Latest / Motivation Mindset Podcast / Denzel Washington’s Speech That Will Leave You Speechless: A Must-Hear for Success

Transcript

Denzel Washington’s Speech That Will Leave You Speechless: A Must-Hear for Success · Motivation Mindset Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: take risks. Nothing Nelson Mandela said, there is no passion
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to be found playing small and settling for a life
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: that's less than the one you're capable of living now.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm sure in your experiences in school and applying to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: college and picking your major and deciding what you want
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to do with life, I'm sure people have told you
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to make sure you have.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Something to fall back on, make sure you got something
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: to fall back on, honey.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: But I never understood that concept having something to fall
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: back on. If I'm going to fall I don't want
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to fall back on anything except my faith. I want
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to fall forward. I figure, at least this way i'll
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: see what I'm going to hit.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Fall forward. This is what I mean.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Reggie Jackson struck out twenty six hundred times in his career,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the most in the history of baseball, but you don't
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: hear about the strikeouts.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: People remember the home runs fall forward.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Thomas Edison conducted one thousand failed experiments.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Did you know that?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that because the one thousand and first
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: was the light.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Bulb fall forward.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Every failed experiment is one step closer to success.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: You've got to take risks.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure you've probably heard that before, but I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: want to talk to you about why that's so important. First,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: you will fail at some point in your life.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Accept it.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: You will lose, you will embarrass yourself, you will suck
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: at something.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: There's no doubt about it.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: And I know that's probably not a traditional message for
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: a graduation ceremony, but hey, I'm telling you embracing because
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: it's inevitable and I should know. In the acting business,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: you fail all the time. Early on in my career,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: I auditioned for a part in a Broadway musical. Perfect
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: role for me, I thought, except for the fact that
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I can't sing. So I'm in the wings. I'm about
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: to go on stage. But the guy in front of me,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: he's singing.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Like like Paparazi. He's just nong and he's just going
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: on and on and on, and I'm just shrinking. I'm
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: getting smaller and smaller.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: So they say, oh, thank you very much, thank you
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: very much, and you'll be hearing from us. So I
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: come out with my little sheet music and it was
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: just my imagination by the Temptations, that's what.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I came up with.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: So I handed to the accompanists, and she looks at
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: it and looks at me and looks out at the director,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: and it was like, so I start, you know, I'm
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: going to sing.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: I'm like, its amazing, what's again? And then king away
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: with me and I'm not saying anything. So I'm thinking
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: I'm getting better. I just start getting into.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: It running and they said thank you, thank you, thank you,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: thank you very much, mister Washington, thank you. So I
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: assumed I didn't get the job, but the next part
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: of the audition he called me back. The next part
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: of the audition is the acting part of the audition.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, hey, okay, maybe I can't sing, but
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: I know I can act. So they pair me with
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: this guy. And again I didn't know about musical theater,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: and musical theater is big, so they can reach everyone
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: all the way in the back of the stadium. And
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: I'm more from a realistic, naturalistic kind of acting, where you,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: you know, you actually talk to the person next to you.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: So I don't know what my line was. My line was,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: will hand me the cup, and his line was, well,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I will hand you the cup, my dear, The cup
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: will be there to be handed to you.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: I said, okay, well should I give you the cup back? Oh?
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, you should give it back to me, because you
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: know that is my cup and it should be given
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: back to me. I didn't get the job. But here's
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: the thing. I didn't quit. I didn't fall back. I
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: walked out of there to prepare for the next audition
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and the next audition and the next audition.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: I pray, I pray, and I pray, but I continue
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: to fayail and.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Fail and fail. But it didn't matter because you know what,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: there's an old saying. You hang around the barbershop long enough,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: sooner or later you're going to get a haircut.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: So you will catch your break. And I did catch
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: a break.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Last year I did a play called Fences on Broadway.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Someone talked about it won the Tony Award, and I
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: didn't have to sing.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: By the way. But here's the kicker. It was at
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: the Court Theater.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: It was at the same theater that I failed that
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: first audition thirty years prior. The point is, every graduate
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: here today has the training and the talent to succeed,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: but do you have the guts to fail. Here's my
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: second point about failure. If you don't fail you're not
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: even trying. I'll say it again. If you don't fail,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: you're not even trying. My wife told me this great expression.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: To get something you never had, you have to do
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: something you never did. Less Browns a motivational speaker. You
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: made an analogy about this.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: He says.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Imagine you're on your deathbed, and standing around your deathbed
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: are the ghosts representing your unfulfilled potential, the ghost of
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: the ideas you never acted on, the ghost of the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: talents you didn't use. And they're standing around your bed, angry, disappointed,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and upset. They say, we came to you because you
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: could have brought us to life, they say.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: And now we have to go to the grave together.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: So I ask you today, how many ghosts are going
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: to be around your bed.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: When your time comes.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: You've you've invested a lot in your education and people
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: have invested in you.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: And let me tell you, the world needs your talents
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: and does it ever?
