It’s actually pretty easy to Outwork 99% of people | Will Smith

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in people more than they believe in themselves. And my sincere hope is that if you see in you what I see in you, you'll be able to change the planet. I started the Mentor Me series with the goal to try to learn from people who've done a lot more than us, try to hang out with people who've had more success than us, and hopefully some of their beliefs, some of their mindset, some of their way of working seeps into us to help us become the best version of ourselves. So today we're going to learn from Will Smith and his work ethic. Mentor me, Will. Rule number 3 is my personal favorite, and I'd love to know which one you guys like the best. Also, as you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below and put quotes around it so other people can be inspired by it as well. And if you leave it within the first couple hours of this video going live, you have a chance to win one of 2 daily prizes. I think that you are so incredible in all areas, and you are so talented in so many ways, obviously. But— and you seem to have always been this. I mean, obviously, we grow and we get better and better. But what was the driving force? Have you always been on some kind of quest to be better?

You know, there was a— excuse me— there was a moment when I was about 9 years old. And I was at the Resurrection Baptist Church. That was the church I went to growing up. And my grandmother was always in charge of all of the recitals and Easter recitations and all of that stuff. So I was playing the piano. And I remember my grandmother was standing back offstage. And she put me last in the show and everything. And I had learned "Feralise." And I was playing "Feralise." And I'm going and going and going. And I never learned how to end it, right? So I was just playing, playing, playing. And my grandmother was standing backstage. And I was looking at playing. And that look of pride and happiness on my grandmother's face face is— that's my life force. Everything I do, I just need that look in my wife's eyes and my daughter's eyes. And it's just— I realized very, very young that there's no easy way around it. No matter how talented you are, your talent is going to fail you if you're not skilled. You know, if you don't study, if you don't work really hard and dedicate yourself to being better every single day, you'll never be able to communicate with people, with your artistry, the way that you want. So it's that moment. I just remember it so distinctly and how good it felt. And I just, I need it.

Yeah.

I believe, and I learned very young— From parents. From my parents, absolutely, that You don't try to build a wall. You don't set out to build a wall. You don't say, "I'm gonna build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that's ever been built." You don't start there. You say, "I'm gonna lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. There will not be one brick on the face of the earth that's gonna be laid better than this brick that I'm gonna lay in this next 10 minutes." And you do that every single day. And soon you have a wall. And soon you have a wall. And I think Psychologically, the advantage that that gives me over a lot of people that I have been in competition with in different situations is it's difficult to take the first step when you look how big the task is. The task is never huge to me. It's always one brick. Me too. There's a concept that I don't want to be an icon. I want to be an idea, you know? I want to represent an idea. I want to represent possibilities. I want to represent magic, right? That you're in a universe and 2 2 4. Mm-hmm. 2 2 only equals 4 if you accept that 2 2 4. 2 2 is gonna be what I want it to be.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and there's a— like, there's a redemptive power that making a choice has, you know, rather than feeling like you're at effect to all the things that are happening. Make a choice. Like, you just decide what it's gonna be, who you're gonna be, how you're gonna do it. Just decide. And then from that point, the universe is gonna get out your way. It's like— it's water. It wants to move and go around stuff, you know? So for me, I want to represent possibilities. I want to represent the idea that you really can make what you want. One of my favorite books is The Alchemist, uh, Paulo Coelho. And— That's just— I just believe that. I believe that I can create whatever I want to create if I can put my head on it right, study it, learn the patterns, and, you know, I just— it's hard to put into words. It's some real metaphysical, esoteric nonsense. But I feel very strongly that we are who we choose to be. The only thing that I see that is distinctly different about me is I'm not afraid to die on a treadmill. Right? I will run. You will not be outworked. I will not be outworked. Right. Period.

Yeah.

You know, you might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things. You got it on me in 9 categories. But if we get on the treadmill together, right, there's two things. You're getting off first. Yeah. Or I'm gonna die. It's really that simple, right? So let's go back to the question about what if people block me out? It's gonna be two options. Yeah. I'm gonna get back in or I'm gonna be dead. Yeah. Right? It's like, you're not going to outwork me. It's such a simple, basic concept. Concept is the, the guy who is willing to hustle the most is going to be the guy that just gets that loose ball. You know, he got the— oh, he got that. Oh, okay, he got two. Oh God, he's hustling. Grabbed that one. That was going to be out of bounds, but he saved it back in. It's like the commodity that I see the majority of people who aren't getting the places they want or aren't achieving the things that they want in this business is strictly based on hustle. It's strictly based on being outworked. It's strictly based on missing crucial opportunities. I say all the time, if you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready. I realize that when— to have the level of success that I wanna have, it's difficult to spread it out and do multiple things, you know. It's in order to be world-class, and I've made a decision, I want to be world-class. And it just takes such a desperate, obsessive focus to excel on a certain— on the level that I want to make movies, you know. I was— Star Wars, when I was young, I sat in a movie theater and watched Star Wars. And I just couldn't believe that that movie made me feel like that, just floored. And just stunned by the creativity. And just, I'm realizing that in order to move people in that way, in order to touch people in that way, you really gotta focus with all of your fiber and all of your heart and all of your creativity.

A lot of people talk about talent and they say, look, you are multi-talented and that's why you're a superstar. You differentiate though between talent and hard work. Absolutely. You wrote, I've never really viewed myself as particularly talented. I view myself as, you know, slightly above average in talent. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic. You know, while the other guy's sleeping, I'm working. While the other guy's eating, I'm working. While the other guy's making love, well, I mean, I'm making love too, but I'm working really hard at it.

I'm working really hard at it.

So when the phone rings and you have an alarm goes off, says Denzel Washington right now is hooking up, you gotta go at it right now, right?

You know, for me, man, it's like the separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, that want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft. And, you know, for me, it's— I feel like I have a relationship with the audience. They agree that they're going to go in droves, and I agree that every time they go, it's going to be better than the last time. So I think that's part of the, the relationship, and I'm going to hold up my part as long as they keep holding up theirs. The concept of improving lives runs through the center of everything I do. And then I realized that the way to improve lives is to continually improve yourself, right? So with that, every morning when I get out of the bed, you know, I haven't fixed everything in the world yet, so there's always something to do. And in this film, I read an interesting quote. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, he said that good people have to get out of the bed every day and try to empty the ocean with a ladle, right? And I thought that was, I knew that was profound and I paused for a second and I said, all right, what the hell is a ladle, right? Right, so then I just, I touched it on my iPad, it's ladle. Oh, it's like a big spoon, a big spoon. OK. It's like a soup spoon. Yeah. It's like a soup spoon. I was like, why do you need a soup spoon? So trying to empty the ocean with a soup spoon, you know, as the mentality of how you wake up every day to try to do good in the world. So for me, I'm really driven by continually trying to elevate my mind and elevate my spirit and care for my body. To be able to love as many people as effectively as, as possible with this mystery of life that I've been given.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. I'd love to know what did you learn from this video? What clips spoke the most to you and how are you going to apply it immediately somehow in your life or in your business? Please leave it down in the comments below. Also, if you're leaving a comment within the first few hours of this video going live, you have a chance to win one of two daily prizes. I also want to give a quick shout out to Serge Wisdom. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and doing multiple reviews on your YouTube channel, going chapter by chapter by chapter. I really appreciate the support, and I'm so glad that you enjoyed my book. 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.