Christian Bale describes his love-hate relationship with acting: he loves the craft but hates moments that feel forced, and argues this tension pushes people to improve. The host connects this to his own experience, saying hate for inefficiency in hiring and content creation motivated him to build better systems and new series.
Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is Love and Hate It. Over to you, Christian Bale. Is there a reason that you get out of bed to go act every year when you do?
Because when it's good, it's really good, and when it's not, I fucking hate it, you know. But when it's good, it's a lot love-hate thing. And it's a love-hate thing for me because of coming from a place where it was actually a responsibility at a young age because, you know, for my family it was just such an unfathomable amount of sudden cash that you could get for doing it that I went, "Eh, well, even though I don't really feel like doing it, I can't really live with myself for not because it helps my family so much." you know. And so I felt responsibility to do that. So I come at it from a slightly different point of view. You know, it wasn't something that I said, I went through school going, oh, you know, I'd like to become an actor. Oh yeah, I love films. That's what I'm going to try to do. It was something that happened at an early age. And then I went, I can't get out of this because it's really helpful to my family, you know. And so Yeah, no, I must do it. So that's why I've got this love-hate thing with it, but I actually think the love-hate is quite a healthy thing to have. If all you do is love film, if all you do is love acting, you're just gonna imitate what you love, right? It takes people to fucking hate it at the same time to make any sort of change to what they're doing, you know? And to me, that's when it becomes interesting.
What resonated most with me from this clip was the idea that the change happens when you hate something. Hate can be a very powerful force for good. Hate forces you to change something. When I was young and just getting out of university, I wanted to do exciting, meaningful, big work. That's what I love, but I hated having to work inside a company. And so I became an entrepreneur. I love building a team and having people to work around me, but I hated the hiring process, the traditional hiring process, so I changed it. With my YouTube channel, I love online videos and learning, and I wanted to surround myself with all these great ideas and people, and I hated how it was currently being delivered. Like, nobody was aggregating the videos together. So that's what led to the Top 10 series and this Enespresso series. So I had a love for something, and I hated how it was currently being done, and so I changed it. And found opportunity. Where, you know, hate is often seen as a negative thing, it strives you to want to make a change. The real enemy isn't hate, the real enemy is good. If you love something and everything is just good for you, you're never gonna strive to be great because it's still good, because you're still enjoying it, because it's not frustrating. There's nothing that makes you want to change something. Where if you love something and you hate the way it's currently being done, you're gonna change it, right? You're gonna find another way to do it because this way is unacceptable. I will not stand for it anymore. I must change it. But when it's good, you just let it slide by. Think of all the good things in your life. How many times have you wanted to make a change for it? You don't, because you focus on the things that aren't going well and how can I make those much better. Good is the enemy of great. Hate is not the enemy of great. Hate lets you build something great if you love it. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious, what do you love and hate? Leave it in the comments below and I'll join the discussion. Thank you guys so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.
