Stay an Intern
Be Mufasa and Simba at the same time — the moment you're comfortable at the top is the moment you start falling.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 90%
In an interview on a Miami balcony, Pitbull described his life as a video game — surviving the drug world, breaking into music, making money in music, becoming the biggest artist out of Miami, then the world. When he finished, Banayan let the silence sit for a full minute. Pitbull then volunteered that he'd recently told Carlos Slim Jr. he wanted to be his intern — fetch donuts, get coffee, just watch how he operates. He explained that he can walk around a music label like a king, but at night he's in Apple and Google offices taking notes. The lesson: the best operators are never satisfied being an executive; they constantly want to stay an intern. You have to be Mufasa and Simba at once.
Origin
Extracted from Banayan's interview with Pitbull for The Third Door, where the artist's PR had banned any drug-dealing questions — and Pitbull opened up unprompted anyway, laying out his whole leveling-up philosophy.
Core principles
- 01The best executives never stop being interns.
- 02You have to be Mufasa and Simba at the same time — hold both.
- 03The moment you're comfortable being at the top is the moment you begin to fall.
- 04Walking around your own world like a king is compatible with taking notes in someone else's.
- 05Staying an intern isn't a tactic — it's an identity that produces continuous leveling up.
How to run it
- 1
Locate your kingdom
Identify the domain where you're already recognised, comfortable, and treated as the authority. That comfort is the risk.
Watch out Comfort at the top is the leading indicator of decline, not a reward for reaching it.
- 2
Pick a room where you're the dumbest person
Choose an adjacent world you don't understand — a different industry, a different craft, a different scale of operator.
Pro tip Pitbull chose Apple and Google offices at night while running a music career by day.
- 3
Ask for observation, not mentorship
Request access to watch how someone operates rather than asking them to teach you. It's a smaller ask and a bigger download.
Pro tip Pitbull's actual pitch to Carlos Slim Jr. was 'I'll get donuts for you, I'll get coffee, I just want to sit around and see how you operate.'
- 4
Take notes like an intern
Literally take notes. The posture matters — it enforces the beginner's mind and signals to the host that you're serious.
- 5
Hold both roles permanently
Don't alternate between king and intern in seasons. Be both simultaneously — king in your kingdom, intern everywhere else, forever.
Watch out Dropping the intern half is how leveling up stops.
In the wild
Having gone from eight high schools in three years and dealing drugs to headlining Madison Square Garden, Pitbull sat with Carlos Slim Jr. and genuinely asked to be his intern — donuts, coffee, just to watch him operate. Banayan looked in his eyes and judged it the most serious thing he said in the whole interview.
→ Banayan concluded that staying an intern in all areas of his life is precisely what allowed Pitbull to keep leveling up rather than plateau at any of his video-game 'levels'.
Common mistakes
Treating the top as a destination
Pitbull's frame is that the moment you're comfortable at the top is the moment you begin to fall. Arrival is the failure state.
Choosing king or intern instead of both
The framework is explicitly Mufasa AND Simba. People who drop the king role lose authority; people who drop the intern role stop growing.
Is it for you?
Best for
Executives, founders, and performers who have already reached a level of recognised success in their field.
Not ideal for
Beginners who need to consolidate and finish one thing rather than perpetually restart at the bottom.
From the transcript
“the best executives the best entrepreneurs are constantly leveling up in their career do it because they are never satisfied with being an executive they…”
“if you want to be the mufasa if you want to be the king of the pride land you have to be simba as well…”
From the episode
Alex Banayan: Unlocking The Third Door To Your Success
Alex Banayan