- This idea that things are just fixed
is proven not to be the case.
You can get better at things, you can grow.
No matter what obstacles you face in life,
if you approach it with courage and conviction,
you can find a way out of it.
But the only way you'll reach any height in life
and in love is by taking that chance that you might fall.
You have to give your all.
- He's an American singer, songwriter, musician and actor.
He's won 10 Grammy Awards, one Golden Globe Award,
and one Academy Award.
In 2007 he won the Hal David Starlight Award
from the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
He's John Legend, and here's my take
on his top 10 rules for success.
Rule number one is my personal favorite
and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best.
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 as well
so other people can be inspired.
Also, when you write it down, you're much more likely
to lock it in for yourself as well, enjoy.
(bold, upbeat music)
- The thing is, every successful person you know
has failed at what they love to do before.
I've been unsuccessful in my career.
You just didn't know about it because I wasn't famous yet
and I was trying to be famous.
I was trying to get a record deal for six years
and I kept getting turned down.
And any successful person you know, even though it seems
like everything just happened for them,
it usually was preceded by a bunch of failure,
or at least a significant amount.
But the great ones aren't the ones that don't fail,
they're the ones that learn from their failure
and they keep going and they're persistent
and they're tenacious.
And for me, I was trying to get a record deal
from '98 to 2004,
and I got turned down by every major record label,
including the one I'm signed to now.
For me, that means that even when you hear no,
you have go keep going through all those nos
until you get to yes.
- A lot of people think they're prepared,
but you may think they're not prepared,
so what does prepared mean?
- Prepared means, like I said, you got to be great
at whatever you're doing, even if you're not known
for it yet, you have to be developing
into someone who can be great.
If you read Malcolm Gladwell, for instance,
he believes you have to practice 10,000 hours
to be a genius at any particular field.
I don't know if the exact number's right,
but I'm sure directionally that's correct.
You need to spend a hell of a lot of time doing something
and practicing at it and getting better at it
for you to be great.
And for a songwriter or a singer,
that means writing, that means listening,
that means performing, that means practicing,
that means all those things.
And if you're not doing that,
you're not going to become great at it.
We're always thinking about what it means
to be authentic as an artist and what it means
to be authentic and to be successful
and commercially viable.
The goal is to not let the commercial
invade your creative process too much.
The goal is to just try to write a great song,
just try to make a great record,
just try to make a great album,
and then the commercial side will take care of itself.
But you know, you still have labels,
A&R is in your ear, you still have marketing people
in your ear that want a certain thing out
of your first single and want a certain thing out
of your first video, but at the end of the day,
your guiding light, your North Star has to be,
is this great, is this creatively
something I can be proud of?
Because if you don't do that,
then I don't know what the point is.
When I was younger, I didn't really know
that you could just get better at things,
because I think we're so used to the idea
that you're talented at something
and it's sort of fixed, you know?
The idea that oh, he's just a good singer,
you know, and even with singing,
I've gotten better at singing as I've gotten older.
I wasn't singing in a way that was sustainable
and I wasn't breathing right,
I wasn't doing a bunch of things correctly.
I realized that there was a ceiling
that I couldn't crack through unless I actually studied
and worked under a coach to get better.
And this idea that things are just fixed
is proven not to be the case.
You can get better at things, you can grow.
And even people that are innately talented still need
to go beyond that basic talent
that they have and cultivate it.
I love what I do, I'm a musician.
There's an industry side of it,
but at the core what I do is,
I go in and write songs and I get to perform them
in front of thousands of people who enjoy them.
That is fun (laughing), that is great.
There are challenges involved.
You want to do well, you want to keep the public's interest
and their excitement, you want to sell tickets,
you want to sell CDs, you want to continue
to be successful in the industry.
But, like I said before, I don't see a contradiction
between doing all of that and having fun
and making music you believe in.
I don't know, I hear people complaining
about the music business, and there are certainly things
that you could complain about, but I'm having a great time.
I want to win, I want to be successful at what I do.
And so I'm committed to working hard.
