Johnny Depp recalls his mother's lesson about confronting a bully with a rock, then frames it as resisting corporate control and staying true to yourself. Evan Carmichael adds that overcoming obstacles requires daily perseverance despite lack of resources, self-doubt, and criticism.
Chapters
Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is keep moving forward. Over to you, Johnny Depp.
One of the greatest pieces of advice I've ever gotten in my life was from my mom. You know, when I was a little kid, there was a kid who was bugging me, you know, in school. And she said, "Okay, I'm gonna tell you what to do." She said, "The kid's bugging you. He puts his hands on you. You pick up the nearest rock or whatever you can get your hands on and you lay him out." And I did. And I felt better. And it worked. And so for me, you know, that was a great lesson because someone had invaded my space, invaded my being, you know, and was doing something against me that I didn't want to be done. So I took control of the situation and I ran with it. And many years later, after being, you know, turned into a product, you know, by a very huge corporation that had their hands all over me, and I couldn't escape it, you know. I promised myself that I would continue to move forward and do my best not to compromise in any way whatsoever, you know, not allow anyone to put their hands on me. And affect me in that way. So that's the best advice I think I could give, is just to keep moving forward and don't give a shit what anybody thinks, you know. Just keep moving forward and do what you have to do for you.
Starting a business is gonna be one of the hardest things you ever do in your life. You're gonna come up against challenges that you never thought were possible, hardships that you never imagined having to endure. You have to keep moving forward. You're gonna have all kinds of people in your life tell you all the reasons why it's not gonna work out, why you can never do this, and maybe you have that voice inside your head as well saying, "I can't do this." You need to keep moving forward. "But Evan, you don't understand. My situation is different. I didn't grow up with the family that can help me. I didn't grow up with the resources. I didn't have the right education. I don't have the right connections." I don't have the financing to get my dreams into reality. You need to keep moving forward. There will be times where you will get hit so hard that you will feel so terrible about yourself that you will bawl your face off, that you will have the lowest self-confidence ever in your life because you're pouring everything you have into this idea and it's not working out and you're not getting results. You need to keep moving forward. There's gonna be times when you look at yourself in the mirror and you ask, why am I doing this? Is this worth the sacrifice? Is this worth the pain? Is this worth the struggle? You better have a big dream. I need to keep moving forward. Big things aren't created by people who live their life according to other people's expectations. Big things are not created by people who stop taking action because they're afraid. Big things aren't created by people who, as soon as they come across some adversity, they quit. You need to keep moving forward. Moving forward is hard. It can suck. It can take everything out of you, but you owe it to yourself to make this dream that you have in your head come out. Keep moving forward. So the question today is, I'm curious, what are you doing every single day to keep moving forward? Leave it in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Anil Grandi. Anil, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. It really, really, really means a lot to me. 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, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. Hey guys, to stay on the theme of keep moving forward, I thought I'd share a few extra bonus clips to keep you motivated.
Essentially, and I would say this to anybody, is that, you know, it's really, it's easy to embrace hopelessness when things seem insurmountable. And yet, it's actually just a matter of time until all of the elements come together for things to be all right. I mean, I believe that, you know, most difficult situations will resolve themselves if you are persistent and if you don't give up entirely. And that's what I never did. I never gave up.
Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships as well as high reward. So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this state of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who move forward, and so will space.
Nothing in life worth having comes free. Nobody's gonna give anybody anything. Now, you get out of life what you're willing to put into it. Hard work, sacrifice, dedication— all of these things breed success. Now, I can tell you this because, you know, I was once one of the people who were assumed to be less likely to become successful. I'm from a very modest neighborhood. I didn't, you know, I didn't necessarily grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I didn't have all the things that I wanted, sometimes not even all the things that I need. But it's important for you to know your environment does not define you unless you allow it to. The position that you're in right now, the position you're in right now does not dictate your future unless you allow it to. You can look at your life as it is right now, you can look at it You can say, "Well, I'm not where I want to be. This isn't where my life will end." You can do one of two things. You can use it as an excuse to do nothing, or you can use it as motivation to push yourself forward. The choice is yours. I need you guys to understand and believe that anything in life is possible. Whatever it is you want to do is absolutely possible. I don't care how much trouble you've gotten into up until now. I don't care how many things you may have done wrong. I don't care how much you may not have in your life to help you. You can do it if you believe in yourself enough to make it happen. If you put enough effort and energy and invest enough in your future, you can do anything in this world you want to do. Anything's possible. Don't never let nobody tell you what you can't do. I started rapping when I was 9 years old. 9 years old. And I'm from Atlanta. So at the time when I was rapping, there wasn't no other rappers in Atlanta. And I heard every excuse why I couldn't be a rapper. I heard every excuse why I couldn't be famous. Everything from, "You can't rap, you're too skinny." You know, everything from, "Don't nobody from the South make it big and go platinum." I heard all these things, a whole bunch of excuses, a whole bunch of reasons why I should not believe that I could make it. But my belief, my belief overcame their doubt because I believed in myself. And if I can do it, whatever it is that I have done, you can do it better.
All of you. But somewhere along the line, you changed. You stopped being you. You let people stick a finger in your face and tell you you're no good. And when things got hard, you started looking for something to blame, like a big shadow. Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody. It's gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him or her or anybody. Cowards do that, and that ain't you. You're better than that.
