10 Golden Rules That Will Change Your Life FOREVER | Dwayne Johnson

We took a lot of pride in trailblazing and how the game was played. I knew at that time when I was 8, I wanted to be an entertainer, and I loved the idea of that. It wasn't me personally that they didn't like. It was that I wasn't being me. Life brings like drama, and you gotta deal with this person and a funky relationship. Yes, I get up at crazy hours, whether it's 3 o'clock in the morning, by the way, when we were talking in London, I was getting up at 3 because I had to be on set by 4. It is the worst mistake you will ever make. He said, you're ruining your career. I love action, and I love kicking ass. But the goal was to become a better actor. Get your ass kicked, get back up, and you put the gloves back on and you swing away. When I was 16 years old, that was the last time that I was arrested. I don't know how it happened, but my cousin who was on tour with us, I said, just got busted with prostitutes, and my name is attached to it now.

He's a Canadian-American actor, producer, and semi-retired wrestler. The Rock is considered by many to be the biggest superstar in WWE history. His autobiography debuted at number 1 on the New York Times bestseller list. He's Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and here are his top 10 rules for success.

We were bad. We intimidated, we dominated, but we took a lot of pride in that. We took a lot of pride in trailblazing and how the game was played back at that time through We would intimidate teams, and we would want to dominate teams. But also too, we also had the thought process that a team was never going to outwork us. We're going to be the hardest working team in the country. And check this out. What we would do, for example, we would go into— so we had a big game against Florida State. So we would go into their Doak Campbell Stadium. And instead of going through your general practice, what you do, what we would do is we would do things a little bit different just to intimidate them. So as a team, We would kind of all line up. We're in their stadium. You got their staff. You got some players watching us. Instead of going through our plays, we would just start to give cadence calls. So for example, you know, the whole team, we would say things like, you know, let it go, baby, it's cable. Don't hold back, Dwayne. We would say, all us Canes, we got an itch. Florida State's gonna be our bitch. Like that. I wanted to entertain. When I was 8 years old, I thought I was a combination of these guys. I thought I was a combination of Chuck Norris, Richard Pryor, Harrison Ford, and Rocky Balboa. Harrison Ford from Indiana Jones. So I was like, all these guys, uh, in my— oh, and Elvis Presley too, at 8, right? Pretty lofty ambition. Yes, exactly. Uh, uh, so I knew at that time when I was 8 I wanted to be an entertainer, and I love the idea of that and what it meant. Um, and when I was 8, I saw, uh, Indiana Jones for the first time, and I love that character. Like, wow, that guy was so heroic, and he kicked ass and he— I remember I had great angst every night before I went out because I was not able to be myself. My very first WrestleMania, the biggest show of the year, the Super Bowl of wrestling. That night, 20,000 fans started chanting, Rocky sucks. It was a sobering moment, and that was the beginning of the end of my initial run in the WWE. A few weeks later, um, I tore a tendon in my knee, and, uh, I was out for the rest of the summer. And I came to the realization before I went back that it wasn't me personally that they didn't like. It was that I wasn't being me. I wasn't being real. I wasn't being authentic. Who is this guy in wrestling who's smiling when he's getting beat? A few weeks later, I got a call from the WWE, and I spoke to Vince McMahon. He said, when you come back, we could continue to shove you down people's throats, or we could turn you heel because they want to boo you anyway. I said, I think it's a great idea. And I said, before we get off the phone, I have one request. I said, when I come back and we go live, I just need 2 minutes live, me talking to the audience live. 2 minutes is all I'm asking. He said, "Okay, you got it." Couple of weeks later, I came back, we were on live TV. I grabbed the microphone, fans were already booing. They started chanting, "Rocky sucks." In arenas across the country, I heard chants of, "Rocky sucks." I said, um, I may be a lot of things, Well, Rocky might be a lot of things, but sucks isn't one of them. But sucks isn't one of them. In that moment, The Rock was born. And about a month later, I was the hottest heel in the company, and things were on fire. And the greatest lesson about that is be you. Be yourself. Whether it's in entertainment, whether it's out in public, whether you're a celebrity or not, whatever. The most powerful thing you could be is yourself. Oh yes, I get up super early. Generally, I have this thing where I like beating the sun up, not just in terms of before the sun comes up, I have to get up. And, uh, how do I do it? It's just important to find balance, and I try and do things really that I really enjoy doing. And a lot of times, you know, it's like in life, right? Life brings like drama, and you got to deal with this person and a funky relationship here and all these things. You try and just kind of balance them out as best I can. I got a great team around me, by the way, who really, really helps me well and helps me— allows for me to come in and work 12 hours a day, 14 hours a day, get up at 3 o'clock in the morning, uh, send out an Instagram video where I'm talking to my cardio machine like a crazy maniac. So yeah, it requires a lot of people around me. Yes, I get up at crazy hours, whether it's 3 o'clock in the morning. By the way, when we were talking in London, I was getting up at 3 because I had to be on set by 4— I'm sorry, by 7. So whatever time my call time is, and I tell this to studios and directors and our producers, whatever time I call time— so my call time is at 7:00, then you back your clock up 4 hours, and then that's when I get up and I train twice. I'll get my cardio in and breakfast, and then I'll go hit the weights. Clanging and banging, we call it. Jacking the iron.

