Jaden Smith has spent his life being told what he is. The son of two famous actors, he was expected to chase the big screen. Instead, at 28, he chose music, then fashion, and last fall he became the first men’s creative director in Christian Louboutin’s history, a role the maison’s founder designed with him in mind.

Ask him about the famous red sole and he skips the myth. He talks about what it does to you. On days when he’s jet-lagged and running on no sleep, slipping on the shoes changes how he moves, even how he gets out of bed. He and Louboutin call it “red-bottom behavior,” and it’s really the idea that what you wear shapes how you see yourself, and so how you act. We’ve all had that moment, putting on the good jacket before a hard conversation and standing a little taller.

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His path there wasn’t a plan. As a kid, he noticed how his clothes made people react, and he kept pushing the limits to see what happened. People had already decided he belonged to fashion, so he treated it as play. Today, he says, he simply makes what he felt was missing.

When the moment came, he surprised everyone again. The world expected sneakers, and he opened with loafers. Pair them with a hoodie and baggy jeans, he says, and the whole outfit goes up a level. It’s a small lesson in not handing people the obvious thing.

He also came back from Louboutin’s Italian workshops with a new idea of luxury. He met families who had spent generations perfecting a single detail. To him, luxury isn’t the price tag. It’s skilled hands, a community you invite people into, and the freedom to be whoever you want.

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Then there’s the line that stays with you. Some days things won’t go your way, and not everyone will love you. Lay one perfect brick every day anyway.

That attention, he believes, is meant to be redirected. Right now his focus is the I Love You Food Truck and the people of Skid Row. Give your energy to something almost nobody is looking at, he says, and the people who care just as much will find you. Then it becomes a wave.

Asked what he’d tell eight-year-old Jaden before his very first film take, he doesn’t hesitate. The hard things in your life are building the structures in your mind that you’ll need to create whatever you dream of.

Maybe you don’t need to be ready, just curious, and willing to put down one perfect brick today.