Inspiration and motivation from an actor

This post isn’t directly about language learning, but it’s about motivation and inspiration, which is applicable to all of us.

Will Smith is an incredibly inspirational man. The way he came up from nothing in Philadelphia, to become a world-famous rap star before he was out of high school is itself amazing. But everything he’s done since is even more amazing, and he’s done it all with integrity and class.

The video I’ve included below is a collection of bits and pieces of interviews with Will Smith. He’s an incredibly wise person, and you can get a sense of that as you watch.

In my interview with John Fotheringham for Foreign Language Mastery, I mentioned a story I had heard from Will Smith about him and his brother building a brick wall when they were kids. That story is in this video from 3m05s to 3m47s.

It’s hard to watch this and not want to go out and conquer the world. Apply this attitude to your language learning — and your whole life. And any time you think your language studies are too difficult, or that learning a new language isn’t realistic, or isn’t possible for you, just come back and watch this video.