I feel like he has the right idea but the concept of "risk", I feel, is pretty worthless when you've probably got a few hundred million in the bank. In fact, it upsets me in general when filthy rich people talk about risk, because I have a mortgage and a family so for me, "risk" means maybe not being able to put a roof over my son's head.
Do you think he was born with a few hundred million in the bank? He eschewed all the standard hip hop trappings and didn't go all 'gangsta' when that's how people made money. When he produced The Blueprint (one of the greatest hip hop albums ever made) it was backed by soul beats which just weren't a thing in ~2000. He's always done his own thing, his latest album is a prime example of that. He's still just putting out shit he wants to listen to, not necessarily putting out what's successful at any given time in the industry.
It's easy to look back and say, you're filthy rich now so you aren't actually taking risks, but taking risks is how he got there.
Read the interview. You've got it all wrong. He actually says the risky thing for him to do is to not to anything. It has nothing to do with money. I'm sure he fully understands that he could sit on his bank account for the rest of his life, check out and not do anything. His risk isn't losing his home. It's a different kind of risk.
He stresses that the most important thing to him is actually having ideas and sharing them with the world. He says this over and over again, and I can't help but believe him.
> The risk for me would be in not taking one — that's the only thing that's really risky for me.
He wasn't born a celebrity millionaire. He dropped out of college (scholarship, and his mother was a professor there who didn't approve) to pursuit a career in music, took him a decade to break out.
acronO that's the trap that a LOT of people fall into so you're not alone. But don't go to the grave realizing your decisions were based on making a mortgage payment or a 401K payment or a retirement payment or a college savings plan or a something other very "sensible" sounding. Trust me, your boy is going to love and remember his Dad way more if he saw him doing something he was passionate about and lived in a rental than living in a mortgaged house with a bigger room and a Dad with no spark.
Besides what others said about him not always being rich, there is more to risk than money. Doing something crazy on TV or coming out with an album nobody likes could make hundreds of millions of people think differently of him, say he is going downhill, whatever. That is pretty risky as far as I'm concerned.
He has changed recently but he used to be a soulful person who talked openly about his own life. I find that inspiring.
from his blog: (the blog is taken down but this image can still be found on the internet)
http://api.ning.com/files/2B9YJ2tmCwrwvNVAh7nc-3GXR2XCD8LwdS...
I'm going to jump up on my soapbox real quick, because I've been screaming this for a while.
All Kanye West has ever wanted to do is create. If you watch the full interview with Zane Lowe[0], aka the interview that Jimmy Kimmel made fun of and started a whole firestorm over, you realize (if you haven't before) that Kanye sees bringing beauty to others as the penultimate goal in life (you could argue he values his family a bit more). In a sense I think that's what most people who get into startups, or really just "hacking" in general, want to do. Create. Bring beauty. Improve the world in a small way. Leave it better than how you got it, as my dad used to say.
Kanye has also gone through some of the exact trials and tribulations that people trying to start a business go through. If you listen to his song Spaceship[1] from "College Dropout" (his debut album) you can really hear the same kind of ethos as he tries to break into the music business while working at the Gap:
>> Taking my hits, writing my hits
>> Writing my rhymes, playing my mind
>> This fking job can't help him
>> So I quit, y'all welcome
>> Y'all don't know my struggle
>> Y'all can't match my hustle
>> You can't catch my hustle
>> You can't fathom my love dude
>> Lock yourself in a room doing 5 beats a day for 3 summers
>> That's a Different World like Cree Summer's
I'm cherry picking a quote, and it might lose it's umph because of that, but besides the undeniable poetic like quality of his words (is my fanboy showing yet?) you can see the dedication, and the repetition he puts into his craft. This is directly applicable to those trying to get a startup off the ground; You need hard work and most of all you need to ship, and keep on shipping to perfect your product. In fact, when I was trying to get my first startup going I more or less listened to this song on repeat as motivation, because Kanye understands the self-doubt. He understands the constant pressure to succumb to social standards. He understands that people push back when you try and break out. In fact, Kanye probably knows this more than most of us, as a person of color. Yet even through all of this Ye still succeeds. In fact, (it could be argued) the massive amount of people who don't like Kanye are more a testament to his success than the people who do. But it doesn't just stop at music. For those who weren't aware, Kanye started off as a producer and against a lot of pressure to stay a producer became a rapper as well. One of my favorite Kanye songs isn't really a song, but a narrative of how he overcame this and got signed in "Last Call"[2]. As per the same BBC interview I referenced above, Kanye is trying to break into fashion, architecture, design, a myriad of industries using the same ideas and work ethic. Work hard, and make something "dope", while disregarding the way "things are done around here" (to complete the analogy for those less aware of the rap scene, Kanye was one of the founders of "backpack rap", a kind of suburban, every day, introspective way of rapping, as opposed to the massively popular "gangsta rap" of the day).
