The Jordan Harbinger Show - 569: Rick Ross | How to Boss Up and Build an Empire

Episode Date: October 5, 2021

Rick Ross (@RickRoss) is a multi-platinum-selling, multi-Grammy-nominated rapper, artist, songwriter, investor, and author of The Perfect Day to Boss Up: A Hustler's Guide to Building Your Empire. What We Discuss with Rick Ross: Why Rick, in spite of growing up middle class with a computer programmer father, got involved with dealing drugs in his early teens. Where Rick's "no complaints" policy originated and how it keeps him focused on what's important. How embracing the difficulty of the process that allows Rick to acquire, enjoy, and manage his success builds resilience. The dangers of hustling backwards. How taking Rick's calendar audit exercise can help you keep your schedule lean for the things that matter and trim away the things that don't. And much more... Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/569 Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This episode is sponsored in part by Conspiruality Podcast. You know how I'm always talking about critical thinking and spotting manipulation? Well, there's a podcast that's all about dismantling new age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy med yogis, basically the wild overlap of spirituality and misinformation. It's called the Conspiruality Podcast. The hosts, a journalist, cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic, dive deep into how this stuff spreads, from Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation's dystopian vision of the future to how former leftists get pulled into far-right conspiracies.

An interesting episode to check out is called Speaking Truth to Goop, where Jen Gunter breaks down the pseudoscience behind the wellness industry in a way that is super entertaining and eye-opening. It's sharp, funny, and makes you a lot harder to fool, which, if you listen to this show, you know I'm all about that. From exploring cults to analyzing our cultural and political landscape, the Conspiratuality Podcast will help you stay informed against misinformation and resist fear tactics.

Find Conspirality on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you do. get your podcasts. Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger show. If it's only one person that's really winning, how successful are you? How big are you? Are you really the biggest boss? No, it should affect everyone that's coming to the table and bringing something to the table. It's simple. If you're the only one winning, hey man, you may not really be winning, man. Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger show, we decode the stories, secrets and skills are the world's most fascinating people. We have in-depth conversations with people at the top of their game, astronauts and entrepreneurs, spies and psychologists, even the occasional former cult member,

money laundering expert, or tech mogul. Each episode turns our guest's wisdom into practical advice that you can use to build a deeper understanding of how the world works and become a better critical thinker. If you're new to the show or you're looking for a handy way to tell your friends about it, we now have episode starter packs. These are collections of your favorite episodes organized by topic, it helps new listeners get a taste of everything that we do here on the show. Just visit Jordan Harbinger.com slash start to get started or to help somebody else get started. And of course, I always appreciate it when you do that. Today, rapper and business mogul Rick Ross.

Not sure how much of an intro this guy needs, but Rick Ross is a multi-platinum, multi-grammy nominated rapper, artist, and songwriter as well as an investor. He's really got a lock on his business, which is one reason I really wanted to get him on the show today. This isn't just a dude with hip-hop money coming in that's about to go broke, but a guy who has put a lot of thought into business systems, diversified revenue streams. I think you'll really enjoy this conversation, even if you're not a fan of rap or hip-hop or music at all. We mostly focus on business management and mindsets that helped Rick build and maintain his reputation as a boss. And if you're wondering how I manage to book all these great authors, thinkers, and creators every week,

It's because of my network, and I'm teaching you how to build your network for free over at Jordan Harbinger.com slash course. And by the way, most of the guests on the show subscribe to the course, contribute to the course. Come join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. Now, here's Rick Ross. If you take anything from your books, it's that lemon pepper wings are your favorite, right? Is that what I'm supposed to take from the... Without a doubt.

Without a doubt. Because you rep those all the time. I know that on Breakfast Club, you actually said your top revenue generator wasn't music, which is kind of of a surprise because of course people know you for music and rap but i assume is if it's not music it's got to be what just booze and wings no we're doing a lot of different things and i just had my buddy i just had trot actually print up i'm currently in 19 different partnerships 19 and so to me that's what's cool about you know how i'm moving what i do and that's what the book is really for how to stay ahead how to not be drained, how to not be tired, how to not have your partners calling you for things,

but you really be the one that's on top of them. That's what it's really about. And I remember one of my partners when we first got in business together, maybe over a decade ago, they told me that venture would be my most valuable asset. And I remember I laughed in their face. I was like, ha, ha, and man, he was actually right. Really? Which venture is it or is that confidential? You know, I'll keep that with confidential just to keep everybody in spite.

Sure. You got to keep your partners in spite. Yeah, yeah. You wanted to think that they're not the number one. So they go, oh, man, who's on us right now? And they keep working on it. Yeah, let's turn up this business. Let's elevate this business model. Yeah, why not?

Yeah, you want the Konek guys thinking like, uh-oh, it's probably not us. And you want the wings guys thinking, uh-oh, we better step it up. It's probably not us. Exactly, exactly, exactly. But at the end of the day, I just want to make sure everybody's winning. So I keep everybody involved. And I enjoy what I do. So it's always a good thing.

Your dad actually was a computer programmer in, was it the 70s and 80s? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's cutting edge, man. I mean, there were not that many computer programmers back then. And I'm betting you could count on your hands the ones that were not just like nerdy white dudes. Yeah, black dude.

Yeah, exactly. Right. I just remember when I was young, he had a. Commodore 64 and the printing used to just print the paper down to the floor and they used to stack up this high off the floor. And it made that loud-ass noise. Ging-gag-gag-gag-gag-gag-g-g. Yeah, yeah, I never forget those noises.

I think it's all burned into our brain because your mom was or your dad's printing something off. It's like 8 o'clock in the morning and you're sleeping. You're like, what the hell is that noise? It's like, yeah, dial-up modem sound. 8 a.m. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

So you grew up more or less middle class, which a lot of people are going to go, well, wait a minute. I read or I heard that he sold crack or sold drugs. Like, why grow up middle class and then turn around and sell crack? A lot of people are probably going to question that decision. Well, that's cool. They could question what they want to question. But just to be all the way accurate, when we moved out of the apartments for the first time, the first house that we moved into was in front of one of the biggest crack projects in Carroll City

in the middle of Miami. And we was happy to, I'm sure my mom and dad was proud to have a home. But exactly behind it, it wasn't a one home in between it. It wasn't nothing in between it. So in the middle of the night, those people that were women banging

at our front door asking for help for whatever reasons, did you just, everything that went on in Miami? When you talk about Miami, it was a different situation. When you talk about the project, in Miami and where I grew up at, it was a different situation.

