All right, from the top. Hey it's number one Best-Selling Author and Motivational
Speaker Eric Qualman. Most of you know me as Equalman. Welcome to today's 7
Super Tips. This is a show designed to unlock and unleash your superpowers. For
today's guest, I'm gonna give you a little tease with an impression. "Fun? You
think football's fun?" "You think football is still fun?" "Yes." "Sir."
"Yes, no." "No?" "It was fun." "Not anymore though, is it?"
Today's 7 Super Tips are coming from the man with the golden voice, Denzel Washington.
Put God first in everything you do. Everything that you think you see
in me, everything that I've accomplished, everything that you think I have - and I
have a few things. Everything that I have is by the grace of God. Understand that.
It's a gift. 40 years ago - March 27, 1975. It was 40 years ago -
just this past March - I was flunking out of college at a 1.7 grade point average.
I hope none of you can relate at a 1.7 grade point average. I was sitting in my
mother's beauty shop - they still call a beauty shop now? What they call it? Yeah.
I'll sit in the beauty parlor I was sitting in my mother's beauty parlor and
I'm looking in the mirror and I see behind me this woman under the dryer and
every time she looked up she - every time I looked up, she was looking at me, just
look at me in the eye. I don't know who she was, and I said, you know, she said,
"Somebody give me a pen. Give me a pencil. I have a prophecy." March 27,1975. She said,
"Boy, you were gonna travel the world and speak to millions of people." Now mind you,
I flunked out of college. I'm thinking about joining the army. I didn't know
what I was gonna do, and she's telling me I'm gonna travel the world and speak to
millions of people. Well I have traveled the world,
and I have spoke to millions of people, but that's not the most important thing -
the success that I had. The most important thing is that, what she taught
me and what she told me that day has stayed with me since. I've been protected.
I've been directed. I've been corrected. I've kept God in my life and has kept me
humble. I didn't always stick with him but he always stuck with me. So stick
with Him in everything you do. If you think you want to do what you think I've
done, then do what I've done.
I found that nothing in life is worthwhile unless you
take risks. Nothing. Nelson Mandela said, "There is no
passion to be found playing small and settling for a life that's less than the
one you're capable of living." Now, I'm sure in your experiences in school, and
applying to college, and picking your major, and deciding what you want to do
with life, I'm sure people that told you to make sure you have something to fall
back on. Make sure you got something to fall back on, honey. But I never
understood that concept - having something to fall back on.
If I'm going to fall, I don't want to fall back on anything except my faith. I
want to fall forward. I figure at least this way I'll see what I'm going to hit.
Fall forward. This is what I mean. Reggie Jackson struck out 2600
times in his career - the most in the history of baseball. But you don't hear
about the strikeouts. People remember the homeruns. Fall forward.
Thomas Edison conducted 1,000 failed experiments. Did you know that? I didn't
know that, because the 1,001st was the light bulb. Fall forward.
I am particularly proud and happy about the young filmmakers, actors,
singers, writers, producers, that are coming up behind my generation. In
particular, Barry Jenkins. Young people understand this young man made 10, 15, 20
short films before he got the opportunity to make Moonlight. So never
give up. Without commitment, you'll never start. But more importantly,
without consistency, you'll never finish. It's not easy.
If it was easy, there'd be no Kerry Washington. If it was easy, there'd be no
Taraji Henson, Pete Henson. If it were easy, there'd be no Octavia Spencer. But
not only that, if it were easy, there'd be no Viola Davis. If it were easy, there'd be
no Michael T Williamson, no Steven McKinley Henderson, no Russell Hornsby. If it
more easy there'd be no Denzel Washington. So,
keep working. Keep striving. Never give up. Fall down seven times, get up eight. Ease
is a greater threat to progress than hardship. Ease is a greater threat to
progress than hardship. So, keep moving, keep growing, keep learning. See you at work.
Don't be afraid to think outside the box. Don't be afraid to fail big, to dream big.
