The movie of your life | DeVon Franklin | TEDxIronwoodStatePrison

In this rousing talk, DeVon Franklin, a Hollywood executive, explains how to live your life like it's a movie.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

I want you, for a moment,
to look at your life as a movie.

As a young child -

when I thought
about the movie of my life -

I'm the middle child of three boys

and one of the few African-American
executives in Hollywood.

Well, when I go back and look at my life,
when I was young growing up in the church,

they said, "DeVon,
you can't go into Hollywood.

That's the devil's playground;
that's Sodom and Gomorrah."

But I said, "I believe God is calling me
in the movie of my life into Hollywood

to tell stories
that can change the world."

"But DeVon, if you go to Hollywood,
you're going to lose your faith.

Don't you understand

that that is a town
that does not respect who you are

or the God you serve?"

But as a young child,
I would say, "Wait a minute.

You're teaching me in the Bible
that faith allows me to do all things

and I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.

But all of a sudden,

I get to the gates of Hollywood
and the power of God stops?

Tell me, What am I supposed to believe?

Does faith work or does fear work?

Because you're telling me intellectually
that faith is supposed to guide me,

but then you're teaching
me to practice fear

the moment I get outside
the doors of the church."

So you can only imagine as a young boy,
when you get smart with your elders,

they say, "Boy, don't you
get smart with me."

And I said, "I'm not trying to get smart.

I'm just trying to understand
what is the path in life

that is going to lead to success."

And so as a young child, I said,

"Listen, I've watched these movies
like 'Rocky' and 'Back to the Future.'

What I loved about 'Rocky'
is that he thought he was a bum.

And when he got the chance
to fight Apollo Creed,

what was his number one goal?

He said, 'I don't even care if I win.

I just want to go the distance.'"

When I would see movies like that
as a kid, I said, "That's me."

You know, as a middle child -

Any middle children in the house?

Okay, we'll have
a support group after this.

Alright, you know we need
a little extra care and counseling

because the older one,
my older brother, he was the oldest,

and my youngest was the baby,

and here I am, the middle child,
kind of put off to the side.

But when I would see films,
I would get inspired.

And I said,

"I want to be able to make movies
that can absolutely touch people

in the way that 'Rocky'
and 'The Color Purple'

and 'Back to the Future' did for me."

But I had to make a choice.

I said, "Am I going to go against
what I'm being taught

and follow where God's voice
is leading me?

Or am I going to follow
those who may be ill-equipped

to develop my movie

and become what they think
my story should be?"

Well, at a young age,

I said, "I have to believe
that God is the director of my story,

and I'm going to follow
Him to the industry."

And so here I am,
an 18-year-old young man,

got into the University
of Southern California.

I go in for my first internship interview

at the management company
that manages Will Smith.

I'm literally about to get
my foot in the door.

At the end of the interview,
the lady says,

"DeVon, is there anything else
you want us to know?"

And right there,
God is speaking in my ear.

He said, "Tell her about the Sabbath."

Now you must understand something.

As a Christian, I grew up
observing Sabbath:

Friday night sundown through
Saturday night sundown, I don't work.

It's the day that I take off
for observance, rest, and restoration.

I'm there in the internship interview
about to get my foot in the door,

Hollywood,

and God says,
"Tell her about the Sabbath."

I said, "Lord, after I get the internship,
I'll tell her all about the Sabbath."

(Laughter)

You know how we are:
we love to get what we want,

and then we'll start moving
the pieces around

about what we can and cannot do.

But after a moment of silence, I said,

"Well, I can not take this internship

if it requires me to work on the Sabbath."

And it was quiet, just like it is now.

And after a moment of silence,

she said, "DeVon, don't worry.
We can work around that."

What that taught me in that moment

is that it's not about just the door
of opportunity opening in your scene;

it's about how you walk through the door.

Because every door that opens

that does not allow you
to fit your faith and who you are,

I argue it is not a door to go through.

You have to understand

that when you are walking in your path

and you are walking
in the movie of your life,

the scenes in your life
will conform around you

if you have enough faith
to be exactly who God created you to be.

I don't buy into this idea
that you have to compromise who you are,

compromise what you believe.

As a matter of fact,
be even more bold than who you are,

more bold than who you believe,

because you are the hero
of your own story,

and if you don't believe your story -
guess what? - ain't nobody else going to.

C'mon, yeah. You give yourself
a round of applause on that one.

(Applause)

But here's the challenge:

We get into scenes of our life
where we want to give up hope.

As a studio executive,

one of the things I do
is develop scripts into movies.

But there are some scripts
we develop for a very long time

and it never looks like
it's going to get made,

and we call this creative time
"development hell."

Some of you have been
in development hell,

because you had an idea for your life.

You've been trying,

you've been pushing to allow
that idea to get into production,

but you seem so far away from it

that you don't know
what you're going to do.

And in this moment, in development hell,

it is so tempting

to give up on the very idea
that brought you this far.

You must realize that in development hell,

when you're going through a time
where you're about to give up on yourself,

give up on your God,

give up on your friends,
your dreams and your beliefs,

this is when you have to go back
to the original idea

that motivated your life,
and hold on to it, and don't give up.

Because you know why?

Because it is just like
a scene of a movie.

There are some good scenes,
there are some bad scenes,

but if you keep walking forward,

guess what?

The hero always wins.

And you know what makes the story good?

The conflict the hero faces.

So when you go through bad scenes,

that must mean you are getting ready
to be prepared to be victorious.

You must know

that a bad scene with conflict
is not meant to take you down,

but it's meant to actually bring
out the hero in you and build you up.

If I could allow us to label this scene
that we're in right now,

I would call it:

"Locked up, but not locked down."

You must get this,

anyone who is in
Ironwood Prison right now:

You might be locked up,

but they don't have enough iron
in the universe to lock down your spirit.

You have to keep your spirit up.

You have to keep believing.

You have to know
that what you see is possible.

(Applause)

Do you know why?

Because in the movie of your life,
you will succeed.

Don't let your current circumstance
dictate your destiny,

because your destiny

will be set up in the moment
that you're in right now.

Yes, conflict will come,

but if you have faith,

if you like who looks back at you
in the mirror,

everybody that comes against you
going to have to step back and say,

"Wait a minute.

We didn't know they had that much power.

We might as well go ahead and let them out

because there are other people out there
who need the hero that's within."

When you're getting ready to give up
on your movie, step back and say,

"No, no, no, no, no.
This movie is still good."

It just might take
a little longer than you thought.

Don't be impatient.

Don't be getting so much anxiety.

Relax.

Because you are going to win in the end.

Thus saith the Lord.