Top 12 Inspirational Quotes from Will Smith

Will Smith is one of my favorite actors. From his Fresh Prince of Bel Air days, he’s always been a hard worker and it shows through the success he’s achieved. He’s one of the most highly paid actors in Hollywood. Aside from being a great actor, he has a lot of inspiring words that can be highly valuable to anyone who has a dream they want to reach. Below are some of my favorite inspirational Will Smith quotes followed by a video that I find pretty inspiring. Along with the quotes, I also wrote my own thoughts.

If you happen to have any quotes by Will Smith that you like that’s not on this list, feel free to add them down below. These are in no particular order.

1. “We spend money that we do not have, on things we do not need, to impress people who do not care.” (possibly a quote by Will Rogers)

Far too many people put way too much importance on how others think of them. The fact is that most people are way more concerned about themselves than they are about you. When you can start to live life where you’re not always thinking about what others think of you, you will experience true freedom.

Do things because it makes you feel happy and not because you want people you hardly even know to like you. The only people who’s opinions should matter are the ones who know everything about you and still like you.

2. “I say all the time if you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready.”

The ones who seem to succeed in life aren’t those who just wait for opportunities to show up. They don’t wait for a sure thing to appear before preparing themselves. They bust their butt off each day because they know big opportunities don’t come very often and when they do, you either grab it or you miss it. No one’s going to wait for you to get ready. You need to put yourself in a position where you’re set and ready to go anytime, any day.

3. “Being realistic is the most common path to mediocrity.”

Being realistic is said to be the safe way of approaching dreams. I mean, you don’t want to get disappointed do you? There’s nothing wrong with being realistic if all you want in life is to achieve things plenty of other people have also achieved and just be like everyone else. If you want to achieve something extraordinary however, being realistic isn’t likely to get you there.

Being realistic just means to choose something you think is within your ability. The problem is, you really don’t know what you’re truly capable of.

Most people’s definition of realistic is based on what they achieved or failed to achieve in the past or the results they see from the people around them. Base your dreams not on what you’ve done or didn’t do in the past but on what’s possible. The pain of disappointment can be huge but perhaps that’s why so few dare to pursue extraordinary achievements.

4. “Never underestimate the pain of a person, because in all honesty, everyone is struggling. Some people are just better at hiding it than others.”

Be kind to others. Help out when you can. A study was done to find out how often people lie and what the most common lie is. The results are that the average person lies 4 times a day and the most common lie is, “I’m fine.”

5. “Money and success don’t change people; they merely amplify what is already there.”

Some people shy away from success and money because they’re afraid that having more of those things might change them. Many probably got this idea from how rich people are often portrayed as evil, cold blooded, greedy individuals and assume that success and money is what made them that way.

The truth is that they were likely that way before they even achieved what they achieved. If you’re a kind, caring person, more success will simply give you more resources to help other people.

Don’t use the fear of success and money changing you into someone you don’t like you stop from doing your best in life because it just isn’t true.

6. “Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings and emotions.”

The quality of your life is greatly influenced by the people you choose to surround yourself with. If you’re surrounded by people who constantly cause you unnecessary stress and emotional pain, perhaps it’s time to limit the time you spend with them or stop allowing them to be a part of your life completely. Life is too short to spend it with people who suck the life out of you.

7. “The keys to life are running and reading.”

Why running? When your running there’s a little person that talks to you and that little person says, oh I’m tired, my lungs are about to pop off, I’m so hurt, I’m so tired, there’s no way I could possibly continue, and you want to quit, right? That person, if you learn how to defeat that person, when you’re running, you will learn how to not quit when times get hard in your life.

The reason that reading is so important, there have mean millions and billions and billions and gazillions of people that have lived before all of us, there’s no new problem you can have, with your parents, with school, with a bully, with anything. There’s no problem you can have that someone hasn’t already solved and wrote about it in a book.” (2005 Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards)

8. “In my mind, I’ve always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y’all just didn’t know yet.”

This reminds me of a story I once read about Walt Disney. Disney World opened after Walt Disney passed away and at the opening ceremony, a reported supposedly commented to Walt’s son saying how it’s a shame that Walt didn’t live to see this vision of his. Walt’s son replied by saying something along the lines of, “It’s because he saw it in his mind that you now get to see it.”

Everything that was ever invented first started as just an idea in someone’s mind. Anyone can have a dream but it’s up to the dreamer to put in the work in order to make it come true.

9. “Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.”

Hate isn’t going to do anything good for you. It will only make you bitter and angry. Life is just too short to hold grudges. In the end, it’s not going to matter anyway. It’s better to learn to let go of things you can let go of so that you can free your mind and time up in order to allow positive things into your life.

10. “The first step before anyone in the world believes it is you have to believe it. There’s no reason to have a Plan B because it distracts from Plan A.

When you have a dream, there will be some people who will tear you down and other people who simply won’t believe you can pull it off. Many people simply give up just because they had no one who believed in them. Instead of hoping someone will believe in you, believe in yourself. If even you don’t believe in yourself, why should anyone else?

Once you put in the work and produce results, other people will have no other choice but to start believing in you as well.

11. “Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.”

Don’t let the lack of talent stop you from mastering something. Likewise, don’t let natural talent make you think you don’t need to put in the hard work. The one who works hard will eventually trump the one with talent but doesn’t work hard.

Don’t be afraid of hard work. Don’t be afraid of having to put in more hours than other people. Other people can have more talent than you and that’s okay because it’s not something you can control but don’t let anyone outwork you because that’s something you can control.

12. “I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic.

Some are born with natural talent while others worked like crazy to get where they are. The funny thing is, whether you get there through hard work or talent, most people will assume it was talent or luck that got you there.

I’d like to finish off with two great compilation videos of some of Will Smith’s philosophy on work, success, and life.

Also check out Paulo Coelho Quotes

More Inspirational Quotes | MotivationalWellBeing.com

2 Comments

  1. Neil Conway April 16, 2013
    • Kevin April 17, 2013

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