Lin-Manuel Miranda talks about writing Hamilton on the subway and pushing through creative challenges. Evan Carmichael and other speakers discuss perseverance in entrepreneurship, teaching, and practice, emphasizing that loving the process is what keeps you going.
Chapters
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is push through.
Over to you, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
I know it took you 6 years to write Hamilton, but I know we like as teenagers, like if we're writing an essay and we have trouble, we're like, oh my God, I just want to give up. Did you ever feel like that? All the time.
All the time. And then you push through it. Like, you push through it, 'cause what's the alternative? You're gonna leave that idea stuck in your head forever? That sucks. The alternative is you go through life and you had this great idea and nothing came of it 'cause you got tired. And yeah, sometimes you don't go to the party that all your friends are at because the idea is calling to you in that moment. Wait For It is a great example of that. I was on my way to my friend's birthday party. When that lyric showed up, when "death doesn't discriminate" showed up in my head. Idea came on the A down. I started writing it down on the train, in la quinita of the A train. Breakdancers are dancing, I have my headphones on. I get out, the whole chorus comes all at once. I write it down and I suddenly see the shape of the whole song. I was just like, the chorus is "burr," That's who he is. I go into my friend's party. I go, hey, what's up, man? Happy birthday. I gotta go. I get on the L train and I write the rest of the song on the way back home, from the L to the A back up to 207th Street. You have to do that sometimes. You have to say no to your friends to say yes to your work. Because what are you gonna do, like, lose that idea because you decided to like, have a drink with your friends? Like, it's not worth it. Your friend will be there.
So what do you think?
Um, I think about all those times that I got really tired and I did not want to go to that dance rehearsal. I felt like I want to go have dinner with my friends and not teach my class. You know, all those times that I thought about that, I was like, well, I had to kind of bring it all down and keep focused on why I'm doing the things I'm doing. The reason why I teach my classes is because I want to make a difference in someone's life. I I get a lot of passion from teaching, from seeing my students connect with each other, being friends, them having compassion for each other, and really, really connecting in that way. Anytime I'm super tired and I'm sick, I will think about why am I even doing this? And if it's bigger than having that drink with your friend or going out for dinner or watching that Netflix movie, then you have to push through. You have to push through because the goal is a lot bigger than that particular moment. Honestly, the tiredness, the sleepiness, it all passes once you know what you're focused on.
I like it. I think one of the little things about entrepreneurship that people don't talk enough about is that everybody thinks about quitting at some point. It's not something that we go out and share because you don't want to be seen as a failure or be seen as negative, but everybody at some point thinks about quitting because it's hard. What you're doing is hard. If it's important, then it's going to be hard. You're doing things that haven't been done before. And so you're naturally going to at some point get exhausted and think about giving up. And the thing that keeps you going is the love for what you're doing. And so many businesses fail because the founder doesn't really love the business that they're in. I want to start a YouTube channel because I want to be some big celebrity on YouTube, but I don't actually like making videos. It's not going to happen, right? I want to be a dance instructor. It's only going to happen if you love dancing. Like, you will not put in the work and do all the rehearsals and the practice and watch the videos and take the private lessons and go to the congresses and do all the work work that you need to do to become a great dancer if all you care about is, you know, being up on stage and teaching a class. You have to love the process. And I still come back to Jerry Seinfeld, had this great quote talking about doing the work that others see as torture. If I look at Lily's schedule, I might say, that's crazy, you know, I couldn't do that. Or people look at my YouTube schedule and say, that's crazy, I couldn't do that. The work that other people see as torture, you enjoy the torture. You enjoy the work. Not every single day, but you enjoy the process. If you don't enjoy the process, you're gonna quit and move on to something else. So it has to be something that you love so much that you'll push through anything to go out and accomplish.
So the question of the day today is: What are the challenges you're facing right now that you need to push through?
Leave in the comments below, we're gonna join in the discussion. So thank you guys so much for watching. Hope you have an amazing day. We believe in you and hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is, and we'll see you again tomorrow morning for another Shot of Espresso.
