In Search Of Excellence - Jason Derulo on How to Reinvent Yourself, Daily Routines, and His First Paycheck | E115

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Jason Derulo is a singer, songwriter, actor and author and is one of the most talented people I've ever had on my show.  He has sold more than 250 million singles worldwide, and joins Taylor Swift, Elton John, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Maroon Five, and Christina Aguilera as the only artists in history to have a number one single on US Pop Radio in three different decades.  Jason is also one of the top 20 most followed people in the world on social media – he has more than 300 million followers across all platforms.  He is also a successful entrepreneur, investor, and author of the awesome book, Sing Your Name Out Loud: 15 Rules for Living Your Dream: The Inspiring Story of Jason Derulo.   He also has some of the best advice I have ever heard on the show for people starting their careers and are struggling finding traction.Here are Jason's 15 Rules for Living Your Dream:Take risks. Failure is good.Unlock closed doors. But go through the open ones first.You are only as good as your routine. Train repetitively for your success.Success is for rent. You’ll never pay it off.Stop showing off. Invite your audience to the party.Obstacles are opportunities. Grab creative blessings in disguise.Decide what is important to you. Then connect it to how you spend your time.Those who can, do. Those who can’t, become critics.Respect the hive. Your copilots are as important as the destination.Trust the data. Creativity and analytics go hand in hand.Collaborate, period. Choose people you can teach and learn from.Reveal yourself in your best light. Ignore what works for everyone else.Talent is overrated. Desire is the gift.Work hardest at what comes easiest. Go from good to great.Choose your competition. And keep pushing that bar higher.Timestamps:12:32 - Jason's First Song and First Crush (Crush on You)15:08 - Jason's Mentor and His Love of Basketball20:05 - Writing Placements, Making Connections, and 'Whatcha Say'23:36 - Timing on Song Releases, Tiger Woods, and David Letterman29:01 - Getting Discovered on MySpace 31:31 - Jason's First Paycheck and Buying a Car (Betting on Himself and Forcing Financial Constraints to Make It)34:32 - Jason's Philosophy on Money39:44 - Sometimes Reality Isn't the Dream, Value the Process44:45 - Jason's College Experience (Hard Work, Ramen, and Living on $1 a Day)49:28 - Breaking His Neck and Reinventing Himself with a Daily RoutineSponsors:Sandee | Bliss: BeachesWant to Connect? Reach out to us online!Website | Instagram | LinkedIn

You were fat, you had acne, insecure, had asthma. You were fat, you were ugly. Damn, Randall. That's supposed to come out of my mouth, not yours. We're talking about in our quest for success, how we all have to get over these challenges. How did you come out of all the struggles you have? Struggles were internal for a long time. And I think, you know, still in my life, I feel like I internalize my struggles and I don't really share it.

You know, it's equivalent of getting struck by lightning seven times to have a number one song your first time out. So they gave me 40 bands. I had 40 bands to move my life to Los Angeles. This was like my signing bonus, if you will. I thought I was rich. 40 bands, whoo! I was coming from nothing.

I was literally coming from New York where I was eating four bananas a day because they were a quarter each. And I could survive off of these four bananas and only had spent a dollar that day. Coming from that to having $40,000 was a life-changing amount of money. Welcome to In Search of Excellence, where we meet entrepreneurs, CEOs, entertainers, athletes, motivational speakers, and trailblazers of excellence with incredible stories from all walks of life. My name is Randall Kaplan.

I'm a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and the host of In Search of Excellence, which I started to motivate and inspire us to achieve excellence in all areas of our lives. My guest today is the awesome Jason Derulo. Jason is a singer, songwriter, actor, and author, and is one of the most talented people I've ever had on my show. He has sold more than 250 million singles worldwide and joins Taylor Swift, Elton John, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Maroon 5, and Christina Aguilera as the only artist in history to have a number one single on US Pop Radio in three different decades. Jason is also one of the top 20 most

followed people in the world on social media. He has more than 300 million followers across all platforms. He is also a successful entrepreneur and investor and is the author of the awesome book, Seeing Your Name Out Loud, 15 Rules for Living Your Dream. Jason, thanks for being here. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. Pleasure. My pleasure, man. Thank you for having me. So I always start with our family so we know where people came from and what motivates you in life. I want to start, you were born in Miramar, Florida. Yep. The youngest of three children, son of Haitian parents, which is one of the poorest country in the world. Talk to us about your mom and how she went back to college and law school after she

had the three of you and what kind of influence she had on your life. My mom is the 15th child of 15 kids. So my grandparents had 15 kids and she was the last one to come out. So she was the youngest like me. My eldest uncle, he had a dream. He wanted to bring his entire family to America. So he was able to work a couple of jobs in Haiti and then make his way to Miami. And then when he got to Miami, he started to work different jobs here as well. And then he sent for one sibling after the other. And every time another sibling came in, they were able to add another income stream. And by the time my mom came, they were able to move out to New York City. And that's where that's where my mom pretty much grew up. So she from like 12 years old,

she was in New York City. So my mom had a my mom had a tough upbringing. And with her upbringing being so tough, she really wanted something different for us. So what's tough for us in America is very different to what's tough in Haiti. You know what I mean? So she wanted a different life for us. So she worked really, really hard. My mom worked two jobs at the same time going to law school. What were they, by the way? She was an immigration officer and she was also a bank teller.

