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 bake 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
then I’m gonna lay in this next ten
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 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
made one Brett me too I mean it’s
amazing how it you know people are
paralyzed mm-hmm from doing anything
absolutely because he can’t take the
first step whereas you just say look all
I’m doing is laying this one brick I’m
not building the Great Wall of China
putting a brick here and I’m gonna have
the best brick I can and your father I
think every time Sevilla had you and
your brother mm-hmm work on a bottle oh
yeah yeah we that we’re talking about
our figurative wall that comes from work
on a literal one yeah right
my father owned it actually was an old
bakery when I was growing up my my
father was an electrician and a
refrigeration man we would install
supermarkets you see the long freezer
cases in supermarkets we would install
those long freezing cases and all the
lights that’s what we that’s what we
would do every summer yeah 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 you
know 16 feet high and probably about 30
feet long he just completely tore the
wall down and my brother and I had the
biggest
butthole we were the main station 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 we would
come in mixing concrete put it in the
hole doing it and it was just myself and
my little brother and I remember
standing back looking at that wall
saying there’s gonna be a hole here
a year and a half later that many days I
know 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 plan
as he says he does he says he didn’t but
I know he had been planning this and
rightness for the past two years but he
we stood back we looked at the wall and
he looked at me and my brother sister
don’t y’all never tell me that you can’t
glue something and walked into the shot
the child my parents always told me you
could be whatever you want to be you
could do whatever you want to do and you
know that that office that position that
the highest office on the face of the
earth it was something I heard my
parents saying it but I didn’t totally
believe it yet I went out in the world
and I carried myself and I held my head
high and I stood there and I look people
in their eyes and I talked to people as
if I was deserving of everything that
so I just I really want to say to two
children out there and to two people who
are watching Confucius say one time he
who says he can and he who says he can’t
are both usually right so I want to
stand here before you and as I hold this
award I want to give love to my wife and
I want you to keep in your heart just
know that you can notice you can concept
that I would suggest to people to take a
daily confrontation with his fear the
the the problem with fear is that it
lies right so fear tells you hey you
know if if you say that to that girl
she’s gonna know she has you you know
and she’ll never really be attracted to
you if she knows how much you attracted
to her don’t say that know how we get
her is when she walks by ignore her for
me the the daily confrontation with with
fear has become a real practice for me
since about three three years ago I went
I went skydiving in Dubai right and
skydiving skydiving is a really
interesting confront with fear right so
so I gotta stand up so so all your
friends what happens you go how you oh
sorry all right drop my thing so what
happens is you go out the night before
and you you know you take a drink with
your friends and somebody says yeah we
should go skydiving tomorrow and you go
yeah we’ll go skydiving or yeah
[Applause]
Yeah right and you go home but you by
yourself you like mmm right you’re like
well yeah I mean they was drunk too
right so so maybe maybe they not maybe
maybe I mean we don’t have to go we all
have to do it so then that night you’re
laying in your bed and you just keep and
you’re terrified you keep imagining over
and over again jumping out of an
airplane and you can’t figure out why
you would do that right and you’re
laying there and you have the worst
night’s sleep of your life but you still
have the hope that your friends were
drunk right so you wake up the next day
and you go you know down and you said
where you were going meet and
everybody’s there you’re like all right
cool cool cool cool cool cool right so
you get in the van and you don’t know
that your friends had the same night
that you had cuz they’re pretended like
they didn’t it like yeah man my uncle is
a Navy SEAL and you know this is gonna
be great I’ve been looking forward to
this you like oh my god oh my god and
your stomach is terrible you can’t eat
and everything but you don’t want to be
the only punk who doesn’t jump out of
this airplane so you get there and then
you have this safety brief and you’re
standing there and the guys that tell
you what the chute doesn’t open what’s
gonna happen is you’re doing your BA to
help with what could happen but the shoe
the shoe wouldn’t open right so you do a
thing and what you do is your first jump
you’re attached to a guy who is going
you know he’s gonna walk you out so you
go and you get there and there’s an
airplane and nobody stopping everybody’s
still going so you get onto the airplane
