Jeezy: From Prison Fears to Personal Evolution - A Raw Story of Transformation | EP 864

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:12How old were you when you started to be able to open up and have these types of conversations about your emotions, about your feelings, about your thoughts, as opposed to just with yourself? Because I never spoke about any of my emotions until I was about 10 years ago when I hit 30. So I started to process and heal and be able to talk about these things that I was like, no one could ever know this stuff. I would say when I was 40. Really? Yeah, it's less than five years ago. Wow. That's when you started to be able to say, all right, let me start processing or opening up. Well, what happened was I was living in Malibu and my music was changing.

0:50Louis Farrakhan hit me, Brother Farrakhan. He was like, Jeezy, Brother Jeezy, your music is changing. The enemy is coming. I'm just like, my enemy is in my neighborhood. He ain't coming where I'm in Malibu. He's like, I'm just telling you. Get off the phone with him. Next week, I'm on tour with Khalifa. young man gets killed by my tour bus and they lock me and my crew up. So now I'm sitting in L.A. County Jail, $10 million in bail. Oof. You know what I'm saying? Because of 10 people on the bus. Oh, I didn't do anything. First time in my life, I ain't do anything. And I'm sick. You were on the bus.

1:24Well, actually, I got off the bus. Oh, wow. And went to a hotel room. And then I came. But it was your bus. Going to the bus the next morning. They followed us to the next venue. Oh, man. That's where they got me at. Holy cow. And now I'm sitting in jail, 10 people in jail, million dollars apiece,$10 million. And my team came to get me out the first day, right? And I go, I can't leave them in L.A., in jail. I cannot. You know what I'm saying? So let me figure out how to get everybody out, and then we'll get out together. So I got everybody out on bail because we still had to go to court. I had to pay for all that.

1:57Wow. Flying everybody back and forth, field of court, whatever. Shout out to my lawyer, Blair. Blair Brad, she killed it. but um the thing was that one last time I was depending on the people that was my people to make sure that my family and my people were straight and when I got home when I finally got out nobody did anything really and I was because I've been the bad for everybody I don't pay for things that ain't got nothing to do it ain't even my business right and I was just so devastated it because I'm like, yo, what if I, what if this would have been it? What if I would have passed? Like, you're not going to make sure my kids are going to, y 'all not going to check on my daughter's mother, y 'all that go do these things.

2:38And it's just like, I've done that for y 'all, right? And I'm not pointing any fingers. I'm just saying like, I know what I would do, right? And that's when I started to learn I can't put my expectations on anybody, right? Right. So now I got to do what's best for me because now I feel like I'm all alone. Wow. So I was it. I cut everything and then that's when I went on my mission to just start and and you know one of my business partners used to always just sit down and talk have a bottle of wine smoke a cigar and you're like what do you want to do I was like I want to do real estate and it just went to a real estate I started to real estate that did well for me I want to do spirit so this is all what we did so I'm like why don't I just do that in life yeah so I Robert Green I call Robert Green we go to the LA Athletic Club yeah I have tea I asked him seven questions and he started giving me this game.

3:24Wow. John Maxwell, who came to marry me and my wife. Wow. You know, in my backyard. That's amazing. One of my best friends and me and John talking, he gives me this insight and I just started to move towards the light. You know what I'm saying? Because I just wanted to get a different perspective because I didn't have anybody around me to give me their perspective. And TDJ, same thing. And I'm not just saying it because these are established people. These are men that have done well in their lives and their community. And their relationships. And their relationships. They want to share something with me that I didn't have any access to.

3:57Wow. And that's what made me start to open up and start to understand and start to be at peace and start to do all these things because now I know it's okay. Holy cow. So before five years ago, when you would face a challenge or adversity. Let me say this too, though. I met my wife on set when I went to do her show because she works in television. to promote an album I was working on. And I told my publicist, I said, yo, I'm going to marry that woman. But I knew that I had to do some work on myself. Sure, sure. So this is the five years that I would have gotten myself together. Then I came back and I was like, yo, you know, I'm actually ready for you.

4:37Like, holy cow. Yeah. So you met her right around that time five years ago or whatever. Wow. Wow. So this is fascinating because did you kind of let go of all those people in your life around that time? I mean, I want to say let go because it wasn't that easy, but I just think we grew apart and things just started to happen differently. They didn't want to go on the same path as you. Yeah. So naturally, they're not going to be spending as much time as you. Yeah. And then it just, you know, it got a little crazy for a while. Imagine man people don't like watching someone else change and doing things differently Especially if you've known for a long time Right and you're used to doing certain things with them Well, they want you to be the old you because it makes them be uncomfortable Yeah, the new you makes people be uncomfortable and for me.

5:22I just kind of felt like The hardest decision I've ever made in my life hardest decision ever made in my life When I made some hard decisions was to walk alone Hardest decision ever made in my life. It was like I meant for the first the way Thug Motivation came in. For the first three albums up until my album The Recession, I had so much survivor's remorse, and I was so, like, in a bad place. Like, I was drinking like you wouldn't believe. Really? Oh, my God. I was 260 pounds. Skin was bad. I was just like, you know, because I thought I was going to prison. The whole time, I'm just, because everybody around me started to get indicted.

6:03So I'm, like, just waiting. It's coming. like if me and you hanging out and you get indicted and I'm like man they got Louis that's my man right right you know what am I going and it was just like the whole thing so a lot of the music and why I was so so strong and the record was it because I just wanted to be heard in my mind I'm just like like I'm gonna be gone so this is my only chance so I really focused on the music put everything in the music because I was just like I just want to leave this behind if I'm not gonna make it out this

6:38Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on The School of Greatness. And if you are loving The Daily Motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

7:28Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.