In this Believe Nation episode, host Evan Carmichael introduces actress Taraji P. Henson, who recounts her breakthrough move from a broke, transitional period to Los Angeles with only $700 and her son. She describes her father’s metaphor‑laden advice, the decision to bring her son along, and how that risk eventually led to her son’s education and her own acting career. Evan then reflects on two contrasting pathways to achieving dreams: the "all‑in" approach—burning bridges, committing fully, and forcing momentum—as exemplified by Taraji’s story, versus his own preference for incremental testing, running small experiments (videos, newsletters) before scaling. He emphasizes that regardless of style, taking any action is essential; fear of judgment, financial loss, or lack of skill often paralyzes people. He notes that successful people come from diverse backgrounds and personalities, but they share the habit of doing something—big or small—to move forward. The episode ends with a call‑to‑action, asking viewers to comment on the last bold step they took, reinforcing the motivational theme of belief and self‑confidence.
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is go for it. Over to you, Taraji P. Henson.
I wake up every morning with espresso, keep me going. I graduated college and I have, you know, this degree in fine arts, and my dad saw me coming and going to work every day and he was like, what are you doing? And I was like, making a living. What are you talking about? And I was in a transitional period because my son and father and I, we had just broken up and I had this degree and I was just living. And my dad saw it and he was like, how do you expect to catch fish on dry land? And I was like, what? He always spoke in metaphors. I was like, can you just speak plain English? He was like, how are you gonna get acting jobs when they're not here? You need to go to LA where the jobs are. So my family, Threw a party, we were broke, they raised $700 and I moved to LA. And I took my son in. My dad, may he rest in peace, he was like, maybe you should leave Marcel here. And I was like, I'm not leaving my son, it's my kid. Then I got out and freaked out, I was like, maybe I should send him back. And my dad was like, no, that's your blessing. He's your blessing, he's gonna keep you focused. You were right, your instinct was right, you should have taken him. So $700, my son is now 21. He's in school now. He's in— Look at you. Right, and look at me.
So I love this message. My take on it is I think there's a lot of people who need to go all in, who need to have total commitment, who need to burn the boats, who need to have no way back, who, you know, raise their last $700 and go to LA and just figure out a way to make it work. Where coming back is so painful, where there's no option, that you just have to go forward. And for some people, that's the only way you can get them to take action. Like cold turkey, I'm I'm done, I'm stopping this, and now I'm starting this. And if that's you, then you need to absolutely follow that advice. For other people, like me, I like doing small tests. I like to tweak, I like to measure, I like to see if it's working, I like to feel how it's going before I jump all in on something. Doing something crazy like building a business around Believe, I would do one thing, I would test a video, I would test a newsletter. Did it work? How do I feel about it? And the ones that I love, I'll continue going on and working with, and I am constantly running experiments in my life and in my business to find the thing that I resonate with, that makes me come alive. When I do that, I do a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. Where for me, if I go in and say, "I'm only going to do this," uh, without having done some testing and some ideas behind it, then it's probably not going to work out for me. I think the important thing though, whether you're the all-in kind of person or you like to test and you're a little more risk-averse is that you do something about it. You gotta take some kind of action, right? You have this dream to be an actress, to be an entrepreneur, to be a singer, to be a writer, whatever it is. You have this dream. It can't just be a dream. Whether you take massive action and go all in, whether you take massive action and start doing little tests, you have to take some kind of action. I think that's where a lot of people fall down because that fear gets in your head because you worry how people are going to judge you, you're worried that it's not going to work out, you're worried you're going to lose your house or lose a lot of money or waste a lot of time, you worry that you don't have the resources or the skills or the support or whatever it is for you, you have this fear and so you don't do anything about it. If you look at successful people, they're from all kinds of backgrounds, they're from all kinds of color and religion and countries, right? All sorts of different personalities. Some might be super aggressive and super you know, in your face and super intimidating and super outgoing, and others might be, you know, really shy and really nervous and really meek, you know. There's no one thing that you have to be to be a success, but the one thing that they all had in common was they did something. They got started in a big way or a small way. They didn't just think about it and end up on their deathbed with that song still in them they did something about it. So if you have that idea, that new thing that you want to try, whether you go and make a big bet on it or a series of small bets, you have to stop thinking about it and just go for it. So my question of the day today for you guys is, what was the last thing that you just went for? Leave it down in the comments below. I'm going to join in the discussion. Thank you guys so much for watching. Have an amazing day. 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. I wake up every morning.