I think she was a bank teller. So she had decent jobs, you know, really time consuming jobs. But she had this dream of going to law school. Um, so I watched my mom work tirelessly. Um, so my work ethic, I think stems from watching her work her ass off. You've never really talked about your dad before. So tell us what your dad was like and the influence he had on you growing up. So my dad had this big dream of creating this humongous business. My dad did import export where he would import and export goods from Florida to Haiti. And he had this business with my uncle.

And it just never really took off. But it was his life's goal. And unfortunately, when you're an entrepreneur and you have big dreams, and especially in a field like import-export, it tends to take you away from the family. So there were a lot of times where he was just not around. And that was a little tough. And I remember that feeling. So that is something that I feel like creeps into my life in my mind's eye now because I'm a musician, you know, and I'm constantly touring and my job is to travel. So as you can see, I have my son here with me today. So I try to steal every moment that I possibly can because I don't want

him to ever feel like I felt sometimes. So many parents today, I think, want their kids to go into more traditional fields. I know your mom at one point wanted to go into law school, but she did something at an amazing young age. She told you nothing was impossible, right? She allowed you to believe in your dream. What's your advice to everyone out there today who wants to be a musician or an athlete or whatever it is where the odds of success are one in a hundred million? You know, I want to just go back to my dad for a second because, you know, I talked about the part that was a little tough, but my dad was and is a. I like to say like my dad is a man's man. Right. So if something is broken in the house, my dad wants to fix it himself, almost to a fault sometimes, because he might he might fix the shit, but the shit might not be like actually fixed. You know what I'm saying? But like I, I definitely learned how to be ahead of a household from my father, the way that my father treats my mother and how he speaks to my mother.

I've always wanted to have that sort of relationship because he is the most patient man that I know. Um, and, uh, one day, you know, when, uh, I, you know, have that significant other, I want to be able to, um, have that sort of patience that, that my dad has. Um, so he, he showed me a lot from, from being a man, you know, that, that standpoint, I feel like he is just a, he's just an all-around man. My parents actually had a divorce about eight years ago, and then they got back together, which I'd never even heard of. I didn't even know that you could do that. But it's a pretty cool story.

We all have inspirations in our life, right? Mine was as a 14-year-old kid who didn't have a lot, I would read Business Week. I would read these stories about people. There were no podcasts. You know, you weren't going to see people speak. Tell us what happened when you were four years old, who you saw on TV, and what spoke to you, and the inspiration you had at that young age. Yeah, I mean, my first inspiration was kind of like a lot of people's inspiration, I feel like. Michael Jackson was and remains one of the best, not one of the best, the best entertainer of all time.

And when I was four years old, I saw Michael for the first time and I was just like, damn, that's it. That's that's exactly who I want to be. And I told my mom and she was like, yeah, yeah, of course, baby. I know, I know, I know. But I really just never looked back. And I feel like one of my greatest gifts was that I knew what I wanted to do from a very early age. And, you know, just like anything else, I mean, with time you're able to just compound. And working hard from year four, I think, made my life trajectory very, very clear. So it's interesting.

My first concert was the Jackson 5. Oh, wow. And I was a young guy. I think I was five or six years old. Pine Island Music Theater in Detroit, Michigan, where I was from. And I said, holy shit, man, this amazing band. But this kid stole the show. It was incredible.

I didn't want to be a musician. I have no musical talent except maybe playing the drums, which I took up at 35 years old. But it was a great show. It inspired me as well. As a kid, a lot of us struggled. I was bullied. I stuttered.

I didn't have a lot of friends. I didn't have a lot of confidence. You were fat. You had acne. Insecure. Had asthma. Tell us about the missed touchdown you had. You were attacking me for a second, Randall.

Tell me. You were fat. You were ugly. Damn, Randall. That's supposed to a second. Tell me, tell me. You're fat, you're ugly. Damn, Randall. That's supposed to come out of my mouth, not yours. We're talking about in our quest for success, how we all have to get over these challenges and being bullied. I suffered a lot.

