got into this this complete falsehood
that at some point you’re gonna have the
courage at some point you’re gonna have
the confidence and it’s total bull
frankly I don’t I relied to swear an
absolute okay it’s it’s complete garbage
and so there are so many people in the
world and and and you know you may be
watching this right now and you have
these incredible ideas and what you
think is missing is motivation and
that’s not true because the way that our
minds are wired and the fact about human
beings is that we are not designed to do
things that are uncomfortable or scary
or difficult our brains are designed to
protect us from those things because our
brains are trying to keep us alive and
in order to change in order to build a
business in order to be the best parent
the best spouse to do all those things
that you know you want to do with your
life with your work with your dreams
you’re gonna have to do things that are
difficult uncertain or scary which sets
up this problem for all of us you’re
never gonna feel like it motivations
garbage you you only feel motivated to
do the things that are easy one night
Chris have gone to bed I’ve been
struggling struggling struggling we
still had all the same problems I we
stalled a lien on the house still facing
bankruptcy still fighting like crazy I
was still unemployed
he still they still haven’t figured out
like the solution yet for the business
and I was about to turn off the TV and
there on the the TV there was this
rocket launching and I thought oh my
gosh it I am gonna launch myself out of
bed like our rocket ship like NASA right
here had launched me out of that bed and
I’m gonna move so fast that I don’t
think hmm I’m gonna beat my brain now
here’s a really interesting point I
talked a lot about your instincts and
inner wisdom
and we can get into this a little bit
later but a lot of us talk about the
fact that you have a gut feeling but
what all this research that I’ve done
for the book and and all the speaking
that I do what I’ve discovered that’s
fascinating is actually when you set
goals when you have an intention on
something that you want to change about
your life your brain helps you what it
does is it opens up a checklist and then
your brain goes to work trying to remind
you yeah of that intention that you set
and it’s really important to develop the
skill and I say that word purposefully
the skill of knowing how to hear that
inner wisdom and that intention kicking
in and leaning into it quickly so for me
my brain saying that’s it right there
move as fast as a rocket Mel I wanted to
change my life and I think most people
that are miserable or that are that are
really like dying to be great and dying
to have more we want to change we want
to live a better life we want to create
more for our families we want to be
happier the the desire is there again
it’s about how do you go from knowledge
to actions so the first thing in the
story that’s important is realizing that
the answer was in me and my mind was
telling me pay attention I could have
also been the Bourbon anyway the next
morning the alarm goes off and I
pretended NASA was there
it’s a stupidest story I literally went
5 4 3 2 1 I counted out loud and then I
stood up and I’ll never forget standing
there in my bedroom it was dark it was
cold it was winter in Boston and for the
first time in 3 months I had beaten my
habit of hitting the snooze button I
couldn’t believe it and I thought wait a
minute counting backwards that is the
dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my
entire life
well the next morning I used it again
and it worked the next morning I used it
again and it worked the next morning I
used it again and it worked and then I
started to notice something really
interesting there were moments all day
long
all day long just like that five-second
moment in bed where I knew knowledge
what I should do and if I didn’t move
within five seconds my brain would step
in and talk me out of it
every human being has a five-second
window might even be shorter for you you
have about a five-second window in which
you can move from idea to action before
your brain kicks into full gear and
sabotages any change in behavior because
remember your brain is wired to stop you
from doing things that are uncomfortable
or uncertain or scary it’s your job to
learn how to move from those ideas that
could change everything
into acting on them in the smallest
moment people always talk about visions
and missions and all of this stuff and
when people ask me like what example
should I look – like what company should
I’m like here’s an organization with a
vision a cause it was founded with a
cause it’s an entrepreneurial venture
it’s America is an experiment it’s an
entrepreneurial venture where a bunch of
people got together and decided we
needed to start our own country because
there were certain obstacles that were
getting in the way of a vision that we
had of a better kind of country but a
kind of company right and they stated it
right out of the beginning all men are
created equal endowed with these
unalienable rights among amongst which
include life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness and it’s not a it’s not just a
competitive statement like to be the
best to be the most respected that’s not
what it was and I’m amazed how many
companies start their visions or
missions with those that terribly
egocentric language it was an ideal and
the amazing thing is is we’ve been good
at it and bad at it in our history but
it’s endured for 240 plus years because
we fundamentally believed that we are at
our best when we’re pursuing that but it
is an ideal we will never actually
achieve all people are equal but we will
die trying
and that’s
and it’s the same for a company which is
TrueVision inside a company is something
that has nothing to do with your product
it is an ideal to which you will attempt
to build an advanced that ideal through
your company with your product you’ll
never achieve the ideal but you’ll die
trying and this is what gives our work
meaning this is what it gives our lives
purpose right the difference between
vision and a goal is the finish line a
goal is 26.2 miles
you can simply count the metrics and
know when you’ve completed your goal a
vision is having a crystal clear sense
of what the finish line looks like but
no idea of how far away it is Wow and
it’s and the reality is you will spend
your entire life never actually crossing
the finish line but the joy that every
marathon you complete you feel like
you’re getting closer and every
milestone that you accomplish makes you
feel like you’re getting closer and
closer to the ideal and this is what
gives our life in our work meaning think
that there’s a certain delusional
quality that all successful people have
to have you have to believe that
something different than what has
happened for the last 50 years of
history you have to believe that
