How to Overcome Fear and Keep Going | Top 10 Rules for Success

What's up, Believe Nation? We put out a lot of content, and I often get asked, can you summarize it down to some of your favorite clips? And so that's what this video today is all about— some of my most favorite rules from the Top 10 series, February 2017 edition. I hope you enjoy. And as always, guys, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, leave it down in the comments below. Put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well. And when you write it down, it's much more likely to stick. Sink in for yourself as well. Enjoy.

You are unusually fearless and willing to go in the face of other people telling you something is crazy. And I know a lot of pretty crazy people, you still stand out. Where does that come from or how do you think about making a decision when everyone tells you this is a crazy idea? Or where do you get the internal strength to do that?

Well, first of all, I'd say I actually think I fear I feel fear quite strongly. So it's not as though I just have the absence of fear. I feel it quite strongly. But there are just times when something is important enough, you believe in it enough, that you do it in spite of fear.

So speaking of important things—

Like, people shouldn't think I— people shouldn't think, well, I feel fear about this and therefore I shouldn't do it. It's normal to be to feel fear. Like, you'd have to, definitely something mentally wrong if you didn't feel fear.

So you just feel it and let the importance of it drive you to do it anyway?

Yeah, you know, actually something that can be helpful is fatalism to some degree. If you just accept the probabilities, then that diminishes fear. So when starting SpaceX, I thought the odds of success were less than 10%. And I just accepted that actually, probably, I would just lose everything. But that maybe we'd make some progress if we could just move the ball forward. Even if we died, maybe some other company could pick up the baton and move and keep moving it forward. So that would still do some good. Yeah, same with Tesla. I thought the odds of a car company succeeding were extremely low.

If we could celebrate every breath that we take, because nothing's a guarantee. If we could celebrate the breath and the exhale, which is being alive without, you know, "Oh, my car won't start." "Oh geez, you know, the cat dropped dead." "Hey, you know, I think I need a little lobotomy. You know, I mean, there are things that are very, very important in life that we, we just— we don't think about, you know. And one of the most worrisome things that I went through for years is you freaked out about your past. You're worried, you're scared to death of the future, and that's all you're thinking about. But the now doesn't exist. You know? And I think that's a grave mistake that we make.

I've always had this really gross, dangerous mentality of no consideration of failure. Just never even considering the thought of failing. Like, if I want something, I just go until I get it. And that doesn't always work, but—

I believe that the depth of anybody's struggle will determine the height of their success. And I believe that everything that I've gone through in my whole life, you know, people ask me, what would you change? I wouldn't change a thing because everything that I've gone through has made me who I am today. You know, so I'm sitting here very strong and very confident, you know, and got a lot of love for a lot, a lot of people. Jesus struggled and went through things. You know, everybody went through their own thing. And people slandered him. I mean, I feel like if Jesus can go what he went through, who am I? I'm nobody. I'm just a guy from the hood, man, that just do this music, but I'm just such a real person. I don't consider myself a celebrity at all. I'm just so real and I love people that, man, I just flow through this thing. And I let my music, I let God guide me where he got me to go. But God ain't going to just guide you straight to success, not God. He going to guide you through a lot of mess. First, so that when you get the success, you'll know how to appreciate it, and you'll know how to stay with it and know how to take care of it. And that's called longevity.

I'm a very spiritual person, and I follow my spirit, and I do what my spirit tells me to do. You know, and I don't have a set, like, oh, I want to play this type of character, and I won't play that type of character. I'm receptive to anything, you know? And when the right thing comes along, if it's serious, if it's funny, if it's silly, if it's low-budget— Put it this way, I do, I just do whatever makes me, I get the most gratification from as an artist, you know. I do music albums and nobody buys my records. I do them because I love making music, you know, and that's the same way I'm about movies. I don't make movies because I don't go into it thinking, let me do this because then people will come, or how much will a movie make, and I'm trying to make the audience do that. I do what feels right for me.

What's your message for viewers out there about following their dreams? I would say, uh, if you truly believe in something and you really have a passion for something, then go for it. I think there's a lot of obstacles that you have to go through and nothing's ever given to you and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but if you really believe in it, then you should do it.

It started in the crib. I was a baby and from the crib all the way to age 11, more or less, I had what is called lucid dreaming, which means that you dream that you are awake. Hola! So I literally saw monsters. I was used to monsters. I loved them. But, you know, at a very early age, I made a deal with them to allow me to go to the bathroom because I was so afraid I ended up peeing my crib. And, you know, we stayed friends. You know, there are only two things you can do in art or in narrative and storytelling. You can tell about the good stuff in life, which has always been very boring to me, and you can tell stories about the dark side of life, which has been much more attractive to me. When I talk to pre-first-time filmmakers or first-time filmmakers, I always tell them Look, making movies is eating a sandwich of shit. And the only thing that gets a little better is as the years go by, you get a little more bread, but the shit's always there.

But isn't that true of life also?

I think it is. I mean, I use another metaphor for life, but for film, I tell you, that one fits.

And but in the end, somehow you find the joy?

Well, you end up convincing yourself that it's peanut butter.

And does it ever— is it ever peanut butter?

I want to believe it is.

But I mean, do you look back and go, oh, yes, I did that?

I tell you, without a doubt, we may say this is the greatest— being an artist in whatever discipline, dance, painting, theater, whatever you want, is the greatest work on earth. I mean, it's truly disheartening in this way or that way, but so is every job. So is every job. I, when I was younger, I worked with my father on real estate for about 5 years. I was the worst car salesman in the history of car salesmanship. I was—

because you were too honest or?

