Get Your Life by Kareem Taylor

managing your ambition

For far too long, the world has convinced us that successful people have unique personality traits. Over the years, here are words used to describe them:

‣ Persistent‣ Brave‣ Motivated ‣ Determined‣ Courageous‣ Passionate ‣ Patient

To many, this is the checklist you should use to see if you’re on the right path to achieving greatness. To a certain extent, we all have these traits. What you may know, if you’ve been ambitious long enough, is it’s easy to find motivation but it’s much harder to stay motivated. I’ve been there.

This means that the more important component of success has little to do with personality traits. Instead, success has everything to do with what is now exceptionally relevant in today’s world: ambition management.

Are you an ambitious soul? If you’re the kind of person

who is highly motivated, passionate and fired up about making life happen, then what I cover in the next few pages will change your life forever.

Whether we like it or not, our calling will tap us on the shoulder at the most inconvenient time. We must go. We must do. We must act. Not for any other reason than because our hearts will not rest at night until we answer the call.

Just a few years ago, at the height of my success, I woke up in the middle of the night uninspired and hopeless, and realized I needed to get my life together. Through what I reveal in the next few pages, I’ve learned the secret to staying motivated and it has since restored my passion to levels I’d never experienced prior.

Whether you’re a millennial just getting started, an emerging leader or someone searching for their next big purposeful adventure, this book is for you.

make room for what matters

When we lay down at night and get ready for bed, we begin to think about all the things we did but also the things we didn’t do. We think about new ways we could’ve handled a situation, a better way to win an argument, what we should’ve said, how we could’ve

10 K A R E E M T A Y L O R

done something better.

Plainly, we reflect. Reflection is our most powerful, yet underrated, resource. The ability to look back, analyze and think through what happened and create new strategy for the next situation.

A few years ago, I felt like I was giving up so much of my life and efforts to boost my career, but wasn’t seeing a return on those investments. I felt empty and stale, and began to ask myself: “What is the point of working hard only to get nothing?”

That was the first day of my career where I didn’t show up to a scheduled voiceover audition. Somehow that made me happy. It was as if I was released from the pattern. I was released from the shackles of being available all the time. I love what I do, however, the process was beginning to become unbearable. This is the part of doing work you care about that people don’t talk about. The hard part. The process.

On the outside and to my friends, I was successful, but on the inside, I felt empty, lost and confused. It may sound weird, but I was ashamed. I was making a living talking to millions on TV, but yet I was secretly struggling to make sense of it all, with little happiness to show for it.

Managing Your Ambition 11

It wasn’t the work that did this to me. It was me. I had been an ambitious soul since the beginning, and I wondered, why now? Why after all of these years am I now beginning to experience this level of uncertainty?

I would tell you the whole story right now, but that’s no fun. I wrote an entire book! I want to share with you how I learned to be ambitious and how you can use this book to launch your next big idea, confidently pursue your passion and make a living doing what you love.

why ambition works

For creatives, the hardest thing to do is to get over the hump and get paid (and fulfilled) for work you know you should be doing. This is where we get stuck: in the doing, the carrying out. This is where the journey gets weird and times get tough. This is where dreams, goals and ideas go to die — but here’s the good news: they don’t have to.

We tend to get discouraged, thinking we can’t. What do you do if your neighbor isn’t a CEO, if your parents can’t lend you $300,000 to start your business, if you don’t have inheritance or gifts? Then it looks like your dream will be just that, a dream.

But what if I told you that it’s possible to gain success


without having those resources? That it’s possible to build the life you want and the freedom you deserve with everything you have right now?

I’ve learned that it’s all about insisting on happiness during these moments of both struggle and success that will determine how effective we lead and how greatly we achieve in all that we do.

how to use this book

1. You must be willing to see things differently. You must be fully invested in your self-improvement. This book should serve as your absolute pledge for positive change.

2. Take notes. As you weave through the pages of this book, write down ideas that stick with you. Highlight or underscore the insights that make your head nod in agreement. If a brilliant idea comes to you while reading, write it down. Record your voice into your mobile device. Whatever you do, take good notes. They’ll come in handy.

