back from consumerism to live the lives that we really want where we're happy where we're healthy where we're contributing to the well-being of Earth of humanity and our plant and animal relatives there's no one way there's no right way or wrong way I'm just living my life as a way of showing people that another way as possible and hoping that maybe you'll go out and be baref oh my goodness I adore you listen I don't know about my bare feet and I'm not using that leaf but you've said so many things that I take to heart and we all could look at the man in the mirror and decide what we can do to contribute so congratulations on this journey and raising awareness give it up for Robin be safe on your drive back