"Turn Your PAIN Into POWER!" - Dan Harmon (@danharmon) - Top 10 Rules

I don't commit to a schedule. I don't have a work ethic. I'm a really, really lazy person. Don't continually change who you are in an attempt to, you know, succeed. People wanting to be the best, people with the Orson Welles personality, I think that's cool.

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 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 lessons from a man who grew up in Milwaukee and joined a number of sketch troupes to becoming a producer, actor, voice actor, and creator of the animated series Rick and Morty. He's Dan Harmon, and here's my take on his top 10 rules of success. Enjoy! All right, let's kick things off with rule number 1, my personal favorite: find what you love to do.

I don't commit to a schedule. I don't have a work ethic. I'm a really, really lazy person. I always tell people to just follow your laziness because laziness isn't people not wanting to do something. Laziness is people who are faced with having to do something they don't want to do. Everybody gets out of bed even on a Saturday. You eventually want to do something, so the best thing you can do for yourself especially in a capitalist democracy, is find the thing that you really like to do and try to figure out how to turn that into your job. I know that that's terrible advice in this economy. Everyone has to go do stuff they don't want to do. But, but I mean, truly, that is the only way that I manage to stay productive, is by finding ways to get paid to do the things that I would rather do. Otherwise, I'll just sit around and play video games.

Rule number 2 is be yourself.

That's the second piece of advice is figure out what you love, figure out who you are, and scream in your voice from your rooftop and wait for people who want to hear you to find you. Don't continually change who you are in an attempt to, you know, succeed in wrangling an audience. Just plant your feet. And do what you want to do more than anything in the world, because that's what you're gonna be good at, and that's what people are gonna wanna watch you do. So that means if you're a writer, then write how you wanna write. Write the shows that you would wanna watch on TV. If you're a stand-up, then don't emulate Louis C.K., because he's not emulating somebody else. He is being himself. Don't be as angry as him, don't be as sardonic as him, unless you are angry and you are sardonic. Be who you are, car and say the things that you— that, that would make you laugh if, uh, if you, if you heard them, I guess. Um, and, and, and eventually, sooner or later, someone will find you. Some ant will crawl across your picnic blanket, and they will— the pheromone trail will develop, and people— you will find yourself, before you know it, with an audience of some kind. That's, that's the, that's the important stuff. I think, I think as any artist, as anybody that makes anything, even if you're making chairs out of wood or walls out of brick. Your job is to leave this world with your impression of it. Your job is to remove the top of your head and push something onto the top of your brain that will leave an image of it on it, so that when you go away, there's some record that this is how you perceived the world, and specifically you. And that's your only job. That's the hard hardest job, it's the easiest job. And if— whether you're a stand-up, a writer, a carpenter, I really think you just have to be as, as honest and transparent about how you viewed the world as possible.

Rule number 3: Find your definition of success.

How do you define personal success? The amount of misery that you take in versus put out. Like, if you— like, how much pain is coming in and how much pleasure is going out to other people. It's like a, like like a plant, you know, just CO2 and O2. Like, is your account in the black? As far as like, so if somebody hurts you, if somebody punches you in the face and it hurts like hell and you're really mad, you're an unsuccessful life if you then go punch 5 people in the face because you took in pain and caused 5 times as much. Even if they're, but you know, look, if you're John Wick and all those guys are like, face punchers, look, there's nuance there, I guess. That's why we love those movies. Like the idea that you could solve the world's problems by just punching more people than you got punched. But in reality, I think success is defined by can you actually convert? When somebody punches you in the face, can you actually then go put on a one-woman show about, why did I make it a woman just for the face punching? I was like, why don't you do that thing where you switch pronouns like every other 2 lines? And that's the one you chose? It was like an unfortunate coincidence. Like, if you get punched in the face, then you, a woman— I thought the phrase one-man show would be so oppressive. Like, that's the patriarchy coming down. It's a one-man show in my hypothetical theatrical endeavor. If you get punched in the face and put on a one-man show called I Got Punched in the Face, and it's like people that go into it that are having bad days who didn't even get punched in the face, or are like fighting cancer or something, and they come out going like, "I feel so much better now that I saw that guy's show. Thank God he got punched in the face." That's success.

Rule number 4: Work hard at your craft.