How did you come out of all the struggles you have? But tell us about the missed touchdown as well. Um, so my struggles were, my struggles were internal for a long time. And I think, you know, it, it still in my life, I feel like I internalize my struggles and I don't really share it. Even though I have great support systems, my family is very tight knit. I still tend to keep my bullshit to myself. Today even. Today even. I think it's to a fault.

So it took a lot to telling my brother, it allowed me to actually have that real, that realization, uh, for myself, even though like he teamed up with me and like, we started to work out together and like, that was awesome. I really needed to hear myself say it, um, so that I can make a change in my life. Even that young, I needed to hear it come out of my mouth. And that became a game changer for me. I took my life into my own hands and started to do the things that would help the situation as opposed to dealing with it, you know, by myself and not taking action. Were kids making fun of you?

Did you, were you afraid of going to school because everyone's picking on you? Not really. I mean, not really. I mean, I grew up as a fighter. So it wasn't that situation. It was like more like an internal kind of thing. I wanted the girls to like me.

You know, I wasn't getting the right feminine energy back. You know what I'm saying? So it was more so that as opposed to being made fun of. So let's talk about the girls liking you. Eight years old and you write this song. What was the song? What was motivating behind the song? So I wrote a song called Crush On You for this girl, Amy Hume. And she was a girl that sat right in front of me. I never told anybody this, but like I was in gifted classes and this girl that sat in front of me was like a really gifted young lady, super smart. And I just wanted her to give me the time of day. I didn't have any money. I

had nothing to give her. So I was like, you know, I sing really well. Why don't I write a song for her? And I wrote this song called Crush on You. I was like, I'm going to sing it for her today. Didn't sing it for her that day. The next day, didn didn't do it and the days kept on coming and i never sang it for uh but it started my my journey of songwriting you remember her name amy hume and she if she's listening today is there anything you want to say to amy uh not really to be honest you don't want to sing it to her and serenade her right now? No, Amy. She could be your long-lost love. You're looking for your partner. What if she's my soulmate?

Amy's probably got seven kids living in somewhere in middle America somewhere. My crush was this girl named Jill Blade in kindergarten. She also sat in front of me, but I was not a cool kid. Jill Blade. Jill Blade. Jill Blade. Yeah. I don't even know how I would find her today. But Jill, if you're listening to my show somehow, hello.

It's been a while. My grandfather had a jewelry store, and he used to have these keychains, fake gold-plated keychains with a diamond. And I thought, okay, first of all, what kindergartner wants a key chain? But I said, all right, I'm gonna give her this fake diamond piece of jewelry. I remember it took months for me to give it to her and like, okay, you know, what do I do with this? Thanks, but never really had a conversation.

So really, really didn't work. So you gave it to her? Oh yeah, I gave it to her. And then what? She didn't say anything? She was like, hey, hey, thank you. It was so awkward. I mean, I was in kindergarten.

I've got five kids like we talked about before the show. I've got a first grader now. But your kids are in school, kindergarten. They got crushes. They got boyfriend, girlfriends. I know it, man. That's tough. A lot of what we're going to talk about today is on our path to success, so many things that we're hoping for don't go well and result in something

positive. So I want to move on to junior high. You're not making the basketball team on the basketball team. And now you're working out on the court. You meet some dude who's in law school and has had a major impact on your life. One of the closest people to you in life and help you become who you are. You want to tell that story? Yeah, for sure. So, uh, basketball became, um, basketball became my life for a period of time. I would say probably like fifth grade is when I started to like really love basketball. And before then, I mean, when you grow up in Miami, football is everything, you know, like you, it's like a staple, like every kid has to play an optimist.

Dan Marino was the guy back in the day. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Before I was born, you know. Yeah. No, but what? I'm just playing. You're making me feel old. A little older than you. I'm not a different generation. No, no, no. Devin Reno is definitely around.

Devin Reno is around for sure. But I fell in love with basketball and when I got to middle school, I was like, this is my moment because I used to just play all the time on the street. But the school that I went to was a very, very big athletic school. It's called Parkway Middle. It was actually a performing arts school. But at the same time, it is in the hub of the ghetto, you know, and in Fort Lauderdale, still to this day, they're just freakish athletes coming out of Fort Lauderdale. When you're talking about football, when you're

talking about basketball, there's just so many really, really talented kids there. So I went to this school and I thought that I was, I thought that I was decent, but when I got to the practice, I instantly knew that I was outclassed. It was just a totally different kind of league. So I didn't make the basketball team and it crushed me. I remember coming home and my brother was like, how did it go? How did it go? And I was like, I ain't made the team.

That's always the roughest conversation, right? Like when someone asks you how something went and you got to tell them that you failed, it's the hardest conversations. So didn't make the team. So I decided that I was going to, you know, continue my journey and still go out there and practice. I ended up meeting Frank Harris on the basketball court. He had these short shorts on. Larry Bird time? Yeah, we needed one. So I was like, ah, I'll take the old man over there.