and you’re sitting there and and you
know it’s extra because you’re sitting
on some dudes lap some stranger you know
you got trying to make small talk yeah
so you deal usually you’ll be jumping
with people all the time right you know
so and then you just want to make sure
you got you got kids right you got
people you need to see right just want
to make sure he’s serious right so you
get in there
so everything’s normal so you fly and
you go up you go up you go up you go up
to 14,000 feet and you notice there’s a
light it’s red and it’s yellow and green
right so right now the lights red so
then you start thinking at some point
the lights going to go green it but you
don’t know what’s going to happen right
and you wait and it goes yellow and the
light goes green and somebody opens the
door and in that moment you realize
you’ve never been in a freaking airplane
with the door open right terror go
sighing spit I’m sorry terror terror
terror terror right so you go and then
you know if you’re if you were smart you
sat in the back so you don’t go first
right and then people start going out of
the airplane and you go and the guy
walks you up to the end of the thing and
you’re standing and your toes are on the
edge and you’re looking out down to
death and they say on three and they say
one two and he pushes you on to because
people grab one three and you go
and you fall out of the airplane and in
one second you realize that it’s the
most blissful experience of your life
you’re flying right it doesn’t feel like
falling right it’s like you actually are
kind of held a little bit about a win
and then you start and you you start
falling you falling and you there’s zero
fear you realize that the point of
maximum danger is the point of minimum
fear it’s bliss it’s bliss and you’re
flying right you’re doing it and then 20
seconds 25 seconds 40 seconds and you
have enough time to just kind of be like
oh that’s that building that’s not like
that right you start doing all of that
and the the lesson for me was why were
you scared in your bed the night before
why did you what do you need that fear
for just don’t go why are you scared in
your bed 16 hours before you jump why
are you scared in a car why could you
not enjoy breakfast what would what did
you need that fear is fear of what your
no where to even near the airplane
everything up to the stepping out
there’s actually no reason to be scared
it only just ruins your day your you
don’t have to jump and then in that
moment all of a sudden where you should
be terrified is the most blissful
experience of your life and God placed
the best things in life on the other
side of Terror on the other side of your
maximum fear or all of the best things
in life separation of talent and skill
is one of the the 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
for me it it has been the to be that guy
that does what people say can’t be done
you know and I think it started with
trying to please my mother and trying to
please my grandmother and they always
wanted higher for me they always wanted
more for me and it got to the point that
I wanted to be something I wanted to be
somebody and it it made me choose
certain roles it made me turn down
certain roles there is more than an
image that I want to project I want to
be the person that is the first person
there and the last person to leave
that’s who I want to be because I think
that the the road to success is through
commitment and through the strength to
drive through that commitment when it
gets hard and it is going to get hard
and you’re gonna want to quit sometimes
but it’ll be colored by who you are and
more who you want to be definitely found
wanting to be an actor stems from
wanting to be somebody and wanting to
say something to people never really
viewed myself as particularly talented
where I excel is ridiculous sickening
work ethic you know while the other guys
sleeping I’m working what other guys
eaten I’m working concept of improving
lives runs through the center of
everything I do and then I realize that
the the way to improve lives is to
continually improve yourself right so
with that every every morning when I
when I get out of the bed you know I 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 the 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 you know 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 there you know I
just I touched it on my iPad is ladle oh
it’s like a big spoon a big spoon so try
to empty the ocean with a soup spoon you
know as the the mentality of how you you
wake up every day to try to do good in
the world so for me I’m I’m really
driven by continually trying to elevate
my elevate my mind and elevate my spirit
and care for my body and to be able to
love as many people as effectively as as
possible with this mystery of life that
I’ve been given
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 with
people with your artistry the way that
you want certain delusional quality that
all successful people have to have you
have to believe that something different
than what has happened for the last 52
million 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
absolutely no and somebody said to Holly
no one can beat this guy he’s this much
stronger 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 somehow
