How to Break Barriers Now | Explore Latin Heritage in Business

It is important to draw strength from your community.

You ran into some trouble for being a blue-eyed Cuban American.

I was blue-eyed, light-skinned Cuban American from Miami.

So often we are perceived, judged by our appearance. What happened to being perceived and judged by our character, by the people that we are?

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe you have an amazing gift inside you that I want to see explode out onto the world. Now, this is a new series I'm testing out called Somos. It means we are in Spanish, and while I am not from a Latin background, I do believe that you can shine a light on one community without putting other communities down. So my aim with this series is to shine a light of excellence on the Latin community, and I also want to give a quick shout out to Marisha Rodriguez. Thank you so much for your help in naming this series and sourcing the clips. Enjoy! All right, leading us off with rule number 1 is draw strength from your community with Sonia Sotomayor.

What was it like being on campus as a Latina in the '70s?

Well, first of all, you were one of maybe 15 Latinas in the school. The number was almost that small.

Wow.

And you tended to gravitate to each other, if only because When you feel like you've landed in an alien land, which is how I described my first few years at Princeton— At Princeton, yes. You seek out comfort from those who are similar to you. One of my messages in my books to minority students, even today, is it is important to draw strength from your community. All of us need the comfort, the security of that which is familiar to us. It's okay to seek out those that are the same as you, to look for strength. But then use it as a springboard to explore the larger world. Don't isolate yourself in what you know. Really important. Keep a tie, keep tethered to it so you don't lose an idea of where you came from and what it gave you. But then go off on your rocket ship and explore the world and the universe.

Rule number 2: break the barriers with Pitbull.

You said that when you were younger, uh, you ran into some trouble for being a blue-eyed Cuban American.

That was blue-eyed, light-skinned Cuban American from Miami. And the thing was, Miami wasn't respected in no way, shape, or form when it came to the hip-hop industry at a certain time.

It was just 2 Live and that was about it.

It was, yeah, 2 Live Crew. You had Trick Daddy Trina. Trick, he opened a lot of doors. Luke opened a lot of doors as far as fighting in the Supreme Court for the First Amendment, being one of the first African American.

Band in USA.

Yeah, Band in USA. First African Americans to go platinum independently and have his own pressing plant. And so to me, he was the blueprint of the independent mind state, which I still use to this day. So for me, it was 4 strikes against me trying to get in the game, you know, When I went on tour with Luke and I did, you know, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, South Kakalaka, North Kakalaka, you know, and you're going into these deep parts where they look at you and go, "Who is this guy?" You know, "Yeah, Eminem, whatever, that's cool. White guy? No, no, Cuban. Cuban? What's Cuban?" You know? So learned a lot from that, and I think they learned a lot from me also. And at the same time, it taught me how to break barriers, knock down walls, but always through music.

Rule number 3 is don't think if, but when, with Geisha Williams.

You've just started this long-term project, shall I say, for you as being CEO and leading us into the energy future. Help me finish this sentence. I will have succeeded as CEO if— I will have succeeded as CEO When— Love that.

When—

How dare I say if. When I can transform our company from simply delivering electrons and gas molecules to really truly being an energy solutions, climate change solutions company. You also— we have 1 minute left. We have 1 minute left, and I asked her parenting advice. On our way in here, because that's what I ask these days. And I said, how— you came with so little, so you weren't spoiled. You couldn't be spoiled. Now you have so much, and you have 2 kids. And I said, how do you not spoil them? What's the lesson for all of these successful leaders who could probably give their kids anything? Well, just because you can doesn't mean you should. And my husband and I— my husband's from the Midwest, also from pretty humble beginnings. Good blood. Good blood. And our approach was you give them all the love in the world, material things not so much. And we, you know, for Christmas they got 3 gifts from Santa. That's it. My daughter, who just graduated from high school, worked all through high school. My daughter, who just graduated from college, worked all through college. And she won't let you buy her a kitchen table. My oldest daughter Annie, who has a little apartment in Brighton outside of Boston, has Lives in this little tiny little apartment. She doesn't have a kitchen table and chairs, and she won't let me buy it for her because she says, Mom, I've got to make my own way. I got to make my own way. I, I want to buy her that table so bad. Don't do it. But you know what? A part of me is just so incredibly proud of her for that independent spirit and that sort of I can do it on my own.

Rule number 4 is be proud of who you are with Diego Luna.

This movie is going to be— I heard like ticket sales are already crazy in advance. So what is Rogue One about?

It's about this team of rebels that have to get the plans of the Death Star. It basically goes before the genesis of Star Wars, before that first film done at the end of the '70s. And it's the story that comes in that text that is there at the beginning. So it's like a modern approach to Star Wars, but also it's celebrating that genesis, that first film we all saw. It's pretty special.

Yeah.

I'm a huge fan. So I was backstage looking at the clip going like, I can't believe that's me.

Yeah.

Like, oh my God, how cool is that?

