Latest / Motivation study / I wasted 33 years trapped in my own head before Rick Rubin explained this in 10 minutes

Transcript

I wasted 33 years trapped in my own head before Rick Rubin explained this in 10 minutes · Motivation study

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What do you see is the thing that holds people
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: back the most from being their most creative and best self?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: I think it's being concerned what other people think and
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: a feeling of that the people who make great things
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: are somehow special and that they're not special. And that's
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: just not true. We're all, everyone has the capability to
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: make great things. And none of us are special. So
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: I think there's always a way. You don't have to
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: wait for permission from someone else. I think that's a
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: big part. People are waiting for permission.
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: To actually make their art.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: To make their art. Someone has to say, you know,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I'll hire you to do this or I'll publish your
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: book if you write a book or whatever. set the
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: stage to allow you to do it. But I don't
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: think that's the way great things are made. There's nothing
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: you can't do. You can't be the best in the
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: world at something, but you can be a lot better
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: than you are at anything you want to put the
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: time into learning, whatever it is. Anything is possible at
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: any time, just if you have to do the work.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I don't think that there's a right way to do
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: anything And I would never dictate to anyone else how
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: to do anything. If someone asks, I would say maybe
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: this is how I would try it. But I would
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: never assume that that's what's going to be best for
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: them because you can't know. You can't know. We all
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: have our own set of experiences that form who we are.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: And my solution to a problem is has to do
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: with my life experiences and your solution to a problem
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: has to do with your life experiences. And one's not
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: more right than the other. It's the one that's right
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: for me is the one that's mine. And the one
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: that's right for you is yours. And there's not, there's,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: you can't compare or, um, say one's better than the other.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: You know, is, is Bob Dylan better at being, uh,
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: the Ramones than the Ramones. No, the Ramones are better
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: at being the Ramones than Bob Dylan. And Bob Dylan
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: is better at being Bob Dylan than the Ramones. Everything
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: is like that.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Everything.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: It's like, we can't, we can't inhabit any, because otherwise
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: it's all the same. I heard an interesting thing recently that, um,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of talk about AI art now. And
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: that when, if all of the inputs into the AI
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: are the same, which they will be from all the
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: competing AIs, they'll all have the same database that eventually
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: as they get better and better and you put in
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: the parameters of what you're looking for, they'll all spit
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: out the same answer now. And that's the technically the
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: right answer. Now, if you were going to engage with
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: a subject, and another writer was going to engage with
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: the subject, and you were to both write about it,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: the chances of those articles being similar, books being similar,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, the subject will be the same, but the
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: perspective is completely different. It's not about the outcome. That's
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: what I'm saying. If you don't make money, or if
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: you do make money, that has nothing to do with
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: the art. Art is the art, and then whatever happens after,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: happens after. If you make something that you love, I
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: know if I make something I love, if more people
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: like it, that's only a good thing. Now, I wouldn't
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: change a word of it for someone else to like it.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Do you know what I'm saying? It's like I make
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: the thing I love and then present it to the world.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And then if the world likes it, great. And if
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: more people like it than less, better. Why not? We're
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: sharing something we love, something we think is beautiful. So
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: the more people who embrace it. But again, I would
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: never change it for anyone else because that's not what
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: it's about. It's not about that. It'd be like there
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: was a time, I think, when Metallica felt like, we
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: don't really want to be a heavy metal band. We
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: want to be a pop band because pop bands are
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: what's popular. And we have reached a ceiling being a
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: heavy metal band. That did not go well. That was
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: a bad idea. They weren't playing their hand. They weren't
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: embracing Metallica. And I think if you embrace your part,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: it's your best chance being true to yourself. Not saying, oh, well,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: those people over there are getting popular doing this other thing.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: I don't really like it, but it's really working for them.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Maybe I could try that. Recipe for disaster.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: So don't chase something that's not your hand.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: No.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: The example I'm thinking of is like Lady Gaga came
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: onto the scene doing, I guess, pop music and became
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: very popular, but then said, hey, I want to do
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: this more kind of jazzy, bluesy, like Tony Bennett thing.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: She was being true to herself.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: And that's what I want to do. And I don't
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: care if anyone likes it, but it's what I want
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: to do with this season of my life.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: True to herself.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: And it may lose money.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: But she was not doing it because I think people
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: will like this. Right. This is working over here. So
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: I'm going to. try to catch their heat, she was
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: not doing that.
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: She probably knew people wouldn't like it.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Only a small audience. She didn't care. She was true
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: to herself. This is what she wanted to do, and
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: she did it. If you come up making a certain
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: kind of music and you get popular making that music,
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: a feeling of, well, this is all anybody wants from me,
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: so even though I don't care about it anymore, I
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: have to keep doing it, that's a disaster as well.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: That doesn't work. A shortcut is, how little can I
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: get away with doing? And I think that the real
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: question is, how much more can I give to the
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: thing I'm making? What else can I give to it?
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: And thinking in terms of, how much more can we do?
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Not how much less can we do. It's not about shortcuts.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: It's not about getting it done. It's not about a
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: four-hour work week. It's like whatever it takes for it
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: to be all it could be. Commitment and total commitment
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: and dedicating your life to making the best things you can,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: whatever it is. If your intention is pure and you're
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: doing it for the right reasons, it seems like things
