The School of Greatness - 514 Wilmer Valderrama: Create Fearless Confidence and Achieve Anything

Episode Date: July 23, 2017

"Things are going to be as complicated as you want them to be." - Wilmer Valderrama If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/514

This is episode number 514 with Wilmer Valderrama. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. If you're not having any fun, then you're definitely doing something wrong.

I am super pumped about this episode and interview with the one and only Wilmer Valderrama. And for those that don't know who he is, he's an American actor, singer, producer, and television personality best known for the role Fez in that sitcom, That 70s Show. And he's done many other shows, including American horror television series From Dusk Till Dawn. He was also the host of the MTV series Yo Mama and voiced the character of Manny in the program, which educates and empowers the Latino youth. He also works with President Obama's Organization for Action campaign on future events involving immigration reform and education. I really love this interview because it's all about dreams, possibilities, what's possible that we can create in our lives in the mindset that is necessary in order for us to achieve

these things. And in this interview, we talk about what Wilmer learned about an opportunity while growing up in Venezuela and moving here in his young teen years to the United States and the biggest advantage he had by being an immigrant and coming here. We also talk about how he cultivated fearless confidence as an actor, even when he didn't understand English at the time, why you should fear success over your failures. We also talk about what Johnny Depp told him that shifted everything in his career when he was at the top and how becoming an activist has changed his perspective on his acting career and his future.

I am super pumped about this one. And if you enjoy this one, make sure you're sharing it out because it is a powerful lesson, powerful story that I think we could all resonate with. So make sure to share it out right now. LewisHowes.com slash 514. Tag me, at Lewis Howes and Wilmer Valderrama, over on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. And let us both know what you enjoyed the most

and took away from this interview while listening to it. And again, big thank you to our sponsors. But I'm so excited about this interview and this episode. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only Wilmer Valderrama. Welcome back everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got the legendary Wilmer Valderrama in the house. Thank you so much. Thank you, man. Thank you so much for having me, man. Excited that you're here. A mutual friend, Andrew Sandler, connected us and he said, you got to have you on. He said that you're here. Mutual friend, Andrew Sandler, connected us, and he said, you've got to have you on.

He said you're one of the most inspiring guys he knows. Oh, that's nice. So I said, all right. I actually didn't know much about you. I don't think I've watched much of your stuff. Obviously, 70s show, I watched a few little moments here and there, but I was not a big fan of the show. Not that I wasn't a fan, but I was just like-

No, no, I get it. Yeah. And I was like, all right, I want to learn more. So I was having Andrew kind of tell me more about you but i was like if he recommended it and i know your friends with scooter and a bunch of other mutual friends that we have so i was like i'm sure he's more than just a character on a show so i'm excited you're here i appreciate you being thank you no and vice versa i'm excited to you know to be to be on your show i really appreciate what you're what you're trying to do with you know know, with the simpleness and of,

of, of a philosophy that works for, for anyone who's listening. You know, I think it's, it's inspiring to, to share your stories. I think that,

you know, today the only, the education we need the most is, is peer to peer, right? The education we need the most is, is having, you know,

young people share their stories and having those stories created their own personal philosophy and how to navigate life in in the most effortless way possible and i think that if you're doing this on on every pot you know podcast basis i think that um you're moving the needle on and making it a better place that's the goal man connect the human race and help people live their best lives. Right. That's what we're all about. Now, I'm curious.

You grew up in L.A. for a few years, then you moved away to another country. Is that right? Yeah. So what happened was my mother and my father met in Miami. And when they got married there, they had my sister and I in Miami. We were born in Miami. And when I turned three years old, back then the dollar and el bolivar, which is the national coin in Venezuela, was actually very close.

Really? Because Venezuela is the number one reserve oil in the world and was one of the richest countries when it comes to natural resources. So they were exporting a very very very influential amount on a global scale right so um the agricultural industry was booming because they were exporting you name it right and my dad you know found passion in the agricultural industry and he decided that it was time to move back to venezuela uh for business And we went back to work. And also, he's Venezuelan. My mother is Colombian.

So they went back to what they knew. And living in America was amazing at the time. But they went back to their roots. And so they brought my sister and I into Venezuela. And we were raised in Venezuela. Probably a third in Colombia, most of the time in Venezuela. And so we were raised in Venezuela until I was about 13 and changed, almost 14 years old.

And around that time, the country politically and economically was showing signs. There was flags being thrown on the field. That's crazy right now. I mean, and the point is that i saw the you know the start of the evolution wow of the deconstruction of of a country that that was that that that was you know um so influential in south america yeah and uh so my dad saw the first you know national coup you know and when it didn't succeed the first one didn't succeed and it was led led by a young military guy named Hugo Chavez.

And my dad said, okay, guys, this is not looking really good. Corruption is taking a toll on the economy. Corruption is taking a toll on the last 10 years of growth. And my parents decided it was time to come back to the United States. And really the reason why we came back was to, and I quote from my dad to say, you know, me, I'll get the education that I never had, you know, and, you know, to me that was really significant.

And that was something that I was told when I was 13. And so when I came to the United States, I felt like that was my job. My actual full-time job was to get the education my parents never had an opportunity to have and you didn't speak English then or did you? I didn't even know how to speak English in fact this is the thing that sucked the most about it my dad is like

my dad was like okay so here's what happened so I was you know in Venezuela and in Latin America they make you take an English class and if you don't have an interest in English class, it's okay for you to flunk it. Right, right. You failed it. And I was failing all my English classes.

I was failing all my English classes. And then my dad literally one month tells me, okay, Marilyn, Stephanie, Wilmer, we're moving back to the United States. I go, huh? Because I literally at this point I was always saying to myself, you know, I'm never going to have to need how to speak English. Like I live in Venezuela. I don't speak Spanish over here. Why would I ever learn how to speak English?

You know, I'm never going to go to America. We'll cut to packing our bags and, you know, and having to relocate to the United States and knowing that the first thing I had to do was learn how to speak English and be the first one in my family to speak English. Wow. And where did you guys move?

Right to LA? So we were in Miami for a couple weeks and fairly quickly we realized that there was really not much for us there. My dad had a brother. How many jobs there? I mean, it just literally you know, it just literally, it was not necessarily what my dad wanted for us, you know.

We drove cross country, got to know the country on a different level, you know. Seeing the American flag everywhere was so eye-opening, you know. It's just you knew it was a line of the opportunity, you know. And we went all the way to Los Angeles, and when we got to Los Angeles. Why LA? Well, my dad had a brother of the opportunity. We went all the way to Los Angeles. When we got to Los Angeles, my dad had a brother here. One of his brothers had a little rental car place close to LAX. He said, come out here, stay with us for a couple weeks, six weeks or whatever. While you get it together and get a job and do your thing.

My dad said, okay, perfect. And we landed in Los Angeles. Well, we drove into Los Angeles and we went to stay with my uncle and his wife and a couple of my cousins. And, you know, the point was that my dad had sold everything he had in Venezuela so we can have enough capital to establish a life out here without having to really struggle with it. And being at my uncle's house for a couple of weeks, you know, maybe like two, three months or something,

was going to help him really slowly, really get the right house and those different things and help him get enough of a job so he can have at least a month of income, you know. Well, a week in, that really went south. It was not going to work. You know, my mom and my uncle's wife just did not get along. And there was something terrible and really bad that happened between them, and we were just like, okay, okay, we probably should move out, you know? And really what happened was, you know, if I can be just super open and raw about it,

my parents were helping with the groceries too. So I went to open the refrigerator. It was so stupid. It was so silly. But I opened the refrigerator and I grabbed a Popsicle. And my uncle's wife grabbed the Popsicle off my hand, put it back in, and said, that's not for you. And my mom just lost her mind.

