Hey friends,

I'm currently jamming to POWER by Kanye. I'm about ready to run through a wall. Which doesn't help my focus at the ripe hour of 11:37 pm on a Thursday night.

But I promise getting this amped is purely for research purposes.

Because this week we are doing a deep dive into the mind of a crazy creative.

Yes, I'm talking about our dear friend Mr. Kanye West (fun fact his legal name is now Ye).

Love him or hate him, his resume makes "successful people" look pitifully boring:

• 75 grammy nominations, 24 wins (this is bonkers tbh)
• Founder of record label G.O.O.D Music with a catalog worth $100 million+ featuring big dogs like John Legend and Kid Cudi
• Founder of $5 billion revenue per year fashion brand Yeezy (side note: these shoes are so ugly I'm sorry)
• Supposedly $5-10 billion personal net worth
• He half ran for President

Now, I don't care what you think about Ye the Person.

But he matters because he shapes culture. Shapes music. Shapes fashion. And built businesses worth billions in the process.

Let's dig around inside his brain a bit...

The Rise of Kanye

Let's be brutally honest. You don't read this newsletter to get a cutely packaged Wikipedia article.

So instead of telling you all the boring details of his childhood in Atlanta, Chicago, and even a stint in China with his Mom, let's skip it.

But I do love one thing about Kanye's rise to fame.

Before he was a big shot billionaire and ridiculously rich rapper, Kanye was a producer.

He produced a buncha stuff for Roc-A-Fella records crafting hit songs for Jay-Z, Ludacris and Janet Jackson.

Most people would be happy.

You're living the big dream and are the guy behind the guy (or gal) producing hit songs.

But Kanye was pissed.

Because he didn't want to be a producer.

Kanye wanted to be a rapper.

So what does he do? He storms into the Roc-A-Fella offices.

And says, "Let me play you something". Then he tosses a CD into the stereo system and presses play.

The song that starts blasting?

"All Falls Down"

If you're completely clueless about music like me, you would have no idea that "All Falls Down" was part of Kanye's record breaking 1st album The College Dropout.

It earned him two-times platinum, a grammy nomination, and his first solo top 10 hit.

And the most hilarious part?

Roc-A-Fella records tells Kanye to take a hike.

(Here's the 2 minute video capturing this moment... it's amazing please watch it)

They had no clue they were passing on a gold mine.

So what does Kanye do? He hounded people. He knocked down doors. And he got a chance.

And when he did, The College Dropout was a smashing success.

But the most insane part is he still had a crazy chip on his shoulder.

Which brings us to his mentality...

The Mentality: Relentless Hunger

The household names we all know are rabid. They act with the intensity of a dude dying in the Sahara desert searching for a drop of water.

But that life or death moment is just their personal search for "success" (whatever that means... impact, world domination, fame, money and blind ambition to fill that hole in their chest).

Zuckerberg has it. Elon has it. Jeffy Bezos has it.

And of course, Kanye has it.

The truth is you don't just luck into billions of bucks in your bank account. You desperately scratch and claw.

And you just don't achieve world domination without this mentality.

Now is it all worth it? That's a muchhh longer conversation (and something I definitely don't have figured out yet).

Why All This Matters

You would be surprised to learn that I don't know much about music. I'm the kinda guy who still listens to random 2017 spotify playlists that include songs like "Kiss Kiss" by Chris Brown.

So why study Ye?

Well for one, I'm addicted to studying the crazies that change the world.

But I also love distilling what they do into frameworks that help you and me think clearer - like adding tools in the toolkit to crush life.

So here's my unofficially, official Kanye West Framework:

Avoid the pigeon hole

It's easy to get pigeon holed into a role.

And a linear career path where future opportunities are only created by past experience.

So why does this matter?

Because when you get pigeon holed as ONE thing, you limit your ceiling.

Just like if Producer Kanye stayed Producer Kanye I wouldn't be writing about him today.

A good question to ask yourself: Are you always labeled as "only a sales guy" or "only a marketing gal" or "only a public equities investor"?

Ding ding ding it's danger time.

Time to break out of the pigeon hole on your way to creating a new category.

And maybe make history like our dear friend Ye:

That's all for now,​

Chris Hlad​

p.s. if you have any good spotify playlists for me, please reply and let me know :)

p.p.s. if you liked this, why not forward it to your friends and fam saying this guy Chris can spit some lines over email (and twitter)? (you can also send them this link)

If you're new here, hit that big red button and put your email in it:

​

​