So I seen what I seen and it was what it was. Yeah, it doesn't sound that appealing though. Like, you're describing it, women banging on the door in the middle of the night asking for help. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, without a doubt. Yeah, like a lot of people wouldn't be like, oh, I want to get in that business. I want to get in the business of having crazy women

screaming at four o'clock in the morning and waking me up being like, call the police, right? Right, right. That's pretty much they was getting attacked, brutalized, maybe by a pimp, maybe by a, somebody they may have snatched $10 or crack from, whatever it was. But I was taught at a very young age

to never open the door for nothing. So, you know, I understood that. But that's why I grew up in Miami. So was it the money then that was appealing at that point? Yeah, by the time that my mom and dad separated, my mom was working two jobs every day. And the third one on Wednesday. It was really just in two houses in between us.

My buddy, his dad had a Mercedes S.L. 500. Mercedes Benz and you know, you know, mine had a Buick. You know, it was a big difference sometimes. And so you just wanted to know what was going on. What was the difference? Well, I just had a certain passion for wanting some of the final things. And I was going to find a way either way. And it took me a long time, but we made it.

How old were you when you first started to be like, wait a minute. I don't want to work like three jobs like my mom. I can make money, I can make the same amount of money before 10 a.m. selling drugs. I got my first tattoo, which was a dollar sign at 13. So getting money was already on my mind at 13. So that's early for that kind of ambition. So clearly you're ambitious, but also you're lucky.

I assume you agree. You're lucky you're not dead because of that same ambition, right? You're right, right, right. You know, I speak on that in my book. I don't feel deaf. I've had attempts of my life, and it's nothing to be proud of. But it's certain things that come with the gang that I play. and I don't fear death.

We're going to keep growing. We're going to keep getting bigger. I'm going to keep sharing the experiences and the wisdom in the books. And that's just what I did. And I'm excited to see the response from my new book. I liked it a lot, actually, because of course, I read a lot of books for this show. And I read a lot of books by scientists,

but also I read a lot of books by celebrities and artists. And a lot of the books that are by celebrities and artists, well, books in general, a lot of them are full of fluff that, doesn't make any sense. And a lot of it is self-aggrandizing bullshit, as you might imagine. But the newest book is like, here are some ways that I run my business. And it's clear that this is actually true and it makes a lot of sense, right? Because it's not like, put yourself out there and believe in yourself. It's like, treat everybody fair and put people on so that

they can develop their own infrastructure and network. Like, it's real advice. You're a funny motherfucker, man. But, you know, we most definitely, we most definitely, we most definitely, Just sharing the experiences, whether they were the best or maybe not the best. Either way, life can be a beautiful struggle, man. Let's just enjoy this shit, make the most out of it. And I'm getting straight to the point. I want to win and win big, not only just win, but win big. So you have the same ambition that you had when you were younger.

Obviously, you have adult ambition now. You're not just like selling drugs out of the back porch or whatever. It's a completely different and more ambitious game. Without a doubt. You mentioned at age 14, you were over 200 pounds. which most 14-year-olds are probably under 100 pounds. So you're like twice the size of the average, probably kid. I didn't look at the growth chart, but that's a big kid.

Like, I'm not even 200 pounds now, and I'm 40, right? So this is your big teenager, your dad moved away when you were in high school, and you said that he never came down to your football games. So I assume you had a distant relationship. Right. Or you were distant from him. We did. And, you know, I never got to play optimist because I was too big.

So it was just certain things. So by the time I got to high school, my ambition, it was another level. So I actually was an all-city football player. Nobody but my mom ever came to my football games. Nobody else in my family. Do you, I know your father has since past, but do you ever think, like,

I should have made a move to reconcile it? Do you regret that at all? No. No, not at all, because I never had any hate. There was any hate. I still love my father, regardless of what he was going through or what was going on.

I still loved him. And my love is still genuine. went for him. I'm going to celebrate his, you know, which would have been his birthday, his maybe his 85th birthday at the end of this month. So I'm going to still celebrate it, you know, as if he was, you know, here with me. So no, I understand. You know, of course, I wish he would have been there. Of course, I wish I would have had some more time, some experiences, some wisdom, you know, but I didn't. And so now we got to make the best of it. We got a boss up. What do you think he would think of your lifestyle slash success now? I mean, obviously it's

larger than life, right? So you kind of can assume he would be pretty impressed and proud of you. I'm sure he would be impressed, but the words he would use because he was such a humble person. I'm not sure, you know, I would love to hear the way he would describe my situation because he's not one of those people. Yeah, man, is it? No, he ain't like that. He never was like that. You know, he needs to type, you know, look around, you know, oh, how many square feet is this home? 55,000, you know, that's the type of person he was. Right, a quiet appreciation. Right, right.

Is your home really 55,000 square feet? Because that's like, there's like Amazon warehouses that are smaller than that. Right, right. It really is. When I first purchased it, it was 55,000 square feet on 280 acres. And I since then added another 89 acres. Oh, wow. So you're buying the land outside the place.

What's on the land? It's just value. I have a vision. Sometimes I roll the dice and I hit some lucky numbers. You've seen the way all cities expand, right? So if the city starts to expand towards your house, you can be like, I'll sell you the land, but I'm going to sell it to you for 10 times what I bought it for, and right now there's some trees on it or some grass.

Like you can sell it to developers when you're 60 years old, and it could be worth tens of millions or more. I've actually had two offers for the same land. I may have bought the land maybe not even a year ago, and I've already been made up two different offers where I could. profited a million dollars. Yeah, well, if you don't need the money now, which you don't, you just know you're sitting. It's like Bitcoin, man.

Just hold it. Just hold it. That's all up in your mind. You let's just hold. You bought the house in foreclosure from Van der Holyfield's estate or the bank that owned it anyway, right? Correct, correct. That's got to be a little bit of a warning shot, right?

Like, you look at that and you go, oh, wait, he was doing really well and he was really wealthy. All right, I'm buying this now. How do I not end up like that? How do I not be a statistic? to guys who lose their house to the next guy? I'm still hands-on. You know, he spent $25 million,

built in the home. From my understanding, he took a $10 million out on it, which went in the default, which I ultimately purchased for $5.9. And, you know, you've heard different things. He had 17 employees working, just maintaining the landscaping.

And myself, I went and bought a John Deer tractor and two or three of my buddies. We get out there. I cut the majority of it. My buddies, this, that, this, that, but we do it all ourselves. So it's most definitely a huge, a big difference in the way we dealing with things over here.

There's an element of humor, but also it really does illustrate your work ethic to know that you are cutting your own lawn in your own tractor with air conditioning, I assume, because it's hot as hell. Most definitely, I tinted the windows, the air conditioning, the audio system is phenomenal. But like, you're cutting your own grass, and a lot of people are going to be like, wait, what? This dude who's got tens of millions or hundreds of millions or headed up to the three comma club is sitting in a tractor on a Saturday afternoon cutting his own lawn and listening to music. Right. And man, a lot of times I don't have any music on and I'm just, you know, zoned out, just embracing.