something different can happen it’s
almost a kind of innocence absolutely in
other words if you knew how difficult it
was right you would have never gone down
that path absolute you know if somebody
said to Holly no one can beat this guy
he’s this much stronger as this much
bigger he’s got that much bigger punch
than you do and he believed that he
would have said never you gotta have an
innocence it’s somehow absolutely no and
I think they dead that’s a huge part of
me because and I say you to my friends
all the time and we laugh about it I
truly honestly as I sit here before you
right now
as honestly as I can say to you I truly
believe that I could be the president if
I wanted to and as bizarre as that may
sound to people that have traveled the
path before me and to people who
actually know how difficult it is
foolish Will Smith honestly believes it
is a sense of the a the innocence about
it as well as a disarming honesty about
if you say it that way here’s what’s
interesting about you is that there are
people who have said that about you two
who’ve been around you and as a creative
performance very cynical I think it was
you know did you work with him when I
was involved in some said something like
that that Will Smith decided he wanted
to go into politics I’d be there to help
him by making commercials whatever I
could do within my own town which raises
the interesting question is that
something that at some point in your
life you might think about politics well
you know I absolutely feel that there
are certain gifts and certain talents
that God has blessed me with that it
would be spiritually criminal to only
use to make money my travels within
Africa and spending time with Muhammad
Ali and spending time with Nelson
Mandela there they’re certainly issues
that that are important to me and things
that I’ve been blessed with the vehicle
to be able to change to be able to as
sappy as it may sound make the world a
better place for however however minut
the the the change and that’s something
that is important to me but I don’t
believe that politics is the best use of
your energy and time right absolutely
yeah but the interesting thing too is
that there is this concept and you see
it with lots of different people even
with people who are evil some will say
he had so much talent if that talent had
been redirected to something good it is
the idea if you were given and you work
hard because there’s nothing more
apparent about Will Smith than how
diligent and hard he works at being who
you are
I mean you appreciate the notion it
looks like to me from what
about you of understanding that you have
to be prepared in order to maximize the
possibilities of gifts mm-hmm absolutely
and I and I learned very young from
parents from my parents absolutely that
you you don’t try to build a wall you
don’t set out to build a wall you don’t
say I’m gonna beat this 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 so
you know as soon you have a wall and I
think psychologically the advantage that
that gives me over over a lot of people
that I’ve have been in competition with
in different situations is it’s
difficult to take the first step when
you look how big yeah the task is the
task is never huge to me it’s always one
Brett me too I mean it’s an amazing how
if you know people are paralyzed from
doing anything absolutely because they
can’t take the first step whereas you
just say look all I’m doing is laying
this one brick I am NOT building the
Great Wall of China but in a brick here
and I’m gonna have the best brick I can
and your father had you and your brother
mm-hmm work on a ball oh yeah yeah we
hit that we’re talking about our
figurative wall that comes from work on
a literal way yeah my father owned it
actually was an old bakery when I was
growing up my my father was
and electrician and a refrigeration man
we would install supermarkets you see
the long freezer cases in supermarkets
we would install those long freezer
cases and all the lights that’s what we
that’s what we would do every summer so
this is one year my father had his shop
and he decided for whatever reason that
he wanted a new wall on the front of his
shop so he tore down probably about 16
feet high and probably about 30 feet
long he just completely tore the wall
down and my brother and I had to dig a
six-foot hole we were the meditation for
the foundation we would mix in the
concrete by hand
a year and a half we were building this
wall for a year and a half every day
after school to become a mixing concrete
putting in all doing it and it was just
myself and my little brother and I
remember standing back looking at that
wall saying there’s going to be a hole
here forever a year and a half later
that many days a year and a half later
we laid the the final brick and my
father stood back with my brother and I
and I know he planned as he says he does
he says he didn’t but I know he had been
planning this and rightness for him for
the past two years but he stood back we
looked at the wall and he looked at me
and my brother says now don’t y’all
never tell me
you can’t blew something walked into the
shot now here’s what you said what you
said I said what’s great about that
story and what’s great about your dad is
general there was no great you didn’t
have the kind of conflict that Ali had
oh definitely man like that kind of and
yet you have the amazing amount of Drive
of you there’s a sense of mission with
you sense of commitment sense of
prepared to do what it requires right
absolutely I mean you didn’t come from a
struggling artist background to become
well you know what compilation
profession I think both both of my
parents and and my grandparents were
achievers you know my mother worked for
the School Board of Philadelphia so
growing up we couldn’t say y’all you
know it’s like we if we run kid do not
say y’all yeah you know we would run out
of the house and scream to our friends
yo what y’all about to do my mother’s up
that’s it back in this house back in
this house and we’d be sitting upstairs
crying and my grandmother would come in
and say baby you know what y’all is a
vote you know there were there were very
specific rules and there was a constant
desire to be better yeah you know we we
did we didn’t grow up with the sense
that where we were was where we were
going to be you know we grew up with the
sense that where we were almost didn’t
matter because we were becoming we were
becoming something greater
and and I always remember that my mother
or father grandmother would say that’s
great baby you did a really good job
with that
that’s incredible congratulations try
this next time you know it was always a
there was always a little bit watching
the when you started out as a rapper did
you were you already thinking I get to
do this really well I can do I’ll have a
television show if I have a television
show I could be in feature film if I’m
in feature films it was for me it was
