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The goal is not just to be successful. It’s about learning how to sustain that success, too.
Be fearless. Most people run from what they’re afraid of. I run toward it.
But one of the greatest mistakes people can make is becoming comfortable with their fears. Whatever is worrying me, I meet it head-on and engage it until the situation is resolved.
Cultivate the heart of a hustler.
The key to building up that trait in your own personality is accepting that you’re never hustling toward a certain goal. Hustlin’ is a motor that’s got to be running inside of you each and every day. And its fuel is passion. If you can keep that motor running, it will take you everywhere you want to go in life.
Build a strong crew. You’re only going to be as strong as the weakest person in your crew. That’s why you have to be extremely conscious of who you have around you. Betrayal is never as far away as you’d like to believe. That’s why it’s imperative to find a balance between establishing trust and discipline in the people you work with and giving them the freedom to be themselves.
Know your value.
Evolve or die.
I’m always looking to absorb new information from as many sources as possible. I don’t care where you come from or what you look like—if you’ve created success, I want to learn from you.
Shape perception. Everything you share with the world—your words, your energy, what you wear—tells a story. You must make sure your narrative always presents you as the person you want to be seen as, even if your reality tells a slightly different story.
Don’t be afraid to compete.
Learn from your Ls.
What separates those people from the pack is that instead of complaining about or hiding from their losses, they actively seek to learn from them.
You’re never going to find lasting success until you take full responsibility for what happens in your life. No one owes you anything. Just as you don’t owe anyone else. Once you accept that fundamental truth and accept that you control your journey, so many doors that seemed closed are going to open up in front of you.
The difference is I refuse to allow myself to grow comfortable in those fears. Comfort, I’ve learned, is a dream killer. It saps our ambition. Blinds our vision. Promotes complacency.
What you cannot do is become complacent with any of those fears. If you fear loss, you can’t spend your life avoiding intimacy and love (something I’ve struggled with). If you fear failure, you can’t stop taking risks. If you fear the unknown, you can’t stop trying new experiences. “It is not death that a man should fear,” said the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius, “but he should fear never beginning to live.”
DON’T BE AFRAID TO GET HIT
You need to bend fear into moments of action at every opportunity, because the fearless not only recognize but also often reward one of their own.
I learned that if I didn’t like getting hit, then I needed to do something about it.
Punishment, Allah Understanding taught me, wasn’t something I had to accept. I could always do something about it.
I’ve accepted that the punches are going to come in life, and some of them are going to land. But I’m always going to survive and keep fighting for the things I want.
“Cowards die many times before their deaths,” wrote Shakespeare. “The valiant never taste of death but once.”
The best way to get past a fear that’s holding you back is first to acknowledge it and then come up with a plan to get past it.
Being fearful can trip you up in so many ways, in both your professional and personal lives. That’s why it’s so critical that you identify the things you’re afraid of and put in the work to get past that fear.
It sounds cliché to say that hard work is the most critical ingredient for success, but it’s a fundamental truth that has to be repeated over and over again. If you’re not hustling your absolute hardest, you’re never going to reach your full potential in life.
A strong work ethic is the one trait all successful people share. I’ve never met anyone at the top of their industry who wasn’t fully committed to their job, who was willing to give anything less than their best.
It’s not enough just to say you want to work hard. You have to commit to lifestyle choices that allow you to have the energy, focus, and stamina to actually do the work, too. So many people prioritize lifestyle over work and then wonder why they can’t get ahead.
No matter what situation or setting you find yourself in, you don’t ever want to depend on anything—or any other person—to make you feel in control and comfortable. That sense of confidence should always come from within.
I’m always at my most comfortable when I’m in complete control of my surroundings.
A strong passion stance is what separates the hustlers who win from the people who always seem stuck in place.
To be an effective hustler you must be able to identify what you want. It doesn’t have to be a big concept like freedom. There might be something much more specific you have your sights set on.
You need to set a goal for yourself. Ask yourself: What is it that I want? Be honest. It might be something that will help a lot of people. Or it could be something incredibly selfish. It might be a seemingly impossible goal. Or something that’s almost within your reach.
In order to get the most out of your hustle, you have to be able to clearly define what you’re working for.
Even when you think you’ve been through it all, you’re going to find out there’s still more shit to go through. One of the most important realizations I came to early in my business career is that I’m running through an endless tunnel.
To move like the type of hustler 50 Cent used to be, but in the types of settings Curtis Jackson is in now.
TRUST YOUR INSTINCT
A business professor might have some good tips, but nothing he or she can teach will ever outweigh simply listening to your own instinct.
Whenever you feel confused about a situation, it’s imperative that you find a way to turn the volume down and reconnect with what you’re truly feeling.
Whatever it is, you have to incorporate some activity into your lifestyle that allows you to disconnect from the noise of both the past and present and reconnect with whatever you’re feeling in your gut in the moment.
I’m not signing up for anything just for a check. That’s the easiest way to dilute your brand and lose your money.
But you must surround yourself with people who can help support, grow, and articulate your vision. Pick the right people and you can build a team that will take you to the top.
When someone puts a number in your head, every time you move off that number, it feels like a loss. You can’t get tricked into thinking that way.
To make sure that doesn’t happen, you have to first instill—and then demand—a sense of discipline in your team.
When I said “zero tolerance,” I meant zero. If you’re going to maintain control of your team, you must make people respect the repercussions. Even if it means ending a relationship.
Whenever you find success in life, there will be people who believe some of it belongs to them.
No matter what position you’re in, when you make rules that benefit the collective good, you need to enforce them. Don’t let someone who’s focused only on themselves ruin it for everyone else. They can be hard rules to live by, but doing so will always pay off in the long run.
In order to get the best out of the people around you, sometimes you have to clearly and forcefully articulate the opportunities you see for them.
oftentimes, the best way to extract that maximum value is by choosing not to drive the hardest bargain.
You cannot, under any circumstances, compromise when it’s your vision on the line. You have to be prepared to go against popular opinion and turn down money—even if it jeopardizes your relationships—until you’re confident you’ve found the right opportunity.
When you settle, you’re demonstrating a lack of confidence.
