John Legend: Success Through Effort!

This idea that things are just fixed is proven not to be the case. You can get better at things, you can grow. No matter what obstacles you face in life, if you approach it with courage and conviction, you can find a way out of it.

But the only way you'll reach any height in life and in love is by taking that chance that you might fall. You have to give your all.

He's an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He's won 10 Grammy Awards, 1 Golden Globe Award, and 1 Academy Award. In 2007, he won the Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He's John Legend, and here's my take on his top 10 rules for success. Rule number 1 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. And as always, guys, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below. Put quotes around it as well so other people can be inspired. Also, when you write it down, you're much more likely to lock it in for yourself as well. Enjoy!

¡Hola!

The thing is, every successful person you know has failed at what they love to do before. I've been unsuccessful in my career. You just didn't know about it because I wasn't famous yet, and I was trying to be famous. I was trying to get a record deal for 6 years, and I kept getting turned down. And any successful person you know, even though it seems like everything just happened for them, it usually was preceded by a bunch of failure, or at least a significant amount. But the great ones aren't the ones that don't fail. They're the ones that learn from their failure and they keep going and they're persistent and they're tenacious. And for me, I was trying to get a record deal from '98 to 2004 and got turned down by every major record label, including the one I'm signed to now. And for me, that means that even when you hear no, you have to keep going through all those nos until you get to yes.

A lot of people think they're prepared, but you may think they're not prepared. So what does prepared mean?

Well, prepared means, like I said, you gotta be great at whatever you're doing. Even if you're not known for it yet, you have to be developing into someone who can be great. And, you know, if you read Malcolm Gladwell, for instance, he believes you have to practice 10,000 hours to be a genius at any particular field. And I don't know if the exact number is right, but I'm I'm sure directionally that's correct, that you need to spend a hell of a lot of time doing something and practicing at it and getting better at it for you to be great. And for a songwriter or a singer, that means writing, that means listening, that means performing, that means practicing, that means all those things. And if you're not doing that, you're not gonna become great at it. We're always thinking about what it means to be authentic as an artist. What it means to be authentic and to be successful and commercially viable. The goal is to not let the commercial invade your creative process too much. The goal is to just try to write a great song, just try to make a great record, just try to make a great album, and then the commercial side will take care of itself. But, you know, you still have label A&Rs in your ear, you still have marketing people in your ear that, you know, want a certain thing out of your first single and want a certain thing out of your first video. But at the end of the day, Your guiding light, your north star has to be, is this great? Is this creatively something I can be proud of? Because if you don't do that, then I don't know what the point is. When I was younger, I didn't really know that you could just get better at things. Because I think we're so used to the idea that you're talented at something and it's sort of fixed, you know, the idea that Oh, he's just a good singer, you know. And even with singing, I've gotten better at singing as I've gotten older. I wasn't singing in a way that was sustainable, and I wasn't breathing right. I wasn't doing a bunch of things correctly. I realized that there was a ceiling that I couldn't crack through unless I actually studied and worked under a coach to get better. And this idea that things are just fixed is proven not to be the case. You can get better at things, you can grow. And even people that are innately talented still need to go beyond that basic talent that they have and cultivate it. I love what I do. I'm a musician. There's an industry side of it, but at the core, what I do is I go in and write songs. I get to perform them in front of thousands of people who enjoy them. That is fun. That is great. You know, there are challenges involved. You want to do well. You want to keep the public's interest and their excitement. You want to sell tickets. You want to sell CDs. You want to continue to be successful in the industry. But like I said before, I don't see a contradiction between doing all that and having fun and making music you believe in. And so, uh, I don't know, I hear people complain about the music business, and there are certainly things that you could complain about, but I'm having a great time.

I want to win.

Yeah, I want to be successful at what I do. And so I'm committed to working hard. I'm committed to going to the studio and working on a song, you know. The umpteenth version of it to make sure I get it exactly right. I'm committed to that. I'm committed to rehearsing with my band till we get the show exactly right. We want to do the best show in the business. Yeah. And so part of it is just my love for music. Part of it is me being competitive. But all of that makes me want to perform at a high level. John, why this project? Why was it so important to be a part of it? Well, they sent me the first script and I was just enthralled. I was like excited to find out where it went. I thought it was an exciting story that hasn't been told in this way before. And I thought it was inspirational about breaking free, about having the courage to do something against the odds. So congratulations on the baby girl. Thank you very much. If your daughter sees this, what do you want her to take away from this? I want her to be inspired, to know a bit about American history and know about where her father's people came from. And also to be inspired that no matter what obstacles you face in life, if you approach it with courage and conviction You can find a way out of it.

I'm the kind of artist that doesn't fit so neatly into a radio format, and you know, that presents a challenge, but I think it's one that's worth, you know, it's worth it for me to be that kind of artist because I think it's authentic to who I am, and if you're not being authentic to who you are, then you won't be successful anyway, usually. And I think that's why I've been successful, because my fans believe what I'm doing, and they believe that I'm coming from a real place. I also—

most of my songs are in some way a co-write of some sort. I usually write most of the lyric and melody, but a lot of times the music and the backbeat are contributed by someone else, and— or at least in collaboration with someone else. And I've always been open to that, and it helps me kind of stay creative and stay fresh. And I think I come into a collaboration with a spirit of openness that not every artist has. Some people are more guarded and more protective about their creative process, but I'm much more open and collaborative, and for me, that's the best way to create. Everybody has a different, you know, sweet spot and whatever makes them happy and whatever makes them most comfortable, but for me, I feel very comfortable in a collaborative environment. I treat it with humility in the sense that I'm not wed to my ideas. I'm willing to listen to someone else's. I think I have a decent sense of taste enough to be able to kind of appraise whether or not something that someone else is contributing is really quality and good. And I enjoy that back and forth.

