WATCH THIS EVERYDAY AND CHANGE YOUR LIFE - Denzel Washington Motivational Speech 2020

I discovered that nothing in

life

is worth it unless you take risks. Nelson Mandela said nothing. There is no passion to be found in playing small by settling for a

life

that is less than what you are capable of living now. I'm sure about

your

experiences in school and applying to college and choosing

your

major and deciding what you want to do with life. I'm sure people have told you to make sure you have something to fall back on, honey, but I never understood it. that concept to have something to lean on if I'm going to fall I don't want to resort to anything I want to fall forward I imagine that at least

this

way I will see what I'm going to hit without consistency you I will never finish, so do what you are passionate about, you are passionate about, take risks, don't be afraid to fail.

There is an old IQ test that was nine points and you had to draw five lines with a pencil within these nine points without lifting the pencil. the way to do it was to step outside the box don't be afraid to think outside the box don't be afraid to fail big dream big but remember that dreams without goals are just dreams reggie jackson was the one who struck out the most 2600 times in his career in baseball history but you don't hear about strikeouts people remember home runs fall forward thomas edison performed 1,000 failed experiments did you know he didn't know because the first thousand was the light bulb that fell forward?

Each failed experiment is one step closer to success. You have to take risks and I'm sure you've probably heard that before, but I want to talk to you about why that's so important. You will fail at some point in your life. If you will lose it. You'll be embarrassed, you'll suck at something, there's no doubt about it and I know that's probably not a traditional message for a graduation ceremony, but I'm telling you to accept it because it's inevitable in the acting business, you fail all the time from the start. principle. in my career I auditioned for a role in a Broadway musical, I thought the perfect role for me, except for the fact that I can't sing, I didn't get the job, but

this

is what I didn't give up, I didn't back down.

I left there to prepare for the next audition and the next audition and the next audition I prayed and prayed and I prayed but I kept failing and failing and failing but it didn't matter 'cause you know what there's that old saying you say spend enough time at the barbershop, late or early you're going to get a haircut, so you're going to take a break and I took a break last year, I did a play called Fences on Broadway, but here's the kicker, it was at the court theater. It was in the same theater where I failed that first audition 30 years earlier.

The point is that every graduate here today has the training and 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 achieve something you never had you have to do something you never imagined you're on your deathbed and around your deathbed are the ghosts that represent your unfulfilled potential the ghost of ideas that you never acted on the ghost of 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 Today I ask you how many ghosts there will be around your bed when your time comes.

I just returned from South Africa. It's a beautiful country, but there are places there with terrible private poverty that needs help. and Africa is 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 need it I need it For you young people, I mean, I don't speak for the rest of us up here, but I know I'm getting a little grayer. We need it from you, the young people, because remember this, you have to go out.

Give it all you have, whether it is your time, 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 specialists. Some of you are theologians, nurses. sociologists some of you have money some of you have patience some of you have kindness some of you have loved some of you have the gift of patience whatever it is whatever your gift is what are you going to do with what you have? Now, here's my last point about failure. Sometimes it's the best way to find out where you're going.

Your life will never be a straight path. I started at Fordham University as a pre-med student. I took a course called Cardiac Morphogenesis. I couldn't. I didn't read it, I couldn't say it, I probably couldn't pass it, so I decided to study law and then journalism and, without an academic focus, my grades took off in their own direction. I had a 1.8 GPA and the university very politely suggested that it would be better to take some time off I was 20 years old I was at my lowest point and then one day, I remember the exact day, March 27, 1975, I was helping my mother in her beauty salon, my mother owned a beauty shop.

I shopped in Mount Vernon and there was an older woman who was considered one of the oldest in town and I didn't know her personally, but she looked at me in the mirror and every time I looked in the mirror I could see her behind her. She was staring at me and kept staring at me every time she looked at her. She kept giving me these strange looks, so she finally took the dryer off her head and said she said something I'll never forget. She said young man. You have a prophecy, a spiritual prophecy, she said that you are going to travel the world and talk to millions of people and in the years that follow, just like that woman prophesied, I have traveled the world and I have talked to millions of people through of my films, millions who until today could not see me who until today could not see me while I was talking to them and they could not see me they could only see the film they could not see the real me but I see the youth today and What I see encourages me, what I see strengthens me because taking risks is not just about looking for a job, but also about knowing what you know and what you don't know, it's about being open to people and ideas, risks who you run, the people you know, the people you love, the faith you have, that is what will define you, never be discouraged, never stop, give everything you have and when you fall in life, remember this fall forward .