How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life(32)

Can’t think of anything? Let me help you out. You will finish reading this book by ____________________.

The clock is ticking.





YOU’RE TAKING A MAJOR TEST, applying for a job, auditioning for a movie, starting a sales pitch, or making a presentation to your entire school. Whatever it is, you’re about to do something important and you’re thinking that if it doesn’t work out, your life is literally over. You might as well be Kenny from South Park because there’s no hope for you. You need this. Your entire existence depends on this! You are a mere mortal and this success is essential to your survival. It’s basically oxygen!

To this I say: STOP. I don’t want you to be gasping for air like a fish out of water when you have something important to do. If you think about it, it’s quite terrifying and, to be blunt, stupid to base your entire education or career on one opportunity. Of course some things in life are very important, but a Bawse understands that no one thing should make or break you.

You are building an empire, and you should know that empires are not built overnight and they do not fall easily. They should be built on a strong foundation so that they withstand the test of time and are resilient when threatened. Empires are not built upon a single pillar and, similarly, your career should not be built on a single success. One success is a terrific building block, but it’s not the only thing supporting you. If you land a promotion at work, your empire isn’t resting on this one promotion. Your previous work experience, school degree, and great technical skills all act as pillars that hold you up. Similarly, one pillar crumbling away does not destroy an entire empire; therefore, one failure should not destroy everything you’ve built.

In other words, if one opportunity will make or break your success, then your idea of success isn’t solid enough to begin with. Even if you get the job, ace the test, or kill the sales pitch, you can’t bank your entire success on one achievement.

But I get it. When you’re faced with a great opportunity, your mind can get a bit carried away and dramatic. Throughout my career I’ve received many opportunities to collaborate on videos with some pretty cool people, including Selena Gomez, Priyanka Chopra, Shay Mitchell, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Every time I’m presented with one of these opportunities, I struggle to come up with a video idea, which is strange since I normally pump out two creative videos a week. But I end up convincing myself that no idea is good enough for this once-in-a-lifetime collaboration. After all, this collaboration is with someone epic and it needs to be better than anything else I’ve ever done! What if 1 million new people who’ve never heard of me watch this video? What if my entire future on YouTube depends on this one collaboration? I rack my brain trying to think of something spectacular, and if all goes well, I finally write a creative I feel confident about. I shoot the video, edit it, and upload it, expecting it to alter the trajectory of my entire career. I patiently sit in my office chair waiting for the president to call me and offer me some sort of award. Perhaps they’ll let me walk on the moon. Better yet, someone will give me the key to the moon! Well, first they’ll build a door on the moon and then they’ll give me the key. Either way, I’m getting a key!

“YOU CAN’T BANK YOUR ENTIRE SUCCESS ON ONE ACHIEVEMENT. YOUR SUCCESS SHOULDN’T WALK ON STILTS.

But then nothing happens. Sure, the video will garner some buzz and maybe even receive a few more views than usual. But after a day or two, things go back to normal. In fact, many of my solo videos have done better than some of my biggest collaborations. After waiting for the key to the moon several times, I’ve learned that a super-cool collaboration isn’t ever going to be the thing that “makes” my career. Instead, my career is the sum of everything I do.

Other times I’ve made videos that weren’t received well. While scrolling through the negative comments I’d think, “This is the end. My career is over.” But it never is. Next week I post two more videos and the previous one is forgotten. I wouldn’t have much of a YouTube channel if one bad video caused the entire thing to collapse. That’s the position I want to be in, one that allows for mistakes and growth in equal measure.

I enter auditions with this same mentality. Of course I want to do my absolute best in an audition room, but before I enter I say to myself, “This isn’t going to make or break you.” This puts my nerves at ease and allows me to stay calm. If I nail the audition and get the role, that’s amazing, but my career still won’t be defined by that one role. My empire is made up of my YouTube channel, my book, my collaborations, my social campaigns, and my partnerships.





Having said all this, I’m not suggesting you should approach important opportunities with nonchalance. You should always give 110 percent of your energy and effort. But at the same time you want to be in a position where you cannot be impacted so easily. You can be the ruler of a strong empire but still have the mentality of a hungry hustler.

So if you find yourself stressing over one opportunity or one failure, perhaps the real problem is the foundation you’ve built. A Bawse cannot walk the walk if the ground is crumbling beneath them. You need to strengthen your empire.

You are not a teetering tower. Your career is not standing on one leg getting a Breathalyzer test on the side of the road. Your success is not a game of Jenga. You cannot be made or broken so easily.