always at my biggest dream coming up was
I wanted to hear one of my records on
the radio that was it that was it that’s
what I want to do I wanted to hear one
of my friends on the radio and I wanted
to see someone hear my record on the
radio and in June 1986 I saw a guy ride
past my father’s shop you know from that
point I’ve really been beyond beyond my
dreams and even with the first Grammy
nomination we were we were beyond you
know anything we were we recorded we
sess is an elusive thing right what is
it and I think it’s very interesting
that if most people can’t define success
well it means you made X amount of
dollars or but if you make X amount of
dollars but you spend more are you
successful or what means you come home
happy every day okay how do you know
when you’re happy you know so I think
success is a funny thing which is we all
seem to pursue it but we don’t know how
to measure it or actually how to define
it so how do you pursue something that
you can’t measure fascinating so when
people say to me how do you measure
success the question we all have to ask
ourselves am i successful I don’t know I
mean I had a good year last year and
what does that mean does that mean I
made a lot of money doesn’t mean it’s
really happy I’ll let you decide right
maybe neither maybe both
I had a good year last year but am i
successful and the answer is no I don’t
feel I am because I’m trying to build a
world that doesn’t exist yet I’m trying
to build a world in which 90% of people
go home at the end of the day feeling
fulfilled by the work that they do so I
definitely took a step a big step
forward towards I go but I’m still so
far away so somebody said to me then how
do you know if you’re successful and the
answer is if it can go by itself and so
it is more interesting to me as a
measurement of success is not the the
the markers per se it’s not the the
financial goal or the the size of the
house that you want to buy those are
nice things go for it those are but
those are not measurements of success
those are just nice things to collect
along the way
for me it’s momentum I want to measure
momentum which is you know when when
something is moving you start to see it
lose momentum you like oh give it a push
because if you don’t get it pushed it’s
gonna stop and an object in stasis is
much harder to get going it requires a
lot more energy to get something started
than it does to keep it going right and
so if you don’t let it stop and you can
keep it going it’s this you know it
still might slow down down there but you
can get it going again much easier and
for me the opportunity is to get the
ball rolling faster and faster and
faster and faster and faster and bigger
and bigger and bigger it’s like a
snowball and my responsibility is
because it’s not rolling downhill yet
it’s not on automatic yet I need to
still keep it going to find that
critical mass where it can go and at the
point it can go by itself without me
then I will find something else to do
and that may not happen in my lifetime I
think we must all stop measuring
promotions salaries and these things but
rather measure the momentum of your
career does my career have momentum can
I see it moving in the right direction
can I see it gathering moss
you know can I see that it’s easy
becoming easier for me to keep the
momentum it’s becoming easier for me to
grow the size of this thing it’s it’s
requiring less effort that’s the thing
we need to measure that’s the thing that
we need to be cognizant of which is the
momentum of our career is not just the
the markers that we think define our
success when this goes online or
whatever it is it really matters and it
like really doesn’t matter what matters
is you know the people who are sparked
by it and the people who are like
offended by
it doesn’t fucking matter fuck you you
know like because it’s about motivating
the doers and anyone that wants to sit
around and talk shit they’re doing too
much time they’ve taken too much time
talking shit about it they said of
getting up off their ass and following
their dreams because I’m here to follow
imagine we’re standing in a big empty
room right and we’re standing in one
corner and I give you a simple
instruction I want you to go to that
corner in a straight line right off you
go no big deal right
without telling you I slip a chair in
front of you what do you do you go
around the chair now you just disobeyed
what I told you to do I told you to go
to that corner straight line but this is
the amazing things about human beings
which is when we’re given a clear
destination we use our own creativity
and our own sense of innovation and our
own problem-solving abilities to
overcome obstacles to get to the
destination in other words the
destination is more important than the
route right we are flexible about the
route we’re obsessed with the
destination reset we’re standing in the
corner together and I give you a simple
instruction go somewhere in this room in
a straight line and you say to me well
where do you want me to go I’m like I
don’t know you smart figure it out go in
a straight line and so you pick a point
and you start walking and without
telling you I put a chair in front of
you and what do you do you come to a
grinding halt I say would you stop for
you go will you put a chair in front of
me or you’ll make a sudden turn and go
in another direction right and this is
the problem it’s the same obstacle the
difference is when you have a clear set
a clear destination the obstacles become
easy to overcome when you don’t have a
clear destination you keep coming to a
grinding halt and what we do in our
companies is we’re counting the steps
we’re taking along the route but we’re
never looking at the destination right
so companies has made in million dollars
this year we were only planning on
making eight hundred thousand like we
took ten steps or any planning I’m
taking eight where are you going no clue
right we count the steps and so the
point is is that people want to feel
that the effort that they’re exerting
actually are moving somewhere and so
successful measurement successful
recognition is not just for the steps
you take it’s not just for the effort
it’s that the effort you exerted and
moved us closer to where we’re trying to
get to and that get to should be some
crazy ideal my ideal is to live in a
world in which the vast majority
people wake up every single morning you
know inspire to go to work and fulfilled
by the work that they do and the the
couple of measurements that I use are if
the book is selling and I by the way
people ask me how many have you sold I
have no clue I’ve never asked the
publisher because they don’t care I
really don’t care have many I sold what
I care about is the Amazon rankings and
that those are going steady or up and
not plummeting because that means other
people right because I don’t have a
publicist I don’t have a marketing
strategy on purpose I didn’t hire one of
