20 Years Later, Michael Jackson Remains #1 Proving He Mastered “The Secret” Before The Rhonda Byrne Ever Put It In A Book

Reading a colleagues piece about the Michael biopic, introduced me to Michael Jackson’s handwritten notes detailing his plan for his project after 'Off the Wall'. The personal manifesto affected me much more than I expected, almost like by reading these very public but very personal letters allowed me to catch him in the act of becoming who we all later witnessed. There’s something about seeing those thoughts on paper that makes him feel less like mythology and more like a gifted but frustrated man who sat down, wrestled with his future, and decided what it would be. And as I read through them, what hit me in a very real way is that Michael Jackson was practicing what we now call manifestation long before Rhonda Byrne turned The Secret into a global phenomenon in 2007. He wasn’t just dreaming. He was declaring, writing, affirming, and then aligning his life with those beliefs in a way that feels almost surgical.

Watching the film this weekend only deepened that realization for me. For so long, like most of us, I’ve placed Michael Jackson in that category of “once in a lifetime” and left it there, because that’s the easiest way to process a career that big. You tell yourself he was just different, just born that way, and you move on. But this time, I couldn’t do that. This time, I kept seeing the intention behind every move, every choice, every moment where he pushed himself beyond what most people would consider reasonable.

And when you pair that with those notes, it becomes undeniable. He is literally talking himself into his future. He’s acknowledging the barriers, the inequities, the frustration of being a Black artist in an industry that was not built to fully embrace him, and then you watch him shift in real time. He doesn’t stay in the frustration. He refocuses it. He starts writing about becoming the biggest, about reaching everyone, about making people see beyond race. That is not accidental thinking. That is someone who understands that belief, when paired with action, becomes power.

I’ve spent years around artists, and if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that success at that level is never random. I’ve seen incredible talent up close. Voices that could carry arenas. Writers who can create magic in minutes. Producers who can hear hits before anyone else even understands the sound. And still, most of them never reach that level. Not because they aren’t gifted, but because that level requires something else entirely. It requires discipline, vision, and a willingness to organize your life around that vision in a way that most people simply won’t do.

Because when you really sit with how intentional Michael was, it forces a kind of uncomfortable honesty. You start looking at your own gifts, whatever they are, whether they’re fully developed or still in their early stages, and you have to ask yourself if you’ve been as responsible with them. Not perfect, not even close, but intentional. Have you written it down, mapped it out, protected it, pushed it, believed in it when it didn’t yet make sense to anyone else. Or have you, like most of us at times, relied on the idea that talent alone would eventually speak for itself.

That realization doesn’t feel condemning, it feels clarifying. Because if his level of excellence was built on that kind of focus, then it also means there’s a blueprint there, not to become him, but to understand what we’ve been leaving on the table.

And then there’s Joe Jackson, which is where the conversation gets even more uncomfortable. You can acknowledge the pain, the difficulty, the very real criticisms of how he parented, and still recognize that he had an extraordinary eye for talent and development. Watching it play out, I couldn’t ignore the fact that he identified greatness early and pushed it with a level of precision that shaped what we would eventually see. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s also part of the truth. Michael was given a foundation, but what he did with it was his own choice, and he chose to expand it beyond anything that had been built for him.

What really stayed with me, though, is this idea of what it takes to become a one of one. Not just excellent, but singular. When you start naming artists who live in that space, the list is small. Beyoncé. Kanye West. Bruno Mars. And with every one of them, there’s always a conversation beyond the art. There’s sacrifice. There’s intensity. There’s a level of commitment that doesn’t feel normal, because it isn’t.

To stand out that much requires a kind of belief that borders on delusion. You have to see yourself in a way that the world has not yet agreed with, and then move like it’s already true. And not just when it’s convenient, but consistently, even when it costs you personally. Time, relationships, comfort, privacy. All of it becomes secondary to the vision.

That’s what I felt watching Michael’s story this time. Not just admiration, but an understanding of the cost behind the greatness.

And that’s also why Jaafar Jackson stood out to me in such a powerful way. It would have been easy for him to lean on resemblance or legacy, but what came through felt much deeper than that. It felt like he understood that what made his uncle extraordinary wasn’t just the voice or the movement, it was the intention, the discipline, the willingness to disappear into the work completely.

Four years of preparation is not casual. Immersing yourself to the point of studying not just the performances but the life, even going to visit Bubbles at a sanctuary, that speaks to something internal. That’s someone reaching for the intangible, trying to access the mindset, not just the image. And I think audiences can feel that. It’s why, regardless of where people land on the film itself, there’s a consistent respect for what he delivered.

For me, this entire experience shifted something. It made Michael feel less like an exception and more like a case study in what happens when vision, discipline, and belief align at the highest level. It also serves as a reminder that while talent may open the door, it is intention that decides how far you walk through it.