Why Motivation Isn't Everything and Other Advice from Gwyneth Paltrow & Terry Crews

My dad’s grandfather Martín used to play the organ at the town’s church in Igantzi, Basque Country. It was the early 1930s when Martín taught his younger brother Marcelino how to play the piano. Then a deep famine forced their mother to send the boys alone on a ship to Argentina, where other Spaniards were settling after WWI.?

The story goes that on the ship Marcelino got upgraded from third to first class thanks to his piano skills, allowing him to play on deck. Once in Buenos Aires, an infection forced him to stay at Hotel de Los Inmigrantes (our Ellis Island) for a few months. The brothers eventually befriended other Basques and Argentinians, and over time built a life away from home. They were only teens when they left, and they were never able to return to see their parents again.?

Many of us have family stories that are passed down from generation to generation. I find this one deeply inspiring, not only for their struggles but for how they dealt with the little control they had over what was happening. While I’m inspired by them I doubt that at the time they found their own actions inspiring. Martín and Marcelino were told to pack. So they packed. It’s in that journey that they created and reinvented themselves.

We worry about motivation and inspiration and often miss that most of the things we do, we do because we have to. Because things need to get done. The ideal scenario is we have a true north, call it a strategy, a dream, a goal. But even then, it all comes down to the little steps taken to fulfill it on a daily basis.?

I write (my newsletter, a play, a song) because I believe in the power of stories. But then week over week I lose sight of my overarching motivation and (after some procrastination) I sit down and write because a deadline is due. And I hope that my voice comes through but I’m not necessarily thinking about it all the time. Sometimes, like Martín and Marcelino, we all do what we need to do and we figure it out as we go.?

We hold the map while packing the suitcase. Then days –or decades later– perspective reveals the entire path. It’s not only the intention set at one point but the task at hand that takes a boat from the dock to the high seas.

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In this episode of Best Advice, I feature two conversations we captured at LinkedIn: Terry Crews embracing vulnerability and Gwyneth Paltrow navigating criticism. Below are some excerpts. And as you watch and read this I’d love to hear what dots you’re connecting along the way.

Terry Crews

“Everybody's worried about themselves. Nobody's even thinking about me. And it hit me. No one cares. This was all in your head, the fact that you thought the whole world would crumble if you started doing something else other than playing football, that everyone was going to talk about you and it was going to be this big front page news story, it wasn't. And then I started applying that attitude to everything, anything.”

“There's a quote that I heard, it got me through the pandemic, it said, "Sometimes your greatest hopes are destroyed to prepare you for something better." And that hit me so hard. I was like, those hopes being dashed, they're a pain to go through, but if you take it the right way, you can say, "Man, wait a minute, I can improve off this obstacle. I can use this obstacle as a footstool."?

“Take your place. If someone says you did a great job, say thank you. I call it sumble, you know, so humble. And I decided to just take my place, if you did a good job, own it. And this is the balance. The balance is you are responsible for everything in your life, good and bad. So instead of just taking the bad, you have to say, "I did that right." You throw out every excuse, and if there's something you don't like, you can change it.”

“One thing I always like to say, you telling everyone what to do does not make you the boss. You doing everything you told yourself to do makes you the boss.”

Gwyneth Paltrow

“It's things like that where you're like, it's more about the person who's writing it than what you're actually doing. When something is criticism that's not well researched, it doesn't mean anything to me. Criticism that's well researched, I listen to and I like. But, you know, all that other stuff is just noise, I'm so focused on what I'm doing.”

“I love to hear everybody's ideas. We are fundamentally an ideas company, that's what we are, we're not trying to proliferate the market with software or service, we're an ideas brand. And so, I try to surround myself with incredibly creative men and women, mostly women, who inspire me and galvanize the process. And I think internally we get to a place that's good, that I always feel good about.?

“I really operate heavily on instinct, but I also like to ask for advice. You know, there are people in the world who are way, way, way smarter than I am that have been doing their jobs for way longer and I have access to a lot of those people.”

Now I want to hear from you. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? Share your thoughts in the comment section and follow my #BestAdvice newsletter for more career advice from the biggest names in business and entertainment. This video series is produced by Stephen F. Valdivia Duarte for LinkedIn News based on interviews produced by Florencia Iriondo from 2014 to 2022.