Denzel Washington's Life Advice Will Leave You Speechless (MUST WATCH)

Stranger, nothing in

life

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

life

that is less than what you are capable of living now. I'm sure about your experiences at school. and apply to college, choose your major, and decide 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 that. concept having something to fall back on if I'm going to fall I don't want to fall back on anything but my faith I want to fall forward I think at least this way I'll see what I'm going to fall forward with this is what I mean Reggie Jackson struck out 2,600 times in his career the most in the history of baseball but you don't hear about strikeouts people remember home runs forward Thomas Edison performed 1,000 failed experiments did you know I didn't know, because the first thousand was the light bulb that falls forward Go ahead, every 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 first you

will

fail at some point in your life accept it you

will

lose you will be ashamed you will be bad at something there's no doubt about it and I know that's probably not a traditional message for a graduation ceremony but hey, I'm telling you to accept it because it's inevitable and I should know that in the acting business you fail all the time at the beginning of my career.

I auditioned for a role in the Broadway musical, I thought the perfect role for me except for the fact that I can't sing so I'm backstage, I'm about to go on stage but the guy in front of me sings like Pavarotti, it just moves and goes on and on and on and I'm shrinking, I'm getting smaller and smaller, so they say, "Thank you very much, thank you very much, and you'll hear from us, so I go out with my little sheet music and it was ". my imagination by Temptations, that's what I came up with, so I gave it to the accompanists and she looks at it and looks at me and looks at the director and he was nice, so I start, you know, I'm going to sing.

I'm like um and I'm not going to say anything, so I think I'm getting better. I just start doing it, this is, yes, thank you, thank you, thank you very much, Mr. Washington, thank you, so I assumed yes. I didn't get the job, but the next part of the audition he called me back, the next part of the audition is the acting part of the audition, so I was like, hey, okay, maybe I can't sing, but I know that I can act, so they are a couple. Me with this guy and again I didn't know about musical theater and musical theater is big so they can get everyone to the back of the stadium and I'm more of a realistic uh naturalistic performance where you know.

You actually talk to the person next to you so I don't know what my line was, my line will hand me the cup and his line was good, I will hand the cup to you dear, the cup would be there to be handed to you. I said, "Well, should I give the glass back to you? Oh yeah, you should give it back to me because you know it's my glass and I should give it back. I didn't get the job, but this is what I didn't get." I quit I didn't back down I got 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 keep failing and failing but it didn't matter because you know what?

It's an old saying: if you spend enough time at the barbershop, sooner or later you'll get a haircut and then you'll get a break, and I did get a break last year. I did a play called Fences on Broadway, so someone talked about it and it won. the Tony Award and, by the way, I didn't have to sing, but here's the good thing: it was in 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?

Here's my second point about failure, 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, my wife. he told me this great expression to get something you never had you have to do something you never did Les Brown is a motivational speaker he made an analogy about this he says imagine you are on your deathbed and standing around your deathbed are the ghosts that They represent your potential dissatisfaction the ghost of ideas you never acted on the ghost of talents you didn't use and they are 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 Tomb together so today I ask you foreigner how many ghosts will be around your bed when your time comes you have invested you have invested a lot in your education and people have invested in you and left you I tell you that the world needs your talents and he does it sometimes.

I just got back from Africa like two days ago, so if I'm rambling it's because I'm jet lagged. I just returned from South Africa, it is a beautiful country, but there are places there with a terrible share of poverty that need 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 from you young people. I mean, I'm not talking to the rest of us up here, but I know I'm getting a little grayer, we need it from you young people. so you have to go out, you have to give everything you have, whether it's your time, your talent, your prayers or your treasures, because remember this, you will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse, you will never see a U-Haul behind a hearse, you can't take it, the Egyptians tried it and everything they got was stolen, so the question is 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. 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 love 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 is my last point about failure sometimes it is the best way to find out where you are going your life will never be a straight path I started at Fordham University as a medical student I I I I took a course called Cardiac Morphis I still can't see it cardiac cardiac morphogenesis I couldn't read it I couldn't say it I'm sure I couldn't pass it so I decided to go to Pre-Law, then Journalism and without an academic focus on my grades.

They took off in their own direction, yes, down. I had a 1.8 GPA one semester and the university very politely suggested that I would be better off taking 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 a beauty salon. My mother owned a beauty salon 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 I was looking at myself in the mirror and every time I looked I could see her behind me and she was looking at me, she kept looking at me every time I looked at her she kept giving me these strange looks so finally she took the dryer off her head and He said to some, he said something that I will never forget, first of all, he said someone, give me a piece of paper, give me a piece of paper, he said young man, I have a prophecy, a spiritual prophecy, he said, you are.

I'm going to travel the world and talk to millions of people now, mind you, I'm 20 years old, I failed school, in fact, like an idiot, I'm thinking to myself, maybe she has something in that crystal ball about that I will get. return to school next fall, but maybe she had something on her mind because later that summer, while working as a YMCA camp counselor in Connecticut, we put on a talent show for the campers and after the show, another counselor approached me. approached me and asked, Have you ever thought about acting, are you good at it, so when I returned to Fordham that fall I went in, changed majors once again for the last time and in the years that followed, just like that woman prophesied, I have traveled around the world and I have spoken to millions of people through my films Millions who until today could not see me I who until today could not see while I was talking to them and they could not see me, they could only see the film No They could see the real me, but today I see young people and what I see encourages me and strengthens me and I love what I see abroad.