How to PROTECT Your Dream | Ignore the Haters

So many people I talked to at that time for Alipay, they say, "This is the stupidest idea you have ever got." My father, he said, "This is an embarrassment to me," and was stomping all over me.

I think every time I say I'm about to do something, people are waiting for me to fumble.

I just can't live my life based upon what other people think about me.

Everybody told me, "You don't need to do that, man." Some people would rather kill your dream than see you succeed.

Oh, you don't understand how hard it is to make it, Brendan. It's so hard these days.

Everybody told me, "You're nuts. You can't do that.

You can't do that." And the people who are like offended by it, it doesn't fucking matter.

Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something.

People don't like it. So many people I talked to at that time for Alipay, they say, this is the stupidest idea you have ever got. But I say, I don't care if it's stupid or clever, as long as people use it. Now we have 800 million people using this Alipay.

My father, he said this is an embarrassment to me and was dumping all over me.

I think every time I say I'm about to do something, people are waiting for me to fumble. That's probably one of the biggest motivations behind a lot of my raps is the amount of people that want me to fall or whatever. I think that should be the motivation for most rappers, you know. The further you climb towards the top, the more hands you have on your pant leg dragging you to the bottom. They just start tugging at you, but, you know, I wear really strong pants, man.

You don't pay a lot of attention to reviews and those kind of things?

Well, you know, you're always affected by opinion, but the more opinions there are of you, of me, the less I look at them because I just can't live my life based upon what other people think about me. So I can't concern myself too much with what other people think, you know. It's just not healthy. I don't think I could continue to do what I do if I was constantly worrying about what somebody thought about it.

Well, the biggest struggle, man, was just getting around other people that, that, that, that would say I could do it. I mean, that's the biggest struggle. Just you get around one guy says, yeah, you can do it. And then you talk to him tomorrow and he's like, no dude, it's freaking, you can't do this shit. You know, there's so few people telling you to do it. You know what? There is a lot of save your money, protect yourself, conserve, don't spend, don't take risk. Taking risk is the new way to be risk adverse. So we're— the biggest struggle for me was my family, man. The people closest to me was the biggest struggle. Every time I went out to do another deal, everybody told me, you don't need to do that, man. The only person that was encouraging me was my twin brother because I would see how he was doing it, dude. He was making his swings. And so every time I'd get around other people— so I'll tell you a little trick I did. On weekends, I would always go see homes I couldn't afford. That has always inspired me. I would go look, I would go drive neighborhoods. Literally, I've done this my entire life until I finally got to the point where they wouldn't even let me in the neighborhood. There's neighborhoods in Miami, dude, you can't even go see. You can't, they won't even let you in the gates. Most of them you can get in if you know some of my tricks. So the point that Chovita's writing on the board right now is you got fuel in your tank, it wants to be accelerated on, and then you got somebody in the back seat saying, hey, be careful. Nobody likes a backseat driver, okay? So they're sitting there, they're putting mental pressure on the brakes when you're trying to accelerate.

I think I have an insatiable appetite to make things and share things with the world. I have, you know, I'm compelled beyond a reasonable doubt to do what I do. I don't think that it can be a reasonable or logical choice. I think at a certain point you're compelled to do it. It's too painful, too brutal, too neurotic of a path to take otherwise. Sorry, my mic is making noise. So I think that that compulsion has to be there. It has to be something that you— you can doubt all the time, but deep down inside you know that this is something you have to do. And, you know, I think I've dealt with some of the adversity, some of the challenges, of which we've had many. I started a band and the world laughed at me. Literally laughed at me, kicked us around, talked shit about us in the press for years and still do. But we hunkered down, we worked and we worked and we worked. We play arenas all over the world. We have the most amazing, brilliant, beautiful fans one could ever ask for. And we've had an incredible life as a result. So if I had listened to the choir, to the chorus of everyone, I would have stopped, because that's what people want you to do. For some reason, some people would rather kill your dream than see you succeed. I don't know what that is, you know. I mean, Ayn Rand talks about that as the looters, you know. We can debate her and that some other time. But, you know, I think it's important to be stubborn and to follow your dreams no matter what.

No matter where you are in accomplishing your dreams or moving towards the things that you really want in life, never let your small beginnings make you small-minded. It's easy to say, well, that's impossible. And I know lots of people are telling you that, that's impossible. You know how many people told me what I'm doing today is impossible? Brendon, you wanna be a writer? You can't write. Brendon, you wanna be a trainer? You wanna be a speaker? You wanna do YouTube videos? You're not good on video. You're not good at this, you're not good at this. It's impossible. Oh, you don't understand how hard it is to make it, Brendon. It's so hard these days. The stuff that people tell me, and I know have told you, is so nonsensical and based on so many of their own fears that have been unexplored that it's sad. And it can really cause great people to stop trying to do great things. So I wanna encourage you, no matter where you are, believe in yourself, keep at it, keep working, keep going. I mean, success and fulfillment are gonna come from your unflagging ability to believe in what other people call impossible. It's gonna come from your unflagging ability to get up each day and work towards things that maybe you don't know where they're going. Maybe they're not getting you what you want right away. Maybe it's not easy. Maybe it is a struggle, but it is through that struggle and that effort and that dream and the desire that you get there.

I want to do something I've never done before. And I don't know how, but I can imagine it. I want to engage in the unknown. I truthfully want to pursue the unknown, and in the pursuit of the unknown, something comes to realization, and I'm never prepared for it. So when I set out to do what I set out to do, I set out to do the impossible. Everybody told me, you're nuts, you can't do that, you can't do that. And that's also consistent with all entrepreneurs. There's always a legion of people who will tell them, you can't do that, and even if you could, why would you? There's so many better things to do other than that that you can make so much more money from. But money was really a very, very narrow part of what I was really setting out to do.

Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something. Not even me.

All right?

All right.

You got a dream? You gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they want to tell you you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.

When this goes online or whatever it is, it really matters and it like really doesn't matter. What matters is, you know, the people who are sparked by it. And the people who are like offended by it, it doesn't fucking matter. Fuck you, you know, like because it's about motivating the doers. And anyone that wants to sit around and talk shit, they're doing too much time, they're taking too much time talking shit about it instead of getting up off their ass and following their dreams. Because I'm here to follow my my dreams, you know, and help other people follow their dreams and inspire people who are dreamers. It's crazy that we live in a world that if you're super positive and super creative, that it's scary. So what does that tell you about the mentality of most people if you're scared of, like, positivity and creativity?