starting to feel well you know like you
don’t you’re not getting anywhere it’s
okay to quit I would sit down to a meal
of spaghetti topped with mustard with
only 20 dollars in my checking account
and I would think to myself oh well I
can always be a substitute school
teacher but yeah you have to be willing
to kind of risk everything to to have
success need motivation watch the top 10
with believe nation
what’s up believe nation it’s Evan my
one word is believe and I believe in you
I believe you have Michael Jordan level
talent add something and I want you to
find it embrace it and make a difference
using it so let’s get your motivation to
attend and get you believing in you grab
a snack and chilling today’s lessons
from a man who went from having his
parents divorced when he was age 8 to
not seeing his father for months at a
time because it was in show business and
des pulling really stupid pranks in
college to becoming a super successful
actor and comedian he’s Will Ferrell and
here’s my take on his top 10 rules a
success
alright let’s kick it off with rule
number one give it a shot
did you feel like this is something that
you’re gonna give yourself a time limit
to do and they see if it works or that
was we you see really on it I was still
very realistic in the sense that what if
I don’t what if this doesn’t work
because there were plenty of nights that
I’d gone out and done stand-up cuz this
we’re talking like early 90s well you
know that was the huge explosion on
cable we’re a half-hour comedy hour on
MTV in Holland currently a andis night
at The Improv yeah because everyone
forgets outside of that the only place
you could see a comedian was on this
night show so this was this massive
proliferation of stand-up comedy so
growing up in Orange County every kind
of local restaurant was starting to have
a comedy night and so I was going up it
you know the cannery in Newport Beach
and all these local places and getting
up there and I would come back home and
my mom would be like how did it go and I
was like thank God I have a college
degree
really yeah so I had this thing in the
back of my mind like okay just give it a
give it a shot and I actually sat down
and had lunch with my father I said so
dad I think I’m gonna like I’m gonna
give this a shot I don’t know what that
means exactly but I’m gonna try to get
into comedy and any words of advice and
he’s he said you know if it was only
about talent I wouldn’t worry about you
because you really have some talent but
just know there’s so much luck involved
and that if you go down this road and
it’s starting to feel you know like you
don’t you’re not getting anywhere it’s
okay to quit just and and just do
something else and for some reason it’s
like the anti pep talk pep talk yeah for
some reason that took the pressure off
cuz you saying I was out of your hands
it’s like 100 million if exactly it and
so I just approached it with like this
is probably
not gonna happen so might as well just
have a blast and because I gave myself
that break internally I think it
unbeknownst to me opened all these doors
because people could could read that I
was so free with what I was doing
rule number two expose yourself to
different experiences I was wondering if
you have any like words of encouragement
or advice the advice that your father
kid was very touching would you have any
other advice in other words you don’t
like it no no dad but you don’t like it
looking for more than one source no III
mean I think you know when I was kind of
you know I really didn’t try anything
until after I graduated from college and
that’s when I started taking some acting
class and I literally was just trying
every everything I could think of
whether it be stand-up comedy or a weird
cabaret sketch show any sort of avenue
and I think I think that’s the thing
just try it just expose yourself to a
broad array of experiences and they’ll
all kind of you know inform you and and
and and help kind of strengthen your
skills as an actor rule number three do
one thing really well you’ve been an
entrepreneur and a producer your first
authorial venture was a highly
diversified multinational professional
services firm prestige worldwide the
seas worldwide yeah what happened with
that and why did it not work out
we grew too quickly
we try to do too much too fast because
you’re talking entertainment security
catering spider-man you name it
what was that black leather gloves yeah
so we should have just done you know do
one thing and do it really well and we
got away from that that’s right have you
been in the entrepreneurial or you know
start with an itch zone that very well
and then we’ll grow from there but you
know you have to fail in order to so we
learned that yeah
rule number four my personal favorite
don’t have any regrets so starting in
the fall of 1991 for the next three and
a half years I was taking classes and
performing in various shows at The
Groundlings and around Los Angeles I was
even trying my hand at that stand-up
comedy not great stand-up mind you but
