And we’re all made to be perfectly imperfect.
I was rejected but it was the best rejection ever for me
to lead me in a different direction,
the direction where I’m heading towards right now.
You learn way more when you fail than when you succeed.
That’s something I can guarantee you on.
You want to tell stories and you want something that can last
longer than just a one hit wonder.
– What’s up Believe Nation, it’s Evan.
My one word is believe,
and I believe that you have the ability
to do something special that can change the planet.
So, to help you on your journey today,
we’re going to learn from YouTuber and entrepreneur
Michelle Phan, and my take on her top ten rules for success.
Rule number six is my personal favorite,
and I’d love to know which one you guys like the best.
(uplifting tune)
– I came from a mother and father who are both immigrants,
didn’t speak English,
so I had to learn English on my own,
I had to learn it through TV and through school
and I had to learn how to speak Vietnamese at home.
Everything that I know of today
I had to teach myself,
I had to learn from other people,
bring on mentors,
and also adapting.
Silencing my mind,
and just observing quietly and adapting to that.
Even when I was doing YouTube,
everyone thought I was crazy,
everyone thought I was stupid,
like, they literally said, oh, that’s so dumb,
you could never make money on YouTube,
why would you do that?
Why not just go get a corporate job?
I followed the beat of my own heart
and that beat led me here.
Find your qualities.
Instead of focusing on the negative,
which I know can be hard,
focus on the positive.
And it doesn’t have to be a physical thing.
Maybe you’re amazing at Mario Kart
or you’re a brilliant pianist,
an amazing painter, a singer,
you make great grades at school.
No one is perfect at everything
and we’re all made to be perfectly imperfect.
Kind of like this crystal.
See, it’s not perfectly cut like a flawless diamond,
but it’s beautiful in its own unique way.
There won’t be another crystal like this one
and just like you,
it has many, many facets
and you’ll be discovering more of them as time goes by
and if you don’t think you have a quality,
just ask yourself this simple question:
what am I good at?
Everyone is good at something
and if you don’t know what it is,
well, take this opportunity to find it.
Sign up for cooking classes, painting classes,
learn how to sing, play some sports,
pick up on a passion and nurture it
because this helps build self-worth,
it gives you something to do and strive for.
I was rejected but it was the best rejection ever for me
to lead me in a different direction,
the direction where I’m heading towards right now
and that was back in 2007,
I applied for a job at a counter at department store
because I really wanted to work in the beauty industry,
I wanted to be a makeup artist
and I wanted to empower women
through just the art of beauty.
And so, I went in,
they were looking for a sales associate
and I applied for the job,
I filled out the application,
I did the sit-down interview,
I answered all the right questions,
I mean, they were very impressed with my knowledge
and my passion
and the last question she asked me was,
“Have you ever worked in sales?”
And I said no, you know,
I’m a waitress, you know,
I know how to host,
how to make people feel good,
and I know how to really understand
and read the fine lines and details of people
’cause, you know, like, when you’re waiting tables,
you really have to see, like, what someone wants
without them needing to say anything to you.
So, it wasn’t good enough for her though
because she said, “Well,
“unfortunately we do need someone that
“has experience in sales.”
And I said, but I can learn, you know,
like, please give me a shot,
you know, like, just give me a chance, I’m willing to learn,
and I know I can sell beauty.
I mean, I love it, I’m passionate about it.
Two weeks later I never got the call back
and I was really devastated because,
you know, it’s a rejection,
it’s tough because I think
we’re all programmed to wanting to have, like,
positive reinforcement, you know,
we want positive reinforcement,
we want people to say yes, we always want yes,
I mean, no is such a negative,
like, I feel like sometimes we think no is something bad
but sometimes we need no’s in our lives
to kind of shift us in a different direction,
you know?
I always find that in life, like, the universe,
there’s always three answers when you want something,
it’s either yes,
not yet, or I have something better.
So, in this case–
– (all simultaneously) Oh!
– In this case,
I knew that there was going to be something better,
I didn’t take that rejection,
I didn’t just, I didn’t drop my love for beauty,
in fact, I opened another door for myself
and that was through YouTube, my webcam.
And I said you know what?
I may not be able to have a job as a sales associate
at a department store selling makeup,
but at least I can still fulfill my passion in beauty
by filming these tutorials and helping girls
and inspiring girls to try new beauty looks
and that’s what I did.
And two years later, Long Comb calls me
and they wanted me to become
their official online spokesperson.
I realized, you know,
had I have gone back in time and told myself, hey,
you know what, this rejection is something that
you need to take and, you know, it’s not a bad thing.
I think, like,
you know, that was the best thing that ever happened to me
was that rejection.
So, I absolutely agree with you, Andrea,
like, sometimes rejection is a blessing in disguise.
What do you do when you start a business but it fails?
Well, hopefully you can learn from all the mistakes,
all the good things, and all the bad things
and reapply it to your new business
or reapply it to your new job
or your new career destination.
Look at Apple.
Apple is one of the most prestigious,
bankable companies in the world
and they had a lot of failures,
they had a lot of launches that didn’t work,
they had a lot of things that
just didn’t click with the audience and their customers
but that didn’t stop them from having the thriving business.
You learn way more when you fail than when you succeed.
That’s something I can guarantee you on.
I didn’t prepare myself to become a beauty guru.
It didn’t just happen,
it was something that I knew fit for myself.