absolutely no and I think they did
that’s a huge part of me because and I
say to my friends all the time and we
laugh about it I truly honestly as I sit
here before you right now
honestly as I can say it 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’s the only thing that I see that is
distinctly different about me is I’m not
afraid to die on a treadmill you might
have more talent than me you might be
smarter than me but if we get on the
treadmill together right there’s two
things you’re getting off first or I’m
gonna die it’s really that simple time
you inject extremes into the universe
you can expect extremes to to come back
I think that you know one of the best
pieces of advice I ever got was don’t
let your successes go to your head and
don’t let your failures go to your heart
do you follow that I try it’s absolutely
a difficult even more so now with my my
wife and my children expanding into it
the the scope of it is actually becoming
more difficult to manage the things that
almost in a spiritual sense the things
that you attract to yourself and also if
you think about it in terms of altitude
the higher you go the harder it is to
breathe there’s less oxygen and I think
within that phrase what I get from that
with marlon brando but what happens is
if you think about it in terms of
mountain climbing mountain climbing the
higher and the higher you get the less
oxygen there is the harder it is to
breathe as you get to this successful
space and the first thing people want to
do is get down and what you do by
getting down
is self-destructive and I’m just working
hard to make sure that I don’t allow the
lack of oxygen to dull my appreciation
for the gifts up again one of my
favorite books is the The Alchemist
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 where it’s real metaphysical
esoteric nonsense but I feel very
strongly that we are who we choose to be
I consider myself an alchemist an
alchemist is basically a mystical
chemist right and one of the great feats
that alchemists used to do is they would
take lead just take a chunk of lead and
they could turn lead into gold right so
the symbolism but it’s so connected to
symbolically being able to turn lead
into gold you know my grandmother used
to say you know life give you a lemon
you go ahead and make lemonade to me
that’s that’s alchemy that’s that that’s
the same concept behind the the
alchemists 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 in two
plus two equals four two plus the only
equals four if you accept that two plus
two equals four two plus two is gonna be
what I wanted to be you know and there’s
that there’s a like there’s that 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 is 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 it wants to
move and go around stuff you know so for
me I wanna represent possibilities
I wanna represent the idea that you
really can make what you want one of my
favorite books is the The Alchemist
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
them put my head on it right study it
learn the patterns and you know I just I
it’s hard to put into words some real
metaphysical esoteric nonsense but I
feel very strongly that we are who we
choose to be he 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 I’m motivated by fear fear
you know fear of what
fear of fear I hate being scared to do
something I hate that feeling of the
feeling that I had before I had a
meeting with Quincy Jones because it’s
really Quincy Jones and a guy named
Benny Medina I know
and Jeff Pollan came with the idea for
the Fresh Prince of bel-air and I hated
being scared you know that I didn’t want
to even take the meeting there were
there were opportunities during when I
first my first year as a rapper Bill
Cosby and the people in The Cosby Show
had seen my music video and called me to
your character to come right and try out
for the Cosby Show and just every time
it was set up for some reason I couldn’t
make it the therapy the fear I hate it I
just hated that being scared to do
something and I think what developed in
my in my early days was the the attitude
that I started attacking things that I
was scared greatness is not this
wonderful esoteric illusive godlike
feature that only the special among us
will ever taste you know it’s something
that truly exists in all of us it’s very
simple this is what I believe and I’m
willing to die for it period it’s that
simple I Know Who I am I don’t know what
I believe I Know Who I am
all I need so from there you do what you
need to do you know and I think what
happens is we make this situation more
complex than it has because we’re
looking for complexities got to be
something complex to understand it can’t
be that easy duration of talent and
skill is one of the the 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 the road to success is
through commitment and through the
strength to drive through that
commitment when it gets hard and it is
gonna get hard and you’re gonna want to
quit sometimes but it’ll be colored by
who you are and more who you want to be
I definitely found that wanting to be an
actor stems from wanting to be somebody
and wanting to say something to people
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 with people
