“I ask you to leave your shoes well under the bed at night, so you have to get down on your knees in the morning to look for them. And while you’re down there, thank God for His grace, mercy, and understanding”- Denzel Washington:

Denzel Washington didn’t talk about talent or connections. He talked about shoes.

In a video recorded by his colleague Tyrese Gibson, the Oscar winner gave young actors some advice. Put your shoes way under the bed, so that when you wake up you have to kneel down to look for them. And take that moment, down there, to give thanks. “We all fall short of the glory, we all have so much to be grateful for”, he said.

If you start listing everything you have to be grateful for, he stressed, you’ve already got a whole day booked. But the heart of his message was something else: the genuine desire to achieve something good is, according to him, the proof God sends in advance that it already belongs to you. That itch you feel to be who you want to be isn’t a whim. “You already have it. Claim it.”