Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - The Man Behind Rihanna, Kanye and Jay-Z's Biggest Hits | Benny Pough - Fmr Roc Nation President

Transcript

Lessons - The Man Behind Rihanna, Kanye and Jay-Z's Biggest Hits | Benny Pough - Fmr Roc Nation President · Success Story with Scott Clary

• 0:00
  In this lessons episode, explore how adversity can redefine purpose and reshape the principles
• 0:05
  that guide a meaningful life, discover why betting on personal growth requires preparation and
• 0:09
  confidence. Understand how intuition, authenticity, and teamwork create lasting impact,
• 0:14
  and uncover how vulnerability and self-reflection help break generational cycles and strengthen
• 0:20
  leadership. I want to now sort of pivot into the second half of your life, which is the post-crash
• 0:32
  post-2014. Even on the book you wrote, you broke it down into six different pieces. So you did
• 0:39
  intuition mastery, pivot, authenticity, connections, and teamwork. What does that mean? Why are those
• 0:44
  the titles? What is relevant for that? Is that your life journey and all the different things
• 0:51
  you had to master or walk me through that? Those are the pillars that I live and subscribe by.
• 0:58
  When I looked at it and the accident pulled it all together, like literally and figuratively,
• 1:07
  and that why I say God put a book inside of me, the title of the book is on impact.
• 1:15
  And when I looked at my life, when I decided that I was going to move forward with this,
• 1:21
  I thought about, okay, what is life? What has the value been for me? What are the most important
• 1:27
  things that I can look at in a literal and symbolic way that says who I am? And these are the
• 1:36
  acronyms then became that in impact, intuition, very intuitive mastery. Obviously that's important
• 1:44
  in order to advance and grow. Pivot is needed in knowing when time to move is important in whether
• 1:55
  it's business or professional authenticity. Who you see now is who you saw yesterday and who you
• 2:01
  will see again with modifications, right? Connections have been a driving force in my life and
• 2:07
  is equally teamwork, which is not just the job, but also family and people that you depend on
• 2:13
  to help you grow as an individual. That's how it all came together. I got it. Okay, that makes
• 2:18
  sense. Talk to me about betting on yourself. I love the concept of betting on yourself. I think
• 2:22
  more people should bet on themselves, but they're scared shitless to do it. So how did you figure out
• 2:27
  you can bet on yourself? It's an overused term, but for me, it's driven me to getting to the next
• 2:36
  step of my life is realizing I can't be held. I can't be restricted. I can't be scared. Ultimately,
• 2:44
  it's not at that comfort level to understand how important it is for you to have that freedom.
• 2:54
  So what you have to do is take small steps to build your confidence so that you can realize that
• 3:00
  the value once you take that step in believing in oneself, believing in yourself, did everything
• 3:06
  else is okay? Everything else is okay. And because of that, I've made the preparation and even in
• 3:15
  instances when I wasn't prepared, realizing that I would be okay based on the choices I had to
• 3:22
  make both in good and bad situations. And a lot of that is work. It's no different in anything
• 3:29
  else. You can't just wake up one day and say, I want to bet on myself, but you're not prepared
• 3:34
  yourself. It's no different than this. You probably have thousands of interviews. You can just go
• 3:40
  off. You can just go because you're prepared. So now, if someone offered you and said, hey,
• 3:45
  listen, I want you at NBC, you go like, maybe you know, because yes, what? At the end of the day,
• 3:53
  you know, man, you prepared yourself for it. And that's what betting on yourself is what's
• 4:01
  akin to is is preparing yourself for bigger and greater things that rest inside of you to move
• 4:08
  forward with. When did you when did you first feel you could do that? That's not something that
• 4:12
  comes out of the gate. Like when you're maybe it is, I don't know, but that's a learned experience.
• 4:17
  That conversation with my dad, you know, showed me a lot because my father is a strong man,
• 4:26
  no nonsense. And when I was able to persuade him, right, against what he wanted, I realized like,
• 4:34
  okay, there's a talent there, right? There's, I have confidence. And that's what that moment,
• 4:40
  that's bark was that boost the confidence to realize like, you know what, it's okay. And don't
• 4:47
  give up because, you know, the first time I asked wasn't like, yes, it's the silent more. Tell me
• 4:55
  more, right? So I could have just like, oh, I forget it. But it was like, no, this is what I have
• 5:00
  passion for. And I realized at that point, um, selling was my thing at that point. I realized, okay,
• 5:09
  if I could give my father to change his mind, then, you know, there's something I need to work
• 5:15
  continue to work on. And obviously the paper, the paper, um, business opened up like, I was excited,
• 5:22
  man. Like I was excited selling. I was exciting being like, yo, you trying to beat me, you're not
• 5:28
  going to get over on me, right? Like, yeah, I just, I just, I love the hunt, right? I just love the
• 5:35
  hunt. Do you, do you take that excitement? Like, when you're looking for the next thing because now
• 5:39
  you're in, now you're in another phase of your life where you, you, you wrote a book, you're,
• 5:44
  you're putting together a conference, you're putting together in the media company. Um, do you
• 5:48
