How to Break Barriers & Achieve Dreams | 14 Minutes to Inspire You

We go either— we go either succeed or die trying. It is what it is. You can't control like where your gifts come from. You can only do something about them. You can't completely go off numbers to try to sell something creative. You have to come up with other creative ways to sell it. It isn't about what I have. It's me knowing my weaknesses and what I don't have.

Hello, Believe Nation. It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in people more than they believe in themselves. And my sincere hope is that if you see in yourself what I see in you, you'll be able to change the planet. So to help you on your journey today, we're gonna learn from singer and songwriter, The Dream, and my take on his top 10 rules of success. Rule number 5 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. Also, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired by it as well. And if you leave it within the first couple hours of this video going live, you have a chance to win one of 2 daily prizes.

I took everything that I learned from an ethics standpoint that my grandfather taught me and put it into that and saying, if you pound, pound it as hard, whatever thing in the same direction, if you keep hitting at a certain point, it's going to break. And it'll open up. So that's what I did. Like, it was like, okay, cool, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna focus on this thing. We go either, we go either succeed or die trying. It is what it is. I completely seen all the stars growing up as human beings, and I think that was the first thing is, and the first person that I made human to me was Michael Jackson. If I would have ever seen him, I knew in my heart that I would treat him like a person that has these talents. You can't control like where your gifts come from. You can only do something about them or, or, or you know, go through life and try to make sure that you leave an impression on this world with what you have on the inside. So whoever was singing or writing, I felt like I wanted to be amongst them. I didn't want to look up or peer to them. Like, I wanted to be exactly in line with those people. And I still see things that same way today. I just developed this sense of not wanting to have to lean on somebody to get my job done. So Eventually being around like all these great producers, like starting of course with Tricky's brother Laney, who actually signed me to my first publishing contract after I wrote this record called "Everything" for B2K. I just picked up the drum machine, started watching their patterns. Like I understood how to make a record. I knew what a hook was, I knew what a B section was, and you're just musically trying to understand those same things. And I grew up in the '80s where all of those melodic records, you know, happened. So for me it was like, I could hear it like a jukebox in my head. I just needed to get it out. So, but finding that you have good producers that know how to— it could be the smallest thing, like a kick. Like Timbaland has this way of how he makes his kicks and his snares, like, and they're on this little slide beat, but you have to know what you're doing when you hear it. And so all these things, I get to get in and listen to them and pick it up. And still now, like, I listen to something and say, oh, Okay, that's how you're doing it. And even new producers, like, so along the way I just picked up that drum machine and that keyboard and said, okay, I need to know how to make a song 100%, period.

Everything.

