Denzel Washington Motivational Speech [ CHANGE YOUR LIFE ]
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've
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 I want to fall forward I figure at least
this way I'll see what
I'm going to hit without consistency you'll never finish so do what you feel
passionate about passionate about take chances
don't be afraid to fail
there's a no like you test was nine dots and you had to draw five lines with a
pencil within these nine dots without lifting the pencil the only way to do it
was to go outside the box don't be afraid to think outside the box don't be
afraid to fail
big to dream big but
remember dreams without goals my just dreams Reggie Jackson struck out
26 hundred 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 1,000 and first was the light bulb fall
forward every failed
experiment is one step closer to success you've got to take risks and I'm sure
you probably heard that before but I want to talk to
you about why that's
important 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 today I'm
telling you embrace
it because it's
inevitable 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 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 continue 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 going to get a haircut so you will catch a break and I
did catch a break last year I did a play called fences on Broadway but here's
the kicker he was at the Court Theatre it was at the same theatre that I failed
at first audition 30 years prior the point is every graduate here today has the
training and the talent to succeed but do you have the guts to fail if you
don't fail you're not even trying I'll say it again if you don't fail you're
not even trying to get something
you never had you have
to do something you never did its imagine you're on your deathbed and standing
around your deathbed are the ghosts representing your unfulfilled potential the
ghosts of
the ideas you never
acted on the ghosts of the talents you didn't use and they're standing around
your bed angry disappointed and upset they say we came to you because you could
have brought us
to life they say and now
we have to go to the grave
together so I ask you
today how many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes
I just got back from
South Africa's beautiful country but there are places there with terrible
parvat poverty that need help when Africa's just the tip of
the iceberg the Middle
East needs your help Japan needs your help Alabama needs your help Tennessee
needs your help Louisiana needs your help Philadelphia needs your help the
world needs a lot and we need it from you we really do we need it from you
young people I mean I'm not speaking for the rest of us up here but I know I'm
getting a little grayer we needed from you the young people because remember
this but you got to get out there you got to give it everything you got whether
it's your time your you’re your talent your prayers or your treasures what are
you going to do with what you
have I'm not talking
about how much you have some of you are business majors some of you are theologians
nurses sociologists some of you have money some of you have patients some of
you have
kindness some of you
have loved some of you have a gift of long-suffering whatever it is whatever
your gift is what are you going to do with what you have
alright now here's my
last point about failure sometimes it's the best way to figure out where you're
going your life will never be a straight path I began at Fordham University as
a pre-med student
I took a course called
that cardiac morphogenesis I couldn't read it I couldn't say it that sure
couldn't
pass it so then I
decided to go into pre-law then journalism and with no academic focus my grades
took off in their own direction I was a 1.8 GPA and
the university very
politely suggested that it might be better to take some time off I was 20 years
old I was at my lowest point and then one day and I remember the exact day
March 27 1975 I was helping my mother and her beauty shop my mother owned a
beauty shop up in my Vernon and there's there was this older woman who was
considered one of
the elders in the town
and I didn't know her personally but I was looking in the mirror and every time
I looked through the mirror I could see her behind me and she was staring at
him she just kept
looking at me every time
I looked at it she kept giving me these strange looks so she finally took the
dryer off her head and says to some she said something I'll never forget she
said young boy I have a prophecy a spiritual prophecy she said you are going to
travel the world and speak to millions of people and in the years that follow
just as that woman prophesize I have traveled the world and I have spoken as
demands of people through my movies millions who up til this day couldn't see
me I wound up till this day I couldn't see while I was talking to them and they
couldn't see me that only see the movie it couldn't see the real me but I see
you today and I'm encouraged by what I see and I'm
strengthened by what I
see because taking risk is not just about going for a job it's also about
knowing
what you know and what
you don't know it's about being open to people and to ideas the chances you
take the people you meet the people you love
the faith that you have
that's what's going to define you never be discouraged never hold back give
everything you've got and when you fall throughout light remember this fall
forward.
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