From Vanilla Ice 'wannabe' to Mr. positivity: John Cena says staying authentic is key to his success
What does it take to have a career as fruitful and diverse as John Cena's?

The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star is one of the highest-paid and most decorated wrestlers in the franchise. In the 2017 calendar year, Cena earned $10 million, according to Forbes.

Cena is also an accomplished actor and will appear in the upcoming "Fast and Furious 9." When he's not acting, he's writing children's books, practicing piano, learning Mandarin and sending uplifting tweets out to his 11.9 million followers.

Cena attributes his success in all these fields and his popularity on social media to one trait: authenticity.

"It's the same thing that garnered me a lot of success in the WWE, which was remaining authentic," Cena told Sports Illustrated in a recent interview.

In Cena's early WWE days, he was known for his persona, Doctor of Thuganomics, who was a "Vanilla Ice exaggerated wannabe" with a lot of "bravado and swagger," Cena told Sports Illustrated. At the time, it felt authentic: When he was younger, "hip hop was part of my life, a part of my culture," he said.