Episode 11: WILL
Hello and welcome to Episode 11 featuring Will, written by Will Smith with the help of Mark Manson.
“Now, this is a story all about how his life got flipped, turned upside down - you know the rest, and even if you don’t, it’s definitely worth finding out!”
Actor, rapper, film producer, entertainer - the man with “arguably the greatest individual hot streak in the history of Hollywood”. Willard Carol Smith II has lived some life, learned and experienced so much and it would be a breach of my duty to you, dear reader, if I didn’t dabble into what his life has to offer.
Fear. Performance. Power. Ignorance. Pain. Destruction. Alchemy. Purpose. Surrender.
21 distinct chapters distilled into 3 key takeaways is quite the task, but when there’s a will there’s a way. Show time!
My first takeaway from Will’s life is learning to advance one day at a time. Tasked alongside his brother Harry to build a wall outside their father’s shop, the boys worked on it every single day, weekend, holiday, vacation. “It didn’t matter if it was raining, if it was hot as hell, if I was mad, if I was sad, if I was sick, if I had a test the next day - there were no excuses”. No complaining or protesting could change this constant, and the boys were stuck.
Overhearing their grumbling one day, “Daddio” as Will referred to him, laid down a priceless piece of advice. “There is no wall. There are only bricks”. “Your job is to lay the brick perfectly”. “Don’t be worrying about no wall. Your only concern is one brick”.
As with many of the harsh truths we learn in life, Will resisted acknowledging it and soon realised that “when I focused on the wall, the job felt impossible”. “But when I focused on one brick, everything got easy, I knew I could lay one damn brick well”.
That wall is our life, the brick we’re blessed to lay is today. The secret to Will’s success? “You show up and you lay another brick”. “No matter what you’re going through, there is always another brick sitting right there in front of you, waiting to be laid. The only question is, are you going to get up and lay it?”
My next takeaway is to increase your adaptability. Complaceny, apathy, and the subsequent crash and burn of the “Fresh Prince’s” rap career taught Will that “nothing lasts forever. Everything rises and falls - no matter how hot the summer gets, the winter is inevitable”.
Henceforth, Will promised to “never get caught sleeping again” and by ensuring that during the good times he would “plant and nurture the seeds” of his next venture, he laid the foundation for the skyrocketing success that awaited him. In the process of becoming a TV star, he knew he “was about to be on blaze - but one day … be cold again”. Movies were a strategically foreseen next step, and the rest is history.
My final takeaway from Will’s life is put nicely by the prominent Hindu spiritual leader Pramukh Swami Maharaj, who stated that “in the joy of others lies our own”.
Will’s grandmother, whom he lovingly called “Gigi”, had a smile that resembled “an invincible serenity”, one that he felt “hypnotised by” given its tranquillity. Deeply desiring that same “smile” he saw in idols such as Nelson Mandela, Will believed that the way to attain it was “from some external sources or condition”.
Failure, loss, divorce and death taught him that “the Smile is generated through output” - “it’s not something you get, it’s something you cultivate through giving”. A “sweet paradox” indeed, but Gigi, Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali and Daddio - people who played a significant role in Will’s life all knew that “you must give it to receive it”.
As we give way to the end of this episode, here are few words to live by:
“Loving, giving, helping, serving, protecting, nourishing, empowering, and forgiving are the secrets of the Smile” in this pursuit of happiness we call life.
Thank you for reading through this episode of Metamorphosis, catch you soon in the next!
