How to ACTUALLY Succeed From Nothing | Shah Rukh Khan

I— the only thing I know I do, which again sounds very cliché, is that I just work hard and I'm very focused. Honestly speaking, I think I keep it very simple. I've always kept it very simple. I now— I start telling everyone I don't choose the films, the films choose me.

There's no such thing as normal. Normal is just another word for lifeless. Yeah, be yourself because everybody else is taken.

Fans are like how you feel in front of an ocean.

If you'd been successfully playing an angry young man, you'd pretty much be angry and young for the rest of your life.

A king is not how much he takes, a king is how much he gives. I have a disease, I'm a workaholic, and it's like being an alcoholic. I just can't give it up. Please remember me as someone who tried and tried very hard.

He's an Indian actor, producer, and television personality.

He's often referred to as the King of Bollywood, and he's been in more than 80 Bollywood films, winning numerous accolades.

He's been described as one of the most successful film stars in the world.

He's Shah Rukh Khan, and here are his top 10 rules for success.

I've never understood why I have become a big star. The only thing I know I do, which again sounds very cliché, is that I just work hard and I'm very focused, and I don't look at anything else. There is no peripheral that is important to me. The parties are not important. I'm thankful for them. The posters are not important. I'm grateful for them. The media is not important, but I love them because they've been very kind to me. For me, what has happened is that that one shot that I give in front of the camera, that is important. And for last 16 years, totally focused. Absolutely. I just love doing that. I love saying, uh, Don ko pakarna mushkil nahin na, mumkin. I love it. I can't explain it. I mean, I'm 40 years old. I'll be 41 in about a month's time, less than a month's time. But the excitement I have of giving that one punch when I'm shooting that film, getting that kick right, or saying something silly as a senorita Oh, it just turns me on. I love it, I love it. I get so excited, I become like a kid. And I just love the whole, you know, the camera starts and they tell me, look at this guy angrily. I love that angry look. Yeah. And I say, can I do it once more? I live for that. I live for every second that I give that shot on, and I really enjoy it. Honestly speaking, I think I keep it very simple. I've always kept it very simple. So I wake up in the morning and And I'm like, can I get that one shot right? Like I thought 20 years ago, that I hope I get that shot right. And I keep telling my wife, I find it strange. I'm 44 now, and I wear makeup to work.

Hey, me too.

Me too. So we are all the same. But I find it that I've kept it so simple. I'm not bothered about what I'm going to do through the world of cinema for the world. No. I just want to make a film in which I am able to tell you a good story. So I think keeping it simple and keeping it real, like everyone says— a lot of people in America, keep it simple, keep it real. I think that really is the mantra, nothing else. I have a simple way that I work. I just work very hard. I hear a lot of stories, and more than the story, I just like the people who are making a film, and I say, okay, I'll do it. I think, at least in films, creatively, the secret of the success is that I, I just feel the goodness into it. I have no other reason. I'm not very calculating about the film that I'm doing. I'll be lying if I say I get sentimental about a film, that's why I do it. I would be lying if I say a certain topic touches me and is close to me, that's why I do it. I don't know, I just do it believing in a lot of goodness. And I say, okay, he or she believes it, looks very honest about it. Like, I haven't signed a new film. I've had offers from some really nice filmmakers and some really nice and professional scripts. And I'm not decided. And then suddenly somebody will tell me, and that's why I do some films which go wrong also. I've never calculated what kind of film to do, and I think maybe that's why whatever the powers that be say, okay, he's doing it with a good heart, so let's just make it do well. I'm quite surprised with the kind of acumen I have for choosing scripts, I have lasted for so long. And that also, so I believe I guess the people who— I now, I start telling everyone, I don't choose the films, the films choose me. So it's easier to answer a question like this. I don't choose them, they choose me. So I'm— and I just try my best to do it well, and it works. It has worked. Every year I end up having— God has been kind— every year I end up having a film which does very, very well. And for years I've been on charts with the number 1 film, number 2 film, number 3 film. And I'm like, okay. As a matter of fact, it's now strange if I don't make a hit film every year. So I feel like, oh, so there was not enough goodness. So I try and be better next year and try to spread that kind of goodness. And I truly believe, I tell everyone, it's a little spiritual with me now. So I just, okay, this is nice, let's just do it. And I play it very easy. I don't concentrate too much, I don't think too much, I don't believe too much. I just Do it, and it turns out right.