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: tend to work out. And that ends up being Um,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: and the results have shown me that you can manifest things.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: It happens. It's it, but I'll say when I do it,
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: it's never based on the outcome to, to rise to
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: the occasion, to make the best thing that I can
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: for the thing that I make to be great. Great
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: is a vague word. I don't know what great means.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I came to realize recently. what great means, but I
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: didn't know most of my life I was aiming for great,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: but I didn't know what that was. And I've come
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: to realize that great means it's, it's a devotional, it's
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: a devotional kind of greatness. It's a gift to the universe.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: It's a gift to God. Wow. If you're making, if
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: you're making a gift to God, you can't put more
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: into it than that. You know, you can't, what about
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: the single? What about What about what someone's going to say?
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Who has anything to say if we're making a gift
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: for God? You're putting all of your purest intention into
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: this thing for the universe. Wow. That's where it's at.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: But you get to leave behind three lessons. And this
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: is all we would have to remember your information by.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: And I call it the three truths. What would be
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: those three truths for you that you would leave behind?
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Think it might just be one it might just be
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: be true to yourself know you know yourself as best
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: as you can to be true to who you are
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: and allow that person to evolve and change as the
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: conditions change and to not be inflexible I recommend artists
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: to engage or re-engage with why they wanted to do
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: it in the first place and really find their love.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: When it goes from the thing you love to the
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: thing you do for work, it's an issue. And to
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: get back to that, I do this because I love
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: this more than anything. I do this not because I
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: got a good review, not because I sold a lot
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: of copies or I do this because this is what
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: I do. It's what I've always wanted to do. And
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: I'm going to continue doing it with the same head
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: that I went into it in the first place that
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: allowed me to be successful in the first place. You
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: realize that your thoughts are not you. And that left
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: to your own devices, there'll be a lot of voices
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: in your head just going all the time. And they're
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: not you. And they don't mean anything. And they're really repetitious.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: And they're not working in your best interest.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: So if your thoughts aren't you, then what are you?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: I suppose you are the unchanging part of yourself. That's
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: always there. From.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Probably from the time you're born until the time you die.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: And maybe before and after. It's the... It's what's really inside.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: It's not... It's not changeable. It's... What you came with.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: It's not the....
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: The thinking mind. It's almost being the observer of the thoughts.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: The one who sees the thoughts. That sounds right. Yeah.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Observing the thoughts. Thank you.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: That's what I was hearing you say.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: What do you think is the best habits that an
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: artist can have? That maybe you have individually, but also
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: that you see in other artists?
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: I would say dedication to the craft. Whatever their craft is,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: dedicating themselves to it. Taking it very seriously. Being free
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: to play in it, you know, like taking it seriously
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: at the time when it warrants being taken seriously and
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: having fun and being free in a play way to
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: allow the thing that's worthy of being taken seriously to appear. Right.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: Taking it seriously and also allowing yourself to play in
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: it as well.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The play always is where it starts. It starts
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: in this playful way where nothing is serious and there
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: are no stakes. And then through that, something appears. And
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: then in order to get that into condition to share,
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: there's a grueling effort.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Take that seriously.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: And sometimes you do a grueling effort and then you realize, oh,
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: that thing that happened the first day, that's the best
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: version of it. But you don't know that until you've
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: maybe banged your head against the wall for six months
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: working on it. And then you realize, you know what?
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: That first five minutes was the best. That was it.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: You can't know that until you go past. You know,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: you have to... Work past it to see this was
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: the one.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: This is the best version.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: A big part of it is just not screwing up
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: what's good.
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: Without messing it up.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: No, there are all these stories of the demos being
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: better than the album. It's easy to not know why
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: something is good. You make a demo and you think, okay,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: now when I get the professional musicians to play it,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: it's going to be great. It's going to be that
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: much better. Maybe yes, maybe no. We don't know. We
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: never know. We never know what's going to happen when
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: we do anything. So to stay neutral and to keep
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: every iteration along the way and be willing to look
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: back after you just spent months refining something to then say,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: you know what? It was better three months ago. Throw
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: that all away. Wow.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: You've been doing this a long time. You've worked with
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: so many amazing artists. Obviously, you know what you're doing.
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: How have you managed to stay.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Humble and flexible.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: And I imagine there's this sort of stereotypical record producer,
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: just like there's the stereotypical head football coach that comes in.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: I'm the boss. I know what we need to do.
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: Listen to me. That's obviously not your style, but there's
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: a human temptation there, I'm sure.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Well, since every project they work on is so different,
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: and since on a daily basis, I see something work
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: that I don't understand. I could never have that feeling
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: of it being about me. I know it's not about
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: me because I do it all the time and I
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: see I'm happy to be there. I'm happy to witness
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: it and experience it. I'm happy when a possible solution
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: occurs that works, but I don't feel like that has
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: anything to do with me. And I'm just as happy if,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: if a better solution occurs to someone else in the room,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: as long as the project gets better, I don't care.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: I just want, there's no ego in it because we're
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: all on this. We're all on a team working together
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: for this thing, whatever it is to be the best
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: it could be. So there's no room for anyone to
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: have any part of it be theirs. It's, It's none
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: of ours, really.