How To Improve Like Karl Lagerfeld | 11 Minutes

Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is strive to improve. Over to you, Karl Lagerfeld.

I'm never pleased with myself. I always think I could do better. I could make an effort. I'm lazy. I mean, it's ridiculous, I know, but I have a healthy attitude and I don't think that I should change my state of mind because when people start to think about their past, their art and all this, it's very dangerous. I do a kind of applied art, don't be too pretentious. And the good thing is that I get never, like the old Rolling Stones song, any satisfaction of what I'm doing. I always think it could improve, I could do better and I could do more. It's ridiculous, but it's very healthy, I think.

I think this is a trait that you will see across all successful people. That it's never good enough, that they want to improve, that they want to get better, that they're always looking for feedback and criticism on what they could do better. And they are their worst critic. No matter what you say, how you try to tear somebody down, they are harder on themselves. Successful people are harder on themselves than anything that you could throw at them, and that's what leads to their success. I've been thinking a lot about celebration recently because I don't celebrate a lot and probably don't celebrate enough. And I— and as I research it more, you see that the most successful people don't actually celebrate a lot. They don't celebrate a ton because what they're doing is not good enough in their mind yet, right? You know, I'm wearing a Blue Jays cap. And here we go. Go Jays, go! Go Jays, go! I love baseball. For some people, just getting to the major leagues, that's a win. That's a win. Like, I made it. I made it to the major leagues. I hit my goal. And for some people, you know, playing the full season is their goal and they hit a win. And for some people, just making it into the playoffs, they can say like, "I made it to the playoffs." And for some people, just playing in the World Series, "I played in the World Series," that's a win for them. But there are other people who want to be one of the greatest of all time. They want to be one of the greats of the greats. In their head, even if it's delusional, In their head, they see themselves winning 5, 6, 7, 10 World Series. That's where they want to get. Unless they get that, they're not satisfied. So they're striving to improve. Improve themselves, improve their teammates, improve their strategy, improve to get to that point. Because in their mind, they're winning 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 World Series. And so if they win one, great! It's a win, hey, good, like celebrate one day, awesome, good. But it's only a step along the way. 'Cause in their mind, they wanna be one of the greatest of all time. And so one World Series is not enough. They wanna get better and improve. And it doesn't have to be from an ego point of view, like I wanna be the best. It could also be from an impact point of view. You know, one of the things I remind myself every day is I have the ability to change the world and it's my responsibility to do so. It's my responsibility to do it. It's my responsibility to get better at what I do to serve more people, to help more entrepreneurs. I need to get better at my videos. Great, we crossed half a million subscribers. Amazing. You know, quick celebration. Let's go. Like, that's not enough. A million, 5 million, 10 million. It's not about hitting those numbers. It's about the impact that it can have. It's about reaching people with a positive, inspiring, empowering message for them to go and do something amazing. Instead of wasting your time watching gag videos, right? Instead of escaping your world, instead of escaping your job and having to turn to watching funny videos or trying to go on vacation, right, as an escape. I want you to not want to escape your life. I want you to live a life with purpose and passion and meaning. And that's on me to get better to reach more people to do it. A lot of you guys are already on board and you're already taking steps. And you resonate strongly with the message. There's a lot of people who don't yet, and I'm not good enough yet to be able to reach all those people, and I need to get better. That's how I see it. I need to get better every day. I need to improve. I want to have that kind of impact where I'm winning the 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 World Series. So hitting one isn't enough. And that's why those— the big-time winners, the guys who are— guys and girls who are having like that big impact, they They can't relate to the person who their biggest moment in their life was getting to the game, to playing their first game in the major leagues. Like, if that's your ceiling, that's the ceiling that you imposed on yourself. That's the biggest win in your life, getting there. You just can't relate. Like, I don't wanna celebrate that. I wanna celebrate doing much bigger things. And so I think having that mindset of striving to improve, of it never being good enough, about there always being a way to make it better, about taking the personal responsibility, right? Like, if I look at my videos, there's a team of people around me who are helping me make these, and it's on all of them to get better too. But it's not their fault for not getting better. It's my fault. It's my fault for not coaching them, for training them, for improving them, for giving them the mindset motivation to get better. And it's on me. I'm doing the product. It's on me to get better. This, this conversation has to get better, has to be more impactful. And so I think if you look at any successful person, people who've reached the heights that they're at, they don't just sit back. They'll recognize it for a little bit, but then like, let's move forward. Let's make this better. How do we improve? How do we have a bigger impact on this planet? And I sincerely hope that for you as well. So the question today is, I'm curious, how much time Do you spend celebrating? Leave in the comments below. I'm going to join in the discussion. I also want to give a quick shout out to William from newcore.com. William, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. It really, really, really means a lot to me, man. I 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, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. Hey, Believe Nation, if you want some more videos on striving to improve, to really lock in that message in here, I think you're going to enjoy these bonus clips.