Like, lost her mind. I've never seen my mom black out, you know? And we're calling my dad and my uncle and like, hey, that's not the time. We're like 13 years old, 14 years old. We're like, what am I going to do? Right. And, you know, my parents came and he was like you know we have to figure out so we we got into a hotel you know and then and then

and during that hotel stay you know my dad was you know obviously burning some cash to try to keep us going you know and then eventually we got this little tiny house in van nuys you know in van nuys california and got a house um it was like a two-bedroom little house where the living room and the kitchen and the dining room was all in one space, and we had a nice tiny little backyard. And my sister and I share one room, and my younger sister was sleeping in the same room with my parents. And that was the beginning. That was how we just kind of got, you know, kind of got established.

Wow. What, were you acting before that or into entertainment or producing or singing before this? Well, back in Venezuela, I lived in a very small town. I'm talking like, I don't know, 19,000 people. And spread out in two little zip codes that were basically so small that were pretty much considered a city. You know, it was called Acarihua and Araure. So when people talked about the Estado Portugueses, you know,

Acarihua and Araure, they'd be like, where are you from? They'd be like, Acarihua and Araure, you know, because it was this small little town. Went to school there. But they only have one movie theater all year round. And they have one movie theater, and they only play one movie all year round. One movie.

For the whole year. Yeah. And it was RoboCup. And I would watch RoboCup back to back in English. And they had the subtitles. Sure, sure. But I would watch RoboCup. And every single since i started watching

robocop i'm like oh this is so cool and so fun you know and and i was a huge fan of the bad guy in it and that's relevant because i come full circle to it you know but i um there was nothing to do so performing arts is something that's big in latin america you know and in venezuela it's also even more serious you know so so i uh i enrolled into these classes and I started doing singing, dancing, and acting. And I started doing a lot of theater. But I was doing it since I was six or so. So when I came to the United States, I felt like the one thing that was going to improve my speaking skills and was going to force me to read and force me to speak out loud and kind of break out of that shell was to go back to theater.

Really? So I went back to theater not even really knowing how to speak English. And I think my first character was playing the Beast in Beauty and the Beast in junior high. And here's why that's really funny. It's because I didn't have any lines. So I was like, ah. Basically, my teacher would literally recite the Beast's lines offstage.

And I would just mime as if I was speaking. Perfect. So it was the easiest job, but the funnest, too. I'm like the Beast, you know, I'm the Beast and Beauty and the Beast. And, you know, and the whole time i'm like someone is speaking for me off camera and i'm just pretending off camera off stage pretending that like you know i'm the one saying it but that was my first acting thing that's funny because i really don't speak english but i wanted to be in theater and the teacher was kind enough to let me in there

and i know and i couldn't even read a script right right that's cool so you got back into it pretty much right away and being in la there's probably like different opportunities here to do that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think mostly what happened for me was, you know, the more I did theater, the better my English became. Right. And the faster I learned how to communicate.

And then fairly quickly I realized that knowing how to speak English was the only weapon I needed in order to go out there and defend myself and conquer, right? As soon as like English was part of my, my, you know,

my utility belt, I knew that absolutely anything can happen now. Because if I could learn how to speak a crazy language like this at 14, 15 years old, I'm going to be unstoppable.

Yeah. And, and that's kind of what happened. You know, I mean, did a lot of theater and then at some point the teacher said to me,

you know, hey, you know, you're pretty funny. You should, you should give it a try. You know, and I said,

I said, well, maybe, maybe I should give it a try because I don't even know how to start, you know, so she told me

doing a couple of commercials here and there, you make some money and stuff. And I sold it to my dad. I was like, dad, I have good grades. So if I keep continuing my good grades, can you take me to some auditions? And my dad said, mijo, you,

my dad always sounded like he was drunk. If you want to do it, it's okay. It's okay. But ace. Ace. That's what he wanted. It was ace. I was like, okay, dad.

So I was kind of a pretty good student. That's good. But yeah, so that's kind of how I started. What was the first kind of big break, I guess, before the 70s show? Was there like a big commercial or something else you got through? Like, oh, I'm actually, I can do this and I can keep going. So I think it was my theater experience in high school that made me feel like I can get used to this. Like I'm having a lot of fun.

Maybe I should do more theater. Yeah. I knew this was i wasn't thinking i was gonna be in the commercials and movies and tvs like my ambition was to you know was to just kind of continue to theater because i was you know i wanted to be a pilot for the air force you know and if not i wanted to be as a psychologist you know i just wanted to like study minds and help people and all that and then um you know they said to me uh the teacher said to me hey listen you know i think you should go out and audition and stuff you know and i had met this

this drama teacher outside of my high school uh named celeste boyd and celeste uh honestly is the reason why i confident said i confidently said'm going to be the best at this. I'm going to be the best. If anything I do will be remembered. She was the one that kind of grew in me. And she started, she said, hey, I want to teach you. I want to bring you to my acting class on Wednesdays. She's pretty well known, right?

I feel like I've heard that name before. I mean, if you're in the industry, you know who she is. Yeah, I've heard her name before. Because she's someone that iconically has helped so many people too. Yeah? I feel like I've heard that name before. Celeste, I mean, if you're in the industry, you know who she is. Yeah, I've heard her name before. Because she is someone that iconically has helped so many people too. Yeah, that's who I've heard. And I hope that she continues. And she's still doing it because she's an amazing woman. Yeah.

She brought you into her class. She brought me into her class and said, I can't pay for it. I was about 16. Yeah, I was about 16 years old. I said, by the way, I can't pay for it. I have no money. And she's like, no, I want to teach it for free. years old. I said, by the way, I can't pay for it. I have no money. And she's like, no, I want to teach it for free. Wow.

And I said, wow, that's amazing. I said, can I bring my sister? She's like, okay, you can bring your sister. My sister and I did everything together. And in her class, it was 40-year-olds, 30-year-olds, 20-year-olds. And as a 16-year-old, just trying to do scenes to learn from all these awesome actors that were older than me was great practice. Then she introduced me to an agent. The agent said, I'm not going to represent you,

but I'm going to take you out and see what kind of feedback we get. It's kind of like representing, right? Kind of, but it's like probation. It's like a probationary way of representing somebody. So he sent me on this um on this doritos doritos commercial and they called him he says look the kid is awesome like he's really really good he's really funny but he has a crazy accent and we cannot take him because latinos on television shouldn't have an accent. And this was back in 96 or so.

But I just know the kid is really good. And the agent's like, all right, cool. So he sent me on another commercial, which I got, literally the second commercial I got. Wow. Which was a Pacific Bell Smart Yellow Pages commercial. It was a regional commercial. Pagers? Pages.

Pages. Pages. The yellow pages. Gotcha, gotcha. So it was the Pacific Bells Marge Lepage's. And it was original. It was for California. And it was in Spanish. Perfect.

