Dame Dash: How To Build A Legacy Like a Self-Made Millionaire!

I'm just sick of fighting people that I try to help because I know how much I wish I had somebody to tell me who to watch out for and how to do things the right way so we ain't wasting time running on a treadmill and figuring out how to empower each other instead of going against each other.

And I wish there was a man there to tell me how to be a man.

If we do it together, we the plug. And I've been saying it for years and everybody says I'm crazy. And every time I help somebody, they rob me. Every time I get somebody to they dream, they literally lock the doors and try to make me look crazy. Like, the good guy gets punished, period.

That's the sacrificial lamb no matter what.

If you're going to tell the truth, you better be ready to fight. Period.

But if you saw, you gonna look the other way and you gotta live with yourself.

I'm not judging you.

I'm just not built that way.

Need motivation?

Watch a top 10 with Believe Nation.

Hey, it's Evan Carmichael and I watch these videos every day because I need them for motivation. Being around successful entrepreneurs every morning helps me believe that I can do great things too. It's like your morning coffee, but for your goals, kickstarting your day with a blast of positivity. So here is a challenge for you. Try watching one video every morning for the next 30 days and let's find out together if they help you do great things too. If you're in, leave a hashtag #believe in the comments below so I can celebrate with you. So today, let's learn from one of the best, Dame Dash, and our take on his top 10 rules of success.

Believe.

Rule number 2: Eliminate negativity.

Negativity can kill a dream. It does kill a dream because you can do anything. But if you're dreaming and someone tells you the worst part about that dream or why you probably can't do it, it might make you stop dreaming. 9 times outta 10, it does. So I get really offended when I'm dreaming and I'm visualizing.

Right.

And somebody tries to mess up that perfect visual with a concern.

Right.

Concerns, are what ruin the world, and they're programmed to stop us from making our own dreams come true.

Rule number 3: Invest in yourself.

How important is— and you mentioned this— becoming a celebrity, like, figuring out the marketing game? Like, if you, if you took the hierarchy of things in a business, where does marketing sit in any business, whether it's fashion or plumbing?

Marketing is everything. Like if you have the work and nobody knows, no one's gonna buy it. But part of your marketing is your work gotta be super good, you know? So like, you know, street, you market it, don't put up billboards, you know, you just, you know, brand a certain color and you make sure you're consistently out there every day and your work is good. But the thing about this world is you pay a celebrity to bring attention to your product. So you always have to go to a third person. If you yourself become the celebrity, you get to cut out that middleman and you get to make money off yourself. You're not gonna rob yourself, you know, at least you shouldn't, or you won't be mad. You're gonna show up, you're gonna understand. Like for me, dealing with other celebrities is a pain because they all have the little idiosyncrasies and silly stuff, and they always think they're making you so much more money than you're making, you know. Yeah, they don't get it.

They just—

it's a big entitlement there.

Yeah.

So that's why I, you know, went from from investing in other people's names into investing into myself because I'd rather have full margin. I don't want 20% of somebody's 50% or 10% of what they're getting. You know, if I control the business and I know how to make it, I don't have to pay the celebrity, it's all mine. Number one, if it's all mine, it's all theirs, meaning my family's. They get their benefit from it.

Rule number 4 is visualize.

Before I get something, I have to visualize it. So I always visualize the best version of what I want. Go see how much it costs, and then I need to know how much I gotta make to get it.

Yeah.

And then I figure out what I gotta do to get that. It's good to know what you want so you know how hard you have to fight. So some people might not understand if they want a big house, it's not only about buying the big house, it's about the bills that come with it. So you gotta actually look at how much that big house is gonna cost and how much it's gonna cost monthly. And what you got to do to make exactly that amount so that your conversation with people, if it's not a dream or the cost of what your dream costs conversation, then we ain't got nothing to talk about. So if I'm supposed to be getting paid, you know, my bills for this house are $50,000 a month and somebody is talking to me about $10,000 a month, then I need to have a different conversation. And that conversation can be had. I just have to find where to have that conversation and who to have that conversation with and what I gotta do. So you always have to be able to visualize it. And it's important to keep people away or not to listen to people that try to fuck that visual up.

