My school was 90 percent white, but 90 percent of the kids I played with were black. So I got the best of both worlds. I think that is where my comedy developed.
Will SmithRead
You’ll never achieve 100 percent if 99 percent is okay.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Striving for excellence requires full commitment and effort.
This quote by Will Smith emphasizes the idea that settling for mediocrity leads to missed opportunities for greatness. If you are satisfied with just doing enough to get by, you will never reach your full potential and achieve your goals. It serves as a reminder that true success and achievement stem from giving 100 percent in all pursuits.
Themes
ExcellenceCommitmentSuccessMediocrityEffort
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech at a corporate retreat.
More from Will Smith
All quotes →In my mind, I've always been an A-list Hollywood superstar. Y'all just didn't know yet.
Will SmithRead
The first eight years of schooling was with all white people. So that helped me to understand how white people think. I think that transition is what helped me bridge the gap, because that's what my success has really been about: bridging the gap between the black community and the white community.
Will SmithRead
We all want to be in love and find that person who is going to love us no matter how our feet smell, no matter how angry we get one day, no matter the things we say that we don't mean.
Will SmithRead
I'm profoundly changed. There's a bittersweet emotion that I feel from playing this role. . . . I want the world to be different because I was here. However lofty or crazy or delusional that may sound, I want people's lives to be better because I was here.
Will SmithRead
The separation of talent and skill is one of the largest misconceptions in modern society. Talent is something you born with, but skill can only be attained through Hours and Hours of hard work perfecting your talent as a craft. Which is why Talent will fail you without skill.
Will SmithRead
Similar quotes
Our grand business undoubtedly is, not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
Thomas CarlyleRead
Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience.
Hyman RickoverRead
No matter how much pressure you feel at work, if you could find ways to relax for at least five minutes every hour, you’d be more productive.
Joyce BrothersRead
Do not quit! Hundreds of times I have watched people throw in the towel at the one-yard line while someone else comes along and makes a fortune by just going that extra yard.
E. Joseph CossmanRead
I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.
Sylvester StalloneRead
All of the courses that run through real streets are very demanding. There is no room for error, no shoulders to lean on. If you go off the road, you're into somebody's shop-window or front porch.
Mario AndrettiRead