In this solo motivational monologue, Evan Carmichael reflects on the rapid growth of his #believe movement, expressing excitement about audience engagement while also feeling frustrated with the quality of his recent videos. He emphasizes the danger of settling for "good enough" and argues that true impact requires constantly raising personal and professional standards. Carmichael critiques the common tendency to comfort friends with short‑term reassurance, insisting that real mentorship means delivering the hard truth, even if it causes short‑term pain. He calls viewers to (1) reject mediocrity by demanding higher standards for themselves and their businesses, and (2) give honest, constructive feedback—both to him and to others—so that everyone can improve faster. The video ends with a direct request for likes, comments, and suggestions, positioning the audience as collaborators in the pursuit of excellence.
Chapters
It's not okay. I woke up this morning feeling excited and frustrated. I was excited because this is becoming a movement, and I've talked about it being a movement, and at the start it was just me talking about it. Me in front of a camera, me on my computer, me by myself just talking about it, believing and talking about it, and now it's happening. It's happening. People are hashtagging #believe. People are writing into me on YouTube every day. Every video I put up gets comments. Every tweet I put out, people retweet it. They respond to me. I get emails every single day from people saying that I've helped change their lives. I've helped restructure their thinking. Ah, guys, that means so much to me. And it's such a— it's a big confidence boost because it's not just me talking to myself anymore. There's an audience, there's a movement, this thing is building, this thing is real, it's tangible, and every time you guys comment and like and tweet and write to me, it just adds more fuel, it makes you want to do more, it makes me feel like this is working. That excites me, that's what I woke up excited about. I also woke up frustrated. I was frustrated because I looked at one of my videos from a couple weeks ago and it needs to be better. The video needs to be better. And I look at how I was 3 months ago and it's already way better. Every week I do this on Wednesday every week. Every week it gets better. I get better. I feel I get better at least. I hope you guys think I'm getting better. The videos are getting better. I'm getting better on camera. The quality is getting better, but it still needs to be better. For this movement to really be powerful, for this movement to hit a billion entrepreneurs, this needs to be better. I need to be better on camera. And I was talking to a friend of mine today, and I was explaining, I'm really excited, I'm really happy, like, this is taking off, this is gonna be unstoppable. But for it to propel more, I need to be better, faster. I'm getting better, but it has to be getting better faster. And she said, hey, don't get down on yourself, like, you're doing a good job, it's okay, you're going, this thing is growing, Don't be so hard on yourself. And I'm not down on myself. And I know that what I'm making is good. It's really good. Hopefully you guys, if you're still watching this video now, it's because you think they're pretty good. I know they're good. I'm not worried about that. I'm not a downer. But I have a limited amount of time in this life to have a huge impact, and I want it to happen. So I don't want good enough videos. I don't want really, really good videos. I want amazing videos. And you should want that too, because as soon as you start settling, as soon as you start thinking, "Oh, this is good enough," or "Yeah, yeah, I'm making really good progress," you stop pushing yourself. You stop forcing yourself to get better, and you end up settling. You settle for mediocre. You settle for an average life. You settle for average. That's what most people do. And it's funny how this is our default reaction. If somebody comes to you and they're struggling with something. They say, "Oh, I really hate my job. I hate my boss. I don't like going there anymore. I'm at my wit's end." What do you usually say? You usually try to comfort somebody. You tell them, "Oh, it's, you know, hang in there. It's going to be okay. You know, get through the holiday season," whatever it is. You give them— we want to alleviate their pain. We want to alleviate their short-term pain, and so we give them something to make them feel better, like a little drug to make them feel better, but you're not helping them. Your job as a friend isn't just to console them and make them feel better in the moment. You're supposed to give them advice to help them long-term, help them think bigger, help them live a happy life. If this job is not right for them, they should leave that job and go do something else. And that's gonna cause even more pain short-term, a lot more uncertainty, a lot more questions. How do I pay my bills? How do I support myself? Where do I go find this job? Do I start my own business? What do I do? You're creating even more pain, doubt, uncertainty than what they came to you with. But that's what they need. My job here to help you isn't to tell you what you want to hear. It's not to tell you that everything is great and you're going to be fine. It's to tell you what you need to hear. It's to give you the advice that you need to grow your business. And often that's going to mean you changing your beliefs about something. You stretching yourself beyond what you've been able to do before. You challenging yourself to become a new person, to become a better version of you because that's what's needed to really have an impact. And I'm telling you these things and it's going to be painful for you and you have a choice to either accept that and to do something about it or say, "Evan doesn't know what he's talking about," or "That's too hard," and you keep living your mediocre life. I love feedback. When I create something, I don't want people telling me how good it is. I want them telling me what needs to be better, how it can have a greater impact. I don't take things personally. I want to hear the negative stuff. Help me get better. As you get more successful, you don't want to surround yourself with yes-men who just tell you, "Great, great, great. Yes, yes, yes." You need people to challenge you, to push you. So it's not okay. You want to be average, then it's okay. You want to be great, it's not okay. You got to get better. So my videos have to get better. This video has to get better. This video, me in a year, is going to be way better. I know that. I just want it to be faster. So I'm doing everything I can. I practice, I hustle, I put everything into making these things for you guys. And it's going to keep getting better, and I'm open to your feedback. So do me a favor, okay? Two things, important stuff. One, If you're struggling with something, if you're upset about the quality of something, if you are having— if you have standards with your business, don't settle. Don't settle for crappy standards, for something that's average and okay. Push yourself. Push yourself beyond what anybody else is going to push you to do, beyond what your friends and family and your people in your network will tell you to do. Have higher standards for yourself. Have greater expectations than anybody has for you. Have greater expectations for yourself. Believe in yourself more than anybody else does. And two, when somebody comes to you with a problem and you know you can help them and you see something greater for them, you owe it to them to tell them the truth, to tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Be a good friend, be a good mentor, be a good person. And even though it's going to cause more pain short-term, if that's what you really believe they need. You owe it to them to let them know. It's your homework for this week. Believe. For those of you watching, like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. I love seeing those come in and let me know what you think. Give me some feedback, good or bad, make these videos better. Leave it below, tell me what you think. You have a suggestion, let me know. You have a question for your business, put it below, I'll make a video response. I love you guys, I make these videos for you, so I want to hear from you. Thank you so Thank you so much, and I'll see you soon.