enough material to get myself up in
front of strangers my stand-up act was
based mostly on material derived from
watching old episodes of Star Trek my
opening joke was to sing the opening
thank you not even funny just weird but
I didn’t care I was just trying to throw
as many darts at the dartboard hoping
that one would eventually stick now
don’t get me wrong I was I wasn’t
extremely confident that I would succeed
during this time period and after moving
back to LA there were many a night where
in my LA apartment I would sit down to a
meal of spaghetti topped with mustard
with only 20 dollars in my checking
account and I would think to myself oh
well I can always be a substitute school
teacher and yes I was afraid you’re
never not afraid I’m still afraid I was
afraid to write this speech and now I’m
I’m just realizing how many people are
watching me right now and it’s scary and
you please look away while I deliver the
rest of the speech but my fear of
failure never approached in magnitude my
fear of what if what if I never tried at
all ruler 5 seek challenges what do you
think is the biggest risk you’ve ever
taken either as an actor producer or
both I I mean I think just the the
biggest risk was convincing myself that
I was going to try to earn a living as a
comedy person yeah that was probably the
biggest flying leap and I you know I did
all the typical things of maxing out all
my credit cards and living pretty much
hand to mouth and trying to explain to
my parents why it was a good idea and
that was definitely the yeah the biggest
other day I mean and the beta’s biggest
creative challenge I ever did was a
filming Casa de mi padre which is a
movie entirely in Spanish I did that
yeah I’m always kind of looking for ways
to challenge myself rule number six be
fearless when you’re doing when you’re
yeah yeah yeah what are you doing
Goodson you know that I watch the
late-night comedy guys do this well in
the states when you’re dealing with a
guy you’re not sure what his real estate
is how do you approach that kind of
material you know you usually just
unfortunately use it as dive in and you
probably don’t think about those
ramifications because III mean I think
the the one thing you have to be
completely in comedy is fearless and and
once you kind of make a decision to to
make whatever choice you’re gonna make
you can’t look back rule number seven
ignore the opinions of others after my
first show one review referred to me as
the most annoying newcomer of the new
cast someone showed this to me and I
promptly put it up on the wall of my
office reminding myself that to some
people I will be annoying some people
will not think I’m funny
and that that’s okay one woman wrote to
me and said she hated my portrayal of
george w bush it was mean-spirited not
and I said I appreciate your letter and
she was entitled to her opinion but that
my job as a comedian especially on a
show like Sara Night Live was to hold up
a mirror to our political leaders and
engage from time to time in satirical
reflection as for my fat face you are
100% right I’m trying to work on that
please don’t hesitate to write me again
if you feel like I’ve lost some weight
the venerable television critic for the
Washington Post Tom Shales came up to me
during my last season of the show he
told me congratulations on my time at
the show and then he apologized for
things he had written about me in some
of his early reviews of my work I paused
for a second before I spoke and then I
said how dare you you son-of-a-bitch
I could tell this startled him and then
I told him I was kidding and that I’d
it was true I hadn’t read his reviews in
fact I didn’t read any reviews because
once again I was too busy throwing darts
at the dartboard all the while facing my
fears rule number eight be willing to
risk everything it’s not like you have a
source or a confident or someone who if
you could bounce ideas off in terms when
it comes to comedy and you really just
have to believe in it and think you know
what I think this is this could work but
but that’s what was I mean you know you
know in a weird way my time here at
school was was really a stage for me to
get to try to to try my obscure way of
thinking and you know I would constantly
you know I was the our song chairman and
for the for the fraternity so every
Monday you have chapter and all the all
the positions that are actually relevant
give a report but I decided we needed a
song purport song but I had class on
Monday so I would tape my song report
and have him play it in front of chapter
the casey kasem yeah I would do you know
just bizarre things and I would hear
back that oh that was hilarious it
killed my car chapter meetings you know
normally weren’t that well attended but
when they knew will had a tape for that
meeting it was packed
yeah but you know so and I would also do
things our buddy Amol was kind of my my
shill I would because I had a work-study
job at a the humanities a/v department
and I was a very good employee if you
needed a spanish-language cassette tape
