What does it take to be in charge of your destiny?

What do you have going for you?

What is it that you have going for you right now that's a real plus for you?
What is it that you have going against you?
What kind of training do you require?
What is it that you need to learn?
Don't worry about the fact that you don't have all the things you need in order to
make it happen.
Decide that you're going to do something about it.
Become an active force in your life.
Most people go through life never using the power they have.
If you don't use your talents, if you don't use this power, this force that you
have within you,
you're going to lose it.
As you begin to look at life, you begin to look at the things you want to do.
Decide that you're going to become the active force in your life.
You are all of the things that happen to you as an opportunity.
Now you become an active force in your life.
Now you are the one rather than running from things as they begin to change, you
become a change driver
because you know that you've got the power within you to make the difference.
This force, this power, this energy that you have, that's more powerful than
anything that can ever happen.
How are you feeling this evening?
Great!
Whenever somebody asks me how I'm doing, I always say better than good and better
than most.
And that's what I like for you to say, how are you doing?
Very good, very good.
Shake somebody's hand on your right and left and say you're doing better than good.
Do good!
Alright!
You know, I like to say that because I believe that we are.
We have a lot of things going for us that many of us don't realize and many of us
really never use
all the things that we have going for us and ever act on the things that we'd like
to act on.
And consequently, most of us go through life sleep-walking,
never really discovering our true potential, never enjoying life to its full
extent.
And so therefore, I think that there are some things that we need to begin to do to
take charge of our destiny. How many of you like to take charge of your destiny?
Raise your hand, please. Very good. All right. So we're going to do that. And you
know,
one of the things that really stimulated this house with a friend of mine,
we were riding back after I'd spoken to her company and they had a major
downsizing. Now they call it right sizing when companies reduce the workforce for
economic reasons.
Well, at any rate, when we were on the plane and she said, you know, I'm no longer
going to be
with the company. And I said, no. I said, why? She said, well, my division has been
eliminated.
I said, well, you do have another plan, don't you? And she said, no. I said, but
didn't they have
something of this nature about a year ago? She said, yes. I said, but did you start
thinking that
maybe perhaps you need to prepare to do that which you really wanted to do? Because
this person
that I've known for a long time always wanted to be involved in fashion design. So
I said,
haven't you been doing something on your fashion designing career? She said, no. I
said, but
what have you been doing? She says, hoping that nothing happened to me. I said, but
hoping is not
a process. It's not a method. You know, a lot of people go through life like that.
Now that
wasn't really what she wanted to do. But I do a training seminar. One of the things
we asked
what would you do if the unthinkable happens to you? What would you do if you had
an accident or
you lost your job or you were laid off or you became ill? How would you provide for
yourself?
If the unthinkable happens to you and it doesn't always happen to the other person.
It can happen
to me. It can happen to you. But most of us go through life thinking that, well,
just maybe
it won't happen to me. That we just read about somebody else that will happen to us
talking to
a friend of mine by the name of Maria, who is wheelchair-bound. And she said that
she had an
experience in her life that taught her that she's not immune from life because she
was diagnosed as
having muscular dystrophy at age 15. And she figured that was tragic enough. But
two years ago,
because of a malfunctioning wheelchair, she fell out of a van, struck her head and
suffered a
closed head injury. Had blood on the brain and they said that she perhaps might go
blind or she
had loss of memory or concentration. And I said, how did you handle that? She said,
Les, it was the best thing that could have happened to me. I said, why? She said,
because on that day,
I woke up and I realized that life is about today, living today, that whatever I
want to do, I do it
right now. She said, I enjoy getting up in the morning looking out of the window,
just looking at
the grass. She said, because I could have lost my vision. She said, I'm
appreciative of just the
little things. Shake somebody's hand on your right and left and say, be thankful
for the little things.
Is that important? That we've got to begin to learn how to become thankful for the
little things
and live in life right now. So I want you to think about your ideas. All of us have
ideas and
things that we have not acted on. I want you to think about them right now. E.L.
Simpson said that
an idea should be like a pin, you know, that a pin that you set on and you jump up
right away
to do something with it. So I don't want you to just think about it. I want when
you leave here,
I want you to jump and do something with it. All right. Now, so think about this
idea. What does
it take to be in charge of your destiny? Well, you got to begin to develop some
skills and you got
to ask yourself a question. What do you have going for you? What is it that you
have going for you
right now that's a real plus for you? What is it that you have going against you?
