Denzel Washington's Life Advice Will Leave You SPEECHLESS (ft. Will Smith) | Eye Opening Speeches

without commitment you'll never start but more importantly without consistency you'll never finish it's not easy if it was easy they'd be no Kerry Washington if it was easy there'd be no taraji Henson P pencil me if it were easy there'd be no Octavius pencil but not only that if it were easy there'd be no Viola Davis if or easy there'd be no Michael T Williamson no Steven McKinley Henderson no Russell Hornsby 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 we tend to base our self-esteem on what other people think and that's not really self-esteem self-esteem is supposed to be how we feel about ourselves and I was just saying how dangerous it is to allow other people to determine how you're going to feel about you and it's kind of like looking into a broken mirror you're gonna look in a broken mirror and then change your face to try to

look good in this defiled busted broken mirror and it just other people's opinions there's a really shitty way to determine how we feel about ourselves you'll never see a u-haul behind a hearse I'll say it again you'll never see you all behind a hearse I've been blessed to make hundreds of millions of dollars in my life I can't take it with and can you so it's not how much you have it's what you do with what you pass and we all have different gifts some money some love some patience some ability to touch people but

we all have use it share it that's what counts not what your drive is not what you're flying in not what kind of house you bought your mama dreams without goals are just dreams and they ultimately fuel disappointment goals on the road to achievement cannot be achieved without discipline and consistency I pray that you all put your shoes way under the bed that night so that you got to get on your knees in the morning the one thing I'm the most happy about in terms of my career it's the fact that I got there but

the grace of God first of all but short of that I got there just by working hard not partying with the right people not compromising myself in any way or cutting any kind of deals just by working hard just by plugging along sawing wood as I like to call it I'm a twenty-year overnight sensation I don't get life mixed up with making a living I was there for all four my children being born and the first one was born I recognized the difference between life and making a living their life you know our family is

life you know acting is making a living what do you think the biggest difference between doing a play and doing I mean it's a cliche question but I'd be interested to know your answer I think a part of what viola just said is that you get to dig deeper and you get another day and you get the energy you do a movie and it's 200 people that are used to it and they don't care and you everybody's doing their job and it comes in a theater somewhere and you know you picking your nose at home

somewhere clipping your nail there's no energy right when I was on Broadway five years ago with Julius Caesar I made a decision to sign autographs every night what I did as I rub my knees only because my knees are bad it's hard for me to stand but well you know I wanted to say thank you it was my way of saying thank you and the first night it was like five thousand people out that's okay with me everybody who has play bills from our show because people were just watering up the bar you know second

Street honestly were signing for energy and I was out there I want to have every night every show but the energy you got back two stories into five little old ladies who who just drove in from Detroit and I'm like well what y'all doing tonight and we getting back in the car baby we got to go back tonight and you know a little 84 year old lady was like baby if I was three years and I say this also because I hope it happens with this play we had some high schools come we had one

school from somewhere I forgot where and they were doing julius caesar and some young kid was like well you know my buddhist is a big dick he's more the classic stoic but it was great to engage in in exchange with these young people with it was there was an energy i got more from it than I gave to to the people that I signed for that's you know you don't get that you know the odd thing about success in film is the budgets get bigger you make more money but they become more formulaic so you

don't get the opportunity so I God willing if I stay around long enough this is what I'm gonna be doing you know you're always affected by opinion but the more opinions there are a view the may the more I the less I look at them because I just can't live my life based upon what other people think about so I can't concern myself too much with what other people think you know it's just not healthy I don't think I can I could continue to do what I do if I was constantly worrying about what somebody

thought about it and anything you want good you can have so claim it work hard to get it when you get it reach back pull someone else up each one teach one don't just aspire to make a living aspire to make a difference you don't have to compromise yourself you know it's this something you don't feel good about that don't do it the most important choices I made was to say no and I said you know many a time to films that I just did especially girly on that just didn't feel comfortable with they they

it was one script that was brought to me I called it couldn't kill [Applause] like he was accused of raping this fight in the 40s and they would they tried to hang him but he didn't die they're like it's a company like it so I actually called who I was fortunate at that time to instill to be able to call and I said you know this movie make it I'm sick and they offered me six hundred thousand dollars to play it he said to me and I'll say this to you he said the first two

or three or four films you make in this industry dental will determine how you proceed he said I'm not going to tell you what to do but remember that the first three or four or five times you may determine how you're perceived I turned it down I've turned money down I needed I turned it down six months later I got try freedom if you don't feel like you should do it then don't do it because you don't want to be you know you don't want to be a negative energy on the set that's how I

feel something you know and doing this does not mean to slap somebody the second day I think the most important decisions you can make as an actor actress is staying up and saying no you don't have to take your clothes off if you don't have to no one put God first [Music] 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

in everything you do if you think you want to do what you think I've done then do what I've done [Music]