those companies to sell the book for me
and the reason is is because I’m not
interested in book sales I’m interested
in spreading of an idea and so I just
use that as a metric to help me
understand am I sort of marching in that
because the more I preach is it
resonating you know and so you have a
couple of these imperfect measurements
that help you understand are you going
along the way so it’s not just great
effort look what you achieved because
that’s what we’re doing now right our
goal is to increase top-line revenues by
50 million dollars for what reason
right which is we have to know the
destination and then we say amazing you
took us that much closer and if we go to
the right it’s because we were
overcoming an obstacle if we hadn’t gone
to the right we would have been stuck
forever thank you you know it’s not
always straight lines it’s not always
straight lines but it’s it’s in it’s
crazy that we live in a world that if
you’re super positive and super creative
then it’s scary so what does it tell you
about the mentality of most people if
you’re scared of like positivity and
creativity like there’s I have no intent
to do anything negative then a
dominating desire plan or purpose which
is backed by that State of Mind known as
faith has taken over to the subconscious
section of the mind of acting upon
immediately I don’t know for sure ladies
and gentlemen but I suspect if there’s a
relatively small number of people in the
world any one time who understand the
principle of faith who really
understands it then know how to apply
and even if you don’t understand it if
you don’t back it up
and make it a part of your habit life
you might just as well not understand it
because faith without deeds is this face
without action is dead faith without
absolute positive belief is dead I don’t
know how you’re going to get any results
through believing unless you put some
action back of that belief and the
incidentally if you tell your mind often
enough that you have faith in anything
the time will come when your
subconscious mind will accept that even
if you tell your mind off enough that
you have faith in yourself
and you ever thought well nice thing it
would be if you had such complete faith
in yourself that you wouldn’t hesitate
to undertake anything you want to do in
life would be to you years ago in the
movies rules are very clearly defined
they provided the security of your
stardom in a sense if you’d been
successfully playing an angry young man
you’d pretty much be angry and young for
the rest of your life if you’ve been a
police inspector in three movies odds
were you’d be in the next 33 – they
supplied two female actresses also wives
or wives seductresses were seductresses
mother-in-law’s or mother-in-law’s and
so on and so forth few actors would have
willingly switched from romantic heroes
to obsessively violent lovers I took the
leap not because I was particularly
brave but because a very dear director
friend of mine sat me down and told me I
was extremely ugly and being ugly
necessarily meant I know now I know and
being ugly necessarily meant I do bad
guy roles I wasn’t the romantic hero
types he said actually he used the words
that my face was not chocolaty enough so
I started to eat a lot of chocolate
and while waiting for it to take effect
I jump into bad guy rolls derp means
fair in Hindi and everyone always tells
you had speeches like this that you
ought to be brave so I’m not going to
bore you with that idea instead let me
tell you this being brave means being
scared all the way to the party yeah I’m
sorry if that word is being very scared
all the way to the party but getting
there but getting there all the same and
doing the Funky Chicken in front of all
your teenage kids friends anyway let me
just add or not behalf of all the
fathers of the world who have
embarrassed the kids by doing this it
takes a lot of bravery resolve and grit
to do it so just do it don’t let your
fears become boxes that enclose you open
them out feel them and turn them into
the greatest courage you’re capable of I
promise you nothing will go wrong but if
you live by your fears everything that
can pass possibly go wrong will go wrong
if the passion is another word for
energy that’s it what do you have energy
for what energizes you and that we
naturally have a tremendous amount of
body wisdom about that and that every
one of us has an internal fuel tank that
is either empty or full and if you’re
empty you feel depleted if you’re full
you feel energized and so if you simply
are in any situation I mean any
situation and you pay attention within
five seconds – does this person energize
me do they deplete me where are they in
the scale you just gain some tremendous
wisdom and you the simple way to start
to figure out who you are and what you
want is start aligning yourself with
more things that energize you so
situationally if you’re lying in bed and
the snooze alarm goes or the alarm goes
off and you feel depleted and you start
reaching for the snooze button that’s a
really big sign that you need to get out
of bed
now being depleted versus energized has
nothing to do with whether or not things
are hard or easy it has to do with what
naturally actually either expands you or
shrinks you and so if you look at your
client list and measure it depleted
versus energized what shrinks versus
expands me you have the actual map and
when you start to find the courage to
make decisions that energize you and
that expand you whether they’re scariest
or not that’s when everything changes
and so that’s how I actually make
business decisions is this I don’t even
like the money conversation comes second
it’s does this deplete or energize me
and if it depletes me how do you move it
in that direction
or how do I stay sane oh if it energizes
me how do I do more because if you are
energized or expanded by something you
will do it for no money you will do it
happily and you will suddenly wake up
and say oh my gosh like my heart I’m
pursuing my passion how did that happen
what happened one five second alignment
at a time in the right direction so that
you are actually working with your
natural wiring working with your natural
energy tapping into your wisdom so again
the five second rule is this tool that
allows you to tune in and give you the
courage this is a tool that gives you
the wisdom that you need in order to
make those decisions and so when I get
wigged out because I don’t make the New
York Times list or whatever I tune back
in but what is it that’s energizing me
it’s not some stupid-ass list it’s that
this idea is helping people and is it
your philosophy then that by tuning in
and following what energizes you and
that is the path and if you have heard
person you have the path now you use the
five seconds I’ll tell you why good you
can’t until you actually learn the
wisdom of you and the power of you you
can’t look at the big stuff and successfully in my mind go get it