What kind of training
do you require? What is it that you need to learn? See, you make money only one of
three ways in
an economy of this nature. You have to have a skill like I've developed the skill
to become a
speaker or have some specialized knowledge or have a particular product that or
service that you can
provide for the public. John A. Johnson of Ebony McAdity magazine said something
very important. He
says there is no defense against an excellence that meets a pressing public need.
So any idea
that you have, it must fulfill a need for somebody. Once you think about it, now
here's the next step.
Don't worry about the fact that you don't have all the things you need in order to
make it happen.
Decide that you're going to do something about it. Become an active force in your
life. See,
you've got some talents and abilities right now you have that if you don't
challenge yourself to
use those talents and abilities, you'll never ever discover the full effect that
they can have on
achieving all the things that you want to achieve. Most people go through life
never using the power
they have. You have enormous power to begin to create all the things that you want
in your life
experience that most people go through life never using. I travel a lot speaking
around the country
and I was out of Detroit for around two months. I came back to the airport, went
into parking lot,
put my key in the ignition, turn the key, can anybody tell me what happened?
Can you tell me why the car did not get started? The battery was dead, why was it
dead?
I had not been using it. Repeat after me please, if you don't use it,
you lose it. See, ladies and gentlemen, if you don't use your talents, if you don't
use this power,
this force that you have within you, you're going to lose it. If you have the
ability to write,
and if you don't write, you're going to lose the ability to write as well as you do
right now.
If you have the ability to play an instrument, the world's greatest piano set, that
if I miss a
week of practice, I know it. If I miss two weeks, the critics know it. If I miss
three weeks,
my audience knows it. If you have the ability to draw well, and if you don't use
that talent
eventually, you're going to lose it. If I don't speak often, and I one time at one
point in my
life, I miss speaking for around six months. When I came up before an audience, I
was rusty. I could
not get my thoughts together. I could not have the power, the kind of confidence
that I needed
order to make it happen. So whatever you want to do, whatever idea that you have,
the longer that
you're sitting on that idea, you either creating or you are disintegrating. If
you're not using it,
your skills are diminishing every day. And there goes a second. There goes another
second. And life
is happening right now. But last, what do I mean? Get your butt out of the way. So
many people have
gone to their graves, never discovered their true potentials, because they allowed
their butts to
stop them. But I don't know what to do. No, that's not really true. I was on a
television
program the other day. Lady called in and she said, there's something I like to ask
you. And I
said, what is it? She said, well, I have this thing I want to do, but I've been
unemployed. I lost my
job for two years. I haven't been able to find a job. I don't have the money. And I
don't have
the contacts. And I really don't know what to do. I said, excuse me. I said, the
fact that you don't
have the money or the contacts really is not the issue. I said, what's the real
issue? She said,
what do you mean? I said, what's stopping you from doing what you want to do? She
said, well, I don't
know. I said, but if you did know, what would your answer be? She said, well, I
think maybe I'm
afraid. I said, what are you afraid of? Maybe I might fail. See, a lot of people
allow fear
to stop them from living their dream. Answer your calling. Whatever you're called
to do,
don't count yourself out. Don't say, I can't do that. Many of us go through life
saying no,
and you don't even know what you're saying no to. You don't know what you cannot do
if you're not
willing to challenge yourself. Whatever it is that you don't know how to do right
now,
you can learn. I did not know how to speak for major corporations. I didn't know
how to do that,
but I decided to become a student. If you do your research, if you do your
homework, if you make
the commitment that I'm going to learn, when you look at what do I have going for
me and drop your
buckets where you are, decide I'm going to work and get myself together. I got into
him and said,
if you develop your gifts, your gifts will take you places that you'll never begin
to imagine.
I decided to do one thing all my life. I've been a jack of all trades at Bastum
Nutt. I did a
little vivid thing. I was a disjockey. I was a state representative. I used to be
an MC. I used
to do public relations work. I used to do door to door sales. I did a whole lot of
things, but I
decided that I was going to do one thing, and I would master that. After mastering
the auto-speaking,
then I would become a trainer. After doing that, then I said, I must become a
businessman. Just find
one thing and just decide that you're going to work with it until it gives you the
blessing that you
want, and don't let up on it. Just keep right on working it and working it and
working it and
knowing that whatever you do, you can better your best. That you can get better at
it. That
whatever you are achieving right now, it's only a tip of the iceberg of what's
possible for you.
