Jeen-yuhs: learning from Kanye

What is required for personal success?

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I finished watching the Kanye West trilogy series, Jeen-yuhs, last week and WOW. It was really an amazing watch.

Sure… In the present day, Kanye West is a very polarizing figure. We all thought the whole “Imma let you finish” debacle with Taylor Swift was going to be the worst thing he could do. But he’s proved us all very wrong with the various politically charged tirades he’s had on Twitter and the recent drama between him and Pete Davidson.

Queue the awful imma let you finish memes hahaha

But despite his current reputation, you cannot doubt his success as an artist and creative. He is truly one of the greatest creative talents of our generation.

Yet it was not an easy ride to the top. Pure talent on its own wasn’t enough for Kanye to achieve what he desired. In fact, it was probably a combination of his drive, determination and self-belief that propelled him to the top.

Why is Jeen-yuhs special?

I don’t think I’ve watched anything quite like the Jeen-yuhs trilogy before. The docuseries starts in the late 1990s/early 2000s, when one of the directors, Coodie Simmons, first meets Kanye West while recording for the Chicago news station that he co-founded, Channel Zero.

Coodie is so enthralled by Kanye’s ambition, talent and drive, that he drops everything to follow Kanye to New York where he begins to document Kanye’s life.

Coodie documents all of Kanye’s early career.

From his recovery in a 2002 car crash where he broke his jaw, to sneaking into Roc-A-Fella headquarters (Jay-Z’s record label) to try to force through a deal for himself — Coodie records all of Kanye’s hard work and struggle to become the artist he is now.

In addition to the hard work and struggles, Coodie films some truly amazing moments from the filming of Kanye’s first album as well as some amazing reactions from legendary artists listening to Kanye’s work for the first time.

Comparison

A comparison I’ve made is… Imagine if a filmmaker started filming:

• Elon Musk when he was attending Queens University in Kingston, Canada in the early 1990s.

• Michael Jordan in his sophomore high school year, after he failed to make the varsity basketball team.

• Tom Brady when he was the 7th-string QB in the Michigan University Football Team depth chart (for context that is the backup’s, backup’s, backup’s, backup’s backup’s, backup!!!).

In any of those examples, it would be amazing, and that’s what we have for Jeen-yuhs, The true, uncut version of a legend in the making.

It’s truly amazing that Coodie saw this opportunity and seized it.

Although at the time that he starts recording Kanye, he was already a reputable producer — it’s incredible to see how he battles to prove to everyone that he can be the best rapper in the game.

That’s the first lesson!

I would say this is the first lesson from the docuseries. Having the ability to be willing to take calculated bets especially when you are young and without a defined career. Some would call this taking risks, I like to call it a calculated bet.

At best, Coodie follows and documents the journey of one of the all-time great musical artists.

At worst, Coodie learns about the documentary film process, meets many people within the creative industry (labels, artists, media companies), and can use this experience/film as a credibility booster for whatever he wants to achieve next.

What can you learn from Kanye’s journey?

Regardless of the field you operate in, I believe that you can learn so much from Kanye and his journey to the top.

Whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur, executive or creator, there are 3 key takeaways that anyone can take from this docuseries to assist in your own personal success:

1. The power of extreme positivity and confidence to achieve greatness

2. If you really want success you must seize the opportunity

3. You need a strong support system

1. You Need to Utilize the Power of Extreme Confidence

When Kanye moved to New York in the early 2000s, he made a living off beats, and no one really wanted to give him the light of day to be a rapper.

Recording studios were confused by him.

“A rapper-producer? How is that even possible?”

At that time, the hip-hop/rap scene was very different, and was still primarily dominated by “Gangsta Rap”.

Kanye wouldn’t let that stop him though:

“I feel like everything that anybody ever said in life would be a disadvantage to me…. Imma make it my advantage.

Imma use everything that everybody says that I can’t do…. and Imma flip it to the positive.”

No one wanted him to be a rapper.

The only one who wanted that and believed in it happening was Kanye.

He fought every day to get other people to believe in him.

“If I do what I’m supposed to do, people are gonna look back like… Dude, remember, you used to just make beats for people?”

He had literal blind faith that he was going to achieve his dreams.

