A Rapper's story

I live in the city of Pune which has an ever-expanding population of youngsters. This is partially attributed to a large population of students (Pune is called the Oxford of East by many due to many educational institutes in and around the city) and partially to its skyline marked with ever rising glass and steel facades of IT.

Rise in younger population has led to everything which youngsters prefer. Rock-stars and musicians of all genres find this city interesting due to an encouraging audience they get to experience and there is no weekend when there is no live show in some part of the city.

I came to know about some of these shows not because of my inherent interest in rock stars (I do have interest in music but the genre differs) but because of my sister in law who was pursuing her event management course in the city a few years ago and often used to tell me about which bald and bearded guy in dark shades and torn jeans is going to perform in which lawn or mall over the weekend. She used to manage some of these shows with her event management group and at times I used to pick her up on the way back. On the way, while still typing animatedly on her mobile screen, she used to tell me about the world-trotting Rockstar who just had enthralled the audience in the ground we had just left and how my unawareness of such contemporary musicians was a bit amusing and often laughable. Being the son of a baby boomer, I found such interactions interesting and useful as it used to give me a peep into what millennials thought like. Also, it had a professional meaning for me as I am in the field of HR and deal with just so many millennials while hiring, training or trying to retain them. It’s important that I understood them well enough.

It is during one of those talks that I heard the name of Armando Christian Perez.

You know him better as ‘Pitbull – the rapper’ and he had come to rock the audience in Pune in one of those years.

I googled ‘Pitbull’ and I found a dog’s picture and got some more information on different types of dogs, which was again pretty interesting and worth knowing. I refined the search to ‘Pitbull the rapper’ and came across the bald and bold singer I had just been told about. While still wondering as what made the famous singer choose such a unique name, I went from page to page and listened to podcasts (Tony Robbins has interviewed him as well) and gradually a new story emerged.

Today, Pitbull is not only a Rockstar to me but he is a story worth sharing. Maybe he will be the theme of my next talk to MBA students. (I like sharing my thoughts with youngsters on anything from the vast canvas of life which will benefit them in life and career - and should make sense to them). You can get insights from the life of any person who has had an upward climb, has fought resistance in his way before coming out a winner - and more importantly – has been there for some time. Pitbull is no exception.  

But I found Pitbull as one of the most inspiring stories which was quite a surprise to me. While I will leave it to the audience to know more about his story (if you are interested), I would like to cut the story short by producing a few words of wisdom shared by him with live audiences:

1.      In Music business, failure has been the mother of all success…. Usually negatives turned out to be the most positive for me. If you continue to be working hard, let that be the fuel to your fire

2.      You don’t make mistakes, mistakes make you.

3.      I have learnt from the worst but listened to the best.

4.      Everyone in my family was abused. Abuse is a very interesting – either it makes you or breaks you. (Attitude)

5.      You (first) make money and then let money make (or break) you. You can have all money in the world and be miserable. Forbes list of wealthiest list? It’s a pass. They should publish Forbes’ list of happiest…

6.      The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.

7.      Reach for the stars, even if you don’t grab them, you are still on top of the world

8.      I don’t understand the word ‘loose’, I only understand the word ‘learn’

9.      There is no success without failure, no winning without losing and no problem without an opportunity

10.  It’s not about making, it’s always about maintaining. That’s the toughest part.

11.  Everyday above the ground is a good day. There is no epic failure, there is always epic success

12.  Humour is everything, Everything. In the music industry, any new artist would have looked at the situation I was in and would have thought – oh God that’s not for me. I looked at it more like Darwin exploring Galapagos island - survival of the fittest!

Now, did you imagine some of these words of wisdom coming from a Rockstar?

One who is just a Rockstar to a millennial, is the theme of the next story to a Generation Y like me. Interesting. Isn’t it?