Why Being Yourself is the Ultimate Key To Success | Lecrae

'Cause I was so worried about being accepted. These people to accept me, these people to accept me. And when they don't, you die. I'm like a cultural anthropologist, man. I just love to just sit and soak up stuff. It's better to create something that other people criticize than to create nothing and criticize others.

Hello, Believe Nation. I'm Evan Carmichael. My one word is believe, and I believe that entrepreneurs are going to solve all of the major problems of the world. So to help you on your journey, today we're gonna learn from hip-hop artist Lecrae and my take on his top 10 rules for success. Rule number 6 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. And as always, guys, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below, put quotes around it so other people can be inspired, and when you write it down, it's much more likely to stick for yourself as well. Enjoy.

Just one thing I learned about success, success, you know, stop comparing yourself to everybody else because that ain't gonna make you— success is not what you do compared to them, it's what you do compared to what you was made to do. So you got to compete against yourself and push yourself to the limits that, that you need to run toward because, you know, that's, you know, what was you made to do? Go do that and, uh, and don't let anybody dissuade you. Don't let anybody say you can't do it, man. Just keep pushing, keep going. I would tell myself, man, to brace yourself for real struggle, for real pain, for death, for loss, for, you know, hurt. And then as an artist, I would tell myself, you know, what I say, and I put it on the back of the book too, "If you live for people's acceptance, you'll die from their rejection." And that's what I would tell people, because I tell myself, because I was so worried about being accepted, these people to accept me, these people to accept me. And when they don't, you die. And you crumble inside, you devastated. But if you already know who you are, like I feel like I'm made in God's image, my worth and value cannot be tainted. You know, you can't add to my worth, you can't take away from it. I was born with it. And so I don't have to fight for your approval or your acceptance. And I want my younger self to know that, be confident in who God made me to be and be the best me I could be. You know, my album, book probably be correlated, it's "Anomaly" because I feel like I exist as an anomaly. Nobody knows what to do with me a lot of times, you know what I'm saying? It's like gospel's like, wait, no, he's, what is going on? I don't get it. And hip hop is like, wait, isn't he, you know? So nobody really knows like what's happening with this dude. But, you know, yet and still, there's a lane that I'm running in, you know what I mean? And it's just, so it's an anomaly. So I'm just kind of like trying to help people understand like how I can run in the lane that I'm running in and still be authentically me without feeling like I have to be this or that. But I'm something different altogether.

Were you surprised with the amount of love that you got? 'Cause I mean, it's—

It's your 7th album.

It's the 7th album. It's a big step.

Number 1 iTunes right now is crazy, man. Blowing my mind. Yeah, I mean, it blows my mind. I'm like, I don't get it, but you know, I'm being honest. I don't get it. I'm just grateful to do music, man. Just trying to be authentic, trying to be myself. Be yourself because, you know, you're the best you'll ever be and you're terrible somebody else. So, you know, trying to be somebody else, you're going to be found out and it's not going to be— you can't keep that up. It's an act and you can't keep that act up. It's going to drain you. So be yourself because somebody's always going to be willing to invest in, you know, something authentic or something. That's right. Yeah, Anomaly Man was, uh, was really like me saying I'm an anomaly. Like, it's— I hold a unique space and I'm not trying to be anything except myself and I think people just, um, just want people to embrace being outsiders, embrace like you are the best you there'll ever be, you're a terrible somebody else, so just run your lane, run your race, and be who you were made to be. And so that's kind of the theme of the album. And then, um, you know, went on to become a number one, uh, the number one album on Billboard, which was amazing, won a Grammy, which was amazing. And, um, and then I just kind of, you know, um kept trying to continue to inspire people with that type of mentality of, man, be yourself. You know, your wounds, your scars. And I, you know, I got war wounds and I don't mind sharing them with people. And I talk about it and I think people gravitate to that.

Let's just talk about the reality that even if you're a positive person and you're spreading positivity, yeah, you still go through things. Oh yeah, you have temptations.

You—

all of that still happens. Like, right, how do you deal with all that as Lecrae?

