Believe in YOURSELF | Will Smith’s Lessons from Hollywood

If you're looking for ways to take your shot, be motivated by fear, and always be joyous, then this video is for you.

What I've been trying to build and what I've been trying to do with my life keeps me in terror. I am deeply motivated by fear.

It's so wonderfully weird. I was excited about taking a shot.

I look at the world through a lens of comedy. Right? So my natural reaction is always, no matter when something happens and I can't even help it, it's, why is that funny?

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe you have an amazing gift inside you that I want to see explode out into the world. So let's get your motivation to a 10 and get you believing in you. Grab a snack and chew on today's lessons from a man who went from being the son of a school board administrator and refrigerator repairman in Philadelphia to being one of the most one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, having grossed over $7.5 billion in revenue from his movies. He's Will Smith, and here's my take on his top 10 rules of success, volume 3. Enjoy. So let's kick things off with rule number 1: focus on the people.

You know, I've always been really product-oriented. You know, it's like, I wanna win. When I do something, I wanna win. I want it to be number one and I wanna smash it. And I had a period, you know, I have a daughter now, I have a 15-year-old daughter and she really, she got me and shifted my focus from product to people. It took a couple of years, but as soon as I got knocked off of product and started shifting to people, the whole world, opened up for me again, and acting opened up in a whole new way. To not go into day one of a movie trying to figure out what everybody has to do so we win, versus opening up and every person's a new— it's a whole new world.

Do you mean the characters you play or the people you work with?

Both. You know, generally when I went into a product, when I went into a meeting with a director, My focus was, can this guy win? Can this girl win? And that, it was a, you know, it was a pathology that got broken for me a couple of years ago. And then releasing that and just wanting to connect with people and wanting to grow and wanting to get new ideas and have new experiences that don't have to have an outcome. It just opened up a whole new world for me and I fell in love. And then I couldn't imagine what else I could do in acting that could add so much to my life. Other than acting.

Moving on to rule number 2, take a shot.

Our nation's first orcish police officer. Hey, don't get me stabbed. Why orcs always got to be the bad guys?

Well, when you were on Conan, you were asked to give your best description of Bright, and you said, think of it as the energy of Training Day meets Lord of the Rings.

Yes.

Which is a little bit baffling, but also surprisingly accurate in some ways.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

To both of you, were you confident that you could you could pull off this odd cocktail?

No, I wasn't confident at all.

But that's what was exciting to me.

It's so wonderfully weird. I was excited about taking a shot. The fact that it was so strange, you know, as an artist, it was fun to get out on that limb and hoping it doesn't break under your feet.

Time for rule number 3: Always be joyous.

I look at the world through a lens of comedy, right?

My natural reaction is always, when something happens, and I can't even help it, it's, "Why is that funny?" You know, so even at a funeral, I can't help but think why that's funny, you know? So it's extremely helpful for me, just psychologically, that no matter what's going on, I can't keep my mind from finding jokes, you know? So it's a beautiful way to stay joyous and positive.

Let's go to rule number 4, be motivated by fear.

Do you get nervous or afraid?

I live in complete terror. Like, you know, for— Everything for me about this business and, you know, about what I've been trying to build and what I've been trying to do with my life keeps me in terror. I am deeply motivated by fear.

I'm surprised you say you live in fear. How do you deal with that? Do you turn to somebody for advice? Do you meditate? How do you get over that?

You know, I'm trying to develop a more realistic perspective of what this business is. I told my mother this the other day, and she thought it was hilarious. I said, when I was 15 years old, my first girlfriend cheated on me.

Oh.

And I remember making a decision that nobody would ever cheat on me again. And the way I was gonna do that is by being the biggest biggest actor on Earth, huh? Right? So is— there's, there's been this weird psychology that I've always felt like if my movies are number one, my life is going to work out great, huh? You know?

And like, you share that.

Up next, rule number 5: always look forward.

I've always been, um, the, the type of person who I thought of myself as resilient, you know, that I could always make my way back. Being stuck in the past, it makes it extremely difficult to find your way out. And future thinking for me has always been the way to get over difficult times, to be able to look over the darkness to a potential time of light. Very rarely do I look backwards. I'm always looking forward.

Time for rule number 6: Be yourself. So both your kids are in showbiz too. Is that worrying for you, or?

No, you know, not—

it's, you know, to me showbiz is not separated from the rules of the universe, right? So whether you're in show business or you're selling cars or you're farming. You're not separate from the laws of the universe, and all of the rules are the same everywhere. So for my children, the most important thing is that they be encouraged to fully and thoroughly be themselves, no matter what. And when you have yourself and you're thorough and confident in who you are, you can survive anywhere.

On to rule number 7: experiment.

Bright goes out to, what, 190 countries? Um, hundreds of millions of people see it, but it's not in theaters. So for two artists, what is the unique satisfaction of this?

