thirstythong

“But the most significant derivation from the meaning of as ‘water’ is the concept of people who have gathered near a body of water to grow rice for one another, and founding a stable community, sharing rain and drought, plenty and famine, peace and war: from ‘water,’ its basic meaning, has come to designate ‘the homeland, the country, the nation.’ It is in this ultimate exception that the monosyllable nuoc reverberates throught the deepest and farthest recesses of the Vietnamese collective unconscious and stirs there the most potent feelings. The nation’s fateful course, marked by ups and downs, is figuratively rendered as a ‘tide of water’ (van nuoc) with its ebb and flow. The highest virtue demanded of a Vietnamese is that he or she ‘love the nuoc‘ (yeu nuoc).” –Huynh Sanh Thong (no relation)

How to be Successful like Kanye West

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I have always been a fan of Kanye West and it is not because of his Shutter Shades…actually the Shutter Shades IS a sub-reason why I like him…the reason I like him is because his success has been molded by himself from day one.*

(*Even when he has seemingly lost control - 808’s and Heartbreaks - he stayed course as it fit his initial design - more on that later - his grand identity that wasn’t pigeon-held to a micro design.)

Kanye West is successful because he has great ideas, had a great plan and most importantly, executed in a timely manner. When people say he is one of the best rappers of all time, it will be because of these things and not because he is the best performer (because he isn’t), has the best flow (because he doesn’t), or authors the ill-est rhymes (because he hasn’t).

::On Ideas::
-Songs-
He has concepts, and hence, has shapes, for each and every song. He assembles his shapes accordingly to make one ultimate shape that results as his album. Some songs don’t fit onto the current album in the pipeline, so he’ll save it for later.

-Identity-
He chose to depict himself as a “bear” for good reason. Eminem can put himself on an album cover because anyone can (and have, and will) identify with being a Caucasian man - it’s more normal to subconsciously be regarded as “white” / “white-washed” - as being normal (and “successful”). As an African American man, it has been and will always be harder (and speaking as a matter of fact, Obama will never change this) to put out an African American face and have anyone identify with it.

As (perhaps, subconscious) strategy, Kanye West decided to present himself as a bear because:
1. Everyone loves bears, hence everyone should love him, and everyone has the right to (girls, guys, gays, animal lovers, Bloods, Crips, Metrosexuals with business cards made of pure ivory, Portlanders, tech geeks with Macbook Airs, Harujuku Girls, Fuzzies, babies, Eskimos)
2. He doesn’t have to deal with the race politics initially, and that first impression is important
(2a. Sure, they will glance at his name: “Kanye” - but they will see and remember the Bear)
3. Remained one step ahead of his time by presenting himself as an avatar, as we now have that luxury in the digital age - related to item 2.
4. Demonstrates that he isn’t your typical (rap) artist/musician, hence, has given himself automatic artistic license to do whatever he pleases (Through the Wire, Jesus Walks, Stronger, more importantly, 808’s and Heartbreaks). He has given himself license to be crazy, and as a result, will not be persecuted for it or any ideas he wishes to explore.

I’ll say it: donning that bear suit for his freshman “College Dropout” album was the single most important decision Kanye West ever made for himself and his future.


::On Planning::
Like every successful person, Kanye West developed a plan for his entire career, in terms of how he wanted to shape his identity (see the Bear passage) through his songs and album concepts:

College Dropout
then
Late Registration
then
Graduation

Good Ass Job was supposed to be the next album, but as we know, his mother passed away unexpectedly, causing his career to evolve into 808’s and Heartbreaks (depends how forgiving one is), and then My Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy.

(Related tangent: My Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy was supposed to be his Good Ass Job (his last album I suspect as that rounds his initial theme design of going from “school” to “work”). Like the better HBO series, if 5 seasons will tell the story of that universe, keep it at 5 seasons (Six Feet Under, The Wire). And arguably, one can say, Michael Jordan’s biggest flaw in terms of his legacy, is playing for the Washington Wizards after he retired [again]. We’ll see if Kanye commits a Jordan in terms of ruining his own legacy).

If you want to be successful, be like Kanye West.

Begin before you begin.

Design yourself before you release yourself to the world.

Make a plan keeping in mind who you truly are, how you want the world to see and remember you, and most importantly, execute sooner than later.