About two years ago I came across a book called Do You by Russell Simon. I think I was walking through an airport or something at the time when I saw it. The second I looked at the title it sold me for a couple reasons. It got my attention not necessarily because of the title but because of Russell Simmons. I like to read and study successful people. I feel there is so much to learn from people that have what I dream.
Plus I love to study authentic really down to earth people - people like Bono, Kid Rock, Madonna, Sam Walton, Steve Jobs, Mark Cuban and many more, I think they are really fun to study just because these people will really demonstrate authenticity to the highest power.
I wrote the other day about the power of just being your authentic self. If you study the people I’ve listed above, you’ll notice these people don’t really care about what others think. They don’t seek approval from others and they seem to not really care about making other people uncomfortable.
Although I didn’t buy the book Do You at that second, I did reach down to my Iphone and I downloaded the audio book to listen to on the plane. Since that day, I’ve listen to that book I think at least 10 times and in segements and sections another 100 times. Inside this book Russell basically gives you several tidbits on unlocking the authentic self. In fact, Russell writes several times in this book about why some celebrities make it and some are just one hit wonders.
It almost seems to me that in life it’s the same thing.
You’ll notice some people will have their 5 minutes of fame, or they will do really great things once or twice, but you’ll never hear about them consistently doing great things over and over. I think it’s either because people don’t know how or that they are afraid to show their authentic ways in life. Many times people show up in life with brief moments of greatness yet the rest of the 99% of their life is all fraud so people don’t relate. They don’t connect in a unique way and they continue to stay right were they are in life.
If you look high in the sky or you look down in the jungles you notice magic happening. You see eagles in the sky and on the ground you can see dogs, cats, lions, and bears. You’ll notice that the eagle is not attempting to be like the lion. The eagle high in the sky soars at his own pace. The eagle travels and does what ever it wants. It’s simple doing eagle.
If you look at the lion you notice the lion just does lion. It not looking to fly in the sky and be something it’s not. The lion protects and feeds completely different than a bear does. It even speaks differently than a bear. In fact you’ll notice the lion doesn’t even hang out with bears. The lion only hangs out with other strong lions. They travel in packs just like eagles generally have another eagle at its side.
With humans you’ll notice that people like Vanilla Ice, the rap star that had maybe one hit, Ice Ice Baby. Although people still jam to that one song to this day. They don’t jam to multiple of his hits because he didn’t have any. The reason why Vanilla Ice didn’t make it was not that he didn’t have the talent. In fact, if you ask Russell Simons, he’ll even tell you that Vanilla Ice was one of the most talented people.
How can you argue with Russell Simmons? You can’t when it comes to hip hop and producing. Russell made hip hop.
Russell says that the reason Vanilla Ice failed was because Vanilla Ice was telling people he was from the hood and he was a gangsta and every body knew that Ice was really from the suburbs and grew up in a good family. So once everyone found out he was attempting to be a lion when actually he was a bird they said he was a fraud and never bought his music again.
You’ll then notice someone like Eminem, a short white rapper from Detroit, comes on scene and becomes famous. When Eminem came on the scene everybody said he was gonna be the next Vanilla Ice, yet he’s been famous for years now. You may ask yourself why is that? Some will even say it’s because he’s talented.
Although there’s no question the Eminem is talented the reason he’s so famous is because he spoke the truth, made other people uncomfortable being himself, and he told people how it really was. Eminem told everyone from the start the truth. He told everyone through his music how he really was feeling and what was going on in his life.
Although many times the lyrics were explicit and dirty. People related to his music. People would listen to his music as if it was the president speaking. Mothers would drop their kids off at school and secretly listen to his music on the way to work. People were relating to his music because Eminem was just doing Eminem and people became turned on by his words.
People like Kid Rock, Madonna, the Beatles, Eminem, Henry Ford are all people that were just being themselves and got what they wanted in life. Because the eagles are eagles and the lions are doing lions, these people, animals, and humans are all successful over and over and what they do.
My words (and this is word to myself as well) is to just be our authentic selves. Let’s not be someone or something that we’re not meant to be. Let’s not be Mike and act like Bruce. Let’s not be Sally and act like Leslie. Let’s speak our minds. Let’s not be afraid of being someone or something different. I also ask that we not be afraid of making other people uncomfortable around us and care what others think.
Let’s just be.
Let’s just Do You – Let’s Just Be
