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We were dragging our feet and grumbling impossible this and ridiculous that why we have to build a wall for anyway, this is impossible. It’S never gon na get done. Daddio overheard us threw down his tools and marched over to where we were yapping. He snatched a brick out of my hand and held it up in front of us stop thinking about the damn wall. He said there is no wall.

There are only bricks. Your job is to lay this brick perfectly then move on to the next brick then lay that brick perfectly. Then the next one don’t be worrying about no wall. Your only concern is one brick. He walked back in the shop me and harry just looked at each other shook our heads.

Old boy is a cook and we just went back to mixing some of the most impactful lessons i’ve ever received. I’Ve had to learn in spite of myself. I resisted them. I denied them, but ultimately the weight of their truth became unavoidable. My father’s brick wall was one of those lessons the days dragged on and as as much as i hated to admit it.

I started to see what he was talking about when i focused on the wall. The job felt impossible, never ending, but when i focused on one brick, everything got easy. I knew i could lay one damn brick. Well, as the weeks passed, the bricks mounted and the hole got just a little bit smaller. I started to see that the difference between a task that feels impossible and a task that feels doable is merely a matter of perspective.

Are you paying attention to the wall or are you paying attention to the brick whether it was acing the test to get accepted into college, hitting it big as one of the first global hip-hop artists or constructing one of the most successful careers in hollywood history? In all cases, what appeared to be impossibly large goals could be broken down into individually, manageable tasks, insurmountable walls comprised of a series of conceivably layable bricks. For my entire career, i have been absolutely relentless. I’Ve been committed to a work ethic of uncompromising intensity and the secret to my success is as boring as it is unsurprising you show up, and you lay another brick pissed off lay another brick bad opening weekend lay another brick album sales dropping get up and lay Another brick, marriage, failing lay another brick over the past 30 years. Like all of us, i’ve dealt with failure, loss, humiliation, divorce and death.

I’Ve had my life threatened, my money taken away, my privacy invaded my family disintegrated and every single day still i got up mixed, concrete and laid another brick, no matter what you’re going through. There is always another brick sitting right there in front of you waiting to be laid. The only question is: are you gon na get up and lay it? I’Ve heard people say that a child’s personality is influenced by the meaning of their name. Well, my father gave me my name.

He gave me his name and he gave me my greatest advantage in life. My ability to weather adversity he gave me will it was a cold overcast day nearly a year after my brother and i had begun by that time. The wall had become such a fixture in my life that thoughts of finishing it felt like delusions like. If we ever did finish, there would tragically be another hole right behind it that immediately needed to be filled, but on that frigid september morning we mixed the final pile filled. The final bucket and laid the final brick daddio had been standing there watching the last few bricks being set into place cigarette in hand.

He stood quietly, admiring our work harry and i set and leveled the final brick. Then…

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