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 bake 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
then I’m gonna lay in this next ten
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 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
made one Brett me too I mean it’s
amazing how it you know people are
paralyzed mm-hmm from doing anything
absolutely because he can’t take the
first step whereas you just say look all
I’m doing is laying this one brick I’m
not building the Great Wall of China
putting a brick here and I’m gonna have
the best brick I can and your father I
think every time Sevilla had you and
your brother mm-hmm work on a bottle oh
yeah yeah we that we’re talking about
our figurative wall that comes from work
on a literal one yeah right
my father owned it actually was an old
bakery when I was growing up my my
father was an electrician and a
refrigeration man we would install
supermarkets you see the long freezer
cases in supermarkets we would install
those long freezing cases and all the
lights that’s what we that’s what we
would do every summer yeah 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 you
know 16 feet high and probably about 30
feet long he just completely tore the
wall down and my brother and I had the
biggest
butthole we were the main station 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 we would
come in mixing concrete put it in the
hole doing it and it was just myself and
my little brother and I remember
standing back looking at that wall
saying there’s gonna be a hole here
a year and a half later that many days I
know 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 plan
as he says he does he says he didn’t but
I know he had been planning this and
rightness for the past two years but he
we stood back we looked at the wall and
he looked at me and my brother sister
don’t y’all never tell me that you can’t
glue something and walked into the shot
the child my parents always told me you
could be whatever you want to be you
could do whatever you want to do and you
know that that office that position that
the highest office on the face of the
earth it was something I heard my
parents saying it but I didn’t totally
believe it yet I went out in the world
and I carried myself and I held my head
high and I stood there and I look people
in their eyes and I talked to people as
if I was deserving of everything that
so I just I really want to say to two
children out there and to two people who
are watching Confucius say one time he
who says he can and he who says he can’t
are both usually right so I want to
stand here before you and as I hold this
award I want to give love to my wife and
I want you to keep in your heart just
know that you can notice you can concept
that I would suggest to people to take a
daily confrontation with his fear the
the the problem with fear is that it
lies right so fear tells you hey you
know if if you say that to that girl
she’s gonna know she has you you know
and she’ll never really be attracted to
you if she knows how much you attracted
to her don’t say that know how we get
her is when she walks by ignore her for
me the the daily confrontation with with
fear has become a real practice for me
since about three three years ago I went
I went skydiving in Dubai right and
skydiving skydiving is a really
interesting confront with fear right so
so I gotta stand up so so all your
friends what happens you go how you oh
sorry all right drop my thing so what
happens is you go out the night before
and you you know you take a drink with
your friends and somebody says yeah we
should go skydiving tomorrow and you go
yeah we’ll go skydiving or yeah
[Applause]
Yeah right and you go home but you by
yourself you like mmm right you’re like
well yeah I mean they was drunk too
right so so maybe maybe they not maybe
maybe I mean we don’t have to go we all
have to do it so then that night you’re
laying in your bed and you just keep and
you’re terrified you keep imagining over
and over again jumping out of an
airplane and you can’t figure out why
you would do that right and you’re
laying there and you have the worst
night’s sleep of your life but you still
have the hope that your friends were
drunk right so you wake up the next day
and you go you know down and you said
where you were going meet and
everybody’s there you’re like all right
cool cool cool cool cool cool right so
you get in the van and you don’t know
that your friends had the same night
that you had cuz they’re pretended like
they didn’t it like yeah man my uncle is
a Navy SEAL and you know this is gonna
be great I’ve been looking forward to
this you like oh my god oh my god and
your stomach is terrible you can’t eat
and everything but you don’t want to be
the only punk who doesn’t jump out of
this airplane so you get there and then
you have this safety brief and you’re
standing there and the guys that tell
you what the chute doesn’t open what’s
gonna happen is you’re doing your BA to
help with what could happen but the shoe
the shoe wouldn’t open right so you do a
thing and what you do is your first jump
you’re attached to a guy who is going
you know he’s gonna walk you out so you
go and you get there and there’s an
airplane and nobody stopping everybody’s
still going so you get onto the airplane
and you’re sitting there and and you
