Tory Lanez Advice on Motivation, Songwriting, How to be the Greatest & Rules for Success!

I don't want no one to ever look at my struggle or look at my come up and say, "He didn't really deserve it." Like, I want people to understand I deserved every single inch of this life. I'm sleeping in the studio until I wake up and I'm gonna record again because you're not gonna beat me in work ethic. The first time I was homeless for like 2 months. Second time I was homeless for like not long, like 2, 3 weeks.

Need motivation? Watch a top 10 with Believe Nation! What's up, it's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe you have an amazing gift inside you that I want to see explode out onto the world. So let's get your motivation to a 10 and get you believing in you. Grab a snack and chew on today's message from a man who went from being homeless and sleeping on park benches, dropping out of school in the 10th grade to focus on his music, to now becoming one of the hottest artists in the game. He's Tory Lanez, and here's my take on his top 10 rules of success. Enjoy. All right, let's kick things off with rule number 1: go all in.

One thing I don't feel like people really understand about me is how much I work, or how much work really goes into the stuff that I do, and how much it takes out of me as a person. Like, and I'm cool with that. Like, I just want to be the greatest. I don't want no one to ever look at my, my struggle or look at my come up and say he didn't really deserve it. Like, I want people to understand I deserve every single inch of this. Like, when people say they put blood, sweat, and tears into this, why people don't put my blood? I put real blood, sweat, and tears into this, my nigga. I don't go to sleep. I have anxiety because I don't go to sleep. I don't have time to sleep. I feel like if I sleep, it's another nigga out there that's going 10 times harder than me, and he's staying awake, my nigga. I can't be out here in these streets sleeping and another nigga's out here taking what's rightfully mine. You out your fucking mind. Rule number 2: be the best. I want all the people to listen to this and understand this. I am not better than anybody physically. I'm not better than anybody spiritually. I'm not better than anybody in any other format that, that means, like, as a person to person, you know, I'm not better than you. We're all equal people. But when it comes to this music, I'm the best. I'm better than everybody. I'm not here to contend with nobody. I don't see competition. I'm here to be the the best and biggest. That's it. And anybody who stands in the way of me getting to being the best or the biggest, we'll shut them down musically. Like, come toe to toe with me. Amen. It's not that I'm in my head and I believe that I'm just the best. It's the work ethic. It's the time. It's the grind work that I put in. If they block me out of session and I'm blocked out for sessions and I'm blocked out from the 15th to the 18th, I'm sleeping in the studio. Until I wake up and I'm gonna record again. Because you're not gonna beat me in work ethic. You're not gonna beat me in consistency. You're not gonna beat me in punctuality.

Rule number 3, my personal favorite, believe.

It must feel good when you can say, "I told you." Definitely. What does that title mean? Exactly that. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, the feeling of— the feeling of "I told you." Right. You know, that's kind of how I felt about my music for years. You know, I felt like my music is— it may have not been the greatest, but it was at a level that was higher than a lot of people, you know, at least the quality of music that a lot of people were putting out. All throughout the times that I've been putting out music, you know, match the times that they've been putting out music. [Speaker:EVAN CARMICHAEL] Right. [Speaker:JACOB SOBOROFF] And so I've always kind of felt like, you know, one day somebody has to see this, you know. And for all the people that I told and they just doubted me, and like time after time when I'm sitting there and I'm just like, yo, please just believe me. And everyone just looked at me and just like, I don't see it, you know? And no matter what I would explain to them, yo, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do this like this. And I even, you know, despite the times when I was homeless and I was sleeping in the back of cars and trying to figure it out and telling people like, just listen to what I have, you know what I mean? I'm thugging it out, going to the studio every single night, sleeping in my car, not even my car, just somebody's car. Like, how long were you homeless, Tory? I was homeless too. Several times, yeah. Yeah, several times. Two different times in my life. The first time I was homeless for like two months. Second time I was homeless for like not long, like two, three weeks. Man, those are long-ass days and nights out there. When you don't have nowhere to go, those nights and those days are longer than anything. And so when you say, "I told you," it's not like, man, like, "Ah!" You know, it's like, man, like, yeah. It's like, yo, like, I told you guys. This is really like, I want you to know I told you that I would be here. I told you that one day before they try to sweep up albums and before they try to sweep up CD, real physical sales, I will have something on the shelf. I told you. It's not that you, you know, prove what you have to prove to yourself for them. You do that for yourself. Right, right, right. But you also do have something to prove to them as well. Yeah, I always tell cats. Because they doubted you. I say, man, proving me right at the same point, I'm proving you wrong, you know what I'm saying? So, so I believe in me, you know? And it's crazy because even when you get on tour, you say, man— and you know how you're like, oh man, I'm signed here, or this is about to happen, and then certain things don't happen— you get people that also count your failures. Like, man, I thought that was gonna— oh, it didn't go for you, you know what I'm saying? So you even get to a point you stop telling people what your plans are. That's true. You know, I, I think I've experienced that a lot of times just being in, uh, places where like You know, I've had a lot of, you were down when you thought something was hot and then it didn't pop. And then instead of like recouping back with us and believing like, all right, let's come up with the next plan, it's just a fall off. So I've had to deal with so many people falling, falling off the trail and the track. And so I told you, it's to them too.