You know, the land, man, nature, the peace and quiet, no telephones. I'm looking at all the birds flying around me, the butterflies, the dears. It's a beautiful situation. It's a lot to appreciate. And that's what I do. I sit back and take my time out and appreciate the position of it. I think that's important. I mean, it's cheesy to think, like, oh, we got to be, always have gratitude for everything.

Like, a lot of people recommend that. But it's funny to see that that's your practice, right? So the tractor and cutting your lawn is like an investment in your own sanity, in like gratitude and appreciating what you have. And I think that probably keeps you grounded and sane at some level. Most definitely. growing up being a youngster that was at 13 also washing cars the family that had the lawn service around the corner would cut grass and i still do that i still love to get out i still love to i think

that that falls back on me remaining hands on i love being hands on in the book you you say look nobody cares about your excuses i'm a boss because i don't have to worry about circumstances but i go for it no matter what and you bring up an important point you said the moment you're waiting on doesn't exist. Everyone has problems. Some people use them as excuses. Other people use them as opportunities. It's your reaction to those problems that matters. How did you learn that? That's one of the things my father taught me as a youngster. I never complained because complaining gets you nothing. Never complain. And that's one of the things that stick out with me. And so when someone's around me and I begin to hear complaints, I would begin to watch that person.

and ultimately the things that come along with a person that complains a lot is usually not the best. And so when I've committed the last 20 years for me to get a disposition and sit at the table, if you come and you sit at the table, and the first thing you're telling me about is your ingrown toenail or your great art that just died and, you know, your neck is hurting it. I may not want you at this table. Everybody had a lot of people that's died and everybody's felt pain and that's what come with being number one. But we want to win.

myself and everybody else that's sitting at this table, I owe them for whoever to sit right here to make sure we win. We don't want to hear no complaints. Embracing the process, you say you don't want it to be easy, right? The process is what makes you able to enjoy and manage success. And the example, I mean, the example I thought of was like, without the process, you're like that lottery winner who's like, oh, I have $10 million now. And then in two, three, five years, they're broke. One year. One year, yeah. Yeah, they have broke hand or the IRS. Yeah, and like they don't have any friends left because everybody asked them for money

and they mishandled all of that, right? So the idea that you don't want it to be easy is interesting because I feel like people who face that resistance head on all the time and are expecting it to be hard. Then when you do face challenges, it's just like, all right, well, this is part of the game and it doesn't beat you down, right? It doesn't get to you. No, it doesn't beat you down. And when I look back at, when I'm in the position I am now, when I look back 15 years ago,

when I was sleeping at rest spots, when a lot of times I didn't know how I was gonna make it to the next city, the next show, or whatever the position was, it was actually a beautiful situation. Man, if I could only be confident to know, hey man, one day you're gonna be great, man. But when I look back at the situation and the people I got to meet and be, you know,

looking at that crowd that saw me for the first time in the physical how their eyes would be this big and they wouldn't blink for three minutes, man. A lot of times that was the audience. That's the high that I'm chasing now when I'm running out on stage. But you didn't know that. You didn't know right now your audience in those die-hard first 1,500 people that log on as soon as you go live every morning that those people that, man, a lot of times you don't know that.

That's fascinating because it's almost like, it's like the idea of the struggle is what, what's the analogy here? It's like forged in fire, right? You can't really appreciate being on the top if you didn't have to go through the struggle, which totally makes sense, right? We all know, like, trust fund kids whose dad's left them like $20 million, and they're just useless. Like you said, they get an ingrown toenail, and they're like, I can't work today, right?

They just can't do anything for themselves because they've never had that resistance. Yeah, they've never had to figure out one thing by themselves. And that's what I had to do as a youngster. I had to figure out certain things by myself, whether it was going to, if it was going to, If we're going to wash cars today, if we're going to hustle today, if we're going to hustle today, if we're going to help Mr. Thomas down the street, pour tar on his roof and the tar down there 200 degrees. And if it hits your foot, it'll take your whole leg off. But guess what? If he gave us $20, a lot of times we'll jump up on the roof and we learn certain things.

So my drive is on another level, and I appreciate it. And I still wake up 15 years later and look forward to doing interviews. I'm actually excited. I actually want to wear one of my nice sweaters. But I appreciate that. You don't show up like, what is this again? Who are you? What's happening right now?

Oh, I'm hungover. I can't do it. I'm still excited. We still driving. We still got history to make. And to me, if it was about a dollar figure, we would have quit a long time ago. But I think it's more about let's make history.

You got a seven figure advance for, was it one of your first albums or one of your biggest albums? Yeah, my very first album, with DevJam. And you just pretended like it didn't exist for six months and just kept hustling, which I think is really good advice for any windfall, promotion, accolade award, whatever. You just got to pretend like it doesn't exist because it's real easy to have a seven-figure advance make you be like, I'm amazing.

I can't fail now. It's over. And then when you're really at the beginning, you think you're at the top of the mountain, but really you're just at the start of the trail. Yeah, it's so easy for you to be washed up through, done. You won lawsuit away from a one-one. So I closed my deal with L.A. Reed, J.Z, Shkir Stewart, Def Jam, seven-figure advance. Actually, for the first one year, I didn't spend anything.

I didn't buy a car. You know, I had already had a BMW. The things I had already owned, I already owned, I had. But as far as me finally getting a record deal after 15 years of taking law, and whatever else you want to call them. I didn't go and get anything. I didn't add anything to the car fleet or anything else like that.

I just grind. I didn't stop. I didn't turn down anything. Man, let's go. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. You know, that was just my mentality. And here we are.

Yeah, here we are. In the book also talk about the dangers of hustling backwards, which I think is a great phrase, right? Becoming so enthralled with the trappings of success that you end up focusing on image instead of legit goals, which, like, you didn't say it, but we can tell what you meant, which is like Instagram culture, right?

It's like, oh, I'm on a private plane, but I'm really in a photography studio in L.A. that's just a fake plane, and I go there and I pretend I'm on a plane. It's fake it, but instead of making it, you just focus on fake it and you never actually do anything. You never make it. Right. That's, you know, or even worse, you actually be on a private plane, but you change outfits five times over that one flight so you could post. different photos over the next year.

You know, and it's fucked up, and it's sad, man. And I understand because I'm a person that believe in speaking things in existence, manifest in certain things, but I have no problem with flying Delta. I still fly Delta. My favorite seat is 2D.

