Dj Khaled's rise from hip-hop DJ to hip hop mogul can be traced back to a single app: Snapchat. The rise of the social media platform gave the world insight into Khaled's keys to success. Khaled often tells his fans to watch his journey. From getting haircuts on camera to repeating phrases such as “they don’t want you to win", "major key", "stay away from they”.

I wanted to analyze the advice DJ Khaled gives to his millions of snapchat followers and compare it to the Stephen R Covey book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. One way to revisit the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is to identify the endowment associated with each effective habit.

The book identifies the following the unique human capabilities in highly effective people.

1. Be Proactive

2. Begin with the End in Mind

3. Put Things First

4. Think Win-Win

5. Seek to first to Understand, then to be Understood

6. Synergize

7. Sharpen the Saw

Primary Endowments

The primary human endowments are 1) self-awareness or self-knowledge; 2) imagination and conscience; and 3) volition or will power. And the secondary endowments are 4) an abundance mentality; 5) courage and consideration; and 6) creativity. The seventh endowment is self-renewal.

Be Proactive — DJ Khaled

Before the Grammys, Khaled was an 18-year-old working at Odyssey records, a tiny music store in New Orleans. The storeowner had noticed someone had been using the office phone to make long distance phone calls to call record label in New York. As the story goes, one day the shop owner walked into his office to find Khaled with his feet kicked up on the desk; it didn’t take long for him to realize that it was Khaled behind the long distance calls. It was at Odyssey Records that Khaled met Birdman. A12 year old rapper named Lil Wayne, and the Cash Money Family.

DJ Khaled's hustle and work ethnic can be tied to the upbringing and the values his parents taught him. A quote that best reflecrs this “They worked every day, seven days a week, 24 hours a day. If I wanted to hang out with my mother and father, I had to hang out with them hustling.” — DJ Khaled on his parents. The fact that Khaled was working a job while trying to get his next job or make his next move while on shift is being proactive.

2. Begin with the End in Mind — Dj Khaled

“I knew when I was a kid this is what I wanted to do, and there’s nothing else that I wanted to do more than this.” — Dj Khaled

‘Fuck the job. It’s all about my music career.’ “ When Khaled quit from the Odyssey Music

When Khaled first moved to Miami, he would Dj anywhere that would have him. He quickly realized that he would have to create his own opportunities. He was poor and almost close to being homeless. The setting was at Mixx 96, a Caribbean pirate radio station. A duo that were live on the air, heard a knock on their door.

“Hey, I just moved to Miami from Orlando. I been trying to get some time on the radio, and everybody keeps telling me no. I wonder if I can get some time on y’all’s slot.”

The duo would later become the world-famous hip hop producers 'Cool & Dre'. Gave him a shot. They gave him air time and happened to be moving to Atlanta to pursue their music careers. Khaled got his first big break and an opportunity to take full advantage of. Cool & Dre returned to Miami after nine months later and said Khaled had taken over the city.

The first two quotes show DJ Khaled “beginning with the end in mind”. It’s clear Khaled made up his mind of what he was going to be and he’s not going to stop until he gets to the final destination.

3. Put Things First — Dj Khaled

Khaled began DJing in his parents garage around age 13. His setup included a keyboard, turntables, a drum machine, and a stack of records that ranged from the Isley Brothers and Parliament-Funkadelic to Sam Cooke and Bob James.

His parents didn’t love the loud music every night, but they supported their son. “I wouldn’t say the word ‘black sheep of the family’ — but I guess I was. My mother and father supported me. Other people outside the family were like, ‘Man, what’s Khaled doing? He crazy.” When other kids were probably baseball or basketball, Khaled was already honing his craft from a young age.

From Primary to Secondary Endowments

The exercise of primary human endowments empowers you to use the secondary endowments more effectively.

4. Think Win-Win — Dj Khaled

It’s hard to understand what specific talents Dj Khaled has. He’s released 9 full-length albums without having a single rap verse or hook. Somehow the biggest names in music will feature on his mixtapes or albums. Do they hop onto his tracks for free? Or is it purely because Khaled is a nice guy? Free studio time ? Could it be pressures put on from social media to collab with Khaled. The collaborations tend to be a success. Many songs have been big hits.

For Example.‘When are the Drake Vocals coming in” — Dj Khaled will ask his companions on snapchat.

“I think what they don’t get is that his work ethic is about bringing people together for an amazing sound,” Green says. “He has this vision, like the way Quincy Jones has a vision as a producer, where Quincy Jones can bring in Steven Spielberg and Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah and come out with The Color Purple.”

Khaled’s role in the studio varies. He’s helped Dre battle through a writer’s block of sorts while creating beats. Occasionally, he jumps behind the microphone to add a few embellishments to a song. Sometimes he’s simply a motivational speaker.

