Be DRIVEN - Shakira (@shakira) - #Entspresso

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is Be Driven. Over to you, Shakira. I wake up every morning, espresso keeps me going. I wake up every morning.

You know, I grew up in Colombia. Colombia is a developing country where a lot of people don't have access to the most basic needs. And where education is considered a luxury, unfortunately, because we all know that education is a birthright. And I just grew up frustrated seeing how many people weren't able to realize their own dreams, you know. When I was 8 years old, my dad underwent an economic crisis, a financial crisis, you know. He lost his business, and we struggled. Economically for many years. We lost our car. We lost our furniture. And I remember vividly the day I walked in my house and all the furniture was gone because my dad had to pay his debts. And it was quite, well, shocking for me. I was 7, 8 years old. And when I saw this, I was so frustrated at my dad and so upset with my parents because I couldn't understand how they did so poorly in business. I'm like, why? Why? You know, I couldn't get it. And my dad and my mom took me to the park where they showed me other kids my age sniffing glue. They were orphans. They had no one to watch after them. And they were barefoot and they were abandoned to their own luck. And it probably left such an impression in my impressionable mind at that age that I remember that day and I remember that I made myself a promise. I said to myself, Shakira, you have to succeed because you have to ride in a car again one day, you know? You have to get your own car someday. And I wanted to vindicate my parents socially and economically. And I also wanted to someday do something for those kids who I saw that day in the park. As soon as I had my first big success with Pies Descalzos, which was my third album, I decided to establish my own foundation and do my own contribution to the change, even if it was going to be a small one. But I wanted to be active. And that's how it all started, you know, going through my own financial struggle and the struggle of my family and understanding that the one thing that I never lacked was care, protection, and an education. And that's probably what made me thrive in life.

Having a why is so important to accomplishing any big thing, especially having success in business. You have to know why you're doing something if you're going to continue. Too many people start a business just because they're trying to make money. You may be in debt, you may need to pay your bills, so I'm going to start a company to do it. It's not a strong enough why. What ends up happening for the people who are just motivated by money, what they do is they start a company, sometimes they'll have success, they'll make a little bit of money, just enough to pay their bills, and then they ease off. They ease off the throttle. They stop pushing hard because they paid off their bills until the bills come again, and then they work harder. And these people who are motivated by money are just living paycheck to paycheck to paycheck to paycheck, and they never get the money they're after. You have to understand what it is that you stand for and what big thing you're trying to accomplish. If you can't make that connection to the work you're doing every day, guess what? You're going to stop working. You're not going to put everything you've got into it because there's no strong why behind it. When I look at my first business, I struggled a lot, right? I was making $300 a month, barely able to survive. And I told my partner that I quit. And you guys have heard the story a couple of times, probably. I told my partner that I quit and I woke up the next day and like, I'm not going to be a quitter. I need to see this through. I don't want to live the rest of my life in regret. I had a situation the year before where there was a moment that I regretted not taking action when I should have. I was afraid. I didn't have the courage, so I didn't take action. And I took a picture of that moment and I hung it on my wall as a reminder to myself that the next time I want to do something and I'm too afraid to do it, I have to go and take that chance because the regret will eat you up. Because I can deal with it not working out. I can deal with the failure, but I can't deal with not knowing. The immediate pain of rejection or failure sucks, but it's nothing compared to the lifetime of regret that you'll have always looking back on that moment and knowing you should have done something. So I went back to my company after that first experience and went back to my business because I didn't want to leave feeling like I could do a little bit more. I've got a little bit more in me. I didn't want to live with regret. What's your why? If you are not getting up daily and pounding on your business, you don't have a strong enough why. So tap into it. What is it? What are you staying for? What are you trying to build? Why is it so important that it's a must for you to go out and accomplish today? And I would put that into my daily routine. You wake up, at least for me, I need to reset every day. You wake up and start thinking about Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why am I doing what I'm about to do today? Why is it so important to me? And if you can't come up with an amazing reason, you're gonna mail in today. You're just not gonna work hard. You're gonna do enough to get by, and you're gonna be one of those people who lives paycheck to paycheck to paycheck. You want to increase your standard of living? You want to increase the impact that you're having on the world? You want to increase your level of fulfillment and happiness? Have a more important why. So the question of the day today is, what is your why? Leave it down in the comments below. Super curious to find out. I also want to give a quick shout out to Fikri Rahman. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book. Your one word really, 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. Hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of Nespresso. I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.

If you really have a drive and you really put your heart and soul into something, you can really make anything happen. I'm a true believer in that, so I think that we hopefully we make people believe that they can achieve the American dream too. Just watch, study us, and if you really are passionate and driven, you can get there. My true feeling is this: no matter who you are, no matter what age you are, no matter the time in your life, if you have a dream and you have the drive, you can make anything happen. And if you are ever feeling down or feeling like you can't get over that hump, or you just have a bad day, I play this song and you remember this song, okay? Here it goes.

This girl is on fire.

I mean, I grew up within hip-hop culture, you know, that's what I was immersed in, like, as a youth, like, that's what I was surrounded by. So naturally, that's, you know, what I gravitated towards, you know what I mean? If I grew up somewhere else, Maybe I would have wanted to play guitar, like, you know, sing folk songs or something. But that was just naturally what I gravitated to because that was what I was surrounded by. That was my world. I don't know. I was into music. You know, some kids were into basketball. I wasn't very good. So, you know, music was like— I wasn't just like a kid who just, you know, I don't know. Played video games or just sat on a computer all day doing nothing. I mean, I was like a driven kid, you know what I mean? So music became like my passion, my vehicle for, you know what I mean, what I was driven to do. And naturally it was what I was surrounded by.

You once said in an interview that your life is paranoia and fear and you're just trying to not get hit.

Yeah.

Is that still true?

Yeah. Anger and fear, fear of failure drives me. Paranoia of things going wrong around me drives me. I am driven by a lot of, like, really kind of ugly anger. And so I have a lot of that in me, and it comes from a father who was terrifying and teachers who yelled at me, told me I'd never be anything. And so I descend from the sky and land on things really hard, and I go at everything with that amount of fury. And I'm not saying I'm going to hit anybody, and I'm not mad at you. I'm quite happy to be here with you and answer any question to the best of my ability. But I go at everything like, "You think I can't?" "Hey, you want to try acting?" "Yeah, I'll try acting." "Can you act?" "No." "So let's go." I've seen Sons of Anarchy.

You can act.

Thank you. Fear is for losers. I'd rather win.