In this 12‑minute video, Evan Carmichael introduces Russell Simmons, the co‑founder of Def Jam and Phat Farm, and presents Simmons’ personal "top 10 rules for success." Throughout a conversational interview, Simmons shares his philosophy on entrepreneurship, emphasizing that every venture encounters roadblocks and that persistence, focus, and a clear, honest intention are essential. He stresses the importance of giving without expectation, operating from an abundance mindset, and maintaining faith in one’s vision. Simmons links success to spiritual practices—meditation, yoga, and the concept of the "watcher"—arguing that presence and awareness enable higher performance. He illustrates his points with anecdotes from his own businesses (Run’s House, Phat Farm) and vivid analogies, such as the shanty‑house resident versus the wealthy but unhappy individual, to highlight the role of inner happiness over material wealth. The video concludes with Carmichael inviting viewers to discuss which rule impacted them most and suggesting future entrepreneur profiles.
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He's an American business magnate. He co-founded the hip-hop music label Def Jam and the clothing line Phat Farm. He's the third richest figure in the hip-hop world with a net worth of over $340 million. He's Russell Simmons, and here are his top 10 rules for success.
The business plan may not work out the way you wrote it down. There'll be some deviations, there'll be some roadblocks. People start over again and again and again on new ideas, but the person who stays focused on his idea, on his dream, realizes his dream. I've never had a business that didn't hit roadblocks. Every business from my record business, TV show Run's House. Run's House was turned down 10 times and we just kept pushing. Phat Farm, we had readdressed it over and over and over again. 6 years later, pow.
But you, you know, if you're a good entrepreneur and you find this real service that people really need, and you go to work and you provide that service. And then you also are a person who can see all kinds of white spaces because people need everything. Our people need everything.
They are suffering for lack of almost everything.
So the idea that everything is being done is the mindset for the CEO who's just got a quarterly report, but the entrepreneur has got a An open mind.
An honest intention is always at the core— no, usually at the core of a worldly business success. I mean, it's a— I want to give people something they need. Hopefully you give them something they need that you approve of. You know, if you're vegan, don't have a steakhouse, you know, something like that. But it's the idea of going to work and giving people something that you believe in. And make it an honest intention, more so that you give without so much— it's not about the expectation of receiving so much. There's faith in this idea that if you put your energy into something, it will give you a return. But there's something greater about loving something enough just to want to share it. And I think that that's a major motivation that we all should have if we want happiness. And success. What you want to do in life is be in walking meditation. You want to have— you want to watch, be the watcher. The yogis refer to it— in fact, they call it the watcher. So the person in the world but not connected, so therefore not attached, so therefore he can be accurate, more thorough, thoughtful. You know, so you can do twice as much in half the time, because you cannot do shit in the future. You can only do shit now. So the idea of being awake and thoughtful and productive comes when you are present. Other than that, you know, you're thinking about a result. The result doesn't pay you. The prayer is the work itself. If you can be here, then that's the prayer. Being here is the happy experience. Being in the future and getting stuff, the result that you prayed for, you miss the presence because you attach too much to the toy or to the result, and it causes sickness and sadness, just like the noise on the outside. So nothing happens except from the inside out, certainly not happiness. And you want to operate from abundance, as some Christians would say, or some people say, operate from abundance. So when you're present and awake, your seat, all you want in life is a comfortable seat. If you have that comfortable seat and you need for nothing, needing nothing attracts everything. And needing nothing, you're a good giver, and good givers are great getters. The idea of being super rich, the idea of operating from abundance, the idea of going out and making it work, your prayer, the idea of building something that no one else can believe in but you can believe in. God gives you this vision, he gave it to you and you alone. You have to carry across for a little bit on your own. People will watch you. First they'll cheer, then they'll be upset with you, then they'll get real mad and you'll be on their couch and you get off the couch and you'll be this hero.
It's impossible if God gave you that vision for you to fail at it unless you quit. So that's a very important lesson because it seems like in every business everybody quits all the time.
The success stories are the ones who went the extra mile. My brother's a prosperity preacher and he kind of beat me up about the book. He was like, too much about giving and didn't really explain enough about getting. So I opened up and I wrote the book in 2 months, but 10 months later I came up with a truth that I had known but didn't think of. Jesus taught 2 sermons. One's in the masses. If you give, you're a good giver, you'll be a great getter. That's the answer, which is what I just told you. But he taught his disciples, just give. And those people never had problems with the Romans and taxes and none of that shit, 'cause they made plenty of money. So it was— but this idea of giving, you know, and having faith that it'll have a return, but not putting too much weight on the return. And in fact, the less you put on that, the more your cycle of giving will speed up, the more you become an honest giver. We all want to be awake. You can't get no money in the future or in the past. You have to be present. And thoughtful and awake and clear with great brain functionality, that's what makes you make money, right? Or success, worldly success at least. So my view is that, you know, presence is— not my view, I mean, for thousands of years people have told you this, right? All the prophets all talk about this, this present state of mind, this idea of be still and know, right? It's in every scripture, taught by everybody over and over. In different languages by different colors, different ages, same rap. So this idea of presence or Christ consciousness or nirvana or samadhi or taqwa for Muslims, this idea of the awakened state, we all are more or less in it or moving towards it. So the more present we are, the more thoughtful and awake and aware we are, the greater we can perform. A basketball player is always looking to be in the zone. When you're in the zone, that's like that awakened state. The rim is like a swimming pool and you can't miss, right? That's me. That's you, right? So I'm saying, you've been there. You just told me you play basketball, so you know what it's like when you get hot.
