Latest / the Daily Quote - Positive Daily Inspiration and Motivational Quote of the Day / Lupita Nyong'o - "Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands."

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Lupita Nyong'o - "Clay can be dirt in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands." · the Daily Quote - Positive Daily Inspiration and Motivational Quote of the Day

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  Dot com. Welcome to the Daily Quote, the
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  podcast designed to kick start your day in a positive way.
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  I'm your host, Andrew McGivern, and this episode is brought to
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  you by the Great News Podcast because good news should be
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  heard. And the link is right here in
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  the show notes. Today's quote comes from Lapita
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  Nyong'o, Kenyan Mexican actress, filmmaker and the first Kenyan
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  actress in history to win an Academy Award.
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  Woman born in Mexico City, raised in Kenya, who worked as a
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  production assistant on film sets before earning her master's
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  degree from the Yale School of Drama, and her very first
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  feature film role earned her the Oscar.
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  She's a woman who understands from lived experience with the
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  right environment, the right teachers and the right belief
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  can do to raw potential. She once said clay can be dirt
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  in the wrong hands, but clay can be art in the right hands.
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  The same material, completely different outcomes, everything
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  determined not by what the clay is, but by whose hands it's in.
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  Think about what clay actually is before anyone touches it.
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  It has no form, no function, no identity of its own.
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  Yet in the wrong hands, hands that don't know what they're
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  doing, or hands that don't care, or hands that give up before the
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  work is finished, the clay stays mud, shapeless, unremarkable.
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  The potential is there, but it never becomes anything.
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  In the right hands, impatient hands, skilled hands, or hands
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  that can see what the clay could become, something entirely
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  different happens, The same raw material that was nothing
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  becomes something that lasts, something that carries meaning,
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  something that people will look at and feel.
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  Something that they couldn't articulate before they saw it.
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  Now here's what makes this quote even more interesting.
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  Lapita Nuongo isn't just talking about clay, she's talking about
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  people. While working as a production
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  assistant on The Constant Gardener in Kenya, she met Ralph
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  Yenez, who told her to become an actor only if it was something
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  she couldn't imagine living without.
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  Those words were the right hands, had exactly the right
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  moment that helped shape a direction.
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  She then earned her master's degree at Yale School of Drama,
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  where she was shaped further by teachers, by the craft, by the
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  discipline of learning to access truth in front of an audience.
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  Weeks before graduating, she was cast in 12 Years a Slave by
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  director Steve McQueen, and the performance that followed won
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  her the Academy Award. The clay was always there, the
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  potential was always there, But the hands it passed through the
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  people who believed in it, invested in it, challenged it,
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  shaped it. That made all the difference
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  between dirt and art. This quote asks 2 questions
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  simultaneously. The first, Whose hands are you
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  currently in? Are the people, environment, and
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  influences around you drawing something remarkable out of you
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  or leaving your potential formless?
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  And the second question, and this one's a little harder,
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  whose clay are you currently holding?
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  Because the hands that shape Lapita Nyong'o were the right
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  hands for her. Are you the right hands for the
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  people in your life who are still finding their shape?
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  That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern, signing off
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  for now, but I'll be back tomorrow.
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  Same pod time, same pod station with another daily quote.