Hey, I'm going to lean on the wall, man. I'm right there. Give me my cheese box, man. What if somebody's in seat 2D, do you go like, hey, man, can we switch seats? All the time. All the time. Hopefully they don't mind the Iola.

If I'm in the bulkhead, I'm at least try. I'm going to try. That's funny. Now I'm going to book 2D and be like, all right, I'll switch, but you've got to sign this. I'm going to carry a CD in my carry on. That's too easy. And if you don't have a CD, I autograph a book for you. And I got it.

It's too easy. The hustling backward or avoiding hustling backwards, it must kind of be tough in the rap game because isn't image just such a huge part of it? I mean, we all know, like, we see it, all the videos. they kind of have that image as like right in the forefront. And I know it's marketing. Right. But how do you balance the marketing and the self-promotion

with being an actual creator that's focused on the product as well? Well, for myself, I came in with every damn hustle. And that's what really represented my goals and my ambition. This is what I'm here for. Every damn hustle. I want to make history. I want to do something that's never been done for my city. I want to be the biggest artist that's not just from my city,

not just from the South in the game. And I'm gonna do that different ways. If I currently have 20 partnerships in the next year, I'm sure to be 50. I'm sure, easily, fifth. If I own over 100 cars, now I'm sure in the next year to be 200. Jay Leno invited me out for the season.

Man, we had a great time. Man, I got a lot of game from Jay Leno. Jay Leno, one of the only few people that could actually school Rose when it comes to automobiles. But I'm just letting you know, That's the drive we're at. That's how we're moving.

And we're making good moves. We're making good moves. You're listening to The Jordan Harbinger Show with our guest, Rick Ross. We'll be right back. When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like, all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet.

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We put a lot of work into it. I would love it if you would consider supporting those who make this show possible. So all those links, those URLs, those discount codes, they're all in one easy place over at Jordan Harbinger.com slash deals. We redid the page. It should be much easier. to use now. All the deals should be easily searchable and findable even on your phone, Jordan Harbinger.com slash deals. Don't forget we've got worksheets for many episodes if you want.

The drills and exercises talked about during the show in one easy place. That link is in the show notes at Jordan Harbinger.com slash podcast. Now back to Rick Ross. You say that success is based on what you do when no one is looking and you build one break at a time. That is probably one of the most important and one of the most overlooked bits of advice that I think a lot of people who are trying to make it think of. Like, they're really doing everything in front of the camera. And when the camera's off, there's a lot of like, well, I'm done now because I posted or I'm done now because the video is out. I'm done now. Well, you'll be washed. There's only so long before you'll be back at the car wash or cutting grass at one of my

or lawn services if I ever decide to start when you will most definitely be because everything that matters is you have to take advantage of your time time is the most valuable asset you will ever have control of so you have to take advantage of it right now and when you don't hey just know it's a person like me that's trying to do five times five things at once for every one thing you're doing I'm trying to do five. And just understand and accept whatever position or, you know, what comes with that. Because this is what we look forward to. We're not shy.

This is just one room in the promise land. And this is what we look forward to. And we want to keep going. It's a lot of shit being done. It's a lot of accomplishments to be achieved. And we really want to be a part of it. And if that's not what you want, you know, go somewhere else. As far as your time, you've got this calendar audit exercise.

in the book, which I think is brilliant. It's something that I recommend people do in one form or another all the time. Essentially, break down all your time, especially time spent flexing on Instagram or whatever, and, like, truthfully evaluate how much time is being spent going towards your goals and where the rest of the time is going. How do you decide which habits or activities or people that you need to cut out? Because not everything is going to be aimed towards your goals. Like, sometimes you just have friends, but I assume you've got a rule of thumb for this kind of thing. Right. Sometimes you just need to take notes of what's really going on. Okay, it's Monday to this Friday.

This is what I want to do for five days. I'm going to take notes of everything I got going on. Basically, my business partners, what the conversation, let's just take notes. At the end of the day, look at what you did today. What did we do? What needs to be removed? What do I need to spend and focus more time on?

You would be surprised that the bullshit that you got coexisting around you. The people that's calling you, the conversations that's going on, man, that shit is frivolous. Let's etch that out and focus on what brings value to the table. Because three years from now it's only certain things

that's going to matter. The fluff, as you call it, I'm going to start using that. The fluff, that bullshit, we won't even remember that. The people that never really brought value to our lives, we won't even remember their names. Let's move three years ahead now

and cut the bullshit out now. Let's move like we already advanced. And that's what we're going to do. If I know I want to, hey, man, in the next five years, I may want to start playing golf. You know what? I'm not going to wait five years. We're going to start this year. Let's start working on the put.

You could do it inside that room you're in right now. I know. You could drive a golf ball in there. I know, I know. That's a great idea. Maybe take down the chandelier, just because that's a disaster waiting to happen if you're going to be driving balls. No, no, no, I love the chandeliers. I may just have to get the three roads, the ones that hang down with the tree.

trial levels. I got these a few years ago when we first was doing the first warm-up decoration, but it's time to go to another level, I think. Yeah, you can definitely move those out of the driving range, I would say. That could be a little bit dangerous. You're right. You do need to change how you invest your time in order for your results to change. And that's like the main takeaway from that, right? Like a lot of people will just complain about something or they'll say, yeah, you know, I got to do this. But if you just take inventory of your time, you realize, wow, I'm actually wasting like two hours a day, in meetings, listening to people complain, you know, whatever, solving dumb problems that should have happened. Oh, man.

And you get better and better, and then you'll be surprised in three months how your life has changed. You'll be surprised. Ambition is the most important ingredient to success, which makes sense. At least that's what you say in the book, right? And it's, I wonder if you found this. It's really easy to assume that other people have the same level of ambition as you do. But statistically, that's just not going to be true, right? No, no, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, they don't. They don't. It takes a certain amount of ambition. And the more ambition you have, the more things you can overcome. There's actually people that want to be on radio. They actually want to be in the position you in. But a lot of times they're shy. That'll be the word they use or, nah, but you may be shy too.

But your level of ambition, fuck the shyness. This is what we're going to do. I don't give a damn if we're going to take an L. I don't give a damn. We're going to do it anyway. And guess what? We're going to try our hardest, and we're going to bring something great to the table.

And we're confident we're going to bring something great to the table. And that level of ambition is priceless. I've done this with business partners. I'm sure you have, too, where you think, like, okay, I'm working 18 hours a day, six, seven days a week, whatever it is, and you think, like, all right, they're going to be up at Friday, 1 a.m. working. But they've been drinking since 2 p.m. the day before, they're putting more effort into their alcohol tolerance than they are into their business.

