“Cause My Life is Dope and I Do Dope Sh--t!”
Kanye West was reported to have said this. I think this is such an amazing quote and something I’ve taken to heart. I do NOT like Kanye as a person but boy is he an interesting, creative and accomplished individual in both music, fashion, design and business. There is so much to learn from him.
I think the point of the quote is that if you want to be interesting, go do interesting things. Even if something does not personally seem attractive to you, it still might be worth trying at least once. I’ve been pleasantly surprised far too many times in my life on this front. I’ve also been unpleasantly surprised, but now I know. In fact, trying and doing is the only way to find out.
Have interesting hobbies, play sports, go travel to interesting places (once the pandemic is over), eat different kinds of foods, read interesting books. DO SOMETHING. Get real life experience and develop a point of view, which is your hopefully very different take on the world. As my friend Justin Mares tweeted “Money can’t buy being interesting.”
My biggest gripe with most people is that they do not have a well thought through opinions or ideas. They just follow what everyone else is doing. Nothing wrong with this in the beginning as you start off doing whatever it is that you are doing: writing, Instagram, Startups, Art. But you will need to develop your own point of view and take on things.
There is this quote from this movie: “We are your Friends” where an older successful EDM DJ takes a budding young kid DJ under his wing and mentors him. He tells him:
“Any successful artist has this moment where they stop being an admirer and they find their signature. Sounds have soul. Build them from scratch. Find new ones. Get your head out of that laptop and start listening to what the world's trying to tell you.”
This is how you differentiate yourself from the pack and why Jerry Garcia’s famous quote has so much resonance.
“Don’t Be the Best, Be the Only”
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