3. Acknowledge your truth. Getting the most out of this book requires we be honest about our potential. That includes admitting to yourself your goals, even the ones that are scary to think about.


4. Pick one attribute to add or improve on. Throughout this text, you’ll find several practical tips designed to help bring the best out of you. When you come across one that resonates with you, add it to your daily routine. If it’s something you already do, see how you can improve on it.

5. Hang with people who motivate you to become a better person. Have you ever been in conversation with someone and, during the talk, goosebumps fly up your arms because one of you said something that changed everything? Let this book get that conversation going. As much as this book was written for you, it has also transformed me.

So keep reading and allow yourself to transform. I’ve learned that managing your ambition has three practical levels and so the book is written in this way. Find your voice, pay the price of success and surround yourself with the right people.

In Part One, I’ll show you how to find what you’re good at, how to map out your mission and how to believe again in your lost passions.

In Part Two, I’ll teach you the new way to think about ambition that will open the doors you’ve been knocking on and doors you didn’t know existed.


In Part Three, I’ll dive into the pivotal role people play in the advancement of our lives and most importantly, the role we play in theirs.

Lastly, the book wraps up with a call to action. The journey ahead for you is significantly brighter and more hopeful. You’ll notice as you read, I wrote many of the stories in short blurbs: small nuggets of insights, packed with a punch. Think of it as a conversation with a friend.

I hope the stories in this book lead you to transformation.

Let’s jump in.


1

THE CHRONOLOGY OF AMBIT ION

As a voiceover actor, I’ve recorded national commercial campaigns for some of the world’s most recognized brands. Some of them include Sony Pictures Television, CNN, UFC, AT&T, Red Bull TV, Taco Bell, Comedy Central, Comcast and McDonald’s, to name a few.

While success seems glamorous, anyone with any sort of success will tell you the path there was not pre-paved — the path had to be forged, sometimes through much struggle.

In 1988, I was born seven weeks premature with crack cocaine in my system, left alone at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn. A kind woman, a stranger, took me into her home. A month later, my maternal grandfather asked his sister to take me in. She obliged.

In 1994, in an attempt to be different, I mismatched my socks at school and other students begin to follow.

In 1995, my mother won a custody battle against my

aunt and I moved from a home in Bedford Stuyvesant to a small apartment in Brownsville Houses at 335 Blake Avenue. Months later, I snuck a semiautomatic pistol into school and got kicked out. More about that in Chapter Five.

In 1997, I was sent to a psychiatrist for “disturbing behavior.” Same year, my teacher sent me to Read 180, a reading intervention program for not being able to read and comprehend on grade level.

In 1999, I knew I was going to be a rapper. I recorded a four song demo tape to send to Def Jam Records. My tape was never sent to a label. I did not believe in it.

In 2000, my mom took me to Jamaica, Queens to an electronics store and bought two turntables and a mix board. I would go to Basement Mix Records in East New York and buy vinyl to practice at home. I sucked as a DJ and didn’t have the patience to get good at it. Six months in, the needle on my turntable broke and I could no longer mix.

In 2001, I went to the magician supply store with my cousin, Dominick. He was a master magician. He could make a dollar bill float and make cards rise to the top of the deck. After not getting it right, I lost patience and left alone the idea of becoming a magician.


Months later, I landed my first job as an on-foot courier and quit three months later to attend an after school program called Art Start. I spent my weekdays and weekends learning how to film and edit digital video.

That year, I knew I was going to be an actor. I applied to every performing arts high school in New York City. I studied monologues for weeks, woke up early for the auditions and was rejected from every school. The idea of becoming an actor was squashed.

In 2003, I was offered my first paid internship at BET. I began getting coffee and pastries for the office, and later gained responsibility to produce my own interviews with the visiting celebrities. I was convinced I would be the next Spike Lee. This was indeed my calling, as I was sure of it.

I applied to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts summer film program. I spent months writing essays and preparing portfolio materials to send in. A month after submitting my application, I received a letter of rejection. My thoughts: Maybe I’m not meant for this.