Rule number 4 is be yourself.

You gotta look at it like this. You're here in life to make your mark on the world. So at the end of the day, be yourself and and be everything that you, you know, desire to be that is your own, you know? Because at the end of the day, the second you try to be like somebody else or follow somebody else, that's all you can be, you know what I'm saying? You'll never be able to see the potential of yourself, so be yourself.

Rule number 5: Learn it yourself.

Originally, uh, all rap. You went into singing self-taught? Yeah, self-taught. I never ever ever had a vocal coach. Vocal coach. I'm totally— I'm not against vocal coaches, but like, they used to try to tell me like, you know, you sing good, but we're gonna get you a vocal coach. And you know, I'd always be like, no, I'll teach myself. But how did you find out you could sing? Because rap— I think a lot of it is like, I don't— I honestly, personally, I sucked at singing at one point when I was like 17. Like, I was horrible. Like, I was the worst singer. Like, this is to all you bad singers out there. I was a horrible singer, right? And every single day I would listen to John Legend and I would go on the back of the city bus because I was very shy singing. Like, it's damn, I can't come in front of somebody and sing. It's very nerve-wracking to sing. Yeah. So what I would do is I would go on the city bus and go to the back, back, back, and I would sing really low just when people were there, no matter if they were there and they heard. I would sing really low. Then as I got a little older, I started singing a little higher. Then I just didn't give a fuck. I started going on the bus and I was just singing and singing and people would be like, "Yo, you have a great voice." The muscles in my vocals started getting stronger. <LYRICS>And I'm in for it, I'm in for it.</LYRICS> You know, singing is one of the most important components to me. So, like, yeah, that's kind of how it all started. The reason why I'm versatile at singing is because I taught myself and when I was teaching myself, I wanted to try to sound like everything so I could teach myself how to sing this way and sing this way. You know, and eventually I think that became, you know, the way I became versatile with my singing.

Rule number 6: Speak things into existence.

There's things that I've said in the music years ago that I see come past today, you know, and I'm a firm believer of speaking things into existence. Same here, brother. Firm believer of, you know, you work and the universe gives back to you. I'm a firm believer in that stuff, you feel me? In the law of attraction, of course, and God as well. I'm a firm believer in the law of attraction and, you know, the way things come.

Rule number 7: Inspire positivity.

You know, I speak for the underdogs and I speak for the young, the young generation of young dudes and young women right now who I feel like, you know, we live in a constant lifestyle and I talk about the lifestyle. I don't talk, I don't make music about, you know, just a bunch of chains and cars and because clearly you don't see me with a bunch of chains on and stuff like that is not my life. But I do make music about the real things that we see on a daily basis, and, you know, I make music about the problems that we go through, and, you know, I speak for these young kids out here. So my message really is try to bring light to they situation, try to bring a godly light to they situation in everything that I do, because, you know, that's the side that I'm fighting for. I'm for the hope side, the side of hope, the side that says, you know, there's a little bit more than what you think is out there that can help you, you know. There's music out here that's gonna be therapeutic to you, that's gonna get you through certain times that maybe you may not have felt like you was gonna get through without it. You know, so that's the message that I'm trying to push. It's just, I wanna bring that light to the generation because that's what I'm here to do.

Rule number 8, keep on practicing.

