- What's up, Believe Nation?
We put out a lot of content,
and I often get asked: can you summarize it down
to some of your favorite clips?
And so that's what this video today is all about.
Some of my most favorite rules from the top 10 series,
February, 2017, edition.
I hope you enjoy.
And as always guys, as you're watching,
if you hear something that really resonates with you,
leave it down in the comments below, put quotes around it
so other people can be inspired as well,
and when you write it down, it's much more likely
to sink in for yourself, as well.
Enjoy.
- You are unusually fearless, and willing to go
in the face of other people telling you something
is crazy, and I know a lot of pretty
crazy people, you still stand out.
Where does that come from, or how do you think about making
a decision when everyone tells you: this is a crazy idea.
Or where do you get the internal strength to do that?
- Well, first of all, I would say I actually think I,
think I feel fear quite strongly.
So it's not as though I just have the absence of fear.
I feel it quite strongly.
But there are just times when something
is important enough, you believe in it enough
that you do it in spite of the fear.
- So, speaking of important things--
- Like, people shouldn't think I,
people shouldn't think, well, I feel fear about this,
and therefore I shouldn't do it.
It's normal to feel fear.
Like, you'd have to, definitely something mentally wrong
if you didn't feel fear.
- So you just feel it and let the importance
of it drive you to do it anyway?
- Yeah, you know, actually something that can be helpful
is fatalism, to some degree.
If you just accept the probabilities,
then that diminishes fear.
So, when starting SpaceX, I thought the odds
of success were less than 10 percent.
And I just accepted that, actually,
probably I would just lose everything.
But that maybe we would make some progress,
if we could just move the ball forward,
even if we died, maybe some other company
could pick up the baton and keep moving it forward.
So that we'd still do some good.
Yeah, same with Tesla.
I thought the odds of a car company
succeeding were extremely low.
- If we could celebrate every breath that we take,
because nothing's a guarantee.
If we could celebrate the breath and the exhale,
which is being alive, without, you know,
ah, my car won't start, oh, geez, you know,
the cat dropped dead.
(laughter)
Hey, I, you know, I think I need a lobotomy.
You know, I mean, there are things that are very,
very important in life that we,
we just don't think about, you know?
And one of the most worrisome things that I went through,
through years, is you're freaked out about your past,
you're worried, you're scared to death of the future,
and that's all you're thinking about.
But the now doesn't exist, you know?
And I think that's a grave mistake that we make.
- I've always had this really gross, dangerous mentality
of the, ah, no consideration of failure.
Just never even considering the thought of failing.
Like, if I want something, I just go until I get it.
And that doesn't always work, but.
- I believe that the depth of anybody's struggle
will determine the height of their success.
And I believe that everything that I've gone through
in my whole life, you know, people ask me:
what would you change?
I wouldn't change a thing, because everything
that I've gone through has made me who I am today.
You know, so I'm sitting here very strong
and very confident, you know?
And got a lot of love for a lot, a lot of people.
Jesus struggled and went through things, you know?
Everybody struggled and went through their own thing,
and people slanted 'em.
I mean, I feel like if Jesus can go what he went through,
who am I? (laughing)
I'm nobody; just a guy from the 'hood, man.
Just, that just do this music, you know?
But I'm just such a real person,
I don't consider myself a celebrity at all.
I'm just so real, and I love people that,
you know, man, I just flow through this thing.
And I let my music and I let God guide me,
where he guide me to go.
But God ain't going to just guide you straight to success.
Not God.
He going to guide you through a lot of mess, first.
So that when you get the success,
you'll know how to appreciate it,
you'll know how to stay with it,
and know how to take care of it.
And that's called: longevity.
- I'm a very spiritual person and I follow my spirit.
And I do what my spirit tells me to do.
You know, and I don't have set, like,
oh, I want to play this type of character
and I won't play that type of character.
I'm receptive to anything, you know?
And when the right thing comes along,
if it's serious, if it's funny,
if it's silly, if it's low, but see,
put it this way: I do, just do whatever makes me,
I get the most gratification from, as an artist.
I do music albums and nobody buys my records.
I do them because I love making music, you know?
And that's the same way I am about movies.
I don't make movies because I,
I don't go into it thinking: let me do this,
because then people will come.
Or: how much will a movie make?
And: I'm trying to make the audience do that.