Beyond all of that one of Kanye's biggest messages throughout his music is that the message of "Stay in your place" is wrong. He is consistently trying to upset the status quo. This is a message that should reverberate among any of us trying to shake up an established industry, or trying to create a market that simply didn't exist before. Kanye sees what is "not cool" in the world and tries to fix that, whether it's jumping up on stage and proclaiming on live tv that Taylor Swift doesn't deserve an award, or using shoe design as a way to break the race barrier in fashion. He's just as much a hacker as any one of us who works with code or hardware.
Kanye also sacrifices for his art. He paid millions out of his own pocket (back before he was financially set, I might add) to produce his own music videos for "Jesus Walks", after the studios wouldn't go with the direction as he wanted. I can't pin down the quote right now, but I recall him saying something to the effect of "If that album [Late Registration] wasn't a success I would have been broke". As we all know "Jesus Walks" became a #1 hit, Kanye got his videos on MTV, and the album went triple platinum. He continues to shell out of his own pocket for tours (that consistently succeed far past expectations) and runs his own design company, DONDA. Rumor has it he is financing his stylist's new clothing line. Just because it's not software doesn't mean he's not a VC.
This might not be the most lucid post, as I'm typing rather frantically in order to get this out before the story drops off the front page, but tl;dr: Kanye West exemplifies the hacker spirit, and learning from someone who has succeeded so immensely as a creative person can't be the worst thing you can do.
Yes, this, exactly this. You've said better than I did. He is absolutely, totally a hacker. Pushing the limits. Challenging himself. Challenging the status quo. I was just talking to a friend about this.
You know what somebody's really made of when they have all of the money in the world. Then you watch them and see what happens. Everything Kanye does (at this point) he does because he feels it needs to exist in the world. Another million doesn't mean anything to him. $10 million probably doesn't even mean much to him. He doesn't do it for the money. Unlike lots of musicians, he didn't release 1 or 2 platinum albums and quit. He just keeps going. I align him more closely to somebody like Mark Zuckerberg than, I dunno, Huey? Zuckerberg has billions and just keeps on hacking. Kanye is a hacker through and through.
> Kanye also sacrifices for his art. He paid millions out of his own pocket (back before he was financially set, I might add) to produce his own music videos for "Jesus Walks", after the studios wouldn't go with the direction as he wanted. I can't pin down the quote right now, but I recall him saying something to the effect of "If that album [Late Registration] wasn't a success I would have been broke". As we all know "Jesus Walks" became a #1 hit, Kanye got his videos on MTV, and the album went triple platinum. He continues to shell out of his own pocket for tours (that consistently succeed far past expectations)
Did not know this any of this. Wow. Just one more reason to respect Kanye.
Kanye is a really talented, honest, arrogant and immature man. That's why he's so fascinating. He's full of contradictions and he's cool with that, plus he puts that at the forefront of his art.
