Meet Legendary Jay

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Legendary Jay a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Legendary Jay, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Where do I get it from? I believe that it comes from two sources.

The first is my mother who was always pushing me to complete my school work. She always drilled the importance of grades, It was A or nothing, That could be why I am such a perfectionist in everything that I do.

I’d credit the second source to video games. I played them heavily as a kid. Before high school, it was a ton of single player Ps2 games and a lot of them were super hard. I just never gave up on them. I would complete them to 100% and around high school, my friends and I would play a lot of multiplayer games. Something within me just made me want to be the best at every single one. I remember there was this one kid named Jeffery who got mad at me for always becoming the best at the games we’d play.

Life is like a video game. Level up yourself until you’re the best. Complete your tasks and put it in the hours and you’ll definitely get there.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
You could call me an influencer but that’s just not who I am. I am an artist who wears every hat: videographer, editor, writer, director, musician, and animator. I don’t stand in front a tripod-mounted camera and say or do any random thing just to get likes. The “common influencer scene” is a clout disease. What I love doing is realizing my mind: putting what can’t be seen or heard into reality. Things that take time, effort, and love to produce. Oh, I couldn’t and shouldn’t be doing anything else.

I’m blessed to have made it to the point where doing so generates me great income. I’m grateful. I love all of what comes with it as well. It’s euphoric to witness the immense positive feedback of my productions. I cannot wait to expand beyond film. I have musical and animation talents that I’ve been waiting to release for years. The time will come.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I was on my way back from France the other day. The flight was 10 hours and there were just 2 left. However, my AirPods had just died. I played around with the seat-screen for a bit until I decided to go to its movie selection. Even though I had no earphones, now seemed like a good time to finally give Cars 3 the time of day. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a movie about humanoid cars. That movie moved me more than I thought it ever would – and I couldn’t even hear it. I swear I almost teared up.

I bring this up because a golden car named Cruz had asked Lightning McQueen what he’d do when he felt he couldn’t succeed – if he couldn’t win. McQueen looked down to reflect and said, “I don’t know… I just never thought I couldn’t”. Man, did that hit me hard. I had never even considered the fact that I could fail doing what I’m doing right now. I have never believed – not even for a second – that I would not succeed. It never crossed my mind! I just knew I had every piece I needed. That was unending determination, skill, passion, and self direction.

If you are just starting out, you will need all 4 of these traits. If you don’t, then work to get them. Life is like a video game. Level up those 4 attributes until you are unstoppable. And there is no one way to do that. As different people learn different ways, so do they grow. The only step that matters is to just never believe that you can’t.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
I’m currently feeling a bit stuck. I’m from Maryland and I’ve outgrown it. I’m ready for a new chapter in my life and being stuck in Maryland is making me mentally stagnant. This, combined with the fact that my career has financially freed me, has brought on way too much comfort. I don’t really have to do anything – and that’s 100% clashing with my desire to be the best. Laziness and determination do not go hand in hand.

To combat both of these issues, I’m in the process of moving. I’m skipping the whole apartment stage and going straight to buying a house. These bills should force me to work harder and elevate my career while also opening up more space to work in. Most importantly, I can’t wait to start fresh and build the best habits and routines for my new life.

It is so important to stay uncomfortable. It’s what got me this far. Each year, I had a huge reason to create. In 2023, I had zero. I made sure to change that.

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