I Achieved 19/20 of my DREAMS by Following THIS Simple RULE! | Matthew McConaughey | Top 10 Rules

The making, the actual making of a film, the day-to-day going to work, the construction of a film has always been my favorite thing. I'm gonna go stand in the mirror. My wife's over there watching, uh, reading something. I'm gonna stand in the mirror and I'm gonna practice a move. This is really embarrassing. Well, too bad, man. Do it in the mirror right now. The $320 I was getting, I was like, is this legal? Because it was so much fun, and I was really looking over my shoulder going, hmm. Being an actor Or even being an artist, and I had studied in school behind the camera, was not even in the vernacular of my dreams.

He's an Academy Award-winning American actor. He achieved critical success for portraying a cowboy who was diagnosed with AIDS in the Dallas Buyers Club movie. He also starred in HBO's first season of True Detective, for which he earned an Emmy nomination. He's Matthew McConaughey, and here's my take on his top 10 rules for success. Number 1 is my personal favorite, and make sure to stick around all the way to the end for some special bonus clips. Also, as you're watching and listening, if Matthew says something that you really enjoy, make sure to leave in the comments below with quotation marks so we know what you really enjoy.

The make— the actual making of a film, the day-to-day going to work, the construction of a film has always been my favorite thing. I like making a film much more than I like watching them. I do. And even the ones I'm in. I really love the coming together with a whole bunch of people, having an idea on paper, and everyone's got— everyone's an expert at what they do, and you're off on on this journey, you got ideas, but then you just let them— you let it, let it go and see what it can become. I love the making. That's when I'm happiest, is when I'm making a film or telling the story, the day-to-day. And more so than watching them, really. Um, the— I mean, look, I kind of defined that for myself about 4 years ago. Process, stay in process, head down in process, stay in your bubble. And when it's over, be that fulfillment. Notice when I started noticing that fulfillment of it, I just finished. Well, that's enough. That's it. I don't know if this thing, I don't know if it's even coming out. I don't even know if, I don't know what it's gonna turn in, man. I hope, I hope we got it. And I hope the director put something good together, but I don't know. Nothing I can do about that. All I know is this experience that I say, go have the experience, McGonaghy. And if I can love this experience and at the end of it, I'm like, May never even hear that film again. May never even know that story again. It may be gone. May find out that all the negatives got fried in the X-ray machine. There is no film, but I've gotta be— that's okay. I had an experience there. When I got selfish for that, for that experience, when I got that process, enjoying that process, the day-to-day architecture of making a movie and creating a role, That's when I've been the happiest. And more results have come that way in an odd way. Yes. You know? But I just saw when I started really approaching them as this is a finite thing and this is just that experience. Other than that, I'm not producing this thing. I'm not the one editing. I don't know what it's gonna be. Pshh. That's it. And then all of a sudden they come out and you go, oh, I think we got a good one. So are you surprised by places you went in that performance? Are you surprised when you see it back? Or are you— you really had it thought out already? Not after I engaged in— not after I took the dare. As soon as I got off the phone call with him, and then also when he said, "It's not in the picture now, but I think it'd be great if Dallas danced at the end," and my heartbeat went up on the phone and I started breaking into a cold sweat, like going, "No, that's not—" And as soon as I went, "Oh no, that's not—" the other devil in my ear said, I fucking dare you, dude. And I just went, of course, I think, yes. 'Cause I immediately noticed, if you don't, you're wussing out, dude. Are you kidding me? You will forever regret, you have to. So as soon as I got over that, I was like, well, that's inevitable, I'm doing it. Now I gotta bust my ass to go do it the best I can. And a lot of fear in that. I mean, that was, yeah, that was some majorly good anxiety and fear. And then, Now we're saying, now I'm saying by that time, now everything, my choices from that phone call on were anything I was nervous about, you have to go fuck it. Fuck it. No, dude, go. All the way, go. Meet midnight. Yes, can y'all meet me for another choreograph session? 