I was your man but I would have I could
just leave that job and no one noticed
and so I knew I knew where all these
guys would sit V Casey Steffi Casey
steps around lunchtime and I would tell
her for an emo I’m like right around
12:15 I’m gonna push an overhead
projector across campus and I’m just
gonna have my pants slightly down so you
see my butt crack and and I want you to
start going look at that guy what is
that guy doing and it would incite a
riot other people go yeah what does that
I don’t like that guy and I would just
slowly push this over and those were
moments like oh this is this is working
yeah this is actually but yeah you have
to be willing to kind of risk everything
to to have success rule number nine be
open to new things let’s talk about Gary
Sanchez that’s your production company
you guys have done amazing work these
are the guys responsible for between two
ferns Funny or Die among many many other
projects you just celebrated your
ten-year anniversary where do you see
yourselves going in the future you know
I think we’re just gonna kind of
continue to to obviously make comedy but
we also just as Adam and I talked about
we loved all different types of movies
and it’s really fun to kind of explore
whether it’s anything from graphic
novels to to kind of straighter dramas
to Jessica started
Gloria Sanchez which is female focused
in terms of female writers and directors
and those sorts of projects so we’re
just kind of open to to everything as
long as we feel like we can put our
hearts into it and and support people
that we feel like really need to be
supported and rule number ten the last
one before some very special bonus clips
is give great speeches class of 2017 I
just want you to know you will never be
alone on whatever path you may choose if
you do have a moment where you feel a
little down just think of the support
you have from this great Trojan family
and imagine me
literally picture my face singing this
song gently into your ear I would baby
we’ll always love you will
we’ll always love you class of 2017
thank you Father
[Applause]
[Music]
now I’ve got two really special Will
Ferrell bonus clips on how to find your
gift and define success for yourself but
before that I want to know what did you
learn from this video what are you going
to immediately apply somehow to your
life or your business leave it down in
the comments below remember when you
write it down you’re much more likely to
actually follow through and do it so
leave it in the comments below thank you
guys so much for watching I believe in
you I hope we continue to believe in
yourself and whatever your one word is
much love see you soon and enjoy the
in high school you
sort of were known for doing something
in the morning can you sort of tell us
this talent that you showed as a high
schooler well in high school I uh I
started doing the morning announcements
you know usually have a little
announcement in between first and second
period which tells you what the day’s
events are and I had my buddy Steve ball
dekosky who was the senior class
president was trying to figure out a way
to sell senior class t-shirts which was
our big fundraiser to get to do some fun
thing at the end of the year and so he
enlisted my help and and my buddy Bart
and we basically started writing skits
that we would announce throughout the
school where we would make fun of
teachers students do assumed character
voices everything and something that
really shouldn’t have been allowed in in
school but it became so successful that
teachers would come up to me were like
what are you doing another announcement
and so that was kind of that was kind of
the beginning steps I took in in
thinking that I wanted to do comedy
now one may look at me as having great
success which I have in the strictest
sense of the word and don’t get me wrong
I love what I do and I feel so fortunate
to get to entertain people but to me my
definition of success is my sixteen and
a half year marriage to my beautiful and
success are my three amazing sons Magnus
13 Matthias 10 and axel h7 right there’s
[Applause]
success to me is my involvement in the
charity cancer for college which gives
college scholarships to cancer survivors
started by my great friend and SC alum
Craig Pollard a two-time cancer survivor
himself who thought of the charity while
we were fraternity brothers at the Del
Craig was also one of the members of my
Trojan family sitting front and center
that my bad stand-up comedy shows
cheering me on no matter how cliche it
may sound you will never truly be
successful until you learn to give
beyond yourself empathy and kindness are
[Music]
the most important word ever if you had
to think of one word that’s most
important to you or that sums you Apple
that would be like a little beacon they
believe nation if you want to know what
the most important one word is for Tony
Robbins Gary Vaynerchuk Oprah Winfrey
will.i.am and Howard Schultz I have a
very special secret video for you check
the description for details [Music]