I'm committed to going to the studio
and working on a song the umpteenth version of it
to make sure I get it exactly right.
I'm committed to that, I'm committed to rehearsing
with my band til we get the show exactly right.
We want to do the best show in the business.
Part of it's just my love for music.
Part of it's me being competitive.
But all of that makes me want to perform at a high level.
- John, why this project, why was it so important
to be a part of it?
- Well, they sent me the first script
and I was just enthralled, I was like excited
to find out where it went.
I thought it was an exciting story
that hasn't been told in this way before.
And I thought it was inspirational about breaking free,
about having the courage to do something against the odds.
- So, congratulations on the baby girl!
- Thank you very much.
- If your daughter sees this, what do you want her
to take away from this?
- I want her to be inspired, to know a bit
about American history and know about
where her father's people came from.
And also to be inspired
that no matter what obstacles you face in life,
if you approach it with courage and conviction,
you can find a way out of it.
I'm the kind of artist that doesn't fit so neatly
into a radio format.
And that presents a challenge.
But I think it's one that's worth,
it's worth it for me to be that kind of artist
because I think it's authentic to who am I.
And if you're not being authentic to who you are,
then you won't be successful anyway usually.
And I think that's why I've been successful,
because my fans believe what I'm doing
and they believe that I'm coming from a real place.
Also, most of my songs are in some way
a co-write of some sort.
I usually write most of the lyric and melody,
but a lot of times the music and the back beat
are contributed by someone else,
or at least in collaboration with someone else.
And I've always been open to that, and it helps me
kind of stay creative and stay fresh.
And I think I come into a collaboration
with a spirit of openness that not every artist has.
Some people are more guarded and more protective
about their creative process,
but I'm much more open and collaborative.
And for me, that's the best way to create.
Everybody has a different sweet spot,
and whatever makes them happy,
whatever makes them most comfortable,
but for me, I feel very comfortable
in a collaborative environment.
I treat it with humility in the sense
that I'm not wed to my ideas.
I'm willing to listen to someone else's.
I think I have a decent sense of taste enough
to be able to kind of appraise whether or not something
that someone else is contribution is really quality
and good, and I enjoy that back and forth.
- Well, I think that, again, speaks to great confidence.
Because I'm a writer, and I don't show my work to anybody
because I'm so scared.
If they like it, I don't trust them.
If they don't like it, I really get hurt by it.
- Yeah, you have to open yourself up to it,
and part of it is just being a little bit fearless,
you know, I don't know if you can be a little bit fearless.
But, you know, you just have to put it out there
and not be afraid.
Somehow they've scientifically determined
that the public is only capable of liking the same 10 songs
at any given time, so they simply play those songs
over and over and over and over,
until you're finally completely exasperated.
Then they move on.
Now, I've had a 10 year career as a major label
solo artist, and none of my songs has ever
been one of those 10 songs until this moment, and now,
(crowd cheering and applauding)
and now (singing) all of you,
(crowd cheering and applauding)
are so over me.
(crowd laughing)
You're tired of hearing that I went to Penn.
Why'd they bring him back again?
(crowd laughing)
That was my humble brag way of saying
I have the biggest song in the country right now.
(crowd cheering and applauding)
The reason I'm here, the reason I've had
such a wonderful journey so far, is that I found love.
Yes, love, we were all made to love,
and I found that we live our best lives,
we are at our most successful,
not simply because we're smarter,
or because we hustle harder,
not because we become millionaires more quickly.
The key to success, the key to happiness is
opening your mind and your heart to love,
spending your time doing things you love
and with people you love.
Even though we're made to love, we're often afraid to love.
We're afraid of being hurt deeply,
afraid of feeling the pain I went through
when my parents were divorced,
but you're never going to really love something
or someone unless you put those fears aside.
Don't hold back, being in love means
being ready to give freely and openly
and being ready to risk something,
risking pain and disappointment,
conquering your fears and becoming anew.
Alice Walker once said,
"The more I wonder, the more I love."
Love calls you to open your eyes to seek,
to search, to wonder.