Boy, this is the first time in years doing this all from memory. This is hard to remember, an old computer language. I not only designed this, every little metal trace that you see on here, I strapped on onto a drafting table and I, I built this whole board myself because I wanted the chips in the ultimate perfect position. I worked for a couple of weeks every night till about 4 in the morning laying out the little things on a big drafting table that would eventually become this board. And when I got done, I realized I had to drill 8 holes in the board. And I said, you know what, if I had only designed it a little bit differently, then I would have only had 5 holes. I tore apart my entire design for another 2 weeks, every night till 4 in the morning, to get it just that perfect with only 5 holes so you would never see the 3 missing. It had to be that artistically perfect to me because it represents yourself when you do something, when you do a great design.

Whatever you really, really, really want, you get. And whatever you really, really, really don't want, you get. Because whatever your mind is focusing on, you pull these things into your life. So your perspective is so important. And for me, it was a slow, slow, slow, slow build. But it got me out of that depression and really lifted me up. And I mean, and every— and I don't lose— you know, and sometimes you go like this. You know, it's not just a straight, you know. But I've always kept that. Desire. You know what I mean? And it's a sincere desire. And when you ask for something like that, you start seeing things about yourself. Because really, the way the world is relative, it's the way you see yourself that shapes the world. It doesn't shape the world. It shapes your perspective on the world. So if you want to continually change, you have to have that desire. You know, so, you know, I can pinpoint certain things in my— certain points in my life where, you know, you have these moments of clarity. You know, like I was talking about the academic portion, the clarity of the guitar, but there's really these— we all have these very subtle, intuitive moments of clarity, but you have to want them. If you're stuck in a particular way of thinking for your whole life, You're not going to get them.

You have to see them.

You have to want to be— you want to— you have to want to improve yourself as a person.

Well, it's not about not killing. It's about doing the best show that you can do, and it's about staying at the edge of your ability, doing a better— I want to do a better show every time I'm on stage. I mean, part of it is that I want to keep— I want what I do to keep getting better. Unless you think you're the best comedian that ever could possibly— like, you're a perfect crystalline diamond of a comedian that couldn't possibly be be improved upon. Every molecule has been compressed together to the point there's no air in it. You're a black hole of a comic that can't— there's just no room for improvement. You know, you've folded the samurai sword 1,000 times and just can't fold anymore. No, so you got to keep trying. I mean, I think a lot of people in show business and comedy even especially are very lazy, and they just sort of think that you just get up there and then you wait for your manager to get you a better one, a better shot. But it's something you gotta really, to me, I mean, for me, I just wanna keep working at it and it would, yeah, I wouldn't like it if I stopped trying really hard. It isn't a neurosis like, oh geez, I hope they like me. It's, this is what I do, I gotta do it really, really well.

For me, I would say it's all driven by curiosity and the desire to be personally challenged. Those two things, I can sum it all up. And I don't know if it's a formula for success. It's just what drives me. I'm very curious. I want to know more. I choose projects that I'm going to learn from. I choose projects that are challenging. I don't want to do the same thing twice. So I think personal challenge, trying to strive for excellence. And to me, in filmmaking, the excellence is how how excellent can the entertainment experience be for the audience? You know, I'll pull out all stops.