You Don’t Want Balance - You Want DOMINATION | Priyanka Chopra

How many people in their lifetimes do a job that they love doing? Maybe I have ADD, but I want to be able to do everything. Why can't we do everything? People have to like you or relate to you for who you are. You can't be someone else.

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 going to learn from one of India's highest paid and most popular actors actresses Priyanka Chopra and my take on her top 10 rules for success, volume 2. Rule number 2 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.

But see, what is the choice? That you walk a path like everyone else, dressed in suits, go to work and come back and never have a legacy, or you swim upstream like a trout against norm, and then whatever little you achieve is only yours. It's not like everyone else. And I'd rather have something that is my path paved by me, something that is my legacy, my own self, my own achievement, than being one of the many successful people in the world. I just love what I do and I'm good at it. And I love the ability to wake up in the morning and say, oh my God, I get to go to work. I mean, how many people in their lifetimes do a job that they love doing? Most people do it for survival. Kya chaa, we need to feed our families, we need to survive, it's our career, okay, we have to do it. But to wake up with, you know, my feet and my fingers tingling and say, wow, I have this to do, I have that to do today, and it's an amazing feeling and I don't take it for granted. I'm a storyteller and I'm not someone who restricts myself to one thing, ever. I've never been that person. Maybe I have ADD. But I want to be able to do everything. Why can't we do everything? Sure. You know, and especially women, we are great at multitasking. So I want to produce, I want to have a business. I'm going to— I'm producing here, I'm going to produce in India, Hindi films, regional films. I want to be able to act in them. Maybe not. You know, there's so many things that I can do which I want to be able to explore. I'm a little— I don't know how to say this. I have— people call it arrogance. I call it self-assurance. But I am who I am. You like it, great. You don't like it, I don't care. That's who I've always been. So whether I'm coming to America, whether I go to India, I'm always true to just who I am. If you try and change yourself according to thinking that, oh, I'm going to a different country, or, you know, I need to please, or I need to not be alien enough, or— you're overthinking it. People have to like you or relate to you for who you are. You can't be someone else suddenly. So I've stayed very true to who I am, whether it's in India or here. I mean, as much as I can, of course. You have to be open to understand and accept the fact that you won't know everything. And people won't know everything about you. So it's an education. I'm enjoying so much educating my cast, my crew, and the people that I meet about India and achar and biryani and Diwali. And I'm as desi as it gets, and they have so much fun getting to know India through me and me the same way. So it has to— you have to accept your uniqueness. When my publicist, I remember, emailed me, she says, you're going to be in the list, you're being considered in the— because the voting and stuff was going on— in the 100 most influential people. I was like, wow, I'm being considered. That in itself was the achievement for me, that I'm in consideration with this lot of people Then to be a part of the list, then to be on the COVID of the magazine, not just in Asia but in the US as well. I mean, and then to have my Padma Shri within 10 days. That's right, Padma Shri Priyanka Chopra. Yeah, that one week was like a real big pinch-me moment. But tell me, there's all this stuff, right? There is, of course, the sweat. I mean, you talked about your days, about, you know, flying here for a weekend. But what is the sacrifice you make to achieve this? Sacrifice your life. Really? Yeah, your life is your work. Completely. I get to meet my friends in Bombay only for the 20 days that I might come here now, for this year at least. My family, yes, I can fly them down. To be in a completely new country, get to know new people, you know, reintroduce yourself and see if these are friends for life or not. It's not just the fact that that's all I do, but it's such a solitary thing to do. I'm willing to sacrifice my sleep, I'm willing to sacrifice food, I'm willing to sacrifice quality of life, if that's what you want to call it, and to be able to achieve, to be an achiever. Because to be an achiever, you have to Let go of some things. I make it a point that I fly my family wherever I am. I fly my friends wherever I am. I fly my cook wherever I am because I need my Hindi. I need my dal chawal at night. It's very important. Wow. So, mehdi cook toh mehdi sabse important. But besides that, I think, you know, when you want global domination, you have to pay the price for it. I like pushing the envelope. I like pushing myself. Actually, it's a very selfish thing. I'm very— I have a very short attention span. I get bored with, you know, if I have to do the same thing or if something doesn't challenge me. I'm in a profession where I can push myself so much and I live with the adrenaline of, you know, working best under pressure somehow. And I'm very fortunate that I get roles that are written for me, which, which give me the ability to do that. So why not? Yeah. Do you have any advice that you can give entrepreneurs or people who are trying to break out of their comfort zone? Well, it is scary. I will always say that, you know, especially business, because it's a very scary place to be in. It changes, it goes ups and it has so many ups and downs. But a very, very dear friend of mine and a mentor, Jimmy Iovine, who created Beats by Dre, he works for now Apple Music, he told me this one piece of advice, which I tied a knot and I kept. He said, to be successful, you have to be able to walk away from a deal. You have to. If you want it bad enough, then people are going to give it to you at pettins, you know. But you have to be able to walk away from a deal. That's when you become stronger and you have more confidence in yourself. So that's how I've started living my life. And I guess that's the advice I would give all young entrepreneurs. Do you think about the next act? Do you think about— I know it's also too early to ask, but do you think about where you will be 5 years later? I mean, I'm hopefully— I will still be working. What as what, where, how, I've never known. I'm not someone who plans my career. I'm very instinctive. I, um, if I like something, I do it. Hence the reason I fail a lot also, because, you know, I, I take risks, I take chances. I don't like I mean, it's very easy to have a safe career.

