Samuel L. Jackson describes his early acting days: despite drugs, drinking, and partying, he showed up at the theater every day, rehearsed, and built sets. His professor-mentor taught him that great actors work hard regardless of their personal vices. The lesson: showing up consistently, even when distracted, is what builds a career.
Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is Show Up. Over to you, Samuel L. Jackson.
I knew what my path was. My path was to become what I am right now. Now, I lost sight of it in an interesting sort of way, or I went about it in a wayward path. But fortunately for me, all the getting high, the drinking, the drugs, and everything else I did, I showed up at the theater every day. I did plays ripped out of my mind. I rehearsed ripped out of my mind. But every lesson that I learned, I held onto for some reason. Whatever, somebody let me hold on to everything that I was learning. My stage lefts, my stage rights, my upstage foot always out turned down this way, learning how to develop a character, doing all those things. Because those are the things that I love. And I did them in the midst of everything else that I was doing. When my friends were getting ready to go get some more drugs, I'd go, oh, no, I got to be at the theater. I'll catch y'all in the theater when I'm done. And I jet. Or I gotta go build a set. I gotta do this. So I did everything that I had to do. So I was focused on this by any means necessary. Plus I had a professor who was like, you know, well, you know, all the great ones do their jobs and get ripped out of their minds. You know, you look at the Peter O'Toole's and the da-da-da-da-da. You know, so they get drunk and they get high. They do what they do, but they show up and they do the job. So we were like, okay. And that's what we did. You know, we drank with him and we went to Styles of Acting class. We'd go smoke a joint and come in and do our other acting classes or go build a set or build some costumes or hang some lights and do all the things that we had to do. So I kept learning my lessons and doing them.
Listen, I think everybody can agree that you need to show up if you want something to happen, right? How many people have this idea to do something or complain that they're not further along and you look at their actions and they're not doing anything about it, right? You can complain and want and wish and dream and hope all you want. It's important, but you have to actually do something about it, right? Believe all you want doesn't help until you actually do some action. And the thing that I took from this that I found really interesting was this professor, this mentor that he had in his life, and looking at his friends and how they just wanted to hang out and chill and not do work. And then this professor guided him along his path and helped him become the actor and successful person the person that he is. And I think of that in relation to this channel because I see this channel as a mentor for myself and for a lot of you guys out there. You may not have that professor to hold your hand and walk you down the street and show you what to do, but you've got this channel. And every day you've got some of the most successful people on the face of the earth giving you knowledge, right? We do the work of finding the top 10 things that these people have ever said on, on film and bring it down in for one video for you guys to watch. You have a different mentor every single day giving you secrets and tools and the path to achieving success. What are you gonna do about it? Are you gonna show up? Because every time you just listen to a video, maybe take some notes, but then go back to your regular life and not do anything about it doesn't help you. I would much rather you watch one video a week and take something that that person said and apply it and show up and put it to practice in your life and in your business and start seeing some results. And maybe you see so much results that you don't want to come back to this channel. I'm good with that because I want you guys to get out there and show up and not just consume, right? You can consume to get smarter, to get stronger, to build your belief system, to grow. But if all you're doing is consuming and not taking any action, then you're not going to get anywhere. You'll be the smartest person who never did anything. I went on a bit of a rant there, but I want you to show up. It means a lot to me. I want you guys to take action. I want you guys to be difference makers. I want you guys to go and have a big impact. So the question of the day today is, how can you show up more today? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm going to join in the discussion. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you have an amazing day. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever you your one word is, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.