It's perfect. And I had the ironies that the only line in the commercial was, the Pacific Bells Marge Lepage's. I didn't have to speak Spanish at all in the commercial but it was very nice they had my fake family and I was like well I got a fake family

it's my fake dad my fake mom it's my fake sister this is crazy and then so I went in there and I did the commercial it was awesome and with that money

I paid my dues and I became a Screen Actors Guild member I became a SAG member and then he's like okay you know send you a couple other things and

and I started booking things back to back to back because i was having so much fun like i wasn't scared no pressure i was not i wasn't scared like this this i have to get this that's right the audition i didn't i didn't depend on that audition so so uh i'm so sure i started booking job after job and then i remember and this is the part that's the most significant to me in my life I remember there was a time where when I was about I was about to turn 18 years old and it's about almost almost two years into me auditioning and stuff and getting little commercials here and there little spots and still doing theater in school my dad was running errands

for this mechanic shop so he would bring parts over, and that's how he would get paid for these errands. And he did that for a couple other places. And he would get in there and try to get with the mechanic shops and stuff. And I remember that one night, there's a locomotion in the house, 2 a.m. in the morning. And I see my mom and my dad scuffling in the living room. And I say, what's going on? I get i see my mom and my dad scuffling in the living room and i

said what's going on i get up and i asked my dad what happened and my dad said to me um they stole our car and and and if you know anything about anything in los angeles if you don't have a car i mean it's like you can't get anywhere. And my dad's complete hustle relied on that car. And my dad is really worried. My mom is crying. And I just, at like 15 years old, I looked at my dad. 15, 16 years old. So I looked at my dad and I said, Dad, don't worry.

Because, you know, I'm going to be this famous actor. And I'm going to be a famous actor. And I'm going to produce. I'm going to direct. And I'm going to have these companies, I'm going to be this famous actor and I'm going to be a famous actor and I'm going to produce, I'm going to direct and I'm going to have these companies, I'm going to have restaurants, I'm going to have all these businesses and we're never going to have to worry about this and I'm going to buy us a house. And my dad looked at me and he said, okay, mijo, you can do that.

And it was, to me, it felt like he gave me permission to do it. Wow. When he said you can do that, I was to me it felt like he gave me permission to do it wow when he said you can do that i feel in that moment i feel like my dad has said go ahead you can do that while i figure out this car situation you go ahead and become what you want to become wow so i went the next day i went to school and we walked to school the next day and I got to school and I hit the books extra harder and every time I got on stage I was performing louder than anybody else and I would eat everyone's meal and I was like this is this is mine and and he you know and then this teacher said man you're let's take you to the advanced class you wanna and so I was helping producing the plays

and then at some point I was even supposed to say this but my drama teacher would go on her own auditions and would leave me teaching drama

wow so it was like I was like so into it it was like this is gonna work you know but also in the afternoons

I would play with my Salvadorian Mexican I was in a soccer league so people always wonder you were in the country for so long how do you still have an accent and I go well because I play soccer you know with Mexicans and Salvadorians and with the Matecos and you know every day and I feel

like that's the reason my sister has zero accent because she had a bunch of white girlfriends that would go to the mall all the time and she would would say the word like a lot, you know. But anyhow, fast forward. That happened. I told my dad that. And I remember, you know, kept auditioning and stuff. And at the worst time of our lives, my teacher, my agent sends me on this audition. It's my first pilot audition.

And he said, here's the sites that are not going to audition. I go in, have a meeting, audition. They called me back, called me back again. And they said, hey, we're going to bring you back to producers. And I go, I'm getting a call back. That's great. But in my mind, I'm like, this is mine. I'm getting this pilot.

It's my first pilot ever. And I went to the last audition, and they told me, just have a little more fun with it. It's very cool. So i went in uh audition you know first of all they outside they bring you a contract you know when you go to network auditions they bring you a contract and they go hey listen um you were gonna make i think fifteen thousand dollars for the pilot and if it goes to series you're gonna make ten thousand dollars per episode. And... That's a lot of money back then.

Are you kidding me? I was like... 17-year-old. That was like more money than we made in a year. Yeah. So I looked to my dad and I said,

Dad, could you imagine if I get this? Could you imagine if I get this right now? Like, even if it doesn't go to series, it's going to really help us, you know?

And my dad said to me, without missing a beat, he said to me, mijo, if you get it, very good. If you don't get it, very good. And I said, okay, very good. And I walked in and I just auditioned stress-free because I knew if I got it, awesome. If I didn't get it, awesome too.

We're back to the drawing board, you know. I go home. My agent calls me and says, hey, good news. They want you to come back tomorrow. And I told my dad, hey, dad, and everyone's on the phone listening. I said, hey, dad, we got a call back. We're really close. And then the agent says they they want you to come

back tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that and the day after that and the day after that and everyone's like crying and going crazy and we're like jesus christ what just happened lord thank you so much and and then that moment i looked out saw the american flag and i said this is what it's about. How much more can I do? How much more can I go? How harder can I go, you know? And I said to myself that everything I did in this pilot was going to be the most memorable.

I said to myself, this is everything that comes out of my mouth. I'm going to work, and nobody's going to fire me from this job. All I kept saying is, I don't want to get fired. I went in, did the pilot. Maybe like a month later, I get a phone call from my agent again. He says, hey, listen, congratulations. He said, good news and bad news. I said, what's the bad news? He goes, well, the bad news is that they changed the name of the show

from Teenage Wasteland to That 70s Show. And the good news is that you're going on television the show is going on fox and they order 13 episodes it's huge and i and i said wait the show's about the 70s no idea i was like oh i think this is american stress i guess in wisconsin i don't know you know i had no idea the show was about the 70s and then it comes to find out the show goes on for eight years 200 episodes and can't pay the way for everything

I'm doing today now and then I you know I remember the day like that the week before

I got this this pilot my mom and I were walking over to the you know to the 99 cent stores to get our groceries

you know and I remember walking over it and you know walking a couple of miles to get back to the house with the bags to see my mom's hands you know really red taking you know and I remember walking over it and you know walking a couple of miles to get back to the house with the bags I see my mom's hands you know really red taking you know taking the bags and you know we will rest every two blocks we put our bags down and carry and continue

and I looked at my dad and I looked at my mom and I said mom don't worry because one day we're gonna drive you know and one day we did and that's just that was the example that was just you say it and you just have to do it it just not it's not even gonna come to you you just if you're gonna say it you have to follow it with your actions and you have to manifest it with with how much do you want it and is it is it within your spirit that once you have it can you hold it can you keep it and that is only your etiquette that's going to dictate whether you're going

to keep it or not you know so I look back on my mom and my dad I retired both of them and you know the first thing I did

when we got picked up on the show I bought a house and I said we're not paying rent anymore because we were like three months late in rent when I got the pilot

you know so that was the beginning of my career and really the American dream I was about to experience in America. Unbelievable, man. Yeah, crazy. I'm so curious to know about, you know, these,

how many years were you in Venezuela? 12 years, you say? I was about, almost 11 years. 11 years in Venezuela. What do you think was the biggest thing that you learned growing up there in South America that is different from the kids that grew up in U.S. or in L.A. that kind of gave you an advantage? Yeah.

Going in with this like mindset and this belief in yourself. For sure. You could create whatever you wanted. What do you think was that lesson you learned that was different? Reality. You live a reality in our countries that kids out here will just never feel. We'll have a tough time understanding empathy. Everything.

Like, we can sympathize in our countries with opportunity. We can take advantage of opportunity. South America. Specifically Venezuela. South America. Specifically Venezuela. A reality that unfortunately most young people today can only appreciate through an Instagram post. That gave me the edge.

When I came here and I saw, you got to keep in mind, our 6 o'clock news was decapitations and school boxes getting sprayed by ak's and you know cartel movement and and you know and and you know bombings and and you know you know senators getting murdered and police corruption and all that stuff and you're talking about a crazy level of of danger that affects the poorest and the richest community all at the same. And then you come to America and people are talking about, oh, another drive-by. And they're talking about, like, the violence in, you know, in the hoods. To me, that was like, what? This is Disneyland. We are in Disneyland.