Uh, you know, for me It's realizing too, realizing I'm not my failures. You know what I mean? I think a lot of times you look at yourself and you say, "Man, I messed up. I failed." Or you say, "I am a failure," and that's not true. You know, those are mistakes. You know, and like I say in my song, you know, I count every loss as a lesson. You know what I'm saying? It's just a lesson. You learn from it and you move forward. So I don't try to be perfect. I don't try to live my life like, "Oh, I have it all together." I try to walk in the direction of being perfected. I try to like, stay humble, stay learning, and stay growing. And I keep a lot of people around me who gonna keep me out of the nonsense that I probably shouldn't get myself into. And so, you know, you hang out with, you are what you eat, you are who you hang out with, you know what I mean? And that's really what's worked for me. I think for me, man, I love to, creatively, I think I love to just experience culture. I'm like a cultural anthropologist, man. I just love to just sit and soak up stuff. So, you know, you mess around and see me with my headphones on listening to just merengue all day long or something like that. A lot of people have checked out my iPod and said, "Why do you have this? Where did you get this from?" You know what I'm saying? And so I just love to just hear new things that creatively inspire me. And then in hip-hop, it's tough because I feel like it's just been at a stagnant place. And I hear a lot of great truth communicated from the Christian hip-hop community. But me and Flame were just talking about it, but we just like to see artists stretch themselves creatively because I don't think it's as— hip-hop is not as just this grimy underground. It doesn't have to be polished, doesn't have to be musical sound anymore. Like, it's grown and it's matured to become a popular platform for the whole world to view, from, you know, from Africa to doggone Europe. And so I think you can't just— I think you do have to think through that and you do have to be more creative. And so, so, you know, I just wanted to stretch myself in that way, in that capacity.

We have a lot of listeners and we have a lot of people that want to do their own thing as far as their label is concerned. What made you decide to go out and say, this is what I need to do for myself because I know this is what the world needs to hear?

Yeah, I think it just came down to, um, realizing that we have something unique. And sometimes people don't believe in what you're doing and they don't want to invest in what you're doing, so you have to invest in yourself and you have to believe in yourself and create it and push it, um, you know, solo and not worry about, you know, if someone's gonna come alongside or support you because you know what you have is real and authentic and legit and people, you know, resonate with it. And so that inspired me to just keep pushing. And, um, and everybody that I had— I looked up to, like, when you see like Diddy, you hear all the stories of how nobody believed in them and they just had to keep working. And that's what happened for us, and we just kept working and you know, um, and, and believed in what we had to, you know, to offer the world. And, and it was a, it was successful.

Negativity in hip-hop, you see a lot of it. Obviously social media, you see a lot of division.

Yeah.

Um, people going back and forth at each other and it, it always kind of startles me, you know, grown men will have problems with each other.

That's just gonna happen, right? Mm-hmm.

But it's kind of like you're in the hood, you're trying to get out the hood, do better for your family, your mother and everybody. And then you finally do better, but it's almost like you're going backwards. Like, yeah, you're trying to mess it up for the whole culture. What's some of your thoughts on that when you see people on social media riffing and beefing and going at each other and kind of just putting that negativity out there?

I think, man, you know, it's part of maturity. It's part of us just learning to grow up, um, stop being crabs in a barrel, learn how to support each other, learn how to, you know, that's just be a real community because that's how you win, is you stand on each other's shoulders and not tear each other down all the time. And, uh, and as it pertains to haters and people just always who got something negative to say. You know, I just said this a little while ago. I said, man, it's better to create something that other people criticize than to create nothing and criticize others. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, somebody always gonna have something to say. I mean, you doing something right if somebody got something negative to say about what you got going on. That's okay, keep doing your thing, because they spending all their energy talking about what you doing, not doing something. And so I'm like, man, that's just gonna be the reality. But just keep it positive, keep it pushing, and don't even give them the time of day.

Now when you look at an artist like Mase, right? And Mase was a pastor, or, you know, he had a congregation and he taught that congregation and it was positive. Then he came back into rapping and the rap that he's doing is not necessarily Christian rap.

Secular.

Yeah, it's very secular.

It's very secular, yeah.

How do you feel about things of that nature?