Some quotes that demostrate this wonderful side of him:
> Golly, more of that bullshit ice rap / I got to 'pologize to Mos and Kweli / But is it cool to rap about gold / If I told the world I copped it from Ghana and Mali?
> Always said if I rapped I'd say something significant / But now I'm rapping 'bout money, hoes, and rims again
> But I ain't even gonna act holier than thou / Cause fuck it, I went to Jacob with twenty-five thou' / Before I had a house and I'd do it again / Cause I want to be on 106 and Park pushing a Benz
Shame that only the arrogant side seems to be displayed on the media, and not his child-like personality...
I feel like the author is projecting a lot of their ideas onto Kanye. Either that, or there's much more evidence for the article in the video, but not quoted in the article.
The latter - I tried to keep the article short and to the point, mentioning several things without quoting directly. The specific quotes are at the bottom of the post.
[+] [-] acron0|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ctide|12 years ago|reply
It's easy to look back and say, you're filthy rich now so you aren't actually taking risks, but taking risks is how he got there.
[+] [-] guynamedloren|12 years ago|reply
He stresses that the most important thing to him is actually having ideas and sharing them with the world. He says this over and over again, and I can't help but believe him.
> The risk for me would be in not taking one — that's the only thing that's really risky for me.
[+] [-] nikcub|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jusben1369|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ryderm|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bksenior|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] morgante|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rjtavares|12 years ago|reply
> Who complains about what he is owed?
> And throw a tantrum like he is 3 years old
> You gotta love it though somebody still speaks from his soul
[+] [-] uid|12 years ago|reply
i'm actually struggling to think of an idolized figure in tech who isn't an "asshole".
edit: put "asshole" in quotes, which gets my point across better
[+] [-] nemothekid|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thecolorblue|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] normloman|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ItendToDisagree|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pdeuchler|12 years ago|reply
All Kanye West has ever wanted to do is create. If you watch the full interview with Zane Lowe[0], aka the interview that Jimmy Kimmel made fun of and started a whole firestorm over, you realize (if you haven't before) that Kanye sees bringing beauty to others as the penultimate goal in life (you could argue he values his family a bit more). In a sense I think that's what most people who get into startups, or really just "hacking" in general, want to do. Create. Bring beauty. Improve the world in a small way. Leave it better than how you got it, as my dad used to say.
Kanye has also gone through some of the exact trials and tribulations that people trying to start a business go through. If you listen to his song Spaceship[1] from "College Dropout" (his debut album) you can really hear the same kind of ethos as he tries to break into the music business while working at the Gap:
>> Taking my hits, writing my hits >> Writing my rhymes, playing my mind >> This fking job can't help him >> So I quit, y'all welcome >> Y'all don't know my struggle >> Y'all can't match my hustle >> You can't catch my hustle >> You can't fathom my love dude >> Lock yourself in a room doing 5 beats a day for 3 summers >> That's a Different World like Cree Summer's
I'm cherry picking a quote, and it might lose it's umph because of that, but besides the undeniable poetic like quality of his words (is my fanboy showing yet?) you can see the dedication, and the repetition he puts into his craft. This is directly applicable to those trying to get a startup off the ground; You need hard work and most of all you need to ship, and keep on shipping to perfect your product. In fact, when I was trying to get my first startup going I more or less listened to this song on repeat as motivation, because Kanye understands the self-doubt. He understands the constant pressure to succumb to social standards. He understands that people push back when you try and break out. In fact, Kanye probably knows this more than most of us, as a person of color. Yet even through all of this Ye still succeeds. In fact, (it could be argued) the massive amount of people who don't like Kanye are more a testament to his success than the people who do. But it doesn't just stop at music. For those who weren't aware, Kanye started off as a producer and against a lot of pressure to stay a producer became a rapper as well. One of my favorite Kanye songs isn't really a song, but a narrative of how he overcame this and got signed in "Last Call"[2]. As per the same BBC interview I referenced above, Kanye is trying to break into fashion, architecture, design, a myriad of industries using the same ideas and work ethic. Work hard, and make something "dope", while disregarding the way "things are done around here" (to complete the analogy for those less aware of the rap scene, Kanye was one of the founders of "backpack rap", a kind of suburban, every day, introspective way of rapping, as opposed to the massively popular "gangsta rap" of the day).