8 AM Sunday morning, do you got an hour? I'm gonna go stand in the mirror, my wife's over there watching, reading something. I'm gonna stand in the mirror and I'm gonna practice a move. This is really embarrassing. Well, too bad, man. Do it in the mirror right now because the less embarrassing that gets Hopefully the more comfortable you'll be when you're out there in front of 80 people and a bunch of cameras. And one thing you do when you go out there, don't come up short. Go all the way. So even with these movies under your belt, you came out to LA and you were still thinking it was going to be for PA work? I still thought it was going to be PA work. I mean, I didn't know. It was still I was believing more. I mean, I sure did like what I was doing. And I had people— and I couldn't— honestly, at that time, the $320 I was getting, I was like, is this legal? Because it was so much fun. And I was really looking over my shoulder going, mm-hmm. And I kept getting invited back. And then I'd have people come up and go, hey, man, you're good at this. And I was like, well, thanks, because it sure is fun. So I really didn't know. I guess secretly, if I look back and I look at my diaries, there was hope underlying, but I was still like, I need to go out and get a job. And if I can pursue acting on the side, get a PA job, get in the storytelling business behind the camera, and let's see. And then another funny thing happened. That first audition when I got out here, was for a casting director named Hank McCann. You know what I'm talking about? It was for a film called Boys on the Side. And I went and read. And he goes, I think you did really good. I'll have you for a callback sometime later. I went off from there. I get called in for a baseball film, Angels in the Outfield. I walk in the door. This is— there's a bunch of funny peculiarities of how the hell I got to be standing here today. I walk in the door. It was backlit. I remember I had an American cap on. I was on Warner Brothers lot. I open up the door. It was backlit in the afternoon. Producer's sitting on the couch. He looks up. He goes, "Hey, look at you, the all-American kid." He goes, "You ever play baseball?" I said, "12 years." He goes, "You got the job." So they send me— they pay me Schedule F, $48,500. $48,500 to go play baseball for 11 weeks in Oakland. Again, I'm going, what is this business? It is. But it happened. And during that, I got called back to read for Herbert Ross for Boys on the Side and got that role. And so that Coen Brothers film that got pushed, that PA job that I would have taken if it was there, never happened. And I haven't PA'd since. And I had about a year and a half where I would audition, and I would get one callback, two callbacks, three callbacks. And I never got the part. And I remember feeling like I'm too tight, you know what I mean? I think maybe I'm studying too much. I remember telling— talking to myself, maybe I'm studying too much about the import of the line and everything. And you know what? I think I need to go back to doing what I did when I first started, which is I was just a guy and I improvised. So I had a film that I was cast for, and I was playing this on-the-border Mexican drug lord. And I told myself, I said, I'm not going to look at the sides. I'm not even going to read the script. It's an on-the-border Mexican drug lord. I hear the synopsis. If I know my man, then I'll show up and just obviously I'll read it right before I go on. And if I know my man, that'll be like, well, that's exactly what he'd say. Foolish. I go, I go, I go to set that, that, that morning. All right. I'm just going to, all I got to do is have a glance at it and it'll be like, yep, I know, I know how to do it. Well, I look at it right before we're about to say action, and it was a page and a half monologue in Spanish. Oh, and I remember I felt this drip of sweat come up on the back of my head and go down. And then for whatever reason, I looked over and I said, um, can you give me about 12 minutes? Why I said 12 minutes, I don't know. I figured it was like not long enough to be inconsiderate, but long enough to maybe get a little bit of that stuff. Anyway, I think I was horrible in it. I stammered through some Spanish and tried to look at lines. So then I was like, okay, that's not the way to go. There's a blend here of having to do your due diligence, do your studying, but then being able to go there on the day and relax and throw it all away. I'm probably much more intentional than people would think I am. I make choices. I invest in them. I work on them. And I don't choose to really share a lot of that. That's my own private time. I do— it's the— I try and do the work, whether it's personally, whether it's on a role, whatever, so I can then appear like I'm blowing in the wind. I call it Create your own weather so you can blow in