He steps on the court and just kills everybody. It's just like way different. And then later I found out that, you know, he played professional basketball overseas and he was the real deal. But he was in law school at the time and he would just go out and shoot just to let off some steam. And then he started helping me with my basketball game. And like I would see him out there. And then we would just start like scheduling like practices. And like he would like literally train me. He's 22 and you're 12.

Yes. So he takes an interest in this kid. He sees something in you. I feel like he was a little older than that. But I mean, maybe. But I always think he was older. He was like 35 for like 17 years. So, yeah. So he started to train me and then I ended up making my basketball team. But rewind a little bit. He found out that I could sing because he would whoop my ass every day on the court. And I was like, this ain't my thing anyway. I sing. And he was like, you don't sing. I was like, no, the singing is really my thing. And that's when I sang for him. And then he was like, hey, I have some connections in New York. He didn't really have any connections at the time.

But that's how the relationship started. And we just figured out the whole thing together, you know, from meeting different labels to trying to figure out what path that I was going to take, you know, because finding a big break is, there's no real way to have a big break, right? Like you have to figure out whatever your journey is. Some people do it through songwriting. Some people do it through building a buzz. Some people do it through having a connection at a label. I mean, there's just no like one blueprint for everybody, right? So you just have to figure it out and figure it out. We did. So you had no connections, kind out and figure it out. We did. So you had no connections, kind of bullshitted you that I had some, but he found some.

Yeah. And you're 16 years old and you go out to New York to meet Sean Kingston. What happened then? Um, so I actually, when I was, uh, 16, I, I got my first writing placement, which was with Birdman. And from from there, I was able to start working with all kinds of artists. You know, you just kind of got to get one your foot in the door and then like people start calling and you start, you know, making connections in the industry and starting to get into sessions. I really just needed people to hear the music that I was doing. And after getting a couple of placements, J.R. Rodham flew me out to L.A. And when I got to L.A., we wrote like four to six songs that evening. And he was like, damn, man, you should be an artist.

And I was like, yeah, I mean, that's what I've always wanted to do. I mean, it's incredible that you're saying that, but that's literally all that I ever wanted to do. He had produced songs for Rihanna and Beyonce at that point. So you knew he was kind of a big deal. And he had his own record label as well. Huge deal. So yeah, so he had signed Sean Kingston and I actually flew there to write songs for Sean Kingston and other people. But Sean Kingston was like his main focus because I was his artist. And I ended up writing two songs that were in contention for Sean Kingston's singles, one being What You Say and another one being Replay.

Shawty's like a melody in my head that I can't keep out, got me singing like. That song became a number one for I.S. because Sean Kingston turned it down. And then What You Say became my number one song for me because Sean turned it down. I don't know if Sean turned it down or his label turned it down, but nonetheless, he didn't sing those songs and it ended up being a perfect beginning for me. Right. So What You Say is your first debut single, five million copies sold in the U.S., huge hit, and it was meant to write for someone else. So what's your message to everyone out there? Again, you're writing this for someone else.

Get rejected. You said, oh, probably, oh, shit, that's a bummer. They said, all right, I'm going to do it myself. What's the lesson for everyone hearing that story today? You know what? Uh, you just can't take no for an answer. You know, when, when you're putting your best foot forward, great things just tend to happen. I, you know, I really relate it to all forms of success, right? This is not just music, because same thing within business, like, you just got to be right one time, right? I mean, it's not like, I love how, you know, a lot of really successful people act like they have like

this blueprint, you know, but that person just had to be right one time, you know. And if you create one amazing idea, it will change the scope of your life and your life will be changed forever. But you just got to be lucky or right one time. And timing is important. So that song came out during sex cheating scandals with David Letterman at the time, who was the biggest talk show host in the world. Tiger Woods sex scandal had just come out as well.

And the song was about your brother. You want to talk about how important timing is in our life and our success? And maybe you can talk about what the song's about. Yeah. My brother was going through a situation where he was asking for forgiveness for having cheated on his girl at the time. And I thought it was a cool concept for a song. I was writing songs every single day and pulling from my life, pulling from my friends' lives and my family's lives and just making songs. When you're writing a bunch of songs, you just need concepts, you know,

and this concept just happened to be one that was very poignant. And, yeah, it was about his life, and it ended up connecting in a lot of different areas i remember going to japan and they called it like the the tiger wood song like it was like that deep at the time it was like oh yeah you sing the tiger wood song oh it's a Tiger Woods song? Yeah, crazy. So it's your first song that becomes a big hit. When did you know it was a massive hit? And what did you say to yourself?