Like this, the United States is the purest place on earth. Like literally anything can happen in this place. You have an environment. You can literally choose the environment you want to be in. Right. You can get out of the hood and be somewhere else. That's correct. That's correct. Or it didn't happen in Venezuela or where you were.

No. You moved three blocks away, same thing as you moved eight blocks away if you go to a different state. Yeah. So I think the edge for us was that. It's also appreciating the best and worst of your country. And then coming over here and appreciating the best and worst of the United States. Yeah. You know, and I think it's…

What do you mean we're not perfect here? Exactly. Exactly. the United States. Yeah. You know, and I think it's... What do you mean, we're not perfect here?

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. No, but I think, and to elaborate a little bit more on what I mean by that is, is that if you can really

keep your eyes open and if you can listen to your atmosphere and if you could pay attention to what's happening in the world, you can be invincible. Especially if you live in this country yeah you can absolutely achieve anything like i just gave you a glimpse at at you know the first 10 years of my life and literally the first four years of my life in this country and in that glimpse of it it doesn't tell you that like you

have zero excuse you know i don't know what else can you know but i come full circle to like coming from venezuela knowing that right now 20 years later or so venezuela is you know middle class people have to stand in line doctors you know doctors uh um you know professors are homeless right now you know uh you know they're standing in line to get a carton of milk and and a bag of rice and and and then they x their hands so they don't come back for a second one and they're they are organized based on the last digits of your driver license and your id and and you think about a country that you know that had i mean the richest resources and was exporting and was you know it's it's sad you know, and you look at that, and then, so

knowing where you come from, it's crazy important, never forgetting where you came from is really the edge you have on anyone that may be consider a competition, and that's something else I tell young people when I speak, and I do speeches and stuff, is you know competition is a state of mind you know if you believe in competition um look in sports 100 but an athlete that wins over everyone and it's and goes out there and plays harder than anybody else is because they know they're the only person they're competing with is themselves and you've heard it and you've seen and and billboards and you see it and then inspirational uh post but you should really study what that means because the only one that holds you back

is yourself yeah um i never compared myself to anyone when i got here um i was embarrassed about my accent for a second and then i learned to find pride in it yeah and then i then at that point anything anything counted but my edge was that you know knowing knowing where you come from we probably didn't compare yourself because there was no instagram right everyone's probably comparing their life to everyone else's life right um what was the biggest lesson uh the most inspirational lesson that your your dad and your mom tell you growing up um i think that has supported you your entire life yeah i think my dad you know i think my dad said two things that that really kind of made all the difference for me and i think that the first one was you know in that auditioning room before i went into the

seven shades as me or you know if you get it you know very good if you don't get it very good it was so simple in the moment but i've carried that you know through my mind throughout my career and honestly what it did is it made me fearless it made me fearless to experience a failure like some many of us put so much emphasis on winning something or achieving something or getting a job or getting a break or getting that part or you know the truth is that that thing that was one of the most substantial pieces of you know metaphorical lessons that i got was that if you win great if you don't win that's awesome you walk away with something

anyways and that's a success as a version of success and i think that that's what really that's what really um changed my perspective and that's why i felt like i was booking so much back to back to back and i was and when i went to that you know that additional seven show it made me so fearless that i went in there. I had nothing to lose. Nothing. Yeah. And then when I walked away gaining everything and, and I think,

so I think that was, that's something that I, that I hope young people can listen and say, Hey, wow, it's don't fear failure. Uh, to be honest,

you should fear success. That's the thing you should fear. Failure is a consequence of maybe, you know, chance, lack of preparation. Timing.

Timing. There's so many elements. Yeah. And none of those elements are personal except for, did you prepare? Were you not prepared enough?

Did you give it your all shot? If you can walk away saying i gave it everything i didn't get it awesome it wasn't for me but it's when you don't give it your 100 that you fear the failure that's a fact especially in my line of work especially if you're an actor if you're a musician if you go on stage and you do a showcase if you're doing theater if you're doing your first commercial whatever you get fired you say they let you go they give and you do a showcase, if you're doing theater, if you're doing your first commercial or whatever, you get fired, you say they let you go, they give you less lines or whatever. There may be preparation, you know, but if it's not, it's also not personal. Right. Yeah. I think the other thing that my dad said that made a lot of sense to me was, it wasn't what he said.

It was mostly the way he lives life. You know, he laughs at a funeral. Like my dad finds a way to really find humor in the most dramatic moments. And I learned that from him. And that also made me accept faster. It made me analyze and accept and find the positive and the bad so seeing my dad have a great sense of humor like even when they stole the car you know my dad it was really stressed and then like an hour later he goes he was okay we're gonna have to buy new shoes you know you know

and that's like that kind of mentality is what made me feel like, oh, okay, well, I can accept life and its punches and its hurdles and its disasters. It's kind of like the book, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, because it's all small stuff. Right. It's like when you put it in perspective, it's like, okay, yes, maybe something is horrible in the moment, but bigger picture, where can we find the humor or the joy and how can we move forward? That's correct. As opposed to holding on to this pain forever, you know, or this stress. And it's a state of mind, right? So I always tell people, and tell me what you think about this, but I always tell people, and I'm curious to see what you think about this.

But I always tell people, and people in relationships and friendships, and sometimes they have fallouts and people are breaking, you know, they hurt each other's feelings in relationships and all that stuff. And they dwell on the things that were done, you know, and they stress and they make things really complicated. And I always think that things are going to be as complicated as you want them to be. And they're also going to be as simple as you make them to be. Yeah. Right? So I always feel like when something complicated happens,

you have to remove yourself. You got to pull on the parachute and be like, let me look at it from bird's eye. Because when you're in it too much and you put the blinders, I feel like the problem is way bigger than you can control it. You get consumed by it. You can't get out of it. Yeah.

Right. Yeah, I agree with that for sure. Cool. I bigger than you can control it. You get consumed by it. You can't get out of it. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I agree with that for sure. Cool. I'm glad you agree with that. I was going to say. But that was my. That was.

No, I agree with that too. Yeah. But it's going to be as complicated as you want it to be. Absolutely. And it's going to be as simple as you want it to be. It's all perspective, I think. Right. I think a lot of these things come down to like being grateful for where you're at.

You know, you could have been like, oh, or your dad could have been like, the car is gone. Someone stole it. We lost this money. Now we're going to have to struggle. He could look at the negatives that come from it or he could say, oh, we get to buy new shoes and we get to lose a little couple extra pounds.

I get to have some exercise. Now I get to see the world in a different way and I don't have to be in traffic all day long with like jerks who are screaming or I'm going to be safer now and I don't have to be in traffic all day long with like jerks who are screaming. I'm going to be safer now because I don't have to deal with LA traffic. It's all perspective and gratitude, I think. So it's any way how we look at it. Correct.

And what about your mom? Biggest lesson from your mom? To get down from there. To get down from there because I got hurt every time. Get down from that tree. Down from there. Get down from there every time. Because she knew I was going to get down from there because i got i got hurt every time get down from that tree from there every time because you know she knew i was gonna get hurt that's funny you know and and this is why i think it's one of the best words of advice i've ever gotten it's because there are certain things you know you're pushing there's certain things you just know you're pushing. There's certain things you just know

you're trying to get away with. And when she told me, get down from there, it was this like hunting voice. It was like, get down from there. You're going to get hurt. Right. And I got hurt every time.

