Jared Leto: Things To Do If You Get Knocked Down And Need To Get Back Up!

It's so important to fight for what you believe in.

You have to pedal even harder.

I'm just stubborn enough to keep walking forward.

It's never been about even making a living.

You know, I started a band and the world laughed at me.

You're the ones who inherit the Earth.

I don't think I've ever heard the applause. I think in order to be an artist, you have to be committed beyond reasonable doubt.

That doesn't always happen, and it's not a great way to make a good friend.

Yeah, well, you should have requested it on the radio more, buddy.

He's an American actor, singer, songwriter, and director. He's the lead vocalist and main songwriter for Thirty Seconds to Mars. He's a method actor known for his constant devotion to and research of his roles. He's Jared Leto, and here are his top 10 rules for success.

It's so important to fight for what you believe in. If there's ever something that you wanted to stand up for, You know, I mean, look at us and follow our lead. It is absolutely necessary to fight for what you believe in, big or small.

I think some people, and maybe I used to think, once you got successful, you could, ah, you're successful, and it's okay, now you can kind of just relax a little bit. But that's not the case at all. You have to pedal even harder. You have to work even more. There are more opportunities that need more time and dedication, and in order to do them well, you have to really, really hunker down and do the hard work. But I've never been afraid of hard work, and I always tell people when I'm asked— and it's pretty often that I'm asked about dreams and achieving creative goals— that I always believe that the bridge between reality and a dream is work. And I always, in moments of despair and doubt, And dark days, focus on the work. I show up and I work and I work and I work and I work.

Someone asked if all of your dreams have been fulfilled.

No, certainly not. But many have. I think the really interesting thing about achieving some of your goals in life is you realize that dreams are possible. And they're attainable. And once you reach some of these goals, you're more likely to try to reach others. And I always tell people who ask me about things like this that, you know, that you have a good chance at making some of your wildest dreams come true. Most people don't even try, sadly. Most people try and then stop or give up. Very few people try and try and try, or do and do and do and do, and never give up. And those are the people that ultimately succeed and win. And it's— I never think that I really have anything special to offer. I'm just stubborn enough to keep walking forward and put one foot in front of the other, even when I have a lot of doubt. I just keep marching forward and working hard. Not to sound too much like Anthony Robbins, but you can do it.

Thank you. If, you know, the whole acting, musician, tech thing doesn't work out, you have good motivational speaking track. Exactly, there you go. Deepak Chopra, watch out, buddy. Coming for you. That's exactly right.

I mean, what does it mean to survive as a musician? What does it take? You know, we make money, we make a living. And it's a great living now. After, you know, we were signed in 1998. So we invested in ourselves, time, energy, passion, blood, sweat, tears, as well as other things. And, you know, it took a long time. And now we have an incredible touring life. So the touring is really where most artists pay the rent. You know, there's an accepted wisdom that artists really don't think so much about, um, making a living from selling albums. But for me, it's never been about even making a living. It's been about passion. It's been about making something from nothing. It's been about sharing things with other people. It's been about creativity, and it's been about dreams. And that's what it should always be about.

I think I have an insatiable appetite to make things and share things with the world. I'm compelled beyond a reasonable doubt to do what I do. I don't think that it can be a reasonable or logical choice. I think at a certain point, you're compelled to do it. It's too painful, too brutal, too neurotic of a path to take otherwise. Sorry, my mic is making noise. So I think that that compulsion has to be there. It has to be something that you— you can doubt all the time, but deep down inside you know that this is something you have to do. And I think I've dealt with some of the adversity, some of the challenges, of which we've had many. I started a band and the world laughed at me. Literally laughed at me. Kicked us around, talked shit about us in the press for years, and still do. You know, but we hunkered down, we worked and we worked and we worked. We play arenas all over the world. We have the most amazing, brilliant, beautiful fans one could ever ask for. And we've had an incredible life as a result. So if I had listened to the choir, to the chorus of everyone, I would have stopped. Because that's what people want you to do. For some reason, some people would rather kill your dream than see you succeed. I don't know what that is, you know. I mean, Ayn Rand talks about that as the looters, you know, we can debate her and that some other time, but, you know, I think it's important to be stubborn and to follow your dreams no matter what.

You know, as a kid who was pretty different himself, I think that, you know, what I would tell people that are individuals out there is, you know, you're the ones who inherit the Earth, and believe in yourself and be patient and be as different as you want to be. You have every right to do that. And it may be difficult and lonely at times, but there is no greater privilege than owning yourself.

It's fun, you know, being in a— and making art in general is about bravery. It's about taking chances. It's about kind of walking down a more uncomfortable path sometimes. And that, that I always challenge myself to do that, and even if it's being foolish.

So where does that come from?

I think it comes from a desire to create things and share them with people, to be of service. When I'm on stage, I really think of it as I am there to serve you and not myself. I, I don't think I've ever heard the applause, and you probably know what I mean by this. I'm always thinking, how can I do a better job? I think in order to be an artist, you have to be committed beyond reasonable doubt. If you're to be a writer, you have to be committed beyond reasonable doubt. That'll be the subtext, the subtitle to the talk today: committed beyond a reasonable doubt. And I think that when you take the road less traveled, you have to have that commitment. And I think that, you know, People may go to some shows for a party. I think people come to our shows for something else entirely.