I started filming on YouTube on my webcam in college
in my room, like, just doing makeup tutorials
and now, now, like, I work with L’Oreal
and I have, like, three companies that
I’m a CEO of,
so it’s incredible how that all happened because
I had a passion and it all started from a webcam.
And it doesn’t matter how small your beginnings are,
it doesn’t matter,
it just, all that matters is how big your passion is.
If I had to choose one thing that really motivates me
that I can recommend to a lot of young entrepreneurs,
it’s having that,
finding and understanding why
you’re doing what you’re doing,
you know, having a sense of purpose,
because oftentimes I meet so many aspiring entrepreneurs
and they have these great ideas
but they don’t even know why they’re doing it.
Money should be a byproduct of what you love to do.
I just want to really inspire the youth because
I’ve always believed in teaching and sharing.
Not coming from an authoritative point of view,
like, you have to use this or use that,
but this is what works best for me
and it might work best for you
and if it doesn’t work for you,
then just comment and let me know what works best for you
because there might be someone here watching this
that we can help.
My biggest thing I would tell myself is really
to just focus on what makes you happy.
You know, like,
don’t listen to what everyone else is telling you,
like, your parents are pushing you in this direction,
your friends are trying to get you to do this,
ask yourself, look at yourself in the mirror,
and ask yourself what do I want for myself?
You know?
And that was, when I was growing up,
it was always me pleasing my parents,
pleasing my friends, trying to fit in,
but I never once asked myself what makes me happy,
what do I want to do?
And I think my biggest advice is really just
taking the time and really just finding quiet time,
giving yourself moments to reflect on
where you want to see yourself in the next 10 years.
And really, like, being really realistic,
not about I want to impress my friends,
I want to have a nice car, and have an amazing career,
it’s not about what everyone else wants,
it’s about what you want.
I want to inspire girls and show them that
you don’t have to do one thing and stick with it,
like, if you love music,
you don’t really need to be a musician
if you’re not a good singer,
you can manage musicians
or you can work doing, like, sound effects
or stuff like that.
There’s so many different things you can do
that you really love.
And for me, mine was beauty.
I love art but I also love beauty
and I found a way to combine the two together
and create makeup tutorials
and show girls how to become their own artists
and become their own makeup artists
and, in a sense,
teaching other girls to wake up every day
and apply a red lipstick to feel confident again.
What I recommend usually
when anyone is starting on YouTube
is to really focus on storytelling
because storytelling has a longer shelf life
than just doing a funny viral video,
like, you want to tell stories
and you want something that can last longer
than just a one hit wonder.
It’s like any business you build, I mean,
before you start you have to know
exactly what are you selling,
what are you projecting,
what’s your message,
what’s your vision, what’s your brand identity?
And from there, you can work.
I wanted to make this video to remind you guys that
it’s okay to feel stressed,
it’s very natural,
but the thing is you can’t feel stressed all the time.
Even something like this,
a phone, a machine messes up
and remember, guys,
we also have to charge these things,
they don’t just run on forever,
even they need a break.
And so, if something like a cell phone, a machine,
needs a break, imagine us.
We need to give ourselves time to relax,
to recharge,
to find and seek that inner peace.
This day and age where everything is moving so fast
and we’re always wanting to be in the know,
we’re trying to keep up with everything.
There’s this pressure to always be on
but there’s nothing wrong with just turning everything off.
– Thank you guys so much for watching.
I made this video because MJ Illustrates asked me to.
If there’s someone you’d like to vote on for the next top 10
check out the link in the description
and go and have your say.
Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Marian Lizzi
who was my publisher from Penguin Random House.
Marian, thank you so much for your support
on this one word book journey
and I really appreciate the picture you took on Instagram
and shared it with your following as well.
Thank you again.
So, thank you guys again for watching.
I believe in you,
I hope you continue to believe in yourself
and whatever your one word is,
much love, see you soon.
– I know not everyone in the world has the luxury
to do their dream job because they have to make money,
they have to hustle,
they have to accept a job that they might not want to do
or they hate.
Every idea has a million different roadmaps.
If you love origami,
have you perhaps thought about going into engineering,
learning coding, developing an app,
designing, even.
There’s so many different paths that you can take
and there’s no one size fit for all rule for your dream job.
There’s so many different things you can do
with your giftings.
If you do have a dream job idea,
have that as a goal
but leave room for yourself to grow
and explore different options.
It’s easy, just engage.
Engage with your viewers.
Actually go out and talk to them
and show them that you are talking to them
and you are interested in what they think.
You just really have to have a two way conversation
with the people who are watching your stuff because
traditional media, it was just a one way street.
With new media, when you’re watching the content,
you start seeing all these comments from other viewers
and that in itself creates a new content too.
Sometimes they’re debating,
sometimes they’re adding value,
sometimes it’s just really funny comments
but I think now it’s really just having a social aspect
to the content that you’re creating.
Consciously, think positive thoughts,
especially during moments when you’re feeling down.
So, take a deep breath,
and remind yourself that life is too short
and you got to make the best of it.
Listen to music that will lift your mood.
A good beat and sound has been proven
to help people in a positive way.
Music and sound has been known to help the growth of plants.
That says a lot.
You want to have a healthy habit
of maintaining this mental muscle
but you also don’t want to overdo it.
Everything in moderation,
balance is key.
It’s good to remind yourself from time to time
how worthy and how, you know, awesome you are
but you also want to leave room to grow and improve.
I mean, we can all change and evolve for the better.
”
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