Really? I got hurt every time. And I think it's like, in the times that I climbed the tree or the times that I pushed the envelope on whatever subject or category of the conversation, I pushed it without knowing whether I was going to win or not. Or I pushed it without actually really knowing whether I was right or wrong. so knowing that you have this voice in the in your head that says get down from there which came from my mother most of us have this voice that tells us either yes or no you know my mom just kind of said it a precedent that she just knew better than me yeah and fyi your parents are always and will always be way smarter than you, no matter how smart you think you are.

Period. They're always going to have 30 years on you, and you can never get to 30 years or 40 years of experience. So your parents will always be smarter than you. And if you think your parents don't relate to you because they don't understand what you're going through, you're so wrong. Because you've got to remember that we're teenagers too.

Yeah, I think that's a great point to make, but also if your dad said you should be afraid of going on this audition, you shouldn't listen to him. Because he may have some predestined fears of his own failures and be like, I don't want you to get hurt, so

I don't even think you should go do it. Or you're probably not going to achieve these dreams because, so don't get your hopes up. That's right. So I think you need to be discerning sometimes of what your parents say. Now, if you're getting hurt every single time and you should listen. Correct. But if it's their fears trying to put on you, I don't think that's necessarily the case. No, I agree.

I mean, that's the, that's the upside. I mean, I went, what I, you know, mostly what I, what I want to come across with my mom saying that is that, you know, when you have the support of your parents, you know, you should have your heart open, you know. And they supported me through everything I wanted to do. They never limited me. They never told me I couldn't do it, you know. But there is families, man. And I tell you, it happened in my family.

I had family members. I had uncles who were telling my dad, what is your doing he's wasting his life my kid is honors in mathematics right right my mom was like well what is he going to do with that yeah exactly you know and and um i had certain ants for my mom's side that will be like my kid just graduated with honors in something something something and my mom will be like oh well he just did another play and um yeah he was very funny and so but you know but my parents uh you know were pretty cool with that but by but you have to be aware that even sometimes your family um will be the problem yeah you know but you have to believe in yourself, you know, in order for you to identify

that moment too. Yeah. Now, the 70s show was like the big hit for you starting out. And how many years was that for?

We did eight years and we did 200 episodes. Unbelievable. Eight years. You're, you know, you're making more money than you ever thought

you're probably going to make. You have this massive platform. You have this huge audience that's watching you. What were the big lessons you learned over those eight years? How did you stay grounded when all the attention of you being amazing and everyone watching and the biggest show and all this celebrity and dating all the big girls or whatever in the world? Not big girls. No, I love big girls. or whatever in the world. Not big girls. No, I love big girls.

Just go on the record. Nothing wrong with that. But how did you stay, what are the biggest lessons over those eight years and how did you stay grounded? You know, I was very lucky because the cast of that 70s show, Ashton Kutcher, Topher Grace, Danny Masterson, Laura Prepon, Mila Kunis,

Kurt Witsmith, you know, Debra Jo Rub. And the creators of the show, Bonnie and Terry Turner and Mike Brazil and the producers, Tom Warner and Marcy Carsey, and Peter Roth, the president of Fox at the time, they were, I mean, they were great role models. And they gave us really early advice that really kind of helped us stay grounded you know and but there was a moment there was a window of my life where i thought i thought i had to do certain things because those certain things were what defined an actor in success like what um like going out a little too much party you know like no you know

yeah going to the places you're gonna get photographed for no reason you know you know things like that and like and then only for like one year i hung out with people that i really like i had no interest and had no, um, relativity with like, we couldn't relate. We didn't see things the same way, but when the loud, when the music is loud, you kind of drown all that out.

And then you just kind of think that that's a real friendship. Yeah. I had to do a real inventory in my life to, to understand that, um, I had bigger purpose and that I, purpose and that my ambition was bigger than just being out at a club all the time. I enjoy celebrating my successes,

so if you ever see me out, it's because something awesome just happened and something, I closed a monster deal or something like that and I'm celebrating. But the days of me just randomly going out, forward running, that doesn't happen. It's eight years, eight years, nine years or so. I think that that's something that really helped me get center

and get some of that youth back. And I think when you're young, you should allow yourself to go out there and experiment and do what you got to do. But based on the road and what I wanted to achieve, I needed to make certain changes. But the cast of the 70s show, we held each other down.

We never had to hang out with anyone else because we thought they were cool. In the most humble terms, I can say we were the coolest. Right, right. And we just... We're fun to hang out with, yeah. We're fun to hang out with.

It's cool in this crowd. And the reason why I say that is because we were real people that just so happened to get an extraordinary job. And think about the generation before Dawson's Creek and the 70s show and the generation after. That moment in time. The reality shows. Yeah. Before that hit and right as soon as the science felt was leaving the air there were some new kids in town and i remember it's the cast of

dowson's creek yeah and it was the cast of that 70 show merrill's place and i don't know we're having their last seasons and it was back in 1998 between 1998 and 2006. We were real people that had extraordinary jobs. And I'm talking, you know, Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, you know, Ashton, the whole cast I just mentioned. By the way, Jamie Foxx, Mark Wahlberg, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, real people that you talk to and you feel connected to. It was a very, very unique country club. Yeah.

And we'll never have that moment again, you know. But I got to tell you, that really also helped because those people had no problem telling you, hey, man, you don't got to do that. You know, you should hang out over here instead. Right. You know. Don't do that stuff. Yeah. Don't like your mom. Get down. Yeah. Hey, man, you don't got to do that. You know, you should hang out over here instead. Right. You know? Don't do that stuff. Yeah. Don't like your mom.

Get down. Yeah. Hey, man, get down from there. Get down from there. But, yeah, so I think that helped. I think that truly helped. You know, the dynamic that we had back then really helped. And you look at now I'm 37 years old.

And from 17 years old to 37, the fact that all of us are still here swinging as hard as we did and doing absolutely anything we want to do when we want to do it and the world and the studios and Hollywood and the fans are still welcoming us, it's like, I don't even know what, it's the biggest blessing we could ever count.

Amazing. Who inspired you the most from that show? Maybe from a moment or from the entire experience or something they did or said. You know, from the Castle show? Yeah. You know, we inspired one another. We kind of held each other up.

And I think it was how real we were. I do have to say that Danny Masterson really said it really great. He'd been in the game longer than us at the time. He'd done Roseanne and Sybil and all that. And he was already in that company for a while. And he kind of showed us a couple of places that we could hang out and stay out of trouble. And we would go to this – every Friday night after after the show we will go to this bar called apple bell on franklin and we just kind of just sit outside chill fresh air chill talk and laugh

and that was fun so danny kind of set it a good tone for all of us uh as in like he he never had to he was never in the scene you know we kind of created our own you know bubble and um and he started that you know and then after that i think you know ashton danny and i became best friends and and we never let it one do something that you know would be jeopardizing or anyone i think that's one thing i i think ashton danny and i did for each for one another and and they really helped me understand uh is that i didn't have to do anything um based on any other perception or assumption that I could just be.

Do you have any regrets from anything in that show? No, I don't regret anything. I appreciate every mistake. Regretting mistakes is a waste of time. You got to embrace the mistakes. There was times in my life where I felt things and have made mistakes and misjudged certain things that I did or said that really cost me a lot of pain and a lot of sadness.

