Will Smith on Work Ethics and Focus

"You might have more talent than me, you might be smarter than me, you might be sexier than me, you might be all of those things, and you got it on me in 9 categories. But if we get on a treadmill together, there's two things:

1. You're getting off first.

2. Or I'm going to die.

It's really that simple." -- @ timeline 4:34

Bill Murray on Taking Chances

"You gotta commit. You've gotta go out there and improvise and you've gotta be completely unafraid to die. You've got to be able to take a chance to die. And you have to die lots. You have to die all the time. You're goin' out there with just a whisper of an idea. The fear will make you clench up. That's the fear of dying. When you start and the first few lines don't grab and people are going like, “What's this? I'm not laughing and I'm not interested,” then you just put your arms out like this and open way up and that allows your stuff to go out. Otherwise it's just stuck inside you. -- Bill Murray"

Full Bill Murray interview...

Originally I thought Will Smith and Bill Murray were just using death as a metaphor.

Now I see it as a sign of commitment -- I am so committed to this, I'd be willing to die for it.

Many things in life and work come down to a simple question: How much do you want it?

I'm not sure that's it, not about being afraid of death (although I think it's super useful to not be afraid of death.)

It's more choosing and not quitting.

Both are underrated. I can't tell you how many entrepreneurs I talk to who are working on their start up, and suddenly they start talking about another idea they have... and I think, I ain't touching you with a ten foot pole. That is not pivoting, that is waffling. and waffling people do not make shit happen.

So first you choose. and I've learned the hard way it's good to wait to choose until you find the thing that makes you ache to make it happen.

Next you do not quit. You get tired, you get sick of it, you stay. And because you chose well, you can keep going. And you can picot on it, in order to to that thing you need happen, you can rest, and dive back in, but you do not let anyone outrun you.

And that's hard too, when everyone tells you to quit. When your wife wants to divorce you and the employees quit, and you can't get funding. But you can pause, regroup, consider a different approach and not quit. Because if you loose everything that's quitting by external forces... like "suicide by cop."

I think to make real change, you have to make real choices.

Christina, you make some good points.

Now I think this passage is about mastery of fear.

That's what courage is about, right?

totally agree-- courage is not letting fear stop you, not not having fear. (I learned that in a comic book, I'm pretty sure!)

There can be no courage unless you are scared.

"Make a choice! and the universe is gonna get outa ya way. It's like water."

Nuff said.

That was another great quote from Will Smith!

“I have two rules in life - to hell with it, whatever it is, and get your work done.”

― Ray Bradbury

"In my experience, the trouble with oaths of the form "death before dishonor" is that eventually, given enough time and abrasion, they separate the world into just two sorts of people: the dead, and the forsworn."

--Lois McMaster Bujold

What oath shall we take if we want to live with honor?

More notes:

http://pandawhale.com/post/42283/will-smith-not-afraid-to-die-on-treadmill