Love is all-consuming, it infiltrates your body
and allows you to experience bliss,
joy and true friendship.
You'll be more disappointed when something goes wrong.
You might fall harder, but the only way you'll reach
any height in life and in love is
by taking that chance that you might fall.
You have to give your all.
Yes, I've been no so subtly working in my song lyrics
in my speech today.
(crowd laughing)
And some might think it's all a bit too much.
Here I am this R&B singer with an album called,
Love in the Future, who's recently married
and wrote the biggest love song of the year.
And what did I choose to talk about?
Love, it's so corny, isn't it?
(crowd laughing)
It's much cooler to be detached and apathetic, right?
We all like a little snark and cynicism and irony,
especially from our favorite artists
and comedians and writers.
I get it, but that cool detachment only gets you so far.
Passion gets you a lot further.
It makes you a better entrepreneur, a better leader,
a better philanthropist, a better friend, a better lover.
I want you to live the best life you can.
You can be world changers.
When you leave here today you're going to look
for a lot of things, security, money,
friendships, sex, all kinds of things.
But the most important thing you'll find is love.
So love yourself, love your work,
love the people around you, dare to love those
who are different from you, no matter where they're from,
what they look like and who they love.
(crowd cheering and applauding)
Pursue this life of love with focus and passion,
ambition and courage, give it your all,
and that will be your path to true success.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
I made this video because Funky Fun Me asked me to.
So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me
to profile next, leave down in the comments below
and I'll see what I can do.
I'd also love to know, what did you learn from this video
from John that you're going to take some immediate action on
in your life or in your businesses somehow?
What was your favorite clip and why?
Leave it in the comments and I'm going to join
in the discussion.
Finally, I wanted to give a quick shout out
to Rey Peterson, Rey actually works on my team
and he decided to pick up a copy of my book,
Your One Word, thank you for that Rey.
And for taking the picture and posting it online.
I appreciate all the work you do,
but also the support with the book.
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.
- Yeah, I worked for a company called
the Boston Consulting Group, we did management consulting.
- [Interviewer] Was it fun for you, was it nice?
- It was interesting, I had fun sometimes
and I was bored sometimes, I was tired sometimes
because at the same time I was trying
to make a demo record and playing live
and doing all these other things for my music career.
But during the day I would be at work.
It was an interesting time, but I learned a lot,
actually, from being there.
I needed to do it anyway because I needed
to make money somehow.
I mean, I could have gotten another job,
but either way it was going to take money and time
to invest to do that.
So, it worked out, I have some friends from there
that I'm still very good friends with.
And I learned a lot there.
- [Interviewer] What did you learn, what did you learn?
- It's not a specific fact, it's just kind of
how businesses run, how they think,
how to do problem solving in a smart way.
And I think those things and the instincts
that I developed as a business person,
they help as I'm running my business now.
Because really all artists are in some ways entrepreneurs.
They run their own small business.
- [Interviewer] So, is there one client
that you worked for that you said,
I had to solve one problem over there
and now when I run my own business I ran into it
and I learned and I used the experience
to solve my own problems?
- It's not that easy to draw a line
between the experiences, but I think
when you have a general knowledge
and you develop general instincts about certain things,
it just helps your decision making.
And I think more than anything that's what happened.
Yeah, you just have to, it's not easy
to see beyond where you are,
but you have to try to see beyond where you are,
set goals beyond where you are.
Think about ways that you can break out
and make a difference, and that's what I did.
I had some great people around me, my family,
teachers, people that believed in me
and encouraged me, sent me off to an Ivy League school
and I figured it out after that.
A lot of people want to be stars, so the labels are
in a position where they have to and should say no
to most people that come into their door, and they need
to be really sure about you before they sign you.
So, they said no to me a lot, they said no to me.
Even the label I'm signed to, Columbia/Sony,
turned me down like a year or so before I got signed.
So it just shows you that you have to be persistent.
You have to keep trying to get better,
learn from your criticisms
and then just play to win.
And that's what I was doing.