Will Smith: Life Lessons from an Icon

Will Smith, the charismatic actor, rapper, and producer, has captivated audiences for decades. Beyond his on-screen persona, Smith's life story offers a wealth of insights into success, personal growth, and navigating the complexities of life. Drawing from his memoir, "Will," and various interviews, we can glean valuable lessons applicable to various aspects of our lives.

The Power of Discipline and Will

Smith's journey from West Philadelphia to Hollywood is a testament to the power of unwavering discipline. Achieving extraordinary results requires extraordinary effort. There's simply no substitute for discipline.

Will Smith embodies the power of human will. He cultivates and exercises this faculty throughout his life. It is the reason for his outward success. He continually chooses to be the hardest worker in the room, no matter what the challenge or opportunity. Smith once said that if he is up against someone on a treadmill, either he will be the last man standing, or he will be dead.

Overcoming Obstacles and Shaping Your Destiny

Childhood experiences, whether positive or negative, shape us. However, they do not determine our ultimate altitude in life. Even difficult experiences can be transformative, motivating us to succeed. Smith saw himself as a coward. He tried to entertain people, trying to make people laugh as a way to cover for his inadequacies. It turned out to become his gift. The gift he could give to the world…a hurting world.

The Importance of Feelings and Will

Feelings are important, but must be surrendered to the will. If you allow them, feelings will incinerate your dreams! One of the worst things you can do to yourself is to allow what people feel or think impact your decisions.

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Seizing Opportunities and Avoiding Overthinking

When opportunity knocks, preparation is key. The saying goes, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity…” Decision-makers often make their decisions as they interact with the world, not waiting until they get to the boardroom. It's about being prepared to act decisively when opportunities arise.

The Influence of Company and the Value of Letting Go

The company you keep profoundly impacts who you become. Surrounding yourself with individuals who lack vision or who diminish your aspirations can hinder your progress. It’s really about how much time your give to them.

Some friendships are for a season. The trick is identifying when the season has ended and moving on in peace towards your dreams. Sometimes, we are forced to move on, even from good people who have been influential to us, because we are no longer going in the same direction.

Adapting to Change and Embracing Lifelong Learning

"If we don't adapt, we become extinct." What worked yesterday may not work today. It is easy to get stuck in our ideas; that this is how you do it, this is how it has always been done. We need to try to think outside the box and learn new things.

No matter your age or experience, there’s always more to learn and it’s never been more accessible. Books, podcasts, videos and networking are portals to endless opportunities and growth.

Believing in Yourself and Listening to Your Inner Voice

"YOU and NOW are a unique occurrence, of which you are the most reliable measure of all the possibilities." Believe in yourself. Do not disregard your belief, desire, instinct. Will Smith’s self-belief was probably the determinant of his success. He knew what he wanted, and he chose to bet on himself.

Beyond Material Success: Spirituality and Happiness

"A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Though you succeed materially and physically, remember that you are more than flesh. You can’t feed your spirit with riches. No relationship can make you happy. You are responsible for your own happiness. Eventually, he had to find out how to be happy without depending on his relationship or his spouse. The key to happiness is love; giving and building up others. It is through giving that we receive and find fulfilment.

"Let go and let God work." At the end of the day, you are in control of very little. It is wise to recognise this and surrender to the One who is truly in control, and trust that He knows what He is doing. Be happy now. Be content now.

Building Your Wall: A Metaphor for Achieving Goals

The prologue to the book is entitled “The Wall” and it tells the story of how when Smith was 11 years old, his father made him and his younger brother build a large wall in front of his father’s shop. It took nearly a year, but eventually they finished constructing the wall. This is a story about more than just will.

The idea of building this huge wall was overwhelming for an 11-year-old child and his younger brother. It seemed impossible. Very often the greatest challenge when it comes to life’s biggest goals is just getting started. Whether it’s getting in shape and losing a bunch of weight, writing a book or building a company, the idea of completing such a large-scale undertaking oftentimes feels impossible. Never starting, however, is the only for sure way to never reach your goal.

Every seemingly impossible task consists of many very small and achievable steps. Assess what resources, knowledge and skills you will need and which of those you already have. “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 onto the next brick. Then lay that brick perfectly. Then the next one. Don’t be worrying about no wall.

Everything you do in life is a reflection of who you are. Every moment is an opportunity for you to shine and give your whole self towards creating something new and unique. The care and quality you put into laying each brick represents you and is a reflection of your character. In addition, the result will only be as perfect as each step taken along the way, so every brick matters. If you rush and try to take shortcuts, your work will be sloppy and your finished wall will be poorly built.

Life is about the journey, not the destination. If your life purpose is your “wall,” then it is lived and achieved through each brick. In other words, your life is spent laying bricks of some sort. Because of this, your happiness and personal fulfillment must come through laying your bricks and must not be based on completing some grand wall. As Will’s father said, “There is no wall.” Who knows how far you are going to get in building your wall, what external forces might prevent or prolong its completion, or whether you will die trying?

Candid Reflections and Vulnerability

Will is a memoir of one of the most successful actors of our time - Will Smith. It was co-written by him and the talented Mark Manson. This book tells the inspiring true story of Will’s early childhood, rise to fame, and challenges along the way. It’s not just an ode to how great he is, but rather shows his vulnerable side.