Well, I think that again speaks to great confidence, because I'm a writer and I don't show my work to anybody. 'Cause I'm so scared. If they like it, I don't trust them. If they don't like it, I really get hurt by it.

Yeah, it's— you have to open yourself up to it, but— and part of it is just being a little bit fearless, you know. I don't know if you can be a little bit fearless, but you know, you just have to put it out there and not be afraid.

Somehow they've scientifically determined that the public is only capable of liking the same 10 songs at any given time. So they simply play those songs over and over and over and over until you're finally completely exasperated. Then they move on. Now, I've had a 10-year career as a major label solo artist, and none of my songs has ever been one of those 10 songs until this moment. And now— and now all of you are so over me. You're tired of hearing that I went to Penn. Why'd they bring him back again? That was my humblebrag way of saying I have the biggest song in the country right now. The reason I'm here, the reason I've had such a wonderful journey so far, is that I found love. Yes, love. We were all made to love, and I found that we live our best lives, we are at our most successful, not simply because we're smarter Or because we hustle harder. Not because we become millionaires more quickly. The key to success, the key to happiness, is opening your mind and your heart to love. Spending your time doing things you love and with people you love. Even though we're made to love, we're often afraid to love. We're afraid of being hurt deeply. Afraid of feeling the pain I went through when my parents were divorced. But you're never going to really love something or someone unless you put those fears aside. Don't hold back. Being in love means being ready to give freely and openly and being ready to risk something, risking pain and disappointment, conquering your fears and becoming anew. Alice Walker once said, "The more I wonder, the more I love." Love calls you to open your eyes, to seek, to search, to wonder. Love is all-consuming. It infiltrates your body. It allows you to experience bliss, joy, and true friendship. You'll be more disappointed when something goes wrong. You might fall harder, but the only way you'll reach any height in life and in love is by taking that chance that you might fall. You have to give your all. Yes, I've been not so subtly working in my song lyrics in my speech today. And some might think it's all a bit too much. Here I am, this R&B singer with an album called Love in the Future, who's recently married and wrote the biggest love song of the year. And what did I choose to talk about? Love. It's so corny, isn't it? It's much cooler to be detached and apathetic, right? We all like a little snark and cynicism and irony, especially from our favorite artists and comedians and writers. I get it. But that cool detachment only gets you so far. Passion gets you a lot further. It makes you a better entrepreneur, a better leader, a better philanthropist, a better friend, a better lover. I want you to live the best life you can. You can be world changers. When you leave here today, you're gonna look for a lot of things: security, money, friendships, sex, all kinds of things. But the most important thing you'll find is love. So love yourself, love your work, love the people around you, Dare to love those who are different from you, no matter where they're from, what they look like, and who they love. Pursue this life of love with focus and passion, ambition and courage. Give it your all, and that will be your path to true success.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because Funky Fund Me asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, leave it down in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know what did you learn from this video from John that you're gonna take some immediate action on in your life or in your business somehow? What was your favorite clip and why? Leave it in the comments and I'm gonna join in the discussion. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Ray Peterson. Ray actually works on my team and he decided to pick up a copy of my book Your One Word. Thank you for that, Ray, and for taking the picture and posting it online. I really appreciate all the work you do, but also the support with the book. 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. I'll see you soon.

Yeah, I work for a company called the Boston Consulting Group. We did management consulting.

And was it fun for you?

Was it nice?

It was interesting, you know. I had fun sometimes, and I was bored sometimes. I was tired sometimes because at the same time I was trying to make a demo record and playing live and doing all these other things for my music career. But during the day I would be at work. And so it was an interesting time, but I learned a lot actually from being there. And I think I needed to do it anyway because I needed to make money somehow. I mean, I could have gotten another job, but either way it was going to take money and time to invest to do that. So it worked out. I have some friends from there that I'm still very good friends with, and I learned a lot there.

What did you learn? What did you learn? Do you— It was more just—

it's not specific facts. It's just kind of how businesses run, how they think, how to do problem solving in a smart way. And I think those things and the instincts that I developed as a business person, I mean, they help, you know, as I'm running my business now. Because really all artists are in some ways entrepreneurs of their own small business.

So is there one client that you work for that you say, well, that's— that I had to solve a problem over there, and now when I run my own business, I ran into it and I learned? And I use the experience to solve my own problems, or?

It's not that easy to draw a line between the experiences, but I think when you have a general knowledge and you develop general instincts about certain things, it just helps your decision-making. And I think more than anything, that's what happened.

Yeah, you just have to, you know, it's not easy to see beyond where you are, but you have to try to see beyond where you are. Set goals beyond where you are. Think about ways that you can break out and make a difference. And that's what I did. I had some great people around me, my family, teachers, people that believed in me and encouraged me, sent me off to an Ivy League school, and I figured it out after that.

A lot of people want to be stars, so the labels are in a position where they have to and should say no to most people that come into their door, and they need to be really sure about you. Before they sign you. So they said no to me a lot. They said no to me. Even the label I'm signed to, Columbia Sony, turned me down, you know, like a year or so before I got signed. So it just shows you that you have to be persistent. You have to keep trying to get better, learn from your criticisms, and then just play to win. And that's what I was doing.