But I also appreciated that lesson because it made me a better man a better friend um and realized that i had to make some quick changes if i was gonna really still be around at 37 now you had this massive hit for eight years that was all over the place what did you do after that to i mean it was a challenge afterwards to i guess reinvent yourself and not just be known as this one character i've had a few actors on who were on massive shows big stars and then they said for two years afterwards they were like i can't even get in a room because i'm so typecasted as this character and people won't even let me come read right and they're just like the money's going

down they're attached to this old show yeah they don't know how to move forward did you have that challenge did you how did you reinvent yourself and what advice would you give to others well i learned i learned really strong lessons from the sitcoms of the 80s and in the early 90s um you know i mentioned the cast of dawson's Creek and the cast of 70s Show. I feel like, again, we were in this moment in time where for the first time, the studios, the film studios, were looking at this group of kids as real estate. Like, what if? What if we get, you know, James Randolph to be in Varsity Blues? What if we get Ashton to be in, you know, whatever movies he did, right?

And what if you got Wilmer and Summer Catch and, you know, and Unaccompanied Minors and all the early things that I did? Same thing with the rest, you know, Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson. You know, like, at that time, we were given an opportunity to kind of prove ourselves for more than a TV actor. Because at the time, the perception was that if you were a TV actor, you did TV. If you did movies, you did movies.

If you were in the category of supporting characters like a Fez on that 70s show, you were destined to never work again okay somehow you literally you're supposed to get stuck yeah you're supposed to just be like forever like that's what you played the karate kid forever right you're literally gonna be that right um but i think that my my i think i think shenny r Ross is why I go over at UTA and my whole team, my management team at the time too. Shani and Nancy Gates and Tracy Jacobs at the time, they saw me for so much more. And they saw me for so much more than, like I really believed in myself.

But they had to teach me to believe that I could be everything else I wanted to be. Producer. Yeah. Director. Yes. Entrepreneur. Whatever. You can do anything.

Singer, dancer, anything. Everything. Everything. If I had the talent, then we should be using it. That was the philosophy. Yeah. But I also have to thank a few people for that transition because it was a slow burn. We were still on the 70s show when I was going out and doing, you know, the summer catch of Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard.

And then I went and did Party Monster with Randy and Fenton over at World of Wondered. And that was my first, you know, crazy, dark, underground movie. That was a Sundance darling who's opened you know Pride Festival and it was the life of Michael Adler in New York City and I got to perform with you know Seth Green and Macaulay Culkin's Return Film and Marilyn Manson and

Dylan McDermott and Chloe Sevigny and you had I mean to be given an opportunity to do a movie that was so raw and so it became such a cult that was really important to me. So I started doing things that would show the industry, not so much like the masses, right? Like, unfortunately, the masses only see me maybe in Summer Catch and May 70s show, maybe on Accompany Minors, perhaps, because that was a big studio movie too.

But in the industry, everyone's seeing it. Right. So the industry was seeing Party Monster. They were seeing, oh oh and Fast Food Nation Fast Food Nation was one of the biggest moments in my career even though

the documentary what am I thinking no the film by Richard Langlater I think it supersized me yeah you think it supersized me yes

so so so back in 2004 I was 24 years old I have a meeting with Richard Langlater. And Richard Linklater is doing a movie by the book, you know, from Eric Slosser, Fast Food Nation. And it's going to be like the traffic of activism.

Right. And he's putting together a ridiculous cast. And I was privileged to meet with him and tell him i'm an immigrant i can relate to the story i really didn't know what this coming to america taking jobs and doing whatever that movie took me to can film festival stand next to ethan hawk and greg kaneard and patricia arquette and you know bruce willis and you know and and be be looked at as an actor my entire role was in sp. I played an undocumented worker that crosses the border with his family

and takes a job at a slaughterhouse. And then Richard Linklater and Eric Schlosser said, hey, some young people are listening and people are giving some attention right now. You have an opportunity to say things that matter. And I said, me? Actors are not supposed to get involved in politics. He goes, yeah, but politics are human issues.

And that's what changed everything for me. So in 2005, I go in front of Congress and talk about immigrant workers and all that because Richard Linklater and Eric Slosser were the ones who mentored me to do that. And that's when I started, that's when I became an activist back in 2005 that's when i said you know what i i have a responsibility with every character i have a responsibility with everything i say you know that's when things drastically

change and slow down for me um slow down in terms of the acting world or in terms of no i slow down in like life oh i was going around yeah yeah like not even the party like i was just trying to do everything everything you know and i was like whoa let's be more strategic about this you know and but but it was thanks to my agency at the time and all that that they were that we were all we had a great partnership shanie is my queen she's everything shanie ross is right it's the best and she she was the one that was like take your time time, take a deep breath, you know. And that moment in time was defining for my transition, you know. And every character I did during the time of the 70s show in the movies was telling the industry, oh, wait a minute. He's not Fez.

He's not Fez. He's not Fez. Whoa, I didn't think you could do an entire character in Spanish. Well, he's playing a gangster in this Spike Lee thing. Right, right, right. So all these things are happening where the industry took notice that at any minute now, I could have a character in any of these things.

So it really opened the doors. And I remember another pretty good point for me when I was doing, I remember I was doing a seven show, I was doing Handy Manny, I was doing Your Mama, and I was just finished, and Fast Food Nation, I remember I was doing a seven show. I was doing Handy Manny. I was doing Your Mama. And I was just finished.

And Fast Food Nation, I just premiered in Cannes. And Entertainment Weekly had honored me with six pages, the arrival of Wilmert. And it was like this thing. And I had this anxiety. How much, wait, we got to do something. What is the next thing? What's the next thing?

We got to do the next thing. What's the next thing? And my agents kind of slowed me down. He goes, that's a lot. Six things or six days or whatever yeah yeah you only have seven days and i was doing you know seven days so during the weekdays i would rehearse every show in the afternoons i would do handy manny and on the weekends i would shoot uh your mama on ntv and then on my weeks off, I would shoot Fast Food Nation. Wow. Or another movie. So literally I was addicted to how much more can I do? And it was consuming me.

And I was sick every three weeks. And I had bags under my eyes. And I still found time to actually go out and meet my friends and drink a little. And there was just not – I just wasn't really balanced in the approach you know yeah so Tracy Jacobs and Jenny Ross is why I said hey we need you to meet somebody I go okay where are you going they took me take me over to Disney Studios and we walk in to this big sound stage and um I just remind reminded this actor I'm going to mention of this story. But walking to the soundstage and there's this huge ship.

Huge ship. And I go, whoa, where are we? We walk out. There's pirates everywhere. I go, this is, this is, wait. This is, wait. Wait a minute. Where are we?

So Tracy represents Johnny Depp. Uh-huh. And she wanted me to meet with Johnny. Never met in my life. Pirates everywhere. I am a fanatic of Johnny Depp. Really? Because I relate to him and how fearless we are when it comes to creating characters, right?

Like I'll create something that's so far removed from who I am and people are like, who's this guy, right? And he's perfected that. He's a pioneer of that. So we go into his trailer. And we sit down. And he's playing a little music. Is he a full character or not? He's in full Jack Sparrow.

Is he speaking like a normal human or like Jack Sparrow? No, he's speaking like a human. But he still has the lingo. So Wilmer, come on in. Welcome. How was it, my friend? you know but you know he still has the lingo so Wilmer come on welcome how was it my friend and so so we're

we're talking and and she just wanted us to kind of meet she goes I think you guys should you know

you guys talk you have some things in common and he shared some of his struggles in his early career how like people sort of not only wanted to see him as certain things

but he wanted to be scissorhands you know and I started talking to him aboutissorhands, you know. And I started talking to him about, you know, other things like, you know, well, here's what I'm doing. I'm doing this and the animated and the Yo Mama on TV and this and whatever. But I feel like what's the next thing? Like I got to get the next thing.