Well, that's so great that you're appreciating because it really is cool that you're in it. And it's going to be huge. So I'm glad that you're enjoying it.

A Mexican in Star Wars, come on.

Yeah. It's fantastic.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

And in a role that actually lasts more than 10 seconds, right?

Rule number 5 is don't be a part-time dreamer with Paulo Coelho.

I know it took me years. I knew that I want to be a writer since I was young and have this megalomaniac things about being the most famous writer in the world. But it's not enough to know what you want. You have to To do what you want, to be what you want. So a writer implies in writing books. A gardener implies in gardens. But if you, I don't know about today, but if you talk to your father, your mother, if you are from a middle class, I want to be a gardener. Your father say, oh my son. 'Please go to the university.' 'Yeah.' 'Get a diploma and you can do your gardening during the weekend, you know.' 'But you love plants, you love the soil, you love, you know.' But at the end of the day, you are convinced. And this is not good for the person who is being convinced and for the person who is trying to convince. You are creating this aura of frustration. Around them.

Rule number 6 is create more wealth with Carlos Slim.

How would you describe wealth? What is wealth to you?

Well, I think wealth is a kind of an instrument to create welfare. It's an instrument to create welfare in a society. I think it's this different wealth than income. Regularly, wealth should be managed with efficiency, sobriedad, sobriety, and create more wealth. It's like a tree, a fruit tree. Wealth is like a fruit tree. The product of the tree are the fruits. And these fruits should be— is the income that you need to give away, but taking part of these fruits to grow more trees.

The tree is the wealth.

Yes. And the fruit is the income. So you need to create more wealth, more fruits, more trees, and to have a bigger production of wealth and of income.

Rule number 7 is don't accept limitations with Gina Rodriguez.

Do you need to speak the language fluently? Because this is a conversation that has been had.

This is so real.

Do you need to speak the language fluently in order to be proud of your heritage?

I think that that's—

What's your answer to that question?

No, I don't think that's— This is another thing, is that what happens in this country is we are the Latino community, right? Under that umbrella of Latino community, you have underneath 50 or so countries.

Cubans, Mexicans, Venezuelans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans.

And we're all different.

And we're all different. We have different views.

We have different languages. We have different food. We have different slang. We wear different cultural garb. We have different skin colors. So, you know, when somebody says, oh my God, well, how we just talked to Janelle, Afro-Latina, people would probably think she's African American. You look at my sister who has blue eyes and light brown hair because of my great-grandmother who has blue eyes, you would think she looks Caucasian. So to put us in a box is unfair. Some people have come over from a different country, so Spanish is their first language. Some people are born here in this country, English is their first language. My parents specifically were terrified of us having accents because they were made fun of their whole life for accents. So they wanted to assimilate us into a culture that wouldn't right away put up their guard against us because of our accent. So they chose to only speak English in the house. They chose to teach us English as our first language. I'm going to be reprimanded by a culture that I'm supposed to support and is supposed to support me because of the way I was raised? That is too limiting. That is unfair to any child, to any human being. It's telling me that I— I'm not a woman enough because my breasts aren't a certain size. It's telling me that I'm, you know, if we wanna talk about what makes a Latino, why not just what makes a human being kind? You know, right now I'm doing an awesome partnership with Custom Ink for Anti-Bullying Month this month to prevent bullying. And we're doing this, we have these t-shirts out on customink.com that say kindness is always in style. And the reason why I wanted to partner with them was because I wanted to use my platform to speak about how so often we judge people by their first appearance. So often we judge people whether they speak Spanish or they don't, or they're dark-skinned or they're not, or they have a big booty or they don't, and they're supposed to because I'm Puerto Rican and I do. But, you know—

I'm Cuban and I don't.

You know, but so often we are perceived, judged by our appearance. What happened to being perceived and judged by our character? By the people that we are. And that's why it was so important for me to partner with Custom Ink because I want to get the word out that these limitations that you're putting on other people, you're really just putting them on yourself. You wanna tell me I'm not Latino enough? Why don't you stop speaking and look in the mirror and speak to yourself? Because you're telling me something that you actually probably feel about yourself. Cuz hurt people hurt other people. And so I think it's not only discussing the bullying, but it's also discussing solutions for those that feel pain that they have to inflict it on others. Because when you're being nasty, it's most likely you're feeling that way about yourself, not about me. I am as Latina as they come, and I do not— I am not defined by anybody's definition of Latina. I don't actually sit in a definition. I walk in my world happily and confidently.

And rule number 8, the last one before the bonus clip, is don't forget where you came from with David Ortiz.

My name is David Ortiz, and I'm just a kid from San Domingo. San Domingo is a beautiful island. We got beautiful beaches over there.

You're gonna see a lot of poor people, but amazingly, you're gonna see a lot of smiles. Very happy with nothing.

A lot of good people. They definitely take care of you when you come down there.

He is a true Dominican. It's the food, it's the music, the atmosphere. It's everything. He loves it. He's so proud of where he's from.

