… are you a different animal, but the same beast?
Kanye is the best. I mean, there are a considerable number of bests, but here, he is indisputably the best. However, seeing that he’s a student to a legendary NBA icon, he asks how he can shoot beyond greatness. He questions how to beat the records he had set.
His calm-looking, baldhead life coach who had his gaze fixed on him, challenged: [A]re you a different animal, but the same beast?
At that moment, he seemed rather confused at what he must have considered as philosophical nonsense. Well, I thought so too at first watch.
At my second watch, I laughed hard at the confused Kanye and the funny looking Kobe Bryant who had just thrown the billionaire artiste into the philosophical mystery in a hilarious manner, for lack of a better word to describe the scenario.
The third time, it did hit me. HUNGER was the message! {Well, it is a personal interpretation}
This is a Nike’s KobeSystem ad: Success for the Successful 2012.
When you are hungry, you eat. When you are thirsty, you drink. When you are filled, you stop. But you see, unlike food and water which are capable of filling any hungry stomach and thirsty lungs, this drive does not get enough. It shouldn’t. It is not a habit, it is a lifestyle.
We often throw around the word “Beast Mode ” without deep consideration of what it means to be a beast. Yes, literally, Beast may mean being monstrous, nasty, vile, or cruel. But within this context, it is that aggressive, animalistic persona that one might assume when in competition or combat in order to overpower an opponent.
At all times, we need to indulge that insatiable feeling to not just prove a point, but be better than who you used to be in the past. Push to be above anyone, and everyone else, set a record and a pace for people to race after and when you fail, you need the will to try again. For me, when it is my second trial, after an unsuccessful one, I’d say, ‘once again, we feast!’
I understand that the word ‘best’ is relative, hence it is possible that amongst your folks, a clique of friends, immediate environment, school or workplace you are termed the ‘Best’ or an outlier. Cool stuff. Amazing.
If anything, we should continually evolve. Pursue growth and heavily invest in personal, professional social and emotional development while keeping your hunger to remain the best — whatever that means to you at every point — you should aim for it.
The state of your mind must be hyperenergetic and ferocious as you take on any task, activity and challenge, exam, brief, anything. It’s not just proverbial to unleash the beast within you out of its cage, you literally can.
What happens when you reach that height of being the best? If you are reading this, I doubt you have reached that peak yet, maybe not close.
The great Mamba of blessed memory did hit his peak, Kanye, and a host of successful figures who featured in Nike’s Ad. Aziz Ansari, Acclaimed comedian and actor; Richard Branson, Entrepreneur and philanthropist; Landon Donovan, International soccer star; Jerry Rice, Hall-of-Fame football player.
Paul Rodriguez, Skateboard extraordinaire; LeeHom Wang, Award-winning Chinese entertainer; Kanye West, Multi-platinum recording artist; Serena Williams, Grand Slam tennis champion, name it. All these names and many more, have attained a certain height but for me, and you, the reader, it is a journey.
We need more than being a growing or evolving animal to hit our best. We need to desire. We need hunger.
Greatness is a mindset. Risks are the catalyst of tremendous success. And yes, there is greatness beyond success. So my friend, as much as I hate to sound motivational and stuff, I really do. Desire. Believe in yourself. Go for that thing.
I say, make that career shift, learn that stuff, make that investment, commit to that very thing you are scared of, compete for that position or role, do that thing you wanted to, give up that thing for the possibility of getting more, shoot high to the sky and be certain that’s the only place you should ever be, not on the tree nor the floor. True, you may fall.
Dare to stand out. Be the black sheep among the white lambs, or maybe, the white of a hundred blacks. You may fail. You will. It will be all fun, or not. It is usually bitter. What better time to fail if not at youth?
I have heard of the 1%. They are the crazy ones. They are the risk takers. They are the ones who wouldn’t settle for less because it is comfortable. Oh yes, they are all these but they are usually wise, and not foolish.
To continually stay afloat — if you are anything like me, then we are not trying to stay afloat, we are just about sailing, and that is fine — you need to have a voracious hunger. This only comes when at all times, you discover what you truly desire and go for it. Think. Plan. Act.
Sadly, this writer does not possess Lucifer’s mojo to conjure you into knowing what you truly desire, and this may seem rather dramatic or theatrical but I ask you, just like I haven’t stopped asking myself, what do you desire?
What drives you? What do you live for? What are you chasing? Why are you shying away? Is sending that application too much stress? Oh, you don’t like competitions? You feel bad pushing to be noticed when at your best? You think you’re a misfit? Again, what do you truly, certainly, honestly and actually desire?
We are humans. We can self-actualize. We can adapt.
…are you a different animal, but the same beast? Ponder.
P.S: If you read to the end, send me birthday money. <Blows Powder>
2094053867
UBA.