Without using, yeah, without needing anyone if it comes to that. Just because at the moment if you want to create and you call somebody and they can't do it that day, you don't want to get frustrated and not be able to do it yourself. Yeah, so I learned how to do everything. It was the beat, it was writing the song, and recording and engineering myself. Oh wow, nobody ever brings that up. Yes, I remember writing that song and they were saying that she was finished. I was in Vegas working on, I think, Love vs. Money at the time, and they were saying that she was finished doing her album. I said, uh, not if you write a great song, she not, you know. And so we wrote the song. I remember going back to Atlanta and Trick called me. He's like, yo, Celine's taking one song off and she putting this song on. She loves it. I was like, all right, well, you know, get it popping. And then I think the conversation led into, um, I think she had tried to cut the vocal like a couple times in her way, and she was being vocal produced by somebody, and, um, and she just scrapped everything and said, no, I want to sing it how he sang it, with that type of vibe, you know. And, and that was the biggest thing coming from Celine, because you're like, who, who, who could Who could tell anybody how to sing something with a voice like how she had? But the fact she recognized vibe was a whole different idea. And I try to teach people that all the time and they don't really get it. 'Cause most of the time they think it's about singing and it's like, no, it's about a feeling, you know? I get to be the creative person that sits in that room, like, but with some type of rational idea and not just straight artist. 'Cause I understand, Even by running a business as a songwriter, people have to make money. I get that. What I try to apply to it though is you can't completely go off numbers to try to sell something creative. You have to come up with other creative ways to sell it. I was working at some collection agency. I was really bad at it. I was really bad. Sallie Mae? Yeah. Oh, Sallie Mae. No, that's too good. It was worse than that. It's too good. I remember just calling and they say, "I don't have it." I'm like, "All right, cool." You a G for that, man. Really, really bad. You get my money. It's really bad. And I had just started playing golf at that particular time. I stopped by the golf course at like 7:30 in the morning, and I got on the first tee at this golf course called Legacy. And I sat there and I called into my job and I quit. Because I kind of figured that if I didn't put 100% into music, really, I was never going to actually be great enough to stay in. And so I quit my job that day, not knowing how I was going to pay rent the next month. And at that time, I didn't have a publishing deal. And that song is actually what got me a publishing deal. Awesome, man. So you believed in yourself. And like I said, you got to be crazy enough to believe in yourself. If it was an up-and-coming artist right now, what advice would you give them? A serious up-and-coming artist. Oh, wow. I would— ooh. If you're with the label, you should probably just pray that somebody believes in you, like that one person, versus having a whole staff. Making sure you're being yourself, and eventually, you know, overall just overcoming the fears of not succeeding in the eyes of what the public idea and perception of succeeding is. Be yourself at all times. Never sell your soul. To any machine. Okay, if I become an artist, then I'm gonna stay hot because I'm gonna always be singing my own shit. I mean, it isn't about what I have. It's me knowing my weaknesses and what I don't have. Can't trick me into what I am good at. There's nobody gonna write anything on a blog that's gonna say, "Dream sucks at this." Yeah, fuck you. You're lying. Like, that's not— if you see me on the basketball court, then probably my fadeaway ain't that hot. We can say, "He can't play basketball." You're right. He can't write music. You've lost your fucking mind. I could do anything. I broke myself as an artist at the age of 29. If that isn't already hard enough, you know, to do what I've done in a 10-year period in this span, to even be blessed enough to be sitting here in front of you guys talking about this. I could wrap it up and say, oh, cool, goals done. I'm just moving on. But it's too many other things. You know, once you move in from one thing, it's all art. To me, it's all in a bowl, like it's just on a plate. There's an Ice Cube I need to chase now. There's a Dr. Dre I need to chase down. Like, it's moved on from Lionel and Diane to now it's other people that I see and say, "Oh, they use that same brain to get those things, and I can use my brain to actually get to the same things that you have." So it's just an everlasting idea to keep pushing, you know, myself. This music thing is like water. Like, it's not— my songs are going to be my songs regardless. People get hot and cold and wander off, but you'll be back. And when it's time for you to get married or fall in love again, I'll be here. But this idea of what to do or what to do next is what I've been doing all along. Like, these are just steps. I was already preparing to be able to retire at a very early age and not meaning retire, you never see me again, but, "Oh cool, I could put my shit up and now I can do whatever the fuck I want to do." But still use myself in the things that I see and the movies I want to write and direct and bring them to the world because There's— nobody has any real idea what's in my mind and heart sitting on this stage. You just know what I've done. And when I didn't have that stuff before, you didn't know I could do that. So we have no idea what I can actually do. We've seen great people come from nothing. So if you have something, that means that you should go to even higher levels of achieving what your goals and your dreams are. I speak for all of us. We have no excuse. Excuses. We will go on to be exactly who we want to be in pursuit of the American dream. In the summer of 1992, my mother was diagnosed with cancer. Didn't know at the time how serious it was, but that summer was already a big transition for me because they were closing my high school that I went, which was West Fulton. So couldn't really get no worse. I never thought that I would lose my mom at the end of this year. After his mother passed away, his grandfather kept him and raised him. He provided him with most everything he would ask for. I remember his grandfather bought him a set of drums and he would be back in his room playing the drums, learning about music. Who I am as a father, I take my responsibilities as a father very, very heavy. I try to do the best that I can with what I have. I try to make sure that I can provide a better way and provide more choices and options for my children that are gonna come behind me, you know. Life is from generation to generation building on choices. I'm done setting up your iPad. Yay! That's yours. What loading means is that it's putting it all inside of your computer, okay? So you have to wait till you're finished. You see that little blue? When that blue gets all the way to the end, that means it's finished. That's like on the TV. Yeah, exactly. If I had 10 choices and 10 directions I could go, then my children should have 100. And their children should have 1,000. That's basically what it is. Me knowing that the sacrifices I had to make, you know, with my grandfather working all day and my mother working, in no way deters me. How to be a great father in anyone's book is set in stone or black and white. There's no real way to do it. There are only only your gifts, your opportunities, and your choices to do the best that you can.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because you guys asked me to. If there's someone you'd like me to profile in a future top 10, please check out the link down in the description below and you can cast your vote on who we should do next. I also want to give a quick shout out to Benny Alex. Benny, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. And that awesome message that you had to share. I'm so glad it's having an impact on your life, and thank you for sharing it and putting it on Twitter too. I really, really appreciate the support. Thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

By the time we get to about 2007, I'm imagining you have more control, your vision is really shining through now with a record called Umbrella. Wow. Yeah, that record was done in an act of, I would like to imagine Muhammad Ali on the ropes and just taking it, just taking a pounding. Life was, I was out of my publishing deal. You don't know when the stars are aligning. It just depends on how much you can keep your head up through it. They could be aligning and you not know it, which is most of the times. I was checking pockets and stuff like, maybe I left an extra $20 over here to put some gas in this. Did you still have a Cadillac with leather seats? No, I had a Jaguar at the time. Oh, don't say, "Ah." They tried to repossess it like 9 times. I hid that shit good every time. Park down the street and walk to your apartment and just say, "We'll cover this up with some leaves." And it was just a weird space to say, "Write a fucking hit." You know what a hit sounds like. You know what songs you like from other people. If you went to make a playlist, you knew what a fucking hit was and you know how to make it. So just write a fucking hit. So I just told myself that that day and literally, we were moving stuff around in the studio. Karel, who now is like side by side with Rihanna and records a lot of her stuff for her now, finds this loop, this kick loop. Trick starts to play this chord, and I kind of walk in at that same moment, and I hear it. I heard about maybe 8 bars of what Trick was doing. I said, "Man, turn the mic on." He's like, "Man, we're not ready. We just started moving this shit around. We gotta plug it up. We gotta get it right." I'm like, "Oh, okay, cool. Turn the mic on." I turned the mic on. I maybe had to go back and change 4 words, but I sung it from the top to the end exactly as is how you hit a song today, right now.