know it’s extra because you’re sitting
on some dudes lap some stranger you know
you got trying to make small talk yeah
so you deal usually you’ll be jumping
with people all the time right you know
so and then you just want to make sure
you got you got kids right you got
people you need to see right just want
to make sure he’s serious right so you
get in there
so everything’s normal so you fly and
you go up you go up you go up you go up
to 14,000 feet and you notice there’s a
light it’s red and it’s yellow and green
right so right now the lights red so
then you start thinking at some point
the lights going to go green it but you
don’t know what’s going to happen right
and you wait and it goes yellow and the
light goes green and somebody opens the
door and in that moment you realize
you’ve never been in a freaking airplane
with the door open right terror go
sighing spit I’m sorry terror terror
terror terror right so you go and then
you know if you’re if you were smart you
sat in the back so you don’t go first
right and then people start going out of
the airplane and you go and the guy
walks you up to the end of the thing and
you’re standing and your toes are on the
edge and you’re looking out down to
death and they say on three and they say
one two and he pushes you on to because
people grab one three and you go
and you fall out of the airplane and in
one second you realize that it’s the
most blissful experience of your life
you’re flying right it doesn’t feel like
falling right it’s like you actually are
kind of held a little bit about a win
and then you start and you you start
falling you falling and you there’s zero
fear you realize that the point of
maximum danger is the point of minimum
fear it’s bliss it’s bliss and you’re
flying right you’re doing it and then 20
seconds 25 seconds 40 seconds and you
have enough time to just kind of be like
oh that’s that building that’s not like
that right you start doing all of that
and the the lesson for me was why were
you scared in your bed the night before
why did you what do you need that fear
for just don’t go why are you scared in
your bed 16 hours before you jump why
are you scared in a car why could you
not enjoy breakfast what would what did
you need that fear is fear of what your
no where to even near the airplane
everything up to the stepping out
there’s actually no reason to be scared
it only just ruins your day your you
don’t have to jump and then in that
moment all of a sudden where you should
be terrified is the most blissful
experience of your life and God placed
the best things in life on the other
side of Terror on the other side of your
maximum fear or all of the best things
in life separation of talent and skill
is one of the the 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
for me it it has been the to be that guy
that does what people say can’t be done
you know and I think it started with
trying to please my mother and trying to
please my grandmother and they always
wanted higher for me they always wanted
more for me and it got to the point that
I wanted to be something I wanted to be
somebody and it it made me choose
certain roles it made me turn down
certain roles there is more than an
image that I want to project I want to
be the person that is the first person
there and the last person to leave
that’s who I want to be because I think
that the the road to success is through
commitment and through the strength to
drive through that commitment when it
gets hard and it is going to get hard
and you’re gonna want to quit sometimes
but it’ll be colored by who you are and
more who you want to be definitely found
wanting to be an actor stems from
wanting to be somebody and wanting to
say something to people never really
viewed myself as particularly talented
where I excel is ridiculous sickening
work ethic you know while the other guys
sleeping I’m working what other guys
eaten I’m working concept of improving
lives runs through the center of
everything I do and then I realize that
the the way to improve lives is to
continually improve yourself right so
with that every every morning when I
when I get out of the bed you know I 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 the 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 you know 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 there you know I
just I touched it on my iPad is ladle oh
it’s like a big spoon a big spoon so try
to empty the ocean with a soup spoon you
know as the the mentality of how you you
wake up every day to try to do good in
the world so for me I’m I’m really
driven by continually trying to elevate
my elevate my mind and elevate my spirit
and care for my body and to be able to
love as many people as effectively as as
possible with this mystery of life that
I’ve been given
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 with
people with your artistry the way that
you want certain delusional quality that
all successful people have to have you
have to believe that something different
than what has happened for the last 52
million 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
absolutely no and somebody said to Holly
no one can beat this guy he’s this much
stronger 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 somehow
