An area actor, comedian and film director had an inspiring message Thursday for members of The Pruden Center’s Workforce Investment Act program.

Tim Reid, best known for his roles in several prime time programs over the years, including “Sister, Sister” and “That ‘70s Show,” spoke to students and recent graduates at The Center for Industry and Technology, at the invitation of Gerron Del Valle, student services liaison.

Del Valle does editing work for Reid at his Petersburg film production studio, which provided him with the connection to be able to bring in the television celebrity as a guest speaker.

Reid told his audience about divine proportion, telling them, “Nothing in life is perfect.”

“Once you learn that, it helps you in all aspects of photography and acting,” he said. “There are some basic rules in creativity.”

Using as an analogy Daniel’s first lesson in the “The Karate Kid” — washing a car — Reid said that too many students don’t want to have to go through the often-tedious process of learning the skills necessary to succeed at a given endeavor.

“You guys don’t want to polish the car,” he said. “You just want to start with the moves. You have got to learn to polish the car. You have got to learn the basic moves before you can get paid.”

Reid told the teens they need to be prepared to work for free to start with. “If you come to me and say, ‘I’m an editor,’ and you show me of your work and it’s pretty good, I say, ‘OK, I have something … (and) pretty soon I will pay you,’” he said.

“You have to be patient about something before anybody will give you money to do what you want to do. It’s been that way since cave people.”

Reid told the students that once they know what they want, they should go to the best school they can to learn how to do it.

When Reid decided 10 years ago he wanted to act on his ambitions of becoming a sculptor, after first studying sculpture at a California school that suited his schedule, he was told to travel to the Italy to study with the masters.

“That summer I got an apartment in Florence, Italy,” he said. “I went to the Florence Academy of Art, and I studied with a master.

“It takes some brass cojones to do that … but I now have my own studio, and I’m sculpting.”

In essence, Reid told the students to dream big.

“If there’s anything that you remember from today, remember don’t let them kill your dream. Dream big dreams, and don’t even worry if they don’t come true,” he said.