the guests of honor

Thursday night, Columbia Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs hosted Arianna Huffington and DJ Khaled in a discussion of his new book, The Keys. The book provides readers with DJ Khaled’s modern philosophy on success. Deputy Editor Mia Lindheimer covers the event.

Let me be clear: I didn’t follow DJ Khaled on Snapchat until I was standing in line for this event, freezing my ass off in the wind tunnel that was the area between Havemeyer and Math. I managed to suffer the few seconds it took to pull my hands out of my pockets and follow him, so that I could get some early eyes into the event. Those few seconds weren’t for nothing– I was immediately presented with a once-over of Arianna Huffington’s dress and signature inspirational messages from DJ Khaled himself. The excitement of knowing they were inside helped with the wait, but having to spend half an hour out in the cold when doors were originally supposed to be at 9:00pm? I didn’t need that.

Once we finally got inside, CORE members were running around everywhere trying to get everyone seated as quickly as possible. We wondered what the hold up was on the entry in the first place. We also noticed that they kindly gave each speaker two water bottles– one mini and one regular sized, which was strange. As we waited in our seats, a bunch of anonymous members of Khaled’s crew came through the door, and everyone in the audience raised their phones to get the perfect snap of Khaled’s entrance. They were continuously disappointed until in walked not Khaled, but his partner, Nicole, and their baby Asahd. The crowd went crazy– Khaled’s son is a recurring character on his endlessly popular Snapchat stories, though definitely a new character (he was born October 23rd).

Once the guests of honor, DJ Khaled and Arianna Huffington, walked in, CORE President Sara Sakowitz introduced the event. She waxed on about entrepreneurship and the inspiration we can take from both Khaled and Huffington, after which she handed the mic over to Sahir Jaggi and and Gary Lin to introduce the speakers. They went over what you’d expect– Huffington’s accomplishments, from launching The Huffington Post to publishing too many books to count, as while as Khaled’s accomplishments, from his successes in music production to his Snapchat fame. Finally, they gave the floor over to Huffington to lead the discussion with Khaled.

First of all, Arianna Huffington’s accent is amazing. It really lent something to the conversation. I felt like a I had a Greek grandmother for the evening. Huffington told us about how she and Khaled went way back, all the way to when she took him to the White House Correspondent’s dinner and the Vanity Fair After Party and listened to him and his friends make “mogul talk.” As soon as they met, she felt they had known each other forever (perhaps he was Greek in a past life) (also he GARDENS). Khaled’s book, The Keys, also got a major promo when Huffington pointed out the lion on the cover– “so Columbia.” She then told us how the conversation was going to go: they were going to walk through each “major key,” one at a time.

Key One: Stay Away From They. Khaled stopped the conversation there to just thank us for having him, but then launched into a speech about “them.” “They’re the people who wanna finish us, put us down,” he said. He wants us to evaluate the people around us– “know who you’re hangin with”– and respect ourselves. The audience erupted into actual snapping. The girl behind me whispered, “He’s like Jesus.”  Huffington chimed in: “Sometimes, they don’t even want you to have Cinammon Toast Crunch cereal.” Wow, screw them. Khaled gave a final note on Key One: “When I wanna get something done, I rely on DJ Khaled”

Key Two: Don’t Ever, Ever Play Yourself. Essentially, Khaled spent a few minutes here just repeating the phrase “never play yourself.” It was pretty self explanatory anyway.

Key Three: Secure The Bag. This is kind of a variation on Key Two, with a specific nod at money. “It costs money to drink water,” said Khaled, picking up the larger of the two water bottles for a sip. So basically, the bag in question here is a bag of hard cash. He gave us an example: “If Arianna Huffington’s got a $100,000 deal on the table tomorrow at 4pm, but she decides to drink and drive tonight, she is NOT securing the bag…all she had to do was wait till tomorrow at 4pm, when she could pay me to drive her home. He also brought up his son here– Khaled loves him so much that now he’s gotta secure the bag on another level. His final message on this key: “Be humble. Be confident. Take care of your family. Do the right thing.”

Key Four: Respect The Code. Trust is hard. You gotta make your own “code” that suits you and your lifestyle. Your friends can’t break that code. According to Khaled, he tells all his friends all their conversations, regardless of topic, are “off the record.” That’s his code. Find yours.

Just a side note, I noticed here that Arianna Huffington decided to drink from the mini water bottle rather than the regular sized one. I spent a solid amount of time during the rest of the conversation debating what fueled this decision, especially since DJ Khaled was drinking the regular sized bottle.

Key Five: Glorify Your Success. You can’t wait for someone else to give you a pat on the back. That’s why Khaled is always the first to say “Anotha one” when he knows he’s got another hit coming. He’s not waiting for someone to tell him it’s gonna be a hit. He’s giving himself a pat on the back, and letting the world know he’s great. He wants us to tell “them” we’re great, but stay humble and modest. For example, Khaled can say: “I’m Grammy nominated,” (that’s letting them know he’s great), and follow it up with “I’m very grateful, thank you.” (That’s humble and modest). Don’t be cocky, be respectful but know you’re great and congratulate yourself. Huffington had a supplement here as well: this is especially important to all the ladies in the room, when people aren’t very quick to realize your greatness.

Key Six: Don’t Deny The Heat. DJ Khaled wants us to acknowledge greatness when we see it. He hears a track he likes, he acknowledges its greatness, he makes it big, and it helps him and the artist in the long run. “Love is the answer to everything,” says Khaled. “If it’s love, I’m huggin it.”

Key Seven: Keep Two Rolls Cooking At The Same Time. First of all, each key is the next key, and God is the master key. I don’t know exactly what this has to relate with rolls cooking, but alright. Moving on, Khaled emphasized the importance of teamwork, because if you’ve got a great team, you can be working on multiple things at once. Teamwork, he says, is dreamwork. If you’ve got a great team, it’ll lead to victory, but you gotta work together. “On your team, one person might be Lebron, one might be Michael Jordan, one might be D. Wade, but someone’s gotta pass the ball.” A very insightful point by Khaled. The crowd went wild.

Key Eight: All You Do Is Win Win Win No Matter What. DJ Khaled says that “every second, I meditate and I pray.” He keeps winning, and meditating and praying helps him get there and stay thankful. He says he’d never be allowed in this room three or four years ago, and that he changes a lot. “We inflict stress on ourselves, and we gotta stop doing that,” says Khaled. It’s a hard message to swallow during finals season, but he went on: “The code says it starts with you taking care of yourself.” We’ll try, just for you, DJ Khaled.  Arianna Huffington had a compliment for Khaled: “To me, you’re not a music producer, you’re a modern day philosopher.” Alright.

Honestly, after tonight, I could be convinced that Huffington’s compliment isn’t so far-fetched. He says some crazy things, he repeats his “keys” over and over, but there is no doubt that he’s got a certain philosophy on life, and that philosophy has brought him success. I left CORE’s event feeling inspired to absolutely kill my finals, and despite Khaled’s ridiculousness, he’s got a charm and could capture the room. The event was absolutely well done, and huge props to CORE for setting it up and executing it smoothly. Next time, just don’t leave us out in the cold for an hour. Definitely not a key.

Edit: This post has been edited from its original to fix an error in the doors opening time from 8:30pm to 9:00pm. Edited at 3:16pm on December 9, 2016.  Also edited to fix typo of “them” to “they” at 3:25 pm on December 9, 2016.