10 Ways to Reach GREATNESS | Kanye West

He's one of the best-selling artists of all time. He's won 21 Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists all time, as well as the most awarded artist for his age. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He's Kanye West, and here are his 10 rules for success.

I'm not gonna sit inside of a corporation for 20 years. The time is now. The time is now to express and for people to believe in themselves. The time is now for it to be okay to be great. People in this world shun people for being great, for being a bright color, for standing out. But the time is now to be okay to be the greatest you.

When this goes online or whatever it is, it really matters and it really doesn't matter. What matters is the people who are sparked by it. And the people who are offended by it, it doesn't fucking matter. Fuck you. Because it's about motivating the doers. And anyone that wants to sit around and talk shit, they're doing too much time, they're taking too much time talking shit about it instead of getting up off their ass and following their dreams. Because I'm here to follow my dreams. You know, and help other people follow their dreams and inspire people who are dreamers. It's crazy that we live in a world that if you're super positive and super creative, that it's scary. So what does that tell you about the mentality of most people if you're scared of like positivity and creativity?

So when you're at your lowest point in life, just know there's always hope and always know there's a new day and always know there's a way. You know, people your whole life, they try to tell you, be humble, be humble, be humble. When's the last time somebody told you to be great, be amazing, be awesome, be awesome, be awesome?

Everyone out there in TV world, real world, whatever world you stay in, needs to know that I've never done a publicity stunt in my life. Anytime I went up and spoke my mind, whether it put my career in jeopardy or whatever someone so-called said, it was always what I thought was the truth, whether I'm like reading through a teleprompter or whatever, whatever I felt emotionally. I don't follow like rules of like, you know, normal celebrity or what their publicist tells them to say or anything. And I say things the wrong way a lot of times, but my intention is always positive. And I want to bring more things to the world. I want to help the world. I want to make people's lives easier. If you guys look at the Zayn interview, it's really something extremely fearless for someone in my position to do because most people just like, you know, bow down to TV. Me or whatever bow down to these cameras.

Like, I could care less about any of these cameras, in all honesty.

All I care about is my family. I care about protecting my girl, protecting my baby, and protecting my ideas and my dreams. You know, I'm totally weird, and I'm totally honest, and I'm totally inappropriate sometimes. And the thing is, I, you know, for me to say I wasn't a genius, I would just be lying to you and to myself.

Okay, so you used to be Jon Stevens. Yeah, it was Kanye West who said changed to Legend?

You know, the first person actually was a guy named J. Ivy, who's also from Chicago and is a friend of mine and Kanye's. And he's a poet. And we were working on Kanye's album, and Kanye was having me sing all these parts. And J. Ivy was just like, man, we're going to have to call you the Legend, because my voice is kind of old school. I've always had an old soul. Kanye was like, man, you should just call yourself John Legend. And I was like, no. That's ridiculous. You know, of course, Kanye's got a new album called Yeezus, so he's not afraid to say big, bold things. And you know, maybe I'll just roll with this whole John Legend thing. And my kind of ultimate deciding factor was, let's not not do it out of fear.

Because—

Because you're afraid to call yourself a legend.

Yeah. Let's not not do it because I'm afraid that it won't work out. You know what I'm saying? Like, 'cause people could laugh at you if you don't have a good career and you're going around calling yourself legend.

Do you think you now live up to it?

I think I'm working on it. I'm on my way.

Please take that.

What up? I got that for you.

Yeah.

We can't take this.

Please take that. Kanye. Kanye, please take that. I'll rap for you right now. Let me rap for you right now.

Let me rap for you right now.

Rap for this. Rap for the bars right there.

Right here.

Come on.

Bars right there.

Bring it.

Hey, Mr. West. My name is Cam Gray from the 937. Came to annihilate my cape. Young heavyweight primate, young Cam Gray standing in front of Kanye. I wish you would give me a deal, I swear I need it. I swear my whole life this shit I've been dreaming. I swear to God I feel it, I swear to God I made this happen. Last night I told my homie this would happen, I told him I'm here at Kanye.

