In this 11‑minute motivational video, host Evan Carmichael opens with a one‑word mantra – “believe” – and argues that entrepreneurs must regularly break conventional rules to achieve breakthrough success. He frames rules as safety nets for average performance, useful for routine tasks but limiting for areas where an individual has genius‑level talent. The video weaves together three illustrative voices: Georges St‑Pierre stresses thinking outside the box; Arnold Schwarzenegger recounts how he ignored industry stereotypes about body type, accent, and political pathways to become a movie star and governor; and an unnamed speaker shares a bagel‑line anecdote that highlights personal shortcuts without harming others. Evan reinforces the point with a concrete YouTube case study, showing how increasing upload frequency beyond the platform’s “once‑a‑day” norm accelerated his channel’s growth, establishing a new industry standard. Throughout, he urges viewers to identify the biggest rule in their own field that they want to abolish, inviting comments and reinforcing the belief‑centric message.
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Good morning, Believe Nation. My name is Evan Carmichael. My one word is believe, and I believe that entrepreneurs are going to solve all of the world's major problems. So to help you on your journey, today's message is break the rules. Over to you, George St. Pierre.
I've never been afraid to break the rules in life. I'm not talking about break the law, break the rules. Why would you want to be in this, in this world if it's to behave like everybody else? The most successful people in life are the ones that are doing things out there, thinking outside of the box. So don't be afraid to break the rules.
So I've never been a huge fan of rules, and I'm guessing if you're an entrepreneur, you're watching this channel, you're not a big fan of rules either. Entrepreneurs in general, we are rule breakers. We like to create new things. We like to push the boundaries. We want to change the way things are done in our industry. And so for that to happen, we have to break some of the rules. I think the rules are important, and just to understand that rules are here to keep average people doing average things. And there's a lot of things in life that you are average at. Most things you are average or maybe even below average in life at. And so the rules can help you. The rules can help you stay safe. The rules can help you get by. You know, if you are in the emergency exit of an airplane, they have rules that you're supposed to abide by. Unless you're an airline security expert, like, follow the rules. The mask comes down, put it on your face. Right? Like, there are rules to follow that if you don't know anything better, just follow the rules. It'll help keep you on the average. But for the things that you're way above average on, for the things that you have genius-level talent at and could be one of the best in the world at, for those things, then you have to adopt the mentality of, "I'm gonna break the rules." This is a great clip of Steve Jobs who was doing an interview, and he's talking about how the world is made up by people who are no smarter than you. The rules that are in place were put there by another human being who's no smarter than you. And if you are an expert in your industry, you're probably smarter than them. And so don't live your life and run your business according to rules that are old and created by people who aren't as much of an expert as you are. I think a lot of people are afraid to break a rule because that's the way that it's always done. And I'm not suggesting you go out and do something that's illegal, because that's a whole other can of worms. But the way things are traditionally done in an industry a lot of times doesn't even make sense anymore. And that's on you to not just break the rules, but to create the new standard. So I look at my YouTube channel. I just came back from ClamourCon, as an example, which is an event for YouTubers. And a lot of these guys are publishing one video a week. Or a video every 2 weeks. And part of the YouTube algorithm that's really important is consistent content. Once a day is really going to be the minimum. When I went from once a week to once a day, my channel shot up. When I went from once a day to twice a day, my channel shot up again. From twice a day to 3 times a day, not as much. Doesn't really make a huge difference. It still goes up, but you don't get the same returns as the other ones. And so everybody is saying, wow, like, I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you, how you build up that team. And, you know, and we're responding to every single comment, and we're updating our tags and descriptions and titles and testing thumbnails and doing all these things that most people aren't doing on YouTube. And that's why I've had the success that other people haven't. And so it's setting a new standard, right? Breaking the rules that people thought were important before and saying, no, this is the new path to go, and come and follow me. And I think if you have that ability, you have that genius-level talent at something, you are the expert in your industry, It's not only, it's not only what you should be doing for yourself, it's your obligation to go out and create a new standard for your industry and not play to a smaller level just because there are some rules in place. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious, what is the single biggest rule that you want to break in your industry? What's the rule that drives you nuts that you want to abolish and say, this is the new way? I'm curious, leave it down in the comments below. I also want to give a quick shout out to Diana Gartland from dianagartland.com. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, Diana. I really, really, really appreciate it, and I hope you're enjoying the read. So 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, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.
