I am always surprised by how the people in the entertainment industry are so driven and hardworking. People often over-emphasize the talent or luck part, e.g. his name "50 Cent" was acquired from a chance meeting with Eminem in the subway, but this is quite misleading.
I agree with what you said but a quick clarification. He was already known as 50 Cent before he met Eminem. He took the name from a famous "stick up" kid in NY from the past. He made an album on Columbia before he met Em but was dropped when he was shot.
The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.
That's terrible advice for me. I suck at working with others and trusting others and have a tendency to try and do everything myself. Problem is, in short term you can get more done quickly but in longterm doing everything alone does not scale. It's hurt me many times and something I've proactively worked to improve in the past year(with good results).
I'm sure there must be others on the other end of the spectrum who'll find this advice more helpful.
All said, I have tremendous respect for 50 cent. He's got an incredibly sharp business mind. Just look at how much he made off of Vitamin Water.
The ultimate power in life is to be completely self-reliant, completely yourself.
Why do these authors seemingly ignore the very obvious contradiction there? The idealism that this piece espouses is directly dependent on the support of other people. If 50-cent, and Vitamin Water did appeal to the averages then they would not have the revenue that they claim to have attained "by themselves".
There are countless people out there who could do exactly what they want, for themselves and never see these kind of returns simply because their product does not appeal to the averages. Getting by through life "completely self-reliant" is at best a joke and at worst myopic denial of reality.
I believe what he meant by "completely self-reliant" was more like "a work for your own dreams and ideas". Don't just work because you have to (of course everybody has to work, but 80-90% could also be entrepreneurs and wouldn't have to work for others and their dreams) for other people. And don't expect other people to always help you pursuing YOUR dreams.
Curtis Jackson was always self-reliant because he comes from a broken family (mother shot dead when he was 8, grandmother and grandfather had to take care of their own kids -> less attention on him -> more self-reliance and self-belief to actually make something of himself). If he expected to get help from other people or trust other people with his ideas and his dreams even with his work, his life would have been crushed badly. A natural self-belief is very important and should be carried by anyone trying to achieve big things.
Yet I think that the direction he's pointing towards is the direction of being "at cause" in the situation. While he depends on his audience as a whole, each audience member depends on him much more than he depends on them. It's a lesson some people need.
It is interesting, though, that native people who depended much less on a vastly developed society actually placed considerable emphasis on being interdependent, on moving well within a whole. Course, they had perhaps more functional (or less competitive) whole than we do.
I think he's talking about independence and ownership, not isolation. Take that sentence in the context of the sentences before it:
* When you work for others, you are at their mercy. They own your work; they own you. Your creative spirit is squashed... When it is yours, it is yours to lose -- you are more motivated, more creative, more alive.
I thought the ultimate power in life is to pose in a bulletproof vest on the cover of seventeen magazine. Now that was badass. He showed those teenaged girls who's boss.
vitamin water got famous because he was already famous. as its easy to make money when you are already rich..its easy to make your products famous when you are famous to begin with
50 Cent took his payment in company stock, that's why his pay out was so huge. I'm sure if other celebrities followed suit, they'd see similar returns.
It depends on how rich and what type of famous/following you have though because I doubt people would fancy buying water from Bill Gates or Donald Trump. (Even if it wasn't immediately obvious who was selling said water once word gets out it all goes down the hole)
Yeah, but he wasn't born famous. For that matter, I had no idea he put money into vitamin water, it doesn't even remotely overlap with his personal branding.
He promoted it and made ~400M when it sold to Coke.
The parent poster's comment does not give 50 Cent enough credit. 50 Cent didn't just become "more" rich from being rich, be became significantly more rich. While the former may be common(as endorsement deals are), the latter isn't(where the celebrity involved walks away with hundreds of mil).
Right, but it's still because he was already famous. You can argue about what constitutes 'more rich' and 'significantly more rich', but at the end of the day, his already earned fame was probably the biggest reason to him being successful with that venture.
Both replies are making it out to be like I said the deal was stupid. It was a very smart move on his part leveraging his fame to reap such huge rewards. The debate was whether his fame had anything to do with it, and it did. He would not have been able to make such a move had he not been famous. The fame made it possible and easier for him. You or I certainly wouldn't have been able to effectively promote such a product based on our own personal brands. That's all I'm saying.
There are some powerful concepts in here. A lot of HNers are seeking financial independence and they embody much of what 50 cent wrote in this piece. However, I hope we all remember his comment about not becoming dependent on our own money as well. Strength continues to come from within, even when you're not working for the man.
I also like the application of these thoughts to addictions, in all forms. Any addiction is an incredible loss of power.
More of Fifty Cent's life advice was previously posted:
"50 Cent's 10 lessons for success in business - and in life"
"Most people think first of what they want to express or make, then find the audience for their idea. You must work the opposite angle, thinking first of the public. You need to keep your focus on their changing needs, the trends that are washing through them. Beginning with their demand, you create the appropriate supply."
I really liked reading this. I was only vaguely aware of this guy before seeing this article and the other one posted a while ago that wallflower has linked to. I must say, I find him very impressive.
What interested me most about these two articles though was his ability to articulate his thoughts so well. I've noticed that it's frequently the case that successful people are very good at clearly saying whatever it is they want to say. This is a trait I'm trying to develop myself.
Having the clarity of mind to see things for what they are, is really necessary to understand so many things in life deeply. Calling Robert Greene a "self help guru" and disparaging his work fails totally in that regard.
Compare this piece of writing with:
"The Steve Martin Method" http://www.calnewport.com/blog/2008/02/01/the-steve-martin-m... "be so good they can't ignore you"
Jerry Seinfield's "Don't break the chain" http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-se... "the value of continual incremental progress"