- In the beginning I was
just thrilled to know
that someone was asking
me to be in a movie.
And I thought that was
all that was required.
And as long as they keep asking everything
everything will fall fall into place.
When somebody laughs at Shakespeare
in high school you're done man,
you're just you're just settled.
It's all yo6 want to do from then on.
It's hard to get past that
the realization that you're
pretending to be somebody
and people are looking you.
If faith is cultivated
it will achieve mastery.
- He's an American actor and filmmaker.
His films have grossed over
four point three billion
dollars in US and Canada
and over eight point five
billion dollars worldwide.
He's been nominated for numerous acting
awards during his career.
He's Tom Hanks and here's my take on his
top ten rules for success.
Rule number ten is my personal favorite
and make sure to stick
around all the way to the end
for some special bonus clips.
And as you hear Tom talk,
if he says something
that really inspires you
make sure to write it
down in the comments below
and put quotes around it
so other people can learn
and be inspired, as well.
- In the beginning I was just
thrilled to know that someone
was asking me to be in a movie.
And I thought that was
all that was required
and as long as they keep asking everything
everything will fall fall into place.
And I think I had to
become dissatisfied with my own process
you know five or six movies in
where I was feeling that that I was not
I was not bringing I
was not bringing to the
work anything other than that.
Anything other than that instinct.
And that's when I realized
that you know okay I'm part
of me got older
and I think even if
you're as old as 29 you
you have a different set
of chops and perspective
you have a different believe-it-or-not
wisdom that you did when you were 24.
And I think about every five years I went
through some sort of
process of reexamining
where I was in life you know
as a man, as well as an actor.
And thinking like guess what I'm 36 now
and there's a whole world of movies that I
can't make anymore because I can no longer
I don't want to play the young man
who's trying to figure out the life.
I want to play a man of bitter compromise.
I want to play somebody
who's who's been through something.
So it's a never-ending process I think of
examining where you are in life
as a human being and
then transposing that so
it's going to be reflected
in your work somehow.
Well this is interesting this is
a very important show business lesson.
And this is why I always come Gary,
all I am is an instinctive
actor I don't know
how to do anything else.
All right this is another
story about repetition
and learning by doing.
We we did Twelfth Night in in high school.
I was playing Andrew
Aguecheek in that, not Fabian.
Fabian is a bad role.
I might have been cut from.
Anyway, I was playing Andrew Aguecheek.
And we had done it like most high schools
you know do it.
What ho (mumbling)
We all sounded like that
except John Gill Christen
who was a great actor.
And we one day we were told
by our drama teacher that
we were going to perform
scenes at every
assembly for the day.
So we performed these
scenes three times in
six times in one day.
We didn't do it in class,
we just had to perform these
these scenes from Shakespeare for about
300 people at a time.
300 of our friends and
or enemies or the people
that we you know hope we
wouldn't see at school
when we would show up
because they were evil.
But and so about third assembly
well we started cutting up.
And by the time we got to the sixth one
I had five or six gags of Andrew Aguecheek
that were absolute killer.
And you know when somebody
laughs at Shakespeare
in high school you're
done man, you're just
you're just settled.
It's that's all you
want to do from then on.
Yeah.
- I was I was
a worthless student anyway
but that made me even more.
- So we want you to play a guy called Alan
whose marriage is in bits.
So he goes to Saudi Arabia to try
and sell the King some
high-tech virtual reality.
At what point do you say I mean.
- I'm in.
(laughs)
It, right about the time that all
of the major studios say no way in hell
would we make this movie,
that dude when they where
they are so against the idea
of making the movie you
know you're going to be
you know you've got something.
- Can you make a movie like this that has
the significance it is and everybody's
talking about there's a buzz about it.
A t the same time you're working with a
great director with the
track record that you've had
it's been three years
since you've made a movie.
Do you learn something
from this experience?
- You learn yeah, you learned at
how to trust your instincts
more than anything else.
Because you can't ultimately it's not
it's not an intellectual process.
- Your acting or making making a movie?
- Making a movie and
specifically acting in a movie.
There's a way early on in the early on
you make this judgment
decision yes I'll do it yes,
no I won't.
That's that's really.