In 2006, I was kicked out of the house by my mother for sneaking off to Art Start without her permission. That May, I’m accepted into Clark Atlanta University’s

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film school. At school, I’m voted by my senior class for “Most Popular” and crowned “Prom King.”

I spent the summer in South Carolina with my sister, where I worked at a tire factory stacking tires into fifty-three foot trucks for ten cents a tire.

In 2007, my roommate and I were joking about voiceover actors; the people who do the voices for movie trailers and TV commercials. Weeks later, my Resident Assistant asked me to announce his fraternity’s beauty pageant. Everyone in the audience thought it was a computer—until they realized it was me.

In 2008, I’d convinced Thembisa Mmshaka at BET to let me audition for the voice of the awards show. I went to the studio and did a full out mimic of Don LaFontaine, a voiceover legend. I did not land the job.That summer, I decided to make a voiceover demo. I found scripts online and ducked in a friend’s closet to record the demo. It was crappy and I knew it. No one heard it but me and the engineer.

In 2009, I landed an internship with Rainforest Films, working for both Rob Hardy and Will Packer. I walked around the office doing voices. My hope was that they’d consider me as a voice for their next film. They never did. But they did offer me the chance to


record their office voicemail message. The woman that usually did it was out of the country, so I was the perfect candidate.

Weeks later, I posted on Facebook “Does anyone know of a studio where I can record a demo in Atlanta?”

Danya Levine, a producer from CNN responded: “I don’t know a studio, but after you record, please send over your demo.” Danya invited me up to CNN’s headquarters. I walked into their morning meeting and after I was introduced, the head of CNN marketing said, “Let’s hear it,” and so I again did a mimic of Don LaFontaine. I don’t remember what I said–I was scared!

As it turned out, I couldn’t work for CNN yet as I did not have a talent agent. But I didn’t let that deter my dream. I turned up to their offices every day for months having coffee with producers, learning all I could. Danya broke down how they hire voice talent and suggested agents for me to look into.

That summer, I put together my demo and sent it to agencies in Los Angeles and New York. The LA agents told me they already had voiceover actors like me, so there was no interest. But the New York agents were in love. “This is the best first demo I ever heard,” said Robin Steinfeld, talent agent at Don Buchwald &


Associates. I took the Greyhound to New York to meet with them and another agency. Both wanted to sign me, but also wanted me to finish school.

In early 2010, CAU sent a letter home warning I might be kicked out for poor grades. I wrote a letter to the dean to give me a second chance. Reluctantly, she did.

I spent that summer doing voiceover for local radio stations. Lorenzo Kemp, an engineer at WCLK 91.9, found out I could do voices and he got in touch with me. Soon, I was recording commercials for 91.9. I didn’t get paid, I was just happy to do it.

In August 2010, I graduated college and moved back to New York to officially sign with Don Buchwald & Associates. I slept on the floor of my Brooklyn apartment because I couldn’t afford a mattress. I took on a job as a waiter.

In 2011, continued from earlier, I landed three national commercial campaigns in one week. It was the best thing that could happen. But I didn’t feel satisfied and became confused at how I could seemingly have it all, worked for it all, yet still feel empty. I began to talk with friends, mentors, strangers, anyone I could, about this feeling and learned that I


wasn’t the only one. Many of us had this feeling of having a naturally ambitious soul, but feeling weak in moments of confusion.

Then, I learned how the human brain works. Our brains are wired to understand and retain stories. We are inspired and most times persuaded by these stories. I knew I was ambitious. I knew I could solve problems. But I didn’t know that the story I’d been telling myself for years was holding me back.

That’s how our journeys are. We’re habitual by nature, so we do the same thing over and repeatedly, but expect different results. Then we get frustrated, but who are we fooling? Are we doing all that we can, thinking honestly about what we’re capable of versus what we’re doing? I was doing the same thing repeatedly but it was time to switch things up.