Wait a second, do it written, do it written. No pressure, man, relax.

Bars!

You got to hit me with these bars, you should respond. Spit some more bars.

I'm right here in the driveway.

I'm about to get him right here.

I was born in Tennessee, but my heart stays up in Ohio. Get my weed from Cali, been on that shit for a while. Check my style, motherfucker.

I got the recipe.

See, I'm the best in the Midwest. Better mention me. Yeah, my name is Kev Grant. $120 tee I couldn't afford from APC. I'm not dumb, man. I got my degree. I got my life together. I got my shit together.

Come on, dog. Come on, dog.

For real, give me a chance. For real, I swear to God, man. I swear to God.

Would you be open to start off as like an assistant?

Man, I'm down to start anything. I just want to learn, man.

I'mma listen to this shit, man. We can start somewhere, man.

Man, all right, bro. Thank you very much, dude. Thank you for your time.

All right, man.

Thank you very much, Kanye. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

What's your name, man?

Cameron Gray. Cameron Gray, nice to meet you, man. Thank you, man. Let's take it easy.

Woo!

Fuck yeah!

Woo!

So many people are just so fucking obvious. They don't even realize that when they box me in or try to verbally put me in some type of box or put Donda in a box, that they're really showing their level of ignorance. They're putting themselves in a box. And, you know, people can write, write, write all they want, but what are people doing? And if there's anybody that's out there doing, they know how hard it is to actually do. And I'm like a motivation of the doers. If everything I did failed, which it doesn't, it actually succeeds, but if everything I did failed Just the fact that I'm willing to fail is an inspiration. People are so scared to lose that they don't even try. Like, one thing that people can't say is they can't say I'm not trying, I'm not trying my hardest, and I'm not trying to do it the best way that I know how with what little information I get.

I refuse to follow those rules that society has set up in the way that they control people with low self-esteem, with improper information, with branding, with marketing. I refuse to follow those rules. It's about It's about information. It's about awesomeness. And the only luxury is time, the time you spend with your family. That's the only luxury. So this concept of luxury is improper to me. When I compare myself to Steve Jobs or Walt Disney, Howard Hughes, David Stern, Michelangelo da Vinci, Jesus, or whatever it is, I'm saying these are my heroes. These are people that I look up to. This is the type of impact I want to make on the Earth. If I can make this type of impact up to this point, what can I do if— If you call Bob Iger and say, yo, give him a shot. If you call Oprah and say, yo, back this kid. This kid's parents were educators. He wants to educate. He wants to look at curriculums and say, how do we simplify that? Exactly what I did in music, I want to apply to product.

I want to apply to education.

This is what my company, Donda, is about.

There's a series of people who write just negative comments.

They want to joke around and say, Why is he still trying? You know, if I see something, I see an opportunity, I'm going to go for it.

I'm here to crack the pavement and make new grounds, you know, sonically and in society, culturally.

We're not always in the position that we want to be at. We're constantly growing. We're constantly making mistakes. We're constantly trying to express ourselves and trying to actualize our dreams. I want to create something better for you. We have been limited.

It's bigger than, you know, who I am even in this, you know, in my presence living. It's about, you know, when I was on Earth, what did I do to help?

I want people to think more. I want people to feel like it's okay to create and follow what their dreams are and not feel boxed in. I want people to feel like awesome is possible. There's a lack of creativity in every field. 'Cause people are afraid. As an artist and in this world, we can do whatever we want.

You know, so you're gonna love me or you're gonna hate me, but I'mma be me.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I'd love to know what you think of Kanye West as an entrepreneur if you want to leave a comment below. I made this video on Kanye because Jose Cruz asked me to, so if there's someone you'd like me to make a top 10 list of, leave it in the comments below as well, and I just might make it. And of course, believe. Thank you for watching.

I'll see you soon.