A Case for Delusion

“The most successful people I know believe in themselves almost to the point of delusion” — Sam Altman

Getting your ideas out requires a high dose of an essential characteristic — confidence. So much so, that as Sam Altman says you veer on the side of delusion. 

The tricky thing about novel ideas, is that they are extremely prone to rejection — no matter what shape the idea takes. Whether its a business plan for company you are starting or a script for a film that you are writing, whatever seems new will probably be declined. 

To truly give your ideas for a new product, film, or book the oxygen they need to survive, you must be fueled by unwavering self-belief. Unless you are extremely lucky, you will need to believe in your vision more than anyone else, especially in the early stages.

Jeen-Yuhs

“How can you be overconfident? You should be. I’mma tell you how I feel about me! I am the greatest! And you should feel that way about yourself too!” — Kanye West

Very, very, very few people thought that Kanye West could successfully transition from producer to artist. But perhaps the most important person of all did: Kanye himself.

In 2022, Netflix released a three part documentary series on Kanye called ‘jeen yuhs’ and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. The documentary follows the life of Kanye, as he builds his way from bit part producer to a global brand. We’re shown never-before-seen footage of a young Kanye moving between reluctant music executives and rival record companies in an attempt to make his debut album ‘The College Dropout’ a reality.

Whilst the third and final act of the documentary showcases Kanye’s ascension into a new stratosphere of fame — the first two acts document Kanye’s humble starts in Chicago and New York, learning how to produce and scraping by with beats for a variety of artists. If the final part is Kanye as a butterfly, the first two portray him as a caterpillar frustrated in his cocoon and that’s where I want to focus on. 

By the early 2000s, Kanye had developed a name for himself that stretched beyond the music circles in Chicago to the then Hip Hop capital — New York City. He began producing for artists on Roc-A-Fella Records as an in-house producer. Roc-A-Fella, of course, was home of one of hip hops greatest ever artists — JAY-Z. Kanye extensively contributed to JAY-Z’s album The Blueprint, which Rolling Stone ranked among their list of greatest hip-hop albums ever. Kanye also produced for label artists like Freeway and other artists like Alicia Keys. The issue was that despite his every effort, he struggled to secure a record deal for himself as a rapper.

Kanye fought hard to be noticed. In fact, in one scene, he is shown walking around the Roc-A-Fella offices with one of his songs burned onto a CD in hand. He enters one office and plays it for a young exec, who gives him a blank stare and the young lady then proceeds to be distracted by other execs who come in to discuss business. That song was “All Falls Down” by the way, which was later nominated for a Grammy award and whose video has over 75 million YouTube views. Multiple record companies, including his own denied or ignored him because he was identified as a backpack rapper and the industry was more interested in portraying the gangsta image.

Kevin Liles, then president of Def Jam Recordings, gave Kanye the same advice that he should stay in his lane of just beat making. He didn’t want to be like that. He had bigger goals in life. A passionate Kanye responded when speaking with his friends “Kevin Liles tells me im not a rapper. But he doesn’t understand what I have inside of me. I have the ability in me to learn. Do you think my early beats sounded to Blueprint album quality?”

Despite the odds being against him, Kanye remained thoroughly self-assured and continued on with his mission: to make his debut album a reality. Desperate to keep West from defecting to another label, then-label head Damon Dash reluctantly signed West to Roc-A-Fella as a recording artist. 

As fate would have it, shortly after signing Kanye would be involved in an almost fatal car accident resulting in his jaw needing to be wired shut. Two weeks after being admitted to the hospital, he recorded “Through the Wire” with his jaw still wired shut. At the same time, West announced that he was working on an album titled The College Dropout, whose overall theme was to “make your own decisions. Don’t let society tell you, ‘This is what you have to do.’”

It would take a label signing and a homemade, self-funded music video for his first single ‘Through The Wire’ for West to be seriously recognised by his label and the world. 

A story of Kanye’s self belief might be best captured by his long time friend, Dave Chappelle who recounts his first interaction with a young and upcoming Kanye West when recruiting musical guests to be on his sketch comedy show. 

“First of all, you know Kanye — you could tell he was going to be a star. It was like Muhammad Ali in olympic village, he just knew he was going to get the gold. It was the day JAY-Z’s Black Album came out, it was me, Common, Kweli and kanye — this guy that nobody knew. JAY Z says on one record — Kanyeezy’s yous a genius you did it again. Kanye stood up, first time he talked all day stands up and says: Stop the record and rewind that!”

I think that beyond doubt that a combination of talent, determination, and maybe most importantly an impenetrable sense of belief can transform walls into doors.

As for Kanye, he would go on to shape the landscape of popular music in ground-breaking ways, adopting chopped-up soul samples, auto-tuning and thudding 808s. All prior to moving on to conquer the world of fashion. 

Delusion with a dose of reality

“You’re always believing ahead of evidence. What was the evidence I could write a poem? I just believed it. The most creative thing in us is to believe in a thing” — Robert Frost

The reality is that we live in a world that rewards audacity far more often than it does intelligence.

I suppose there’s a fine line between belief and delusion. Kanye wasn’t just fuelled by self-belief. He had industry greats like Pharrell Williams and Scarface admiring his work upon discovering it. Which helps keeps the balances in check. Sam Altman coupled his thoughts on self belief with this reminder — saying: “I used to hate criticism of any sort and actively avoided it. Now I try to always listen to it with the assumption that it’s true, and then decide if I want to act on it or not.” 

Personally, I see life as a battle between the subjective and the objective. One of the few modules I paid attention to at university was called Critical Issues In Management, I listened simply because it made question what we consider as everyday norms. One time, in a seminar, I had a debate with a class mate who said something along the lines of “a belief is a fact that simply isn’t true yet.” At the time I staunchly disagreed because I couldn’t fathom that if he were right, everything that exists is no more factual that what doesn’t. 

Steve Jobs once spoke about the malleable nature of life:

“Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. The minute you understand that you can poke life, and that if you push something in, something will pop out the other side. That you can change it and you can mould it…that’s maybe the most important thing… Embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. Once you learn that, you’ll want to change life and make it better. You’ll never be the same again.”

Perhaps my classmate was right and I was wrong because whether it’s Steve Jobs or Kanye West, they too believed in a vision that wasn’t yet a reality. Maybe you should consider being deluded enough to do the same.

What’s something you believe that you don’t yet see in the world which you could build?