WHY CONFIDENCE CHANGES EVERYTHING – LaVar Ball’s Success Blueprint!

If you're looking for ways to know your worth, be confident, and speak things into existence, then this video is for you.

Here's the thing, if you know what you're worth, your brand is worth, then you can get it.

You've already said you want to play for the Lakers, right? You think that's going to happen?

No, I don't think that's going to happen. I know it's going to happen. And it's just so funny how things get to line it up. And then all of a sudden when it happens, you'd be like, man, you clairvoyant. No, man, I just, I'm just talking into existence, man.

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 into 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 went from studying criminal justice and wanting to be a U.S. Marshal to becoming an entrepreneur with his own apparel company, Big Baller Brand, and being an outspoken media personality. He's LaVar Ball, and here's my take on his top 10 rules of success. Enjoy. Rule number 1: Know your worth.

I've told my boys this: somebody got to be better than Michael Jordan. Why not you?

And just not Jordan the player.

Jordan the Brand. The Big Baller Brand, the Triple Bs. This is our family brand for our family. This is what me and my wife came up on with me and my boys together. Nobody has ever had being a first-round pick with their own brand coming out. That's gonna be Lonzo. That's some history-changing stuff right there. My goodness, LeBron Brand, they co-brand. That's the brand Nike made for them. Ain't nobody made these triple Bs for me but me. And here's the thing. So you want to go with one of those brands, but keep it Big Baller? Oh, it's gonna be kept Big Baller. It's gonna be kept Big Baller. If they don't want to run with it, there's a price for everybody. Like I said, the price for me to be happy, like I said, you see these 3 Bs on the hat? It's gonna cost you one. And people can laugh and be like, "Ah, I don't know." No, I know. Here's the thing. If you know what you're worth, your brand is worth, then you can get to— I'm not asking for a billion dollars because I have to. I'm asking for a billion dollars because I can. You asking for a billion? Hey, that's where it's at. If you want to come with us, give me a billion. And it ain't got to be all— you can't even spend all that money. Give me $100 million for 10 years. I'm good. I'll make it work. Yeah. You know, but people don't think like that. But a brand is one of the highest things you can, you can create. And what I mean by Lonzo being the first one drafted with a brand is everybody else that gets drafted. Nike, Adidas, everybody scoops them up for a couple of mil here or there, and they think that's something. I'm not needy like that.

Rule number 2, do what you love.

This is what I say the key to life is, is doing something that you love to do and you happen to get paid for. You won. Because after you have made so much money and you have bought everything you wanted, what's left? Right. You don't have a passion for nothing. You're just sitting with a lot of money. Then guess what? Now you got some bad vices to say, you know what, I need something to get me over this high. I need to drink, I need to smoke, I need to do something to give me a buzz and say, "Oh, this is it." Rule number 3: Empower. I got a nice little system here. As soon as the boys come home from school and practice, we make about 200 shots on the shooting machines. My boys make this like it's nothing. Shoot 'em with your left. See that? They not ready for that. And the next thing I do is I make 'em lift weights Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we doing pull-ups. 2. Good.

We just started having fun, you know. We didn't want to go inside and do homework. We wanted to stay outside and keep shooting.

A lot of people be like, "Oh, you push them to the limit." No, I guide them to the limit. I tell them what to do and get it done. But if I got to push you, this ain't for you. Watch that, get it now!

But there's a fine line between exploitation and empowerment.

All day! All day! I'm going to tell you right now before you see it, UCLA going to win the NCAA championship, and you think I'm playing? Cousins should be number 1 because he's the only player in the draft that can make everybody else around him better. He better than Steph Curry to me.

Do you feel that with some of the comments you have made, do you think that the competition is going to get stiffer for your kids? Because like, oh, well, let me tell you, your daddy said you better than me.

Everybody talking about, oh, he gonna have an X on his back and they gonna come harder. How you think he gonna get better if they don't come harder? I want you mad as hell at my son. When you see him, you like, I'm gonna tear his ass up. Because you know what he thinking? This is what I'm here for. You're not gonna give me nothing, but I'm gonna make you a believer.

Rule number 4: Speak things into existence.

When you said speak it, I think when you commented— I'm speaking into existence. What do you mean by that? If I keep talking about it, man, after a while it starts— I'll tell you something about my wife. When I met her, I never knew her name. I seen her walking down the hallway and I told her without even asking, excuse me, what's your name? I said, girl, I don't know what me and you gonna do, but we gonna do something together. And they come up, they're married. I didn't even know her. I transferred in from Washington State and came to Cal State LA. I said, that girl pretty, eh? Tall too? Oh yeah, I gotta go holler at her. But here's the thing, I plant the seed, you gonna think about it, whether it be positive or negative, you still thinking about it. So I keep saying, oh, you gonna be a Laker. I said he gonna be a Laker when he was little. I said, man, you gonna take Magic's spot, man. And it's just so funny how things get to lining up. And then all of a sudden when it happens, you'd be like, man, you clairvoyant. Nah, man, I just, I just talking into existence, man. Cause I, this is what I feel that whatever you want to do, whatever you want to do, I think you can, you can do it. Uh, just like Nike say, just do it. And Under Armour, protect his house. For Big Baller Brand, our word is built for this. Are you built for this? You can go so far and then it starts getting hard and then it's easy to say, you know what? I don't want to do it. This, man.

