Hustle | Justin Levy

Being a Big Deal Isn’t Such a Big Deal

November 13, 2010 By Justin Levy 7 Comments

When I talk to my family, friends, colleagues or community and ask them how they’re doing, usually they respond with some variation on being too busy, tired and in need of a vacation. This is because we have been trained to run as hard as possible to stay competitive. For many of us, we live our lives online which exacerbates this because of the never ending firehouse of information and feeling that we need to keep up. We’re taught to focus on achieving our next accomplishment. We’re taught to never be satisfied and to just keep going.

When you step back though, you realize that being a big deal (however that is defined for you) might not be such a big deal. Is becoming the top expert in your industry worth it if you end up divorced because of it? Is being a Twitter celebrity as cool as it seems if you lose your day job because you spend so much time on Twitter? How about if you end up in the hospital because you haven’t focused on your health while pursuing becoming a big deal?

In this incredibly powerful TEDx speech, Scott Stratten uses personal life experiences to explore this in-depth. This is a “must-watch” speech and one that I have shared with anyone that will listen.

What are your thoughts? How do you create a balance in your life?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Filed Under: Hustle, Motivation, Personal, Videos Tagged With: Hustle, Motivation, Personal, Videos

What Drives You?

June 27, 2010 By Justin Levy 20 Comments

I have a simple question for you: What drives you?

That’s not a new question, right? You hear it asked often but have you ever taken time to actually analyze where your drive comes from and why? Sure, you may be doing the advanced work, but there are always underlying factors that drive us. It could be achieving success, not wanting to disappoint our family, competitiveness, a need to provide for someone else, or a number of other factors. You may jump in now and say that it’s a combination of all of those factors. That’s ok, as long as you have taken the time to truly understand if those are the factors that drive you.

For me, my drive comes from a few different areas however the main source is the need to ensure that I never disappoint my parents. When I was 17 both of my parents passed away 5 months from one another. My dad passed away from cancer in October 1999 and my mom passed away from a Lupus-induced heart attack in March 2000. While the passing of my dad was a shock, we had been dealing with my mother’s illness for most of my life. It wasn’t a terminal diagnosis but she had an extreme and aggressive form of Lupus that had beaten her up over several years. My mom had always told me that no matter what happened in life, she would always look over my shoulder. After my mom passed away I got a tattoo of a blue rose (her favorite flower) with angel wings and her death date on my upper back/shoulder area to ensure that she would always be looking over my shoulder.

Having both of my parents pass away before graduating high school instilled a great fear of disappointing them and it caused me to make a pact with myself that I would never stop. Never stop what, you might ask? Never stop anything that I put my mind to no matter how far out of reach it may appear. Never stop persuing my goals. Never stop until I could provide the life for my future family that my parents never could (read: I grew up very poor, on food stamps and supplemental help).

Couple this pact that I made along with an unnatural level of competitiveness and being a perfectionist, you’ll start to get a glimpse into what drives me. It’s not as simple as wanting to be the best or being rich. A perfect storm of life experiences collided at a young age for me that forced me to take a different perspective on the world in front of me and how I’m going to conquer it.

So, I return to the question I asked at the start of this post: What drives you?

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo Credit: Team Dalog

Filed Under: Hustle, Personal Tagged With: drive, Hustle, Personal

Sleep is Forbidden

July 4, 2009 By Justin Levy 24 Comments

One of the things I get asked the most is whether or not I actually sleep. Due to the amount I try to interact on various platforms, this blog and Prime Cuts as well as my responsibilities to New Marketing Labs, my steakhouse, and a host of other projects I’m involved in, the short answer is: no I don’t sleep.

Instead of looking at it in terms of getting enough sleep, I look at it in the same way that Diddy does: Sleep is forbidden. Diddy is known for hustling and in turn, not getting enough sleep. He is known for telling his team that “sleep is forbidden” and it has been a quote that resonated with me since first hearing it. If you go to Diddy and tell him that you’re tired, you know what he tells you? “What rhymes with ‘tired’…’fired’? Don’t believe me? Check out this quick video:

You see, I’m not someone that actually requires that much sleep. On an average day I’ll get 3-4 hours of sleep, usually heading to bed around 3a and getting up at 6a or so every day.