After that you just have
to fill yourself up,
make yourself this kind
of repository thing.
You can't six months prior to it
be redoing some reason,
ah, you see this moment right here?
I am going to utilize
that moment with a time.
No, it has to be some other you just keep
loading yourself up so
that when the moment comes
you have so much the
intangible stuff that
you're at your fingertips.
So that you can realize oh I know
I have nine images in my head
that will help me communicate this idea.
As opposed to one specific decision
I made six months ago,
or even the night before.
- And I remember reading that you said
after A League Of Their Own
and that wonderful
character you know what,
I don't think I want to play pussy.
- I can't play pussies anymore.
And now I don't mean pussies in the.
- Oh I know.
- In the bad term.
It's not the pejorative sense.
Well actually it is but
it's not in the nasty sense.
- You mean?
- Guys who have are out of, who don't have
any control over their
over their desk again.
- Why is this happening to me?
- Yeah.
I am in love with a girl
and yet I can't do the thing
and they're like because.
You know, remember the era
where essentially Bill Murray's
early comedies established
every other comedy that was written.
- Yes.
- They were all kind of like variations of
Stripes or Meatballs
or something like that.
And there were a million guys that
looked like, we all looked
more or less the same.
And we're all hapless heroes
in these kind of like not low budget
but medium budget
comedies and some of them
worked really well and by large
they were kind of like cannon fodder
for the distribution machine.
And by that time I was like 36 years old
and I just said you know this you make a
sort of movie in your 20s and early 30s
and you just can't you
have you got to stop doing.
- Right.
- And so I sat down with my crack team
of show business expert
and he said, "So what do you think?"
I said, "You know I'm 36 and I just
"I just I think I got to
stop playing pussies."
- And really it was about
playing men instead of boys.
- Men who understood bitter compromise.
And the next the next
movie that came out of that
I think was
what we started working on Apollo 13.
Not long after that Apollo 13.
And I think I made a Sleepless
in Seattle after that.
And you know you got a
gig oh yeah you got to
hit it to the point where you say,
all right all right you got to start.
You got to learn how to say no which is
a very hard thing to say.
- It is.
- It's a very very hard thing to say.
It's so easy to say yes
to something, you know?
It's great, they're going to pay you.
It shoots in Thailand.
(laughs)
You know I'm going to get to do
I'm going to hit the trifecta on this.
I get to play baseball,
shoot a gun and kiss a girl.
I get to do all the three things
that you want to do in a movie.
- Yeah.
- So yes yes I'm, it's hard to say no.
You had to, at the end
of the day I don't know
what to bring to this.
I was lucky in that I was studying
theater when I was in college
University and I got a job
before I got out of college.
It wasn't really a job it
was just an offer to work
in Classic Repertory Theatre
in which the pay was going to
be the professional experience
that went along with it.
And there was there was
a group of us we all went
and we knew we would be gone
for four or five months.
We knew we would have
something to do with either
five or six productions
that were in repertory.
And just the activity was enough to to
warrant going.
I had no I had no preconceived
notions of anything.
I had you know saved
up enough money and to
barely survive and something would happen.
And it just so happened that the
going actually was the most important
aspect of it.
Because I went and after I
was there there was one particular show
that needed a bigger cast
than the professionals could
the professional company
could could supply.
And because I was there
and I ended up getting
actually paid $50 a week
which was the difference
between life and death.
So I always felt as though
there was something on
the horizon that would come down the pike
that would get me through the next
the next few months.
But as far as you know as far
as you know bonafide break
goes the only things you can go on is
your faith and and and your instinct.
And that that window of cushion that you
give you that you would
be able to give yourself.
You know enough money
literally to pay your rent.
I was married and I had a kid at the time
and just always needed to have.
I say well I got 800 bucks in the bank
I think I'm good for about
another three months.
It's always a battle
against self consciousness.
It's hard to get past that the
the realization that you're
pretending to be somebody
and people are looking at
you, even if it's the crew.
I wish I had had I wish I had more
basic things at more tool.
I wish I had gone through more classes.
I wish I had been forced
to take a dance class.
I wish I had forced to get up
and sing in front of people.
I wish I had taken like MA,
I wish I'd gone to that kind
of like performance school
in which you have to get past the
self-consciousness of not
being able to do it well
and still having to do it.
