What is the secret to Pharrell's success?
theGRIO REPORT - Pharrell Williams appears to be burning the candle on both ends!...
Pharrell Williams appears to be burning the candle on both ends!
He is on the cover of the December 2013/January 2014 edition of Fast Company magazine offering “Secrets of The Most Productive People.” The 40-year-old producer, performer, creator and philanthropist, is promoted as someone who can teach us how to get “lucky in business” through productivity.
Most of us know Pharrell through his music. His collaboration with Robin Thicke on “Blurred Lines,” his number-one album with Daft Punk and collaborations with superstars such as Miley Cyrus and Jay Z have sold almost 10 million copies this year alone.
His other endeavors include the Billionaire’s Boys Club and Ice Cream fashion lines, a YouTube channel with over 250,000 subscribers, and his memoir Places and Spaces I’ve Been, with contributions from Jay Z and astronaut Buzz Aldrin. He’s co-owner of Brooklyn Machine Works Bicycles, has designed jewelry with Louis Vuitton, co-founded UJAM, a cloud-based music creation and production platform, and has gone “green” in partnering with Bionic Yarn to produce clothing and bags from recycled plastic bottles.
And as if that is not enough, Williams has co-designed furniture and has announced plans to collaborate with Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid in the manufacture of pre-fabricated homes. Oh yeah, when he’s not doing all that, he’s either performing solo or working with N*E*R*D selling millions of copies.
Not to be counting the man’s money, but Williams tells Fast Company that he is worth about $80 million and takes in about $10 million every year after taxes.
So how does he do it? He tells the magazine that he gets up at 9 a.m., thinks about concepts in the shower, and does phone calls between 10:30 a.m. and noon. He gets to the studio no later than 2p and spends the rest of the day working on projects and might break for conference calls on non-music endeavors. He heads back by 11 p.m., watches MSNBC or Discovery heads to bed between midnight and 2 a.m.
Now, it’s obvious that is an overly simplistic account of the time for someone who cranked out the soundtrack for Despicable Me 2 and has occupied the #1 and #2 of Billboard’s Hot 100 simultaneously. He did that with Robin Thicke’s” Blurred Lines” (which he co-wrote, produced and appeared on the music video) and with Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky.”
In addition to Fast Company’s glowing write-up of his body of work, The Hollywood Reporter published an article this week describing “Happy,” William’s latest music video, as “epic.” The spin-off of the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack covers 24 hours of dance and frolicking all around L.A. with cameos from a host of celebrities such as Steve Martin, Steve Carell, Jimmy Kimmel, Jamie Foxx, Kelly Osbourne, Magic Johnson, Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt. The interactive video gives viewers a sense of being with Williams as he makes his way around the city connecting with friends.
Williams is an avid movie enthusiast, going on record as saying Gravity is on his list of favorite films along with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Contact and Cloud Atlas. But it is what is posted on his Twitter account that speaks volumes about the man’s aspirations and the positive impact he is making.
Pharrell tweets: “We should all aspire to live like Mandela.”
Follow Will Wright on Twitter @willjwright