Also, to make sure you're actually taking action after watching this video, I've designed a special free worksheet just for this video. The worksheet will highlight our favorite lessons from the video that will inspire you to remember what you learned today and actually apply them. The worksheet will also give you space to write down what your key takeaways are and your specific plan of action to make sure you're getting results. If you want the worksheet designed specifically for this video, absolutely for free, there's a link in the description below. Go click on it and start building the momentum in your life and your business. I'll see you there. Rule number 5 is think ahead.

If I want something, I go into the future in my brain, which is powerful, and I visualize exactly what I want. So I'm there, I'm in my future, and then I think about every single thing I need to do to make that happen and every single thing that could stop that from happening or what I need to avoid. Then I go right back. You understand what I'm saying? Like, I was just in the future thinking about watching myself on my television network. So because I do that, that means I have to think what would be the worst case scenario. And then I have to think what would be the best case scenario. And then I eliminate every single thing that I think could happen, which I call art detecting. And then I put everything and every single attitude and person around me in my vision that's gonna make me get to what I want. And also I try to get the people around me to think about the same exact vision. So you can inspire people and all that energy is focused on one thing that they can visualize in their head, then it becomes a tangible reality. And I know that to be a fact 'cause it's happened. It's a fact for me. So I continue to do that. I know that anything I can imagine, I can make happen. So I am really careful about how small my thoughts are 'cause I don't feel like wasting time in a 24-hour day making this much. And I could spend the same amount of time with the same amount of energy if I architect it right, I had this much, and with this much, I can help so many more people that I love.

Rule number 6 is reprogram your mind.

Dane, do you think that— you mentioned financial, uh, illiteracy. Do you think it's financial illiterate, or is it financial programming? That we've been programmed?

We've been programmed. Think about this.

I don't, I don't, I don't believe that we're financially illiterate. I think that we've been programmed to save for the banks, to give money to the man.

Well, that's to me, that's being unconsciously illiterate then. You know what you should be doing, but you're right, it's a program. So what I noticed when I was in school, 'cause I went for a little while, that they never taught me what to do when I make money. They never taught me how to pay taxes. They never taught me, you know, what capital gains was, none of those things. What they taught me to do was have a job and to be afraid to actually not have a job, to not go to school. You know, fear is a very serious tool used to control masses.

Wow.

So yeah. So when I say literacy, let's say this translation, things aren't speaking to us in the language that we understand. Sometimes it's speaking to us in a language that shuts us down, that triggers us, that intimidates us to make us think, oh my God, it sounds so difficult that I should just not do it. And that happens. I'm watching this happening in industries, even like in the NFT world. I'm like, yo, this is so hard that I don't see any creative not being triggered or uninspired by having to sit down and listen and be so articulate. Most people that are creative like to talk through the language of their art. So language is important. So we're not taught things in a way that don't give us anxiety. They're actually taught to us in a way to shut us down. Do you notice that? A school and a hospital and a courthouse, they all look exactly the same. You know, they're all very uninviting and that seems to be intentional. You know, like why wouldn't you wanna teach somebody in an environment where they're inspired in front of the ocean with art all over it? Why all the dull lighting and the same walls and the same bricks? You know, even going into a hospital, why wouldn't you want it to feel like a spa? Why do you want it to feel like a jail?

Right.

So that you don't go get yourself healthy, so that you have to go only when you have to, and then now you're dependent. So, you know, why don't they teach us about space travel, how to lobby, how to pass laws, how to be a politician? All of that's intentional. So we have, you know, again, our brain, we only use what, 8% of it? Even though we know a lot of shit, we don't know we know it. We don't know what our brain can do. So yeah. It's, I think our job is to, when we learn things, to teach it in a language that doesn't intimidate. And a lot of the things that I see you doing are things that I'm like, yeah, I definitely knew that shit. Like as far as the jets and the write-offs, but it was me looking for that knowledge. But unless you think you're gonna have a private jet, you're not gonna look to do it.

Right, right, right, exactly.

