- Good morning believe nation my name is Evan Carmichael,
my one word is believe, and I believe that entrepreneurs
will solve all of the major problems of the world.
So today's message is be your real self.
Over to you, Meryl Streep.
(rooster crowing)
♫ I wake up every morning
♫ Entspresso keep my going
♫ I wake up every morning
- I reached a point senior year where my adjustment
felt like me, I had actually convinced myself
that I was this person and she me.
Pretty, talented, but not stuck-up,
a girl who laughed a lot at every
stupid thing every boy said.
And who lowered her eyes at the right moment
and deferred, who learned to deffer
when the boys took over the conversation.
I really remember this so clearly.
And I could tell it was working,
I was much less annoying to the guys than I had been.
They liked me better and I liked that.
This was conscious but it was at the same time
motivated and fully fully felt.
This was real, real acting.
I got to Vassar, which 43 years ago
was a single sex institution like all the
colleges in what they called the seven sisters,
the female Ivy League.
And I made some very quick but lifelong
and challenging friends.
And with their help, outside of any competition
for boys, my brain woke up.
(audience laughs and cheers)
I got up and I got outside myself
and I found myself again, I didn't have to pretend,
I could be goofy, vehement, aggressive and slovenly,
and open and funny and tough, my friends let me.
I didn't wash my hair for three weeks once.
(audience laughs)
They accepted me like The Velveteen Rabbit.
I became real instead of an imaginary stuffed bunny.
- What this video really brings home for me
is how important the environment you have is,
the people around you, how much they impact
your beliefs, your actions, the way you think,
and just by being around different people
you can become more of yourself.
If you're around people who are playing the big game
you're going to want to play a bigger game.
If you're around people who are thinking small
and complaining, chances are you're
going to think smaller and complain a lot more.
And so playing close attention to the people
who you are surrounding yourself with,
really really really really really
really really really matters.
There's the age old expression of you are
the result of the five people who you
hang out with, and it's true.
So as a quick example form my recent history,
I came back from a conference in Palm Springs
called Climber Con which is for YouTubers
with 100,000 plus subscribers and I met
two interesting YouTubers who I had known
before on email, but I got a chance to interact with them.
The first was Charlie from Charisma on Command.
He's got a great channel talking about
how you can be more charismatic.
One of the things that Charlie really liked
about me was my ability to network
with people in the room and make introductions
with people to the point where he made a video
on his channel talking about it.
- So last week I kind of had my mind blown
and it's because I went to an event
and I learned more there about networking
than I had learned in my entire life
previous to that event.
And what was really weird was that
I learned it from an introvert.
So I'd always expected that extroverts
like myself would have an easier time networking
because we're more comfortable in groups,
more comfortable talking for long periods of time
with strangers, but quite frankly this guy
blew me out of the water.
His network far exceeded mine.
It felt like almost every time that I mentioned something
I was interested in, he's like oh, yeah I know someone
who can do that, I can introduce you to them.
And then after the event, he did.
- One of the things that I loved about
Charlie was how healthy he was and every time
we went out he was ordering healthy foods,
salads, salmon, and I'm sitting there
eating pizza and junk.
And so here's what would happen.
If we spent more time together,
if we were in close proximity more than just
once a year at this event,
then I guarantee you he would become better
at networking and making introductions
and talking to people,
and I would start getting more fit
and more healthy and more conscious of what I was eating
and working out more because we're
in each other's environment.
The second person is Antonio who runs a channel
called Real Men Real Style.
And he was really impressed with how I was pushing him
to want to want to make a video a day.
I said you got to make more videos on your channel,
if you want to stand out.
YouTube wants a video a day, you got to go daily
on your channel, to the point where he wanted
to make a video about it as well.
- And the one thing, the one work I took from Evan
is impact, this guy is wickedly smart.
He's one of the few people on there that I can
be having a conversation with and realize
he's more intense than me,
and he can turn the situation so that you find
you're agreeing with him.
Literally he had me agreeing that I should probably
be putting out one video a day.
- When I was hanging around Antonio
I was always impressed by his style,
and he was talking with me about fragrances and smell.
It starts to make me think about what I should
be doing more in my life.
And so if we were spending more time together
in close proximity beyond just once a year,
he would be making more daily content.
That would happen, I would will it into existence for him.
And he would be pushing style advice on me,
and fragrance and scent and all the things
that he's working on, and the more we spent
time together the more we'd come together
on those kinds of issues.
And so the people that you spend your time with
really really really matter.
Now how do you know if you have the right environment?
The answer is, start asking yourself about
the dreams you have, the big goals you have,
the mission that you're on, the big thing
that you want to accomplish.
What's the reaction of the people close to you
when you tell them your plans?
Here's my dream of what I want to be,
mom and dad, best friend,
teacher, professor, neighbors.
What's the reaction?
Are people supportive?
Are people encouraging?