Now, here's something else that you do when you start working on this dream. Give
it everything
you got. Put your heart in it. Most people, when they're working on dreams, they
don't give it
everything they have. I heard a guy say in a book, the title of it was, all you can
do is all you can
do, and all you can do is enough. Well, see, most people don't do all they can do.
Most people go
through life holding back. Have you ever had the experience of starting your car
and you
mash down on the accelerator and the car? Wait a minute, a hold of energy. Start
mashing again,
and it was not moving. It was very hot, and all of a sudden you realize that you
had the emergency
brakes on it? How many of you have ever had that experience, Ray Jad? All right.
Then you release
the emergency brakes and then a car move, boom, unencumbered. Most of us go through
life with our
emergency brakes on. Well, it might not work out. People might talk about me, I
don't have enough
money. I don't have enough education. I'm too ugly. Shake everybody's hand on your
right
and left and say, what you have is enough. See, you know, there are two kinds of
people in life.
They're winners and winers, you know. Most people go through life just wine, and I
didn't have a
duck buddy. I didn't have good credit. They didn't like me, you know. No life is
not about that. See,
the major key to your taking charge of your destiny is you. I mean, if you have the
credit of Ross
Pearl, that will help. All right. If you got somebody to call sad for you, that
will help.
If you happen to be handsome, that will help, you know. If you have people who will
support you,
that will help. But all of those things are secondary. The major key to your taking
charge of your
destiny is you. It's you. And even though you might not have all the things going
for you that you
would like, you have the power within you as you begin to develop your
consciousness as you hold
the vision of what it is that you want to do as you decide to enter this small
voice within you.
Because as you respond to this voice that's telling you you ought to do this, the
way will come,
ideas will come to you. You will begin to attract things you need and things that
you don't even
know that you need right now. You will develop the skills in the process as you
look at yourself
finding out what is it you need to do, what kind of adjustments you need to make,
what new strategies
that you need to begin to implement to make it happen. But if you don't put
yourself out here,
if you don't become actively involved in life, if you hold back on yourself and
continue to procrastinate,
when I saw a speaker who I said, I know if this guy can do this, I know I could do
that. That was
years after I had made the decision to do it. I was holding back on myself. I kept
building up
all kinds of reasons and excuses to justify why I wasn't acting on my dream. Most
people go through
life as volunteer victims. They go through life volunteering to be victims, giving
excuses on
why they're not pursuing their greatness, giving excuses on why they're not doing
the things that
they want to do. Putting it off again and again and again, wasting valuable time.
Life is very
valuable, ladies and gentlemen. Time is very valuable. And it's very fragile.
You've got to decide to
do what you can right now and don't delay. Live your life like a sense of urgency.
Repeat this, please, and tell somebody in your right and left. Live your life now.
Be happy now.
This is not a dress rehearsal. Do that, please.
This is your Super Bowl. Do you know there are people who put more emphasis and
more energy
and to a sporting event or dancing or entertainment than they do on their dreams?
They have more
interests in who want a particular game than where they are in relationship to
their goals and their
ambitions in developing themselves. So you want to begin to get your priorities in
order. Ask yourself
the question, the people in my life right now, are they contributing to my growth
and development?
Are they making me a better person? What I'm doing right now, is it nourishing me?
Does it empower me?
Is it giving me what I need out of my life right now? Is it challenging to me? Is
it making me
stretched mentally and emotionally and spiritually? Is it getting the best out of
me? See, this is the
only life you've got. So you don't want to squander it doing something you don't
want to do, feeling you
can't do any better. You can do better. You should do better. You deserve to do
better. You are entitled
to that. That is your right to do better. So resolve that within yourself. Make it
something in your
life that you just won't compromise on. See, it is important to me that I'll be
able to provide
for my mother. That is not optional to be able to provide for my children. There's
a standard of
living that I'm going to enjoy. It is not optional. It's not something that I would
like to see happen.
It's not something that it'll be okay. It's something that I value. And as you
begin to look at your
life, draw the line and say, hey, what is it that I need that can give me a sense
of fulfillment?