Madness of the particularly nice or romantic kind is an absolute prerequisite to a happy and successful life. Don't ever treat your little insanities as if they're aberrations that ought to be hidden from the rest of the world. Acknowledge them and use them to define your own way of living the only life you have. All the most beautiful people in the world, the most creative, the ones who led revolutions, who discovered and invented things, did so because they embraced their own idiosyncrasies. There's no such thing as normal. Normal is just another word for lifeless. Don't try to be someone else. You'll always find someone better, taller, cooler, handsomer, nicer, more talented, with better six-packs. But please do not try to be someone else because I think it takes away the two greatest gifts.

When you try to keep up with others, it takes away the two greatest gifts life has given you.

One is the freedom to fail.

And the ability to say with your head held high, "I don't know." So, like someone again has said— I've taken a lot of quotes this evening to be appropriate—

yeah, be yourself because everybody else is taken.

It's very important to do, to be who you are and, you know, try and achieve things on your own, go by your heart. I know very truly I'm not a genius. I'm very clearly not gifted. And I know that The position I have reached is a position that should be given to a genius. It's not— it's not deservingly so. So the reason I'm good to fans, or I believe in them, is because one, I am employed by them. So I'm like, thank you guys, you've been kind to me, so I'm returning that kindness. Or the second way to look at it is that, okay, listen, I'm really scared, don't go anywhere, because I know I don't deserve it, but thank you so much. So, you know, stick on. I'm just being, uh, I'm, what do you say, I'm being kind to them for my own selfish gains. But whatever the case, I'm immensely grateful. I think it comes out of gratitude. It doesn't come out of any other reason. If I see on weekends, I have hundreds of people outside my house. Today, Sunday, a lot of people will come out in the evening, and I feel like going and meeting them all. My security with the gun says don't, but I want to meet them because, you know, I'm like I have to thank them. So I think fans are like how you feel in front of an ocean. You know, sometimes when you are so full of yourself, you go down on a beach and stand in front of the sea and realize how insignificant you are. And you know, all the importance in your house, in your well-upholstered rooms, and your Louis Vuittons and your BMWs, and you're like, oh God, I'm so powerful. And then you go and stand in front of the sea and you realize you're such an insignificant nobody in the larger scheme of things. Fans to me are like that sea. When I see them, I realize my insignificance without them. I want to go and stand with them and say, okay, I'm insignificant, but thank you for making me so significant, for making me so special.

But 20 years ago in the movies, roles were very clearly defined. They provided the security of your stardom in a sense. If you'd been successfully playing an angry young man, you'd pretty much be angry and young for the rest of your life. If you'd been a police inspector in 3 movies, odds were you'd be in the next 33 too. This applied to female actresses also. Wives were wives, seductresses were seductresses, mother-in-laws were mother-in-laws, and so on and so forth. Few actors would have willingly switched from romantic heroes to obsessively violent lovers. I took the leap not because I was particularly brave, but because a very dear director friend of mine sat me down and told me I was extremely ugly. And being ugly necessarily meant— I know, now I know. And being ugly necessarily meant I do bad guy roles. I wasn't the romantic hero type, he said. Actually, he used the words that my face was not chocolatey enough. So I started to eat a lot of chocolate, and while waiting for it to take effect, I jumped into bad guy roles. Dharr means fear in Hindi, and everyone always tells you at speeches like this that you ought to be brave, so I'm not going to bore you with that idea. Instead, let me tell you this: being brave means being shit-scared all the way to the party. Yeah, I'm sorry if that word is being very scared all the way to the party. But getting there, but getting there all the same and doing the funky chicken in front of all your teenage kid's friends anyway. Let me just add on behalf of all the fathers of the world who have embarrassed their kids by doing this, it takes a lot of bravery, resolve, and grit to do it.

So just do it.