I know, I know.
I'm an awesome shooter. There's freedom. There's focus. There's awareness. There's consciousness. You can make the ball go in the rim. When the noise is in the mind, the rim is tiny and you can't get there. So what we want to do is to be awake so we can put the ball in the rim. And there's lots of instances where we have this experience. For those who don't play basketball, you're in a car accident and the world moves slow. The present moment takes over. The future and the past are gone. So we meditate as a tool, the greatest tool we have to promote this kind of consciousness. This morning I want to talk about a little bit about—
But the sum total of what I learned is in my book, Super Rich. It really did take a lot out of me. In fact, it was a cleansing for me, because I realized some basic ideas that were the driving force behind my successes in various different businesses. One note that was critical to me, this is a note from this great Christian yogi who said, the imagination is God. He also would skip the hard work, dedication, and faith, and say that if you had enough imagination and faith, then miracles would happen. He said those are like when Jesus would say, "All those things I do, you can do, and even greater." All these things. This idea that if you had enough faith, things would happen automatically, but most of us, me and I, like, Just normal people, we go about our work, we dedicate ourselves and keep our head down and are resilient and build a business. And usually we start with an idea that no one agrees with or understands, and certainly it's okay the first day, maybe you can come home and tell your wife, "I got this idea." She says, "That's great." You go to the library, you start to research it, and And 6 months later you say, "It's coming to fruition, I can feel it." And she says, "Okay." And 6 years later she's like, "This one, what?" She's thinking. And then the 7th year it comes to pass and everybody's like, "Wow, you're so smart." And what you were is resilient and you made a lot of mistakes along the way, but you had faith.
And faith is the most critical element.
They said with that alone, miracles happen. But again, hard work and dedication, resilience, are critical.
I've been practicing yoga pretty much every day for about 20 years. I went there because there were so many hot— it was crazy. There was no guys in the class, Evan. Only hot girls in class. I went to yoga. I started going to yoga regularly. After the first class, I was inspired anyway, besides for the girls. But I find that if you take your time to meditate, if you take time to take care of your first chakra, the self, the muladhara, they call it, take care of the self, then everything else can come from there. And if you don't take care of the self, if you have noise in your head, the seconds of presence are where all the creativity, all the happiness, everything comes from those seconds. Presence. What can we do to extend our seconds of awareness, to be awake? This is where we have to start. So I recommend everyone, my kids twice a day meditate, be still, let the thoughts settle. The world all on the outside is just a bunch of sickness and noise, but inside is where everything comes from. Anything good that contributes good to the sickness and the noise on the outside has to come from here. So you have to operate from here. She's worried about the rent, okay? She's a single mother, she's worried about her kids. Stop worrying about the rent shit. You know, there's nothing you can do about the rent and worrying about it. That ain't gonna get you no rent. Presence and happiness get you rent. Money can't make you happy, but happy can make you money. So be happy, go out in the world. Look, the story of the guy in the shanty house, he rolls over in the morning, Meditates, goes out into the world, says, "Damn, I'm gonna have to get some bread and water before the whole shit go down, before I get back in that bed. But in the meantime, be nice to all my neighbors in the shanty village." Everybody is suffering in what everyone else calls extreme poverty, but he's happy. He doesn't have a poverty mindset, nor is he worried about that bread and water. "They gonna give me some fucking bread. I ain't gonna worry about that shit." 'Cause I'm that dude. He walks out smiling, confident, comfortable. He gets what he needs. He says, Yogananda would say, God will provide, but really you're God, you're working to get and it shows up. He gets his bread and water. He makes everybody happy, everybody makes him happy, lays in the bed. Next nigga, he wakes up, he's got, you know, $36 billion in the bank. He gets up, the stock market goes up, he says, "Oh, shit!" He gets some coke and some alcohol, he gets happy, he's so excited, I'm exploding, I'm making more money, more money, more more cocaine, more alcohol, oh shit, I'm fucked up, I'm fucked up. His heart goes up and down and he dies at 40. The shanty house guy lives to 100. If he had the other guy's diet, not the diet the other guy took, but the other guy's opportunity for a greater diet, the guy in the shanty house would have made 120. But, you know, made 100. This guy died at 40. That's the reality of our— Our happiness is up to us. Our relationship with the world is up to us. Our anxiety is controlled or given to us by us.
Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Quinton Scarborough 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 would also love to know which of Russell Simmons' top 10 rules had the biggest impact on you. Leave it in the comments and I will join in the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe, and I'll see you soon.