Rule number 5: Don't please everybody.

So when people throw hate at you, what's the proper response for somebody listening? Uh, the proper response for somebody listening is, as long as they don't stop you from doing what you do, yeah, don't worry about it.

What if they have hate? If they got—

they're gonna have haters. Anytime you're in the limelight, you're gonna have 50% of people like you and 50% that don't. You're not gonna please everybody.

Yeah.

And you're not gonna have everybody hating you because some people gonna be like, you know what, I like what he's doing. I like what they're doing. But you're not going to please everybody. But if you get stuck on having haters be like, oh man, I don't like that guy. As long as you ain't doing nothing bad and have no bad vices, you fine. As long as you ain't hurting nobody and doing nothing stupid, keep going forward.

Rule number 6: Be confident.

The last year has been the story of the Ball family. Like, you are everywhere.

I'm everywhere because people like that controversial stuff. And it's just like this. You got the good guys and you got the bad guys. So I was a good guy, but negativity sells, so everybody want to jump on me. But that's fine. Why they jumping on me? Have fun, because my son is whooping your ass on that court.

Are you cool with that?

Yeah, I'm fine with it. I do all my playing on the court. You can say whatever you want off of it.

One of the teams that you might get drafted by, if the ping pong balls fall the right way, is the Lakers. You've already said you want to play for the Lakers, right? You think that's going to happen?

No, I don't think that's gonna happen. I know it's gonna happen. The Lakers gonna get that ball, then they gonna get that ball.

Do you ever think about, like, your dad is so confident in these visions and these dreams that he has that, like, but you're the one who has to carry them out?

He's been acting like that for 19 years, so it's nothing new to me. I wouldn't be here without him. So if I go back on him, that's like going back on what I've been doing my whole life, and I don't think that's right.

If you don't want all this attention, Don't be good. Guess what? Ain't nobody gonna ask your name or nothing. Everybody's saying, how come Lonzo is not like his father? He better not be like me. He raised in Chino Hills, I'm raised in South Central. He is who he is. Lonzo gonna do him, I'ma do me.

Rule number 7: Create your own path. So originally you thought you would go ahead and make your deal the way most kids coming up do with Nike, Under Armour, Reebok.

Well, here's the thing, right? From day one, I kind of wanted them to say no so I could do— I just wanted to make sure they said no.

And you got one.

Like I told my boys, we're gonna have our own shoes when they were little. Say, think about your own.

You told them that when they were little?

You had your own shoe. We don't have to go this route right here. Everybody been going a certain way. It's just like with the AAU circuit and everything. If you want to do things your way, it's just like you You break away and do your own show now. It's on you. You the man.

That's true.

But you probably started off working behind some people and you was like, man, I think I got more value to this.

Rule number 8, shoot for the top.

Now the X's on the back. Here's the thing, coming from South Central, this is an X on your back when you don't have that guy's money or you done beat up his brother or something and they put an X on you in them streets. X on my son's back on a basketball court? Goddamn it, X the hell out of that boy. You know, but anything worth taking and you want to be good, they coming after you. You don't think you're going to slide in the NBA and they don't want nothing? Just like they said, oh, oh, so you Lonzo Ball, the one LaVar been talking about. I want you. Basketball ain't one-on-one. It's five-on-five. And while you doing that, Lonzo going to be thinking in his head, so you the one they call Westbrook. You're the one they call LeBron. Yeah, dude, if you want to be the best player in the world, you got to go after those guys.

Rule number 9: Be true to yourself. What's your philosophy that's made you stand out from the crowd?

My philosophy that make me stand out from the crowd is I do it my way. I trust and believe the way I'm doing it, and I'm just doing me. So it ain't no big deal about it. Whatever you do, you got to suffer the consequences, whether it be good or bad. But do you. Do you— if it's— if it's— if it's— if you're— if you're a killer or a man, don't try to be— when you get caught, be soft now. If you're gonna be true to yourself, be true to yourself whatever you do and suffer the consequences. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, but to be true to yourself.

And rule number 10: always speak your mind.

What made you say that one day Lonzo is going to be better than Steph Curry at Golden State? Hey, let me tell you this right now. I have the utmost confidence in what my boy is doing. I'm gonna tell you right now, he better than Steph Curry to me. Here, put Steph Curry on UCLA's team right now and put my boy on Golden State and watch what happens.

Let's go back to your Steph Curry. My son's going to be better than Steph, right? If you could do it again, would you pull it back and say no?