Did you say, I can't believe I have a number one song. This is crazy. What were you feeling that exact moment? Where were you when you heard, when you realized it was going to be a number one song? So when I realized that it was a big song, I remember sitting in the CEO's office and I played him, I played him What You Say, and I played him Riding Solo, and I didn't have In My Head yet, but I played him those two songs and when he heard what you say he was like I never say this but that's a number one song very like soft-spoken man who was the exact Tom Wally okay this is named at Warner Brothers at Warner Brothers

yeah and he was like I never say, but that is a number one song. And that made me feel good. But like, I've heard amazing words before. So like words don't equal, you know, the truth. Right. So like it meant a lot coming from him because he has a lot of experience. But still, I didn't know. It wasn't until JoJo on the radio has this countdown that he does here in Los Angeles. And I believe the countdown starts from like 50 or 100. I just can't remember.

But I would literally listen to his show every single day to figure out what number, what you say was going to come on. And like it went from like 50 to 49, like every single couple of days, it was like going down and down. And when that thing got into the top 20, I just couldn't believe it. Like it was the craziest shit that you could ever imagine. I mean, I'm this kid from Miami, Florida. Like, like I knew that I was going to have like a moment. Right. I knew that I was going to get heard by more people than I ever

had before because I was signed now, but I didn't know whether this song was going to be, you know, uh, I didn't know the song was going to be the biggest song in the world. I did not. Um, but the growth was so steady that I was like, holy shit, we did something crazy here. Did you? You know, it's equivalent of getting struck by lightning seven times to have a number one song your first time out. So with seven billion people in the world, 8 billion now, close to 8 billion, it is equivalent to being struck by lightning seven times for you to have a song to go number one on your first release. So you're saying I'm not going to have a number one song, basically?

I'm saying the chances are the same chances of you being struck by lightning seven times. So I'm a technology guy. I've been in the tech world for a long time. And I want to talk about MySpace, which at some point was the largest social media platform in the world. In June of 2006, it was actually the single most. I still have a MySpace. I post on it every day. Do you have MySpace?

No. MySpace was sold to News Corp back in the day, just so everybody knows, for $580 million. Wow. That's a crazy story as well. But I want to go back and I want to talk about MySpace, which in June 2006 was the single most visited website in the United States, more than Google and Yahoo at that time. And so you're on MySpace and you were discovered, I think, on MySpace by J.R. Rodham. Was that the beginning of the relationship? I think people know today that Justin Bieber was discovered by Scooter Braun watching YouTube videos. But you said MySpace was the start of it all. So tell us how the MySpace thing happened, your progression on MySpace and how important it was. MySpace was the beginning of my journey. I posted all of the songs that I did

on MySpace. When I was doing songs in my car, I was doing like making music in my car i was making music um at my mom's house i was making music at my cousin's house i would post all of these songs to my myspace the reason why i was making music in the car is because my mom had to go to work the next day and she was like cut that fucking music down so i made a makeshift studio in my car or in her car and posted it to this thing. And you had like a top four or something like that. So like my top like four songs would basically rotate as I made new music. And J.R. Rodham's brother, Tommy Rodham, found me on MySpace and he started to send me beats to see if I could have the chops to send them new material. And this went on for a year, two years. So the first time he messaged

me, I thought it was my big break. There were so many times that I thought it was my big break, but then I just, I just got exhausted because it just never was. Um, so this relationship just kept on, he kept on sending me beats and like saying, oh, we love this. This is great. But then nothing would happen. You know, did you know at the time who his brother was? Yeah. Oh, you did. OK. So, yeah. When he messaged me, I thought this was it because he's the person that found Sean they found me. It was MySpace. I didn't have like a large following or anything, but I had a little something. You signed with Beluga Heights, which was JR's music company. Let's talk about how much money you had and what kind of car you bought. So they gave me 40 bands. I had 40 bands to move my life to Los Angeles. This was like my signing bonus, if you will. I thought I was rich. 40 bands.

I was coming from nothing. I was literally coming from New York where I was eating four bananas a day because they were a quarter each and I could I could survive off of these four bananas and only had spent a dollar that day. Coming from that to having $40,000 was it was a life changing amount of money. So. Naturally. I take half of it and buy a car. I bought a SC430 convertible. I was going to Los Angeles, palm trees and shit. It's great weather. Get out to LA. It's cold as hell. Never top down for a whole year. I was like, I've been bamboozled. I can never let the top down. This is bullshit. Anyway, so I spend half the money on the car. Then I got to find a place to live.

I found a beautiful place on Sunset and Vine. And that place was way too expensive for me. I believe at the time it was like $6,000 a month. At the time? Yeah, $5,000, $6,000 a month at the time, which is… 20 years ago? No, motherfucker. Wait, how many years ago are we talking? I mean, it's not that different. How many years ago? No, motherfucker. Wait, how many years ago are we talking? I mean, it's not that different.

