Will Smith and Jay Shetty during a session on the second day of the Web Summit Qatar at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre. Photo by Oussama Abbassi/ The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: The second day of the Web Summit Qatar 2025 kicked off with much anticipation as American Hollywood superstar, musician, and entrepreneur icon Will Smith took centre stage with Jay Shetty, a global bestselling author and podcast host of On Purpose, as one of the highlight sessions yesterday at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre.
The two media icons were welcomed by an enthusiastic audience at the packed venue as they delved into Smith’s career transitions, storytelling journey, and rediscovering the meaning of success in various media industries.
The session started with a question from Shetty on mastering transitions between three of the biggest mediums, to which Smith replied, “I guess the first thing I would say is you’ll never be rid of fear. Don’t try to not be scared.
You couldn’t possibly know what’s going to happen, right? So the courage to lean into the unknown and to be scared and do it anyway, is a really huge part of transitioning,” he said.
With over two decades of experience in the industry and creating projects which has transcended geographical borders, languages and culture, Smith delved into how the meaning of success evolved from then to now.
He stated: “There’s nothing above seeing something you’ve created, seeing something you’ve done help another person.”
“The intention on how what you do serves others is a huge fuel, and for me, the only thing that keeps me going and pushing is to be able to create things that touch the hearts and minds of people and to provide some assistance in the difficulty of making sense out of this life,” Smith said.
In an entrepreneurial lens, Smith also spoke about the importance of storytelling in a business, in comparison to the default narration structures of film. He underlined the importance of communicating a brand’s origin story and purpose to ensure impact and effectivity. Smith said, “The origin story always tends to be superpowerful. The why is everything.”
The 25-minute session concluded with a rapid fire question on some of Smith’s iconic roles and movies by describing each one with one word. Smith described the classic sitcom Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as “the best job ever”, the drama film Pursuit of Happiness as “the individual best movie I ever made,” the post-apocalyptic thriller film I Am Legend as “the greatest lesson in my mind I’ve ever had”, the biographical sports drama film King Richard described as “the greatest acting lesson I’ve ever received”, and lastly referring to Will Smith himself, to which the actor described as “a beautiful work in progress.”