When I was a kid, on more than one occasion, I got in a fight with somebody in the schoolyard, and the next day they were, you know, close friends. So that doesn't always happen, and it's not a great way to make a good friend. But there are opportunities for people to take some of their mistakes and make them right. And there's nothing more powerful than somebody who has has made a mistake, to promptly admit it and to make amends, that can be an incredible thing. And I think a lot of people have probably done that, have had regret and have changed and have learned that what they've done has hurt other people and come back and said, "You know what? Hey, I messed up. I'm sorry. And, you know, I'd like to make it right." So, you know, for people that have done that out there that have picked on other people and bullied, It's never too late just to stop and be like, "Hey, I'm tired of being the asshole here. Today I'm gonna start being someone else." You have bad days.

And, you know, from the outside, people may look at my life and think that everybody's— everything's good all the time, and it's really just not the case. You can have dark days. It doesn't matter. How well your career is doing. There's all kinds of things that happen in life. But as far as creative dreams go, I remember we had released the first song off our second album and it bombed. It did terribly. It was called "Attack." And— [SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] Yeah, well, you should have requested it on the radio more, buddy, because nobody else thought so. And maybe there were other forces working at that time against us. But I thought it was a decent song as well for the time. But it bombed. The record company wanted to drop us. They actually did. They called our management and said, "We're dropping the band." Somehow, they convinced the head of the record company, Jason Flom, the guy was in there, to come and see us one more time at Madison Square Garden. We were opening for Audioslave. And the crowd hated us, right? They hated us. It was just about— it was about— crowd was largely there, it was made up of Soundgarden and Rage fans, a lot of older people, and they just were like, "Who are these weirdos on stage? Will they get out of here?" But anyway, we played that show and the president of the record company who had wanted to drop us, he decided to give us one more shot. But that time was really brutal, you know. It's our second album. We knew if we got dropped, it would be very difficult to ever find a way to make music and share it again. This was way before iTunes. It was way before Facebook. And it was way before YouTube. It was way before it was so easy to make and distribute music and share your work online. So it was a challenging time and really dark. But I decided to direct the video myself. It was for a song called "The Kill." They released it and it changed our lives. So, you know, and that story has kind of happened more than a few times in our careers. You know, and it's happened to me as an actor. It's happened to me as a director. I've looked at things so many times, videos that you guys see now and think, "Oh, that's pretty good," and just wanted to like rip my eyeballs out, it was so bad. So I think the thing that we don't teach each other and remind each other enough of is that failure is oftentimes more important than success, and success is the thing that can actually make us fail. It's really important to note what the lessons are to learn in failure. And it happens a lot. It doesn't feel good, but it's a necessity.

Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Sebastian asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, Leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Jared Leto's top 10 rules meant the most to you. Leave it in the comments and I'll join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Continue to believe and I'll see you soon.

No, I hope to never look back.

I don't, I don't really care so much about that sort of thing, legacy or What do I want to leave behind? I don't really think of that. It's good to be here now and to live dreams now and to share the dreams with all of you.

I was reading you go method with the parts. How does that occur? Because in my mind, like, Fi and I have done very little acting. We've nailed it, what we've done.

I've done a couple of episodes of Home and Away. So I don't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, to be honest, I'm not going to pass my CV on to any managers.

That's cool.

But, um, but just saying, look, you're going method, cool, and you're in the scene and that's fantastic. And then they break and they've got to go for lunch and you've got to stay in that character and order, you know, your chicken wings and a bit of salad as that person. Is anyone looking at you going, mate, what are you doing? Just drop it.

I think the first thing to note is I wasn't ordering any food because I had lost 30 or 40 pounds. So yeah, the meals were out of the question.

So just alkalized water, thanks.

Yes, uh, if that. And You know, it's not a very social time, but really— How did you put it? "Going method"? Is that what you said?

That's what I've— "Going method." No, I think it's— Again, I'm not a good actor, so I don't know the terms.

No, and it's an interesting way to put it. "Going method" is an interesting way to put it because you kind of do go there. But it's really just a way to stay incredibly focused and committed and concentrated. It's a way to kind of shut everything else out. And to prioritize what's important. That's really another way to describe going method. You don't have to sit around and really believe that you're this other person. Yeah, but, but it does help to kind of put a wall up around and to raise the importance of the process. And I found that in my career, that's been the best way for me to work.

Yeah.

And obviously it something worked about the part and the role and the process because, you know, at the end of the day what's important is, uh, does the— am I able to contribute to the story? Do people believe in the character? Does the character touch people? And, you know, I would hope it would— the answers would be yes.

When I was a kid, I would often stand up to people, and I think that people had a sense they knew that even though I was skinny and small and I certainly wasn't the toughest kid on the block, that I wasn't going to let you get away with it. So there's something to that, to standing up for yourself and saying, "You know what? No." Because a lot of times, you know, the dog's bark is worse than the bite. So I found that to be true a lot of times. But it's difficult to encourage some young person to confront someone else because that can lead to escalation. But I think it's okay to stand up for yourself. I think it's okay to look somebody in the eye and tell them to stop and to demand some respect.