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: I just got back from Africa like two days ago,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So if I'm rambling on, it's because I'm Jetla.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: I just got back from South Africa.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: It's a beautiful country, but there are places there with
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: terrible part of it poverty that need help, and Africa
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: is just the tip of the iceberg. The Middle East
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: needs your help, Japan needs your help, Alabama needs your help.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Tennessee needs your help. Louisiana needs your help. Philadelphia needs
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: your help. The world needs a lot and we need
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: it from you.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: We really do. We need it from you, young people.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not speaking for the rest of us
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: up here, but i know I'm getting a little grayer.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: We need it from you, the young people, because remember this,
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: So you got to get out there. You got to
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: give it everything you got, whether it's your time, your talent,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: your prayers, or your treasures. Because remember this, you will
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: never see a U haul behind a hearse. You can't
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: take it with you. The Egyptians tried it and all
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: they got was robbed. So the question is what are
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: you going to do with what you have? I'm not
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: talking about how much you have. Some of you are
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: business majors, some of you are theologians, nurses, sociologists. Some
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: of you have money, Some of you have patience, some
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: of you have kindness, some of you have loved some
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: of you have the gift of long suffering.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Whatever it is, whatever your gift is what are you
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: going to do with what you have? All right?
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Now, here's my last point about failure. Sometimes it's the
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: best way to figure out where you're going. Your life
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: will never be a straight path. I began at Floridham
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: University as a pre med student. I took a course
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: called the Cardiac MorphOS I still can't say it, cardiac
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: cardiac morphogenesis.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: I couldn't read it, I couldn't say it. I sure
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: couldn't pass it.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: So then I decided to go into pre law, then journalism,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and with no academic focus, my grades took off in.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Their own direction. Yeah down. I was a one point
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: eight GPA.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: One semester, and the university very politely suggested that it
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: might be better to take some time off. I was
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: twenty years old. I was at my lowest point. And
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: then one day, and I remember the exact day, March
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: twenty seventh, nineteen seventy five.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: I was helping my mother in her beauty shop.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: My mother owned beauty shop up in man Vernon, and
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: there was this older woman who was considered one of
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the elders in the town. And I didn't know her personally,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: but I was looking in the mirror and every time
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I looked at the mirror, I could see her behind me,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and she was staring at me. She just kept looking
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: at it. Every time I looked at her, she kept
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: giving me these strange looks. So she finally took the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: driver off her head and said. She said something I'll
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: never forget. First of all, she said, somebody give me
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: a piece of paper. Give me a piece of paper.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: She said, young boy, I have a prophecy, a spiritual prophecy.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: She said, you are going to travel the world and
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: speak to millions of people. Now, mind you, I'm twenty
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: years old. I'm flunked out of school. In fact, like
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: a wise ass, I'm thinking to myself, maybe she's got
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: something in that crystal ball about me getting back into
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: school next fall. But maybe she was onto something, because
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: later that summer, while working as a counselor at the
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: YMCA camp in Connecticut, we put on a talent show
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: for the campers, and after the show, another counselor came
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: up to me and asked, have you ever thought about acting?
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: You're good at that.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: So when I got back to Fordham that fall, I
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: got in and I changed my major once again for
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the last time. And in the years that followed, just
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: as that woman prophesies, I have traveled the world and
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I have spoken to millions of people through my movies,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: millions who up till this day couldn't see me, who
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: up till this day, I couldn't see while I was
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: talking to them, And they couldn't see me.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: They could only see the movie. They couldn't see the
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: real Meed. But I see you today, and I'm encouraged
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: By what I see, and I'm strengthened by what I see,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and I love what I see.