that at some point you’re gonna have the
courage at some point you’re gonna have
the confidence and it’s total bull
frankly I don’t I relied to swear an
absolute okay it’s it’s complete garbage
and so there are so many people in the
world and and and you know you may be
watching this right now and you have
these incredible ideas and what you
think is missing is motivation and
that’s not true because the way that our
minds are wired and the fact about human
beings is that we are not designed to do
things that are uncomfortable or scary
or difficult our brains are designed to
protect us from those things because our
brains are trying to keep us alive and
in order to change in order to build a
business in order to be the best parent
the best spouse to do all those things
that you know you want to do with your
life with your work with your dreams
you’re gonna have to do things that are
difficult uncertain or scary which sets
up this problem for all of us you’re
never gonna feel like it motivations
garbage you you only feel motivated to
do the things that are easy one night
Chris have gone to bed I’ve been
struggling struggling struggling we
still had all the same problems I we
stalled a lien on the house still facing
bankruptcy still fighting like crazy I
was still unemployed
he still they still haven’t figured out
like the solution yet for the business
and I was about to turn off the TV and
there on the the TV there was this
rocket launching and I thought oh my
gosh it I am gonna launch myself out of
bed like our rocket ship like NASA right
here had launched me out of that bed and
I’m gonna move so fast that I don’t
think hmm I’m gonna beat my brain now
here’s a really interesting point I
talked a lot about your instincts and
inner wisdom
and we can get into this a little bit
later but a lot of us talk about the
fact that you have a gut feeling but
what all this research that I’ve done
for the book and and all the speaking
that I do what I’ve discovered that’s
fascinating is actually when you set
goals when you have an intention on
something that you want to change about
your life your brain helps you what it
does is it opens up a checklist and then
your brain goes to work trying to remind
you yeah of that intention that you set
and it’s really important to develop the
skill and I say that word purposefully
the skill of knowing how to hear that
inner wisdom and that intention kicking
in and leaning into it quickly so for me
my brain saying that’s it right there
move as fast as a rocket Mel I wanted to
change my life and I think most people
that are miserable or that are that are
really like dying to be great and dying
to have more we want to change we want
to live a better life we want to create
more for our families we want to be
happier the the desire is there again
it’s about how do you go from knowledge
to actions so the first thing in the
story that’s important is realizing that
the answer was in me and my mind was
telling me pay attention I could have
also been the Bourbon anyway the next
morning the alarm goes off and I
pretended NASA was there
it’s a stupidest story I literally went
5 4 3 2 1 I counted out loud and then I
stood up and I’ll never forget standing
there in my bedroom it was dark it was
cold it was winter in Boston and for the
first time in 3 months I had beaten my
habit of hitting the snooze button I
couldn’t believe it and I thought wait a
minute counting backwards that is the
dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my
entire life
well the next morning I used it again
and it worked the next morning I used it
again and it worked the next morning I
used it again and it worked and then I
started to notice something really
interesting there were moments all day
long
all day long just like that five-second
moment in bed where I knew knowledge
what I should do and if I didn’t move
within five seconds my brain would step
in and talk me out of it
every human being has a five-second
window might even be shorter for you you
have about a five-second window in which
you can move from idea to action before
your brain kicks into full gear and
sabotages any change in behavior because
remember your brain is wired to stop you
from doing things that are uncomfortable
or uncertain or scary it’s your job to
learn how to move from those ideas that
could change everything
into acting on them in the smallest
moment people always talk about visions
and missions and all of this stuff and
when people ask me like what example
should I look – like what company should
I’m like here’s an organization with a
vision a cause it was founded with a
cause it’s an entrepreneurial venture
it’s America is an experiment it’s an
entrepreneurial venture where a bunch of
people got together and decided we
needed to start our own country because
there were certain obstacles that were
getting in the way of a vision that we
had of a better kind of country but a
kind of company right and they stated it
right out of the beginning all men are
created equal endowed with these
unalienable rights among amongst which
include life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness and it’s not a it’s not just a
competitive statement like to be the
best to be the most respected that’s not
what it was and I’m amazed how many
companies start their visions or
missions with those that terribly
egocentric language it was an ideal and
the amazing thing is is we’ve been good
at it and bad at it in our history but
it’s endured for 240 plus years because
we fundamentally believed that we are at
our best when we’re pursuing that but it
is an ideal we will never actually
achieve all people are equal but we will
die trying
and that’s
and it’s the same for a company which is
TrueVision inside a company is something
that has nothing to do with your product
it is an ideal to which you will attempt
to build an advanced that ideal through
your company with your product you’ll
never achieve the ideal but you’ll die
trying and this is what gives our work
meaning this is what it gives our lives
purpose right the difference between
vision and a goal is the finish line a
goal is 26.2 miles
you can simply count the metrics and
know when you’ve completed your goal a
vision is having a crystal clear sense
of what the finish line looks like but
no idea of how far away it is Wow and
it’s and the reality is you will spend
your entire life never actually crossing
the finish line but the joy that every
marathon you complete you feel like
you’re getting closer and every
milestone that you accomplish makes you
feel like you’re getting closer and
closer to the ideal and this is what
gives our life in our work meaning think
that there’s a certain delusional
quality that all successful people have
to have you have to believe that
something different than what has
happened for the last 50 years of
history you have to believe that
something different can happen it’s
