Summarizing the speech
Again, note – There is one word used in the video that is not academically appropriate, but Will Smith is using his own vernacular and to take it out would ruin the effect of the video. Please be aware that using that type of language in an academic setting should be avoided.
Remember to include a topic sentence:
Title + author + strong verb + main idea
The video titled “Fault Vs. Responsibility” by Will Smith + (strong verb) + (main idea)
Choose one of these strong verbs:
Illustrates, explains, analyzes, describes, motivates…
was just having a debate with my friend of mine, and we got stuck on the between fault and responsibility. She kept talking about how something was “somebody’s fault, somebody’s fault,” and I was like “It don’t matter whose fault it is if something is broken if it is your responsibility to fix it.”
For example, it’s not somebody’s fault if their father was an abusive alcoholic, but it’s for damn sure their responsibility to figure out how they’re gonna deal with those traumas and try to make a life out of it. It’s not your fault if your partner cheated and ruined your marriage, but it is for damn sure your responsibility to figure out how to take that pain and how to overcome that and build a happy life for yourself.
Fault and responsibility do not go together. It sucks, but they don’t.
When something is somebody’s fault, we want them to suffer; we want them punished. We want them to pay, and we want it to be their responsibility to fix it. But that’s not how it works, especially when it’s your heart. Your heart, your life, your happiness-is your responsibility and your responsibility alone. As long as we’re pointing the finger and stuck in whose fault something is, we’re jammed and trapped into victim mode. When you’re stuck in victim mode, you’re stuck in suffering.
The road to power is in taking responsibility-your heart, your life, your happiness is your responsibility and your responsibility alone.
Hey I want to thank you all for your response to my IG story- Fault vs. Responsibility. There have been a lot of comments about that. There was one thing I wanted to add though. I wanted to say that…
Taking responsibility, accepting responsibility is not an admission of guilt; you’re not admitting that you are at fault. Taking responsibility is a recognition of the power that you seize when you stop blaming people. It’s not like you’re letting someone who wronged you off the hook; taking responsibility is an act of emotional self-defense.
Taking responsibility is taking your power back.
Smith, Will. Fault vs. Responsibility. https://youtu.be/USsqkd-E9ag January 30, 2018. Date accessed 3/7/2022
