Jaden Smith is a man of many talents, and he chooses to share that wisdom and knowledge with the world in the most special way.
This past weekend, Jaden Smith made a rare appearance at KICKit World, the first ever streets sports festival taking place in Inglewood, California. The 25-year-old gave out free meals from his vegan food truck, I Love You, as well as free water from Just Water.
In the late afternoon, Jaden led a highly-anticipated Masterclass that centered around Earth and sustainability, as well as how Jaden is able to do all that he does in one lifetime.
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Jaden began, “Making the album Syre, there was a lot of mental: I can do this, I believe in myself. Even when I’m crying, like there’s no way you can do this. I’m still trying to push through. It’s a lot of writing things down, a lot of writing down goals, a lot of conversations with people. Of trying to get that spark of inspiration, because sometimes you feel that fire inside. And when you do, it’s super important to put that somewhere and capture that fire. Whether it’s in a song, or in a video, or writing it down and writing a verse. All of those times where you felt like you can’t go and you do that one more, it’s those one more’s that adds up to where you’re like wow, I’ve distanced myself so far away from all of the people around me. Whether it’s the competitors or whoever, to where you find yourself in this space of supreme focus.”
He then goes into the importance of manifesting and isolating yourself to achieve whatever it is you want to do.
“There’s so much of that in sitting in the morning meditating, trying to clear your mind. Only have one thing in your mind, which is this flag on the top of the hill that you’re trying to get to, whatever that is for you. It’s not about a #1 album, it’s not about getting the recognition or getting the Grammy, it’s about releasing that thing that you’ve been talking about. That you’ve been telling everybody you’re going to do, no matter how it’s received from the world, it’s about getting that thing out of you. As long as you do that, then that’s all that you have to do. It’s about realizing that, but so many times of meditating. So many times of crying and feeling like I couldn’t do it. But still, those were those special times that I had to push through.
He also reminded students they had to get rid of the naysayers around then.
“It’s so important that you don’t have somebody right next to you that’s saying that you can’t do it all the time, because it gets annoying. It’s an unnecessary obstacle. I had that and I had to remove those unnecessary obstacles by creating sacrifices and saying no to certain things. ‘Oh, the homies want to do this.’ I’m sorry, I can’t do that. I’m in the studio, this is what I have to do. I’m going to a party or have fun with all of you guys, when I get this thing done that I have to do. It’s going to be way more fun when this thing is done. You’re never going to listen to my songs at the party, but I can’t go there until I figure this out.”
Whether it’s music, film, or running his own businesses, Jaden is definitely no stranger to multitasking.
“Let’s say I’m working on a film and I get really overwhelmed with the life of making movies or something. Okay so after this one, I need to go make an album and go sit on a hill, because that was too much for me. I’m going to be inspired to do that. Once I work on that album for 3.5 years, okay that was crazy. I went on tours, and now I’m burnt out from that. Now, let me get back to this ocean stuff. Let me go back to looking at microplasticity and studying stuff. It’s the jumping that helps me to stay inspired between all those things.”
He also revealed how the book Atomic Habits helped him organize all his to-do’s.
“Then this book called Atomic Habits, of creating systems in my life of: wake up, there’s a guitar there. You go downstairs and then there’s I love you food truck photo. I really am very meticulous about: the studio has to be inside of my house, then the editing bay also has to be right next to me. All the producers have to stay close by. In case I get nervous, I have to make a song. I try to keep the systems of everything in the world meticulously scheduled.”
For Jaden, his Monday’s are jam-packed with meetings to keep him on track.
“On Monday, we have to have these seven meetings or my life’s not going to go how it needs to go. I have to meet about all of these different subjects with all of the different teams for those things, because I need to make sure that everybody is on page with the I Love You event, with the album, with the music videos for the album, with MSFTS, with the store. It’s really about creating those teams of creating the best people around you. I have Dave Savage over here. I try to put people around me to keep me and say, ‘Hey, you’re five minutes late on that thing. You have to leave now, you have to go and work on it.’ A lot of it is time management and a lot of it is atomic habits, but also my anxiety pushes me to do a lot of these things. I’m scared, I’m nervous. I have to work on this thing right now.”