Having fun will make you more successful — Transcript

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1. 0:00Life can be much broader once you
2. 0:02discover one simple fact and that is
3. 0:04everything around you that you call life
4. 0:07was made up by people that were no
5. 0:09smarter than you.
6. 0:11>> Everyone wants to be taken seriously.
7. 0:13>> And that
8. 0:15is exactly
9. 0:16>> what's
10. 0:17>> holding them back.
11. 0:18>> Every decision you make about how you
12. 0:20present yourself, what you say, what you
13. 0:22don't say, what you try and what you
14. 0:24don't try, somewhere underneath all of
15. 0:26it is the same [music] question. Will
16. 0:28this make me look stupid? And the answer
17. 0:30to that question [music] controls more
18. 0:32of your life than you'd probably like to
19. 0:33admit. And yet the people who actually
20. 0:36win consistently, unreasonably, in ways
21. 0:38that don't make sense to everyone doing
22. 0:40everything right, they all share one
23. 0:42thing. They stopped caring about that
24. 0:44question a long time ago. There's a word
25. 0:47for this person, the fool, not as an
26. 0:49insult, as an archetype. The character
27. 0:52who shows up in every culture, [music]
28. 0:54every era, every medium, always
29. 0:57underestimated, always the last one
30. 0:59anyone expects to win. And in real life,
31. 1:02every few decades someone shows up who
32. 1:04embodies this so completely that it
33. 1:06changes everything around them.
34. 1:11When you were a kid, you didn't think
35. 1:12about how to have fun. You just [music]
36. 1:14had it. You picked up a stick and it was
37. 1:15a sword. You played for hours and lost
38. 1:18track of time completely because time
39. 1:20wasn't a concept that applied to you
40. 1:22yet. You were just [music] in it. At
41. 1:24some point that changed. It happens
42. 1:26gradually, the way all the important
43. 1:27things happen. You start caring about
44. 1:29how you look [music] doing something.
45. 1:31You start calculating whether it's worth
46. 1:33the effort and before you know it,
47. 1:35you've organized your life around
48. 1:36avoiding the feeling of not knowing what
49. 1:38you're doing. Adults watch kids play and
50. 1:41say things like, oh man, I remember
51. 1:43those days. Let them enjoy it while they
52. 1:46can, as if play has an expiry date, as
53. 1:49if presence is something that belongs to
54. 1:51childhood and has to be surrendered
55. 1:52[music] at some point in exchange for
56. 1:54seriousness. It doesn't. You just forgot
57. 1:57how.
58. 1:58>> I I drove down from a whole and drive
59. 2:00every every night, you know, that I went
60. 2:02up there feeling that I was [music]
61. 2:05one of the biggest actors in Hollywood.
62. 2:07>> And I actually wrote myself a check, and
63. 2:09this is for real. This is not a joke. I
64. 2:11wrote myself a check for $10 million
65. 2:14for acting services rendered, and I gave
66. 2:16myself 5 years, and I dated it
67. 2:19Thanksgiving 1995.
68. 2:21>> At the time, he had essentially nothing.
69. 2:23He was a struggling comedian who people
70. 2:25found funny, but not quite serious
71. 2:27enough to take seriously.
72. 2:28>> But I was always into this, you know,
73. 2:30visualization and stuff.
74. 2:31>> Right.
75. 2:32>> This is when you were broke and poor.
76. 2:33>> right, having directors interested in me
77. 2:36and saying, you know, I like your work
78. 2:37or whatever that is, and and uh I would
79. 2:40visualize things coming to me that I
80. 2:43wanted or whatever.
81. 2:44>> [music]
82. 2:44>> The thing about Jim Carrey is that he
83. 2:46was never doing what actors were
84. 2:48supposed to do.
85. 2:50He was playing.
86. 2:52His whole career was built on a
87. 2:53willingness to look completely
88. 2:55ridiculous, to commit to a bit so fully
89. 2:58that it stopped being a bit and became
90. 3:00something else. To do the thing nobody
91. 3:02was sure he should do and do it with
92. 3:05such total conviction that it worked.
93. 3:08>> I had no idea what I wanted to do with
94. 3:09my life, and no idea how college was
95. 3:12going to help me figure it out. So, I
96. 3:13decided to drop out and trust that it
97. 3:16would all work out okay.
98. 3:18It was pretty scary at the time, but
99. 3:20looking back, it was one of the best
100. 3:22decisions I ever made.
