Name: EJAE: “Maybe Hard Work Doesn’t Pay Off”
Uploaded: 2026-02-27T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 7 min 6 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Past simple

I've heard you say in interviews that after you were dropped, you had this feeling like maybe hard work doesn't pay off.

But what did you do after you got dropped?

I think I felt that twice—when I felt like hard work didn't pay off.

First one was when I was a kid at thirteen.

So you had to work hard, get ranked to get into the showcases too.

Like, or remember I said there was a ranking process, and also the big showcases that happened once a year.

And I worked, like I told you, tireless hours.

Like, I'm not kidding when I say "blood, sweat, and tears."

Like lots of bruises and bleeding because I fell or something.

I was the first one there and the last one who left.

And it was to the point where, like, the Girls' Generation girls were like saying, "Damn, like, you work so hard."

but one of the Girls' Generation members told me—I still remember this.

It was like, "EJAE, like, I think you're gonna be someone. You're gonna be huge one day.

I've never seen anyone who works as hard as you, and you're so young."

but I never got picked, never got into the pre-debut stage, and then eventually got dropped.

So I think those were, like, two important moments in my life when I felt like, "Wow, hard work really freaking doesn't pay off."

I still remember—like, I went to a cafe. I heard that I had to sign the contract of termination.

You just spent, like, eleven years of your life.

Ended in a day. - And it ended in, like, a second.

So that moment I remember, I was like, "Huh?"

It just had to be freaking raining and be so dramatic.

And I remember just... the only place I wanted to go was home in my bed.

Felt like the world was crying on my behalf because I was just numb.

And then I got home and I just started crying and was just depressed for, like, a month or two.

That was kind of where it was, and then I didn't want to listen to music.

What helped me was just watching movies and just...

"Lilo & Stitch" was, like... - One of the best movies ever.

I think it's literally my favorite Disney movie.

And then it's "Lion King," but... - I have them tied.

But yeah, that kind of helped me get out of it.

He was like, "EJAE, like, you have to do something."

And you know, like, kind of music was still healing for me.

In fact, like I told you, I started producing.

And then he kind of was like, "Take baby steps.

No one's telling you to be a superstar or, like, a super producer right now.

Take my cute dog at that time, Honey, who I have a tattoo of."

And I think at that time, my ex at that time also was a producer, and he also kind of worked in the cafe a lot, too.

And I kind of looked at that and was like, "You know what? I'm gonna do that too."

And I just went to the cafe—woke up, like, 11:00 AM because I'm like... at 12:00 PM because I'm, like, depressed.

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EJAE: “Maybe Hard Work Doesn’t Pay Off”

literally

iconic

therapy

freak