the wind. It's about conservative early, liberal late. I think I was talking about— you see which sandbox you're playing in. Any glass in here? Nope, no glass. Okay, there's the boundaries, that's the rules. Okay, now get 4-dimensional in the sandbox. Now blow in the breeze. You know, give me a dir— I choose my direction. We're going east, we're going north, we're going south, or we're going west. Alright, I got it. This character's going east. Well now You got 16 lanes to swerve in. Take an exit. All you gotta do, all you got to do to get there— you don't know how we're going to get there. We may have a long pit stop at the gas station, we may pull off somewhere, we may stop. But one thing we're not going to do is pull a U-turn and go the other way. Stay in the same direction and swerve all you want. That's the liberal leg. That's the blow in the wind. Um, so I, I do my pre-production work, whether it's yearly, whether it's when I wake up in the morning, have a tea with myself. I have a plan, I make a plan out for the day, the week, the year, and then I kind of set it out there and say, now how we're gonna get there, I'm not sure, but it's there. And I'm happy to say that so many of my goals and dreams that I've had, 19 out of 20 that I wrote down in 1988 I completely forgot about them. Completely forgot about them. I pulled a diary out last year and 19 out of 20 I'd done and never once remember specifically saying, "You need to go do that." So it was in there. Right. Somehow I was going after them and getting them, but I'd never remember trying to go get them. Starting with Lincoln Lawyer was a time when I said I wanted to recalibrate my relationship with my career. I remember saying that. I remember thinking my career I'm enjoying it. I love what it's given me. I like going to work. I like the things I've been doing. But everything I started reading, I felt like, oh, it's another version of something I've done, or I feel like I could do it next week. And I remember going, well, wait a minute. Before you get mad at thinking you could do something next week, that's a valid feeling. Don't just say no to something because you feel like you can naturally do it. But then I said, OK, fair. I'll shake with you on that, Makana, eh? But let me find something that I— that I don't know how, what to do with that next week or the week after. Let me find something that I really like, but I'm going, ooh, I'm not sure. That scares me, that shakes my floor. And I was fortunate enough, because that Schedule F check I got in Angels in the Outfield, to know that my rent was paid. I was fortunate enough to know my kids were going to eat. I was just shepherding my first son into the world, so I had that to I'm gonna take care of my time. And I said, it's a great time to go into the shadows and be a father and sit back and see if something turns you on from the inside or if something finds you, if you're the target that can draw the arrow. But let's, we're okay, rent's paid, kids are gonna eat, we can take some time off. I know what he was thinking about, like, oh, I'm done, but I didn't know how long the dry spell was gonna go. So I said no to some of the things that were similar to what I had been doing before. And it took a while, I had to sit down with my agent I'm really going to do this, and I need your help with my commitment to this. Because after 8 months, if the same thing comes in with a big $10 million paycheck, it starts to read better and funnier. I promise you. I mean, the same words. All of a sudden, it's kind of— I think this thing's great. I think I can find an angle. No, I can make it a different experience for me. So I said, I'm going to need your help. I'm gonna need your help bunkering down here and saying no to some things. And so I'm gonna need you to be a gatekeeper, one, to keep them from getting to me, two, let's be real clear, I'm looking for some different things to do. He held up, he handled that. My wife, we said we don't know how long it's gonna be dry. Then after they quit sending those, then it did get dry, then nothing came for about a year. There was nothing. And I didn't have any sleepless nights or oh my gosh, I was like, No, I'll find something. I'll write. I was writing a lot. I was turning myself on creatively. And as I said, I had my first son to shepherd into the world. And then the funny thing happened, the beautiful thing happened that somehow the target drew the arrow. And I think my opinion is I became a new good idea by removing myself. I became— William Friedkin calls for the first time. Steven Soderbergh calls for the first time. Somehow in that 2 years, I became a fresh new idea. That I don't think I was 2, 3 years prior. How that works, I'm not sure, because I didn't send a memo out. You know? But it did happen. Being