Don't let your fears become boxes that enclose you. Open them out, feel them, and turn them into the greatest courage you are capable of, I promise you nothing will go wrong. But if you live by your fears, everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong, and you won't even have done the funky chicken.

I like to tell everyone, and people who are young or even as old as I am, that, uh, you see, the success is very subjective. When I decided to become an actor, my logic was, see, I'm gonna give it the best shot, make a lot of people smile, Along the way, what happened is I started making too many people smile, and I realized I don't deserve this. So I don't know how long am I going to last, but my wish and desire is that at the end of my career, I don't owe this to anyone, including the audience. I'm able to say, listen, I deserved it because I gave you back enough. People say I'm King Khan, which I think is a clever journalistic alliteration, but I truly believe a king is not how much he earns, a king is not how much he takes, A king is how much he gives. I believe success has no finish line. And so I don't think I have anything. I have a disease. I'm a workaholic, and it's like being an alcoholic. I just can't give it up. I've been unwell for 2 weeks, and I feel unwell, you know, so I can't go to work. Because I can't go to work, I get worse. If I sit in one place, I'm stressed. The reason I'm not fidgeting too much is because I'm unwell. Otherwise, I hate sitting in one place. Some work has to be given to me. I, you know, my wife and my children keep telling me that, you know, you work 20 years round the clock, why are you doing this? I don't think I need the money. I don't think I am greedy for more fame. I am doing okay. I can do one film in 2 years and be happy with it. But I am just not happy. I tell everyone, if I am not working, I am depressed. So I don't know if it's a curse or a blessing. Maybe at the end of it all, when we die, God will say, did you work? I say, "Yes, a lot." "Oh, damn! You go to hell because I didn't want anyone to work." Or it would be, "Oh, you worked? That's really nice." Because I wanted everyone to work. So I don't know, one of them is going to be right. But I just keep working. I think, I have this fear that you have very few days in life and you need to cram it up with lot of things. You need to fit it, fit it with so many things in it that you don't have space for life. It should be like that. I, when I'm not working, I get lonely, I get depressed. I get sad. I don't drink, I'm not a philosopher, I'm not a poet that I like loneliness. I hate being alone. And I hate being with people at times. I'm unsocial. I'm very odd with people. So what happens is I have replaced people with work in my life. Because when I'm working, I'm with lot of people. And there are people I can interact with because somewhere there is a wall that I'm not interacting with them socially, I'm interacting them through this common, you know, goal, that is the work. So I can discuss with her or discuss with him, and we are friends for that moment. Many of my filmmaking colleagues complain that after the film is over, you don't talk to us. I can't explain to them, I don't have anything else to say. I love you, I miss you, but I miss you through the work. I don't, I mean, I'm very fond of a lot of people, a lot of people I love like family, and I can't pick up the phone and talk with them, I can't socialize with them, I can't sit and chat with them. But when we are working, I can just be with them. So, I don't know, work is sort of— I have replaced loneliness, depression, and people with work. I'd like to be remembered as someone who tried, and tried very hard. I'm always trying. I always say, tell my wife also, even my— there's a little book I'm writing, and I've written it. That please remember me as someone who tried and tried very hard. Whether I succeeded, I don't want to be remembered as. Did I fail? I hope to God I am not remembered as that. Did I do well or not is not important. If people can remember me as, you know what, he was a trier, he tried very hard. I don't mind some people turning around and blaming me, you know, I think he tried too hard, or he tries too hard. A lot of people say that, he tries too hard. That's okay, but at least I tried. I'd like to be remembered, my legacy should be to my kids especially. To be really honest, if people don't remember me otherwise, it's okay. I think they've given me enough. But I really would like my kids to remember me as, you know, my dad, he tried. He tried very hard, yeah.

Thank you guys so much for watching.

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We'd also love to know which of the top 10 rules that you saw today—

God, you like that pause.

—meant the most to you. You can't keep going.

You can't keep going. You gotta stop.

We're gonna keep going. Which rule meant the most to you? Leave it in the comments below and that will join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe and we'll see you soon.

I thought you were a serious guy.

That was awesome.