How many years ago? You were young. Okay, 15. All right. 15. Damn, Brandon. 15? All right, well, still 15 years ago.

This is a long time. 6K is, you know. I mean, we could edit this and just say 10 years. Yeah. No, we're going to keep it in. We're going to keep it in. I'm know. I mean, we could edit this and say, just say 10 years. Yeah. No, we're going to keep it in. We're going to keep it in. I'm joking. I'm joking.

Yeah. 15 years ago, yeah, it was a lot of money. Like, way too much money. And my mom was like, what are you doing? That's way too expensive. You're going to run out of money within five months. Like, what are you doing? I was like exactly

she was like i don't get it i was like if i'm gonna run out of money in less than half a year that means i gotta work my ass off to make the money to pay for where I'm living. I do not recommend this strategy to anybody. So I'm not saying it because I think you should do it. Dumbest shit I ever did. But it worked. You had a picture of a Lamborghini on your wall when you were growing up.

And the reason was because you thought material possessions potentially could end the bickering between your parents. Are people happier with material possessions in their lives? Yeah, my parents used to fight about money all the time. So I thought that I could cure that part of the turmoil in the relationship. By the way, what part of that having money would make it cure the relationship? How would the money help fix things? Because all I ever heard them argue about was money. You know, so like it was the topic of conversation.

And when I made the money, I feel like that became the even bigger argument. So it didn't fix it. In actuality, I think it was partially, I don't know. I don't know what to say it. So I wouldn't even say that. But I thought that having money would fix a lot.

Fix a lot in their life, fix a lot in my life. And this Lamborghini was a symbol of that. But the truth is that I don't want to say the cliche that money isn't everything. Because the truth is, money gives you freedom. The more money that I've had in my life, the more money disappeared. What I mean by that is, I just don't think of when I'm purchasing something, I'm just not thinking of the money. I'm just thinking of what I can have experiential in my life, right? If I'm buying clothes, if I'm buying food, like I'm not really thinking about should I get this, should I not?

I'm just thinking about is this going to add value or is it not going to add value? So that's great freedom. When you say value, are you talking about personal happiness? Personal happiness. Personal happiness. So if I wanted to take a trip tomorrow, I could take a trip tomorrow. That kind of freedom, I think, is a great thing. So I don't want to belittle money because people belittle money all the time, which I think is kind of wrong. But what I will say is money does not fix the problems within your life. If you actually have issues in your life, money is not going to fix that. Right. And even if you like within your relationships, you know, if if you have problems within your relationship and you're arguing about money, those arguments are probably just going to shift to something different if the money, you know, then comes. I've had a lot of issues actually come to my life because of money, because people expect all of your money like it's the worst thing in the world.

But I take it all with a grain of salt. I try to be as giving as I can be. I have a very large family. Whenever there's some sort of turmoil within the family, of course it falls on me. And I'm happy to take that burden because I'm able to. So I don't frown upon that at all. I think it's the most beautiful thing in the world that if something major happens within my family, that I can be a backbone and a help for the entire family. Did you ever buy the Lamborghini?

I did buy the damn Lamborghini, man. What color? Lime green. But I drove it like three times. And I was like, the shit is just parked in my... I literally have this car parked in front of my house right now. It's an old school car that my brother said that I should get. And I bought this thing. And I promise you, I have not been behind the wheel one time. I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this car. I have not one time started the damn car myself. So it literally sits under a wrap. And I was just like, this is ridiculous. This is dumb as hell.

But isn't it a symbol of a dream? No, not really. I don't think so. No? I don't think so. Me personally, I think you should spend the money on the things that you like. I think I should just probably give that to my brother because in actuality, it's his dream. It's not mine.

Because I'm not really a car guy. When you're talking about houses, I'm a house guy. Like, I really like architecture. I really like interior design, exterior design. I'm a house guy. When I was young and I didn't have any money, I'd go into the Porsche dealership once a year. I'd sit in that car, I'd say one day,

I'm gonna buy that car. And when our company went public and I finally made money that I could afford the car, I felt God, I felt a little guilty. And I waited a year when I went into that Porsche dealership. First Porsche dealership, back in the day, maybe even today, you go in there and you build a car, basically, right?

