Hugh Jackman's Ball State speech has life lessons on failure and intuition: 'Even mistakes may turn out to be the best thing'

Hugh Jackman showed up to a graduation ceremony and delivered one of the most honest commencement speeches in recent memory. Best known for playing Wolverine in the 'X-Men' franchise and his Tony Award-winning performances on Broadway, the Australian actor was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree at Ball State University in Indiana. He opened up about uncertainty, failure and following what truly lights you up. Here is everything he wants you to know.

In his commencement speech at Ball State University in Indiana, Jackman revealed that he turned down multiple requests over the years to speak at events like this because he never felt ready. "Give me a few more years, I would think to myself," he said. "You get this short window to summarise the meaning of life, how to live it to its fullest, and then that lives online forever. It's a lot of pressure." He finally accepted the invitation at Ball State University in Indiana, where his partner Sutton Foster is an adjunct professor in the theatre department, because at 57 he realised he would never reach a point where he knew everything.

The opening and central message of Hugh's speech was about making peace with not knowing. "So why did I say yes now? I don't know. In fact, if I could give a title to this speech, it would probably be, I don't know," he told the graduates. "Any sense of really knowing is going to come from you, and even you will feel unsure a lot," he added. Rather than waiting to feel ready, he encouraged everyone in that room to move forward anyway.

Hugh traced this lesson back to his own unexpected path into acting. He started university studying communications, scraping by without much passion, until he signed up for a theatre appreciation elective simply because it was the easiest way to earn credits. "The moment I walked inside that house and was greeted by those actors, every cell in my body was telling me I had found my tribe, and that I just spent three years of my life doing the wrong degree," he said. "I learned a painful lesson in listening to that voice inside. Every time I've listened to my heart, that small voice inside that was and is still guiding me, then I have known I was on the right path."

Hugh was clear that failure is not something to fear but something to welcome. "Let's also embrace that even the mistakes may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us," he told the crowd, which was met with applause. "A lot of the best things that have ever happened to me have been mistakes or failures or random classes I joined to get me across the finish line," he added. If you have failed recently, Hugh's message is simple: you are exactly where you need to be.

To close his speech, Hugh asked the graduates one question: what lights you up? "What brings you pleasure? What is going to fuel you when you have to work unbelievably hard, which you will. When you have to face fear and doubt and loneliness and failure, which you will. What lights you up? What is burning inside of you?" he asked. He warned them about climbing the wrong ladder, quoting Joseph Campbell's line that there is perhaps nothing worse than reaching the top and discovering you are on the wrong wall. "Your heart, the little voice inside, will tell you what the right wall is, what the right ladder is for you," he said. "And above all, the deep satisfaction that you are living your own life, yours, because no one can take that away from you."