In this short motivational segment of Evan Carmichael’s “Be Driven” series, host Evan introduces guest Jamie Foxx, who shares his personal journey of cultivating drive and hustle. Jamie explains that he had to learn drive, relying on managers and constant practice, and illustrates his commitment by performing impromptu jokes in Miami after award season and testing material in different cities. He emphasizes the need to hustle now to set up a future where effort can be reduced and focused on high‑impact opportunities. Evan expands on this by stressing the critical role of environment: the people you surround yourself with, the media you consume, and the habits you maintain. He uses the metaphor of racing a 5‑year‑old versus racing Usain Bolt to show that competing against stronger peers accelerates improvement, even if you lose. Evan encourages viewers to seek bigger “ponds,” adopt habits that push them, and consider his Top 10 and Mentor Me series as ways to learn from higher‑performing individuals. The segment ends with a call‑to‑action asking viewers to evaluate whether their environment supports their big dreams, a shout‑out to a fan who bought his book, and a reminder to return for the next espresso‑fueled episode.
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is Be Driven. Over to you, Jamie Foxx. I wake up every morning with an espresso to keep me going.
I had to learn drive. That's why I have my managers to teach me drive or to, you know, push me because you can relax. You can say, "Oh, I could do that. Oh, I could do that." But are you gonna be that person? I know this person. This person that calls me up, man, did you see what Denzel did in that movie, man? And that was, and you're like, he said, I coulda, and maybe he could have, but he doesn't have the drive that Denzel, and so therefore, if you don't have drive, then you never, you quit cultivating your talent. Because once you rest, and once you say it's over, I've gotten to the mountaintop, then your talent starts to dwindle too. That's why the minute the award season was over, I was at Wet Willie's in Miami doing jokes for people just on the street, and I was like, what? Just to see what would work, you know, jokes either about the Oscars or jokes about whatever. And then you go to Atlanta and work on your jokes there. So that hustle, what I call hustle, is very important because at some point you're gonna be able to pull the hustle back just a little bit and then you pick your spots. The time right now is a hustle to set things up so that in the future you're able to cut back just a little bit and just pick your spots.
For me, a lot of this still comes down to environment. I think the, the environment that you're in matters, the people around you matters. Again, what you're reading, what you're watching really matters because I think too many people are comfortable where they are and their environment keeps them where they are. And you don't have people pushing you to get better, pushing you to drive faster, pushing you to go a little bit harder. I think a lot of people are just comfortable being the big fish in a small pond instead of jumping to a bigger pond and being that small fish trying to get better. I think a lot of people are in a race, you know, they're in a 100-meter race and they're racing against 5-year-olds, and so they win all the time. And when you are winning all the time in that small race, it's easy to just stay there, say, "Look at me, I'm great. Look at all the great stuff I'm doing. I don't need to work harder. I don't need to push faster. I'm already winning everything." And for a lot of people, that's where they are. You know, that's where I was, where I was doing more than the people around me. Where anytime we'd have get-togethers, coffees, meetings, or whatever, it was always only praise. Like, "Oh, look at this great stuff that you're doing." And it's easy for me to sit back and say, "Yeah, look, look at all this great stuff I'm doing," and take my foot off the gas. Where I want to play in a bigger game. I want to race against Usain Bolt. I want to race against people who are faster than me. And I may lose, right? I may lose. I'm going to lose racing against Usain Bolt. I'm going to lose against people who are faster than me, but my time will be faster. My time racing against a 5-year-old versus my time racing against sprinters, I may lose that race, but my time will be faster. So I'm getting better. I'm pushing harder. And so that's what you need for yourself. You want to be driven, you want to do something bigger, you want to push more, you need to have people around you who are better than you. It's why I started the Top 10 series and the Mentor Me series. To learn from people, to be around them who've done a lot more than us. So I look at my life, and while I'm grateful for everything that's happened and everything that has been accomplished, I still realize that it's nothing compared to what all these other people are doing. It's not looking at those people and say, "Well, I suck. I can't go out and do that." It's inspiration. It's like, "I wanna— I can push harder. I'm not pushing hard enough right now. I can do more. I'm not just gonna sit back and keep racing 5-year-olds. I wanna go off and play a bigger game." I wanna jump to that bigger pool. And so if you're worried that you're not driven enough, that you're not following through on your goals enough, that you don't have big enough goals, that you don't believe in yourself enough, look at your environment, look at your habits, look at your routine, look at the people around you, look at what you're consuming on a consistent daily basis. You need to be around people and things that push you to do more, to believe in yourself more, to dream bigger dreams, to believe that those are possible, to go and chase. To wake up and work and hustle and drive for yourself, for your family, for your community, for the world. It's important. So if you're on the lazy side, chances are you have an environment around you that supports laziness. Change your environment, start changing your life. So the question of the day today is, do you have an environment that supports you in accomplishing your big dreams or not? Leave it in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Aurora Balagdy. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book. It really, really, really means a lot to me, and I hope it helps you find your one word. 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. <LYRICS>I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.</LYRICS>
