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1-Sentence-Summary: Will delves into the transformation and the life of famous actor Will Smith and tells the story of his modest beginning all the way up to his becoming one of the most influentials actors of our time from a personal point of view for the first time on paper.

Read in: 4 minutes

Favorite quote from the author:

Will Smith’s memoir, Will, is a story about his life and career. It starts with early hip-hop. And ends, at the time of writing, with making movies and becoming one of the most prestigious actors in the industry.

Smith was born in Philadelphia and grew up in a modest home. He began rapping at an early age. But it wasn’t until he started working with DJ Jazzy Jeff that he made a name for himself. He released his first album when he was 16 years old.

After graduating high school, Smith moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting full-time. A decision that would eventually lead him to star on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. And eventually become one of Hollywood‘s biggest names.

The book is packed with valuable lessons derived from a life of learning. Here are three of my favorite ones:

1. Your future success is not determined by a poor upbringing or imperfect parenting.
2. Life rewards those who push through adversity and make it to the other side of challenging times.
3.  Will Smith learned that everything beautiful in life is on the other side of fear.

Let’s explore more of Will’s valuable lessons and learn how to use obstacles in our favor below.

Lesson 1: You can’t control where you’re born, but you can control who you become.

Will Smith is one of the most successful actors in Hollywood, but he didn’t grow up in a rich and educated family. In fact, he grew up in a poor neighborhood with an alcoholic father who threatened him and his mother.

Will’s life has been full of ups and downs, but he always managed to bounce back from each challenge. This can be attributed to his strong work ethic and positive attitude toward life. At one point, he thought he made it, but he lost everything due to not paying taxes.

Will had to learn to become resilient, so he started to build his career again. He is proof that you don’t need to be born into a wealthy, educated family to make it in life.

Will’s story is one of tragedy, but also of triumph. After being kicked out of school, he worked as an usher at a movie theater. He saved his money and went to college, then graduated and began working as a DJ in Philadelphia clubs.

From there he moved on to acting, which became his passion—and eventually led him to become one of the most successful actors in Hollywood history.

Lesson 2: Adversity teach humans to become more resilient and achieve success.

Will Smith is a successful actor, producer, and rapper who has been in the business for decades. However, he did not always have such an easy path to success. In fact, one of the most difficult times of his career was when he owed IRS over $3 million dollars in taxes which he didn’t pay.

This was due to him making it big as a rapper while not being able to pay taxes on what he earned from that side project. His marriage with Sheree was also crumbling at this time, which made things even more difficult for him.

He refused to divorce because he viewed it as a failure. Instead, he stayed in the marriage but not for too long. Later in 1997, he married Jada Pinkett, and they are still together today. Will didn’t have it easy at that time, but everything was going to be alright as long as he pushed through.

Despite all this adversity, however, Will Smith did not give up on himself or his dreams of becoming successful. Instead, he took responsibility for his actions and worked hard to turn things around so that he could continue pursuing his goals without having to worry about financial issues getting in his way anymore!

Lesson 3: Will knows that facing your fears is one of the best things you can do for your growth.

Will Smith, known for his roles in movies like Independence Day and Men in Black, is famous for saying that God put all the beautiful things in life on the other side of fear. That’s why he faced his fears and jumped out of a plane!

In an interview with People magazine, Smith said: “If there’s one thing that I have learned over the years, it’s that you can never go back to where you were before.”

“I’ve always been terrified of heights,” he continued. “But when I was 35 years old, my wife told me ‘you have to get over it’—so I did!”

If you want to live a life of joy and success, you have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone. You just have to take that leap of faith, which is something he learned the hard way in life.

He doesn’t want people to see him as an expert on this; he thinks anyone can do it, and that it’s just a matter of facing your fears and taking the leap into the unknown. Oftentimes, such risks seem to be paying off.

Will Review

Will Smith’s memoir, Will, is a quick and easy read. It’s about his life, starting from the days of early hip-hop, through The Prince of Bel-Air all the way to making some of the most recognizable movies of all time.

The book has different sections that have various meanings for Will personally. Each section has an introduction that gives you some background on what you are about to read.

Some sections are really fun because they talk about how Will started in hip-hop and how he ended up on The Prince of Bel-Air.

Overall, I would say that this book is worth reading if you’re interested in learning more about Will Smith or just want something lighthearted for vacation reading!

Who would I recommend the Will summary to?

The 33-year-old person who is going through a tough time and wants to look for inspiration in someone else’s story, the 43-year-old person who is passionate about Will Smith’s movies and his life, or the 24-year-old person who wants to find motivation in their life to achieve their wildest dreams.

The post Will Summary appeared first on Four Minute Books.

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Happy reading,
-Nik