You know what I mean?
It's like I I couldn't the
idea of singing in front of
anybody makes my throat constrict.
- Yes.
- I can't do it.
And I and I wish that I would have gone.
- You thought until you weren't very good
at some point you never got beyond that.
- Yeah yeah or get off the stage.
Or you don't get the job or anything like.
I wish I had gone through more of the the
tools of the actor, so to speak.
- Why it took so long to get you on the
boards of Broadway with
lucky men Nora Ephron's
this past was it April, May?
- I, the great thing
about the Great Lake Chase
because Vincent Dowling said to all of us
who were interns he says,
"For the most part I
cannot pay you any money.
"I don't have it."
(laughs)
"But I can give you something
more precious than a paycheck
"and that is professional experience.
"Working in the theatre
"with professional actors."
(laughing)
And he was absolutely right.
- Yeah.
- Because most of the
actors were from New York
there was there was a contingent
from Minneapolis a big
contingent from Kansas City
where where Vincent had worked.
And a bunch of us came out from California
but we were all interns.
And but the lion's share of them were were
guys from New York.
And many of them were gay.
- Sure.
- Who just said, look if you
want to be a professional actor
there's only one place for you to be.
If you're going to do you're
going to do Shakespeare
for a living you have to come to New York
where you can audition for something
that might give you a paycheck
three or four times a week.
You can't audition for
something three or four times
a week in Minneapolis.
And there's no reason to go to Los Angeles
because you'll just disappear.
- Right.
- And two years after the end of the
second year that I was there
because my son was born
in between the, my son Colin was born.
So I went back and had that
fabulous thing happen.
- Sure.
- And they didn't, you had to move on.
And they were right and if
they've if those wonderful people
hadn't like taken me under their wing
and said, here's how you
have a card in your wallet
that says you're a professional actor now.
So here's what you have to do.
And I end up moving here
and the reason I did not
do any plays on Broadway
is because no one would hire
me to do plays on Broadway.
That was just, there was
just nothing happening.
Early- American naval
commander John Paul Jones
said, "If fear is cultivated
"it will become stronger.
"If faith is cultivated
"it will achieve mastery."
And this is why I am a
big fan of history because
observations in the American
colonies over 200 years ago
by a compatriarch Nathan Hale
who lived in that
building right over there.
(cheering)
Translate.
There you go.
Translate word-for-word of
the United States in 2011
for I take that fear to be fear in
the large-scale, fear itself,
intimidating and constant.
And I take faith to be
what we hold in ourselves
our American ideal of self-determination.
Fear is whispered in our ears
and shouted in our faces.
Faith must be fostered by the man or woman
you see every day in the mirror.
The former forever snaps at our heels
and our synapses and delays our course.
The latter can spur our
boot heels to be wandering,
stimulate our creativity
and drive us forward.
Fear or faith
which will be our master.
Three men found that
they could no longer sleep because of
their deep-seated fears.
This is a story I'm telling.
(laughing)
Their lives were in a state
of status because of
their constant worries.
Sp they set out on a pilgrimage
to find a wise man who
lived high in the mountain.
So high up above the treeline
that no vegetation grew,
no animals lived, not even insects
could be found so high up in the mountains
in that thin air.
And when they reached
his cave the first of
the three said, "Help me wise man
"for my fear has crippled me."
"What is your fear?
He said, "Ask the wise man."
"I fear death" said the pilgrim.
"I wonder when it is
going to come for me."
"Ah death", said the wise man.
"Let me take away this fear my friend.
"Death will not come to call until
"you are ready for its embrace.
"Know that and you fear will go away."
Well this combat pilgrims mind
and he feared death no longer.
The wise banter to the
second pilgrim and said,
"What is it you fear my friend?"
"I fear my new neighbors",
said the second pilgrim.
"They are strangers so observe Holy Days
"different than mine.
"They have way too many kids.
"And they play music
that sounds like noise."
"Ah strangers",
said the wise man.
"I will take away this fear my friend.
"Return to your home and make a cake
"for your new neighbors.
"Bring toys to their children.
"Join them in their songs
and learn their ways
"and you will become
familiar with these neighbors
"and your fear will go away."