Kanye has been calling himself a genius for a long time, but he first started saying it before he had even released his first album — affirming in his mind that he would accomplish what he had set out to do.

The faster you can rewire your brain to view everything as a positive = the faster your life will improve in a parabolic move upward.

2. You Must Seize the Opportunity

Inaction is worse than action. When you really desire something, you must seize the opportunities to make that desire come to life.

Kanye has long had the desire to be a great rapper. To be one of the best in the world.

But in order to make that happen, he knew that he had to seize the opportunities at his disposal.

He knew that the only person who cared about making his dreams come to life was himself.

So he had to make things happen. He had to make moves. Seize opportunities to create success from thin air.

Throughout the first two episodes, Kanye had to take several steps on his own to ensure that he was on the right path to success.

1. Forcing his hand in working with larger creators

   His music label, Roc-a-Fella Records, wanted to brand him as a producer.

   Knowing that he felt like he was way more than that, he forced his hand and seized every opportunity he had to collaborate with other creators.

   This led to him featuring on a track with Jay-Z — the song The Bounce.

   This track ultimately forced others to consider him as a rapper, opening up new opportunities for Kanye.

2. Being insanely scrappy

   Even after being promised by Roc-a-Fella that they would release Kanye’s first rap album, they made life very difficult for Kanye — the album was just not a priority for them.

   Roc-a-Fella wouldn’t allocate any studio time to Kanye, to allow him to record songs for the album.

   Yet, instead of fretting and wimping out about it, Kanye took action.

   At every opportunity, he would use up leftover studio time from other artists or would reach out to collaborators to record in different non-Roc-a-Fella studios.

   Ultimately, recording his album without any help from his label.

3. Growing his reputation on his own

   The purpose of a music label is to promote an artist and to provide capital to help an artist record music.

   Roc-a-Fella provided capital but none of the other things for Kanye.

   When Roc-a-Fella pushed back even further and wouldn’t promote Kanye’s brand, Kanye knew he had to take action again.

   He set up interviews with MTV, recorded his own music videos, performed in poetry jams.

   He recorded a mixtape, collaborated with other artists — essentially doing whatever he could to get his name out in the open.

To achieve his dream, Kanye snagged and utilized every opportunity imaginable that would provide personal leverage which is a great lesson to remember no matter what level of your career you are at.

3. You Need a Strong Support System

After Kanye released The College Dropout, he blew up.

Over 3.4M copies sold, certified 4x Platinum, best rap album at the 2005 Grammy’s. It is known as one of the greatest albums of all time.

This newfound popularity and fame had a large impact on his life.

He had achieved his utmost desire to become one of the best rappers in the world, however, after achieving this desire, with fame comes change…

Due to the realities of life as a rap superstar — he left some of his closest friends behind. In fact, this change led to Coodie no longer recording Kanye on a regular basis…..

At least he had his mother Donda by his side. She kept him in check and down to earth.

They had a truly electric relationship, like the ideal mother and son relationships they describe in stories.

But when she passed away in 2007 from complications she had from surgery, it truly impacted Kanye and I think we still see that today.

Without the strong support system that both held him in check and supported him through his difficulties, it is clear that Kanye has struggled when away from his artistic passions.

While Kanye suffers from mental health issues, I’d argue that if he had the same crew by his side at all times that he had during the development of the College Dropout, I would hope he would be in a better place today.

We see a glimpse of this when he reconnects with Coodie in the 2010s.

However, life goes on — I’m sure many of those people who were a part of his crew are achieving other things in their lives and focusing on themselves.

But I think this still stresses the importance of keeping the most important people in your life around you. They’re the shareholders in your life.

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Taking all of these things into consideration, the largest lesson I learned was that:

There is a certain level of blind conviction and personal drive that is required to achieve a special level of success…

This is why a book like Think and Grow Rich is so popular.

Regardless of whether Napoleon Hill actually did what he said he said did in the book, the book teaches you to have insane faith in your abilities. To visualize and fully believe that your desires will be achieved.

So stop doubting yourself and your abilities.

Believe in yourself. Believe in your amazing skills. Believe that you can accomplish your desires…. and the world will be yours.