almost a kind of innocence absolutely in
other words if you knew how difficult it
was right you would have never gone down
that path absolute you know if somebody
said to Holly no one can beat this guy
he’s this much stronger as this much
bigger he’s got that much bigger punch
than you do and he believed that he
would have said never you gotta have an
innocence it’s somehow absolutely no and
I think they dead that’s a huge part of
me because and I say you to my friends
all the time and we laugh about it I
truly honestly as I sit here before you
right now
as honestly as I can say to you I truly
believe that I could be the president if
I wanted to and as bizarre as that may
sound to people that have traveled the
path before me and to people who
actually know how difficult it is
foolish Will Smith honestly believes it
is a sense of the a the innocence about
it as well as a disarming honesty about
if you say it that way here’s what’s
interesting about you is that there are
people who have said that about you two
who’ve been around you and as a creative
performance very cynical I think it was
you know did you work with him when I
was involved in some said something like
that that Will Smith decided he wanted
to go into politics I’d be there to help
him by making commercials whatever I
could do within my own town which raises
the interesting question is that
something that at some point in your
life you might think about politics well
you know I absolutely feel that there
are certain gifts and certain talents
that God has blessed me with that it
would be spiritually criminal to only
use to make money my travels within
Africa and spending time with Muhammad
Ali and spending time with Nelson
Mandela there they’re certainly issues
that that are important to me and things
that I’ve been blessed with the vehicle
to be able to change to be able to as
sappy as it may sound make the world a
better place for however however minut
the the the change and that’s something
that is important to me but I don’t
believe that politics is the best use of
your energy and time right absolutely
yeah but the interesting thing too is
that there is this concept and you see
it with lots of different people even
with people who are evil some will say
he had so much talent if that talent had
been redirected to something good it is
the idea if you were given and you work
hard because there’s nothing more
apparent about Will Smith than how
diligent and hard he works at being who
you are
I mean you appreciate the notion it
looks like to me from what
about you of understanding that you have
to be prepared in order to maximize the
possibilities of gifts mm-hmm absolutely
and I and I learned very young from
parents from my parents absolutely that
you you don’t try to build a wall you
don’t set out to build a wall you don’t
say I’m gonna beat this 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 so
you know as soon you have a wall and I
think psychologically the advantage that
that gives me over over a lot of people
that I’ve have been in competition with
in different situations is it’s
difficult to take the first step when
you look how big yeah the task is the
task is never huge to me it’s always one
Brett me too I mean it’s an amazing how
if you know people are paralyzed from
doing anything absolutely because they
can’t take the first step whereas you
just say look all I’m doing is laying
this one brick I am NOT building the
Great Wall of China but in a brick here
and I’m gonna have the best brick I can
and your father had you and your brother
mm-hmm work on a ball oh yeah yeah we
hit that we’re talking about our
figurative wall that comes from work on
a literal way yeah my father owned it
actually was an old bakery when I was
growing up my my father was
and electrician and a refrigeration man
we would install supermarkets you see
the long freezer cases in supermarkets
we would install those long freezer
cases and all the lights that’s what we
that’s what we would do every summer so
this is one year my father had his shop
and he decided for whatever reason that
he wanted a new wall on the front of his
shop so he tore down probably about 16
feet high and probably about 30 feet
long he just completely tore the wall
down and my brother and I had to dig a
six-foot hole we were the meditation for
the foundation we would mix in the
concrete by hand
a year and a half we were building this
wall for a year and a half every day
after school to become a mixing concrete
putting in all doing it and it was just
myself and my little brother and I
remember standing back looking at that
wall saying there’s going to be a hole
here forever a year and a half later
that many days a year and a half later
we laid the the final brick and my
father stood back with my brother and I
and I know he planned as he says he does
he says he didn’t but I know he had been
planning this and rightness for him for
the past two years but he stood back we
looked at the wall and he looked at me
and my brother says now don’t y’all
never tell me
you can’t blew something walked into the
shot now here’s what you said what you
said I said what’s great about that
story and what’s great about your dad is
general there was no great you didn’t
have the kind of conflict that Ali had
oh definitely man like that kind of and
yet you have the amazing amount of Drive
of you there’s a sense of mission with
you sense of commitment sense of
prepared to do what it requires right
absolutely I mean you didn’t come from a
struggling artist background to become
well you know what compilation
profession I think both both of my
parents and and my grandparents were
achievers you know my mother worked for
the School Board of Philadelphia so
growing up we couldn’t say y’all you
know it’s like we if we run kid do not
say y’all yeah you know we would run out
of the house and scream to our friends
yo what y’all about to do my mother’s up
that’s it back in this house back in
this house and we’d be sitting upstairs
crying and my grandmother would come in
and say baby you know what y’all is a
vote you know there were there were very
specific rules and there was a constant
desire to be better yeah you know we we
did we didn’t grow up with the sense
that where we were was where we were
going to be you know we grew up with the
sense that where we were almost didn’t
matter because we were becoming we were
becoming something greater
and and I always remember that my mother
or father grandmother would say that’s
great baby you did a really good job
with that
that’s incredible congratulations try
this next time you know it was always a
there was always a little bit watching
the when you started out as a rapper did
you were you already thinking I get to
do this really well I can do I’ll have a
television show if I have a television
show I could be in feature film if I’m
in feature films it was for me it was
always at my biggest dream coming up was
