Will Smith Explains Why It's Actually Alright to Fail in Inspirational Instagram Story

By Mark Pygas

Updated Oct. 19 2018, 12:08 a.m. ET

Source: Getty

It may come as a surprise, but despite having an estimated net worth of $250 million, actor Will Smith is no stranger to failure. Yes, among the dozens of movies he's starred in, there have been some that weren't exactly great. Just look at the reviews for Netflix's Bright. 

Will Smith recently decided to take to his Instagram story with an inspirational lecture on how to deal with failure. 

Will Smith just gave the most important advice I’ve heard in life pic.twitter.com/VyHHdZtymN

— JrW (@Javoris) January 8, 2018

Smith says in full:

"Fail early. Fail often. Fail forward," Smith begins. "It's always a little bit frustrating to me when people have a negative relationship with failure. Failure is a massive part of being able to be successful. You have to get comfortable with failure. You have to actually seek failure. Failure is where all the lessons are.""When you go to the gym and you work out, you're actually seeking failure. You want to take your muscles to the point where you seek failure because that's where the adaptation is. That's where growth is. Successful people fail a lot.  They fail a whole lot more than they succeed. They extract the lessons from the failure and they use the energy and wisdom to come around to the next phase of success.""You gotta take a shot, you have to live at the edge of your capabilities. You gotta live where you're almost certain you're gonna fail. That's the reason for practice, practice is controlled failure. You're getting to your limit, getting to your limit, getting to your limit, you can't life that, you can't do that, until you get to the point where your body makes the adjustment and then you can do it. Failure actually helps you to recognise the areas where you need to evolve.""So fail early, fail often, fail forward."   

Unsurprisingly, social media users were pretty inspired by the speech. 

me neither

— JrW (@Javoris) January 8, 2018

Good question

— Lefty Todoroki (@LeftyLucky_) January 8, 2018

“Practice is controlled failure”

— . (@derekmcdaniel) January 8, 2018

Exactly what I needed to hear before the start of a semester. Thank you fresh prince 🙏🏽

— LSP (@xamtho_) January 8, 2018

Practice is controlled failure 😧😧😧 Deep pic.twitter.com/W8YIQOhoUu

— Papi J (@jideadekunle_) January 8, 2018

I might just write this for Econometrics, probably makes the same amount of sense in response to the question as I could muster

— Tom Milner (@tomandmilner) January 8, 2018

Dude. Will Smith be looking more and more like Uncle Phil. What a trip! Just a skinnier version. #freshprinceforever

— Old Jedi 🌞 (@vader317) January 8, 2018

wise pic.twitter.com/KXRuOFUiwP

— K.R.I.T.@H.M. (@INTIME84) January 8, 2018

this is the reason I love you man, great lesson.

— Abongile Helesi (@Abongile_16) January 8, 2018

I'm so happy happy he came to instagram!

— Love More. (@Taylor_Flenoy) January 8, 2018

Will Smith should put “fail forward” on a shirt. pic.twitter.com/zfXvu6w9YF

— alanna del slay. 🐝 (@alannagabby) January 8, 2018

I needed to see this excactly when I saw this

— Terrell B. II (@BigMr216) January 8, 2018

Exactly what I needed today!

— Victor Lawal (@vlawal) January 8, 2018

This is wisdom

— عــــMaC10ـزام1.8.7🛠 (@Mac10Azam) January 8, 2018

Well said! Words to love by.

— Average Joe (@Wavester64) January 8, 2018

Fail forward, people. 

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