Diplo Shares His Secrets to Success

Diplo was recently featured on the cover of the influential business magazine Fast Company as part of their series “Secrets of the Most Productive People”. The article itself takes an in depth look at Diplo’s path from a hotel DJ at the age of 17, to one of the most prolific names in music today. Thomas Wesley Pentz is truly a self made man, and literally started from the bottom only to work his way up to the top via an endless grind that any individual can admire.

See some of the”secrets” that have contributed to his rise to the top over the years, and check out the full piece on Fast Company here.

Being a trend spotter: “I think one of the reasons I’ve been successful is that I can see things before other people do … I’ve always been able to do it.”

The importance of personal branding: “Electronic music is voiceless, so a lot of DJs get lost … But you still have to connect to an audience. You have to make a connection with people. And I’m lucky that way. I put a face to it.”

Leveraging social media: “You have to feed the beast … You have to be obnoxious and loud and make as much noise as you can.”

On Mad Decent’s co-founder Kevin Kusatsu: “I had no organization in my life [before we met] … I was trying to build things, but I didn’t know how. Kevin’s the guy who said, ‘Let’s turn this into a business, let’s pay taxes.’ Literally, that was the first time I paid taxes. I was 28.”

Making money: “Money, for me, is just to create bigger and better things … A lot of guys in the deejaying world flaunt it, but I don’t see any use in that. I don’t need anything. I live in hotels. Most of my clothes I get for free. I like to invest in ideas. In people.”

Living in the moment: “We try to stay in our lane … We veer to the right and left, with film ideas and whatnot, but only if it works for us. Every day is a new crazy thing happening. I never let anything catch up to me to the point where I understand fully what I’m doing. I haven’t really sat back and thought about how insane it is. Maybe in five years I’ll figure out that, hey, that was a really big deal working with Madonna or going to Wembley Stadium with Usher.”