Life & Business Lessons from Will Smith

What's up, everyone. This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew. Welcome back to Founder’s Journal, my personal audio diary, where I give you, the business builder, the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business, a team, or a new product. Today, I am sharing lessons from the life of one of the greatest actors of our generation. Let's hop into it. 

Will by Will Smith and Mark Manson

It is official: I am into memoirs. for my Founders’ Book Club, which I did a recent episode on Founder’s Journal about if you want to learn more, our current read is, Will and Will details the life of Will Smith from childhood to present, and it's co-written by mark Manson, who is the best-selling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck as well as Will Smith. If I'm being honest, I was skeptical when we chose a memoir. It felt comfortable just continuing to read business books and social psychology books by Gladwell and Kahneman. And I wasn't sure what I could learn from a guy that I really only knew from Men in Black, a few other movies, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I was so incredibly wrong. This was one of the best books I've ever read. I am officially a Will Smith fan boy. I learned so many valuable lessons from his life experiences. And now I just want to read more memoirs. It is impossible to share all of the wisdom from a 400-page book, so what I'm going to do is share my favorite quotes and the most important lessons that these quotes represent for me. 

Let's start with number one.

[AUDIO CLIP BEGINS]

Will Smith, narrating audio book: Quincy leaned in, eyes crystal clear, suddenly sharp, totally sober, “But right now, everybody that needs to say yes to this show is sitting out there in that living room, waiting for you and you about to make a decision that will affect the rest of your life.” I took it in, I looked at Michael, then Oprah. They look right back at me. “We know baby, it’s hard. What you going to do, Philly?” “Fuck it,” I said. “Give me 10 minutes.”

[AUDIO CLIP ENDS]

Alex Lieberman: To give some context, at this point in the book Will iis still focused on his rap career, which is what I consider the first of his three careers: music, TV, and movies. And while he's at a music awards show, he is told that Quincy Jones, who was a Grammy-winning music and television producer, wanted to see him as soon as humanly possible and have him come to his birthday party in Bel-Air. Will flew out. He got to Quincy's Bel-Air mansion, where I think there were like 30 valet parking people there. And he found Quincy Jones in the middle of his living room, entertaining the who's who of media and music: Steven Spielberg, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, and so many other people. Things quickly escalated and the party turned into a straight-up audition for Will Smith to be the lead of a new show called Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Quincy was an absolute genius in his orchestration. He had every single stakeholder that was needed to be there to greenlight the show, and this was Will's moment. Will was obviously as shocked as anyone would be getting the bait-and-switch from going to some guy's party to a straight-up TV audition. He initially said no to Quincy. And then he said, how about we do it in a few days or a few weeks, but Quincy made it glaringly obvious to him that this was his moment. This was one of those opportunities that isn't perfectly timed, but you better not wait for it to be. That's when Will said fuck it. And he secured his spot as the lead for a show that completely altered the trajectory of his career. You see, great opportunities don't always come at convenient times. It is so ingrained in us that we need to be very thoughtful with every single decision. And we need to analyze every option. Think about every trade-off, but sometimes you have to realize an opportunity and just trust your gut. I see far too many people in the startup world and just professionally miss out because they overanalyze or they wait for the right time that never comes. No time is the right time. 

Time for quote number two:

[AUDIO CLIP BEGINS]

Will Smith, narrating audio book: The capacity to adjust and improvise is arguably the single most critical human ability 

[AUDIO CLIP ENDS]

Alex Lieberman: Will Smith has had three wildly successful careers in his life: a career as Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff, a rap duo that sold five and a half million albums in the U.S. and won two Grammys, then a career as TV show personality despite never acting in his life prior, Fresh Prince of Bel Air ran for six seasons and 148 episodes and was the launch pad for Will's career in acting, and then there's his prolific career as an actor. He's appeared in 50 movies, including Men in Black, Bad Boys, Ali, I, Robot, Pursuit of Happiness, I Am Legend, King Richard. The list is seriously endless, and he most recently won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama playing the role of Richard Williams. the father of Serena and Venus. This guy has been an absolute powerhouse and he switched lanes multiple times in his career, which makes me think career reinvention is not only possible, it's necessary in a world of constant change. The key is just to keep flexing your superpowers and throughout his journey, Will Smith leaned into his creativity, his humor, and his ability to storytell, whether it was through music or a movie script. Next up quote, number three:

[AUDIO CLIP BEGINS]

Will Smith, narrating audio book: The vessel that saved his life yesterday is the same one that will kill him today if he does not let it go. 

[AUDIO ClIP ENDS]

Alex Lieberman: There is this consistent thread throughout the book that Will was doing what he was doing in his life for a few specific reasons. He was taught by his dad at a young age to work tirelessly and keep his head down. He viewed money with a scarcity mindset and believed that the key to success was to hoard as much as possible. And he believed that career success, fame, money, and material goods would get him to a point where he wouldn't long for anything else. Now, that story that I just described is a really, really powerful story. It literally dictated Will Smith's behavior to outwork everyone for multiple decades. And it allowed him to find the type of success that I just described. But there were also trade-offs to this story. He put his dream for success above his family for much of his career. He got to a point of fame, money and everything he could have imagined wanting, but realized he didn't feel satisfied. At this point in his life, he has gained the awareness to understand what drove his actions and how some of his stories don't serve him anymore. 

