From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Derrick "D-Nice" Jones on guiding yourself with passion

From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Derrick "D-Nice" Jones on guiding yourself with passion

- You mentioned some of your friends, you know, you're feeling down ,you maybe, you've lost your job, maybe your job is not the same. You've talked in the past about your own struggles with depression, about how to deal when you feel like there is no hope, and you're not sure what the next path is. What has enabled you to keep pushing forward? What kind of advice do you give other people who might say, "I don't know what comes next for me, if anything comes next?" - Well, I just want to respectfully say that I don't, I've never really felt like I was fighting depression, you know, just out of the respect of the people that have actually been depressed and gone through it, me, I've just reached like, certain, like crossroads and there is this fear of, one of being like, you know, just, like I don't do things because I try to be successful at it. I just do the things that make me happy, not to say that that's a life for everyone. You know, it's just been my life, my life has just been one of curiosity. I enjoy learning. You know, I enjoy asking questions. I enjoy picking up a new skill set, you know, and I enjoy sharing that with people, you know, so during this time, where it seemed like, one of the things that I was dealing with was, wasn't necessarily depression, it was more of like, I don't even want to call it midlife crisis anymore, you know, I'm turning 50 years old next week, I mean, next month, and I didn't want to be the 50-year-old guy in the club, like, that just wasn't for me. I was like, "No, I don't want to be that old. I don't want to play trap music in the club." Even though I love the music, I just didn't want to be that guy. And so that's what I was dealing with, you know, personally, like dealing with, you know, what my own expectations are, and wanting to, you know, I saw myself differently. I saw myself is like, this touring artist, but I couldn't figure out how to get there. And I figured out how to get there by using the things that were around me and promoting myself that way, and saying that I'm going to be different and just staying focused on it, even when, you know, I put the time and I put the work in, you know, this thing, I went from roughly 198,000 Instagram followers to the very next day, I had 800,000 followers. It's six or seven hours later, I crossed a million. I stayed DJing everyday because I was inspired by it and I wanted to give myself to people. I knew that what I was doing was was uplifting spirits. And by the end of the following week, I was at 2 million followers, doing what I love, you know, like, I didn't take anything from anyone, like I literally gave myself, you know, and because that's what I felt motivated to do. You know, and I try to tell people all the time, man do, it may not work for everyone. But for me, it's like, do what you love, do what you're passionate about. And when, you know, when that passion and the purpose beats and the outcome is, you know, it's such a beautiful feeling, you know, to be able to do something that's inspiring the world, just through music and through my own passion, you know, I feel very fortunate to be in this position, especially after being in the music industry for so long. And, you talking, this is like my fourth decade, you know, you know, going into my fourth decade soon, you know, but like it's what I love. - Yeah. - And I've always had this life of doing what I love.

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