Denzel Washington Leaves the Audience SPEECHLESS One of the Best Motivational Speeches Ever

i found that nothing in life

is worthwhile unless you take risks

nothing nelson mandela said

there is no passion to be found playing

small

and settling for a life that’s less than

the one you’re capable of living

now i’m sure in your experiences in

school and applying to college and

picking your major and deciding what you

want to do with life i’m sure people

have told you

to make sure you have something to fall

back on make sure you got something to

fall back on honey

but i never understood that concept

having something to fall back on

if i’m going to fall i don’t want to

fall back on anything

except my faith i want to fall forward

i figure at least this way i’ll see what

i’m going to hit

fall forward this is what i mean

reggie jackson struck out 2600 times in

his career the most

in the history of baseball but you don’t

hear about the strikeouts

people remember the home runs

fall forward thomas edison conducted one

thousand failed experiments did you know

that i didn’t know that

because the one thousand and first was

the light bulb

fall forward every failed experiment

is one step closer to success you’ve got

to take risks

and i’m sure you’ve probably heard that

before but i want to talk to you about

why that’s so important

first you will fail

at some point in your life accept it you

will lose

you will embarrass yourself you will

suck at something

there’s no doubt about it and i know

that’s probably not a traditional

message for a graduation ceremony but

hey

i’m telling you embrace it because it’s

inevitable

and i should know in the acting business

you fail all the time

early on in my career i auditioned for a

part in a broadway musical

perfect role for me i thought except for

the fact that

i can’t sing so

i’m i’m in the wings i’m about to go on

stage

but the guy in front of me he’s singing

like like

like paparazzi he’s just wrong

and he’s just going on and on and on and

i’m just shrinking i’m getting smaller

and smaller

so they say oh thank you very much thank

you very much and you will

you’ll be hearing from us so i come out

with my little sheet music and

it was it was a just my imagination by

the temptations that’s what i came up

with

so i hand it to the the the accompanist

and uh

she looks at it and looks at me and

looks out at the director and was like

all right so i i start you know

i’m gonna sing i’m like you know and

it’s just my imagination

once again and then coming away with me

and i’m not saying anything so i’m

thinking i’m getting better so i could

start getting into it

[Music]

[Applause]

running this oh yeah yeah thank you

thank you

thank you very much mr washington thank

you so i assumed i didn’t get the job

but the next part of the audition he

called me back the next part of the

audition

is the acting part of the audition so

i’m like hey

okay maybe i can’t sing but i know i can

act

so they pair me with this guy and again

i didn’t know about musical theater

and musical theater is big so they can

reach everyone all the way in the back

of

the stadium and i’m more from a

realistic

uh naturalistic kind of acting where you

you know you actually

talk to the person next to you so i

don’t know what my line was my line was

well

hand me the cup and his line was well i

will hand you the cup my dear the cup

will be there

to be handed to you

i said okay

well should i give you the cup back oh

yes you should give it back to me

because you know that is

my cup and it should be giving back to

me

i didn’t get the job

but here’s the thing i didn’t quit

i didn’t fall back

i walked out of there to prepare for the

next audition and the next audition and

the next audition

i prayed

i prayed and i prayed

but i continued to fail and fail

and fail but it didn’t matter because

you know what there’s an old saying

you hang around the barbershop long

enough sooner or later you’re going to

get a haircut

so you will catch a break and i did

catch a break

last year i did a play called fences on

broadway

[Music]

someone talked about it won the tony

award

and i didn’t have to sing by the way but

here’s the kicker

[Music]

it was at the court theater it was at

the same

theater that i failed that first

audition

30 years prior the point is every

graduate here today has the training

and the talent to succeed but do you

have the guts

to fail here’s my second point about

failure

if you don’t fail you’re not even trying

i’ll say it again if you don’t fail

you’re not even trying my wife told me

this great expression

to get something you never had you have

to do something

you never did les brown’s a motivational

speaker he made an analogy about this

he says imagine you’re on your deathbed

and standing around your deathbed

are the ghosts representing your

unfulfilled potential

the ghost of the ideas you never acted

on the ghost of the talents you didn’t

use

and they’re standing around your bed

angry

disappointed and upset they say we

we came to you because you could have

brought us to life

they say and now we have to go to the

grave together

so i ask you today

how many ghosts are going to be around

your bed when your time comes

you’ve invest you you’ve invested a lot

in your education and people have

invested in you and let me tell you the

world needs your talents man does it

ever

i just got back from africa like two

days ago so if i’m rambling on it’s

cause i’m jet lag

i just got back from south africa it’s

beautiful country but there are places

there with terrible

poverty that need help and africa is

just the tip of the iceberg

the middle east needs your help japan

needs your help

alabama needs your help tennessee needs

your help louisiana needs your help

philadelphia needs your help

the world needs a lot and we need it

from you we really do we need it from

you young people i mean i’m not speaking

for the rest of us up here but i know

i’m getting a little grayer

we need it from you the young people

because remember this so you got to get

out there

you got to give it everything you got

whether it’s your time

your your your talent your prayers

or your treasures because remember this

you will never see a u-haul behind a

hearse

you can’t take it with you the egyptians

tried it

and all they got was robbed

so the question is what are you going to

do with what you have i’m not talking

about how much you have

some of you are business majors some of

you are theologians nurses sociologists

some of you have money some of you have

patience some of you have kindness some

of you have

loved some of you have the gift of

long-suffering whatever it is whatever

your gift is

what are you going to do with what you

have

all right now here’s my last point about

failure

sometimes it’s the best way

to figure out where you’re going

your life will never be a straight path

i began at fordham university as a

pre-med student

i i took a course called the

cardiac morphos i still can’t say it

cardiac cardiac morphogenesis i couldn’t

read it i couldn’t say it i sure

couldn’t pass it

so then i decided to go into pre-law

then journalism

and with no academic focus my grades

took off in their own direction

[Music]

yeah down i was a 1.8 gpa

one semester and the university very

politely suggested that it might be

better to take some time

off i was 20 years old

i was at my lowest point and then one

day and i remember the exact day

march 27 1975 i was helping my mother in

her beauty shop my mother owned a beauty

shop

up in mount vernon and there’s there was

this older woman

who was considered one of the elders in

the town and

i didn’t know her personally but i i was

looking in the mirror and every time i

looked through the mirror i could see

her

behind me and she was staring at me she

just kept looking at me every time i

looked at her she kept giving me these

strange looks

so she finally took the dryer off her

head and said she

said something i’ll never forget first

of all she said somebody give me a piece

of paper give me a piece of paper

she said young boy i have a prophecy

a spiritual prophecy

she said you are going to travel the

world

and speak to millions of people now mind

you

i’m 20 years old i’m flunked out of

school in fact like a wise ass i’m

thinking to myself maybe she’s got

something in that crystal ball

about me getting back into school next

fall

[Music]

but maybe she was on to something

because later that summer while working

as a counselor at the ymca camp in

connecticut

we put on a talent show for the campers

and after the show another counselor

came up to me and asked

have you ever thought about acting

you’re good at that so when i got back

to fordham that fall i got in and i

changed my major once again

for the last time and in the years that

followed just as that woman prophesized

i have traveled the world and i have

spoken to millions of people

through my movies millions who up till

this day

couldn’t see me i who up till this day i

couldn’t see

while i was talking to them and they

couldn’t see me they could only see the

movie

they couldn’t see the real me

but i see you today

and i’m encouraged by what i see

and i’m strengthened by what i see

[Music]

and i love what i see

[Music]

you