I grew up in this one neighborhood that it was one of the baddest neighborhoods in the Dominican Republic, and it was a nightmare. As a kid, you don't put much attention to it, but your parents do, you know what I'm saying? My dad, he always wanted me to be playing in the backyard of the house, not in the front, because anything can happen. You don't want to see your child being shot or getting hit by something that can put his life in danger.

Él era tan tal que cuando él oía cualquier motor que venía por ahí, yo tenía un motor, y cualquier motor que él oía, él se mandaba a creer que era el mío para la casa.

First of all, I was scared to death of my dad.

When the man talked to me, it was like, "I got it, Dad, no problem." He sabía que a mí no me gustaba que esté en la calle ni fuera de su hogar, ni mucho menos.

Believe it or not, all of the things that we used to do to play baseball back then, It pretty much developed those abilities.

Used broomsticks to hit, you know, the little ball that we made.

We used to get water caps and play baseball with it. You got to track it because they kind of moving like a knuckleball, so you got to track it if you want to hit it. My sister, her doll always have a head missing because I used to get them and shave their head off and just use it as a baseball.

Because we didn't have We didn't have so much in the Dominican. We became survivors.

Y ahí Mateo me dijo, Leo, ese muchacho cuando tenga 17 años yo te lo firmo.

I remember when I first signed with Seattle, I signed for $10,000. That was like a first-round pick money back then.

Ese día fue un día de mucho gozo en la familia.

I got through the minor league kind of fast, so I went from A ball to the big league. When I got to the big league, the first money I really made, I pretty much built my mother's house and got it comfortable. My mom and dad, they give me pretty much everything, so I feel like I want to give them back. After the 2002 season, I remember I was released by the Twins. They basically don't want to pay me.

It was a bit of a shocker. You know, David took it really hard and he took it really personal.

I was in the Dominican and I went to this restaurant and I bumped into Pedro.

I see David that day. He was sad. And I said, homie, what's up? He goes, homie, I just got released. And I just had a baby girl born 2 weeks ago. I said, "Now you go with me to the Red Sox." And he goes, "For real?" Grab his phone and he called Larry Lucchino, basically told him, "This guy is special." I remember David took me deep in Minnesota on a cutter inside And that's when I went to realize that David is probably one of the few big men that can turn on a fastball in.

So 2 days later, the Red Sox signed me, and here I am.

If I am a champion here in Boston today, I owe it mostly to David, because David carried us in '04.

Winning a World Series for the Red Sox, you know, it was something that people celebrated down in the Dominican like it was Independence Day. So I have a lot of friends that their dream was to be a baseball player. They didn't make it. So a lot of them struggle, because life is not like it's a piece of cake over there if you come from nothing. I mean, like, I have a couple of friends that they are doing time in jail just because they make a really bad mistake.

Me and David are fortunate enough to now say that we made it. But I'll tell you that more than 90% of the rest of the guys that we came out with faded away. I'm so thankful for all the others that somehow made it.

In Serie Finale, I've won 3 championships.

I'm supporting my family doing what I love. It's something that I really appreciate every day.

Well, I think the way he was brought up definitely molded him into the person that he is because there's just so much love.

I think the most important thing about us is don't forget where you come from. I love going back to my hometown and you go down there and you say that you know me.

Now I've got a special bonus clip for you with Pharrell Williams, but before that, my question of the day is I want to know what did you guys think of this new series? Do you like it? Do we have room for improvement? Some tips, suggestions, strategies that you want to see if we continue this series going forward? I would love to hear from you. Please leave it down in the comments below. Thank you guys so much 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, and enjoy the bonus clip.

Hola and a big bienvenido a todos ustedes. I'm really excited that I get to be a part of this new series, Somos, and it's just gonna be really fun to be able to have a place that is dedicated right here on Evan's channel just to honor and celebrate all that is amazing about Hispanic and Latino culture.

Culture.

Even if you're not a part of the Latino community, we hope that this will be an opportunity for you to learn more about this beautiful community and that you even can say that you're proud to be a part of, that you are, somos. Te quiero mucho, con mucho cariño y amor.

Here's what I know. When negativity rises, it's always cause and effect. It's going to cause a lot of positivity. I honestly believe that the other Latin ethnicities will rise and they will support their Mexican brothers and sisters. You will see the Nicaraguans, you will see the Hondurans, you will see the Cubans, you will see the Puerto Ricans, the Dominicans. They're going to rise up and support their Mexican brothers and sisters. And I think that Latin, the The galvanizing of the Latin culture is going to be something that the rest of the world is going to have to pay attention to. They're forcing the Latin cultures to come together in ways that they never have before. So to me, that's beautiful.

Raise your standard. Apple, at the core, its core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. Not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me. I don't ever give up. I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated.

Hey, Believe Nation! If you want to see my all-time favorite top 10 rules of success, I have a very special secret video for you. These are the individual clips that I have personally learned the most from and applied to my life and my business. Check the link in the description for details.