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 5 hours of sleep. Okay. I found that with depression, one of the most important things you could realize is that you're not alone. You're not the first to go through it. You're not gonna be the last to go through it. And oftentimes it happens, you just, you feel like you're alone and you feel like it's only you and you're in your bubble. And I wish I had someone at that time who could just pull me aside and say, "Hey, it's gonna be okay. It'll be okay." So I wish I knew that. Just gotta remember. Hold on to that fundamental quality of faith. Have faith that on the other side of your pain is something good. After about a month and a half of staying in that little apartment and cleaning, I got a phone call from the head coach of the team who cut me, the head coach of the Calgary Stampeders. He called me and he said, hey, I know we cut you, but I'd like you to come back. I said, okay, I appreciate that, Coach. Thank you very much. I'll think about it. He said, okay, great. I hung up the phone, and my dad said, you're gonna do it, right? I said, no, I don't think so. I think I'm done with that. And he goes, what? I said, my gut tells me I'm done. He said, what are you gonna do? I took a deep breath. I said, I'd like to get into the business. He said, what business? I said, the wrestling business. He says, you are throwing it all away. It is the worst mistake you will ever make. He said, you're ruining your career. I said, maybe I'll be no good, but I feel like in my heart I have to do this, and I either need you need you to train me or need you to not train me. My dad rose to the occasion. He said, I'll train you. And it wound up being one of the greatest chapters in my life. The goal— this is my 10th year of acting. The goal was always to work in— and I started in the action genre. I love action and I love kicking ass. But the goal was to become a better actor. And so for me, In order for me to do that, I had to work in all different genres. Sure. I wanted to explore family movies, comedies, action comedies, family comedies, mix drama in too as well. So that was important to me, was just to get better. I knew I wanted to be something, and it was important to me to be something. It was, it was important to me that I didn't fail. But by the way, and if I did fail, at least what was also important was the lesson. And I didn't realize that until I got old. Older, because, you know, when you're in it, you're in the grind, you don't really recognize those things, uh, when you're younger. But I could recognize them now and the importance of them now. And just in terms of the drive and the determination, um, a lot of it was experience too. Get your ass kicked, get back up, and you put the gloves back on and you swing away. When I was 16 years old, that was the last time that I was arrested. And at that time, we were, we were at an all-time low, I think, with our family. And at that time, we were living in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. And I am already a pretty big boy, 6'4", 200 and maybe 20, 25 pounds. I had a very bad mustache. I had a chip on my shoulder. Fresh into this high school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Freedom High School. I wanted to use the bathroom, but I didn't want to use the regular boys' bathroom because the boys' bathroom smelled like smoke and all the other fun stuff that boys' bathrooms smell like. So I'd go into the teacher's lounge and A teacher comes in, his name is Jody Swick, tough guy. He says, "Hey, you can't be in here." I kind of pause, look over my shoulder. "Okay, I'll leave when I'm done." And I continue to wash my hands. I slowly dry my hands and I walk by him and I kind of just looked at him. I walked by, he looked at me, didn't say a word, but he was fuming. I went home that night and I felt bad. I just felt bad. The very next day, I found him and I went to see him in his class and I said, I said, I just want to apologize for how I acted yesterday and I'm sorry. And I stuck my hand out and he looked at my hand and looked at me, looked at my hand again. He shook my hand. I'll never forget that shake. He wouldn't let it go. He said, "I want you to do something for me." "Yes?" "Why don't you come out and play football for me?" I said, "Okay." He said, "All right. Have your word?" "Yeah, sure." "You got my word." I didn't think much of it. I thought, "Okay, yeah, play some football." Like playing football? Sure, cool. And I went out and I played football for Jody Swick, and he was our head football coach, and he became a father figure to me and a mentor. I fell in love with the game of football. My grades got better, and I started getting recruited from every college across the country. College coaches would come in, You say, "There he is, Dwayne Johnson, 6'4", 250, plays both sides of the ball, very aggressive." My thought process started to change. That's when I started thinking about goals and what I wanted to accomplish. And I love that man. I'll never forget the impact that he had in my life. And the reminder and my takeaway from that amazing relationship that I had was the empathy that he had for a punk kid who treated him so rudely and disrespectfully. He looked past that BS and said, "I believe in you, and I want to turn you around." Oftentimes when I see kids and they have been labeled, "Oh, they're punk kids." True. But there's good in them. And we gotta see that potential, and I enjoy that today, seeing the potential in kids just like he did. Especially kids who are kind of wayward and have been going through it. I know what it's like. So thank you, Jody. Thank you, buddy. I love April Fools', but the thing about it is, is I love doing— but my April Fools' runs the entire year.

I see, yes, I'm similar.

Yeah, because it's like April Fools', everyone's expecting it, so this past— Around Christmas time, we were getting ready to make a big announcement for a movie, and I called my agent. I was overseas, and I called my agent Brad Slater. I woke him up in the middle of the night, and I was like, hey, man, I got to talk to you. He's like, what's going on? What's wrong? I said, I don't know how it happened, but my cousin who was on tour with us, I said, just got busted with prostitutes, and my name is attached to it now. And it's all getting ready to hit the press. He started freaking out. I was like, Brad, are you OK? He was getting emotional. Oh my God, what are we going to do? OK, hold on. And he goes, I'm going to be calm in the pocket. I'm thinking about this. Hold on. And I was like, I don't know what to do. I think there's multiple prostitutes with this thing. There's a whole ring over here. It's unbelievable. Had him going and going and going. And finally, I was like, oh, Brad, Brad, Brad. He's like, what? I was like, December Fool! That's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And that's the thing. I'm like, December Fool! You got to say it like that. A long pause.

Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because David Uyen asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of The Rock's top 10 tips meant the most to you, is going to have the biggest impact on your life and business. Leave it in the comments and I'll join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe and I'll see you soon.