I was watching a video of Russ giving a talk about his career at a Forbes 30 under 30 conference. As I was watching this video something struck out to me. Russ was explaining how when he first started making beats he was trash. When he put out songs they flopped. He proudly recounted going from failure to failure in his career. Him talking about his blunders got my attention in particular. No matter what Seeing a person who has succeeded talk about times when they were failures will always captivate me. The duality of how one becomes a winner or loser will always have my attention. He went on to explain how he was able to go from failure to failure without loosing enthusiasm. Because he held his enthusiasm he was able to confidently focus on improving. He was able to improve his skill set more so than somebody who is in the negative becuase he/she is upset by things not occurring quickly. Things take time. Jeff Bezos said he’s noticed all overnight successes take 10 years. That’s exactly how long it took Russ to get to where he is today. The confidence in one’s own ability to improve is exactly what is needed to be patient for 10 years with no results. It get’s difficult when the time is passing by and your look around and your not where you thought you would be at the age your at. Thoughts of quiting and taking the more conventional route start to rise. It takes fortitude to bet on yourself. To have solid confidence in you’re own ability. That’s something that I need to develop more of. This idea of having solid belief that you will improve is why I think learning is so important. Learning makes time more of an asset. Consistently learning adds depth to one’s experience. I realized that when I had improved my people skills. I’ve always had trouble getting along with groups of people. Ever since I was a kid I was always ganged up against. What I did when I was 22 from then one on was just cultivate a character strong enough to stand up and physically fight. Only three weeks ago did I notice that when you challenge someone to a fight and they deffer that person only gets more clever in expressing their contempt towards you. I also noticed that my inability to get along with people in will negatively impact my career. So I decided to listen and take notes from the audiobook How to Win Friends and Influence People. Because I put into practice the idea of Being Confident in my Ability to Improve I pushed harder in developing my people skills than I ever did. Because I knew the ability was their I used it. I came into work with a smile, a gift for everybody, and a more people friendly attitude. All while I was at work I made consistent effort in getting along with my coworkers. And that’s exactly what happened. All this occurred becuase I was confident in the fact that I had an ability to improve what ever skill I choose. Because I did that I know everybody has that capacity.

Russ at Forbes 30 under 30 Conference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c60vF2ttR4Q