In this Evan Carmichael‑hosted video, former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter shares his personal "top 10 rules for success," drawn from his 20‑year baseball career and post‑playing life. He emphasizes the importance of setting a single, clear priority—his baseball career—while maintaining relentless work ethic and never being satisfied with past achievements. Jeter stresses surrounding oneself with honest family and friends who provide candid feedback, and treating people fairly rather than equally. He discusses the need for confidence, learning from failures, and staying positive with a short memory for setbacks. Leadership, he says, is earned through consistency and knowing the people you lead, often demonstrated by leading by example rather than self‑promotion. Jeter advises youth to enjoy sports, play multiple games, and stay active, warning against early specialization. He cites Dave Winfield as an inspirational multi‑sport athlete and philanthropist, shaping Jeter’s own foundation. Throughout, the video intersperses game‑play commentary clips, but the core content is Jeter’s distilled principles for achieving greatness in any field.
Chapters
He's an American former Major League shortstop who played 20 seasons with the New York Yankees. He's won 5 World Series championships and is considered one of the greatest players of his generation. He's finished 6th all-time in career hits and 1st among shortstops. He's Derek Jeter, and here are his top 10 rules for success.
One thing I've always prioritized, you know, my number one priority for the last 20 years was my baseball career. That's it. I did a lot of other things, but I never wavered from that being my number one goal. And I'm always big in setting goals and trying to reach those goals and working hard. And there's steps along the way. So I think prioritizing is the number one thing. I think sometimes people have so many different goals and they're going in this direction, that direction, and they never reach the potential of one particular avenue that they're going. So, I mean, throughout my career, I've been very involved in different businesses and marketing and foundation, but my number one priority was always the game. And now my priorities changed so I can focus on some other things.
Popped up, short center, Jeter out. Canó, and did Jeter catch it? Wow, what a miraculous catch!
Unbelievable! I've always been focused on work ethic. I've always been taught there's always going to be someone that's better, but there's no reason why someone should outwork you. I think that applies not only to sports, but it applies to anything that you're trying to do. You have to work harder than other people if you want to be the best. Never be satisfied. I'm never satisfied. I always try to think of what I can do next to be better. You have to win here. That's the bottom line, is what have you done lately? You know, we were able to accomplish a lot of good things early on. We've been in the postseason every year so far, but The bottom line is when you're competing, you want to win. I mean, that's why you're out there. Finishing second, finishing third, going to the postseason is not good enough. I think everyone should have that mentality when you go into a season. You win a championship or it doesn't mean anything. Have you always had that kind of mentality, even before you got to New York, or did it— No question. No, I was younger, you know, I always wanted— my dad used to beat me at everything we did. He wouldn't let you win? No, no, he wouldn't let me win. So now I don't let anyone else win. So, uh, You know, I've always had that mentality. It's pointless from my point of view if you're competing and you don't win. And the 2-0.
There it is! For 72 years, Lou Gehrig has been the Yankees' all-time hits leader.
Now it's Derek Jeter. Family. They're the ones that— I have a very close family. And, you know, they've always been very supportive. More importantly, they've always been very honest. You know, I think a lot of times people in general like to surround themselves with people that are going to tell them that everything they're doing is right. You know what I mean? You need people around you who are going to tell you when you're doing wrong. And, you know, my parents are very, very honest. Even if I don't want to hear something, they'll tell me. They'll give me their opinion. So I'd say family is most important. And then secondly, your friends. It's the same thing. I think, you know, your friends are the ones that are going to help you. They're the ones that are going to support you. At times, they're going to be the ones that get you in trouble. So you have to make sure that you surround yourself with a good group of friends.
And the 1-1, a high pop off third foul. Brochus and Jeter are there. Jeter Makes the catch and falls into the crowd, and he's out. They gave him the out call, and Broshuis now throws to second, and now time is called, and I don't know what the ruling is. Chavez went to second because Jeter was in the crowd, and Jeter now climbs out of the crowd. But Derek Jeter made an unbelievable catch, and as he hit with his waist on the railing down the third baseline, he backflipped into the and held on to the ball. What a catch by Derek Jeter! What a play!
