Mike Mac

Music Producer | Songwriter 🎹📝|| Featured in HBO Documentary : Any One Of Us || 📸: @mikemac

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

Peace is not a destination. Peace is a practice.

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

I will never give up on being a better person. And I will never give up on creating change in this world. I promise to leave the world behind better than when I arrived.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

Denzel Washington had a 1.8 GPA when his university asked him to leave. Years later he stood at a podium and told 5,000 Ivy League graduates: "If you don't fail, you're not even trying."

March 1975. He'd switched majors three times at Fordham: pre-med, pre-law, journalism. Cardiac morphogenesis was the course that broke him. He couldn't pronounce it. He couldn't pass it.

He was 20 years old, sitting in his mother's beauty shop in Mount Vernon, when an elderly woman under a hair dryer pointed at him and said he was going to travel the world and speak to millions of people.

He went back to Fordham and switched majors a fourth time. Theater.

Two years later he played Othello as a senior. Graduated 1977. American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Film debut 1981. Best Supporting Actor for Glory in 1989. Best Actor for Training Day in 2001. Tony in 2010. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2025.

In 2011, Penn picked him as commencement speaker. The Oscars and the Tony made him eligible. His son Malcolm, a sophomore studying film, made him the actual pick. The university secretary called him their first choice, no debate.

The speech itself is about failure. He told the graduates he once had a 1.8 GPA. He failed an audition for a musical because he couldn't sing. He delivered it all in the cadence his father used in the pulpit. Reggie Jackson's 2,600 strikeouts. Edison's 1,000 failed experiments. The "fall forward" refrain ran the entire 22 minutes.

A single YouTube upload of the speech has crossed 35 million views. Every motivational compilation runs it. Every business school plays it.

The woman in the beauty shop said millions. She was off by two orders of magnitude.

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

Every night I go to sleep, my dog nestles up right on me and we go to sleep. I live a beautiful life

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

@StoneJAlex Something Jesus would say right? I mean you live and die for him right? You’re a follower of Jesus Christ right?

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

@ulryfam5 Wrong person Lol

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

@jimstemen Why are you so obsessed with Trump? That’s so weird to me. He doesn’t care about you.

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

Shocked and disgusted at America. Killing innocent law abiding citizens. Arresting a 5 year old?!!? What the fuck are we doing?

[le.hl @0xleegenz]

No debt
Ideal weight
8 hours of sleep
Mental health on track
Right nutrition
Zero Alcohol

This was my peak

I was 8

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

I can’t add more time to my life, but I can add more life to my time

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

Please share 🙏🏻

[Coach Dan Casey @CoachDanCasey]

“Leadership is Lonely.”

- Kobe Bryant

[Art of Life 🦋 @Art0fLife_]

Life advice for 2026:

[Coach AJ 🎯 Mental Fitness @coachajkings]

Cooper Kupp said, "I'm going to go earn it again, every single day."

"I think that's the difference, I've never stopped this mindset of earning."

Entitlement is the enemy of hard work.

It's expecting rewards that you haven't earned.

Cooper Kupp shares a masterclass on earning it and how to overcome entitlement.

"Once you start saying 'I deserve it' - that's when the 'I've arrived' mindset starts to happen."

"I didn't deserve the opportunity...I didn't deserve Eastern Washington. I didn't deserve the NFL. But I've worked to earn an opportunity to go attack it."

From small-school recruit to Super Bowl MVP and he still doesn't think he deserves it.

"At no point during that journey...did I then say okay I'm there now, like I've done enough, like I've arrived and now I deserve to play."

That's the trap. The moment you feel entitled is the moment you stop earning.

"I've never stopped this mindset of earning...every year ends and I feel like there's just a little more, there's more we can do. I got to go earn it again."

Entitlement is the enemy of hard work. It's expecting rewards you haven't earned. It's the delusion of deserving without doing.

The best never feel like they've arrived. They earn it every single day.

How they eliminate entitlement:
1. Shift from "I deserve" to "I earn" - Success isn't owed. It's built.
2. Act with humility - Stay coachable. Stay hungry.
3. Embrace growth over status - Focus on getting better, not on what you think you deserve.
4. Earn it daily - Compete. Bring energy. Every single day.
5. Know your sacrifice - Commitment has a cost. Pay it.

It reminds me of a quote from the Clemson strength and conditioning coach: "They don't put championship rings on smooth hands." Nothing is given. Everything is earned.

(🎥 Daily Grind with @CooperKupp)

[Marco Foster @MarcoFoster_]

Jesse Ventura on Trump: “Who is that? The draft dodging coward? I don’t call him by name. He’s the draft dodging coward who when it was his time to serve his country he did what all rich white boys did. I wasn’t a rich white boy. We had to go. He’s gonna tell me what courage is?”

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

"Healthy things grow, Growing things change,
Changing things challenge us,
Challenging things produce character, character makes us healthy,
Healthy things grow!"

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

Every day is the start of something new and the end of something old.
Every day is an opportunity.
Every day is another day to work or rest.
Every day is a day to love and to be loved.
Every day is special.
Every day is a lesson and blessing.
Every day is what you make it. ♥️

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

We owe death the best life ever

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

People who say they love you, but don’t work on the things that hurt you, they don’t love you, they love the comfort of having you.

[Mike Mac @MikeMac]

@AvidProTools I’m on the newest version of pro tools and there’s no way to change the display or zoom. We gotta change this…..