When you wake up every day, it's like a new birthday: it's a new chance to be great again and make great decisions.
My first significant break was when I was 15, going on 16, and my cousin Courtney 'Bear' Sills told me you can make a career out of writing songs. He was the one who put me in with 112. The first song I did with 112 was 'We Can Do It Anywhere.'
I think the biggest sacrifice I had to make was giving up time and missing out on things. Not going to college and getting the college experience. Or missing important holidays. All my time was spent in the studio.
Being genuinely humble and being myself has helped me succeed in my career.
I'm like this ghost - you look around, and all you see is the artist. But if you look at the credits, it's still Poo Bear.
Being a songwriter, my job is just to write songs for people. I'm not attached to them.
I love R&B because it got me to where I am today, but at the same time, R&B just doesn't sell.
Ideally, it would be cool to actually get to know artists enough to know what their feelings are, what they believe in, what they want people to get from them, what they represent.
I learned years ago that the more honest you are about anything you're doing in life, you can grow and learn from your mistakes.
For me, what makes a dope concept is it's a fresh idea, something that I've never heard before.
I've watched songwriters, writers, producers, even artists that I've written hits for come and go. But to the world, it looked like Justin Bieber was my first success.
Finally, I've reached a place where if I'm working with an artist, they allow me to just do whatever I feel. Growing up, it was like, 'We want another 'Peaches and Cream.' Then you realise... why would you want a 2001 Mercedes Benz when I'm making 2018 Benzes?
It's cool to be recognized, but it's not something that I was seeking or sought after. I never wanted to be famous.
Working with Justin Bieber, I learned that he can literally do any genre - he's a chameleon. His voice is so flexible that he's not locked in to one genre, and it just shows the world that he can really sing anything.
Most writer's blocks come from people second-guessing to the point where they get discouraged, and they just quit. For me, if I write something and it's not amazing, I don't care because even if I feel like it might not be amazing, it could still be a number-one hit.
As a songwriter, I got used to being in the background.
Often by the time writers and producers try to get a new hit song, the industry has already moved on. Whatever you're creating might not be as hot as it would have been during the time of your first hit. It definitely compromises the creative process when the music is changing and evolving so fast. If you're not on top of it, you will be forgotten.
I see my friends who have superstar lifestyles, and it's great to have hundreds of millions of dollars, but at the same time, it's a sacrifice of your own sanity.
I had to go through so much trial and error to get all the whack-ness out of my system as a kid. I think everybody has to do that. You have to go through a period of failing in order to get better at it - whatever you're doing.
I don't listen to the radio.