I learned something from watching Mr. Torre for all these years. You know, you always hear the phrase, "You treat everyone the same." Well, that's not correct. You treat everyone fairly. You gotta try to be the same every day. I mean, you don't come and hold your head up high when things are going well, and then when things are going bad, you find a way to hide. Leadership, I don't think, is something that's appointed. I think it's something that's earned.
Jeter hits it into right. Back at the wall! ¡Qué maravilla!
I have a lot of confidence. I think you have to have confidence in your ability. I think the stronger you are mentally, I think the better you're going to perform. So I've always had confidence. Anytime I'm in a situation, I tend to look back and think back to times that I had success, and I think that's helped me out throughout.
¡Man on fire!
I'm fans of athletes from all different sports. I've never tried to emulate anyone else. I've tried to be myself. I've learned a lot from watching guys, you know, especially guys when I was younger. But I think in terms of leadership, I think leadership is viewed differently by different people. I mean, there's people that lead by example. There's people that are vocal leaders, people that do a little bit of both. I think you just have to be who you are. How would you categorize your leadership? A little bit of both. You know, I'm— yeah, I really try to take the time to get to know the people that I'm leading. I think that's most important. You know, I was— I don't think you walk around as a self-proclaimed leader. You know, I think if you do things the right way You're honest with people, you know, people may tend to follow. But, you know, I don't put on a show. I don't do things in front of a camera. You know, I've had plenty of conversations with teammates behind closed doors. And, you know, I've always heard, oh, you're not vocal, he's not vocal, he just leads by example. But, you know, how would people know unless they're behind closed doors? So I'm no— I have no problem with that. I like it. But like I said, I think that the most important Another aspect of leadership is getting to know the people that you're leading. What's your message to kids nowadays that are playing sports, whether it's baseball or any sport? What's your message to the youth of today? Have fun playing. You know, I think kids nowadays, they specialize in one particular sport at such an early age. You know, when I was younger, we used to go outside and play every game. Now you don't really see kids outside playing. They're all inside playing video games. You know, which is, there's a time and place for everything, but I said go out, play as many sports as you can, be active, and enjoy yourself, have fun. You can't lose sight of the fact that it is a game, you're supposed to enjoy yourself. How was Dave Winfield an inspiration? Dave was, for those of you that don't know, I still think he's the only athlete to be drafted in all 3 sports. So anyone here that thinks they're a good athlete, you can't compare to Dave. But he was an inspiration to me because he was one of the first athletes to start his own foundation. That's the idea and inspiration of my own foundation, because when I was younger I read up on Dave. I wanted to be like him.
1-2, he loops that to left field. Going to be a tough play. Jeter on the run, makes the play and flies into the stands! Oh, what a play by Derek Jeter! Wow, wow, Jeter really banged himself up. I think he caught the— you can see the redness in his face. He caught the power of that, uh, bop. What a play!
Wow! You're going to struggle. That's the bottom line. I don't care how good you are, you're going to fail. I mean, you failed 7 out of 10 times, you go to the Hall of Fame, you know what I mean? So I was talking to a group of my leaders once, and this was right around the time I got 3,000 hits. And I said, well, I have 3,000 hits, but I've gotten out 7,000 times, you know what I mean? So it's not funny. I don't think it's funny, but you get out quite a bit. So I've always just tried to remember the good times. And, and, um, you have to have a very short memory and you have to stay positive. But, you know, I don't care what career you're in, you're going to fail, uh, you're going to have tough times. You know, people always look at people that when they're successful and they assume they just woke up and they ended up in that position, but there's a lot of speed bumps along the way. It's just your job to try to make that be a speed bump, not be a roadblock, you know what I mean? But you have to learn from your mistakes and move on and stay positive. And mistakes, I think you can learn more. I always tend to learn more from people's failures than their success. Trying to have that approach.
¡Gracias!
Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Jacob Rodriguez 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 Derek Jeter's top 10 points you like the most. Leave it in the comments. I will join in the discussion. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.
