All the Wisdom You’ll Ever Need: Spoken by Will Smith

I’m not usually a big fan of celebrities. I don’t care much as to who they are dating, or who they are wearing on the red carpet. They seem to have an unusually high level of attractiveness, along with an unusually high level of drama, addictions, and relationship turmoil. But, Will Smith seems different. He has always exuded an unusual wisdom in interviews that seems to be a rare quality in Hollywood. He and his wife Jada have always come across to me as very down to earth, wise, loving people.

I recently came across two short videos of Will Smith that inspire the hell out of me, and wanted to share them with you all. The first is a short scene from the movie The Pursuit of Happiness, written by Steven Conrad and inspired by the true story of Chris Gardner. Although Will Smith’s lines are simply delivered by him, I think he does it brilliantly.

This video struck me for two reasons:

1. It’s about dreaming … which if you know me at all by now, is a subject very close to my heart. I truly believe that life is what you make it, and in order to live a life that you have imagined, you have to dream it first.

“Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something. Not even me.”

“You got a dream? You gotta protect it. If people can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something, go get it. Period.

2. It’s about other people trying to impose their negative views of the world on you.
We all have people that tell us we are crazy. Or we are doing it wrong. Or that we should be doing something closer to the way they think it should be done. Will Smith’s character, as a father, has a key moment where he tells his son not to dream about being a basketball player because he views himself as a below average player. So many people out there impose their own negative self images on to you. Parents, friends, co workers. We all have our own baggage, and it is all too often that people try to impose their baggage upon others, even if it’s unintentionally (which most of the time it is). I have enough of my own baggage, thanks. I don’t need to lug yours around, too. My back hurts just thinking about it. And not only do you have to dream big, but you have to protect your dreams. And don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it. Protect your dreams.

This second video is Will Smith’s acceptance speech at a Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Award ceremony. He says the key to life is two things: Running and Reading.

This is his theory, and a summary of what he says in the video:

The two keys to life are:
1. Running “…because when you are running, there is a little voice in your head that tells you that you should quit. It says you’re too tired, your legs hurt, your lungs hurt. If you can learn how to defeat that little voice in your head, then you can learn how to not quit when things get hard in your life.”

and the second key to life is…

2. Reading “There are millions of people that have lived before us. There are no new problems. There is no new problem that you can have that someone else hasn’t already written about in a book.” I am a passionate book lover, and of all things that involve learning. Almost every answer is out there, somewhere already written down in a book. And, if the answer isn’t there, there is certainly enough literature to inspire your own thinking towards creating your own, new solution.

I hope you enjoyed these two videos. They are two of my favorites, with simple and profound lessons.

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Tagged as: Inspiration, life lessons, Mentors, Positivity, will smith