Will Smith: 'You Don't Succeed to the Top, You Fail to the Top'

Doha, Qatar - Against Qatar's burgeoning cultural landscape, Academy Award winner Will Smith spoke candidly at Web Summit Qatar 2025 about his career transitions and evolving philosophy of success. 

In his first visit to the Gulf state, Smith reflected on the intersection of creative ambition and human connection that has defined his four-decade trajectory across music, television, and cinema.

"You can feel the energy of the future about to happen here," Smith observed of Qatar, visibly energized by what he described as a place "bubbling with anticipation of creating a future."

When questioned about his unprecedented success across entertainment mediums, Smith offered insight into navigating professional transitions that resonated with the entrepreneurs in attendance. 

"You'll never be rid of fear," he stated with characteristic directness. The courage to lean into the unknown, be scared, and do it anyway is a huge part of transitioning."

Smith emphasized the importance of humility when entering new domains. "Throw it away, humble down, and go back to a beginner's mind," he advised, cautioning against taking previous success as unnecessary baggage. 

The worst thing you can do is pretend like you know when you don't."

His definition of success has undergone significant transformation. Initially driven by external validation—"my original definition of success was women liking me"—Smith described a profound shift towards service.

 "There's nothing above seeing something you've created help another person," he said, explaining that witnessing his work positively impact others has become his primary motivation.

This perspective extends to his approach to business and leadership. "If it's not about people, it's unsustainable," Smith noted, acknowledging a period when his intense professional drive caused him to lose sight of colleagues' humanity. 

"Everybody in this room is going through something," he reminded the audience, underscoring the importance of empathy in professional environments.

Smith shared an anecdote about his son founding a renewable water bottle company at age twelve after witnessing ocean pollution in Hawaii. 

The story illustrated his belief in the power of authentic motivation: "Why you're doing it is what makes people give money more quickly."

Smith was pragmatic about sustaining long-term success: "You have to love it because you're going to be doing it for 19 hours a day for three years just to get it started." 

He added that resilience through inevitable cycles of growth and decline is essential: "Get comfortable with things dying...it will build and collapse and build and collapse, and it's just going to get bigger every time."

Perhaps most counterintuitively, Smith proposed that success is often the product of sequential failures rather than uninterrupted triumphs. "You don't succeed to the top, you fail to the top," he asserted, suggesting that effective recovery from setbacks—not their absence—defines sustainable achievement.

When asked to describe his iconic roles in single words, Smith characterized "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" as "the best job ever" and "The Pursuit of Happyness" as "the best movie I've ever made." "I Am Legend" provided "the greatest lesson in my mind" by forcing him to recognize "the madness of my own mind" while performing opposite no human co-stars.

Reflecting on himself, Smith offered simply: "A beautiful work in progress."