an actor, or even being an artist— and I had studied in school behind the camera— was not even in the vernacular of my dreams. I was raised 9 to 5, you go to work, you work, you work your way up the scale. That's from your old man, right? Yeah. And that was all I was able to even— like I said, dream about. So the idea of living life and having a career that was in the arts, that was in the storytelling business, that was something that was really fun, was not something that, like I said, I even dreamed of. I was in the right place, right time, right bar. Guy found me and said, "You wanna come in and read for a part in a movie I'm here producing called Dazed and Confused?" I said, "Sure." I go read for the part. It's got 3 lines. 3 lines turns into 3 weeks' work. They're paying me $325 a day. People are telling me I'm pretty good at it, and I think I'm getting away with something. And I still do feel like I'm getting away with something. Didn't you add— It's always been the most important thing for me to be the best man that I can be and my rights as a human being, number one, then my rights as a citizen, number two, then my rights or my identity as an American, a McConaughey. All those things you break down to family from, from, you know, child of God, if that's how you see it, to being a human, to being a citizen, to being an American, to being a McConaughey, all those identifications you get bringing it down to self, those are all come before. Now I'm a famous actor, and, or now I'm an actor who has become famous, or I am a celebrity. Celebrity and fame are amendments that came along the way. Were they, did they all of a sudden propose many new challenges with how to balance life? You damn right they did. Needed many times, I was like, God, can I have 26 hours in this day instead of 24? Can I just need 2 more? I'm milling over one, man, it's all, and I'm not sure. I'm not discriminating enough. I'm not being discerning enough. I'm kind of, everything sounds good. You know, everything was no. All the answers were no yesterday in this career I'm taking on. And boy, over one weekend, everything's a yes. It invertedly flip-flopped. Yesterday I had 99 nos out of 100 scripts. And over one weekend, after Time to Kill comes out, it flips, 99 yeses. Great, but hang on a minute. I got these things that I'm looking at and going, Well, yes. 3 days ago I would have said yes to these. I have to be much more discriminate and really try to go, let me ask myself what it is I want to do. That's not easy to do because there's time. That's what I'm saying, man, boy, can I have 26 hours in the day? You know what I mean? Boy, I don't have it. Oh yeah. Disseminating between them. Walking that line of really respecting this job that I do as a real privilege. That, and an honor to do. At the same time, you gotta— I had to get— you gotta go from being impressed to getting really involved. And I find that if I can get really involved, that doesn't lessen my respect for a craft, for something I'm doing. It actually raises it because it's a little more of a sober look at it. It's looking at eye to eye. I mean, if you revere, you're never gonna, you're never gonna be on, you're never gonna engage with it as much because you're always beneath it, you know. So to get involved with it, still respect it, don't patronize it, condescend it, look down on it. That's not healthy either. But also, while you can respect it and know it's a privilege, you don't have to, don't be beneath it like, oh my God, I'm just so thankful that this is— ah, just doing— no, you got to look at it level and go, okay, well, why am I doing this, and what can I give, and what can it give me back? There came a time while we were working, I was like, okay, Dallas Buyers Club's got— we got to do that later. This has— it fits in this year, and I need to just— I'm going to put it in that slot. And it was like in the fall, and we were like, okay, but it's not real. We don't have the finance. Like, no, no, no, we, we'll get that. We'll We'll get that, we'll get that. It's happening in the fall, in the fall. And part of getting that made, then Jean-Marc, he and I meet, he's interested, so some pieces come together. And what we did is we didn't flinch. Once we said we're gonna make it in that fall, we never, we didn't flinch. When people would go, what are you, you can't, you don't have the money for it, which we didn't. We're like, oh no, no, we'll get it, it's coming. We got it, we're gonna make it in the fall. And we just never flinched. And I remember I never had any doubt. I got to talk myself into it, obviously, because hell, I was wrong. There wasn't money. It caught up with us like right as we were making it. It caught up with us. The money fell out. What money was there— money had fallen out of