So, you know, you want the leather visors or whatever, you want the paneling, whatever it was. How long did it take to build? Well, it's a story that, don't judge a book by its cover, because I went in there in T-shirt and flip-flops and Beverly Hills Porsche said, oh no, you know, you're never going to get a car. So I went to the dealership in Sherman Oaks and I go in there and I'm building the car or whatever

and it was $137,000. I couldn't believe I'm spending $137,000 on this car. And back in the day, the tech world was going crazy. So they get to a month and in California, you build a car and you only have to put down $5,000 and you don't have to take the car when the car comes in. So if you don't take the car, the dealer's stuck with the car. And they'd rather sell $110,000 Porsche than $140,000 Porsche, which is fewer buyers. So I go in there and I build a car. We're in there for, I don't know, 40 minutes. And then I could see the salesperson go talk to the sales manager. They're having this conversation.'s it's awkward conversation and the guy comes back and says i said what's that about i said oh nothing nothing i said no what's it about he said manager wants to make sure you can afford the car and i basically said and my wife at the time said don't do it i know it's coming don't't do it. I said, I'm doing it. We're out of here. And I was so fucking pissed. Some guy, just shorts, flip-flops, white t-shirt,

didn't like the treatment. So I did call Beverly Hills Porsche, by the way, when they happened to have a car that was a little less expensive. It was $107,000. I still couldn't believe I spent that on a car, but I bought that car. Still have it today. Came home, washed the car. First day, dropped a bucket on the back of the car. I still love washing my own car, so there's a little quarter-sized nick in it. But still have that car. I'm going to keep it until it runs on the ground. Are you a car guy? No, I'm not a car guy, but I always said, too, I want a Ferrari. So I said, I'm going to get a red Ferrari. Company went public. I can afford that, too. So all right. So I said, I'm going to get a red Ferrari. The company went public. I can afford that too.

So all right. So I went into the Ferrari dealership. And again, same thing. Like the tech role is going crazy. So I had to wait like eight months or a year. And I went in and I sat in the car. I said, I can't do it. I said, it's not me.

You know, like the dream, the reality sometimes is not the dream. I thought, you know, I had that vision of a car. And number one, I thought I would look ridiculous in the car. I thought it was showy. It wasn't how I wanted to be. And I didn't want to be this 31-year-old kid driving around L.A. in a Ferrari. Just a bad look for me. But what about the potholes and shit?

Let's be honest. Like if I lived in Miamiami i might have one of those but the problem is like when i get out of the car like my back hurts like like it was a whole thing like to drive i remember um uh catches is uh a place that I frequent. Yeah. You're friends with Eugene, if I'm not mistaken. Yes. Yes. So my wife worked with Eugene for years. They're still tight.

Okay. Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. I was one of the biggest investors in Catch. Yeah. Before they sold or the original? Yes.

You had a good outcome on that deal. Yeah, it was great. Sam Bakshanapur. I don't know if you know Sam. Showed me that deal the first time they were running. Raising money. Mike Meldman was in that deal. I don't know if you know Sam, showed me that deal the first time they were running. Mike Meldman was in that deal. I don't know. Discovery Land Company, Baker's Bay, El Dorado.

Do you know these residential communities? El Dorado, yes. Okay. So Mike Meldman is the guy that built all those, but he was a big investor in that. But great outcome. Great restaurant. Fantastic. So that was a place that in that um but great outcome great restaurant fantastic so that was a place

that i frequent right so i remember my first time driving the lambo to catch it was about a 25 minute drive from the valley and i was excited too but like los ang, it's like, like who wants to ride like that? Like that is the most uncomfortable ride that I've ever had in my life. And then I had to pay all of this money for it. Oh, no, no, no, no. So like I just probably drove it, you know, two or three more times. And then I was just like, let me just do away with it. I do like being comfortable.

So like I think Rolls Royces are really comfortable. I do like to sleep in the car. You have a Rolls? Yes. So like I'll do that. Yeah. SUV or sedan? SUV.

SUV? Mm-hmm. It's a cool car. Very, very cool car. I want to go back to college um you had four bananas a day you said it caused you constipation uh you know four they don't tell you that yeah i mean four bananas a day kind of tough on the insides but um it's interesting i was a student in college and i didn't have money i was in in D.C. one summer and my friend Joe Art and I would go to Watergate Safeway and a Kraft macaroni and cheese box. Ninety nine cents. Same thing.

We got four meals, quarter, quarter meal. And to this day, I really don't want to eat macaroni and cheese anymore. Man, same thing with the noodles, the ramen noodles. I used to be the ramen noodle king. When I went to college, yeah, ramen all the time. So I just can't do ramen anymore. What did you learn in college? A lot of singers, actors say, okay, I really don't need college.

Is college necessary today to be successful? I don't think college is necessary, but I think anything that you do, you should be able to take something from it. A lot of people that were around me in college used to say those words like, I don't know why I'm here. I don't need this. I'm already going on auditions. But for me, I felt like I was able to really learn the meaning of hard work. I was balancing out this really, really hard curriculum, you know, doing Shakespeare, learning, you know, jazz dance, ballet dance, doing all forms of classical training, tap,

you name it, right? And at the same time, I was going out on auditions every single day, getting no after no after no. But it was part of the curriculum. You're supposed to go out and go audition. I think that was character building, though. Those things don't specifically pertain to my life today. I utilize the meaning of hard work. What I learned, you know, just going to having to go to class when I didn't want to, having to do Shakespeare when I knew that there was never going to be a time where I'm going to utilize Shakespeare. But that challenge, you know, I think was important for me. On our path to success, we all have tons of challenges that we have to get past, right?

