(woosh)
- Hard work.
- Working a little bit harder
- Work ethic
- Very hard working
- Go hard.
- Work ethic.
- Work.
- Work...
ethic.
Hello believe nation, my name is Evan Carmichael.
My one word is believe, and I believe that entrepreneurs
are going to solve all the major problems of the world.
So to help you on your journey, today we're going to learn
how you can develop an insane work ethic.
And as always guys,
if you hear something that really resonates with you,
please 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 stick for yourself too.
Enjoy.
(inspirational music)
- Yes I get up at crazy hours,
whether it's 3:00 in the morning by the way,
when we were talking in London I was getting up at three
because I needed to be on set by four, I'm sorry by seven.
So, whatever time my call time is,
and I tell this to studios and directors, and producers,
so my call time is at seven.
Then you back your clock up four hours
and then that's when I get up and train twice,
so I do my cardio in then breakfast,
then I'll go hit the weights.
Clangin' and bangin'
we call it.
Jackin' iron (laughs)
- But like what time do you go to bed I mean,
you might shoot really late at night.
- I'm averaging,
on a movie I'll average probably about five hours of sleep.
- You know hard work pays.
I put in a hell of a lot of work
all throughout this build up in the fight.
I put out more content than anybody,
more content than Fox, more content than ESPN,
more content than BT Sport,
more content than everybody on the (mumble)
on my own channels.
You know what I mean I'm a workhorse
from all angles, not just in the gym.
I'm building this media empire now myself
and we pumped out the content.
I'm very proud of how it went.
We consistently, daily movies I was releasing.
You know from like a month ago every single day.
You know what I mean nobody's doing that.
So, I'm very proud of that.
And the work pays.
And hard works pays.
I put in the work and that's why I'm sitting at the top.
I put it all on the line, I show up,
I perform and I get the results from that.
- I knew I was wired to be excited about business.
How or why, I don't know.
And there are certain guys that got the genetics
to jump out at the gym right?
- Mhm, mhm.
- There's certain guys that when they golf
they have the muscle memory and the discipline.
Dirk Nowitzski may not be the most talented guy in the NBA,
but his discipline and his focus
to do what's necessary to be successful,
he's willing to do,
combine it with being seven feet tall and being skilled,
makes him an amazing basketball player.
So it's understanding what your skillset is,
finding the right place to use those skills.
And then going for it.
Will that make you 250 grand?
Depends if you pick the right industry.
But whatever industry you pick, if you outwork everybody,
if you try to be a little smarter than everybody,
if you try to be a better salesperson than everybody,
if you try to be better prepared than everybody,
you got your best chance.
Because it you don't do it and somebody else does,
you know I have this saying,
"Work like someone's trying to take it all away from you."
- Mhm.
- Work like somebody's spending 24 hours
trying to take it all away from you.
And that's kind of the way I look at it.
I remember asking my dad,
I wanted new basketball shoes
cause I was a basketball junkie back then.
He's like, "Well, your shoes work,
"if you want new pair of tennis shoes,
"you have to go out there and get a job."
And I'm like, "Dad, I'm 12 years old."
And it just so happens
he was playing poker with his buddies,
and one of his buddies was like, "Well I got a job for you,
"I got these garbage bags we distribute,
"you could sell them door to door."
I'm like okay.
And it was when I was selling them I realized that
I liked to sell, and that I could sell.
And that I recognized that selling was about
providing a service and creating value for people
that I knew I would, literally back then,
I knew I could always succeed.
I was 16 I think, when I started a stamp company,
and started going to stamp shows and trade shows.
Just working a little bit harder than other people
and trading up from one stamp to the next.
I remember one time I started with a quarter,
and bought a stamp and left with $50.
Thinking, hey if I could do this I could do anything.
And it's not like everything worked, I failed a lot,
but I never ever felt like
I wouldn't be able to work hard enough to succeed.
I say the one thing my father gave me,
which was really key,
was that work ethic.
That ability to get myself up in the morning
no matter how tired I was.
To push myself through those pain barriers.
And again the combination
of a loss of a mother at six,
and then being sent out to work at ten.
I mean starting work at 5:00 in the morning
through the milk route,
being dropped off at 8:45 at school in the milk van.
That work ethic.
So that combination of those two,
work ethic and great insecurity,
was what got me to where I went to.
- You tend to be incredibly modest in terms of
describing your talents,
and you always seem to belittle
your abilities to a certain extent,
when clearly there's a reason why this,
everything you do has been working out.
I was reading about how you said that to a certain extent,
that comes from your punk rock roots.
- Yeah, there's no other choice.
In those days there's no idea of, "this makes money".