Are people trying to offer resources
and help on ideas to make it better?
Are people apathetic and they don't care?
Are people negative and telling you that you can't do it?
Are you even afraid just to bring up
the subject to them because you know
what they're immediate reaction is going to be?
If that's the environment that you're in,
you need to switch.
Right, if you are afraid to bring up your ideas
to the people around you because you know
it's just going to be negativity,
then you need to switch your environment.
As long as you're around those people
you will never do great things.
And then you might say but Evan,
I don't know great people, I don't know
how to change my environment, I'm stuck with these people,
it's my family, it's my friends.
So you're right to some extent,
they're your family, they're your friends.
One, you can limit your exposure,
you don't have to spend as much time with them.
You can only talk about certain things with them.
And then two, you can design the environment,
and maybe going to events, finding places like
Climber Con at least for me as a YouTuber.
Finding other events, finding local
things that you don't have to travel
and spend a lot of money to go to.
Finding local people, clubs, meetup groups,
like-minded people to hang out with
and spend time with.
It could be aspirational mentor,
that's where I learn most of my stuff from.
The tops tens of people who I look up to
who've done amazing things.
The more time you spend hanging around
people like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk
and Oprah Winfrey and listening to their advice
and how they think and how they talk
and how they deal with situations,
the more time you spend hanging around them
and the less time you spend hanging around
these negative people,
the more you're going to be like them.
You're going to gravitate there,
you're going to believe in your big ideas,
you're going to accomplish bigger things,
you're pulled in that direction.
Your environment is so so so so important.
And so the question of the day today is,
I'm curious what does your environment look like?
Are they full of positive optimistic people helping you?
Apathetic people who don't really care?
Or negative people who tell you that you can't do it?
Really curious to find out,
leave it down in the comments below,
thank you for sharing.
I also want to give a quick shout out
to Susana Villalobos, thank you so much Susana
for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word.
It really really means a lot to me
and I hope you're enjoying the read.
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.
And I'll see you again tomorrow morning
for another shot of Entspresso.
♫ I wake up every morning
♫ Entspresso keep me going
- Well I haven't had any regrets,
and it's sometimes really hard.
I'll tell you a funny story,
I remember right before I got A Different World,
I auditioned for Blossom.
You remember the TV show Blossom?
- Oh absolutely, yes.
- Do you remember her friend the young girl,
her Six, I auditioned for Six, okay?
And I had my hair up in a little pony tail
with this little jumpsuit,
I looked like I was about 12.
Got the role, okay?
Got the role to play Six.
And I was like, I was 18, 19 years old then.
I looked to my agent Nancy Rainford,
I said Nancy I can't do this.
I just can't do it, I'm going to be miserable
playing a 12 year old on this show.
I can't do this.
And we had to turn it down, and let me tell you,
them folks was not happy.
It's like who does this girl think she is,
you know, that whole thing.
But within two weeks I got A Different World,
and that really taught me a lesson
which was to really listen to
and follow my gut,
because everything that shines isn't gold,
you know what I mean?
And so it really taught me a very valuable
lesson to just stay true to myself.
If there's nothing that I haven't learned
about this business, it's really about staying true
to why I'm here, why I started acting in the first place,
and what's important to me.
And keeping my artistic integrity as well as my creative,
my personal integrity, and that was a big lesson for me.
And let me tell you, that was not an easy
thing to turn down, being a young actress
you go this opportunity for this series regular,
it's money, you know?
But I just felt deep down inside,
I was like something's coming your way, just fall back.
And then I got to meet Debbie Allen, yeah.
(audience applause)
- I said look, why don't we change
everything opposite Bruce Lee?
Be myself, just me, Jackie Chan.
- That takes a lot of confidence and belief.
- And also I really think you, the producer will see that.
He said okay, do whatever you like to do.
Change, no Bruce Lee, comedy.
When Bruce Lee kick high, I kick low.
When Bruce Lee after punch, ugh, I do bah, ow.
Just like normal human being,
normal when I was young, I'm fighting on the street,
one by one boom, I knocked somebody down,
two by one, I knocked somebody down,
three, I run away.
So in the movie, do the same thing.
Everything used in the movie, it's my real life.
- [Presenter] When she was 17 years old
Stephanie got her high-school diploma
and left the nuns to join the prestigious
Tisch school of arts, a school entirely
dedicated to artistic disciplines.
She took numerous classes such as art story,
music, theater, and dancing.
I was really blessed and lucky to get in,
I got in very early, I was 17
and I was one of 20 people in America
that got into the school early.
And I was really happy and excited
and I just felt like all my dreams were coming true.
And it was a wonderful school but it was very factory-like,
and not in the Warhol factory-like way.
More like a sausage link factory
where everyone was taught the same sorts
of things and I think what I didn't like about this school
was I felt that they wanted us all to be the same
and possess the same skills
and I had something very different inside of me.