It’s hard to imagine the films Men in Black, The Pursuit of Happyness, or Ali without Will Smith—but the Academy Award–winning actor confessed he initially considered turning down all three roles.
In candid conversations with comedian Kevin Hart on his Peacock talk show Hart to Heart, Smith admitted: “I didn’t want to make The Pursuit of Happyness… I didn’t want to make Ali.”
Reflecting on his journey, he revealed that it was his close-knit group of friends and advisors, whom he affectionately referred to as his “squad,” who persuaded him to seize these legendary roles.
This insight led Smith to emphasize the collaborative nature of achievement, stating that success is truly “a team sport.”
“It’s who is at your right hand, who your friends are, who you’re with every day, that will make or break your dreams,” he said. “You cannot build a career and…you probably can’t do much of anything in this life, at a high level, without a rock-solid team.”
In the end, Smith’s manager and business partner, James Lassiter, convinced him to take on The Pursuit of Happyness and Ali; meanwhile, the director Steven Spielberg persuaded Smith to star in Men in Black.
“I knew I had to be the tip of the spear in terms of discipline [and] in terms of direction, but I always knew that I needed my squad,” he added.
He’s not wrong. By following the advice of his comrades he went on to be nominated for an Academy Award, among many other awards for those career-defining films that he didn’t initially want to work on, before taking home an Oscar for King Richard.
His Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award nominations make him one of few black actors to be nominated for all four major entertainment awards in the U.S., with Hart crediting him for setting the “blueprint” for men of color in Hollywood.
Ultimately, it sometimes takes an outside perspective to convince you to take on challenges you’d perhaps pass up out of fear or discomfort.
It’s why Richard Robinson, managing director of the consultancy Oystercatchers, says every aspirational worker should have a support team like Smith to help navigate their career.
How to create your own squad
Any time Robinson is at a career crossroads, he taps what he calls his “board of directors” for advice.
“It stretches my thinking and it pushes me into places that I would normally feel scared to go into,” he tells Fortune. “They give me the courage and the confidence to do things I wouldn’t automatically feel capable and confident doing.”
Putting your career moves into the hands of others may have paid off for Smith, but that strategy isn’t without risks.
So Robinson says that only people you trust implicitly should be on your board.
“There’s a bar of trust that you can get to with people, and they’re a whole other plane,” he says. “I know that I can completely mess something up, and they’re going be there for me and vice versa.”
It’s why he can then follow their advice without a shadow of a doubt that it’s in his best interest.
“If they say go left, then I slavishly know that they are saying that purely with the best intentions for me,” he adds.
To avoid having too many conflicting opinions or an echo chamber, your support squad should be made up of “no more than six people you check in with on a regular basis,” from different backgrounds and industries.
On his personal board, for example, Robinson has a senior officer in the army, a TV editor, and a “very important” headhunter in his industry, to name a few.
“I believe strongly that diversity of thinking will deliver better results so I surround myself with a diverse board,” he adds. “I need to be able to get people to stretch my thinking in a way that I can’t do.”
What’s more, your advisors don’t even formally need to know they’re on your board—Robinson’s don’t.
It means that you can switch up the lineup of who you go to for advice as your career and relationships evolve.
But if you like, you could treat each of your valued trustees to a one-on-one lunch once or twice a year, as Robinson does, while you pick their brains.
“They never quite understand why they’re getting it, but then my conscience is clear because I’m paying them for a service,” he adds.