There's no idea of "this is my future".
It was like a week at a time, we had five shows,
we're going to get to Sunday, (exhales sharply)
And even those days were like fought with turbulence.
And so I never really saw a future,
none of us did, and some of us, you know, didn't make it.
Some of them are dead, and some of them are just,
kind of tryna recreate their past.
And so I realized that I have to be very hardworking,
because I don't have kind of the ease of talent.
And I come from that,
in a lot of ways it served me very well.
In that I am kind of as hard working as I've ever been,
completely without confidence.
I have none, I don't want any.
Cause I think you turn your back on the thing
and that's when you get gored.
It's when you think, "I got this".
I never think "I got this",
I think "Oh man, don't screw this up."
And I do it everything,
like including you and I sitting here right now,
I'm trying to be fully engaged.
And that intensity I think has served me quite well.
But it comes from punk rock absolutely.
And the last boss I ever had was my boss at Haagen Dasz,
my ice cream shop.
And to this day he still comes to my shows.
And whenever I see Steve, who got me my first apartment,
I was living in my car, he believed in me.
Whenever I see him I get all weepy.
"It's good to see you sir."
"Henry you can call me Steve."
"I can't do that Sir."
Cause he trusted me with his money,
and I said let me run your store,
I know how to do this, I can do this.
He's like, "Well, if you screw up you're outa here."
I said, "I won't screw up."
And it ended up being, I ran a store.
And so, but it was anger that said,
"I'll be here all damn week,
"I'll get this whole thing right."
I fired a staff and rehired a bunch of people
who could really work.
(mumbling)
And, out of anger.
Like I'll be back in four hours
to run this $3.75 an hour job into the ground.
And then I joined Black Flag,
and I thought I was a hardworking person.
Then you meet the guys in Black Flag,
who are so driven.
You see Greg Ginn work 23 hour days.
Like Greg you're still on the phone.
"I know."
Greg, when did you eat?
"I don't know."
Greg, when was the last time you showered?
"Uh, do we have a shower?"
Like we were not going to be stopped.
And I kind of go with that intensity
in kind of anything I do.
Like you're very calm,
good looking young man.
Look at me I'm a spaz sitting next to you,
like I'm doing an interview with you!
- [Interviewer] You're focused.
- I'm sweating man.
(audience laughs)
But I'm like this going to the airport, like...
(audience laughs)
Ten miles out (laughs)
And so, but it's anger that is informed kind of my life,
and unflatteringly a sense of vengeance.
Every damn person who said I wouldn't be anything,
I'm crushing them everyday.
Everybody I had to endure in any band I was in,
everyday into a powder, yeah.
(audience applause)
Thank you.
And I wish them no ill,
I just wish to shine brighter,
and if it burns my body to a crisp,
I'm happy to go right now.
- Go hard.
And then when you think you going hard, go harder.
Like, that's really it, just hustle.
There's nothing you can't
put enough work in every single day,
and not get better at.
If you want to be good at something,
you can't just do it everyday and not get better.
It's the same school with music,
it's the same learning how to play
an instrument or something.
If you spend your time practicing a craft,
like you know, that's really it.
It just you know,
cause nowadays with the internet everything's so accessible,
everybody in the world is a rapper.
Everybody's putting music out,
so it's like how do you stand out?
Quality's always going to matter,
but also being different.
You can't try to be different,
you just got to be yourself.
- How is it different today,
in doing your show, late night,
than it was ten years ago?
Are you more instinctive, are you more...
Do you think less about it and you just do it?
- Yeah, It's muscle memory.
It used to,
- [Interviewer] Like a golf swing.
You crunch down your,
and you're constantly trying to learn.
You're still thinking,
but your ratio of thinking to acting is very different.
At the beginning
I was thinking about it this much in, you know,
in my cognitive brain.
And then there was this much,
whatever thin reed of talent you have is there,
and then you're thinking about the rest.
And then over the years I think,
you know they always say the reptile brain.
The reptile portion of your brain is where
respiration, heartbeat.
That's the stuff that even if you're knocked unconscious
it's still working.
I really believe a lot of my talk show or comedy instincts
are now in my reptile brain.
That you could knock me out,
and my heart would still beat, I'd still breathe,
and I'd still be asking Lindsay Lohan,
(laughing)
some stupid question.
- [Interviewer] You have just become,
some ways it has become part of your DNA.
- Yeah I mean I think a lot of it is,
you have to have some ability.
But then it's just how much will.
I really do think there's just a,
I think people underestimate.
It doesn't sound sexy,
it doesn't sound cool.
- [Interviewer] How much do you want it?
- [Conan] Work ethic.
And just, how badly do you want it.
