Usher's Entrepreneurial Journey | Evolving Your MINDSET

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is Evolve. Over to you, Usher. I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going. I wake up every morning.

Well, I mean, sure, we all have to set goals for ourselves. I mean, our planned destination is to be busy and to, you know, adjust to whatever you whatever you're introduced to. And what I mean by that is, okay, as an entertainer, I started off as a singer, you know, I grew to become a dancer and a performer. After becoming a performer, then I became an actor. After becoming an actor, I became an entrepreneur. After becoming an entrepreneur, I became an entertainer on a different level of introducing other artists. Then, you know, after that I became a mentor, you know. So I think just to continue to evolve in a way that is beneficial for growth of myself and others. My likeness to continue to be remembered throughout history and associated with something great. Wow. For me, you know, there's a mantra that I've lived by, and it is that the journey of the destination is really what it's all about. The pursuit is more important than the actual destination. So as long as you are moving, as long as you are working, that is the destination.

Wow.

Yeah, the journey. But really, it is simply that the journey is the destination.

I agree.

As long as you're working, you're, uh, you're good.

This is, I think, one of the most important lessons for entrepreneurs to learn, because the way that you think something is going to work out is rarely the way that it actually works out. And once you get into it and you start experimenting and start testing and start talking to people, and as you change and grow as a human being, your business needs to change alongside of you. One of the most important things that I think is crucial to understand is as an entrepreneur, you need to be insanely stubborn and flexible. You're stubborn around the why, you're stubborn around the mission, you're stubborn around your one word, you're stubborn around your values, you're stubborn around the things that really, really, really, really matter. You're stubborn around the why, but you're flexible around the what and the how, because that's gonna change a million times as you build it up. And so if I look at my career and what I've done, what's the why? The real why for me is because in my first business, I struggled a lot. I struggled as an entrepreneur. I was making $300 a month. I felt like garbage. I felt like it was— I had no value to give. I had the lowest self-confidence at any point in my life when I had that first business. As an entrepreneur. And when I found my way through and we had some success and I sold the business, I wanted to make it easier for entrepreneurs to get through. I didn't want other people to struggle as much as I had to struggle. That's the why, and it's still the why now. That was when I was 22, and how old am I now? Almost 37. You know, 15 years of the same why, the same driving force to help entrepreneurs. The how, the what has changed. It started off It started off with me being a speaker. I got invited to speak at a bunch of different events around the world, and it was great, and I still do some. It transitioned to me doing a website and having the most popular website with famous entrepreneur stories online. It transitioned to me starting a YouTube channel and making these videos for you guys. It transitioned to me writing a book with a major publishing house, Penguin Random House. In my head, I'm thinking about having an entrepreneur café. A place for entrepreneurs to come together and work on their business instead of just having to go to a regular coffee shop that's designed for entrepreneurs. And there's, you know, related videos up on the screen to motivate them, and there's sample business plans to look through, and there's paintings and quotes that all are related to helping entrepreneurs. I see this vision in my head of having an entrepreneur coffee shop. At some point, we'll probably get into the Evan Carmichael entrepreneur virtual reality Put on your goggles and experience entrepreneurship. You know, it's gonna change, and it's great, and you need change as an entrepreneur, right? If you're doing the same thing over and over again, you're gonna get bored. And too many entrepreneurs get stuck on one specific execution of the how and the what, and you're locked into one product, locked into one service, and then Maybe that even has some success. Maybe that starts making you some money. Maybe that starts giving you some impact and some real benefit. And then it prevents you from going out and evolving. I can't tell you how many entrepreneurs I've run into that are bored of their business and they want to move on. How are you bored of your business? They're bored of their business because they got stuck on keeping the same how and what and losing sight of the why. Why is always most important. Be stubborn around the why and you'll continue to evolve and have the courage to introduce new products, introduce new services, go in a completely different direction as long as it's aligned with your why. So the question today is, I'm curious what your why is in your business and what your current what or how is as well. Leave it in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Peter Arca. Peter, thank you so much for picking up a copy with my book, Your One Word. It really, really, really means a lot to me, and I hope you're enjoying the read. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. <LYRICS>I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.</LYRICS> Hey, Believe Nation, for those of you who want a little bit more inspiration on evolving and how to do it as an entrepreneur, I'm going to include a couple extra bonus clips that I hope you'll enjoy.

You start trying different things, and you try different chords or different structures of songs, different beats that you've never really explored that path before. You know, and I think having always been a writer first, I'm obsessed with the syncopation of the way that words sound when they're said a certain way. And once I've kind of done something once, I always want to go to a different direction and never repeat myself. So as a writer, I think that I've always hoped that my music would constantly be changing, because you never want to make the same album twice, the same song twice. And my greatest hope has been that as I grow, my fans will grow up with me. And as I change and my life changes, my music will change as well. So wish me luck there. says, I love you, but I'm curious, why did you change your rapping style from the come-up days to today? I love both.

I don't think I changed my rap style. Um, I think you guys were just starting to hear me, and you didn't hear all of me yet. That's it. I've always been into being weird a little bit. Um, but I think what people really mean is that they think that I've changed my persona. And life is about growth and change, and I don't want to remain the same for my whole life. Be able to change. And, you know, I respect the people who loved, you know, '07 Nicki, and I'm definitely gonna give you some stuff on Pink Friday. Like, I'm not forgetting anybody, but I just also have to be true to me. And the truth is, I started seeing different things. I started going different places. I started eating different things. I can't— I— it would be fraudulent to rap the same way and look the same way and act the same way because I am not the same, period. I don't know how to—

Well, everyone has their different belief systems, and I think everyone has their different opinions of, you know, those types of things that you talked about. Certainly as an athlete, I care very much what I put into my body. I think that— I'm 38 years old. I'm not 22 anymore, so—

You look good.

You're very sweet. Thanks. But I, you know, all those things are important and all the little things add up to be big things. So when I'm trying to accomplish things professionally that, you know, in a lot of ways you're in— I'm in uncharted territory. So I've got to do things differently and I got to evolve over time. I've got things that may have worked in the past, maybe don't work as you move forward. So the lessons that I've learned through my own trial and error, I think I'm at that point in my career, I'm very efficient with what I'm doing. So I try to eat healthy. I try to get the right amount of rest. I try to do the right types of exercise so I can be on the field and be available to my team. I try to be, you know, as productive this time in my career as I was earlier.