Beyond all of that one of Kanye's biggest messages throughout his music is that the message of "Stay in your place" is wrong. He is consistently trying to upset the status quo. This is a message that should reverberate among any of us trying to shake up an established industry, or trying to create a market that simply didn't exist before. Kanye sees what is "not cool" in the world and tries to fix that, whether it's jumping up on stage and proclaiming on live tv that Taylor Swift doesn't deserve an award, or using shoe design as a way to break the race barrier in fashion. He's just as much a hacker as any one of us who works with code or hardware.
Kanye also sacrifices for his art. He paid millions out of his own pocket (back before he was financially set, I might add) to produce his own music videos for "Jesus Walks", after the studios wouldn't go with the direction as he wanted. I can't pin down the quote right now, but I recall him saying something to the effect of "If that album [Late Registration] wasn't a success I would have been broke". As we all know "Jesus Walks" became a #1 hit, Kanye got his videos on MTV, and the album went triple platinum. He continues to shell out of his own pocket for tours (that consistently succeed far past expectations) and runs his own design company, DONDA. Rumor has it he is financing his stylist's new clothing line. Just because it's not software doesn't mean he's not a VC.
This might not be the most lucid post, as I'm typing rather frantically in order to get this out before the story drops off the front page, but tl;dr: Kanye West exemplifies the hacker spirit, and learning from someone who has succeeded so immensely as a creative person can't be the worst thing you can do.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR_yTQ0SYVA [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGM6N0qXeu4 [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q602739kBr4
[+] [-] guynamedloren|12 years ago|reply
You know what somebody's really made of when they have all of the money in the world. Then you watch them and see what happens. Everything Kanye does (at this point) he does because he feels it needs to exist in the world. Another million doesn't mean anything to him. $10 million probably doesn't even mean much to him. He doesn't do it for the money. Unlike lots of musicians, he didn't release 1 or 2 platinum albums and quit. He just keeps going. I align him more closely to somebody like Mark Zuckerberg than, I dunno, Huey? Zuckerberg has billions and just keeps on hacking. Kanye is a hacker through and through.
> Kanye also sacrifices for his art. He paid millions out of his own pocket (back before he was financially set, I might add) to produce his own music videos for "Jesus Walks", after the studios wouldn't go with the direction as he wanted. I can't pin down the quote right now, but I recall him saying something to the effect of "If that album [Late Registration] wasn't a success I would have been broke". As we all know "Jesus Walks" became a #1 hit, Kanye got his videos on MTV, and the album went triple platinum. He continues to shell out of his own pocket for tours (that consistently succeed far past expectations)
Did not know this any of this. Wow. Just one more reason to respect Kanye.
[+] [-] rjtavares|12 years ago|reply
Some quotes that demostrate this wonderful side of him:
> Golly, more of that bullshit ice rap / I got to 'pologize to Mos and Kweli / But is it cool to rap about gold / If I told the world I copped it from Ghana and Mali?
> Always said if I rapped I'd say something significant / But now I'm rapping 'bout money, hoes, and rims again
> But I ain't even gonna act holier than thou / Cause fuck it, I went to Jacob with twenty-five thou' / Before I had a house and I'd do it again / Cause I want to be on 106 and Park pushing a Benz
Shame that only the arrogant side seems to be displayed on the media, and not his child-like personality...
[+] [-] grimtrigger|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guynamedloren|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] luser|12 years ago|reply
You may now resume your non-smug, non-celebrity life.
[+] [-] deckar01|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ItendToDisagree|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]