I wanted to hear one of my records on
the radio that was it that was it that’s
what I want to do I wanted to hear one
of my friends on the radio and I wanted
to see someone hear my record on the
radio and in June 1986 I saw a guy ride
past my father’s shop you know from that
point I’ve really been beyond beyond my
dreams and even with the first Grammy
nomination we were we were beyond you
know anything we were we recorded we
sess is an elusive thing right what is
it and I think it’s very interesting
that if most people can’t define success
well it means you made X amount of
dollars or but if you make X amount of
dollars but you spend more are you
successful or what means you come home
happy every day okay how do you know
when you’re happy you know so I think
success is a funny thing which is we all
seem to pursue it but we don’t know how
to measure it or actually how to define
it so how do you pursue something that
you can’t measure fascinating so when
people say to me how do you measure
success the question we all have to ask
ourselves am i successful I don’t know I
mean I had a good year last year and
what does that mean does that mean I
made a lot of money doesn’t mean it’s
really happy I’ll let you decide right
maybe neither maybe both
I had a good year last year but am i
successful and the answer is no I don’t
feel I am because I’m trying to build a
world that doesn’t exist yet I’m trying
to build a world in which 90% of people
go home at the end of the day feeling
fulfilled by the work that they do so I
definitely took a step a big step
forward towards I go but I’m still so
far away so somebody said to me then how
do you know if you’re successful and the
answer is if it can go by itself and so
it is more interesting to me as a
measurement of success is not the the
the markers per se it’s not the the
financial goal or the the size of the
house that you want to buy those are
nice things go for it those are but
those are not measurements of success
those are just nice things to collect
along the way
for me it’s momentum I want to measure
momentum which is you know when when
something is moving you start to see it
lose momentum you like oh give it a push
because if you don’t get it pushed it’s
gonna stop and an object in stasis is
much harder to get going it requires a
lot more energy to get something started
than it does to keep it going right and
so if you don’t let it stop and you can
keep it going it’s this you know it
still might slow down down there but you
can get it going again much easier and
for me the opportunity is to get the
ball rolling faster and faster and
faster and faster and faster and bigger
and bigger and bigger it’s like a
snowball and my responsibility is
because it’s not rolling downhill yet
it’s not on automatic yet I need to
still keep it going to find that
critical mass where it can go and at the
point it can go by itself without me
then I will find something else to do
and that may not happen in my lifetime I
think we must all stop measuring
promotions salaries and these things but
rather measure the momentum of your
career does my career have momentum can
I see it moving in the right direction
can I see it gathering moss
you know can I see that it’s easy
becoming easier for me to keep the
momentum it’s becoming easier for me to
grow the size of this thing it’s it’s
requiring less effort that’s the thing
we need to measure that’s the thing that
we need to be cognizant of which is the
momentum of our career is not just the
the markers that we think define our
success when this goes online or
whatever it is it really matters and it
like really doesn’t matter what matters
is you know the people who are sparked
by it and the people who are like
offended by
it doesn’t fucking matter fuck you you
know like because it’s about motivating
the doers and anyone that wants to sit
around and talk shit they’re doing too
much time they’ve taken too much time
talking shit about it they said of
getting up off their ass and following
their dreams because I’m here to follow
imagine we’re standing in a big empty
room right and we’re standing in one
corner and I give you a simple
instruction I want you to go to that
corner in a straight line right off you
go no big deal right
without telling you I slip a chair in
front of you what do you do you go
around the chair now you just disobeyed
what I told you to do I told you to go
to that corner straight line but this is
the amazing things about human beings
which is when we’re given a clear
destination we use our own creativity
and our own sense of innovation and our
own problem-solving abilities to
overcome obstacles to get to the
destination in other words the
destination is more important than the
route right we are flexible about the
route we’re obsessed with the
destination reset we’re standing in the
corner together and I give you a simple
instruction go somewhere in this room in
a straight line and you say to me well
where do you want me to go I’m like I
don’t know you smart figure it out go in
a straight line and so you pick a point
and you start walking and without
telling you I put a chair in front of
you and what do you do you come to a
grinding halt I say would you stop for
you go will you put a chair in front of
me or you’ll make a sudden turn and go
in another direction right and this is
the problem it’s the same obstacle the
difference is when you have a clear set
a clear destination the obstacles become
easy to overcome when you don’t have a
clear destination you keep coming to a
grinding halt and what we do in our
companies is we’re counting the steps
we’re taking along the route but we’re
never looking at the destination right
so companies has made in million dollars
this year we were only planning on
making eight hundred thousand like we
took ten steps or any planning I’m
taking eight where are you going no clue
right we count the steps and so the
point is is that people want to feel
that the effort that they’re exerting
actually are moving somewhere and so
successful measurement successful
recognition is not just for the steps
you take it’s not just for the effort
it’s that the effort you exerted and
moved us closer to where we’re trying to
get to and that get to should be some
crazy ideal my ideal is to live in a
world in which the vast majority
people wake up every single morning you
know inspire to go to work and fulfilled
by the work that they do and the the
couple of measurements that I use are if
the book is selling and I by the way
people ask me how many have you sold I
have no clue I’ve never asked the
publisher because they don’t care I
really don’t care have many I sold what
I care about is the Amazon rankings and
that those are going steady or up and
not plummeting because that means other
people right because I don’t have a
publicist I don’t have a marketing
strategy on purpose I didn’t hire one of
those companies to sell the book for me
