October 29, 2012 2 Comments

Balanced Lifestyle, Business Toolkit, Career, Training

I am the baddest of them all

If you ain’t ’bout money, then I don’t mess with y’all

Y’all think I don’t get girls, cause I ain’t very tall

If she see my stacks, I bet you that she calls!

- Krispy Kreme, The Baddest (2012)

All of us want to be happy and fulfilled in our careers.  We want to achieve the pinnacle of success and enjoy ourselves while we do it.  If you really want to reach that goal, you can learn a few things from the baddest Internet rapper ever: Krispy Kreme.

First, allow me to introduce Krispy:

You’ve gotta give it up for the kid.  He rocks (and what can I say about Moneymaker Mike?).  Now, once you stop cracking up, I’m going to share a few things you can learn about your own development by following in Krispy’s footsteps.

Find Something You’re Passionate About and Believe in Yourself

For Krispy to declare himself the baddest of them all, he has to be a believer in his chosen vocation and his skillz.  If he wasn’t there’s no way he could beat someone who had infinity knives.  Clearly this guy believes in himself.  He’s such a believer that he’s willing to call out Jay-Z as lazy.  Are you as passionate about your vocation as KK is about his?  If not, you might want to reconsider your choice of profession.

Don’t Listen to the Haters

Poor ol’ Krispy gets some real haters on his Facebook and YouTube pages.  Clearly the comments are left by tone deaf fools who aren’t able to appreciate musical genius when they hear it.  But does Krispy let the haters get him down?  No!  He comes back and leaves a pointed message for the haters.  The first two points he makes are hysterical but the third one is spot on:

Are you a hater?  Do you listen to the haters?  Don’t let the haters get you down.  Ignore them and chase that dream.

Work at it Every Day

Krispy Kreme doesn’t want his fans thinking he’s not hard at work.  With over 25,000,000 (you read that right) video views on his YouTube channel, Krispy has a lot of people to keep happy.  I’m sure some of them think he’s resting on his laurels since he is the baddest of them all.  Nope!  Krispy Kreme is working at it every day (with an emphatic fist-to-the-palm punch not once, but twice!).

Do you work to be the best at your craft as hard as Krispy Kreme does at his?  Do you leave it all on the field every single day and go home spent knowing you gave it your all?  If not, you might be in the wrong job.  If you do, clearly you’ve got the same level of passion for your work as KK does for his.

Up Your Game

Krispy’s early efforts (like The Baddest above) weren’t the greatest raps in the world but did that stop him?  NO!  Because he works at it every day, Krispy’s performance improves every step of the way.  How can you argue with his continuous improvement as evidenced in his later effort called Girl Work It:

Is your work getting better every time you turn in that finished product?  Are you raising the bar for yourself at every turn?

Be Ready for the Big Show

A question asked by another truly famous rapper goes “If you had one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment… would you capture it or just let it slip?”  (As an aside, I’ve shared some great leadership tips you can learn from Eminem in this post – CLICK HERE to read it).  Clearly Krispy Kreme is ready to capture the moment.  For you Tosh.0 fans, you know how big this is for little KK:

Are you ready to capture that big opportunity when it comes your way?  Do you know what that opportunity is and what you want to get out of it?  Because clearly Krispy was ready as evidenced by him going big-time in the following video with Daniel Tosh:

So there you have it.  I’ll bet you $50 you never thought you could learn so much about professional development from a little hillbilly rapper.

- Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

P.S. For the non-rap savvy, the “stacks” he’s referring to are stacks of cash because in Krispy’s world, cash brings the ladies.