What is it that I need right now that I would enjoy that will give my life some
music and some
power? Decide that because you deserve that. But if you don't decide that and
decide to make that
happen, it will never happen for you. It will never happen for you. I did a
training years ago,
and after this particular seminar, I'll never forget a lady who was 85 years old.
She stood up
and we asked a question. Anybody has anything great to share? And she said, yes,
she said,
this was a very enriching seminar for me. It really opened my eyes. She said, I'm
85 years old.
She said, all my life. She said, I sacrificed my dreams for everybody else, for my
family, for my
husband, for my children. She said, I've really never done anything for me, a value
of the things
that I really find important. She said, I say to you, young people, you won't be in
my situation
right now if you decide to live your life now. She said, if I had my life to live
over, I would do
things differently. She said, but I don't have it to live over. And when I go home,
I got news
for my husband. So repeat after me, please, I'm going to live my life now. I
deserve that.
Okay, now here's something else I want you to realize. Things are going to happen.
You've just
got to handle it. My god, daughter, Nika Williams, who lives in Columbus, Ohio,
just his past week,
three children in her neighborhood that she went to school with, were sitting in a
car talking,
an intoxicated driver, lost control of his vehicle, and ran into that car and
killed those three kids.
The children that they went to school with experienced pain and grief and shock,
but they
came, became actively involved in putting together the funeral services. And I
talked with him,
and I said, how are you doing? And he said, I missed him. She said, but there's
something that I
realized that many of the relationships we have in life, we take casually. And we
don't say all
the things that we really should say and do all the things with people that mean
something to us
that we really should do. And she said, I'm going to miss them, but has really
alerted me about how
unpredictable life is. And so now she's going to become a very sharing person, more
so than ever
before, and all of the other young people that were involved, but they were
handling it. And as
you begin to look at your life, decide to handle things. When you decide that you
want to begin
to take control of your destiny, there are going to be some sacrifices that you're
going to have to
make. There'll be things that you're going to have to decide, I've got to give this
up. I've got to
let this go. Many times you will have problems in your personal relationships. When
I decided to
become a motivational speaker, I was going sometimes for weeks when I left home
before coming back.
And I'll never forget, I did a big major rally for a guy by the name of Dexter
Yeager, a big
amway rally called Free Enterprise Day. And after speaking, people were chanting,
we want the motivator. We want the motivator. Well, I was excited. So I ran back to
the phone
after I came off stage and I called the young lady that I was dating then. I said,
look, I said,
I wiped them out. They loved me there saying we want the motivator. Listen, they're
saying,
we want the motivator. We want the motivator. So she said, Les, I need to tell you
something.
I said, what? And I heard a voice in the background, I said, hurry up and tell him.
I said, who's that?
She said, Les, you've been going so long. I said, yeah, she asked, I've been
working on the dream.
And I'm sorry, the relationship is over. What? You got to be kidding me. I said,
hang up. I said,
wait, Mr. Motovator, come on. I said, hold up and wait. I said, Mr. Motovator, come
down. I said,
okay, okay. I went outside. I looked at the people. I said, you got to have a dream
that's real big.
I said, sometimes things will happen to you that will get you on the blind side and
bring you to
your knees. I went back to the hotel, but they had to pull me off stage. I was on
this and you got
to have a larger vision. You got to be hungry. They pulled me off. I said, and you
got to stay
over me. They said, come on, Motovator. They returned in the lights off. The
janitors wanted to go home.
I wanted to keep on for me. They took me to the hall. I was walking the room trying
to find the
Gideon Bible. And lonely was sitting on the bed saying, how's your positive
attitude? How's your
larger vision now? I'm telling you. When this happens, think it not strange. You
are going to cry.
People are going to get bad with you. People are going to start working against
you. Your
mate is going to get upset with you. Where are you going? I'm working on the dream.
I got your
dream. You're going to know it. People are going crazy on you. Becoming jealous and
envious. That's
a part of the program. Understand that. That's why a lot of people say, I pass on
the dream.
I just keep on buying my nails. Don't happen.
But it's an experience that that opposition, those obstacles that you will
encounter,
that's how you grow. That's how you become stronger.
Now, will there be some tight moments? Will there be some times that you want to
give up? Yes.
