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Motivation Beyond Bragging Rights
00:06:23
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| Right. | |
| So I get asked a lot about motivation and people say, take what motivates you. | |
| And I find that extremely... I think that's a stupid question. | |
| What motivates me? | |
| Because I don't want to be a loser. | |
| Like, who wants to be a loser? | |
| I've always wanted to be rich, because I know I deserve to be rich, because I see how many stupid people are rich. | |
| Look at any rapper, and look at any of their interviews, and see how low their IQ is, and these people are millionaires. | |
| We got a special guest in the building, Tekashi69! | |
| I'm the hottest artist in the city. | |
| No, you're not. | |
| So if they're a millionaire, I definitely deserve to be a millionaire. | |
| So I've always had motivation for the same reason I want to be big and strong and rich and I want to be all these things because I'm me. | |
| So I was talking to someone the other day and they said, why are you motivated? | |
| And I said, because I don't want to be a loser. | |
| And they said, yeah, I understand that. | |
| But why are you so uncomfortable with the idea of being average loser? | |
| And you have to push so hard. | |
| So I guess my typical response wasn't enough for him. | |
| Why are you so motivated? | |
| Don't want to be a loser? | |
| Okay, but why don't you want to be a loser? | |
| So I sat there for a little bit and I thought and I thought what is the reason I have always been so driven my entire life? | |
| And it's obviously to do with my upbringing, but it's like, what element of my upbringing made me into such a militant individual? | |
| What made me so brilliant? | |
| From a young age, I was a professional chess player, and then I became a professional kickboxer, and then I became a multimillionaire businessman, blah, blah, blah. | |
| Why have I always pushed so hard? | |
| And I think one of the key elements to it is because I was always extremely proud of my last name, Tate. | |
| And the reason for that is, in the environment I grew up around, whenever the name Tate was said, people put respect on the name. | |
| So when I used to go to professional chess tournaments with my father, who was one of the best chess players in the world, people would say, oh shit, Tate's here. | |
| Oh man, Tate's here. | |
| Oh, who's got Tate? | |
| Who's playing Tate? | |
| Everyone was scared. | |
| The name invoked fear. | |
| The name invoked respect. | |
| Automatically, just the name, Tate. | |
| Every time something was happening to me that was difficult or I had a challenge ahead of me, etc, etc, I was motivated with my own last name. | |
| So it's like, oh, dad, I'm worried about this, or mom, I'm scared about this. | |
| And they say, yeah, but you're a Tate. | |
| It's like, oh, yeah, I am scared, but I am a Tate. | |
| So it's okay, because I'm a Tate. | |
| Even now, even as successful as I am, most people would look and go, oh, look at my child, they've done this, they've done this, they've done this. | |
| I guarantee as a child, I outperformed any of you as children. | |
| And I guarantee if you have children, I outperformed your child. | |
| This is the reality of it. | |
| I was moved up three grades in school. | |
| I had one of the highest SAT scores in history. | |
| I was a chess champion age five, blah, blah, blah, blah. | |
| I was the state chess champion. | |
| In the under 16 year olds at age 5. | |
| The youngest in history. | |
| In fact, I remember being 5 years old and playing a whole bunch of 10 year olds. | |
| There was 4 of them on a team against me. | |
| I remember sitting there and whooping them all. | |
| So, uh, I was a genius. | |
| Child genius. | |
| Adult genius. | |
| Whatever, whatever. | |
| But I was never told, oh wow, you're so smart. | |
| For me, it was just normal. | |
| They're like, yeah, you're a Tate. | |
| Oh, they moved me up three grades in school. | |
| Well, duh, you're a Tate. | |
| Of course. | |
| What the fuck else are they gonna do? | |
| So for me, achieving things was always very, very normal. | |
| And it was always very, very easy in my mind. | |
| It was always just like, well, duh, of course, I achieve things. | |
| Of course, I'll be world champion. | |
| Of course, I'll be a millionaire. | |
| Of course, I can do anything I want. | |
| And I've always believed I can do anything I want because I'm a Tate. | |
| And for me, achieving things is very, very easy. | |
| And I was never overtly praised. | |
| And my parents were never surprised by my success. | |
| A lot of parents are very, very surprised by the success of their children. | |
| I'll see it. | |
| They go, he's one of the best in his class. | |
| And I'm like, so? | |
| He's one of the best, so he's not even the best, of a group of 30 random average losers. | |
| He's not top 1% in the world at anything. | |
| And you're so proud of him, and you're going to sit there and go, wow, great job, great job. | |
| And that's why he's never going to become shit. | |
| I'd be embarrassed to have a child which wasn't top 1% in the country. | |
| Let alone his shitty class. | |
| I'd be embarrassed to brag about the things you brag about. | |
| They're bare minimum acceptable standard. | |
| If I had a child and he wasn't one of the best in his class... | |
| You're getting an ass kicking. | |
| That's the bare minimum acceptable standard and you're proud of it? | |
| So, one of the main reasons, I guess, I've always been so motivated, one of the reasons my life is so fantastic, because the truth is, I am one of those individuals that have all. | |
| I was born with a genetic gift. | |
| I'm tall, caramel, sexy as fuck, rich, I can fight, I'm a genius, I've got it all. | |
| And one of the reasons I've taken Such marvelous advantage of my genetic gifts, and used them so beautifully, and exploited them, is because I was always, always understanding that 1. | |
| My name means something, and I have to live up to my name, and I have to succeed, because when people say the name Tate, it needs to mean something. | |
| So just like in the chess halls, when the name Tate was said, now in the kickboxing world, if the name Tate is said, people know it means something. | |
| You guys are here, if you follow me, and you watch my whole life, etc. | |
| etc. | |
| etc. | |
| If anyone else knows who I am, and you say the name Tate, people know. | |
| They know it means something, and I've made it mean something. 1. | |
| And two, because my successors were always seen as absolutely not really normal. | |
| And it was absolutely not really normal for me to succeed beyond all measurable doubt, beyond any expectations. | |
| The average expectations put on the average child, or the average person, or the average man, I have always blown out of the water without even trying. | |
| It's just been easy for me, because this is how I've always been as an individual. | |
| So, I guess the moral of the story is, I was raised for success. | |
| And if you're sitting there and you're thinking, oh, I want to be more motivated, I want to be more motivated, you have two things to do. | |
| One, stop being proud of your achievements which are extremely minor. | |
| Oh, look what I did today! | |
| What'd you do? | |
| Is it actually impressive? | |
| Genuinely? | |
| The answer is no. | |
| One. | |
| And I'm saying that as, I mean like, because even me in my life, If I win a kickboxing world title, okay, I'll be proud of myself. | |
| Outside of that, well, I bought a new car, who cares? | |
| All the things you're so happy about, all the things you brag about, it's bullshit things. | |
| It's things everyone does every day and it's not important. | |
| One. | |
| And two, you need to make your name important. | |
| You need to make your name important, you have to find a way to invoke a level of respect on your name. | |