And it's a lesson that a lot of people have to learn the hard way. Because you grew up working hard, I grew up working hard. Most people actually do not. And guess what? If that's the situation, once we sit down at the table, they're going to understand why their value isn't as high as mine or yours. That's one thing that we're going to make it clear. Whatever you bring to the table is what you will be appraised on,

and you will be appraised. And not just, let's do this on a daily basis. What are you bringing to the table on a daily basis? Are you going above and beyond, or are you that same person you've been for the last three years just doing what's on black and white paper that's requested on you? If you are, to me, you're a loser. We want to go above and beyond.

I want to go and do something else. I want to suggest another guest for you without you having to ask me. That's what we have to do for us to make it what we're trying to go. and for the ones that don't understand, accept or appreciate that, just accept, you know, the position you're in and you'll stay in as we continue to climb. You say you hire people for jobs that they can grow out of, not jobs they can grow into. Tell me about that. Well, you just have to be a person that wants to elevate yourself.

And that's me touching on the same thing. Once again, are you going to be one of those people that's just a predictable, colleague, a predictable peer, a predictable employee, are you going to do the same thing you've been doing for the last six months? That's not cool. That's not the shit. That ain't what you want to be. Be one of those people that, hey man, I don't know if you guys are like this, but I wrote this down. Pass this shit around. That's what I want to see. What is this? Even if there's 20 things that you suggested and I only like to. Guess what? You just. just increased your value with Ricky Rose.

You know what? I may ask you to slide over. That person that's sitting in between me and you, move them. You sit next to me now. Just those two things on that path. Don't be predictable. You got to be able to climb out.

Don't grow into it. You got to be able to go to another level. I don't want to have to do you a favor because I'm not going to do you a favor and give you the position. That's growing into it. This makes sense, right? So no free meal ticket, but you will put your people on so that they can develop.

And like you said, I love the idea of climbing out, right? It's like, all right, you're in this position. What are you going to do next? You're in this position. What are you going to do next? What are you going to do next? Are you going to remain the same person? Because if you are, you're boring me.

And guess what? That's not exciting. And what's exciting is us going to the next level. And that's what I'm most definitely going to be doing. When you look around here, everything on the table, it doesn't stop. It doesn't stop. You said something that I've really, have heard a lot over the years that I enjoy, which is how you do anything is how you do everything, right?

So it's like always go the extra mile. And you said when you were washing cars, you would arrange people's CDs and tapes in alphabetical order. Not part of the job. You're just supposed to wash the car, but it ends up being this extra 10% or extra 20% that you go in every single bit that you do. And sometimes you get tips and sometimes people don't even notice, but it's not for them, right?

It's for you. And that's what I do. That's what I've done. And I saw that's the quickest way to grow out of the position. I saw, okay, when you're a youngster, you're 13 years old at the car wash. When you see the big drug dealers pull up and a Chevrolet that they invested 150K in, they're not just letting anybody wash the car. They want the consistency.

They want that same person. But guess what? I always told myself the day they give me that opportunity because I'm walking up to them, I'm making our contact, and I'm letting them know I'll take care of you. I got you.

And the day they gave me that opportunity, not only would I wash their car, wipe it down, not only I would organize the cassettes, the CDs, and if I had the pocket change, if the gas tank was empty, I would fill up their gas tank.

Because when they came back, hey, you ain't got to waste that extra and five minutes for that. I did that for you. Big Homehill was $40. That's all I had. I love this perspective, right? Because most people will be a little bit more transactional.

They'll do what they get paid for. But you say, hey, if you do more than what you get paid for, you'll eventually be paid for more than what you do, which is simple but also kind of brilliantly simple. Right. And so let's say, for instance, my partner, I'm a partner with Luke Belair, CEO, Brett Barish, great grime. This is Brett Barish.

Cony. But guess what? It's sitting here with me because Brett Beres is a friend of mine and not only that, I go above and beyond what I'm ever requested to do. And I'm doing this because this is a friend or a partner of mine. You understand what I'm trying to say? And so that was my approach since I was a youngster. And so that's why I was always embraced by the realest in the street of Miami. And you don't get embraced if the shit ain't real. You can't move the way I move. You can't have a hundred cars and come from Miami if the shit ain't real. The streets won't allow it. And the police can't save you. They can't save you. You could call them all the hell you want to, but not where I'm from. That can't save you.

Only thing going to save you is when this shit is real. For people who don't know, Brett Barish is the CEO of sovereign brands, right? Am I getting that right? Correct. He kind of looks like the cross between the Doseki's most interesting men in the world and some kind of Indian spiritual guru. Moses, that's what I call him sometimes. Yeah.

Yeah. And, you know, that's who created Ace of Spades. That's who created Doucet. He's a great guy. And so that's what I'm enjoying this morning, because that's what went along with the vibe of my book, and that's what I'm doing. It's not about a dollar.

It's not about a coin. I could have easily been drinking cognate just with a champagne bottle sitting here. But that's not what I chose to do. That's not how I choose to move. One thing that you think you do really well, well, one thing in particular that I think you do really well is your people are all really diversified, right? So if anything, and you mentioned this in the book, if anything ever happened to your business, people around you can help you back if needed, right? So you're not like the bottom of this infrastructure where if you as the peg get knocked down for some reason, everybody else falls. You've got people who run car dealerships, beverage brands. You've got all kinds of different wing stop, right? You've got fast food joints. And these are all run independently by people that you trust. So if anything happens to any other element in your business, it's like the internet. If one node goes down, the rest of the nodes just take over and it's like nobody even has to notice that there's a problem so you can get to fixing it.

Right. It's kind of like the pandemic. During the pandemic, you know, artists live off performances, show money, etc., etc. It's not many artists I saw that continue to move the way I moved during the pandemic. And I'm just being straight up. That's what I talk about as far as being a boss. I still bought old school classics two or three every month like I always did. And it shouldn't change because I'm not living off to show money to this to that. No, we've been talking about every damn hustling and we meant that. And I said it, I meant it. And that's what we've been doing.

And so during the pandemic, we bought more franchises. You know, shit business went on. And a lot of artists can't say that. You said old school classics. Are you talking about cars? Correct. Old school classes, Pellers, Fords, this and that. This one I bought my John Deer Tractors. Just everything I felt I kept moving as if, you know, it wasn't dependent. Right, because you had the support to do that. Not because you ignored the problem,

but because the problem wasn't actually a systemic issue, right? It wasn't a critical issue for your businesses. Right. Not at all. And so your people, their resources, they don't come and ask you for a handout. out there actually support for you and for each other later on. So it's like a web instead of a, I don't know, I'm missing the analogy here, but it's like a web. What I wanted to do was when I created and began purchasing more franchises, I began in Florida, then I went straight to the home base of my family, so they would have job opportunities. I went straight to Memphis, and I purchased five, then it went to maybe six or seven.