Will admits that he didn’t know how to stop and relax. He was addicted to constantly hustling, working and achieving. Eventually he resolved this by adapting less rigid behaviors. We must remember that everyone struggles with insecurities and hidden fears. However, this doesn’t mean you become complacent. He realized he could still achieve his goals without having to sacrifice his boundaries, relationships or mental health.

After years of hustling, relentless drive, striving, demanding, workaholism - he realized it’s not the only way to achieve success. That there’s also enormous power in letting go, surrendering, and going with the flow of the universe - instead of trying to bend it to his every whim.

Key Takeaways for Personal Development

Here are some key takeaways that resonated with me:

Decide what you want. According to Smith, clarity of mission is a cornerstone of success. Knowing what you want gives direction to your life. Every action you take, what you eat, how you sleep, who you associate with and what you consume can all be corralled and launched toward your wildest dreams. Decide what you really want and start cutting out whatever distracts you from it.
Commit to lifelong learning. Smith read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and set his ego aside, tapping into the wisdom of acting coaches, mentors, relationship counselors and spiritual guides. “There’s no new problem that someone hasn’t already had and written about in a book.” No matter your age or experience, there’s always more to learn and it’s never been more accessible.
Set bold goals. Smith declared aloud, “I want to be the biggest movie star in the world.” Allow yourself to dream about what your ideal life could look like, then write it down and make a plan. It really won’t manifest itself any other way.
Look for patterns. Smith and his manager, James Lassiter, took a strategic approach. They analyzed the top ten biggest grossing films of all time and sought to reverse-engineer their success by looking for common threads. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Study the people doing what you want to do, identify the patterns and apply them in your own unique way.
Identify your superpower. Smith admits he’s not the most talented, best looking, most educated, or smartest person in the room. But he knows his edge: relentless work ethic. If you’re not where you want to be, take an honest inventory. Are you leaning into your true superpower? The one thing that sets you apart may be the thing you’re not using enough.
Cultivate your imagination. Smith relates how he marvels at things many people take for granted, for example, how people “sit in an aluminum tube and fly thousands of miles through the air.” What’s stopping you from believing in something bold? Reinvention starts with asking, “Why not?” more often.
Commit to continuous self-improvement. Smith shares how therapy and daily introspection became part of his journey toward becoming a better version of himself. Don’t let the fear of failure keep you from trying to grow. We must keep trying to be the best versions of ourselves to maximize our talents, skills and abilities for the service of others.

Balancing Action with Surrender

The strife and emotional turmoil caused him to take a step back. He underwent therapy and became a voracious reader. The last lesson learned from Will Smith’s memoir is to balance action with surrender. He writes, “ ‘Surrender’ to me no longer meant defeat - it was now an equally powerful tool of manifestation.

Achieving any goal does take discipline, hard work and sacrifice. But if we live only for the future, even when it comes, we don’t know how to be content. The road to success doesn’t have to be all-consuming.

Finding Your Element and Playing Productively

The origin of every success story is the discovery of the “thing” that a person starts to obsess about. Sir Ken Robinson calls this thing the Element. The Element is “the place where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together”.

The best way to discover your Element is to think about activities that feel like playing to you. Remember when you played as a kid and would completely lose track of time? That’s the feeling you’re looking for. Reading books is just playing. But reading then writing posts on what I’ve learned is productive playing. Getting into rap battles at school, as Will did, is just playing. But recording rap songs in his friend’s makeshift studio is productive playing.

We have collectively tricked ourselves into believing that playing and working are two different things. One is fun and the other is a fucking torture. But that’s not how the mega-successful see it. For them, work is play.

The Hero's Journey

In his book, Will mentions a famed storytelling pattern called “the hero’s journey”. In the hero’s journey, the hero leads an ordinary life who receives a “call to adventure”. He enters the world of danger and wonder, learns a lesson, and wins a victory with this newfound knowledge. The victorious hero comes away with the “elixir”, which is often treasure, love, freedom, wisdom, or knowledge. Triumphant and transformed, he returns home to share “the boon” with others.

Will is the hero of his story. He went on an adventure, conquered the fucking world, and came away with the elixir. Now that Will is rich and wise, he wrote a book to help us “suckaz” find our way.

The Clarity of a Goal

The clarity of the goal is what I always see in every biography I read. Knowing what you want gives direction to your life. Every word, every action, every association, can be accurately chosen and harnessed to precipitate your desired outcome.

But uncovering your truest desire is easier said than done. This is often the step that most of us struggle with. When you look for your goal, search your heart for the most exciting thing you can find in there. Don’t look for the pragmatic and realistic. Look for the life-altering goal that puts a smile so big on your face that it hurts.

The Infinite Possibilities

Others cannot foresee the infinite possibilities waiting for you. Your big goal needs to be big just for you. Others don’t need to agree that it’s an objectively big and worthy life goal. It might mean nothing to someone else but it’s the most meaningful dream for you.

“The thing I’ve learned over the years about advice,” writes Will, “is that no one can accurately predict the future, but we all think we can. So advice at its best is one person’s limited perspective of the infinite possibilities before you. People’s advice is based on their fears, their experiences, their prejudices, and at the end of the day, their advice is just that: it’s theirs, not yours. When people give you advice, they’re basing it on what they would do, what they can perceive, on what they think you can do.”

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