Trusting Your Internal Guidance System: Lessons from Actor Bob Hoskins

A wonderful actor died last week. I’ve enjoyed watching him portray a variety of “bad guys with a big heart” over the years, but last week, I learned something new about him and my appreciation for Bob Hoskins has grown even greater.

Hoskins left school at 15 because he was told he was stupid.

The truth was, Hoskins had dyslexia, but the label stuck and he took the negative path of gangs and violence.

Obviously, this is a far cry from the life of an actor.

Then the Universe stepped in, and fortunately, Bob Hoskins was open to it.

One day in 1969, when he was 26 years old, he joined a friend -- as moral support -- to an acting audition. When someone pushed a script into his hands and asked him to read, he decided to go for it. He ended up getting the lead.

This is a wonderful lesson in being open to the possibilities, even when they take you down a very different path that is unfamiliar to you.

Despite the fact that Hoskins himself pointed out, he didn’t look like a movie star. And yet, he was never out of work until he retired in 2012.

One of the main reasons he had such a prolific career is that he listened to his Internal Guidance System. He just referred to it as “being himself.” He was told to take elocution lessons to eliminate his heavy Cockney accent. He was told he needed to have lessons on how to walk, stand, etc. Hoskins refused. He realized that he was a unique person and wanted to bring himself to the acting profession – to be unlike anyone else.

And Hoskins’ career took off like a rocket. Although he never took an acting class, he put in his time in at theater before he started to get roles on television and in films.

Bob Hoskins may not have had the grandest of educations, but he was a wise man from whom we can all learn a great deal. His daughter, also an actor, relates the advice he gave her which are at the very heart of listening to your IGS.

He said, “Laugh, be yourself, be flamboyant, don’t worry about other people’s opinions, get angry. Whatever you do, always give it a good go. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Never, ever, ever, ever give up, and love with all your heart.”

For more on your Internal Guidance System, please visit www.SharonBallantine.com.