Martin Garrix: How to INSTANTLY Become a Master in Your Craft!!

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is live and breathe your craft. Over to you, Martin Garrix.

When I was like 8 years old, like, I was playing soccer and like the guys on my team didn't take it seriously. They were like, oh, you want to be a DJ? And, um, I don't know, I, I, I, I, I, I love producing and I love DJing, so I always kept on doing it, practicing, trying to get better.

And how many hours a day are you busy with music?

Uh, all the hours that I'm not asleep. It's like, literally, I wake up, but also listening to music. Yeah, I mean, I— music is everything to me.

You live and breathe it.

Yeah.

So here's a guy, Martin Garrix, 20 years old, listed to be the number one DJ in the world. How can you achieve massive success in a short amount of time? You have to live and breathe your craft. Too many people are not prolific enough. The people who are the best in the world at what they do, they're prolific. They practice, they repeat over and over and over and over again in all fields. How many times have you seen the best athlete in whatever sport being the first person to be at the gym and the last person to leave? It's almost a cliché, but it happens every time. Michael Jordan had the most success. Michael Jordan took the most free-throw practices, took the most jump shot practices. He practiced, he practiced, he practiced to hone the natural talent that he had and make it something extraordinary. You can't coast alone on talent. If you do, you'll be mediocre at best. You have to be able to put in the work. So here's this guy, 20 years old, best DJ in the world because he lives and he breathes his craft. You can get there in a short amount of time if you hustle. I've told the story about myself at the agency that I was at where I was the worst storyteller, I was the worst person on camera, and in a couple months became the best just because I was prolific, not because I had skill or talent, but because I worked harder. I would be making multiple videos a day where the people there had a hard time finding time to make one video a week. If you're only doing something one day a week, it's going to be really, really hard for you to get better at it. And the people who really live and breathe their craft are going to crush you. They're going to blow right past you. And that sucks if you're that person, but it's also great if you are the person who live and breathe, because you can pass people very quickly who have a lot more experience than you because you are putting in the work to get better. When I was doing my bio video story, I did it 30, 40 times. I would do it 3 times a day. I would send it to my agent in the morning, he would give me feedback, I'd do it again at lunch, he'd give me feedback. I'd do it again in the evening, he would give me feedback, and I would make it better and better and better and better and better. And those were long videos, those were like 20-minute videos. It wasn't just 2 minutes. I did the whole thing each time, and I sent it to him, and he watched it, and he gave me feedback, and I did it again and again. I'm going through this process with Lily now, where we're starting this project of Unlocking Lily to help turn her into a public speaker. We're doing the same thing. Her first video, she shot almost 100 times. And then she sent me a version, and then I said, "Do it again," and sent me another version, and do it again. Other versions she didn't send me 'cause she knew it wasn't very good, and she wanted to redo it. Tweak it, tweak it, tweak it, tweak it. And still, this is nothing compared to where she's going to be able to be. But she hasn't quit her job yet. She's working full-time and she's still finding time. She said, before I go to work tomorrow, I'm going to go outside, I'm going to film it. When I get home tonight, before it gets dark, I'm going to film another version. She's grinding, she's hustling, so she's going to get better faster. You have to live and breathe your craft. If you want to be the best in the world at what you do, you have to practice. It's not going to come from just doing something one day a week. So the question today is, what is your craft? What are you beating on every single day to try to get better so you can be one of the best in the world at what you do? What is it? Leave in the comments below. I'm curious to find out. I also want to give a quick shout out to Rick Verwimp. Rick, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. I really appreciate the support. I hope you're enjoying the book and you're applying some of the lessons to your life and to your business. Thank you so much. Thank you guys again for watching. I hope you have an amazing day. I believe in you and hope you continue to believe in yourself, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.

I wake up every morning, espresso keeps me going.

So what advice would you give purely in an acting sense to yourself 30, 40 years ago?

Same advice I gave myself 30, 40 years ago. Get a job. Act. There are unfortunately those of us who say, well, I want to be a star. That's way out there in the ether somewhere. I want to be a working actor. You can pull that off. So act.

Work.

Work. Someone asked me once, and you're about to do it, what would you do if you weren't an actor, if you didn't make it as an actor? What would you do? I have no idea. I would act somewhere. Maybe I'd be driving a cab, maybe I'm working somebody's yard. Whatever I'm doing, I'm going to belong to somebody's little theater group. I will act because I'll die if I don't.

Watch as many movies of as many eras as you can. When I was coming up through the ranks, there was a thing called a cinema club in the '70s where you threaded 16mm film and you projected it. And I became familiar with people that are important to me, like Max Ophuls, like Laurel and Hardy, the Three Stooges. You became familiar with Renoir. You became familiar with everything from the comedy to drama. You can see Preston Sturges. Don't just limit yourself to what is out there or the latest 10, top 10 at the box office. That's the main tool. And imbibe, live film history because you are part of that narrative. Even if it's not film anymore, you're part of that narrative tradition. And the second thing I feel very important do not get wrapped in the industry side of this. That's what I find really heartbreaking, that people are now— a lot of times you're discussing film with people that love film and it's like you're listening to an agent from an agency or a head of a studio. They know the grosses, they know who's doing this. They know— that's absolutely not important. The important thing is that tradition you are going to belong to. And do not get caught on the other side. Stay true to the other side that needs you and needs to exist urgently.

By the time I got to college, I made this album called The Language of My World.

Yeah!

Yeah! And with this album, I did the same thing. I locked myself in my room for like all of college.

That was it.

I just worked my ass off in my room and kept writing, kept recording. And I wasn't great going into college, but by the time I got out, I had kind of like learned a little bit of the craft. And by the time that I got out of college, I read this book called Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. Nobody's read it here. One person. Anyway, this book examines— this book examines this theory, right? And Malcolm Gladwell makes this point. He says it's not about what you're born with. It's not about the talent that you're born with. It's about the hours that you put into that talent. And he says that around— if you want to be a master, whatever it is that you love to do, if you want to develop that craft to its utmost potential, what you have to do is work. You have to work a lot. You have to put in hours. And he says that if you put in around 10,000 hours into that one thing, that eventually you will master that craft. I don't know how close I am to 10,000 hours, but every single time we step on stage, we get one step closer.