And there've been you know,
many times,
throughout the years of doing my show where I've thought,
you could shoot me in the chest before I walk out there,
and I'd still walk out there and do that show,
and then I'll come backstage and die.
But we're doing that show.
- [Interviewer] The interesting thing for me to talk to you,
and what makes you so fascinating
is just the talent that you see on the screen.
But at the same time, there is a certain innocence,
and yet a certain power.
And it seems to me it's both artist and also...
business.
- Aw thank you.
- [Interviewer] But do you believe that?
- Yeah.
- [Interviewer] Am I right?
- I've worked very hard (laughs)
to make that true so thank you.
- [Interviewer] That it's both that.
- Thank you, well because without gaining
some control over the business,
I lose some control over the creative,
which is most important.
- [Interviewer] The more you control the business,
the more you can give flower to the creative.
- Exactly.
- [Interviewer] Or give wings to the creative.
- Yeah so I used to stay out of it,
I don't care, I don't want to, I'm an artist.
(laughs)
I don't need to.
You know, but this is my business now,
it is important if you agent,
my agent always says
I'm his only client that ever calls him back as soon as he,
(laughing)
Because it's my business and I respect my business.
- [Interviewer] Your agent says you're the only client
that calls him back to say,
- Immediately.
If I have a missed call, I call, I'm probably the only.
I return emails, I return phone calls, because
- [Interviewer] Because you want to know
what options there are.
- Yes, I've worked really hard to build this,
and I want to continue building it,
and it's my business, my personal business.
So I don't understand how people do slack.
- I have a disease, I'm a workaholic.
It is like being an alcoholic, I just can't give it up.
I've been unwell for two weeks, and I feel unwell,
so I can't go to work.
Because I can't go to work, I get worse.
If I sit in one place I am stressed.
The reason I am not fidgeting too much
is because I am unwell,
otherwise I hate sitting in one place.
Some work has to be given to me,
My wife and children keep telling me,
"You know you work 20 years round the clock,
"why are you doing this?"
I don't think I need the money.
I don't think I am greedy for more fame.
I'm doing okay,
I can do one film in two years and be happy with it.
But I'm just not happy.
I tell everyone if I'm not working I'm depressed.
I don't know if it's a curse or a blessing.
Maybe at the end of it all when we die,
god will say, "Did you work?"
I'll say, "Yes a lot."
"Oh damn, you go to hell
"because I didn't want anyone to work."
Or it could be, "Oh you worked,
"that's really nice because I wanted everyone to work."
So I don't know, one of them is going to be right.
But I just keep working, I think,
I have this fear that you have very few days in life.
And you need to cram them with a lot of things.
You need to fill it,
fill it with so many things in there,
that you don't have space for life.
It should be like that.
When I'm not working I get lonely,
I get depressed, I get sad.
I don't drink, I'm not a philosopher,
I'm not a poet that I like loneliness.
I hate being alone,
and I hate being with people at times.
I'm unsocial, I'm very odd with people.
So what happens is I have replaced people
with work in my life.
Because when I am working I am with a lot of people.
And they are people I can interact with
because somewhere there is a wall,
that I am not interacting with them socially,
I am interacting with them to this common,
you know, goal that is for work.
So I can discuss with her, or discuss with him.
And appear friends for that moment.
Many of my filmmaking colleagues complain
that after the film is over you don't talk to us.
I can't explain to them I don't have anything else to say.
I love you,
uh I miss you.
But I miss you through the work.
I'm very fond of a lot of people,
a lot of people I love like family,
and I can't pick up the phone and talk with them,
I can't socialize with them, I can't sit and chat with them.
But when we are working I can just be with them.
So I don't know what.
It's all about,
I have replaced loneliness, depression, and people,
with work.
- When you come from the working class background
that I come from.
I feel guilty...
At ten to five, if I am not in the office.
I know that might sound strange to you.
But it's a work ethic that's,
I have to be half dead
not to go to work.
It's kind of a work ethic that's built into me.
But nevertheless, having said all that,
the weekends, that was it, it's over,
switch off like a light.
Friday night as you got back from the office
or from the work, or from the factory, whatever,
no matter what was buzzing around in my head, it was off.
Like a light switch.
And that's it, don't let it interfere.
Very rarely let it interfere with the weekend.
And then Monday morning, bang, back on it again
as if you flicked the switch on again.
So I had a bit of discipline in that respect, yeah.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
I hope you enjoyed.
I'd love to know,
what was your biggest takeaway from this video?
What are you going to immediately apply
somehow to your life or to your business?
Leave it down in the comments below,
I'm super curious to find out.
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, I'll see you soon.
(woosh)