But I wanted my family members to have these opportunities because it's not about coming to me asking me for money, you got to be ready to feed yourself. And here's the opportunity. You can start sweeping at the register. You may work up the management. You may want to buy one yourself. And if you earn that respect, I'd be a partner with you. So, you know, that's what it's about with me. So my sister, she's a millionaire. She's a self-made millionaire. She has car lots and this and that and this and that. And, you know, my mother, she's just the matriarch of the family that just oversees everything. So I don't have it. anybody that's can you transfer this into my account for this and no that ain't how I'm rocking

over here we're all bosses it sounds like your mom is the only person who's still allowed to yell you and guess what she doesn't even yell she doesn't need to do right and she could she's the only one that's ever yelled to me my my entire life but you know our communication is special something that I didn't expect to see in the book because it's not the usual advice you're going to hear from like a rapper music mogul not going to lie is you recommend save it and investing, and you say financial freedom is the best stress reliever. That is not the usual kind of advice you see from any artist anywhere. I mean, if you want to talk to a real CEO, a real mogul, that's the advice you're going

receive. As an artist, we understand music goes hand in hand with partying, so you will party, but you've got to find a way to create businesses around the parties. You have the way to, you know, just elevate your value in so many different ways and take advantage of that. And that's the advice, you know, I'm giving them. You know, and it's all factual. So when I talk about me being a boss and I talk about my residency, I just closed with Dreis, the number one club. And I talk about a G-Shiba cryptocurrency.

And I could just go down the list, you know. And that's what you have to talk about. And when are you going to talk about it? your first two or three years as an artist, or will you wait till you have no value at radio, or will you wait to you have no real excitement around your brand? When will you do it? That's your decision to make.

But as Ricky Rose would say, let's come out to gay strong, work your way into it. Let's not wait until you have a number one record to just think about creating merch. Let's begin creating merch now. You may do smaller numbers, but let's have this system in place. So when you do have,

success at the radio, hey man, I got my own merch. You could come out and purchase that as well. You've done so much, right? But you've also had some serious scares, right? You had a seizure at age, was it 35? Yeah, I'm sure. Was that the first one? Right.

That was the first seizure I had. I remember I had it. I was actually on a flight. And my buddy was like, let's get off the plane. We had a seizure. And I looked at him. Boy, sit down somewhere. I looked like I had a seizure.

I'm straight because I had no side effects. I felt no pain, no nothing. So I actually thought, you know, he was tripping. But I got off the plane and I called my private jet connect 30 minutes later after getting off the plane. I was on a private jet. And once I fell asleep on the jet, I had another seizure. And at that point, that's where we made an emergency landing in Alabama.

I woke up. I want to say maybe a day. or two later. And that's when me suffering from seizures was a reality. And that's when I had to go see a real doctor and explain my lifestyle, you know, the way I slept. And that's when they explained my issues. And, you know, at that time I was sipping syrup

and I was sipping Tussinex and other things that I felt helped me stay awake to do the things I love most, which was make music. So I would be sipping out of these styrofoam cups something that I used to, I felt taste so delicious. And I could stay in the studio for 20 hours at a time and create music that I felt would change the world. And I stopped getting any rest. I stopped going to sleep. And that's what my doctor is explaining me that my body could no longer take. Wow. So the seizures were, it's not something genetic. It's from lifestyle, food, tussin, stuff like that.

It's from Tesson X and just refusing to go to sleep. And after they study, you know, the way I went to sleep even after the first six months of seeing a doctor and even I couldn't sleep more than three or four hours. So I still wake up at 6 a.m. now, but it's a good thing because I could sleep five and six hours now, which was something I, shit, I thought I could never do again. Because as soon as I lay down, it's so much stuff I feel I could be doing. It's something I could be accomplishing. It's work that could be done. And so just for everybody that's out there and you sleep in your full, late in 10 hours, it was somebody like me that wanted your job and wanted to take and strip you of your success. I wanted to take your paycheck. I wanted to

take everything because, you know, my desire for winning, once you come from the mud, you really want to make it to the marble. And that's what the position I was at. This is the Jordan Harbinger show with our guest, Rick Ross. We'll be right back. Visit my chinette.com to find out more. And now for the rest of my conversation with Rick Ross. So how does that change how you live your life now? Because obviously, like, you've got kids, you've got a lot of businesses. You can't be having seizures on flights and then being like, nah, I'm fine, right?

You could die now, right? Like, now when you have kids, you realize like, oh, crap, I should probably stay alive. Oh, most definitely. And that's one of my biggest inspirations is, you know, me going hard and making sure they won't, you know, have to see a lot of the things that I've seen. Enjoy your life. I no longer, you know, mess with the Tussanx or the Lean or, you know, stuff like that. Can you tell people who don't know what that is, what that is?

Because a lot of people never heard of the Lean or Tussin X. Well, lean, that's another name for Kodine, something that I used to pour into a fan of a cup, styrofoam cup. I would pour a few ounces of Kodin, mix it with soda. It was something that I thought. thought tastes so delicious and I would just listen to music and it relaxed me in such a space where I could work on music for 15 hours at a time and during that time I created some of the most beautiful records. The toll it takes on your body, not resting, not sleeping, it's going to be

a valuable one price that you will pay. How do you get around that now? Like you can't do it now, but you're not just going to stop working. So what do you do instead of that? You know, that was the the bad side to, you know, how I was living. So now I just relaxed. I sip my champagne. I sip my loop at lay. I smoke my cannabis. You know, of course, we got our own strand,

Collins Air, partnered up with cookies. Most importantly, I rest now. Believe it or not, I never took naps in my life. And now I could take an hour to nap during the day. And, you know, that changed the whole game for me. You've got a daughter. And do you just have the one daughter? Is that, or you have other kids as well?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. got seven beautiful children. Okay. So one of them is a daughter, at least, right? So I'm not wrong there. I know that hip hop is not always the most female-friendly music genre in many ways. I wonder if having a kid has made you think about this a bit more. Well, you know, when I create music, I'm really thinking of where I've came from and where I'm going.

You know, I have created a few records where I'm speaking on my family or, you know, my kids or so on and so forth. But, you know, as a whole, whatever direction I'm going in, you know, I'm going to continue going in. And even when I sit down and I play records for my kids, I explain them what I'm talking about, the approach, the meaning, the purpose, and what I ultimately want a listener to walk away with. Majority of the time, they understand what it is and respect. There's a breakfast club clip, which I'm sure is not your favorite. They say, hey, why didn't you sign more female artists? I think it was Angela Yee who asked you that, right?