this thing so many times. What money was there and told to be real turned out to not be real just a few weeks before we started shooting. And then by that time, you know, Jean-Marc and I had been working on the script and I had already, you know, I was already into this guy and had lost a bunch of weight and someone said, "We may have to push to spring." And again, I didn't budge. I was like, "No, we're not pushing to spring. We're doing it this fall. We're going. Set the date. We're there." And something about that, and I wasn't the only one doing that. There was others too, the producers and Jean-Marc. Something about that, It's weird how some things can get made in this town by just blindly saying, no, it's happening, and if you get enough momentum and don't even consider the other options. Because if you flinch, if we'd have flinched and said, spring? Even that would have been too much. It would have left a little, it would have left a sliver of light open for someone to go, ah, okay, at least it's possible. Then the things that happened just probably wouldn't have happened. You know, so, yeah, I'd said yesterday it was turned down 86 times. I got corrected last night. It turned out the count, real count was it's been turned down 137 times. Wow. So that is like, I don't know, what makes this so much fun. Yeah. This is the, you know, we were never after the result with that, just the getting of it made. It was so visceral that— but now it's around. It's a year later. And, you know, the movie translates. And then we're getting— people are talking about the film, the message, our roles. That makes me very proud to be here talking about it because there was so much skin left in the game by so many people to get it made. Did Jim Morrison provide inspiration for the Dazed and Confused character? Is that true? Getting ready for that role, the first night, I went up for a dress rehearsal and hair and makeup, and I stepped out of the trailer and Rick Linklater, the director, comes up and goes, "This is great. You look like Wooderson. This is great." And he goes, "Listen, man, I know you're not supposed to work tonight, but we got a scene at the Top Notch. It's Friday night. I think Wooderson might be there, you know, trolling for chicks or what have you, you know what I mean?" And I go, "Yeah, he would be there." And he goes, "What do you think? Would Wooderson maybe be attracted to you?" What about the redheaded intellectual? You know, 'cause Wooderson's been around school. He's kind of been with all the typical beauties. What about the redhead intellectual? You think you'd be into that? I was like, yeah. I said, give me 30 minutes. Let me take a walk. And he goes, okay. So I took a walk. Come back, we played verbal ping pong. I told him my ideas and he told me his. And he goes, wanna shoot it? I went, okay. So boom, we go up to the set. I get in the car and I'm like, I'm nervous. First scene ever on film. Right before we're about to shoot, I've got friends in the car, I'm going, I'd been listening to this live Doors album, and in between two of the songs, Morrison goes, "All right, all right, all right, all right." You ever heard that recording? Right, the four. All right, all right, all right, all right. So right before we're about to go, I'm like, what is Wooderson about? What's he about? Man, he's about 4 things. He's about, you know, his car. He's about getting high. He's about rock and roll and picking up chicks. And I go, I'm in my car. I'm high as a kite. I'm listening to rock and roll. Action! And there's the chick. All right, all right, all right. That's a movie. 3 out of 4. That's fantastic.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. I made this video because Ash Wilson asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur you want me to profile next, Leave it down in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Matthew's top 10 rules had the biggest impact to you and why. What clip resonated the most with you? What change are you gonna make in your business now after watching this clip? Leave it in the comments and I will join the discussion. Also, if you like some of the quotes that people have left for Matthew from these clips, make sure to show your appreciation by giving those comments a thumbs up. Finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Lee Koon Fai who recently purchased 10 copies of my book. 10 copies, I really appreciate that. Hopefully you can use it for yourself and give it as some gifts away to people that'll make an impact. For those of you guys who want a chance at a future shout-out in a video, make sure to pick up a copy of the book and email in your receipt so we can keep track. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe, or whatever your one word is, and I'll see you soon.