I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going. We have so many rules in life about everything. I say break the rules, not the law, but break the rules. My wife has a t-shirt, my wife has a t-shirt that says, "Well-behaved women rarely make history." Well, you know, I don't want to burst her bubble, but the same is true with men. It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you're too well-behaved and not want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. That's what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on this earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble? The only way that I ever got anyplace was by breaking some of the rules. After all, I remember that after I was finished with my bodybuilding career, I wanted to get into acting and I wanted to be a star in films. You can imagine what the agents said when I went to meet all those agents. Everyone had the same line that it can't be done. The rules are different here. Just look at your body. You have this huge monstrous body, overly developed. That doesn't fit into the movies. You don't understand. This was 20 years ago, the Hercules movies. Now there is the little guys that are in. Dustin Hoffman, Woody Allen, Jack Nicholson, before he gained weight, of course, that is. But anyway, those are the guys that were in. And the agent also complained about my accent. He says, "No one ever became a star with an accent like that, especially not with a German accent. And yes, I can imagine with your name, Arnold Schwarzen Schnitzel or whatever the name is, on a billboard. Yeah, that's going to draw a lot of tickets and sell a lot of tickets." Yeah, right. So this is the kind of negative attitude they had. But I didn't listen to those rules, even though they were very nice and they said, "Look, we can get you some bit parts. We can make you, get you to be, you know, playing a wrestler." or bouncer. Oh, maybe with your German accent we can get you to be a Nazi officer in Hogan's Heroes or something like that. But, you know, I didn't listen to all this. This was their rules, not my rules. I was convinced I could do it, that if I worked as hard as I did in bodybuilding, 5 hours a day, and I started getting to work, I started taking acting classes, took English classes, took speech classes, dialogue classes, accent removal classes I even took. I remember running around, "A fine wine grows on a vine." You see, because Germans had difficulties with the F and the W and the V. So, "Fine wine grows on a vine." I know what some of you now say is, "I hope that Arnold got his money back." But let me tell you something. I had a good time doing those things and it really helped me. And finally I broke through. I broke through and I started getting the first parts In TV, Streets of San Francisco, Lucille Ball hired me. I made Pumping Iron, Stay Hungry, and then I got the big break in Conan the Barbarian. And there the director said, "If we wouldn't have Schwarzenegger, we would have to build one." Now think about that. And then when I did Terminator, "I'll be back" became one of the most famous lines in movie history. All because of my crazy accent. Now think about it, the things that the agent said would be totally a detriment and would be impossible for me to get a job, all of a sudden became an asset for me. All of those things, my accent, my body, and everything. So it just shows you, never listen to that you can't do something. And you have to work your way up, of course, run for something else first. I mean, it was the same when I ran for governor. The same lines that you have to work your way up, it can't be done. And then, of course, I ran for governor and the rest, of course, is history. They said, "You have to start with a small job as mayor and then as assemblyman and then as lieutenant governor and then as governor." And they said, "That's the way it works in a political career." I said, "I'm not interested in a political career. I want to be a public servant. I want to fix California's problems and bring people together and bring the parties together." So, like I said, I decided to run. I didn't pay attention to the rules. I made it, and the rest is history.
Let me tell you a story. So a friend of mine and I, we went for a run in Central Park. The Roadrunners organization, on the weekends, they host races, and it's very common at the end of the race they'll have a sponsor who will give away something— apples or bagels or something. And on this particular day, when we got to the end of the run, there were some free bagels, and they had picnic table set up, and on one side was a group of volunteers. On the table were boxes of bagels, and on the other side was a long line of runners waiting to get their free bagel. So I said to my friend, "Let's get a bagel." And he looked at me and said, "Ah, that line's too long." And I said, "Free bagel." And he said, "I don't want to wait in line." And I was like, "Free bagel." And he says, "Nah, it's too long." And that's when I realized that there's two ways to see the world. Some people see the thing that they want, and some people see the thing that prevents them from getting the thing that they want. I could only see the bagels. He could only see the line. And so I walked up to the line, I leaned in between two people, put my hand in the box, and pulled out two bagels. And no one got mad at me, because the rule is you can go after whatever you want. You just cannot deny anyone else to go after whatever they want. Now, I had to sacrifice choice. I didn't get to choose which bagel I got. I got whatever I pulled out, but I didn't have to wait in line. So the point is, is you don't have to wait in line. You don't have to do it the way everybody else has done it. You can do it your way. You can break the rules. You just can't get in the way of somebody else getting what they want. That's rule number 1.
