Five Gifts Shah Rukh Khan Got From His Father

Brut India

Gifts From My Father, a speech by Shah Rukh Khan…

Transcript

00:00My father was also very, very poor.

00:02He was unemployed and struggling to make ends meet for 15 years of my life

00:07that I had the privilege of knowing him.

00:09From when I was 10 to when I was 15,

00:12not being able to afford fancy gifts for me,

00:15he would wrap up something old that belonged to him in newspapers

00:19and declare it as a birthday gift when my birthday came along.

00:23It's the story of the five gifts my father gave me

00:25and how they helped me become what I am today.

00:31When I was 10, my father gave me an old chess set.

00:35Chess is a reflection of life, they say,

00:39and as clichéd as it sounds, it's probably true.

00:42The first thing it teaches you is that every move has a consequence,

00:47whether you perceive that it does or does not.

00:50Nothing you do, not a single moment is empty of living.

00:55So think of things through, not always but often enough,

00:59often enough so your life does not feel as black and white

01:04and as uniform as the squares on a chessboard.

01:07Sometimes in order to move forward, you might need to take a few steps back,

01:13and there's no loss in doing something that hurts in the short run

01:16but proves worthwhile in time.

01:23One of the most precious gifts my father gave me was an Italian typewriter.

01:28To use a typewriter well, you needed diligence.

01:31One wrong letter and the whole exercise had to be started all over again.

01:36So we had to learn how to move our fingers accurately,

01:39to make words out of thoughts with efficiency,

01:42and do it over and over again till we got it just right.

01:46As an adult, I have come to understand that there is nothing of more value

01:50than your capacity for diligence and your ability to work hard.

01:54If you can outwork your adversaries and your employees,

01:58you can ensure your own success in whatever it is you choose to do.

02:02Whatever you're doing, do it once.

02:04Then do it one more time, even more carefully.

02:07Practice will make everything seem easier.

02:10Be diligent, be thorough, think of every job you do as the first one

02:14so you have to get it right or you won't be able to impress everyone.

02:17And at the same time, do it as your last job,

02:20as if you will not get a chance to do it again ever.

02:23Don't just work, outwork yourself.

02:31Only parents clapping.

02:34In fact, you can outwork yourself.

02:36If you can outwork yourself, then pretty much nothing can prevent you from glory.

02:43Then my father gave me a camera.

02:46And the most beautiful thing about it was that it did not work.

02:50We all have those Leica ones, old ones, which don't work, look really cool.

02:54I learned that things don't always have to be functional to fulfill a need.

02:58That sometimes when things are broken,

03:00the greatest creativity emanates from their fragments.

03:03I found myself looking at my world magically through the unusable lens.

03:07And the fact that there was never any actual photograph to see

03:11taught me my most important lesson yet.

03:14That creativity is a process of the soul.

03:17It does not need an outcome or a product for the world to accept.

03:22It needs only the truth of its own expression.

03:26It comes from within and makes of your world whatever you wish it to make.

03:31So don't be afraid of your own creativity.

03:34Honor it.

03:40My father was a funny guy.

03:42He had the capacity to turn any kind of serious situation in a way that it seemed less stressful.

03:46With a bit of humor.

03:48Without a sense of humor, the world will always be a dull and dreary place.

03:52No darkness or despair should ever be beyond a good and a hearty laugh.

03:57Humor is actually the deftness to see the world, the reality,

04:00for the transient farce it really is.

04:03It's like a talisman for survival.

04:06Cultivate it and allow it to lighten every heavy moment.

04:10Wear it like a vulgar tattoo if you don't already have one.

04:13Don't ever let it get washed away in the turbulently beautiful seas of life.

04:18It's your ticket to staying young and childlike forever.

04:22And you'll realize why it matters to stay childlike when you're my age.

04:27And you watch this speech on YouTube with your children.

04:35The most beautiful and final gift that my father gave me.

04:40I only realized it was a gift on the day he died when I was 15 years old.

04:45A gift your parents have given to you already.

04:49Yes, the singularly most exquisite gift you and I have been given.

04:55It's the gift of life itself.

04:58There is nothing that marks a man or a woman out from the ordinary more perfectly than grace.

05:07Grace is the consciousness that life is bigger than we are

05:12and therefore our gratitude for it must match its vastness.

05:17It is the understanding that everyone we encounter,

05:21whether they're loving towards us or offensively abrasive,

05:28is a human like we are.

05:31It is knowing that experiences shape human beings

05:34and no matter how good we are at something or how successful we may become,

05:39we are never better than the other person.

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