Yeah, people would come and say, what about this? I think, no. I was, you know, Glengarry Glen Ross. I wouldn't I would not get the knife set. I would be shelly levin. I would be out, out. It was terrible. My father said, you're terrible. But I and the other vendors, whenever I went out, the other salesmen, whenever I went out to a client, they actually laughed behind my back, actually physically were laughing behind my back. And I was the worst. But in real estate, I was good. I was good on real estate and my father used to say, you have to do this to show that you can have an honest living, do an honest living. And what I did is work on real estate in the mornings and I did Monsters in the afternoon. But I know that when you have a real job, I painted highways one summer in Wichita, Kansas. I mean, a real job has equal heartbreak and stuff like that and politics.

Well, I mean, this is for— I think it's one of the things that people really misunderstand is, is glorious it is to be able to do the things you're passionate about and to be an artist, it's still a job.

It is not—

Oh, it's still a job.

It is work.

Yeah, yeah, it is.

It is.

But God bless anyone that can do this. It's beautiful. And you have to truly be grateful. And the only way to remain objective about how grateful you need to be is present your present to your past self when you're 20 years old. And if you go and talk to yourself at 20 years old and said, would you like to be doing this movie with this budget? What do you think your response at age 20 would be? Absolutely yes.

You know, some jobs you learn by going to college and they give you an education, then you bring that to your work. And some jobs you learn by just being on the job. And from Cursed Part 3 on, all All the way up to Jurassic World, my knowledge of how to be on a set, how to act, and how to handle myself on set and approach work is continuing to grow. I've learned a lot on every job. It would be smart when on a job to be a sponge. Pick somebody and learn from them. I'm getting to the point now where I have more experience than a lot of the people that are on the set, and I'm actually at a point where I can teach other people, so that's pretty cool too.

I enjoy doing them. But more than that, actually, let me rephrase it. I think the reason why I enjoy it so much is because how much the people get off, the audience appreciates what we do. You know, there's a lot of things I could be doing outside of the industry, even within the industry, but, you know, I don't know if the satisfaction would be the same, you know, because to be a part of something that people really appreciate As much as maybe certain people hate to admit it, it's important to us, you know, as humans. It's like you want to believe that, you know, what you're putting out there and what you've dedicated so much time to is— there's a certain degree of acknowledgement, and more than acknowledgement, an appreciation. And, you know, obviously this one's been appreciated for a long time, and that's a great feeling.

If it's in your heart, you have to push forward. If it's in your heart, because I'm from Kansas City, Missouri. Who would ever thought that you can build an empire? But if you put your mind to it and push for it and push for it, no matter if your family tell you it's a hobby, you need to do something else to get money or whatever, man, it's like if you believe in it, you gotta follow that dream in your heart, man, because if I didn't, there wouldn't be any Strange Music music to come do any interview in because I followed my dream after everybody knocked me down. You have to push for it. If you believe in it, you will achieve in it. Just gotta keep pushing.

That's what I have to say. I look towards the future, and the future is just, you know, it's more to do, it's more steps to climb and stuff. So I don't really look at, you know, what I'm doing right now. I just, every time I do something, I move on and see how could I get better. And I'm never satisfied, you know. I think I always knew I could do better, you know.

Always knew you could do better.

I could do better, yeah.

I know there are so many kids out there that feel the way that I did when I was a kid, just awkward and not excelling at one thing in particular and not cool. And, um, skateboarding was my way out of that. And I hope that if not with skateboarding, they find it in something else they do. But I hope that they're not afraid to try something different. 'Cause you can't listen to the haters. That's my best advice to anyone. If I had listened to the haters, I would have quit a long time ago. I would have quit when I was 11 years old. Like, I used to get bashed by professional skaters because my style was dorky or it was all circus. It was, you know. But you can't. You've gotta believe in yourself.

A lot of people come to me and they say, "Well, I wanna be an entrepreneur." And I go, "Oh, that's great. What's your idea?" And they go, "Well, I don't have one yet." And I say, "Well, I think you should go get a job as a busboy or something until you find something you're really passionate about because it's a lot of work." And I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You pour so much of your life into this thing. There are such rough moments in time that most people give up. I don't blame them. I mean, it's really tough. And it consumes your life. I mean, if you've got a family and you're in the early days of a company, it's— I can't imagine how one could do it. I'm sure it's been done, but it's rough. I mean, because it's pretty much an 18-hour-a-day job, 7 days a week for a while. So unless you have a lot of passion about this, you're going to not survive. You're going to give it up. So you've got to have an idea. Or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you're passionate about. Otherwise, you're not going to have the perseverance to stick it through, and I think that's half the battle right there. It's hard to remember how bad it was, you know, in the early '80s with IBM taking over the world with the PC, with DOS out there. It was, it was far worse than the Apple II. They tried to copy the Apple II and they'd done a pretty bad job, and you needed to know a a lot. And so things were kind of slipping backwards, and Macintosh was— you saw the 1984 commercial, I hope you have that in your archives— you know, Macintosh was basically this relatively small company, you know, in Cupertino, California, taking on the goliath IBM and saying, wait a minute, your way is wrong. This is not the way we want computers to go. This is not the legacy we want to leave. This is not what we want our kids to be learning. This is wrong, and we are going to show you the right way to do it. And here it is. It's called Macintosh, and this is so much better that it's going to beat you, and we are going to do it. And that's what Apple stood for.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I'd love to know, what did you think? What rules stood out the most for you? What are you going to immediately apply to your life or to your business, leave it down in the comments below and I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Sumi. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and sharing that picture of how your one word is peace and what it means to you. I really appreciate the support and I'm glad that the book had an impact on your life. 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, have an amazing day. I'll see you soon.