Some have wondered if this actually lowers my productivity. I’ve studied my levels of productivity based on different sleeping patterns and length of sleep. I am most productive at around 4 hours of sleep. I start to tweak out a little under 3 hours (which occurs often) and feel groggy at anything greater than 5 hours. This, of course, hasn’t been this way for my entire life. When I was younger I loved to sleep as much as possible. But, for the past 8-9 years I have maintained a sleep schedule of an average of 3-5 hours of sleep per night.

Why do I not sleep a lot? It’s because I have certain goals that I’m trying to accomplish. In order to reach these goals I must stay focused and capitalize on all of the little wins that come along.

My mind races with finding ways to interact more with all of the great people I have the opportunity to meet. I spend countless hours thinking of new projects, what’s next, and trying to chase my goals. I don’t think of my life in terms of work and play, personal and professional, home and the office. Everything blends together for me and that’s how I prefer it. Therefore, I don’t get upset that I work 90-100 hours per week. I’m having fun; I’m running hard towards my goals; and along the way, I’m trying to be as helpful and engaging as possible.

This might sound eerily familar especially if you follow Chris Brogan. That’s because it is. That’s not by mistake either. Over at New Marketing Labs we have some big goals in front of us and we’re putting everything we have into our company. That means that Chris and I regularly are discussing clients, new ideas, how to make the Inbound Marketing Summit or Inbound Marketing Bootcamps better, or a number of other things in the middle of the night. Even this morning, on a holiday weekend, while Chris is taking his first vacation in years, we were discussing some new ideas over DM on Twitter. It even brought about this tweet from me that garnered a few chuckles:

Some of my friends and colleagues worry that I’m going to burn out. Don’t worry, I won’t. I can’t. Not until my goals are reached. When I hit those goals, I’ll set new ones and continue this cycle. Because of that, sleep is forbidden.

I hope that you continue to join me on this adventure…

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Filed Under: Hustle, Motivation, Personal, Videos Tagged With: Hustle, moti, Motivation, Personal, videos

Finding Motivation from the White House

June 21, 2009 By Justin Levy 11 Comments

Being that I don’t have cable at home I tend not to know what news specials are on, what new movies or coming out or pretty much anything else that I can’t watch on Fancast (client) or catch up on with Google News or CNN. So, earlier this weekend I came across a news special that NBC put together entitled “Inside the Obama White House” The site has a total of 15 videos which take you behind the scenes of the White House.

Being someone who loves any behind-the-scenes look, as well as someone who is fascinated with the inner workings of Washington, I eagerly watched all of the videos. Brian Williams does an excellent job at balancing the personal and professional side of the White House including President Obama, his family and the many hard working individuals who work at the White House on a daily basis.

One of the major takeaways from watching the videos was how hard working everyone is from the President down to his staffers. It is by watching videos like these that I find some of my inner motivation and drive. While I’m debating whether to type another blog post or get an extra hour of sleep, there are individuals, many of them right around my age, that are working late, staying up working on policy issues such as the economy, going over security plans for the movement of our President, formulating responses and plans of action for ongoing international crises or a host of other issues that comes with running our country. If these individuals can stay up a little while longer to work on those responsibilities, I can definitely spend more time working on my projects.

If you want to see a little bit about what I’m talking about, check out these 2 videos to see what a day in the life of the White House is really like:

If you’d like to catch the rest of the videos, you can find them all here: NBC Presents Inside the Obama White House.

You can also follow the NBC crew on Twitter and Facebook….

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Filed Under: Hustle, Motivation, Productivity, Videos Tagged With: Hustle, Motivation, presidentobama, Productivity, videos

A Little History on Jay-Z and What You Can Learn From It

May 25, 2009 By Justin Levy 47 Comments

For the past 13 years I’ve been a HUGE Jay-Z fan. I started listening to Jay-Z in 1996 with the release of his first record, Reasonable Doubt. Not only was it one of the best records I had ever heard, I was also intrigued at how he released the album.

When no major record label would give Jay-Z a deal, he formed Roc-A-Fella Records along partners Dame Dash and Kareem Biggs. Reasonable Doubt became a hip-hop classic and is ranked at #248 on the Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time“. That album was the start of 13 years of what has been 13 years of 1/2 greatness mixed with 1/2 genius.