Sure.

But I want to be able to have a path which is mine. Yeah, I screw up sometimes, but it's mine. No one else did it before me. It's, it's completely, you know, empty territory till I get there. It's my footprints. So I take a lot of pride in that. So I don't know where it'll be, but it'll be different. I can assure you it'll be something that will be a precedent. I like setting things straight. You'll be breaking new ground. Yeah, I want to do things that people are like, oh, she's doing that? I look for things like that, whether it's acting, producing. I don't know what it'll be. I don't know. I was very fascinated with show business when I joined the movies, and I found so many sad stories of people who, after they've become superstars or they realize that they are superstars, superstars, you know, the downfall, it's gonna happen to everyone. Everyone. I knew that before I started my first film, so I'm not afraid of it. I just know that I'll have a plan B when I— when that happens. Creativity can be morphed into so many things. It can— today I write, I sing, I, um, I write columns. I've written for Elle, New York Times, Sun Times. I act in movies. I'm producing films. There is a gazillion things you can do as a creative person, so I'm prepared for that. So yeah, but I do believe you can't ever sit down on your hands and say, all right, now I'm a star.

But you wanted to challenge me to a wing-eating contest.

I am—

this is insane. No one challenges me on my show. I'm the good luck charm.

You want to do this? I think we should. You know what, guys? We're in New York.

Let's do it.

Come on, let's go. Look at this.

Here we go.

All right, all right, all right.

These already look hot. Yeah, so these are in front of us are from Atomic Wings here in New York.

They're made with their nuclear hot sauce, and I have Tabasco just in case that's not enough, and I have milk just in case it's too much. So we picked—

I'm not gonna need the Milk.

I might.

Yeah. Uh, whoever eats the most wings within 20 seconds wins.

Damn.

Yeah. Let's get, uh—

Oh, really? Okay.

20 seconds on the clock.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. Ready? On your mark, get set, go! I can't do more than one. I can't do it. I can't do more than one. I can't do more than one.

Come on. I couldn't even do one. I got a big chunky one. My first wing was a big wing. Oh, excuse us. Oh, excuse us, really?

Who doesn't love this person right here?

Miranda Dropper.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. If you want to get your pick of who I should profile next in the top 10s, check out the link in the description and go and cast your vote. I also wanted to give a quick shout out to Russell Duvall. Russell, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. I really appreciate the support, man, 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.

I'll see you soon. Success is not, um, it's— success is not a destination. People always think that, oh my God, this person's so successful because they've had a successful movie or a successful show. But success is a journey. You have to consistently always, always be successful. That's when you're really successful, because otherwise you'll be remembered for your last failure. And I've had a few, but I just have to compensate for my failure by just getting up and running. The more time you take to sort of mourn it, you're wasting that much more time in being successful. So you just have to, you know, perk up, pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and just say, alright, what can I do? There's always a solution. You can't expect— people always get mistaken that just because they Because this year has been what it has been, it's been because I consistently worked hard for about 10 years. So now I know my job enough to be able to be appreciated for it. But if I hadn't had the last 10 years, I would never have had this year or the year before that. So success is not a destination where you— or power is not like, okay, today you're powerful. You have to consistently be powerful and consistently be successful. And that is a journey, it'll never be a step. I'm really confused, where is the switch on, switch off button, Priyanka, when you come from America to do a Kashi Baiyan so convincingly? Yeah, that whole last scene where he calls me Mastani, I came down for a weekend to shoot it. I shot it over Saturday, Sunday, and it was, it was a hectic trip. But I think that's my job. My process is very different. I'm not, I don't conventionally Nobody taught me what acting was about. My acting school has been my career. My gurus have been my filmmakers and my co-actors. So I think I learned my own process, which is I create a personality. I don't work— I'm not someone who needs to stay in the mood, or I don't go into a character. I create the person. I like— I create Kashi. I think about what she likes, how she'd behave, you know, what her choices are, what her favorite food is. You can ask me anything about a character and I know them. They become like my best friends or my sisters. And after that, I don't need to stay in the mood because I know them so well. You can throw any scene at me and I'll be able to do it. So my process is very different, because of which I can switch on and off really well. I was different. I still am different. I'm in a country which is very far, far away from home, very far away from familiarity. And I think that's what my strengths are. When I was young, I didn't understand that. When I was a kid in school, when I was being bullied, when I didn't understand who I was turning into. But what makes you different, if you identify that and you realize that, alright, this is what's different about me, if you think about it, that's exactly what makes you special. That's exactly what makes you unique. And you need to just and I did that over time. Be the best version of yourself because the more different you are, the more special you are.