101. 3:23And much of what I stumbled into by
102. 3:25following my curiosity and intuition
103. 3:27turned out to be priceless later on.
104. 3:30Reed College at that time offered
105. 3:32perhaps the best calligraphy instruction
106. 3:34in the country.
107. 3:35Because I had dropped out and didn't
108. 3:37have to take the normal classes,
109. 3:39I decided to take a calligraphy class to
110. 3:41learn how to do this.
111. 3:43I learned about serif and sans serif
112. 3:45typefaces, about varying the amount of
113. 3:47space between different letter
114. 3:48combinations, about what makes great
115. 3:51typography great.
116. 3:53It was beautiful, historical, [music]
117. 3:56artistically subtle in a way that
118. 3:57science can't capture.
119. 3:59And I found it fascinating.
120. 4:02None of this had even a hope of any
121. 4:04practical application in my life.
122. 4:07But 10 years later, when we were
123. 4:09designing [music] the first Macintosh
124. 4:10computer, it all came back to me.
125. 4:13And we designed it all into the Mac. It
126. 4:16was the first computer with beautiful
127. 4:17typography.
128. 4:19>> You couldn't have planned that. Nobody
129. 4:21could have planned that. It only
130. 4:23happened because he was playing,
131. 4:25following [music] his interest without
132. 4:26requiring it to make sense first,
133. 4:28without demanding that it justify itself
134. 4:31before he gave it his time. When he
135. 4:33introduced the iPhone in 2007, he was in
136. 4:35his element, bouncing across the stage,
137. 4:38pulling the device out of his pocket
138. 4:40like a magic trick,
139. 4:42using the word magical more than seemed
140. 4:44professional. He was having fun. He was
141. 4:46playing, and the audience felt it.
142. 4:49And the world changed. Kanye West
143. 4:51released his first album in 2004 after
144. 4:54being told repeatedly that rappers who
145. 4:56produce beats don't also rap.
146. 4:59That wasn't how it worked. The lanes
147. 5:01were separate. He ignored this and made
148. 5:03The College Dropout anyway, which went
149. 5:06five times platinum and changed what
150. 5:07hip-hop sounded like for the next
151. 5:09decade. Then he made Late Registration,
152. 5:12then Graduation, then 808s and
153. 5:15Heartbreak, [music] where he processed
154. 5:17grief through autotune in a way that
155. 5:19almost everyone said was a terrible
156. 5:21idea, and that influenced basically
157. 5:24every artist who came after him.
158. 5:27>> I always felt like I could do anything.
159. 5:30That's the main thing people are
160. 5:31controlled by. Thoughts, their
161. 5:33perception of themselves.
162. 5:35They're slowed down by their perception
163. 5:37of themselves. If you're taught you
164. 5:39can't do anything, you won't do
165. 5:40anything.
166. 5:41I was taught I could do everything. My
167. 5:43mom always taught me you have You have
168. 5:45it first. You have to believe it first.
169. 5:47So, what's my I I have to believe that I
170. 5:49can make it instant game first. That was
171. 5:50the first step and I believed it and I
172. 5:53willed it. And they say overconfident
173. 5:55like that's a bad thing. I think
174. 5:57overconfident They That used to be a bad
175. 5:59word. How can you be overconfident?
176. 6:02You should be overconfident. You should
177. 6:05have more confidence.
178. 6:06>> The through-line in all of it is that
179. 6:07Kanye treats making music like play.
180. 6:11He follows whatever interests him
181. 6:13regardless of whether it makes sense
182. 6:15from the outside. He commits to ideas
183. 6:17that seem wrong until they seem obvious.
184. 6:20He talks about himself with an
185. 6:22enthusiasm that makes people
186. 6:24uncomfortable.
187. 6:25Because most people have learned to
188. 6:27shrink their confidence to a size that
189. 6:29won't offend anyone. And Kanye never
190. 6:31learned that. Or decided not to.
191. 6:34>> Just the fact that I'm willing to fail
192. 6:36is an inspiration. People are so scared
193. 6:39to move that they don't even try. Like
194. 6:41one thing that people can't say is they
195. 6:42can't say I'm not trying.
196. 6:45>> We're all going to die one day. Live
197. 6:46like that. Live like you could die
198. 6:48tomorrow. You know, go for it.