But remember, dreams without goals are just dreams. And they ultimately fuel
disappointment. So have dreams, but have goals. Life goals, yearly goals, monthly
goals, daily goals. I try to give myself a goal every day. Sometimes, just to not
curse somebody out. Simple goals, but have goals. And understand that to achieve
these goals, you must apply discipline and consistency. In order to achieve your
goals, you must apply discipline, which you are already done, and consistency
every day. Not just on Tuesday and miss a few days. You have to work at it. Every
day. You have to plan. Every day. You've heard the saying: we don't plan to fail,
we fail to plan. Hard work works.
I was pre-med in college then I said I'd
be a doctor. Then I was political science, I said I'd be a lawyer. Then I studied
journalism. So I actually was working my way toward the arts without realizing.
That's why I told my children a liberal arts education is okay. You don't have to
know at 17 - I was 17 when I started college - you don't have to know at 17
what you're gonna do the rest of your life. So I worked it out. I found my way
to theatre. I started with Eugene O'Neill's "Emperor Jones."
Well, first role. Second role as a fellow.
Working really hard is what successful people do. And in this text, tweet, twerk
world that you've grown up in, remember just because you're doing a lot more
doesn't mean you're getting a lot more done. Remember that just because you're
doing a lot more, doesn't mean you're getting a lot more done. Don't confuse
movement with progress. My mother told me, she said, "Yeah, yeah cuz you can run in place all
the time and never get anywhere." So continue to strive, continue to have
goals, continue to progress.
First, you will fail at some point in your life.
Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at
something. There's no doubt about it and I know that's probably not a traditional
message for a graduation ceremony, but ay, I'm telling you. Embrace it, because it's
inevitable, and I should know. In the acting business, you fail all the time.
Early on in my career, I auditioned for a part in a Broadway musical. Perfect role
for me, I thought, except for the fact that I can't sing. So, I'm in the wings.
I'm about to go on stage but the guy in front of me he's singing like, like, like,
Pavarotti. He's just like..... and he's just going on and on and on and I'm just shrinking I'm getting smaller and smaller.
So they say,"Oh thank you very much, thank you very much, and you will you'll be hearing from
us." So I come out with my little sheet music and it was - it was - a Just My
Imagination by the Temptations. That's what I came up with. So I hand it to the
the the accompanist and she looks at it, and looks at me, and looks out at the
director and was like.... So, I start, you know. I'm gonna sing. I'm like ….. "This is my imagination.
Once again, carrying away with me," and they're not saying anything so I'm thinking I'm
getting better. I start getting into it
...running this hour." "Yeah, yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, very much,
Mr. Washington. Thank you." So I assumed I didn't get the job but the next part of
the audition, he called me back. The next part of the audition is the
acting part of the audition. So I'm like, hey okay maybe I can't sing but I know I
can act. So they pair me with this guy - and again, I didn't know about musical
theater. And musical theater is big, so they could reach everyone all the way in
the back of the stadium. And I'm more from realistic naturalistic kind of
acting where you you know you actually talk to the person next to you. So I
don't know what my line was - my line was, "Well, hand me the cup," and his line was,
"Well, I will hand you the cup, my dear. The cup would be there to be handed to you."
I said, "Okay, well, should I give you the cup back?" "Oh yes, you should give it back to
me because you know that is my cup and it should be given back to me."
I didn't get the job.
But here's the thing, I didn't quit. I didn't fall back. I walked out of there to
prepare for the next audition, and the next audition, and the next audition. I
prayed, I prayed, and I prayed.
But I continued to fail, and fail, and fail. But it didn't matter, because you know
what? There's an old saying. "You hang around the barbershop long enough, sooner
or later you're gonna get a haircut."
Thank You Denzel and thank all of you for watching today's 7 Super Tips,
the show designed to unlock and unleash your inner superpowers. I'm your host
Eric Qualman. Most of you know me as Equalman. To make sure you get the next video,
your next 7 Super Tips, make sure you hit the subscribe button below. And remember,
until next time: It's not what we take from the world it's what we leave behind.
If everyone - that doesn't seem like, duh, but if ever knows what they're supposed
to do, why don't we do it? The easiest way to get over that mid-semester hump, or I
like to call it slump, is to actually mix it up. Well, duh, but if it's a duh moment
it's an e.... Should I say, "Well duh?"
Today's 7 Super Tips are coming to you from...no me. Denzel. Here we go.