James Prince turned federal pressure and industry attacks into opportunity by diversifying into HBO and entertainment beyond music. Evan Carmichael argues diversification works when you lack expertise or have multiple genuine passions, but warns that unfocused spreading dilutes effort and kills ventures.
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Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is diversify your portfolio. Over to you, James Prince.
My first love was boxing. You know, I got distracted with the music game. Turned out to be a good distraction. I got distracted, but eventually I found my way back home. You know, I love boxing, I love the fight game, and, you know, I diversified my portfolio. I remember when I'd done it, I actually done it when I was under attack. You know, I was under attack by the feds and different people. And they thought I was one-dimensional. You know, I was under attack because, and I have to talk about that, because, and I'm gonna talk about it not from a victim point of view, but as a testimony. There you go. You know, because, Once again, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. And, but yeah, these guys put a full-blown attack on the movement of, you know, our hip-hop movement because they didn't understand it, you know what I mean? We was getting paid and making so much money, you know, group of brothers that had gave up the game and came, you know, over in the music industry was getting paid and making so much money until they felt like something was crooked about our money. And therefore, you know, it caused a lot of heat. You know what I mean? A lot of problems. And at that time, I diversified. I said, you know what? I'm not one-dimensional. You know, I don't, if they gonna be watching and trying to affect this here, then I made a move where I popped up on their TV on HBO. You know, they looked up and turned the TV on, and I was right there in the ring with Floyd Mayweather. So they're like, damn, how he pull this one off? So, you know, those are some of the obstacles and challenges of life where, you know, one have to adjust. And, you know, we were able to do that, and, you know, the rest is history.
So this is an interesting one for me because you hear a lot of people talk about diversify your portfolio or don't put all your eggs in one basket, and it's just come across as typical business advice that you get. And there definitely are some situations where that is advisable, but there's also a lot of scenarios where it's not. And so I thought this would be a good opportunity to go on my Evan rant, and then you guys can figure out which point of view you agree with, or maybe both. Diversifying really applies well when you don't know what you're doing or when you have multiple passions. So if you look at the investing strategy, why you hear it so much in the investment world is when you're making an investment, if you have X amount of dollars in your savings, right, you have $500,000 or $10,000 in savings, if you put it all into one stock and that stock crashes, then you've lost all your money. Where if you invested into 10 different stocks, then one may crash, but chances are the other ones are going to do decently, and so overall you've made some money. You don't know what you're really doing in investing. You're not involved in any of those companies, and so it helps just mitigate the risk. Diversifying typically is a way to minimize your risk as opposed to going off and doing something great, right? I would every day of the week invest in myself, put in all my eggs in the Evan Carmichael basket, than giving my money to 10 different corporations as stocks and hopefully that rises, right? It's riskier, but I'll make that bet 100 times out of 100 because I feel the return is gonna be much higher. Andrew Carnegie was the richest man in the world and he was famous for saying, put all your eggs in one basket and then watch that basket. So diversifying just for the sake of diversifying is not a fantastic strategy. What happens when you're an entrepreneur and you feel like, okay, I need to diversify, I need to launch new products, or I need to start other businesses, I need to get out of only having this one company. Okay, so you start a second company and you invest in these other businesses and you're trying to run all these things at the same time. What happens is you lose focus. And as entrepreneurs in general, focusing can be a challenge. Focusing can be a tough thing. And so the last thing you need is even more distractions. Where it can work, apart from just trying to minimize your risk is if you have multiple interests. And then you can embrace the genius at the end and find ways to go off and do those interests and be great at them. If you're following something just because you want to diversify but you don't really care about that, you don't really have a deep passion for it, it's not going to work out and it's only going to detract from your original goal and intention. But if you really love what you're doing, you love that new opportunity, you see how you can make it work, especially if it can integrate somehow with what you're currently doing, then there is an opportunity to potentially stand out and have that be your unique differentiator. And so the advice I felt is worth having a discussion over because it's such common advice that you'll hear, and I really want you to think about the reasons why you're doing something and take it with a grain of salt and ask yourself, is this really the best thing for me? And so again, if you don't know what you're doing and you're just trying to minimize risk, diversification is great. If you love doing multiple things and see extensions that you are equally passionate about, diversification is great. If it's not those two things, don't diversify. Put your eggs in one basket and watch that basket like a hawk. So the question of the day today is, what are your thoughts on diversification? Good, bad, depends on the scenario? Leave it in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also want to give a quick shout out to Greg Fauchelia. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. It really, really, really, really means a lot to me, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Thank you guys so much 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.
I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.
Hey Believe Nation, we're working on a top 10 rules for success from James Prince, and so here is a quick sneak peek of some of the clips we're looking at that I thought you'd enjoy as a bonus.
I've been in situations, especially as a young brother, situations with a woman or something, it was just like, get a job, get a job, go work for someone else. Can't do it for anybody else.
Yeah, and I went through the same thing, you know, be like the average person. She ain't made out of that kind of material, you know. You can only be you. Don't let none of that get you down, you know. That's what it's all about, building a team around you. You know, even if they don't see your vision, there's some other people, lawyers. I love to sit and listen to their opinions and accept their opinions, but you know, a lawyer is a lawyer. I'm a businessman. They don't know how to do what we know how to do. And that's a whole nother game, you know, right investments and all that kind of stuff. But what happened a lot A lot of times people taste their success, man, and they feel they invincible, man. They don't plan, you know. It ain't like if this is happen, shit, I'mma just go get a job. I ain't never thought like that.
People say, well, you know, what's your backup plan if this film flops and y'all don't make no money? And I say, I don't have a backup plan except to do something else, you know, to make something else happen.
That's it. That is the backup. That's the plan A, B, and C. Something else, whatever that may be. Now it's good if you can come up with it, you know, to have it in place, but if you can't, that's part of faith. You know what I'm saying? You can't see the end of that road, but shit, you believe.
I've been having obstacles all my life, you know, all my life. And, you know, I have a saying, if God be for me, the world could be against me, you know. Yeah, you can clap for that. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Yeah, so, you know, every obstacle, you know, that was before me, you know, I dealt with them head-on. You know, I didn't run. I dealt with them, triumphed over all of them. And, you know, they came from a lot of different areas, from the police department, you know, politicians, IRS, you know, all the powers that be, you know, it appeared that they were out to try and stop our movement. But, you know, once again, you know, we were fearless, and no weapon formed against me was going to prosper.