199. 6:52>> Monkey D. Luffy is the captain of a
200. 6:55pirate crew who can barely read a map,
201. 6:57>> [music]
202. 6:58>> has no real plan for how to become king
203. 7:00of the pirates, and regularly wanders
204. 7:03into situations that should get him
205. 7:04killed. His crew is constantly
206. 7:07terrified. [music] His enemies
207. 7:08consistently underestimate him, and he
208. 7:10wins because he's playing while everyone
209. 7:12else is working. Because he moves toward
210. 7:15things with a kind of pure unfiltered
211. 7:17enthusiasm that doesn't leave room for
212. 7:19hesitation.
213. 7:20>> [music]
214. 7:20>> Because he decided what he wanted,
215. 7:23declared it out loud without worrying
216. 7:24whether it sounded stupid, and started
217. 7:27moving toward it immediately. Jack
218. 7:29Sparrow wins by being impossible to
219. 7:31model. [music] Every villain, every
220. 7:33rival, every person trying to
221. 7:35outmaneuver him runs into the same
222. 7:37problem. He doesn't behave according to
223. 7:39the logic they're using. He's spinning,
224. 7:42stumbling, making decisions that look
225. 7:44like accidents and turn out to be genius
226. 7:47[music] or actually are accidents and
227. 7:49work out anyway because he's so
228. 7:50committed to the bit that reality bends
229. 7:53around him. He treats the whole thing
230. 7:55like a game,
231. 7:56>> [music]
232. 7:56>> which means he's free to improvise while
233. 7:57everyone else is executing a plan. And
234. 8:00improvisation, [music] it turns out, is
235. 8:02how you win when reality stops
236. 8:04cooperating with the plan. All right,
237. 8:06enough pirates. Peter Parker is the most
238. 8:08relatable superhero ever written because
239. 8:11he has no idea what he's doing most of
240. 8:13the time and does it anyway. Miles
241. 8:15Morales spends the entire first movie
242. 8:17terrified, can't stick to walls
243. 8:19properly, can't control his powers. And
244. 8:22then there's that scene where he's
245. 8:23standing at the edge of a building and
246. 8:25someone tells him to leap and trust it
247. 8:27and he just goes. He jumps before he's
248. 8:30ready, figures it out on the way down.
249. 8:32Watch any of them closely enough and you
250. 8:34notice the same thing. Time stops
251. 8:36mattering. Everything around them
252. 8:38sharpens. Athletes call it being in the
253. 8:40zone. Musicians say the music starts
254. 8:43playing itself. You get there by
255. 8:45playing, by loosening your grip on the
256. 8:47outcome and just doing the thing. The
257. 8:49fool is already doing it while you're
258. 8:50still deciding whether to start. Already
259. 8:52three reps in, already figuring out what
260. 8:54works by finding out what doesn't.
261. 8:55That's the actual advantage.
262. 9:00>> [music]
263. 9:00>> The number one advantage the fool has is
264. 9:02the one that sounds like a weakness. Not
265. 9:04being afraid to look like a fool. This
266. 9:06sounds simple.
267. 9:08It isn't. Most of what adults do on
268. 9:10[music] any given day is organized
269. 9:12around not looking stupid. The version
270. 9:15of yourself you present to the world,
271. 9:17edited down to the parts you're
272. 9:19confident about with the uncertain parts
273. 9:21kept private until you figured them out.
274. 9:24This is completely understandable. It's
275. 9:26also the thing that keeps most [music]
276. 9:28people from ever finding out what
277. 9:30they're actually capable of. The only
278. 9:32way to get good at something is to be
279. 9:33bad at it first, publicly, where people
280. 9:36can see you. The only way to find your
281. 9:38voice is to say things before you found
282. 9:40it. The person who's afraid to look
283. 9:42foolish
284. 9:42>> [music]
285. 9:43>> has to defend every decision they make,
286. 9:45so they keep doing the wrong thing
287. 9:47longer than they should. They optimize
288. 9:49for appearing competent over actually
289. 9:51being effective, and they fall behind
290. 9:53the fool who already pivoted three times
291. 9:56and is somewhere completely different
292. 9:58now, [music] playing in a new space,
293. 10:00figuring it out in real time. This is
294. 10:03what fool maxing actually is. The full
295. 10:05commitment to presence, to play, to
296. 10:08action without the paralysis of
297. 10:09self-consciousness, the willingness
298. 10:11[music] to step toward the edge.
299. 10:13>> The fool always wins because the fool is
300. 10:15the only one actually playing.