I've always found success in sort of separating myself from the pack mentality things.

I always considered myself very successful even before the success of Secrets and Lies.

One thing I've always prided myself on is understanding that to have success, you have to have high-character kids.

I always envisioned myself being a rapper and being in the game and having success, but you never know what it feels like or how you're going to be when you're there.

People - myself included - expect a certain standard from me. I always have to elaborate or improve on my playing. My success hasn't made me at all laid-back. That relentless drive is still there.

Success was always critical to me. What it meant was winning enough praise and external admiration that I could feel myself to be a logical extension of my Uncle Alex, Uncle Zoli, and my father, in that order.

So, I just always try to prepare myself like I'm going to play even when I wasn't going to play. And when I wasn't playing, my thing is, I was always enjoying the team's success, always enjoying somebody else's success.

I've always been too hard on myself to behave like I've arrived or even to enjoy whatever success I've had. I've always envisioned myself higher than where I was and I still do. With each success I think, 'That's nice but I'm supposed to go there!'

I don't think anybody should do what they do in hopes of being successful. But I always expect myself to be successful at things. And if I'm not, I feel bad. I don't care for failure. I've failed at a number of things, and it's not my favorite state of mind. So I prefer success.

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