And I just get this anxiety. I feel like, you know, I feel like I'm having a moment right now, and we're gathering heat. I feel like we've got to keep fueling the fire and keep the steam going, and so the train keeps going fast, and I'm talking like this. And he's smiling, and he looks at Tracy, and then he smiles back, and he goes, Wilmer, Wilmer, let me ask you a simple question. I go, okay. He goes, what's the hurry?

Wait, what? What's the hurry? Why are you in such a hurry? And it changed everything in me. Because I knew exactly what he was telling me because life is a marathon. If you make it a spring, you may not make it. And then I realized

I just need to take my time. And because of that advice, I'm a 37-year-old still swinging. You're not dead. I'm not dead. And then he asked me, what kind of actor do you want to be? Whoa.

Nobody's asked me that before. Do you want to do everything or do you want to do every character you want to do? If you want to do every character you want to do, then you want to say no to everything you don you want to do every character you want to do if you want to do every character you want to do then you want to say no to everything you don't want to do because if you're in this hurry you're going to do things you don't want to do and it just like that's powerful it was the recipe it was a recipe for the like-minded who can believe in themselves and who could take a deep breath and say it's going to happen when it happens and when it happens I'm going to love that moment. Yeah.

And that's how it happened. And that's one of the things that really changed my life. It was, what was the hurry? If you make it a spring you're not going to make a marathon. You know?

And what kind of actor did I want to be? How did I want to be remembered? Really, I asked myself. And Fast Food Nation was exactly what I wanted to be remembered for, what he stand for, what he said, who he defended, who I played, the person, the real human being I played in Fast Food Nation is who I wanted to pay respects and honor in every character I did after that.

And if it was entertaining, it was like, I play a villain. Then I was like, it has to be the most awesome villain that you want to be. And, and, and then after that,

I was able to take a big break. And I just, I took about a six year break from television. Wow. I took a six year break from television and started producing, started directing, started developing, started my production company and focus on making handy Manny. One of the most, you know, started developing, started my production company,

and focused on making Handy Manny one of the most, you know, the biggest show. And because he was helping people and because families were so proud of having this little bilingual character teach. They're either Caucasian or African American or Asian or, you know, or everybody else that will watch this show of any ethnicity to be proud of appreciating a second language, appreciating your culture, never forgetting your roots.

And I was like, that's what I want to do. And then in those six years, I became an activist. And Rosario Dawson and I, you know, were part of the whole wave of Voto Latino. Started with the census. Then we're registering people to vote. Then after that, it morphed into more activism and starting, you know, programs like Ready wave of vote to latino started with the census then we're registering people to vote then after that it morphed into more activism and starting you know programs like ready to lead for the congressional hispanic caucus which was a college readiness program for for minorities so they

understand what's out there and how they can actually make college obtainable and then you know after school programs and i just kind of got addicted to touching people and and and having them you know see a light that I saw at one point and then and then eventually from then on you know I started I somehow started working with President Obama on immigration reform and working with him was one of the brightest proudest moments of my life you know and then from then on you know we went on to create other things and and uh today we you know America for Verona and I created Harness, Harness That Space. You can go check it out. And it's really an organization that kind of puts together all the community leaders and the movements of the human rights and having them not only commute with one another, but share each other's strengths and weaknesses.

not only commute with one another, but share each other's strengths and weaknesses, and then have a second category of people that have certain resources, whether it's filmmaking or funding or certain ideas or tech or marketing, to leverage that and have them all be in the same room and help one another move the needle when it comes to defending what the country should be about. And Harness is something that's one of my proudest you know things that i co-founded as well but but in those six years i became fearless to defend my family my latino family my parents were immigrants and said that i came from an immigrant family who came fearlessly to america and built things and then you know from then on, in those same years, I went and traveled.

I went to Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, you know, Greenland, you know, South Korea, visiting the troops and, you know, and really getting to know the men and women who fight for our freedom and for the flag that we celebrate and the American dream that we all live. And in that moment, since that moment when I met Johnny and then getting the words of advice from my agents and remembering what my parents told me, in that window, I perfected the man I wanted to be. Wow.

And became exactly who I am right now and who won't change but only learns. And who are you now? Well, today, I look myself in the mirror and and I say you are Wilmer Valderrama. And what does that mean to you, Wilmer? That means someone that is fearless. Someone that believes that anything is possible and the only thing impossible is what you told yourself was going to be. And honestly, just a proud son,

proud of his parents and proud of the sacrifice. But humbly so, I just think I've become exactly the person that I would look up to if I was Wilmer. That's cool. Again, I only say it in the most humble terms.

That only means so much to me. It doesn't mean anything to anybody else. But I've become exactly the person that Wilmer Valderrama would look up to. That's the only person I want to be. That's cool. I will look up to. And that's the only person I want to be. That's cool.

You know, so when I think back at all those years and all those mistakes and all those, you know, lessons, it's hard to regret anything, you know. Yeah, it's great, man. Because it's giving me the spirit that makes me live life today, for sure. It's amazing, man. And in the last 20 years, you've created so much. What's the vision that you have

or the dream you have moving forward? You know, it's simple now. I mean, it's simple is to continue to do things i like it really is simple you know if you asked me this 10 years ago i would be i would say an empire yeah you know i'm gonna build an empire and now to me the empire I have is only as influential as the people I surround myself with and the reach and the change and the impact that it has on people and on society. And unity has become really the spirit of that empire. It's not about how much can I achieve. It's how much can we do. And it's never, I mean, I learned very quickly

that I dream very small, but we dream very big. I also learned that the vision for what's next, it's about creating a seed, divorcing it, emptying your pockets in the table. Everybody around the table empty their pockets and then build a Lego house from there. That's it.

That is to me the recipe for success today and for the future is understanding you have weaknesses and those weaknesses are going to be somebody else's strength. So you have to never assume that that weakness, you're going to make a strength. Because if you only focus on your strength

and you allow somebody else to share their strength with you, you both just win. That is strong. And I was a one-person band for like almost 10 years of my life. You tried to do it all yourself. Tried to do it all yourself. Tried to do it all myself. And I got some things done, but not at the impact that I thought it would be. Because it wasn't about the credit.

It wasn't about the ego. It was about like, no, I can do this. But a real leader empowers. A real leader inspires. But a real leader empowers, right? A real leader inspires. And that empowerment and inspiration turns things into reality. You know, it's not you did it and you came and assembled this table.

It's not that somebody had to cut this wood. You don't cut wood. You're not a carpenter. No. You don't make legs of steel either, right? But in order to build this table, I got to get us all together. You're the carpenter, you build the steel, but I got the screws, and I know exactly how I'm going to angle it.

Right, right. And now we all can successfully share this table together. Yeah. And everybody wins. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think that that's my vision is to continue to share the success that I build with the people that i respect and love so much that i happen to be sharing my everyday with right now and having a heart open to welcome everybody else to say hey man what else can we build together you know that's powerful

you know when the interview goes well when i don't ask any of the questions that i have here for you and it just flows I could have trimmed that a little bit more. I loved it, man. I've got a lot of questions for you but I want to kind of bring it together with three final ones. The first one is called the

three truths. So if this was the last day for you and... Define last day. you and every fine last day, you're dead tomorrow, right? But you, or it's many years from now and it's your last day and you've created

everything you wanted to create. You've done it all. Every dream you've achieved, every person you want to meet and you made it happen. You had multiple hang sessions with Johnny Depp and your life is complete. You learned all the lessons you needed to learn, but for whatever reason, all the creations that you had out in the world,

no one has access to anymore. So they can't watch any shows or movies or anything that you've ever created. They don't have access to, but you have a piece of paper and a pen and you get to write down the three truths, three things, lessons, truths that you would share with the world.