I think, man, I'm about being consistent. I'm about, you know, I'm not an advocate, like, and that's for anybody. It's not just Mase or whoever. It's about, 'cause you don't wanna create confusion. Like, where do you stand? Or what side of the fence are you playing here? And just be consistent. I think nobody, and that's really what I'm trying to do in a lot of ways is show people like, listen, man, you can still hold onto your faith and your core values and beliefs and make music that is not necessarily explicitly, let's walk through Jonah, you know what I mean?

Right.

Just being like contrary to what you believe, you know what I'm saying? So it's like for me to make a street record doesn't mean I gotta start misogynizing women.

And you gotta shoot people.

You know what I mean? You're in an interesting situation right now because for a lot of people you're still a new artist, but you've been doing this. Yeah. So how does that kind of like work as an introduction to people as, you know, but still have this big fan base? I'm still, I don't mind people seeing me as a new artist, you know what I mean? 'Cause it keep you hungry, it keep you on your grind, it keep you humble, keep you working hard. So I don't, I'm not like, "Man, I've been here. What you doing? What you talking about?" You know, I'm like, "Hey, man, I'm just grateful that, you know, I got a new fan today." So, you know, it just keeps it all in perspective. And plus, it's like, that's when people ride for you, when you, like, care about your fans and you, like, you know, show 'em love and you appreciate 'em. But when you, like, you know, I don't understand people be arguing with fans all day long. Like, get off of the internet. Go make some music.

See, some people don't like being broke because they feel like something wrong with being broke.

But just 'cause you financially broke don't mean you not rich.

Rich in other areas of life. I've been broke before. Matter of fact, I grew up on government assistance. Y'all may not know what that's like over here, but I've been broke. And being broke financially made me rich in character, made me rich in loyalty. You got to be rich in loyalty when you broke because you got to depend on somebody to take you anywhere. Hey, yo, you got my ride, bro? I got your back for life, dog. So, you know, out of The best way I could put it is like being broke made me rich. You feel me? I'm rich in areas of life that I wouldn't be rich in. That struggle and that grind made me something, made me who I am. Somebody say, being broke made me rich.

Being broke made me rich.

Come on, say, being broke made me rich.

Being broke made me rich.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I made this video because hard work, dedication asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, check out the link in the description and go and cast your vote. I also want to give a quick shout out to Jeff Whaley. Jeff, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and posting that review on your blog. I really appreciate the support and I'm glad you enjoyed 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.

I'll see you soon.

People like, man, as I thought about that time period in my life, that was my first music video right here. And I think people like, man, you came a long way, but you know, you changed a lot. And I'm like, yeah, you right, I did change. Change is good, you feel me? Hopefully you change.

Hopefully you change your clothes when you get home.

But ain't nothing wrong with change. Matter of fact, maturity is not It's not how much you know, it's how much what you know has changed you.

That's how you know you mature in life.

But even though I may change, the music may change, my style may change, my hair may change, my mission ain't never gonna change. Amen.

You know, I'm more about like, you know, creating opportunities. You know, we built a studio, we got a facility in Atlanta, you know what I mean? A label, we try to hire people You know what I'm saying? I'm like trying to create opportunities and build stuff. And, you know, for me, like I say, you know, it's all, I can't take it with me when I go. So let me invest, let me create legacy, let me build something that's bigger than me, beyond me. I had a young homie and he was in the juvenile detention center in the system for a while, but his brother was a college student. And, you know, I asked him, I said, you know, the dude who was locked up, I said, "Man, why are you in the situation you in?" You know, like the way your life is. He said, "Man, 'cause my daddy was like this. This is my dad. My dad was always in and out of prison. So I asked his brother, I said, man, why are you a college graduate? You know, you doing what you're doing and everything else. He said, 'Cause my daddy was always in and out of jail and I wanted to do something different.' And so, man, I just had to look at my environment and my surroundings and say, do I want to repeat the stuff that I'm seeing, or do I want to be something different than everything that's going on around me? And for me, you know, I just got tired of busting my head, got tired of being in low places and making bad decisions. And, you know, police bring you home, it's just, it's not, it wasn't productive. And, um, And, you know, I'm grateful, you know, I had a good grandmother, good mother who just was praying for me and just like, man, trying to stay on my head. And I just had an eye-opening transformation, you know, at like 19. And that just got the wheels turning. And I said, man, I'm not going back, you know what I mean? Like, I'm just going to do something different with my life. And that was it, man.