I’d always thought that the more I sweat, the more I hurt, the more I knew I was closer to my dream. For a while that worked, but it did not leave me healthier or happier. Then I began to tell myself a different story. A story in which I didn’t have to do things the way I’d always done them. It changed my life dramatically and left me with a level of motivation that has transformed all areas of my life.


In the summer of 2014, I went against all logic and quit my job and moved to Los Angeles. It didn’t feel easy, it just felt right. We do that to ourselves sometimes. We hold back on our potential. We hold back on what we’re capable of for the safe, secure, yet frustrating, life. I like it better when I’m doing all that I can to birth life into my God-given talents.

There is something incredibly powerful about letting go, and letting God. Maybe you can begin to do the same.

Naturally, I started sharing this idea of story with friends and family. I created a YouTube video and sent it out to everyone I knew. The response was overwhelming and people began telling me how they’d made these incredible life changes. From quitting their jobs and pursuing their passion to traveling the world and spending more time with family.

I took the ideas and gave them away in an Internet challenge, where the roots of this book began. The challenge was called 30 Days to Change. It turned into a weekly blog, and the blog turned into this book.

This book is a call to action to all creatives (anyone who has ever dreamed of doing something extraordinary) to move with a greater sense of urgency


than ever before. It is a reminder that great things never came from comfort zones.

why i wrote this book

In June of 2014, I volunteered to speak for career day at a high school just one block away from my childhood home in Brownsville, Brooklyn. People don’t often visit this side of town if they don’t have to, possibly because of its prideful reputation as the most violent neighborhood in New York City.

For most of the young people, this was the first time they were meeting some dude who looked like them calling himself a “voice actor,” so naturally they all had questions. But one question asked to me that day has stuck in my head since.

“How do you get to do what you do?”

My response? “I get to do what I do because I literally think I can do it.”

But I realized as cool as that sounds, it’s not practical enough. It’s not even realistic. I remember waking up in Brownsville Houses on too many nights, to gunshots. I remember arguments, fights, debates, taking place throughout the night in the hallways. I remember


elevators filled with the aroma of urine. I remember getting beat up in front of 335 Blake Ave. I remember roaches crawling on my skin while I tried to sleep. I wanted to leave that place so bad that I did anything within my imagination to be somewhere else.

Did you read that? I would do anything within my imagination to be somewhere else. For me, my imagination allowed me the freedom to be wherever I wished to be. If I thought it, I was there. Even if I couldn’t afford to be there.

I spent many Saturday mornings writing in my notebook about where I wanted to go. I sat in class and doodled new worlds. I spoke with teachers about what I wanted to become. I couldn’t draw, however, I always had a notebook full of drawings. I became excited about my future even though I had, apparently, no right to be creative.

You see, in the hood, you can’t always afford to be creative. You don’t have time for that. You have bigger things to deal with. There may be a lot going on at home.

But the truth of the matter is this: I get to do what I do because I think creatively. I get to leave Brooklyn, travel across the country, live in different cities, meet


different people, because of my imagination. I think of these things and then I do them. That’s the magic of creativity and why anyone can afford it.

Freedom isn’t a luxury only available to a certain few worthy of life’s possibilities. In reality, creativity is available to all of us who want to go somewhere. Imagination is underrated. But it doesn’t have to be. It can be the thing that changes your life. I know, because it’s all I ever had.

If passion is the thing that gets you started, what’s the thing that keeps you going? If you’ve ever started a project, perhaps you understand what I mean.


“Kareem Taylor is one of the most dynamic and multi-talented young voices and leaders in America today. In spite of the difficult circumstances of his upbringing he never allowed that to stop him from pursuing his educational and career dreams, nor his personal growth and ability to affect change, both for himself and for others. In Get Your Life, we get a timely and moving testimony about resiliency, dedication, hard work, and vision, from a leader we will be hearing from for years to come."vision, from a leader we will be hearing from for years to come."

— KEVIN POWELL, author of The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood

Kareem Taylor is a professional speaker, writer and voiceover actor based in Los Angeles, California. He writes about ambition, marketing and how to get things done at KareemTaylor.com.

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Get Your Life by Kareem Taylor