No, if you've never had a private jet before, you don't know what it is. You know, there's no class. In having money or actually keeping money, because that's the hardest part. I can't hold a dollar, you know, and not because I'm spending it on dumb stuff. It's because I'm always investing in things that inspire me. And the only way that I can do it on my own is to pay for it, which happens sometimes to default. But independence to me is freedom. And being creative the way I want to be means everything to me.

Rule number 7 is play a different game.

People expect me to get punched in the face and not to beat somebody's ass. If I get smacked, I'm punching. Period. There's a time and a place for everything, but the majority of my life, as you all see, I'm laughing, I'm happy. When I get in the ring, I'm just a fearless, ferocious fighter. I want that smoke. Did that so-called scare the business? What business? Just like, you know, the entertainment. I'm not in that business. See, we in two different vibrations. I'm not in the soldier business, I'm in the general business. I'm not in the slave mentality business, I'm in the master mentality business. We playing two different games. When I look at something, I don't say, yo, how do I buy it? I say, how do I make it? You feel me? When I look at— I'm gonna make a TV show, I gotta have a network. I'm not making a record, I gotta have a— you know, I don't look at things in that variation.

I can't.

I never have. I don't look at nickels. I only look at weight. I can't see nickels. I can't talk nickels.

Rule number 8 is don't be scared.

Life is about art detecting the future.

See, a lot of people are scared to think.

That's what I noticed.

Thinking I'd be like, yo, just think it through. People get very uncomfortable when I ask them to think. And because they know I will think for them, they ask me to think for them all the time. It's crazy to me. Think about it.

Like some of the questions people ask me, I'd be like, just think about it. And then they come up with the answer.

I was like, did you just want to talk to me? Like, why wouldn't you just think about it before asking me a question? Mm-hmm. There's Google.

But people, if you give the option like, oh, he'll think for me, I gotta think it through—

yo, I need you to think for me. Some people sometimes think that when you're a boss, telling people to do something means it's going to get done. That's not what a boss's job is to do. A boss's job is to stay in the person's face and make sure they do it. And, and then once they could do it when you're not around, that's when you give them more responsibility.

But the whole key is to have a company run when you're not around.

Facts. If a company can't run without you, you're a terrible boss. And you're still an employee at that point, because then you work into your slave.

You do everybody's job.

Well, number 9 is help others.

I've heard you say before, like, when they hurt, I hurt. What do you mean by that? Because I really— I mean, I think I know what you mean, and I relate to that.

I make it easy.

If you have a child—

you have children?

Yes.

When they are hurt or they're sick, wouldn't you say, "Give me that sickness anytime," 'cause you feel worse than they do, right? When you love something and it hurts, you feel it. So unfortunately, I'm a lover, pause. I love my culture, I love my family, I love anyone that's helped me survive. So when they hurt, I feel it no matter where I am. So, you know, I come from another social class where we had to deal with like survival skills, which is what the basis and the DNA of our original music was, is about survival. And a lot of people that I've survived with, they're still there doing the things they were doing before. I am not, but I still gotta hear about what they're doing. When they go to jail, I still gotta deal with bail. I still gotta bid with 'em. I still gotta make sure that they get the proper rehabilitation that they deserve 'cause they're not getting it just from being a friend, you know? So I end up knowing all the problems that are hurting the people I love. So there's jail reform, there's health, you know, there's economic literacy, there's education, there's just, you know, unrecognized trauma. I have to deal with all of those things. And that's why I'm part of something called the commission. 'Cause if I just think about something that bugs me, if I internalize, that becomes cancerous. So I don't hold anything in. As soon as I feel it, I gotta go do it. So if I'm sitting around worrying, that means I'm doing nothing. But if, let's say, I feel like I'm too heavy or I'm a little chunky, if I'm not in the gym, then I'm not fixing nothing. I feel better when I'm actually working on it. So I got to always be working on what's bothering me or it gives me anxiety.

And rule number 10, the last one before a very special bonus clip, is love others before yourself.

How is it being so-called so unpopular to make sure that others around you were popular? The funny thing is, number one, I don't care.

Right, right.

But number two, I feel very popular at all times.

Right, right, right.