Just keep on writing every single day. And even if every song doesn't make it, the fact that you write gets you better. You know, whether or not you're a very articulate songwriter or you're somebody who's more simple-based, just keep writing. And I think that that is what, you know, eventually turns you into a great songwriter.

Rule number 9: Respect time.

Like, I immediately feel— felt with your team. They were like so responsive, and I was like, "Oh, thank God." No, man, we're— that's another thing about us, just in general. We are extremely open and caring to people's time because there was a time in our lives when there No one cared about us, you know, and no one ever respected our time. So we always made it a super serious thing to respect people's time. We show up everywhere early, if not on time.

And rule number 10, the last one before some very special bonus clips, is be passionate.

I wanna say something. Look, I want every young person to do it. Do this little snap that I'm saying. Please take a second to say it with me. I want you to understand something. Give it up for Tory Lanez!

Now I've got 3 very special Tory Lanez bonus clips on proving them wrong, aiming to be the greatest, and getting your product out there. But before that, I want you to make the commitment of the day. What did you learn from this video that you're going to apply somehow to your life or to your business? Don't just watch another video, make it happen and publicly state what you're going to do because you saw this video. Leave in the comments below. 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, I'll see you soon and enjoy the bonus clips.

At a time, there was a time when I had signed to Sean Kingston in my earlier years. I was probably 17, 18 and it was like a 2.5-year contract. It was like something where he kind of put me in a situation where he just wanted to expose the world in some sort of way and let them know that I had talent. Yeah, it went well, but that's not what, uh, that's not like how these kids know me, you know, because after that I took a good year and a half off of music, period. Okay, I didn't feel comfortable, uh, just, you know, just being young and not being guided right, like as far as just making calculated decisions, as far as actually like you know, making music, because my music was always good. It was just a matter of getting it out properly. And I think in my earlier years, I had so much gems of music that kind of got pushed away because it just wasn't exposed to the people properly, you know. I was never signed to a major label, okay, you know what I'm saying. And now, until now, yeah, until like really recently. And you're happy? I'm very happy. Let me tell you this story, dog, for y'all who don't know. I was in class, nigga, and this lady— I'm not even gonna speak on her name no more, but whatever. I was in class, dog, and this lady pulled me into her class and she was like— well, I was in the hallway and she pulled me into her class and she was like, yo, she's like, yo, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, um, um, use you to, to, to, to show my, um, to show my class a lesson, a demonstration, because she always see me skipping in the hallways and she always knew that everybody else see me skipping in the hallways and shit. And so the girl goes, she brings this girl up to the front of the class and she goes, yo, yo, Crystal, come up here. Crystal comes up. You know, you always remember the joint name too. Crystal comes up and she go, everybody take a good look at at— she said my real name, but she's like, take a good look at Tori and Crystal. Tori, she's like, everybody, I'm sure you guys seen him in the hallways, da da da da da da. And then she goes, look, take a look at Crystal. And she says, Crystal will be the one that's signing your checks, Tori. She said, take a good look at Crystal. 'cause she'll be the one that's signing your checks. That's what she told me. I swear to God. I swear to God, nigga. Miss Thomas. Yeah, y'all niggas remember. Yeah, Miss Thomas told me that shit. And I looked at her, dog. And I remember that day, dog, and I walked out the class. And I remember, dog, I told her before I left, I told her, nigga, I'm gonna be something. I said I'm gonna be something. I don't know what it is, but I told her I'm gonna be something. And she looked at me and she was like, all right, all that other shit. I feel like a lot of niggas have, you know, fucked around and not understood the sound that I've been bringing out. Or either that, or niggas took my sound and niggas just try to make it their own before I came out. And I feel like really I'm one of the greatest niggas to do and I feel like the world just hasn't seen it yet. And because of that missed opportunity, I got like this vengeance just burning in my heart to just be the greatest. And it's like, nigga, I'm not gonna stop until the world knows that I'm the greatest artist alive. Like, period. So let me give you the one word secret to happiness. One word. This is all you need to be happy. The most important word ever. If you had to think of one word What's most important to you, or that sums you up, or that would be kind of like a little beacon?

Hey, Believe Nation! If you want to know what the most important one word is for Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Oprah Winfrey, will.i.am, and Howard Schultz, I have a very special secret video for you. Check the description for details.