and the reason is is because I’m not
interested in book sales I’m interested
in spreading of an idea and so I just
use that as a metric to help me
understand am I sort of marching in that
because the more I preach is it
resonating you know and so you have a
couple of these imperfect measurements
that help you understand are you going
along the way so it’s not just great
effort look what you achieved because
that’s what we’re doing now right our
goal is to increase top-line revenues by
50 million dollars for what reason
right which is we have to know the
destination and then we say amazing you
took us that much closer and if we go to
the right it’s because we were
overcoming an obstacle if we hadn’t gone
to the right we would have been stuck
forever thank you you know it’s not
always straight lines it’s not always
straight lines but it’s it’s in it’s
crazy that we live in a world that if
you’re super positive and super creative
then it’s scary so what does it tell you
about the mentality of most people if
you’re scared of like positivity and
creativity like there’s I have no intent
to do anything negative then a
dominating desire plan or purpose which
is backed by that State of Mind known as
faith has taken over to the subconscious
section of the mind of acting upon
immediately I don’t know for sure ladies
and gentlemen but I suspect if there’s a
relatively small number of people in the
world any one time who understand the
principle of faith who really
understands it then know how to apply
and even if you don’t understand it if
you don’t back it up
and make it a part of your habit life
you might just as well not understand it
because faith without deeds is this face
without action is dead faith without
absolute positive belief is dead I don’t
know how you’re going to get any results
through believing unless you put some
action back of that belief and the
incidentally if you tell your mind often
enough that you have faith in anything
the time will come when your
subconscious mind will accept that even
if you tell your mind off enough that
you have faith in yourself
and you ever thought well nice thing it
would be if you had such complete faith
in yourself that you wouldn’t hesitate
to undertake anything you want to do in
life would be to you years ago in the
movies rules are very clearly defined
they provided the security of your
stardom in a sense if you’d been
successfully playing an angry young man
you’d pretty much be angry and young for
the rest of your life if you’ve been a
police inspector in three movies odds
were you’d be in the next 33 – they
supplied two female actresses also wives
or wives seductresses were seductresses
mother-in-law’s or mother-in-law’s and
so on and so forth few actors would have
willingly switched from romantic heroes
to obsessively violent lovers I took the
leap not because I was particularly
brave but because a very dear director
friend of mine sat me down and told me I
was extremely ugly and being ugly
necessarily meant I know now I know and
being ugly necessarily meant I do bad
guy roles I wasn’t the romantic hero
types he said actually he used the words
that my face was not chocolaty enough so
I started to eat a lot of chocolate
and while waiting for it to take effect
I jump into bad guy rolls derp means
fair in Hindi and everyone always tells
you had speeches like this that you
ought to be brave so I’m not going to
bore you with that idea instead let me
tell you this being brave means being
scared all the way to the party yeah I’m
sorry if that word is being very scared
all the way to the party but getting
there but getting there all the same and
doing the Funky Chicken in front of all
your teenage kids friends anyway let me
just add or not behalf of all the
fathers of the world who have
embarrassed the kids by doing this it
takes a lot of bravery resolve and grit
to do it so just do it don’t let your
fears become boxes that enclose you open
them out feel them and turn them into
the greatest courage you’re capable of I
promise you nothing will go wrong but if
you live by your fears everything that
can pass possibly go wrong will go wrong
if the passion is another word for
energy that’s it what do you have energy
for what energizes you and that we
naturally have a tremendous amount of
body wisdom about that and that every
one of us has an internal fuel tank that
is either empty or full and if you’re
empty you feel depleted if you’re full
you feel energized and so if you simply
are in any situation I mean any
situation and you pay attention within
five seconds – does this person energize
me do they deplete me where are they in
the scale you just gain some tremendous
wisdom and you the simple way to start
to figure out who you are and what you
want is start aligning yourself with
more things that energize you so
situationally if you’re lying in bed and
the snooze alarm goes or the alarm goes
off and you feel depleted and you start
reaching for the snooze button that’s a
really big sign that you need to get out
of bed
now being depleted versus energized has
nothing to do with whether or not things
are hard or easy it has to do with what
naturally actually either expands you or
shrinks you and so if you look at your
client list and measure it depleted
versus energized what shrinks versus
expands me you have the actual map and
when you start to find the courage to
make decisions that energize you and
that expand you whether they’re scariest
or not that’s when everything changes
and so that’s how I actually make
business decisions is this I don’t even
like the money conversation comes second
it’s does this deplete or energize me
and if it depletes me how do you move it
in that direction
or how do I stay sane oh if it energizes
me how do I do more because if you are
energized or expanded by something you
will do it for no money you will do it
happily and you will suddenly wake up
and say oh my gosh like my heart I’m
pursuing my passion how did that happen
what happened one five second alignment
at a time in the right direction so that
you are actually working with your
natural wiring working with your natural
energy tapping into your wisdom so again
the five second rule is this tool that
allows you to tune in and give you the
courage this is a tool that gives you
the wisdom that you need in order to
make those decisions and so when I get
wigged out because I don’t make the New
York Times list or whatever I tune back
in but what is it that’s energizing me
it’s not some stupid-ass list it’s that
this idea is helping people and is it
your philosophy then that by tuning in
and following what energizes you and
that is the path and if you have heard
person you have the path now you use the
five seconds I’ll tell you why good you
can’t until you actually learn the
wisdom of you and the power of you you
can’t look at the big stuff and successfully in my mind go get it
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