So here we've got this massive song, and you had a problem with a Miami radio station, which is your hometown. What happened, and what's your advice to people who really start to get fucked over by people who try start to get fucked over by people who try to take advantage of them? Yeah, I had a crazy situation in Miami because this program director, well actually he was a music director

of this huge station in Miami. He was doing these deals with different artists and getting their song to be played on the radio. So, you know, Pitbull kind of came out of that school and there was another artist that was really starting to explode at the time coming out of that as well, as well as like, you know, Flo Rida and a few other other people. So it looked like this like shiny kind of situation that could put me on. You know, I was really young and I he like puts this contract in front of me and it's literally the worst contract that you could possibly imagine it was like

signing me for life and like he was making everything for life uh and though I saw the effects of it and what like it could possibly do for me. I have no idea if anybody else signed that contract. Um, but there was just no way that I was going to put myself, uh, in that kind of situation. And, um, thank, thankfully I had Frank, uh, Harris in my life to, uh, make sure that, you know, he went through it and was like, this is the worst deal that you could possibly get. Let's talk about maybe your biggest challenge in life. We'll go to January 3rd, 2012.

You're coming off a hit song. You're rehearsing for a tour. You're in great shape. And you're practicing 50 backflips as an endurance test. What happened next uh i slipped during one of the back tucks and i landed on my head and breaking my c2 vertebrae and uh it was one of the toughest things that I've ever had to deal with, breaking my neck. You don't really think that you would ever break your neck.

It's one of those things that you hear about, but you never think that kind of thing can happen to you. We were down on the ground and actually couldn't move, paralyzed kind of thing? Yeah. I knew that I wasn't supposed to move. Instinctively, I just grabbed myself by the neck like here, you know, and stayed there for about five minutes. And finally, I got up and my mom was outside and I didn't want to tell my mom exactly what happened. So I just told her, I was like, hey, I hurt my neck a little bit inside. We should probably go to the doctor.

I didn't want to alarm her. But every single bump on the way to the hospital was like hell on earth. Like every single bump, I felt like crazy. Get to the hospital and, you know, get the x-rays and everything. And the doctor comes in and he was like, it's not good. You have the hangman's break. It's the same break, you know, when someone gets hung. And the good news is that it could have been a lot worse. You could have been paralyzed or worse.

The bad news is you're going to be out for seven months. Had to cancel my tour. Life became different suddenly. From being fit and owning my life at that moment, I no longer owned my life. I couldn't tie my own shoes. I couldn't take a shower myself. I couldn't do my own shoes. I couldn't take a shower myself. I couldn't do anything for myself. So it was a very, very low point in my life.

And the only thing that I could turn to was my mom and music. And in order to get better, you've talked about the importance of a routine so i think a lot of us i have a routine every day yeah but i wasn't in bed um like like you were how important is routine to our success doesn't matter what you're doing in life whether you're an assistant an executive an entrepreneur yeah routine routine for me has been the i think probably the single most important tool that i've used in all of my successes routine uh i i created a routine in this low moment because i knew what it had done for me in the past so i would get up every morning i would uh go to the studio.

I would spend some time reading and then go to bed. I did the same thing every day for months. Even when you didn't feel like it, said I'm not going to do it today? Non-negotiables. It was the same thing every single day. And in that time period where it was supposed to be a very low time period, I wrote my most successful album to date.

Tattoos. Yes, which had the other side on it, Talk Dirty, Marry Me. Wiggle. Wiggle. A ton of huge, huge songs, right? And it was supposed to be a time of just like my lowest moment, but it became the catalyst to push everything forward. But routine has just been such a staple in my life.

I mean, when I first moved to Los Angeles, it was the same thing. It was like, go to the gym, go to the studio. I ordered out of this big book. It was the coolest thing in the world when I got to Los Angeles because we were able to order from this book, and we were able to order one meal every day. It was me and my cousin Henry, who he engineered for me at the time. And we only ate that one meal because we didn't have that much money. Remember, we were trying to make that 20,000 stretch as long as we could. So for that one meal, we got to look through this humongous book. So order our food, eat, studio all day, go to bed. Same thing every single day. Same exact thing, same time every single day.

And that's what, you know, I think that routine is what did it for me. You're listening to part one of my awesome interview with Jason Derulo, one of the most successful artists in history, and has sold more than 250 million singles worldwide. Be sure to tune in next week to my awesome interview with Jason.