How to live a life you won’t regret | Bryan Cranston

- Americans have a lot of great qualities,

and one of it is a general
work ethic, I think.

We're a nation of hard
workers, and that being said,

I think sometimes we reach
down too far into our youth

and expect them to produce

sooner than they should be able to.

I think people gain a
tremendous amount of wisdom

when they travel, when they wander,

when they allow themselves,
as I did, to get lost.

And maybe you'll find yourself somewhere.

At least, traveling
forces you to be social,

you have to get directions,

you have to learn where things are,

you're attuned to your environment.

You have to be more
careful about the weather

and where your lodging is going to be,

where you're going to eat,

how you're going to get
from one place to another.

When you're there, what
is it you want to see?

How can you find a place for
you to actually just rest?

It's an experience like no other.

I love to travel,

and I enjoy not knowing where I am.

It's an unusual thing: I tell it

and I purposefully teach
that to my daughter,

who's now 24 years old, to not be afraid

of not knowing where you are.

So I'll go for a drive or go
for a walk in a different city

and my wife will say, "Do
you know where you're going?"

"Not really, just kind of
exploring different places,"

and as long as you have
a sense of direction,

you'll find your way,
you'll figure it out.

And I do that in foreign
countries as well,

just kind of wander and meander,

and trust that you've paid attention

to at least the basic requirement

of where you have to get back to

in order to find your way home.

I think we look down now to 16-year-olds

and say, "Where are you
gonna go to college?

What are you going to do
for the rest of your life?"

And it's like, they're
not fully baked yet.

How do they know?

Give them a break.

Just say, "Look, I
think after high school,

take a year off, take two years off.

Join the Peace Corps, travel,

go figure things out,
or just enjoy yourself."

For the first time in
their lives, they're adults

and they don't have to be somewhere,

they're not told to be somewhere.

Get used to that freedom,
get used to having

the need to self-govern yourself,

to be able to employ
self-discipline or not.

Or you realize, "Oh my
God, I'm really slovenly.

If I'm not told I need to
go to class, I don't go."

You might discover
something about yourself.

"I need order, I need that, I like that."

Some people love to be said,
"This is where you have to be,

and this is what you need to do."

Are you that type of person, or are you

a type of person that wants
more freedom in your life?

And I think exploration,
travel, it provides that.

In 1976, I had just finished
my second year of college

and realized that after an experience

in an elective acting class,
that I wasn't going to be

the policeman I thought I was gonna be.

That it was better if I didn't continue on

with two more years of an
administration of justice major,

because I knew I wasn't
going to become a policeman.

So, I thought I better just go figure out

what it is I want to do.

And so I hopped on the
back of a motorcycle:

My brother was in the
same position, really,

two young guys who were not quite sure

what was in store for them,

and what avenue they should go down,

so we both hopped on our
motorcycles and we took off.

We left California;

I had about 150 bucks in
my pocket or something,

and soon ran low of funds,

and we had to get jobs along the way.

What was great about it is
that we had total freedom.

We didn't know exactly
where we were going.

We didn't know how long
we were going to stay

in any given town.

If it appealed to us, we would stay

and explore different
places and historical sites.

If it didn't appeal to
us, we took off again.

We slept on golf courses, on cemeteries,

back of mortuaries, schools-

anywhere we can throw a sleeping bag.

An old patch of grass, and that
was our home for the night.

And I was 19, 20 years old.

It was fun, and you could do that then.

And that's the time you want to do it.

That's the age you want to do it.

And in retrospect, I realized
that I took off on this trip,

which lasted two full years,

in an effort to allow myself to get lost,

to be lost, and to figure
out while I'm gone,

what it is I really should
be doing with my life.

So I finally determined it was something

where I wanted to allow myself to get lost

so that I could be found,
basically, is what it was.

And after two years,
it was during that trip

that I had an epiphany that I really

wanted to become an actor
and do everything I could

to put myself in a
position to make a living,

and be a professional actor
for the rest of my life.