Well the second man saw the wisdom
in these simple instructions
and knew he would no
longer fear the family
who were his neighbors.
They were in the cave
so high in the mountains
that nothing could live.
The wise man turned the
last pilgrim and asked
of his fear.
"Oh wise man
"I fear spiders.
(laughing)
"When I try to sleep at night
"I imagine spiders
dropping from the ceiling
"and crawling upon my flesh
"and I cannot rest."
"Ah spiders", said the wise man.
"No (bleep) why do you
think I live way up here?"
(laughing)
Fear will get the worst of the best of us
and peddler's of influence count on that.
On Commencement Day speech makers
are expected to offer advice
as though you need any.
As though anything said today
could aid your making sense of our
one damn thing after another world.
But things are too confused, too loud,
too dangerous to make advice an option.
You need to hear something much more
relevant on this day.
You need to hear the most
important message thus far
in the third millennium.
You need to hear a maxim
so simple, so clear
and so evocative that
no one could misconstrue
its meaning or miss its weighty issue
so here goes.
(laughing)
It's not a statement
it's but it's a request.
It's not a bit of advice but it's a plea.
In fact it's a single four-letter word.
It's a verb and a noun
which takes into account
the reality of your four years at Vassar
as well as the demands
of the next four decades
you spend beyond this campus.
It's a message once made
familiar by The Beatles.
Those northern English lads who embodied
the power of four.
(laughing)
Help.
(laughing)
Help.
(laughing)
Help!!!
(laughing)
(applause)
We need help.
Your help.
You must help.
Please help
please provide help.
Please be willing to help.
Help and you will make a huge impact
on the life of the street, the town,
the country and our planet.
If only one out of four
of each hundred of you
choose to help on any given day
in any given cause
incredible things will happen
in the world you live in.
Help publicly.
Help privately.
Help in your actions
by recycling and
conserving and protecting.
But help also in your attitude.
Help make sense where
sense has gone missing.
Help bring a reason and respect
to discourse and debate.
Help science to solve and faith to soothe.
Help law bring justice until
justice is commonplace.
Help and you will abolish apathy.
The void which is so quickly filled
by ignorance and evil.
Life outside of college
is just like life in it.
One nutty thing after another.
Some of them horrible
but all interspersed with enough beauty
and goodness to keep you going.
That's your job
to keep going.
Your duty is
to help
without ceasing.
The art you create can glorify it.
The science you pursue
can prove its value.
The law you practice can
pass on its benefits.
The faith you embrace will make it
the earthly manifestation of your God.
Here at Vassar whatever your discipline,
whatever your passion you
have already experienced
the exhausting reality that
there is always something
going on.
And there is always something to do.
And most assuredly you have sensed
how effective and empowering it can be
when more than four out of 100
make the same choice to help.
You will always be able to help.
So do it.
Make peace where it is precious.
Help plant trees.
Help embrace diversity
and celebrate differences.
Help stop gridlock.
In other words help solve
every problem we face.
(laughing)
Every single one of them.
(laughing)
With the power of four out of a hundred
help and we will save the world.
If we don't help
it won't get done.
- Thank you guys so much for watching.
I made this video because
Xavier Gravel asked me to.
So if there's a famous
entrepreneur that you want
me to profile next leave
in the comments below
and I'll see what I can do.
I'd also love to know
which of the 10 rules
had the biggest impact on you and why.
What change you're going
to make in your life
or business as a result
of watching this video.
Leave it in the comments and
I will join in the discussion.
Finally I want to give a quick
shout out to Marcus Haniman.
Marcus thank you so much for
buying a copy of my book.
It really means a lot to me.
For those of you watching if you want
a chance at a shout out in a future video
make sure to pick up a copy of the book
and email in your receipt
so we can keep track.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
Continue to believe in
whatever your one word is
and I'll see you soon.
- Gump!
What's your sole purpose in this army?
- To do whatever you
tell my drill sergeant.
- God damn it Gump,
you're god damn genius.
That's the most outstanding
answer I've ever heard.
You must have a goddamn IQ of 160.
You are goddamn gifted private Gump.
Listen up people.
- Now for some reason I fit in the Army
like one of them round pegs.
