Transcript
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Right, so I get asked a lot about motivation.
And people say, "Tate, what motivates you?" And I find that extremely, I think that's a stupid question.
what motivates me because I don't want to be a loser.
Like, who wants to be a loser? I've always wanted to be rich because I know I deserve to be rich because I see how many stupid people are rich. Look at any rapper who's rich
and have a look at any of their interviews, and see how low their IQ is. And these people are millionaires. - We got a special guest in the building, Tekashi69. - I'm the hottest artist in the city.
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No, you're not. So if they're a millionaire, I definitely deserve to be a millionaire. So I've always had motivation for the same reason I want to be big and strong and rich. I want to be all these things because I'm me and
So I was talking to someone the other day and they said, "Why are you motivated?" and I said, "Because I don't want to be a loser." And they said, "Yeah, I understand that, but why are you so uncomfortable with the idea of being average?"
loser.
and you have to push so hard. So I guess
My typical response wasn't enough for him.
Why are you so motivated? Don't want to be a loser. Okay, but why don't you want to be a loser?
So I sat there for a little bit and I thought and I thought what is the reason
I have always been so driven my entire life.
and it's obviously to do with my upbringing, but it's like what element of my upbringing made me into such a militant individual?
What made me so brilliant?
From a young age I was a professional chess player, and then I became a professional kickboxer, and then I became a multimillionaire businessman, blah blah blah.
Why have I always pushed so hard?
I think one of the key elements to it
is because I was always extremely proud
of my last name, Tate.
And the reason for that is in the environment I grew up around, whenever the name Tate was said,
people put respect on the name. So when I used to go to professional chess
tournaments with my father, who was one of the best chess players in the world,
People would say, oh shit, Tate's here.
"Oh man, Tate's here. Oh, who's got Tate? Who's playing Tate?"
Everyone was scared.
And the name invoked fear. The name invoked respect automatically, just the name, take.
Every time something was happening to me that was difficult, or I had a challenge ahead of me, etc., etc.,
I was
motivated with my own last name.
So it's like, oh, dad, I'm worried about this. Or mom, I'm scared about this. And they say, yeah, but you're a Tate.
It's like, "Oh yeah, I am scared, but I am a Tate, so it's okay, because I'm a Tate."
Even now, even as successful as I am, most people would look and go, "Oh, look at my child. They've done this. They've done this. They've done this."
I guarantee as a child I outperformed any of you as children. And I guarantee if you have children, I outperformed your child. This is the reality of it. I was moved up three grades in school. I had one of the highest SAT scores in history.
I was a chess champion age five, blah, blah, blah, blah. So state chess champion,
in the under 16 year olds at age 5, the youngest in history. In fact, I remember being 5 years old and playing a whole bunch of 10 year olds. There's 4 of them on a team against me.
I remember sitting there and whooping them all.
So, I was a genius, child genius, adult genius, whatever, whatever. But I was never
told, "Oh wow, you're so smart." For me it was just normal. They're like, "Yeah, you're a Tate."
Oh, they moved me up three grades of school. Well, duh, you're a Tate. Of course. What the fuck else are you going to do?
So for me, achieving things was always very, very normal. And it was always very, very easy in my mind. It was always just like, well, duh, of course I achieve things.
Of course I'll be world champion, of course I'll be a millionaire, of course I can do anything I want. And I've always believed I can do anything I want because I'm a Tate and for me achieving things is very very easy.
and I was never overtly praised and my parents were never surprised by my success.
A lot of parents are very, very surprised by the success of their children. I'll see it, they'll go, "He's one of the best in his class!"
And I'm like...
So,
He's one of the best, so he's not even the best, of a group of 30 random average losers. He's not top 1% in the world at anything.
and you're so proud of him, and you're gonna sit there and go, "Wow, great job, great job." And that's why he's never gonna become shit.
How? I'd be embarrassed to have a child which wasn't top 1%.
in the country.
let alone his shitty class. I'd be embarrassed to brag about the things you brag about. They're a bare minimum acceptable standard.
If I had a child and he wasn't one of the best in his class,
You get an ass kicking. That's the bare minimum acceptable standard and you're proud of it?
So one of the main reasons, I guess,
I've always been so motivated. One of the reasons my life is so fantastic, because the truth is,
I am one of those individuals that have it all.
I was born with a genetic gift. I'm tall, caramel, sexy as fuck, rich, I can fight, I'm a genius. I got it all.
And
One of the reasons I've taken
such marvelous advantage of my genetic gifts and used them so beautifully and exploited them, is because I was always, always understanding that, one, my name means something and I have to live up to my name and I have to succeed because when people say the name Tate it needs to mean something. So just like in the chess halls when the name Tate was said, now in the kickboxing world the name Tate is said.
people know it means something. You guys are here if you follow me and you watch my whole life, etc, etc, etc.
If anyone else knows who I am, you say the name Tate, people know. They know what it means something. I've made it mean something. One.
and two because my successors were always seen as absolutely not really normal.
And it was absolutely not really normal for me to succeed beyond all measurable doubt, beyond any expectations. The average expectations put on the average child or the average person or the average man, I have always blown out of the water without even trying.
It's just been easy for me, because this is how I've always been as an individual. So I guess the moral of the story is, I was raised for success.
And if you're sitting there and you're thinking, "Oh, I want to be more motivated, I want to be more motivated,"
you have two things to do. One, stop being proud of your achievements which are extremely
"Oh, look what I did today!" What'd you do?
Is it actually impressive? Genuinely, the answer is no.
One. And I'm saying that as, I mean, like, because even me in my life,
I can have, if I win a kickboxing world title, okay, I'll be proud of myself. Outside of that, well, I bought a new car, who cares? All the things you're so happy about, all the things you brag about.
It's bullshit things. It's things everyone does every day and it's not important. One. And two,
You need to make your name important. You need to make your name important. You have to find a way to invoke a level of respect on your name. The only way you do that, the only way you can possibly do that, is by achieving things that others cannot do.
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