Will

by Will Smith

When I focused on the wall, the job felt impossible. Never-ending. But when I focused on one brick, everything got easy—I knew I could lay one damn brick well. . . . As the weeks passed, the bricks mounted, and the hole got just a little bit smaller. I started to see that the difference between a task that feels impossible and a task that feels doable is merely a matter of perspective.

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?

How we decide to respond to our fears, that is the person we become. I decided to be funny.

Me too Will

The bigger the fantasy you live, the more painful the inevitable collision with reality. If you cultivate the fantasy that your marriage will be forever joyful and effortless, then reality is going to pay you back in equal proportion to your delusion. If you live the fantasy that making money will earn you love, then the universe will slap you awake, in the tune of a thousand angry voices.

The problem is delusion works like poisoned honey—it tastes sweet in the beginning but ultimately ends in sickness and misery.

People’s advice is based on their fears, their experiences, their prejudices, and at the end of the day, their advice is just that: it’s theirs, not yours. When people give you advice, they’re basing it on what they would do, what they can perceive, on what they think you can do. But the bottom line is, while yes, it is true that we are all subject to a series of universal laws, patterns, tides, and currents—all of which are somewhat predictable—you are the first time you’ve ever happened. YOU and NOW are a unique occurrence, of which you are the most reliable measure of all the possibilities.

Life is like school, with one key difference—in school you get the lesson, and then you take the test. But in life, you get the test, and it’s your job to take the lesson.

But the breaking point for me happened when we found out that Dana had not been returning calls from Russell Simmons.

Snake

“Parents Just Don’t Understand,” making us the first rappers ever to receive a Grammy Award.

It’s respectable to lose to the universe. It’s a tragedy to lose to yourself.

Change can be scary, but it’s utterly unavoidable. In fact, impermanence is the only thing you can truly rely on. If you are unwilling or unable to pivot and adapt to the incessant, fluctuating tides of life, you will not enjoy being here. Sometimes, people try to play the cards that they wish they had, instead of playing the hand they’ve been dealt. The capacity to adjust and improvise is arguably the single most critical human ability.

A perfect example of this phenomenon is in season 1, episode 5, “Homeboy, Sweet Homeboy.” Don Cheadle plays my boy from Philly, Ice Tray. If you look closely, you’ll see that I’m mouthing Don’s lines. But even though I’m front and center, mouthing away like an idiot, you didn’t notice at home because your attention was focused on the actor who was speaking: inattentive blindness.

Going watch lmao

Stephen Covey, in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said there are only two human problems: (1) knowing what you want, but not knowing how to get it; and (2) not knowing what you want.

“Whatup, shawty?” I said, poorly choosing my descriptive. “Whatever, nigga, move,” she said, gesturing me away with the swat of her hand. And with that, she was gone. That was the first time I ever saw Jada Pinkett. It was love at first sight.

I didn’t meet Jada that night. Sheree and I left together before the show was even over. We laughed all the way through dinner, all the way through that fall, and three months later, we were married.

fail from the start

“You know what—maybe one day you’ll be worth something,” I said, slamming down the phone. If God were to give me back one sentence from my entire life, to erase it, to make it so I never said it, and the person never heard it, it would be those seven words.

I would never have gotten married if I thought divorce was an option. If quitting is a possibility, everyone will pick that—it’s the easiest one.

In my experience, most people get divorced too soon, before they’ve extracted the lessons that will keep them from doing the exact same things in their next relationships.

To this very moment, however, Jada has never even cracked a smile—not even the tiniest chuckle—about that meeting, not even once. So, ladies and gentlemen of the Court, I ask you humbly to search your hearts, and if I’m wrong, I will accept the censure of the court. But I feel honor-bound to pose the question anyway—almost rhetorically—for closure, and final resolution between Jada and me: Is that shit funny, or what?

Not funny Will omg

In the beginning of our relationship, my mind was tortured by their connection. He was ’PAC! and I was me.

I hated that I wasn’t what he was in the world, and I suffered a raging jealousy: I wanted Jada to look at me like that.

I was in a room with Tupac on multiple occasions, but I never spoke to him. The way Jada loved ’Pac rendered me incapable of being friends with him. I was too immature.

I couldn’t believe it. What am I supposed to do with that? Jada and I are in love. But if there’s a chance to preserve my family . . . How could I say no?

Desire is what you want; purpose is the flowering of what you are. Desire tends to weaken over time, whereas purpose strengthens the more you lean into it. Desire can be depleting because it’s insatiable; purpose is empowering—it’s a stronger engine. Purpose has a way of contextualizing life’s unavoidable sufferings and making them meaningful and worthwhile. As Viktor Frankl wrote, “In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as the meaning of a sacrifice.”

Love is hard. It takes enormous courage to open a wounded heart over and over again to the possibility of love’s bliss.

Jada and I agreed that we would ride together for this lifetime, no matter what.