In case you don’t fully realize how successful Jay-Z has been, let’s take a peek at his history:

Since 1996 Jay-Z has released 10 solo albums, 5 compilation albums and 4 collaboration albums (full discography can be found here).
In 1997 Jay-Z sold half stake of Roc-A-Fella Records for $1.5 million then sold off the other 1/2 for $10 million in 2004.
Jay-Z has been nominated for 31 major awards, winning 8 of them.
Jay-Z has released or been featured in 6 movies/specials including: Streets Is Watching, Backstage, State Property, Paper Soldiers, Fade to Black, and Dairy of Jay-Z: Water for Life.
In 1999, Jay-Z co-founded Rocawear. Rocawear is a clothing and accessories line for men, women and children. Jay-Z sold the rights to the brand to Iconix Brand Group for $204 million. Jay-Z still oversees the creative direction, marketing, and product development for the men’s line.
In 2002, Jay-Z and partners purchased the sole United States distribution rights to Armadale Vodka, a premium vodka.
In 2006 Jay-Z became the co-brand director for Budweiser Select helping the company on strategic marketing and creative development.
Jay-Z founded the 40/40 sports club chain with locations all across the United States.
Jay-Z has an endorsement deal with Armand de Brignac’s Ace of Spades champagne.
Jay-Z is part owner of the New Jersey Nets NBA team. It is reported that Jay-Z paid $4.5 million for his share in the team. Jay-Z also has plans of moving the team to his hometown of Brooklyn.
Jay-Z was the first rapper to receive a sneaker deal with a mainstream shoe company with the release of his S.Carter line with Reebok. It was the first sneaker deal for a nonathlete. It quickly became a best-seller.
In 2008 Jay-Z signed a deal with Live Nation for reportedly $150 million which includes a 360 deal which will have Live Nation partnering with Jay on all of his creative ventures.
Recently Jay-Z invested in J Hotels, a real estate development venture, which recently purchased a $66 million property in Chelsea, New York.
…and many, many more accomplishments including many philanthropies, being named GQ International Man of the Year, several appearances in major mainstream product ads, and much more.

Forbes Magazine has estimated that Jay-Z takes in approximately $82 million per year with a net worth north of $350 million naming him to the Top 10 in the magazine’s celebrity money rankings.

Jay-Z embodies being a hustler. You don’t accomplish what Jay has been able to accomplish in 13 years without hustling and a raw business sense. Of course, it takes money to make money but he started with a concept of success and has done whatever it takes to keep pushing forward. He hasn’t followed the path of many other music artists but instead has blazed new paths into industries that wouldn’t allow a rapper in (and still many probably wouldn’t).

Why has Jay been successful?

Because he realized that he could do so much more if he broke away from being just a rapper but instead a business man. While Jay has many memorable verses, this verse on Kanye West‘s Diamonds from Sierra Leone (remix) shows just exactly how Jay think:

Difficult takes a day, impossible takes a week / I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man / Let me handle my business, damn!

What’s the lesson to learn here?

Whatever industry you’re in, don’t get stuck. Look at other ways to extend yourself, your product, your brand or your industry. Stop talking about where you want to get to in life and instead put together a plan which will help you to get there. Impossible you say? I bet Jay-Z always pictured taking 8 figures a year. He might have not known the exact way he would get there but he never settled. He always is looking for another industry to extend himself into.

What are you doing to realize your goals? If you’re sitting on the couch enjoying the newest episode of American Idol, I bet that some of your competition has Jay-Z blasting while they come up with their next move. If you and I are competition, I can guarantee that’s what’s happening. I gave up cable television just so I could focus and hustle more. Sure, I watch a tv show or two per week using Fancast (client) or Hulu but the other 100 hours a week I’m working on crushing it.

As you can probably tell, I find a lot of inspiration in Jay-Z. So, who do you look to for inspiration? What is it that they teach you? Most importantly, what do you do with the lessons you learn from them? If the answer is nothing, then you mind as well go back to watching American Idol.

Want to learn more about Jay-Z?

I highly recommend picking up the June 2009 issue of Cigar Aficiando for a multi-page article on Jay-Z. Also, if you haven’t ever seen Fade to Black , order it from Netflix or your local video rental store.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Photo by: SOCIALisBETTER & NRK-P3