[AUDIO CLIP BEGINS]

Will Smith, narrating audio book: The problem is The more you get, the more you want. It's like drinking salt water to quench your thirst. We develop a tolerance that makes us need more just to get the same high.

[AUDIO CLIP ENDS]

Alex Lieberman: But it's such a good reminder for all of us: Being aware of our most strongly held beliefs and stories is so important, because those beliefs and stories drive all of our behaviors. And as time changes, it might be time to realize that our stories should also change For quote number four, let's take it to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 

[AUDIO CLIP BEGINS]

Will Smith, narrating audio book: “You can do jokes with your eyes closed,” he'd say, “You have that naturally. And it's beautiful to watch. But you have deeper talent in there,” he'd say, tapping on my chest emphatically, “That you can't even imagine yet. And you're never going to find it, if you don't reach for it. There's a difference between talent and skill. Talent comes from God. You were born with it. Skill comes from sweat and practice and commitment. Don't just skate through this opportunity. Hone your craft.”

[AUDIO CLIP ENDS]

Alex Lieberman: This quote is from James Avery, who played Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince, and as Will described it, Avery was a total father figure to him in the acting world. Will Smith aspired to be as good of an actor as him and he was constantly looking for Uncle Phil's approval on the set of Fresh Prince. As you can tell from this quote, James Avery demanded greatness of Will. He saw the potential for Will to be an incredible actor, but knew how to push him in the right way to fight for that opportunity. Now, what you find is Will Smith had a few of these characters in his life, James Avery or Uncle Phil, was one and another was Darrell Foster. Darrell was an athletic prodigy who was on the path to be a decorated boxing champion until he got banned from the sport. Darrell ended up becoming a trainer and helped will get ready for his big role playing Muhammad Ali in the biopic, Ali. Darrell, like Avery, pushed Will to be the best version of himself and he mostly did it not by saying what was possible, but by showing him what was possible. And this was Will's description of Darrell:

[AUDIO CLIP BEGINS]

Will Smith, narrating audio book: Darrell's style of training is full immersion. He doesn't ask anybody to do anything that he doesn't do. Over the next year. He ran every mile, jumped every rope, lifted every weight, sparred as many rounds, every moment of training, right by my side. He ate when I ate, he slept when I slept, he worked when I worked. Often he would quote Edgar Guest poem, “The Sermons We See”: “I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way. The eye’s a better pupil, more willing than the ear. Find counsel is confusing, but example’s always clear. 

[AUDIO CLIP ENDS]

Alex Lieberman: And now the final quote from Will. 

[AUDIO CLIP BEGINS]

Will Smith, narrating audio book: “Stop thinking about the damn wall,” he said. “There is no wall. There are only bricks. Your job is to lay this brick perfectly, then move on to the next brick. Then lay that brick perfectly. Then the next one. Don't be worrying about no wall. Your only concern is one brick.”

[AUDIO CLIP ENDS]

Alex Lieberman: This quote is by Will Smith's dad, Willard, who owned a refrigeration business and was a U.S. Air Force veteran. Willard taught Will what work ethic looks like and he showed him the importance of putting one foot in front of the other in order to get anywhere great. And this quote is just the epitome of work success in my mind. There is no crystal key to success. There's no hack. There's no secret to why certain professionals absolutely crush it. Just like 90% of being a startup founder is boring and unsexy and exhausting, so is finding any sort of professional success. And while many of us have heard this advice and conceptually, we get it, a very small minority of us actually heed it. A very small minority of us are actually willing to endure years of sacrifice and pain to make it happen. Now, I want to be clear: This isn't a good thing or bad thing. Will Smith had to trade off a ton of things in his life to work so hard, things like his relationship with his family, but it is a fact that he outworked and thanklessly embraced the unsexy for decades to get where he is. 

Now, I can't stress how fun yet profound this book was to read. And it made me realize how many blind spots that I have, where I've only searched for wisdom and lessons, both in personal and professional life by reading business books and things that felt comfortable. This was uncomfortable, and it was one of the greatest things I've ever read. 

I want to hear from you

Now I'd love to hear from you. What is the number one book that has had the most profound impact on your life or how you view the world? Shoot me an email to alex@morningbrew.com and I'll share a few of your top responses in an upcoming episode. And while you do that, please subscribe to Founder’s Journal and leave a review on the podcast player of your choice, whether it's Apple, Spotify, or another. It is the number one way we grow the show. That's how we get to the top of the charts. And it's how new people find out about the Founder’s Journal community. Our show is produced and engineered by Dan Bouza, with extra help this week from Daniel Marcus. Our associate producer is Bella Hutchins. Brian Henry is our executive producer. Allan Haburchak is Morning Brew’s director of audio. Holly Van Leuven is our fact checker. Noah Friedman is our video producer and editor. And I'm your host, Alex Lieberman. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll catch you next episode.