I do what feels right for me.
- What's your message for viewers out there
about following their dreams.
I would say, ah, if you truly believe in something
and you really have a passion for something,
then go for it.
I think there's a lot of obstacles that you have
to go through and nothing's ever given to you,
and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication,
but if you really believe in it, then you should do it.
(piano melody)
- It started in the crib; I was a baby.
And from the cradle, all the way to age 11, more or less,
I had what is called "lucid dreaming", which means
that you would dream that you are awake.
- Hola?
- So, I literally saw monsters.
I was used to monsters, I loved them.
But at a very early age I made a deal with them
to allow me to go to the bathroom,
because I was so afraid, I ended up peeing my crib.
And you know, we stayed friends.
You know, there are only two things you can do in art
or in narrative, in storytelling.
You can tell about the good stuff in life,
which has always been very boring to me,
and you can tell stories about the dark side of life,
which has been much more attractive to me.
When I talk to pre-first-time filmmakers,
or first-time filmmakers, I always tell them:
look, making movies is eating a sandwich of (audio deleted).
And the only thing that gets a little better is,
as the years go by, you get a little more bread.
But the (audio deleted) is always there.
- [Interviewer] But isn't that true of life, also?
- I think it is.
I mean, I use another metaphor for life. (laughing)
But for film, I tell you, that one fits.
- [Interviewer] But in the end, somehow, you find the joy?
- Well, you end up convincing yourself
that it's peanut butter. (laughing)
- [Interviewer] And is it ever peanut butter?
- I want to believe it is. (laughing)
- [Interviewer] But do you look back and go:
yes, I did that, okay.
- I tell you, without a doubt, we may say this
is the greatest, being an artist in whatever discipline,
dance, painting, theater, whatever you want,
is the greatest work on Earth.
I mean, it's truly this hard thing,
in this way or that way, but so is every job.
So is every job.
I, when I was younger, I worked with my father
on real estate for about five years.
I was the worst car salesman
in the history of car salesmanship.
- [Interviewer] Because you were too honest?
- Oh, yeah, people would come and say: what about this?
I think, ah, no. (laughing)
I was, you know, Glengarry Glen Ross,
I would not get the knife set.
I would be Shelley Levine.
I would be out, out; it was terrible.
My father said: you're terrible!
And the other vendors, whenever I went out,
the other salesmen, whenever I went out to a client,
they actually laughed behind my back.
Actually, physically were laughing behind my back.
And I was the worst.
But in real estate, I was good.
I was good at real estate.
And my father used to say, you have to do this
to show that you can have an honest living,
do an honest living, and what I did was work
on real estate in the mornings,
and I did monsters in the afternoon.
But I know that when you have a real job,
I painted highways one summer, in Wichita, Kansas.
I mean, a real job has equal heartbreak and stuff like that.
And politics.
- [Interviewer] Well, I mean, this is,
I think it's one of the things that people really
misunderstand, is as glorious as it is to be able
to do the things you're passionate about
and to be an artist, it's still a job; it is not--
- Oh, it's still a job, yeah.
- [Interviewer] It is work.
- Yeah, yeah, it is, but God bless anyone that can do this.
It's beautiful, and you have to truly be grateful.
And the only way to remain objective about how grateful
you need to be, is present your present to your past self,
when you were 20 years old, and if you go
and talk to yourself at 20 years old and said:
would you like to be doing this movie?
With this budget?
What do you think your response at age 20 would be?
Abso-(audio deleted)-lutely, yes, you know?
- Some jobs you learn by going to college, and they give you
an education and you bring that to your work.
And some jobs you learn by just being on the job.
And from Cursed Part Three on, all the way up to
Jurassic World, my knowledge of how to be on a set,
how to act, and how to handle myself on set
and approach work is continuing to grow.
I've learned a lot on every job.
It would be smart, when on a job, to be a sponge.
Pick somebody and learn from them.
I'm getting to the point now where
I have more experience than a lot of the people that are
on the set, and I'm actually at the point where
I can teach other people, so that's pretty cool, too.
- I enjoy doing them, but more than that,
actually, let me rephrase that.
I think the reason why I enjoy it so much is because
how much the people get off,
the audience appreciates what we do.
You know, there's a lot of things I could be doing
outside of the industry, even within the industry.
But, you know, I don't know if the
satisfaction would be the same.
