
He was an alcoholic, but he was sober at every premiere of every one of my movies. My father was violent, but he was also at every game, play, and recital. And he was also one of the greatest men I’ve ever known. I could easily recognize, comprehend, and emulate complex emotions long before I knew that people would pay me for it. Paradoxically it has served me well as an actor and performer. This emotional awareness has stayed with me throughout my life. I learned to sense anger, predict joy, and understand sadness on far deeper levels than most other kids. From a very young age, I developed a razor – sharp intuition, an ability to attune to every emotion around me. The constant fear during my childhood honed my sensitivity to every detail in my environment. And scrubbing a floor? It was never just about scrubbing a floor - it was about your ability to follow orders, to exhibit self – discipline, and to complete a task with the utmost perfection.

Getting groceries from the supermarket was a mission. In his world, there was no such thing as a “small thing.” Doing your homework was a mission. He loved the poetry of his profanity - I once heard him call a man a “dirty rat, cocksuckin ’, low – down, mangy pig fucker” Mom – Mom doesn’t use profanity. He was one of the greatest blessings of my life, and also one of my greatest sources of pain. Like many sons, I worshipped my father, but he also terrified me. It was in the military that he discovered the transformative power of order and discipline, two values that he came to worship as the guardrails protecting him from the worst parts of himself. You either crystallized into a mean motherfucker, or the hood broke you.īut as it turned out, Daddio loved it. The North Philly streets had a way of hardening you. Most of my memories of my childhood involve me being afraid in some way - afraid of other kids, afraid of being hurt or embarrassed, afraid of being seen as weak. I’ve always thought of myself as a coward. But when I focused on one brick, everything got easy - I knew I could lay one damn brick well …. When I focused on the wall, the job felt impossible. The days dragged on, and as much as I hated to admit it, I started to see what he was talking about. Some of the most impactful lessons I’ve ever received, I’ve had to learn in spite of myself. It didn’t matter if it was raining, if it was hot as hell, if I was mad, if I was sad, if I was sick, if I had a test the next day - there were no excuses. Most Important Keywords, Sentences, Quotes: The event was a culmination of his fear of being a coward and dealing with failures and fails in his life. The epilogue titled Jump takes us to Will’s 50th birthday where he did a Bungee Jump from a helicopter overlooking Grand Canyon with his entire family and friends watching. He found a new way to himself and his family, accepting his shortcomings and coming to terms with his demons. He is no longer the “do or die” type of guy who pushes everyone to the brink. He kept pushing himself and his family to do more and be more which resulted in quite a lot of problems in his second marriage with Jada.Ĭhapters twenty and twenty, Surrender, and Love, show us a Will who has changed and embraced his shadow side.

Chapter sixteen, Purpose, shows us how Will got the role of Muhhamad Ali and got his Oscar nomination.Ĭhapter seventeen to nineteen, Perfection, Mutiny, and Retreat, show us how even though Will got everything in his life, he still felt kind of empty and unsatisfied inside.
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Then, he shifted to the next big thing- movies.Ĭhapters thirteen to fifteen, Devotion, Boom, and Inferno, lays out how Will started becoming a movie star and how quickly he rose to the rank of one of the most famous movie stars in the world.
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We follow Will as he quickly rises as a TV star, gets married (and divorced), and becomes a father. The first three chapters, Fear, Fantasy, and Performance, show us how Will was raised, how he became the way that he was, where he was raised, and what shaped his mindset from the early day.Ĭhapters four to eight, Power, Hope, Ignorance, Adventure, and Pain show us Will as a teenager and young adult, rising through the world of hip-hop, getting his first Grammy, and “making it.” But chapter nine, Destruction, tears all of it down when Will gets into a problem with the IRS by not paying his taxes, owing millions, and his new album is a fluke.Ĭhapters ten to twelve, Alchemy, Adaptation, and Desire, lead us through Will’s life when he stopped recording his music and got an opportunity to play The Prince of Bel-Air. Will leads us through the life of Will Smith in 21 chapters.