And then you're like, oh, I'd sleep with them and I would mess up the business. And that did not go over so well outside of that studio. Right, right. I wonder what you think of stuff like that, like looking back and being like, okay, I got kids now. How do you explain that kind of thing to them when that happens? You know, they know what I was ultimately referring to. Well, ultimately what I was referring to was an independent label that I used to work with. the artist was a female artist.

I used to write her raps and herself, you know, a big wig at the label, you know, got into some things personally, and it fucked up everything. All of the music that I had wrote for the last two or three years for her, you know, the label situation that they had on the table, it all crumbled. It all crumbled.

And I watched that happen. And so I was like, yo, that was so unfortunate. And so, you know, I've written, records for a lot of females, but that was the ultimately, that was what I was speaking of. You know what I'm saying? I've collaborated with a lot of females,

and I'm a fan with a lot of females, and I've yet to sign one. You know, I feel like when the time, right, and she's a hard worker. That's the most valuable to me, because my business comes before anything, personally. I ain't even thinking of myself personally,

so it's most definitely about the business. You know, of the time and the right artists present their self, you never know? So you don't think that you'd really sleep with a female artist and mess up the business that you had with them? No, no, no, no. I've been around the most beautiful artists there was, and I've never had any issues business-wise. So, no, I actually was thinking back to before I got on, it was a personal, in a big situation in Miami, everybody on the local music scene know what I'm talking about. But it was just, damn.

Man, that shit. And, you know, it's almost like this shit tore the whole vibe down. But, you know, me personally, no, there was nothing. I was tripping. A lot of people were wondering, hey, look, you got Freeway, Rick Ross, who's like the sort of infamous drug dealer, now out of prison. He's been on the show before as well. And he took it pretty hard that there was a rapper with his name.

What's going on there? Because I know y'all were involved in a lawsuit before that later on ended. What happened there? You know, he just was a, he came home and filed lawsuits. You know, he was an informant. came home, filed lawsuits, going right back to the police. You know, so I had no words for him. I had nothing to talk about at that point.

You was the police in prison. You're the police not. I had no words to talk about. So I still have nothing to talk about. You know, a lot of people go, well, wait, he took that guy's name, you know, what's going on there? Is that not what happened? What happened was, it's most definitely we had the same name. I ain't tripping.

I can't get a rat no more. You know, I didn't know much about him personally. I knew he's supposed to be a hustler that was getting money on the West Coast. I'm from the South. You know what I'm saying? My name could have been Ricky Rose from the beginning, and I would have still been the biggest boss. It don't matter.

Like I said, you know, when he came home, filed lawsuits before you even reached out, I said, damn, I can't respect him. You know what I'm saying? I can't respect him. And then during the lawsuits is when I got all the documentation of how many times he testified and how many people we testified against. So that killed any opportunities of us moving forward with anything. Is it anything personal with me and dude?

No, I don't know. Never met him. If he tried to reach out to you directly and be like, hey, man, I'm trying to rebuild my life coming out of prison. Like, you got the same name as me. You think that would have ended up? Maybe the situation would have turned out differently? I don't know.

You come home, rebuild your life. Go rebuild your life. I don't have nothing to do with your life, go rebuild your life. Help those 30 people you testify on rebel layers too. There's a lot that goes into like street cred in the streets and in the industry

and those things overlap a lot. Actually, I know you kind of accidentally had a brush with that before too. I guess there was something about you had a correctional officer job for I don't even know how long and people were like, oh, he's a cop or he's law enforcement, right?

His rap persona is fake because he worked in this job. I'm wondering what you feel about that, because of course you speak about it a little bit in the book where it's like, hey, man, I've had a lot of jobs. Like I said, where I'm from, you get broken to have if it ain't real. And it's obvious the position I'm in, my shoes never been stepped on. And if the homie, if it wasn't so real, the homie would have came and hollied at me. Ain't nobody stepping on my shoes because I don't even have nothing to explain. It's that real.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah, I do. So switching gears a little bit. I got to hear this story about you going to Barack Obama's office, and there was a little bit of a disturbance because of the ankle monitor. Can you tell us this? This is a funny story. It has to be kind of one of those like top 10 funniest or embarrassing, maybe, but also funny moments of your life, right? Right, right. I was invited to the White House, me along with the other few artists. And at the time,

I was actually out on bond for some kidnapping charges, some allegations, for me doing some things, this or that. So I had an ankle monitor on my ankle. We was all sitting in the Oval Office. So who was in there? Who was there at this point? Myself, maybe 15 or 20 other artists, myself, DJ Callet, chance to wrap up, bust the rhymes, ludicrous, just to name a few.

My ankle monitor actually went off in the middle of the conversation and Secret Service went to moving around, because before you went into the Oval Office, Everyone had to give up any technology, any cell phones, anything. So no one had any technology on them. So once the be, me, me, me, me, beat, me, me, me, started going off. Security guys went to, and, you know, Barack Obama made a statement and everybody at the table. It was just, it was one of those things.

And I'm sure somebody that was there would forget. Yeah, like, I think a lot of people are going, wait a minute. Because, of course, when you go into the White House period, they're probably searching, you for weapons and all that stuff. And then before you go in the Oval Office, they're searching you. And I assume they saw that you had the ankle monitor and they went, oh, okay, this is fine. But the guys maybe stationed inside didn't know about that. And then why was it beeping, like a low battery or something?

Like, what's going on there? Man, I don't know. You got to ask Fairville County Jail. But, you know, the question I really got a lot of was how could a person with kidnapping charges and pistol whipping charges making it? to the White House, but we did. You did? And we put those, I want to say, I had 12 felony charges.

We put those behind us, you know, in the same way, being accused of these type of allegations never made me having a job for a few months never made. You did? Yeah. It's a funny story because I'm just imagining Secret Service is panicking. Everyone's looking around. Some people probably even know what it is, but they don't want to say anything. And then Obama's just sitting there like, well, a thought.

we were going to blow up. It was so familiar to that. I don't want to repeat it, but, you know, it was most definitely when you hit a beep, beat, beep, beat, beat, and it's coming from under the table. Probably like, who let this guy in here with the next time, change your batteries on your ankle monitor before you come in the Oval Office? The lesson I think we need to learn here is always make sure you have fresh batteries

in your ankle monitor if you're going to go see the president of the United States. No, for real. There's a lot of people that want to get opportunities with you, right? They want to like, oh, man, I want to work with you. I want to work with your label. I want to work with your companies. What do you suggest to people that want to get opportunities with you or somebody like you? You say take initiative, but what does this look like in practice?