You know, because to be a part of something
that people really appreciate,
as much as maybe certain people hate to admit it,
it's important to us, as humans.
It's like you want to believe that, you know,
what you're putting out there
and what you've dedicated so much time to is,
there's a certain degree of acknowledgement,
and more than acknowledgement, appreciation.
And obviously, this one's been appreciated for a long time.
And that's a great feeling.
- If it's in your heart, you have to push for it.
If it's in your heart.
Because I'm from Kansas City, Missouri.
Who would ever thought that you can build an empire?
But if you put your mind to it and push for it,
and push for it and keep, no matter if your family
tells you it's a hobby,
you need to do something else to get money or whatever, man,
it's like, if you believe in it, you got to follow
that dream in your heart, man, because if I didn't,
there wouldn't be any strange music
to come do any interview in.
Because I followed my dream after everybody knocked me down.
You have to push for it.
If you believe in it, you will achieve it.
You just got to keep pushing.
That's what I have to say.
- I look towards the future.
And the future is just, you know, it's more to do.
It's more steps to climb and stuff.
So I don't really look at what I'm doing right now,
because every time I do something, I move on,
and see how could I get better, and I'm never satisfied.
You know, I think I always know I could do better.
- Always knew you could do better?
- I could do better, yeah.
- I know there's so many kids out there
that feel the way that I did when I was a kid.
Just awkward and not excelling at one thing,
in particular, and not cool.
And skateboarding was my way out of that.
And I hope that, if not with skateboarding,
they find it in something else they do.
But I hope that they're not afraid
to try something different.
Because you can't listen to the haters.
That's my best advice to anyone.
If I had listened to the haters,
I would have quit a long time ago.
I would have quit when I was 11 years old.
Like, I used to get bashed by professional skaters.
Because my style was dorky, or it was all circus.
It was, you know?
But you can't; you've got to believe in yourself.
- A lot of people come to me and say, well,
I want to be an entrepreneur.
And I go, oh, that's great; what's your idea?
And they go, well, I don't have one yet.
And I say, well, I think you should go get a job
as a busboy or something until you find something you're
really passionate about, because it's a lot of work,
and I'm convinced that about half of what separates
the successful entrepreneurs from the
non-successful ones is pure perseverance.
It is so hard, you pour so much of your life
into this thing, there are such rough moments
in time, that most people give up.
I don't blame them; it's really tough.
And it consumes your life, I mean,
if you've got a family and you're in the early days
of a company, it's, I can't imagine how one could do it.
I'm sure it's been done, but it's rough.
I mean, because it's a pretty much a, you know,
an 18 hour a day job, seven days a week for a while.
So, unless you have a lot of passion about this,
you're going to not survive, you're going to give it up.
So you got to have an idea or a problem or a wrong
that you want to right that you're passionate about.
Otherwise, you're not going to have the perseverance
to stick it through, and I think
that's half the battle, right there.
It's hard to remember how bad it was,
you know, in 19, early '80s, with IBM taking over the world
with the PC, with DOS out there,
it was far worse than the Apple II.
They tried to copy the Apple II and they'd done
a pretty bad job, and you needed to know a lot.
And so things were kind of slipping backwards,
and Macintosh was, you saw the 1984 commercial.
You know, I hope you have that in your archives.
You know, Macintosh was basically this,
this relatively small company, you know,
in Cupertino, California, taking on the Goliath, IBM,
and saying: wait a minute, you're way is wrong.
This is not the way we want computers to go.
This is not the legacy we want to leave.
This is not what we want our kids to be learning.
This is wrong, and we are going to
show you the right way to do it.
And here it is: it's called Macintosh.
And this is so much better that it's going to beat you.
And we are going to do it.
And that's what Apple stood for.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
I'd love to know: what did you think?
What rule stood out the most for you?
What are you going to immediately apply
to your life or to your business?
Leave it down in the comment below,
and I'm going to join in the discussion.
I also want to give a quick shout-out to Sumi,
thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book,
Your One Word, and sharing that picture
of how your one word is "peace" and what it means to you.
I really appreciate the support,
and I'm glad that the book had an impact on your life.
So thank you guys again for watching.
I believe in you; I hope you continue to believe
in yourself, and whatever your one word is.
Much love; have an amazing day.
I'll see you soon.