absolutely no and I think they did
that’s a huge part of me because and I
say to my friends all the time and we
laugh about it I truly honestly as I sit
here before you right now
honestly as I can say it 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’s the only thing that I see that is
distinctly different about me is I’m not
afraid to die on a treadmill you might
have more talent than me you might be
smarter than me but if we get on the
treadmill together right there’s two
things you’re getting off first or I’m
gonna die it’s really that simple time
you inject extremes into the universe
you can expect extremes to to come back
I think that you know one of the best
pieces of advice I ever got was don’t
let your successes go to your head and
don’t let your failures go to your heart
do you follow that I try it’s absolutely
a difficult even more so now with my my
wife and my children expanding into it
the the scope of it is actually becoming
more difficult to manage the things that
almost in a spiritual sense the things
that you attract to yourself and also if
you think about it in terms of altitude
the higher you go the harder it is to
breathe there’s less oxygen and I think
within that phrase what I get from that
with marlon brando but what happens is
if you think about it in terms of
mountain climbing mountain climbing the
higher and the higher you get the less
oxygen there is the harder it is to
breathe as you get to this successful
space and the first thing people want to
do is get down and what you do by
getting down
is self-destructive and I’m just working
hard to make sure that I don’t allow the
lack of oxygen to dull my appreciation
for the gifts up again one of my
favorite books is the The Alchemist
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 where it’s real metaphysical
esoteric nonsense but I feel very
strongly that we are who we choose to be
I consider myself an alchemist an
alchemist is basically a mystical
chemist right and one of the great feats
that alchemists used to do is they would
take lead just take a chunk of lead and
they could turn lead into gold right so
the symbolism but it’s so connected to
symbolically being able to turn lead
into gold you know my grandmother used
to say you know life give you a lemon
you go ahead and make lemonade to me
that’s that’s alchemy that’s that that’s
the same concept behind the the
alchemists 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 in two
plus two equals four two plus the only
equals four if you accept that two plus
two equals four two plus two is gonna be
what I wanted to be you know and there’s
that there’s a like there’s that 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 is 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 it wants to
move and go around stuff you know so for
me I wanna represent possibilities
I wanna represent the idea that you
really can make what you want one of my
favorite books is the The Alchemist
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
them put my head on it right study it
learn the patterns and you know I just I
it’s hard to put into words some real
metaphysical esoteric nonsense but I
feel very strongly that we are who we
choose to be he 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 I’m motivated by fear fear
you know fear of what
fear of fear I hate being scared to do
something I hate that feeling of the
feeling that I had before I had a
meeting with Quincy Jones because it’s
really Quincy Jones and a guy named
Benny Medina I know
and Jeff Pollan came with the idea for
the Fresh Prince of bel-air and I hated
being scared you know that I didn’t want
to even take the meeting there were
there were opportunities during when I
first my first year as a rapper Bill
Cosby and the people in The Cosby Show
had seen my music video and called me to
your character to come right and try out
for the Cosby Show and just every time
it was set up for some reason I couldn’t
make it the therapy the fear I hate it I
just hated that being scared to do
something and I think what developed in
my in my early days was the the attitude
that I started attacking things that I
was scared greatness is not this
wonderful esoteric illusive godlike
feature that only the special among us
will ever taste you know it’s something
that truly exists in all of us it’s very
simple this is what I believe and I’m
willing to die for it period it’s that
simple I Know Who I am I don’t know what
I believe I Know Who I am
all I need so from there you do what you
need to do you know and I think what
happens is we make this situation more
complex than it has because we’re
looking for complexities got to be
something complex to understand it can’t
be that easy duration of talent and
skill is one of the the 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 the road to success is
through commitment and through the
strength to drive through that
commitment when it gets hard and it is
gonna get hard and you’re gonna want to
quit sometimes but it’ll be colored by
who you are and more who you want to be
I definitely found that wanting to be an
actor stems from wanting to be somebody
and wanting to say something to people
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 with people
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