“I think people get with me because they know we gonna make something great,” — Dj Khaled

Whatever it is you want to call his job title, it’s clear no one else is doing it. And none of it happens unless he somehow makes people — very rich and powerful people — want to work with him.

Khaled flips this view — Win-Win approach

Khaled walked into the Collins Avenue nightclub one afternoon and asked if he could DJ. Budafuco informed him they already had a DJ. Khaled blinked, nodded, and asked again. Budafuco, beginning to question the mental state of the man in front of him, tried to explain again, slowly and using gestures that they already had a DJ.

“He pulled out his records, and he started playing,” Budafuco remembers. “We couldn’t stop him.” When Budafuco finally relented and let Khaled behind the booth, he was blown away. Who was this man? And what the hell had he eaten for breakfast?

“The energy that he played with was amazing.”

The Khaled you know now, the fidgety dude who’s always at a ten, dripping with enthusiasm and pizzazz — imagine a younger version of that.

He went on to become the resident DJ at Rockers Island, and soon enough the crowds were coming just to see him. Lines snaked out the door. Opening DJs would give countdowns for Khaled’s set: 30 minutes, ten minutes, blastoff.

“I was like, ‘They’re paying to come in?’ “ Khaled says. “Those were the parties that made me say, ‘This is what I want to do, and I can show them who I am.’

Khaled just seems to win.

5. Seek to first to Understand, then to be Understood — Dj Khaled

This is second habit that Khaled has his own remix on.

“Khaled would get paid, and he’d have his money in his hand, put it in his pocket, and turn around and still ask you for $20 to get something to eat.

“That always threw me off. I said, ‘You just got paid, bro. What’s going on?’

I will state that Khaled being mis-understood is apart of the reason why he is successful in building his brand. From internet memes, to his snaps, millions of people tune in wondering if he is really like the character he portrays. His ability to entertain has led to numerous endorsements and recently a management deal with Roc Nation. A music company founded by hip-hop legend Jay-Z. Khaled does the opposite of seeking to be understood.

6. Synergize — Dj Khaled

One night in 2005, Dre recalls, that he and some others were hanging out at Khaled’s house when Khaled pitched the idea of putting together a mixtape. “Somebody out of nowhere said, ‘Mixtape? Man, nobody wants to hear a mixtape from you. You fucking crazy? Stick to what you do. Play in the clubs, and DJ on the radio.’ “

After that, Khalid’s first national breakout collaboration was the 2006 hit “We Takin’ Over,” featuring Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman, and Lil Wayne.

After “We Takin’ Over,” came “I’m So Hood.” Then “All I Do Is Win,” a single off Khaled’s third album, 2010’s Victory, blew up the charts. It would eventually go triple-platinum and sell more than three million copies. The first-time Dre heard that track, his arm hairs stood on the end. He looked at Khaled and said, “This is like ‘We Are the Champions.’ It’s going to be played forever.”

Where Khaled synergizes is the amount of artists he works with and features on his albums or studio sessions. I couldn't fit the excel graph showing the number of artist's that have collabed with Khaled in his career or the amount of times they have featured on one of his 9 albums.

7. Sharpen the Saw — Dj Khaled

“I used to sleep at the radio station,” he says. He’d DJ until the early morning, pass out on the floor, wake up, and do it again. He quickly became an omnipresent voice on Miami’s airwaves — a loud one too.

“When we came back to Miami, the first thing we did was turn on Mixx 96,” Dre remembers. “And all day long, it was just Khaled.”

His exposure on the air helped him book a few gigs on the Miami club circuit.

Then there was 2011’s “I’m On One,” a track that earned Khaled his only Grammy nomination and featured Drake when he was still a slightly awkward Canadian with caterpillar eyebrows. In 2013, Khaled quarterbacked “No New Friends” with help from old friends Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, and Drake, eyebrows slightly thinner this time around.

On the most recent album, I Changed a Lot, Khaled came through once again with “Hold You Down,” an unbearably catchy song outshined only by its own video, his most viewed one yet.

Thanks to Snapchat, a 4-year-old social media platform that allows users to send photos and video snippets to their friends. Users can compile a day’s worth of Snaps in their “story mode” for all followers to see. How many followers he has exactly, only Khaled and Snapchat know.

Since joining Snapchat last year, Khaled has been gaining momentum. His account rocketed in popularity after he live-snapped an evening spent lost in Biscayne Bay in December. He rode his Jet Ski to Rick Ross’s house for lunch — which is about the most hip-hop thing one can do outside of owning a pistol-shaped Lamborghini — but when he tried to navigate his way home, it was pitch black and he was lost. “If u know me call zay zee tell her we lost,” Khaled broadcast to his followers. It was a millennial Moby Dick, man versus nature with a modern twist.

He eventually made it back to dry land. The next day, he woke up to articles from Vice, Buzzfeed, MTV, the Huffington Post, and dozens of others. Things haven’t slowed since