I don’t watch a lot of late-night TV. As a new father, teacher, grad student, and martial arts instructor, I don’t have a lot of energy to stay up at night! I do like watching clips of episodes from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Conan O’Brien, and my new favorite, Jimmy Fallon.  You’d have to be living under a rock if you missed his ascension to the hosting spot on The Tonight Show.  If you’re like me, you may have even missed this great interview with his first-ever guest, Will Smith.

First the video . . . 

. . . then a transcription of the best part!

“It definitely can get scary, you know? In the last few years with my kids coming into the business it starts to be scary,” Smith said. “But I tell them all the time, ‘You just keep loving people. The thing is to make sure with your art your art is a gift to people to help their lives be better and to be brighter.’ And what happens a lot of times is you’ll see people fail in this business is they’re in there for their ego and they start doing it for them. And it’s like no, it’s like you’re trying to help people just get through a day. And you do it really well.”

Isn’t that a great outlook? Shouldn’t we strive to do this no matter our profession?  Will Smith is an inspirational figure to many, and Jimmy Fallon indeed has lots of heart.  What if we all tried to drop our cynicism and negativity?  What if we all opened up and gave our talents away as gifts?

You don’t need to be a famous entertainer to make people’s lives better and brighter.  All you have to have is the courage to be yourself.