Taking initiative and practice is really embracing everything that we already have going on. Embrace reping the brands. Embrace wrapping the record label. Embrace everything. We got 20 partnerships right now. You should already feel like a partner in all 20. That's if you really want to look or seem or feel exceptional to me. If you're going to hire someone in the future to work with what you got going on,

it should already be on their Facebook 12 months prior. They should already know this is the way we work. This is the way we move. If you even have a consideration of wanting to become a brand ambassador or whatever, so on and so forth, you should begin now. Don't just wake up one morning and say, I want to be MMG. Well, guess what?

I got a surprise. It's a fucking million people that just want to be MMG. It's artists that want to pay me to be on MMG. So what are you going to bring that's unique? Show me something that's different.

And hopefully they could show me already 12 months of work you already been putting in reping the team, repping the brand, show me that the love is genuine. And that's something that I realize that wealthy people want.

They don't just want to hire somebody that want the job because everybody wants the job, but they really want to find who really wants to be there. And if you could show an extremely wealthy person, look, man, I really wanted to be here. This is what I did two years ago. Look, because everybody wants the job. Everybody wants to sit next to the multimillionaire.

Everybody wants to have lunch with the billionaire. But what have you done? That was different. It's like if you want to work for me, show me that you already have been working for me. And I think that's one way you phrase it in the book as well. Like, don't come and ask me for the job. You're auditioning for the job well before we even talk. It doesn't even matter what you're talking right now.

Show me. Show me. Pull up your platform. Show me your social media. Show me what you've been doing. Show me you love this brand and you love this, There's so much. This is so incredible.

And this is the opportunity you've been waiting for. This bullshit if you can't show me. You said you don't have to sacrifice your principles or be an immoral person to succeed. Being good to those you work with is a long-term play. If your idea of success only benefits you, you're not really that successful. Tell me about that. Well, if it's only one person that's really winning, how successful are you? How big are you?

Are you really the biggest boss? No. It should affect everyone that's coming to the table and bringing something to the table. It's simple. And if you're the only one winning, hey, man, you may not really be winning, man. Or maybe you are just in a different way. But the platforms I'm creating, I need everybody to be a part of every one of them because that's how all 20 benefits.

We got to be a part of them all. you should post them all on your platforms. I shouldn't have to ask you because once we win and we're number one, you come to the dinners, don't you? Toast the champagne, don't you? Well, let's put the work in.

Hey, man, I grew up with you. We played baseball. Fuck baseball. That was 20 years ago. Fuck that shit. It's about what's popping right now. Let's hit some home runs right now. And if we're not going to do that,

cool, man. I wish you the best. Go over there now. It's interesting because you're doing, you're practicing what you preach, right? Like you brought up the champagne and the beverage earlier and you're like, oh, I'm doing this for my friend,

I'm repping this for my friend. I have a business partner and I'm promoting this for him. They're not asking you to do this. And so people see that and they have to do the same thing for you, but it's like you're giving them the blueprint and now you literally have a book

about how to do it. So if people are going to ignore that, then you know they're not going to be a good fit for your organization. Rick, thank you so much, man. Is there anything that you want to put in before we close, because otherwise it's a wrap. Hey, man, I had a great time with you today.

Anytime you need me, I'll be here for you. If you ever having a barbecue or something like that, I'll be there, baby. I may also send us some thighs, you dig from thigh stop, but I'll be there, big homie. I've got some thoughts on this episode, but before I get into that, here's a preview of my conversation with Danny Trejo. An ex-con turned icon featured in over 350 films and TV shows. You've seen them everywhere in machete, Breaking Bad, Desperado, and much, much more. He's never been through acting school, which doesn't matter when you're a legend slash icon.

Before becoming such a prolific star, Danny Trejo was a drug-addicted criminal hooked on heroin at age 12, who spent more than a decade in and out of prisons. Here's a quick preview. Once you start doing robberies and you're using heroin, the robberies become addicted. You don't know whether you're doing robberies to support your drug habit or doing drugs to support your robbery habit. I read you robbed a store with a hand grenade. This was later on. This was like we did a robbery.

We ended up with this hangarade. So I tried it, and it was very simple. You know, when you hold a hang grenade and you got your hand on the pin and you ask somebody for some money, they think twice. Prison, there's only two kinds of people in prison. There's predators and they're prey. That's it. And you've got to decide every damn morning, what are you going to be?

And I know a lot of people that decide I'm brave. I don't care because I'm tired. I know a lot of people that took an elevator off the fifth tier. There's no elevator. I know a lot of people that cut their wrist. I've seen guys with all the muscles in the world get stabbed by a short Mexican in tennis shoes with a big knife. You're fighting.

I don't fight you. That's prison. Prison has a taste. put one of those fake pennies, the lead one in your mouth and keep it there. That's the taste of pusher. That's the taste of anxiety. That's the taste of fear. That's the taste of everything.

You feel it. That's just to walk around with. And when you finally lose that taste, you've decided whether you're going to be predator or prey. That's the only way you can lose it. For more, including how Danny Trejo walked onto a Hollywood movie set as a drug counselor and left as a bona fide actor, and how Danny Trejo has managed sobriety for over 50 years and continues to help others maintain theirs. Check out episode 398 of the Jordan Harbinger Show.

Man, this is an interesting one. Never think you've got it all figured out. Always have that beginner's mindset. The second you think you've found a lane and you've got it all figured out, you've just set a ceiling for yourself. A lot of really good information from Rick and of course his book as well. That will be linked in the show notes. All of the books from all the guests are linked in the show notes, and please do use those links if you buy the books from our guests, because it does help support the show. Worksheets for the episodes are in the show notes, transcripts are in the show notes. There's also a video of this interview going up on our YouTube channel at Jordan Harbinger.com slash YouTube. We've also got our Clips channel with cuts that

don't make it to the show and or highlights from the interviews that you can't see anywhere else. Jordan Harbinger.com slash clips is where you can find that. I'm at Jordan Harbinger on both Twitter and Instagram, or just hit me on LinkedIn. I'm teaching you how to connect with great people and manage relationships using systems and tiny habits over at our six-minute networking course. The course is free. It's over at Jordan Harbinger.com slash course. Dig that well before you get thirsty. Most of the guests on the show, they subscribe to the course, they contribute to the course. Come join us. You'll be in smart company where you belong. This show is created in association with Podcast One. My team is Jen Harbinger, Jace Sanderson, Robert Fogarty, Millio Campo, Ian Baird,

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so please share the show with those you care about. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on this show so you can live what you listen, and we'll see you next time. This episode is sponsored in part by Something You Should Know podcast. Finding a new great podcast shouldn't be this hard, so let me save you some time. If you like the Jordan Harbinger show, you'll probably like Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. It's one of those shows that makes you smarter in a practical, useful way. Same curiosity vibe we go for here, just in a fast-focused format.

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