588 Choose What Lights You Up with Scooter Braun

"WHAT’S THE POINT OF GOING AFTER ANYTHING THAT'S REASONABLE? THAT’S NOT GRATIFYING.” I used to believe that money was the answer to happiness. When you spend all of your time chasing the dollar, it bring you emptiness. The real reason to chase after money is so you can have the freedom you need to experience life’s beautiful moment. Chasing the endless dollar is just as bad as being stuck in a cubicle all day. Money is great, but you have to use it to achieve your higher purpose and do the things that actually bring you happiness. This got me thinking about a past episode I did with Scooter Braun, who gave amazing insights to what wealth really means and how to achieve true happiness. Discover what exactly it takes to have wealth in all aspects of life, on Episode 588. In this episode you will learn: The mentality you need to have about money (00:51) How you really achieve happiness (2:12) What you are really working hard for (3:03) Your chances of being super successful (4:36) What you need to do to be in the top 1% (6:25) Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:10Speaker 00

  Welcome everyone to an amazing episode on the School of Greatness Podcast. I'm super pumped today because we've got my man Scooter Braun back in the studio here at the Greatness Studios in Los Angeles.

• 0:30Scooter Braun?

  I still remember to this day, my dad told me, you know, I wasn't a trust fund kid. We grew up with a great middle-class family, like great neighborhood, but there was no trust fund waiting for me. And there were kids in my school who, like my best friend arrives in town today, his dad was the cab driver, his mom was the housekeeper, and there was definitely no trust fund there.

• 0:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 0:49Scooter Braun?

  And then there were other kids who had huge trust funds.

• 0:52Speaker 00

  And all in the same school?

• 0:54Scooter Braun?

  All in the same school, a public school. And my dad told me, if anyone ever asks you if you're rich, say yes. I was like, what? And he goes, tell them you're rich with love. You've got everything you ever need. And that was the mentality they raised us with. It was like, if you have that, everything else is house money. You know, you're in Vegas and you're playing with house money now.

• 1:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:13Scooter Braun?

  And now that I have Yale and my two sons, I feel like I'm playing with house money. So the working for wealth and everything else, did I ever think I'd get here? I hoped. You know, when I was 20 years old, I wanted to be a billionaire. When I was 22, I realized making 10 grand was really hard. So I reassessed everything and I met a guy who I admired. And I said, what do I need? And he gave me a number.

• 1:38Speaker 00

  What do you need for what?

• 1:39Scooter Braun?

  To have his life, to have the success of his life, because I found his life to be perfect.

• 1:43Speaker 00

  You're like, this guy's got it.

• 1:44Scooter Braun?

  And he gave me a number, not even close to a billionaire.

• 1:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:48Scooter Braun?

  Billionaire, but not even close to like, not hundreds of millions, it's like-

• 1:51Speaker 00

  Like 20 mil, 25 mil.

• 1:52Scooter Braun?

  I won't say the number, but it was there. And it was a number. And I said, okay, I'm going to work my whole life to get to that number. This is the new goal. Start being realistic. Billionaire happens, great, but this is realistic. And when I was 27, I passed that number. And I pulled over to the side of the road and called my dad because I was a little depressed. And I think I told you this and um and I just basically said this happened and here I am telling my father. I'm the wealthiest person in the family and like he's like, oh, my God.

• 2:26Speaker 00

  Twenty seven.

• 2:26Scooter Braun?

  Twenty seven and and I told him, I said, but Dad, this is the number I always wanted. This is my goalpost and I feel nothing and now I'm depressed because I feel nothing. And he said, well, do me a favor, hang up the phone, think about all the times that you were happy and call me back. And I hung up the phone, thought about it, called it back. I said, it's gonna sound cheesy, but when I'm giving away tickets, when I, you know, I'm playing basketball, when I'm answering kids randomly on Facebook or on Twitter, you know, and he's like, then implement more of that into your life. He goes, understand that the wealth is part of your job. The happiness is the time you take because your job is giving you that freedom. And that is the way I kind of look at my life. I work my ass off so I have time for the moments that mean something.

• 3:09Scooter Braun?

  You know, our company mantra is inspire the world to try. And you can only do that if you're trying something new every day.

• 3:15Speaker 00

  You've got to do yourself, yeah.

• 3:16Scooter Braun?

  And so we'll see where that takes us, but I don't know why, but when you said that, it just kind of like reminded me, I don't know if I've ever told you this, but when I was in college, my first semester, I started my company. And I went from, you know, being in honor roll my first semester to literally the second semester, like doing awful because Emery didn't offer night classes. Um, or didn't offer internet night classes and I couldn't be at school. I was working full time.

• 3:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, this is doing the nightclub stuff, right?

• 3:44Scooter Braun?

  Yeah, nightclub stuff and promotions and working for JD and uh, it's so, so deaf and all these things that I was doing. You know, promoting ludicrous throw them bows and and I got put on academic probation because my grades dropped and then they uh, they brought me in to see a counselor. I don't even remember his name. I remember where his office was. I remember what it looked like. I don't remember his name. It was the only time I ever met him. And the whole point of this guy is to like, sit you down and see if there's anything really going on and help you get a path to getting back on the right track. And he comes in and immediately the questions are, am I on drugs? Like, are there family issues? Like, he's trying to figure out, how do you go from like being this type of student to being this type of student? And I said, you know, it's not like that. I'm actually an entrepreneur and I'm going for it and I'm trying to do this.

• 4:29Scooter Braun?

  I'm trying to play basketball, but do this and and. You don't think I, there's no internet classes and you know, if you could help me, I'd love to stay in school. And he, he stops me and he tells me this whole story about Robert Woodruff, who is one of the founders of Coca-Cola, who's the largest endowment, really owns half the stuff in Atlanta, but this guy, Robert Woodruff, gave the largest endowment in the history of our school and basically every building in every is like the Woodruff, this Woodruff. And he tells me about this amazing entrepreneur who funded our school. And I'm like, this guy gets me. I'm thinking he sees what I saw in Mike George, like he gets me. And I'm like, I'm staying at school. I found somebody who can help me. This is great.

• 5:11Scooter Braun?

  And he looks at me at the end and he goes, and the chance of you being like Robert Woodruff are like one in a billion. Wow. So we need to get you back on the right track. And when you, you know, get out of school and you have the degree and everything else, you could start. And I looked at him and it clicked like right there. And I literally just looked at him and I said, I really want to thank you. I now know what I need to do. And he goes, so we're going to get you a plan, get you on the right track. I said, I'm dropping out of school. Wow. And he goes, excuse me? He goes, I think you're making a very big mistake. And I said, I appreciate that and I will come back. Uh, and he goes, but you don't know if you'll be able to come back. And I said, I appreciate that too, but I will come back if I fail.

• 5:53Scooter Braun?

  And I probably want to come back at one point just to be showing my children. I remember saying all this to him. I was like, but I need to do this right now. And I left and I have no idea what his name is or where he is now, but I'm not mad. I'm not mad at all. I'm actually grateful. You know, he gave me that, that little nudge I needed to really go after it. What's the point of, of going after anything that's reasonable? That's not gratifying. It's not gratifying going after something that people have done before and is expected. While you're young and don't have children, when you have children, you have to live for someone else. Your goal should be to be called Jagger's dad.

• 6:34Scooter Braun?

  But when you don't have children, it's okay to go out and fail time and time again. And that's like, that's what I don't understand. That should be what we're teaching people. Like you should go out there and, and get after your dreams because now's the time to do so.