Mm-hmm. Tootski. No, thank you, though. Mr. Haller, what can I bring for you on this glorious afternoon? Well, Hector, here's the game plan. You're gonna bring us 2 absolute martinis. You know how I like 'em, straight up. And then precisely 7 and 1/2 minutes after that, you're gonna bring us 2 more. Then 2 more after that every 5 minutes until one of us passes the fuck out. Excellent strategy, sir. Uh, I'm good with water for now, though. Thank you. It's his first day on Wall Street. Give him time. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Mr. Hanna, you're able to do drugs during the day and still function, still do your job? Well, how the fuck else would you do this job? Cocaine and hookers, my friend. Right. I got to say, I'm incredibly excited to be a part of your firm. I mean, the clients you have are absolutely— Fuck the clients. Your only responsibility is to put meat on the table. You got a girlfriend? I'm married. I have a wife. Her name's Teresa. She cuts hair. Congratulations. Thank you. Think about Teresa. Name of the game: move the money from your client's pocket into your pocket. Right. But if you can make a client's money at the same time, it's advantageous to everyone, correct? No. Number one rule of Wall Street. Nobody, I don't care if you're Warren Buffett or if you're Jimmy Buffett, nobody knows if a stock is gonna go up, down, sideways, or in fucking circles. Least of all stockbrokers. It's all a fugazi. You know what a fugazi is? No. Fugazi. It's a fake. Fugazi, fugazi, it's a wazi, it's a woozi, it's a— Fairy dust. It doesn't exist. It's never landed. It is not real. It's not on the elemental chart. It's not fucking real. Right? All right? All right. Stay with me. Mm-hmm. We don't create shit. We don't build anything. No. So if you got a client who bought stock at 8 and it now sits at 16, and he's all fucking happy, he wants to cash in, liquidate, take his fucking money and run home, you don't let him do that. Okay. 'Cause that would make it real. Right. No. What do you do? You get another brilliant idea. A special idea. Another situation, another stock to reinvest his earnings and then some. And he will every single time, 'cause they're fucking addicted. And then you just keep doing this again and again and again. Meanwhile, he thinks he's getting shit rich, which he is on paper. But you and me, the brokers, we're taking home cold hard cash via commission. Month. Right. That's incredible, sir. I can't tell you how excited I am. You should be. There's two keys to success in the broker business. First of all, you got to stay relaxed. Yeah. You jerk off? Do I jerk off? Yeah. Yeah, I jerk off. Yeah. How many times a week? Like, um, 3, 3, 4— 3 or 4 times maybe. I gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers in this racket. I, myself, I jerk off at least twice a day. Wow. Once in the morning right after I work out, and then once right after lunch. Really? Mm-hmm. Okay. I want to. That's not why I do it. I do it 'cause I fucking need to. Think about it. You're dealing with numbers all day long. Mm-hmm. Decimal points, high frequencies. Bang, bang, bang. Ee, ee, ee. all very acidic, above-the-shoulders mustard shit. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. It kind of can wig some people out. Mm-hmm. Right? You got to feed the geese to keep the blood flowing. Mm-hmm. I keep the rhythm below the belt. Done. This is not a tip. This is a prescription. Trust me. Mm-hmm. If you don't, you will fall out of balance, split your differential, and tip the fuck over. Or worse yet— I've seen this happen— implode. No, I don't want to implode, sir. No. No. No, you don't. I'm in it for the long run, you know? Yeah, implosions are ugly. Yeah. Pop off to the bathroom, work on that anytime you can, and when you get really good at it, you'll fuck me stroking it, and you'll be thinking about money. Second key to success in this racket is this little baby right here. It's called cocaine. Right. It will keep you sharp between the ears. It'll also help your fingers dial faster. And guess what? That's good for me. Yes, sir. Revolutions. You follow? Revolutions. Keep the clients on the Ferris wheel. And it goes. The park is open 24/7, 365. Every decade, every goddamn century. That's it. Name of the game. How kitty kitty? Mmm. Thank you. Mmm-hmm. Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm! Come on— mm-hmm! The common denominator— mm-hmm! Ohh! Ahhh! Keep it up for me. See how you— oh, how the money comes in. The parade comes to town. Going down Broadway is a one-way street. Whichever way I go. Can you, uh, tell us anything about that, Mr. Copeland? Yeah, it looks a lot like the one from '95. But, well, you knew that already. Yeah, there's specifics consistent to the '95 case, details that weren't public knowledge. You were off the grid for 8 years, right? Show back up here 2010. My question is, how could it be him if we already caught him in '95? How indeed, detectives? I figured you'd be the one to know. Then start asking the right fucking questions. Mr. Woodruff, if you could listen to me for a moment. I know this can be a very scary thing. I know you're probably feeling overwhelmed right now. But what we would like to do is to impress upon you the gravity of your situation. Based on your health, based on your condition, based on all the evidence we have, we estimate you have 30 days left to put your affairs in order. 30 days. I'm sorry. This is 30 days. Motherfucker, let me give you all those News flash, ain't nothing out there can kill Ron Woodruff in 30 days.