"Luck is where preparation meets opportunity," somebody said. But it's not just trite cliché. Yeah, it makes sense. I think that's a great way of— yeah, like, it's— because— you never get to call yourself— I don't know. Do what you do and be good at what you do. Know what you love doing and just keep doing it. And if you die and nobody ever comes along and says, here's $5 for doing that, then you were incredibly unlucky. But you weren't stupid. You weren't a loser. So you were doing what you love to do. Yeah. And we all know people who are way more lucky than talented. But it never lasts. I mean, it doesn't pay off. You can't just like have people shower you with opportunity if you're not like working hard.

Rule number 5 is collaborate.

I tend to get more work done faster if I'm collaborating. If I have someone that I've roped into my process that has a better work ethic than me and more fear of failure than me that can jostle me and go, "We gotta get this done by noon, you know, let's do this." I, I, I was always through because of fear and ego. I was never a good collaborator until Community's second season when I really learned that I didn't have anything to be ashamed of and that these people were paid to help me. And I started working really in tandem with other writers, and the results were really positive for me. And I love that process now. I never thought I could be someone who could sit in a room with 10 other people and just work together with them where we're all equals and we all just want to get one job done.

Rule number 6: Get constructive feedback.

Who do you look to to feedback before it gets to that stage? Like, who do you look to when you're in the process of it? Uh, that's the tough part. It's like, you look at— well, you're looking to your colleagues. You look to the writers you trust, Ryan Ridley and Mike McMahan and Justin Roiland and everybody. Like, everybody's all in a room sardined together, and you're kind of trying to keep yourselves from losing your minds by checking in with each other. Is this funny? Is that funny? But it's hard, 'cause, like, you can't— you'd be a bad TV writer if Dan Harmon or Justin Roiland jumped up and said, "Oh, this is gonna be really funny. This is amazing. This is amazing." And it's like, well, you're not a great TV writer for saying, "Shut up. Sit down, Harmon." You know, like, no, it's not funny. But you're also not maybe doing the show a huge favor by— constantly only saying, yep, yep, that's true, yep, yep, yep, yep. But we're all feeling that way, so if you're at the top, it's like, what are you supposed to do? So the answer is like, you self-loathe and you open the door for people to tell you you're crazy, but you also get mad if they do. Oh boy, yeah, but it's like, so you just kind of collectively, you hold yourselves hostage, you wait for Stockholm to set in, and hope that that creates a good idea.

Rule number 7 is compete.

I think ego and like people wanting to be the best, people with the Orson Welles personality, I think that's cool and really, I encourage like 25-year-olds to like inflate their egos as large as they can and compete with each other because they're doing it for the audience. The audience wins. Like that's the way it should be. A bunch of like, you know, creatives saying, "I'm the best. No, I'm the best. I'm better than you. I'm better." Because they're like gladiators and there should be a stadium of people around them winning every time.

Rule number 8 is connect emotionally.

Why did Community work? It's sincerity. I mean, I was as obsessed with that show as any viewer could have been. So I think that previous to the golden age of television, what we're calling now, the typical unfortunate relationship was that because there was so much money in TV audiences were so large and the stakes were so high, there was almost an encouragement for there to be a disconnect between the people producing the shows and the people watching them. If you were good at making TV, if you were experienced, it was because you weren't really a viewer of it. It was the part of you that looked at it as, ah, it's just a job. So in a strange, ironic way, the fact that I didn't come up through the trenches, for instance, as a staff writer, I simply kept writing pilots until one got turned into a show, That emotional immaturity, that sensitivity to the medium of television is what got me in a lot of trouble and also I think what made the show okay.

Rule number 9 is just relax.

If you could go back 10 years and tell yourself one piece of advice, what would it be? I— Or would you choose not to go back? No, I would go back. I mean, yeah, assuming I'm not passing up an opportunity to like, to use that power in a better way. Like, if I, I wouldn't, yeah, if I could just call through a little toilet paper tube to myself at 34, I think I'd say, you know, it's, relax, something like that. Like, something, like, I'd figure it out. I'd go like, okay, where was I at that time? And then like, what do I really need to hear? It's gonna be fine no matter what you do, which sounds like a horrible complacent message for me speaking to myself, not saying you don't have a responsibility to contribute, but to say you need to let yourself off the hook a little bit. You're probably at the end of the day just gonna screw a bunch of stuff up and then also accidentally make some some good stuff and then you'll— something, your prostate or something will just start killing you. Like, who cares? You're just an animated skeleton with meat on it. It's gross. Sound advice.

And rule number 10, the last one before the bonus clips, have fun.

