Ep 243 | How Terry Crews Found Himself in the Right Place at the Right Time

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Before we get into today's topic, just a quick reminder that if you like all that we're sharing here at No Days Off, if you found some of our episodes over the past almost year or so making a difference in your world, I would really appreciate it if you'd share that episode or other episodes with your peers, with your coworkers, with whoever you think may benefit from joining the No Days Off Nation. On that note though, let's get into today's topic. I want to talk about being in the right place at the right time. I want to tell a story about an actor you may know, His name is Terry Crews. You may not know Terry's name, but I guarantee you know his face because he appears most everywhere. I've seen him everywhere. I think most recently he is on America's Got Talent. I think that's the show that my kids are watching where he's backstage with the talent that's about to take the stage. Terry Crews sort of accidentally got a big break in entertainment. I want to talk about that. So, so Terry was apparently a hell of an athlete in his day. Not apparently, he absolutely was. As a matter of fact, uh, he played in the NFL for a few years, bounced around from a handful of teams, uh, between a handful of teams. Didn't really ever catch his break in the NFL, but just to make it to that level, you know, The guy was a hell of an athlete, probably worked pretty hard as well. Well, his NFL career didn't pan out. I think in 19— I want to say '97, '98, it was time for him to find a different career. Terry Crews decided that he was intrigued by the entertainment industry, and I don't, I don't know exactly why that was. But he made his way out onto a set of a big movie that was being filmed in 2001. He went to the movie that Denzel was doing called Training Day, one of my favorite movies, actually. And as the story goes, Terry, who was just visiting a friend on set, shows up there late one night. Just to visit his friend on set. He's invited out. Terry's a pretty big dude, pretty intimidating looking guy. He goes out on set and that the scene being filmed at that night, on that night, happened to be one of the most important or pivotal scenes within the movie. If you've seen the movie Training Day, it's when Denzel gives this King Kong speech and it's incredibly powerful. And, and Terry finds his way out on set just to watch his friend, just to visit his friend. And while he's there, while he's standing there, the director of Training Day, he sees Terry, and I think he realizes as he's looking at Terry, this big, muscular, intimidating-looking guy is the exact type of individual I need to have in the background of this Denzel scene where Denzel's giving this speech. So the director notices Terry, and spontaneously offers him a role. He says, I need you to just stand right here, you know, look big, do what you do, look intimidating, and just essentially mean mug the Denzel, you know, Denzel's character. Just stand there and stare him down. So this unplanned turn of events for Terry led to this role that's listed in the credits as gang member number one. And he's, he's playing gang member number one in, in this memorable scene, you know, where Denzel Washington's character, when Denzel himself probably actually won the, uh, the Academy Award, I believe, uh, he, he won for that particular performance. Terry Crews is standing there and shows up everywhere as a result. He's told this story a bunch of times because it's a fascinating example of how chance encounters and spontaneous decisions can sometimes lead to these incredible, significant opportunities. The movie after that, that Terry Crews does, you know, he's seen in this scene with Denzel. He's not speaking, he's not doing anything. He's just got a look. Ice Cube Ice Cube takes notice and says, you know what, we need to connect with this guy who's just standing there to play a role in the movie Ice Cube had coming out a year later called Friday After Next. Another great movie. The, the, the role that Terry Crews played in Training Day gave him this opportunity to now work with Ice Cube, and Ice Cube cast him in Friday After Next. He plays an ex-convict in Friday After Next, and that it's a, it's a comedy, right? He's a reformed criminal or trying to be a reformed criminal and make up, make a positive life out of things. And it's a, it's a really funny role, but it's another major step in Terry Crews' acting career. And after Training Day, played, you know, rather meaningless role but massively impactful on his life. And then he plays a small role in Friday After Next. Things start to take off for him. He eventually becomes a pretty well-known and versatile actor in comedies and different action films. Training Day was 2001. I think Friday After Next was 2002. By 2003, he's in Malibu's Most Wanted. In 2005, he does The Longest Yard. 2005 again through 2009, he does the Everybody Hates Chris show where he plays— where where he plays Julius Rock, is the name of his character. It's a great character for Everybody Hates Chris. And he goes on and his resume goes on and on and on. What am I trying to share with you today? I love this story of Terry Crews. I want you to go investigate it further. But here's the scoop. Sometimes you just find yourself in these unique scenarios, these unique environments. And you don't really know why you're there. But if you have your head on a swivel, you're open-minded, opportunity sometimes might find you. You know, remember again what I was saying about Terry. These chance encounters, these spontaneous decisions, they can lead to significant opportunities, especially if you're open-minded and you're willing. To receive them, right? Terry went on, went out on set because he was passionate about entertainment. He was passionate about visiting his friend and things happened positively for him. Sometimes just being in the right place at the right time pays dividends. So what does this mean for you? You know, sometimes, and I know I'm guilty of this, sometimes we ask or think to ourselves, gosh, I don't have time to go there. Or, I'm not sure if I'm going to get anything out of that. And yes, we have to say no to a lot of things in order to manage our time. But recognize that when you do say no, you are potentially missing out on something that could come your way just by showing up with the right people in the right room on the right day. You can miss out on certain opportunities. So the question for you today Where could you maybe place yourself, you know, in the right place? What is the right place? Where, where do you have coming up in the next week or two or two weeks or month or quarter, whatever it may be, things that you would not traditionally go to. But the truth is your schedule is not really jammed and just showing up and meeting a few people and letting the world work its magic might pay dividends for you. Sure, it might seem like a long shot, but the truth of the matter is you do that enough. You put yourself in the right positions around the right people enough, things do tend to happen. I think every one of us has a story about something we've gotten involved in for the positive that wouldn't have occurred had we not gone to this particular place on this particular night or gone to this event one day that you weren't planning on going to. There's lots of stories like that. Are you open to it? Are you open to it? And are you putting yourself out there? That's all we have for today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.