And here's the thing, I don't pull anything back. Whatever I say, I say. It's just like what Charles Barkley is saying with all these guys. If Charles thought like me, maybe he'd win a championship. Oh, that hurts. Oh no, yeah, it hurt because he's saying sometimes when stuff come out of people's mouth, it's just stupid. Guess what you talking to? So everybody has an opinion how things work. I don't, I don't care about that. I put the goals up high, just like I was saying that my son is. But I know what my boy's about. I know what work he put in. It's not a one-on-one sport, but if it is one-on-one, I'm going to take the taller, faster, stronger guy.

So I really like his confidence and his bravado. I think people need more of that. You don't need to be super controversial. You don't need to get in people's faces. But I think believing in yourself more is important. I think a lot of people have insane talent and abilities and they don't have enough self-confidence to go off and chase their dream, to believe that they could be the best, to get that big client, to launch that big brand. I don't think people believe in themselves enough to be able to do it. And so I really respect that about him. In terms of the rules, I think number 4 is gonna be my personal favorite: speak things into existence. And why I like that is it's not just speaking things into existence when you're talking to other people, it's also for yourself. I find that a lot of the new ideas I come up with, at first it's just an idea, it's just a seed, and I might explain it to somebody, and in that first explanation— this is super important— in that first explanation, it doesn't always come off as a fully fledged idea. It's just a seed, it's just something that might happen. And then every time I explain a little bit more, it becomes a little bit more fully formed, it becomes a little bit more real, a little bit more tangible. And the more I talk about it, the more it becomes into existence, not just for the people around me, but for for myself, the more I believe in it more, the more I fully rounded out that idea a little bit more as well. And so I think it's really, really important to start speaking out your goals. Speak out what you want to build, and it's going to sound crazy and over the top and too bold at some point, but the more you speak it out, the more comfortable you get in being able to speak it out, the more confident you get in it, and then the more likely it's actually going to happen because you start to believe in it a little bit more. So rule number 4 is my personal favorite. I'd love to know from you guys. What was your favorite? Was rule number 4 the herbs? Are you on with me, team rule number 4? Or was there one that you liked better? Let me know, leave it down in the comments below. Now I made this video because Rico Love asked me to, so if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, check out the link in the description. You can go to the request line and cast your vote. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Zaino. Zaino, thank you so much for winning one of our comments of the day with your awesome comments. And then when you got the package in the mail, you posted it to Twitter. I really appreciate all your support, man, all the love, all the contribution you've given. And thank you for sharing it on Twitter as well. 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.

We did 3 tournaments so far in the AAU. The first tournament, we went 1-3. And Melo averaged like 50 points. The second one, you know, we went 2-2, and I told him, I said, the more games we play, the more we losing because you're tired, because you're not going into the game with a game plan. Are you going to be aggressive in the beginning and then start passing, or start passing, then be aggressive? You got to learn that from Lonzo, knowing when to pick your choices. But you got to trust your teammates. You're going to get tired if you got a guy running down and sprint down throwing the ball. You don't have to make every bucket. So then the last tournament we just did, people were shocked because we went 4-0. And Melo had a couple of games where we were down with 2 minutes left, we're down by 11, and he makes a buzzer beater for us to win. So he does whatever it takes to win. Then another game, he's setting it up before he's playing now, seeing what's going on. Oh, they're not getting back quick, so I can throw it along with him. And always like, oh, they're getting back now, they me up for a wide open 3-pointer. So it's— he's, he's learning how to win because I was trying to explain to him, it's not about you no more where you used to be mellow and you got your two brothers to follow. So now you got to do that. Lonzo, make everybody better and make people have confidence in you. I said, if you want to look at a person who's really, really good, it's Westbrook, but he can't win all those games. You're gonna burn out until you learn you can't throw the ball to the guy and expect him Oh, every time I get it, I better make it. You gotta throw it to him time after time. As long as he's open and taking the right shot, we good. But if you don't get that confidence in your team, you're just gonna wear yourself out. But you're gonna play very hard. Because everywhere he goes, he goes to the top.

He has.

Like the high school. 4 years. Finally got a state title. I told him, whenever you go to UCLA, you gotta have championship pedigree. So if you don't win a state title, you just another good player. So they don't even have confidence in you winning the championship because you don't have championship pedigree. Yeah, it took me 4 years to do that. Imagine if he stayed 4 years at UCLA. See, but I don't want to be known as the best college player. Nope. I want to be known as the best player ever. So you got to go to that next level as quick as possible and start working on it. Here's my thing: you always got something to prove if you want to be the best. So you don't stop going until you're the best, until you tap out. Like Kobe Bryant, we waited 20 years to see if he can pass Jordan. He couldn't, but it was a heck of a ride watching him. So you gotta go for that. And I think LeBron, you know, probably don't have to prove nothing to us, but I think you must prove to yourself. And that's how my boy rolls. He don't worry about proving everything to everybody else. He has to prove it to himself. So he has to give 110% to be the best ever. I didn't tell him, hey, see if you can get as good as Jordan or as good as LeBron. I want my sons to be the best ever. So let me give you the one word secret to happiness. One word. This is all you need. 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.