If you want to see some science fiction that really makes sense, you should check out this movie I just saw called The Astronaut in the Bookcase. :Interstellar. It's based on a novel, The Astronaut in the Bookcase by Sapphire. It's like, uh, woo, it's a goodie. Not since the sequel to 2001 have I sat through people in space. Professor Cox said he liked it because the science was all right. Oh, I'm sure it was. It seemed pretty right to me. Oh boy. Jesus Christ, man. Not good? You didn't dig it? Nah, I was not into it. If you read the script for Interstellar, you would not be— you would not— it would not be a page-turner. You would be like, "Wait, it's 20 pages and he's still— what?" "What do you mean it looks like a smeared bookcase?" Oh, it's back to the— oh, he's the reason why the Watch? Fuck you. Dumb. I mean, I, yeah, I imagine that would be astounding if when those things were happening in the first two acts, I wasn't constantly going, what? Then it would be amazing that it all came back to the thing that made you go, what the fuck? What? Like some guy will be walking down the street going, man, sure is hard living on Earth in the apocalypse. It's all dry. Gubba gaboo, gubba gaboo, wow! What, what, what the hell? Gubba gaboo, gubba gaboo, gubba gaboo! What was that? Oh, some kind of silver entity just said gooba gooba gaboo and then flew into the sun. This movie sounds like— 3 hours later. Whoa, I'm changing. I'm changing into something. I can't— oh, gooba gaboo, gooba gaboo, gooba! Oh, gooba! Whoa, there I am! That's me over there! Oh, gooba gaboo, gooba gaboo! Oh, gooba gaboo, gooba gaboo! Oh, I get it! Oh, wow! That's why the movie was stupid. 'Cause of me. Bye! Credits. It's-a the way that you use it.

Now I've got some special Dan Harmon bonus clips for you guys, but before getting to that, my question of the day today is around his rule number 3: find your definition of success. I want to know What does success mean to you? How do you define it? Leave in the comments below. I'm excited to see what you have to say. 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.

When writing, if you're stuck, do you work on something else as a creative change of pace or power through it? I mean, if you have the luxury of a deadline, You power through it. Or in my case, you masturbate until you get yelled at the third time, and then you power through it. There's an addiction there to adrenaline, which is an unhealthy workflow. My advice to stuck writers who are on their own is to get unstuck by proving how bad you are. Stop trying to prove that you're a good writer to yourself. That's what's— probably got you stuck. I just wanted you to share a little bit about how you got to where you are today. I was born white, and this wizard appeared on my porch one day and said, "You get to write in TV because of this and for no other reason." And then I was whisked away to a magical world many of you don't know about, where opportunities grow on trees and we roll around in them naked and just to shit on them. And it's so fun and I'm so untalented. I remember being in first grade. There was a bulletin board that said the fruits of labor. The teachers had made this cornucopia with construction paper and it said, what will you be? And the orange said astronaut and the watermelon said princess or veterinarian or something. And the banana said author. And that's the first time I realized there was a word for this thing that I loved doing, which was, you know, even before first grade, even before kindergarten, I was— Composing. Yeah, I was writing little stories and things, giving them to my mom and trying to get praise from her. It seems like before I could speak, I was doing that.

Do you think that you need to be an asshole to be successful?

No, I don't. Not at all. I mean, there's a— it almost seems the opposite, doesn't it? Do you— successful is one thing, good is another. I don't know, like, that's the big dichotomy that we tend to enforce, we being assholes, is that, oh, he's successful 'cause he's nice. But is he really talented? Don't you really have to be an asshole to be super talented? And I don't think, I don't believe that either, no. I don't think that, I used to think that you had to go to a dark place in order to create because creation is destruction and blah, blah, blah. And like, nah, that's just something that sickness tells you 'cause it wants to stay you. Like, it's in charge and it's like, I don't wanna leave, so what am I gonna, do I want you to go to therapy? No, I don't, I'm your sickness, I'll go away. Creativity is more just like getting over your bullshit and letting stuff flow through you. One way to do that is to get so drunk and angry and fall apart so much that you have nothing left but what's coming through you. Another way to do that is to breathe 4 times or eat some yogurt or be in love or take a vacation or play with a choo-choo train or like— have it, take a week off and play some video games. I like— they just say it's the end result is just like getting your ego out of the way and letting flow through you. So you don't definitely don't have to be an asshole. An argument could be made you shouldn't. 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 that'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.