BTS Gets Real About Success And Staying Grounded In A “Crazy Industry”
While “success” is often associated with career accomplishments and financial gain, everyone has their own personal definition for the word, including BTS‘s members.
On November 28th, BTS held a global press conference in Los Angeles, California ahead of their second PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE – LA concert. Here, they fielded questions from reporters, including one from their longtime friend, journalist Liam McEwan.
McEwan prefaced his question with a look back at BTS’s history and his relationship with the group.
I’ve been lucky to have watched your journey for a while. We first met in 2017, and you told me that you never expected to have that level of popularity. Since then, you’ve had six No.1 hits on the Hot 100, putting you at No.1 for a total of 17 weeks. You’ve always been humble, but you’ve always believed in yourself.
— Liam McEwan
“How do you manage to stay true to yourselves amongst all the success?” McEwan asked.
“We try not to set standards to define success,” J-Hope replied. “If we set those standards, it is very tiring mentally and physically. Instead, we try hard at what we do and stay true to that, and that effort leads to a lot of success. By doing that we try to stay level and true to ourselves.”
RM broke down his version of success like a math equation.
It’s very simple. There’s 100% of success. I’ll give 50% to ARMY. We put 5% each, that’s 35%. I’ll give 15% to HYBE/Big Hit. If it’s a trophy, my percentage is like 5%. If you always realize to yourself that you’re just a piece of this whole journey.
— RM
“This success is not all yours,” he continued. “I always try to realize that for myself. It really helps me keep myself down to earth, and I think it’s really important to survive in this crazy industry.”