It's not really hard.
You just make your bed real neat
and remember to stand up straight.
And always answer every question with
yes drill sergeant.
- Did I make that clear?
- [In Unison] Yes drill sergeant!
- What you do is you just
drag units along the muck.
On a good day you can catch
over 100 pounds of shrimp.
Everything goes all right two men
shrimping ten hours
less what you're spending on gas.
- Done drill sergeant.
- Gump!
Why did you put that weapon
together so quickly Gump?
- You told me to drill sergeant.
- Jesus H Christ.
This is a new company record.
If it wouldn't be a waste of
such a damn fine enlisted men
I'd recommend you for OCS private Gump.
You are going to be a
general someday Gump.
Now disassemble your weapon and continue.
- Anyway like I was saying
shrimp is the fruit of the sea.
You can low the cue it boil it,
broil it, bake it, saute it.
Lays on shrimp kabobs, shrimp creole.
Shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep-fried.
Stir fried.
There's pineapple shrimp,
lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp,
pepper shrimp.
Shrimp soup, shrimp stew,
shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes,
shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich.
That's that's about it.
- Pull on me up to right now.
What's it up to?
But wait is it $300, is that it?
300?
I'm a school teacher.
I teach English Composition.
This little town called
Adly, Pennsylvania.
The last 11 years I've been in Thomas Alva
Edison High School.
I was the coach of the baseball
team in the spring time.
- I'll be doggone.
- Back home and I tell people what I do
for a living they think well,
now that figures.
But over here it's a
a big
big mystery.
So I guess I've changed some.
Sometimes I wonder if I've changed so much
my wife is even going
to recognize me whenever
it is I get back to her.
And how I'll ever be able to
to tell her about days like today.
Ah Ryan.
I don't know anything
about Ryan, I don't care.
Man means nothing to me, it's just a name.
But if (sighs)
you know if going to
Rimmel and finding him
so he can go home if
that earns me the right
to get back to my wife well then
then that's my mission.
I'm going to leave.
I'm going to go off and
fight the war.
All right.
All right I won't stop you.
I'll even put in the paperwork.
And just know that every man I kill
the farther away from home I feel.
- Captain Phillips please come in.
Have a seat.
Thomas chief.
I'm chief O'Brien.
I'll be your coreman today okay.
Can you please tell me what's going on?
Can you talk?
Can you tell me what's going on?
(stammering)
I'm okay.
- Are you okay, because
you don't look okay.
Are you in any pain right now?
Are you in any pain right now?
Right there on your side.
Okay, let me see it really quick.
Can you lift up your arm a little bit?
Does that hurt?
A little bit.
- A little bit.
- Okay.
Is it tender?
Go ahead and put your arm down.
Okay I need you to look at me.
I need you to calm down.
And I need you to breathe.
Okay there you go deep
breaths, there you go.
Very good.
Awesome, now I want you to relax your arm.
Okay we're going to put this little thing
on your finger and we're going to get your
heart rate and your oxygen level,
make sure you're breathing okay.
- Okay.
- I want you to
keep doing that okay?
What happened to your head?
Captain can you tell me
what happened to your head?
- Oh God
they
(stammering)
- It's okay take your
time, take your time.
There's a two centimeter laceration on
the left eyebrow.
It's okay.
- Okay okay.
- Okay I want you to look at me
and I want you to breathe
do you understand?
- Yeah yeah.
- Okay all right.
We've got a four centimeter gap.
A little laceration
there on the left temple.
You're doing very good, all right,
you're doing great.
Okay did all this blood
come from your eyebrow
and your head?
- What?
- Did all the blood
come from your eyebrow right here, I know,
on your head.
- No not all.
- Okay.
- Isn't mine.
- Okay, all right all right.
Look at me.
Okay we're going to lay you down okay.
- Okay yeah.
- All right.
- Yeah.
- I want you to lay down nice and gently
nice and gently, okay.
Okay, I got you.
There you go.
There you go.
Captain you're safe now, okay.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
You're okay.
- Thank you.
- You're welcome.
- Does my family know?
- Your family knows you're safe
and you'll be able to call them
once you're taken care of.
Sir I need you to breathe.
You're going to be just fine.