  look for excitement and things that you do? Is that kind of like your north star for this is my
• 5:52
  purpose? This is what I should be working on right now. Yeah, I'm definitely a change agent. I,
• 5:57
  for me, it's, it's, uh, about growing companies, growing, um, individuals and obviously growing
• 6:05
  myself to get the best out of, of, of all of the above. And I realized that through my journey and,
• 6:13
  and, and corporate is that truly was my gift and superpower was enabling people to find, you
• 6:21
  know, that essence in them and that comfort, and that comfortability of like someone giving them
• 6:26
  a chance and surrounding them and protecting them as they're able to grow to be who they will.
• 6:34
  Yeah, I was, I was watching like shows before we jumped on just doing my research as I always do.
• 6:42
  And there was actually one question that one, uh, one host asked you and I've never asked anybody
• 6:47
  this on the show before, but you're, you had a beautiful answer. Um, and it was about masculinity.
• 6:52
  And the reason why I think it's a great question is because even when, you know, you've referenced
• 6:59
  your dad a few times, you've referenced your family, you got excited when you found out that I'm
• 7:03
  trying to start a family and shit. Like, so I think that I, I, I want to hear your definition of
• 7:09
  what masculinity is and what being a father is and, and, and, because all ties back to balance,
• 7:15
  and it all ties back to everything you've gone through in your life. So what does that mean to you
• 7:19
  because I feel like it's not really discussed enough for people that are fathers and, and
• 7:25
  trying to build a family and trying to support. Um, it's, it's really being able to embrace your
• 7:32
  vulnerabilities, right? Um, and especially in, in the African-American culture, it's better than
• 7:40
  it was, but, you know, you could show no weakness. Like, you grew up, you just had to be hard. Like,
• 7:46
  you know, everything was about defending yourself. Everything was about the fight. Everything was
• 7:50
  about push you down. Um, if necessary, or beat you down to show everyone not to mess with me,
• 7:56
  it's about toughness. As I grew older, I realized, you know, the value was actually hearing, you know,
• 8:05
  the sentiments and concerns are how people felt about me, meaning the people who I cared for.
• 8:11
  And, you know, growing up in the household, like my father, um, who he was, and how he was,
• 8:17
  he was disciplined, you know, emotions, you didn't even share with your children. Like, so,
• 8:23
  you know, we're still at this point. Like, my father's never audibly said, I love you.
• 8:28
  All right, he showed that he's, you know, his love and care, but his generation could never save
• 8:35
  the words. So you go through life knowing that there's someone who love you with that, those
• 8:44
  three words, Stevie Wonder, right? Um, carries so much impact and power. So like, even when I was in
• 8:53
  the hospital, which was insane, you know, and I never realized this, which was another eye opener.
• 8:59
  My parents, when they found out I was in the accident, my mother had Alzheimer's.
• 9:03
  And they drove the 13 hours, the same 13 hours coming up and I came out of the coma.
• 9:10
  And when I looked up, um, when they came, I saw the weight and the gravity on my father's face.
• 9:18
  And when you realize when you're in a hospital bed, there's no mirrors. So you have no idea the
• 9:25
  condition that you're in. Like no one's like, hey, look at you, you're jacked up. You only take it
• 9:30
  by the actions. And what you see other people seeing looking at you. And when I saw my father's face,
• 9:39
  and I saw the gravity and the thought that he was looking at me as though he could lose his
• 9:48
  only son. That's when I realized that, you know, I was in a bad way. And I couldn't take the energy.
• 9:57
  So I stopped everyone from visiting me and I had to, um, find deep inside of me to get better
• 10:05
  on my own to get better on my own. So with that, you know, in the changes that I've made in life,
• 10:14
  you know, although I might not have heard my father say, I love you. I always tell people
• 10:22
  who I love. I love them, male, female and different, right? So, um, breaking the cycle
• 10:28
  was the equally important and also cherishing the people that you share that they know exactly how
• 10:35
  you feel. That's the wrong answer. Dude, that was really, no, it was super powerful. And you know,
• 10:42
  it's because it means a lot to you. I mean, I think that a lot of, a lot of your journey has been
• 10:48
  self-reflection and self-awareness and who you are in this world for not just yourself, but the people
• 10:53
  closest to you, people closest to are usually your family and your friends and whatnot. And then
• 10:57
  you're just, okay, those are the people that are closest to me. Then what does it mean to be a
• 11:01
  father? What does it mean to be a male figure in a household and whatnot? And it's different for all.
• 11:06
  I mean, you just mentioned it was prevalent in the African-American community. I'm pretty sure
• 11:10
  if I go back to my grandpa or my great-grandpa, they weren't, they weren't smiling and shit all
• 11:15
  the time either. Like it's, there's definitely cultural differences for sure, but I mean,
• 11:21
  I think a lot of old people were hardest fuck. They went through it. They went through it and
• 11:28
  empathy is definitely not on the menu, right? And that's not a good way to live. Yeah, it's not,
• 11:36
  but it's up to us to break the cycle, right? Yeah. If you want change, then you have to change.
• 11:50
  Check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.