The thing that people don't understand, I'm not a rapper, not a singer, not an actor, you know, I'm a businessman. So the fact that anyone even cares to me, whether they don't like it or do like it, I mean, on a business level, for a big picture guy, that's really all that counts. Like, on a personal level, there's social classes, right? So there's one class that's meant to work for those that don't work, and those that don't work are usually second and third generation. They're born into it. The reason why is those people own things and they pass it.

Yeah.

So what they do is they give another class, the working class, distractions, make them hate each other, make them want to do sports and only know how to do like what's a lotto. Like we're only programmed to say the only way we could get out of a social class to be workers is to be athletes or to be entertainers. And that, and that slot is like lotto. But even in school they distract you and say, here's every team that can go professional, but there's no like political team. They never show you how to be a politician or how to change a law. Or they have singing class and all this other— everything to distract you. So, and that's lotto to win at that level, right? So that means everyone that's trained their whole life to get there, which is 90% of the world, which is the working class, only 1% gets there. And that person that was an entertainer or is a, you know, they get to get into the 1%, but only if they sell out and distract everyone else that they were a part of that helped them get where they got to go. And I'm just not down for that pattern. And it's strategic. It's not like, you know, like the way nerds, people that aren't strong, control. You know, people that are strong, like, be like, whatever, you jump in front of me, I fight. But people that are weak, they have to be strategic about how they control. So brain controls muscle, and that's what's been happening. We've been controlled. We've been programmed to hate each other, kill each other, be happy to have a job, happy to work for someone else, and only happy to be able to take care of yourself. So everybody comes from a place of self-preservation. Everyone's always worried about themselves. And the purpose of love is to love people before you love yourself. But now look at the way the system is set up. In school, they take your kids from you, and then they tell you unless you go to college— and this is, you know, the majority of the world, and the majority of the world is the working class— unless you go to college, which you can't afford Unless you get a loan to go to college, you've done something wrong. So you go to college, you get that loan, and in order to pay off the loan, you got to get a job you don't want, and you still desperate. And in order to buy that house, because you paid that loan, you ain't got no cash. Now you got to get a loan, another loan to get the house. And so you always have to be working from backwards. You always have to be worried about yourself. And what I find when I'm around desperate people is they, they're all right with, with, yo, I got to do what I got to do to eat. They, they sometimes justify doing things that are not honorable to survive. So, you know, everyone's always in a place of fear, a place of backpedaling and self-preservation, and that's the problem. The test is to love others before you love yourself, and that's what a real boss does. The test is to think about the future, not the present. Your present is only dictated by what you did in your past, so you got to start planning. It's chess, not checkers.

How important is it for people watching, like, I hear everybody wants to save the whole world, they wanna help their moms and pops and everybody, but like, how important is it for the audience to take care of self first and get that really secure?

Well, you know, I have this thing, you know, I teach this class to principals from the OSG. The OSG is 150 predominantly Black principals all over the country. And I teach 'em an entrepreneurial class on Tuesdays.

But we have one discussion.

And the one thing, the first question I ask is, what's your selfish dream? So you have to make so much money that you can help all the people that you love. And if you're fighting for love, that should be a lot of people. But at the end of the day, it's about, to me, figuring out what exactly your clear dream is. And, you know, I have a process. You know, I work in dimensions. Oh, I want a yacht, but I'm worried about the gas. You don't worry about the gas in your dream. It's a dream.

I love that, man.

It has to be unobstructed. But it has to be unobstructed. So sometimes you might dream around people and they're like, these are the reasons why you can't do it and blah, blah, blah. So then you start visualizing. So that messes that whole process up. So you have to also keep people around you that can dream, or at least aren't going to obstruct yours. After that, the next dimension is you got to put it on paper. And that's another dimension. You put it on paper and it's clear. You can write it down in a couple of sentences. And other people that have the same dream can So read, identify with it, and you'll find that, you know, you can come together. And then the next dimension, making it actually happen. And then the last dimension now is in the metaverse and the multiverse. So, you know, it's always important to be one dimension ahead regardless of whether industry is ready for it or not.

For 10 more amazing rules from Jay-Z, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll beloved. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there.

Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I'm a man who writes poetry. I mean, why not compare yourself to the best? I'm supposed to be here to be second best? You don't make music to be second best. You make music to be the best. So whatever you do, whatever you do, I have to be music.