You know, so for me, it's really experimental. What I learned, uh, when Independence Day came out. So I was— I'd been doing The Fresh Prince, and That Friday before Independence Day came out, everybody was, "Will, Will, Will!" That Monday was the first time that anybody ever called me Mr. Smith, right? So there's something about that big screen, that massive blockbuster that does something inside of people emotionally.

So I'm curious as to see, because Netflix is doing all of the other stuff.

Absolutely.

You know, it's exactly— exactly the same production process, the promotion, everything is exactly the same you would do for a gigantic blockbuster. And the question is, will the emotional resonance, the sort of nostalgic residue a year, two years, three years from now still be there with people not experiencing it in the overwhelming fashion of the cinema?

So you're just— this is an experiment, and we'll see how it works out.

We'll see how it goes, yeah.

But it's definitely the future.

Next up, rule number 8: have a strong why.

You know, I got the call from Ridley, and he said, uh, he said, "I've got a gift for you." And, uh, he sent me Concussion. And, uh, you know, I read it immediately, and I remember thinking, uh, "This ain't no damn gift." I was like, I'm a football dad. Yeah, so, you know, for me, it was a beautiful screenplay, but it opened up a huge conflict for me.

Did you know about what had happened before? Did you know the story a little bit of him? Really vaguely.

Okay.

Really vaguely, I knew, you know, my son played football for 4 years. Right. And during that time, I had never heard about the concussion issue at all. So, you know, it was part of what really inspired me and made me want to do the film, forced me to have to do the film, is because as a parent, I had no idea. I had no idea that there was an issue with repetitive head trauma in football. It was a, it was quite a revelation.

Let's go to rule number 9: put positive energy in the world.

For me, a personal confrontation with death made me see the value of time and the fact that the only elixir is love, you know. So the time that you spend has got to be in preparing yourself and giving and receiving the most amount of love you can. You know, my mission is to improve lives, so I want to do things that put positivity and positive energy and love into the world.

And finally, rule number 10 before we get to the bonuses: have fun.

So I'm gonna put on this orc mask because I can't walk the floor at Comic-Con as me out in the middle with everybody.

I think I'mma fuck with people.

Alright, so now I feel sorry for Joel.

I already know what this tastes like. We go out in public, I'm gonna kill somebody, so let's go.

And I never get to do this.

This is gonna be great. I'm gonna get to walk around.

It's hard to see and it's hard to breathe, but I'm a soldier, so I don't need neither one of them things. I'mma park.

I'mma park.

I'm sorry. I'mma park. I'll just walk.

So thank you guys so much for watching. My favorite rule is number 3: always be joyous. And I was actually surprised by that clip. I didn't expect that to my favorite. And I don't know about the part about laughing at funerals and finding jokes, but I think for me, I often get comments of people saying, what drugs are you on? How are you always so positive? And I just focus on the good things. I just focus on being joyous. I focus on the things that I have in my life that I'm super grateful for. And I think, I guess in general entrepreneurs I think are optimistic, but I don't know. I think when you understand what you stand for You know, I believe and believe, and I wake up most days just feeling good about life and wanting to create something better for myself and the people around me. I don't really have that many bad days. I think more bad moments, and I just really resonated with the always be joyous point, and I want you guys to have a little more joy as well. So that was my favorite rule, number 3. I'd love to know, do you guys agree with me? Is number 3 the best rule? Or is there one that you guys liked more? Leave that down in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you. Now I made this video because you guys asked me to. If there's a famous entrepreneur that you would like me to profile next, check out the link in the description and go and cast your vote on the request line. I also wanna give a quick shoutout to Serge Wisdom. Thank you so much, man, for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and doing all of those chapter-by-chapter book reviews on your channel. I really, really appreciate it, man, and I'm so glad you enjoyed the book. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

The idea of trying not to fail. I think it's like, that is the killer for an actor, trying not to fail, because the camera feels that thing. It feels that you're uncertain and not sure. It's like, let it rip. Like, fail hard and fail loud. What is the notion of collateral beauty to you as a theme, as an idea?

Uh, you know, the concept that there's, um, in your worst of times, there's this one little thread of beauty. And if you can just stay conscious and aware enough and grab onto that little thread, little thread, it is the thread that leads you out of the labyrinth of your suffering, you know, to be able to hang on to the beauty long enough to find your way back to, you know, the warmth of love and, you know, the beauty of the light. I just love that thing in, in somebody's face, like that, like that's the reason to make entertainment, right?

Raise your standard. Apple, at the core, its core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.

Not one drop of All my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me. I don't ever give up. I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated.

Hey, Believe Nation! If you want to see my all-time favorite top 10 rules to success, I have a very special secret video for you. These are the individual clips that I have personally learned the most from and applied to my life and my business. Check the link in the description for details.