The Greatest Advice You Will Ever Receive Will Smith
[Music]
as a child my parents always told me you
could be whatever you want to be you
could do whatever you want to do
and you know that that office that
position
the highest office on the face of the
earth
it was something i heard my parents
saying it but i didn’t totally believe
it yet i went out in the world and i
carried myself and i held my head high
and i stood there and i looked people in
their eyes and i talked to people
as if i was deserving of everything that
this planet has to offer
[Applause]
so i just i really want to say to to
children out there
and to to people who are watching
confucius said one time
he who says he can and he who says he
can’t
are both usually right and i want you to
keep in your heart just know that you
can
know that you can
i realized that when to have the level
of success
that i want to have it’s difficult to
spread it out
and do multiple things you know it’s in
order to
to be world class and i’ve made a
decision i want to be
world class and it just it takes such
a desperate obsessive focus
to to excel on a certain on the level
that that
i want to make movies you know i was a
star wars when i was young i sat in a
movie theater and watched star wars and
i just couldn’t believe
that that movie made me feel like that
just floored
and just stunned by the creativity and
just i’m realizing that in order
to move people in that way in order to
touch people in that way
you really gotta focus with all of your
fiber and all your heart and all your
creativity
concept of improving lives runs through
the center
of everything i do and then i realize
that
the the the way to improve lives is to
continually improve yourself
right so with that every every morning
when i when i get out of the bed
you know i i haven’t fixed everything
in the world yet so there’s always
something to do and uh
in this film i read an interesting quote
that
um good people have to get out of the
bed
every day and try to empty the ocean
with a ladle trying to empty the ocean
with a soup spoon you know as the the
mentality of how you
you wake up every day to try to do good
in the world so for me i’m uh i’m really
driven by
continually trying to
elevate my elevate my mind and elevate
my
spirit and care for my body and um to be
able to love as many people
as effectively as as possible with
this mystery of life that i’ve been
given
there’s a concept that
i don’t want to be an icon
um i want to be an idea
you know i want to represent an idea i
want to represent
possibilities i want to represent
magic right that you’re in a universe
and two plus two
equals four two plus two only equals
four
if you accept that two plus two equals
four
two plus two is going to be what i want
it to be you know
and there’s there’s a like there’s a
there’s a redemptive
power that making a choice
has you know rather than feeling like
you’re at
effect to all the things that are
happening
make a choice like you just decide
what it’s going to be who you’re going
to be how you’re going to do it just
decide
and then from that point the universe is
going to get out your way
it’s like it’s water it wants to it
wants to move and go around stuff you
know
so for for me i want to represent
possibilities i want to represent the
idea
that you really can make what you want
one of my favorite books
is the the alchemist uh paolo coelho
and that’s just i just
believe that i believe that
i can create whatever i want to create
if i can put put my head on it right
study it learn the patterns
and you know i just i it’s hard to put
into words real
metaphysical esoteric nonsense but i
feel very strongly
that we are who we choose to be the only
thing
that i see that is
distinctly different about me is
i’m not afraid to die on a treadmill
right i will run you would not be
outworked i will not
be outworked right period yeah you know
you might have more talent than me you
might be smarter than me
you might be sexier than me you might
be all of those things you got it on me
in nine categories
but if we get on the treadmill together
right
there’s two things you’re getting off
first yeah or i’m gonna
die it’s really that simple
right so let’s go back to the question
about what if people block me out it’s
gonna be two options i’m gonna get back
in
or i’m going to be dead yeah right it’s
like you’re
not going to outwork me it’s it’s a it’s
a
very it’s such a simple basic
concept it’s the
the guy who is willing to
hustle the most is going to be the guy
that just gets that loose ball
you know he got the oh he got that oh
okay he got two he
oh god he hustle he grabbed that one
that was going to be out of bounds but
he saved it
back in it’s like the commodity
that i see the majority of people
who aren’t getting the places they want
or
aren’t achieving the things that they
want in
this business is strictly based on
hustle
it’s strictly based on being outworked
it’s strictly based
on missing crucial opportunities i say
all the time if you stay ready you ain’t
got to get ready
i believe uh and i learned very young
from parents from my parents absolutely
that
you you don’t try to build a wall
you don’t set out to build a wall you
don’t say i’m gonna be
build the biggest baddest greatest wall
that’s ever been built
you don’t start there you say i’m gonna
lay this
brick as perfectly as a brick
can be laid there will not be one brick
on the face of the earth that’s going to
be laid better than this brick that i’m
going to lay
in this next 10 minutes and you do that
every single day and so you have
and soon you have a wall and i think
psychologically
the advantage that that gives me over
over a lot of people that i’ve um
have been in competition with in
different situations
is it’s difficult to take the first step
when you look how big
yeah the task is the task is never huge
to me
it’s always one breath me too greatness
is not this wonderful
esoteric elusive uh
god-like feature that only the
special among us uh will ever taste
you know it’s something that truly
exists in
all of us it’s very simple
this is what i believe and
i’m willing to die for it period
it’s that simple i know who i am i don’t
know what i believe i know who i
am i know who whatever all i need to
know that’s all i need to know
so from there you do what you need to do
[Music]
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