And that's all they would have to remember you by, these three lessons. What would be your three truths? I mean, very simple for me. I live by them and I just hope I can pass this on to my children as well. Number one is what my dad said to me. I think it's if you win, great. If you didn't, awesome. Number two, I think that never live life with the anxiety that you're not going to achieve. So what's the hurry? Take your time in building a foundation that's not going to achieve, right? So what's the hurry, right?

Take your time in building a foundation that's not going to be broken, right? Take your time. I think that's number two. Take your time and enjoy the time, right? Take your time and enjoy that time. It's a moment that we have, right? The last one is something that Robin Williams, I had the privilege of asking him for advice.

Robin Williams said to me, he came to the 70s show visiting Kerwood Smith because they've done Dead Boy Society. And I said, you know, at like 19 years old, I said, hey, Mr. Williams. He goes, call me Robin. And he was already on, you know. I said, okay, Robin, word of advice for a young buck like me, man,

if I look up to all your comedy and all that stuff. And he said to me, he said to me, okay, word of advice for a young buck like me, man, if I look up to all your comedy and all that stuff. And he said to me, he said to me, okay, word of advice. He gave me two, but I'm going to give you the one that I want on that list, right? So he said,

always remember and never forget that it's supposed to be fun. And that set it atone for the guy line. If it wasn't fun, I was doing something wrong. If it wasn't fun, I wasn't prepared enough. If it wasn't fun, I'm probably at the wrong place. I shouldn't be here.

But everything is supposed to be fun. I apply it to my acting. If I'm not enjoying this character, I'm not doing something right, or I'm not at the right place where I'm supposed to be. So I would say those are the three things. The last one to me is one of the most important ones because we forget to have fun when we work for our goals. We sometimes feel like we have to sacrifice

and we have to put ourselves through pain and that we have to be sore in the morning. But you have to understand that you have time. That no matter the outcome, you're going to win anyways as long as you make it fun. What was the second thing he said? The second thing was about fans. He said to me, he said,

so when you meet your fans, because you're going to have fans, they're going to have two or three minutes of your time for the rest of their life. What two or three minutes do you want them to walk away with? I never have a bad day in front of my fans. My fans come up, they want to say hi,

take a deep breath. If I'm going through something, I'm stressed, I want to give them the a deep breath if i'm going through something you smile i'm stressed i want to give them the same energy they give me when they give me they have this when their eyes when they meet me for the first time sometimes there's tears sometimes there's laughter sometimes they go into this place where they remember all these characters or or they listen to all the quotes that i put on instagram or or twitter and all that and and they and they quote me back and they say that i've you've helped me so much you know

the things that you said really helped me while i was getting through this hard time or or even as far as saying like you know you know today i didn't think about harming myself because you made me smile today and all these things have to be met with the same compassion and same love they give me and you know if all my fellow actors and musicians are listening to this it's it's a lot easier to give a smile in the moment it's a lot easier to take three minutes than hide and elaborately not connect with your people um So to me, that's very, very important to me. Two or three minutes, yes, of course, picture, no problem. What do you want me to sign?

Of course. What do you want to tell me? This and this and this. Great. Keep digging. Keep climbing. Thanks for saying hi. Yeah.

I appreciate you saying hi. That's the only way I finish every encounter. Thank you for saying hi. I appreciate you coming hi that's the only way that's the way I finish every encounter thank you for saying hi I appreciate you coming up I know not everyone's like that but I will say that that's my philosophy that's cool man well I want to acknowledge you for a moment Wilmer

for opening your heart and for listening to the mentors that were there before you who gave you great advice but also making a massive impact on so many people, not only for your work as an actor, but really what it looks like now is mostly your activists, your work and trying to make an impact back in the world with other things that aren't related to acting. And I think that's what's going to be most remembered about you is how you made an impact

for people that didn't have the voice and you using your voice for something more than just fame or recognition or money, but using it to really make a difference in people. So I want to acknowledge you for constantly reinventing yourself, staying grounded. Cause I didn't know you were this grounded of a human and having such an open heart for all of us to witness it. Oh, well, thank you. Yeah. Well, I'm blessed that I was able to share my thoughts with you

and pay tribute to the people that really, really helped me. To be honest, it was about my parents, really. Yeah. But thank you. Thank you for having me, man. Of course. Before I ask the final question, where can we connect with you online? What do you want us to take action on?

Website, social media? Yeah, sure? What do you want us to take action on? Website, social media? Yeah, sure. What do you want to spend time on? Sure. So, you know, the predictable ones, you know, I'm obviously on Twitter. I'm at WValdorama. On Instagram, I'm WilmerValdrama. And on Facebook, the same thing, WilmerValdrama.

And there's a couple of places that you want to know more about different things and activism. I think that, you know, Voto Latino is a good one if you like voting registration. What is it? VotoLatino.org. Voto Latino. Yeah. And the other one, which is America for Us and Ron Pierce Williams and my organization, it's called HARDNESS.

HARDNESS is quickly growing into something that we're going to be very proud of as a community, I think. growing into something that we're going to be very proud of as a community, I think. And I think you can go to hardness.space for this and just to get more information on that. That'd be cool. Other than that, I think I welcome you to kind of follow me on social media and stuff. I'm silly at times. Where do you hang out the most?

Where do you like the most right now? I'm actually hovering a lot on Instagram. I get lost on Instagram a lot. On Twitter, I tend to promote a little bit more and then also do some inspirational quotes and stuff. If you want inspirational stuff, I post it there. I hope it's inspirational. But I think Instagram and Facebook are going to be my most elaborate. I blog a lot.

I go live a lot and do a lot of story stuff, which is cool. Cool, man. Final questions, what's your definition of greatness? What's my definition of greatness? Oof, that's a loaded question, but my definition of greatness, but I think greatness is the ability to only live within your strength and making that your lifestyle.

If you can live within your strength and not lie to yourself that you can do other things you can't, that's one thing I feel like is greatness. You can make something truly great if you just execute within your strength. And I think that's the definition of greatness. Stay within your strength because if you're within your strength, it's always going to be fun. And that strength will perfect your practice. And when you perfect your practice, you achieve greatness. Wilmer, thank you, man.

Appreciate it. Thank you, bud. Appreciate having me, man. That's great. There you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this one. I loved connecting with Wilmer and getting to hear more about his story. And just being in his presence for an hour during this interview really showed me who he was. He opened his heart.

He was so open and giving and present. And I just love when people really connect and take the time. You know, he's got a lot going on, a lot of different businesses and shows that he's running. And for him to share his story so openly, just really, I really appreciate that.

So if you guys enjoyed this and it resonated in any way, then go ahead and tag your Instagram stories with a screenshot of this podcast episode and tag me at Lewis Howes and at Wilmer Valderrama and post it on Twitter. Again, the link is lewishowes.com slash 514. Let a couple friends know about this episode. We want to get more people connecting to the message of greatness, learning the tools, the inspiring stories to help everyone get to the next step, reach bigger results, feel deeper, have a more open heart, connect to the human race on a bigger level.

That's what this is all about. Striving for greatness in our own unique way. If you enjoyed this, again, share it out with your friends. Leave a review over on iTunes. Just search the School of Greatness podcast on your iTunes app or on your podcast app on your phones. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. you Bye.