Here's something I was reading that Harriet Beecher store says. She said, when you
get into a tight
spot and everything goes against you until it seems that you cannot hold on for a
minute longer,
never give up then. But that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
Never give up then. And that is so important. When you're working on doing the
things you want to
do and fulfilling your dream and things happen, there are times when your energy
feels so depleted
that you want to give up that it looks just totally impossible. And I can tell you
from my own
personal experience, don't give up then. That's when you've got to fall forward
when life is kicking
dirt in your face. Don't give up then. That's when most people turn back. Most
people will tuck
their tails between their legs and they will run in the opposite direction and say,
that's all right,
life. I don't want this. All right. No, no, no. If you've decided that this is what
you want to do,
you've got to become courageous to stand up within yourself to face it and step
forward.
And ladies and gentlemen, that is what gives your life meaning. That those things
will begin to
strengthen you like you can never begin to imagine. And I tell you, one of the most
painful experiences
I had in my life was also one of the most enriching because they say that pain
opens the space and
the heart for joy. And because I did not buy into something, because I caught
myself at a critical
point and was able to back up and look at it, I was able to become free of the
effects of what
could have been a tragic situation for me and move on and do something about it.
But I learned
in the process that I had to learn to surrender and give certain things up. See, in
life, everything
that happens to you, there's a lesson in it. There's a lesson in it for you. If you
look at it,
whatever happens to you, just look at and view life that you're a student of the
universe and say,
what's in here for me to learn? One of the most tragic things that happened to me
that could
have been a tragedy was when I wanted to buy my mother home. And I did that. And in
my haste,
and it was the first major purchase of property that ever made in my life. And so I
was naive.
And so when we were sitting there at the closing, the attorney said, have you done
a title search?
And I said, what's a title search? And she said, well, that's when you check to see
whether or not
there are any liens against a property before you purchase it so that you don't
inherit any
financial obligations of the previous owner. So the guy interrupted and said, look
here.
He said, the only reason that I'm selling you this house and I'm doing it at a
loss,
I can actually make more money. But the only reason that I flew here from
Philadelphia to sell
you the house specifically is because I admire the fact that you're adopted and you
want to buy
this home for your mother. And he said, there are no liens on the property. I just
want to help you.
So I looked at my attorney, I said, I believe you. She said, less, this is
business. I'm not
questioning his integrity. But I advise you not to sign the contract now. I looked
at him, he said,
if you're not going to do it, man, I'll just go ahead and make the money that I was
going to make.
I said, okay, no, no, no, no, I want to do it. I said, I'll do it. So she said,
okay, she said,
this is not the last house in the world. I signed the contract. After being in the
house for around
two months, I received a notice that I had to pay a lien of $25,000 or I had to get
out of the house. I called the attorney, I said, look here, sir. I said, my name is
Les Brown. I'm
the new owner of this property. I said, I bought this home from my mother. I said,
she's 80 years old.
I said, she has a bad heart, a serious condition. I said, and I just cannot give up
this home. And I
just exhausted all of my resources to buy the house. It's all I have. I said, can
we work out some
kind of monthly payments? I don't know how much I can get. But if you can work with
me,
I guarantee I'll give you my word. I want to keep this on. I'll pay you back. He
said, we want
the money in six weeks or you have to get out of the house. It's going to go into
auction bar.
I said, oh, I said, but I borrowed everywhere I could just to get the $12,000 to
put down on it.
He said, Mr. That's not my problem. You should have had a title search there.
So I went back home and I worried for weeks. I lost around 23 pounds. I would go
home to catch the
mail so my mother wouldn't get it. They put a listing in the newspaper. People were
driving around,
wanted to come in the house to look at it. So I put a sign out front saying that
the newspaper
article was an error saying that the house was up for sale. And finally, when they
were coming for
the day, they were going to auction it on the courthouse steps. I knew the moment
of truth had come,
I had to tell my mother. So I walked all night that night around two o'clock in the
morning,
the children were asleep, my mother was asleep. I said, Lord, I said, why did this
have to happen
to me? I said, I'm trying to do the right thing. I want to provide for mom. I'm not
out stealing
and robbing. I want to provide for my children. I said, why did this have to happen
to me? I was
personalizing. I'm feeling like a victim. And so finally, I had to go in there and
I had to tell
my mama. So I kneeled by the bed. I said, mama, I've got something to tell you. She
said, why?
I said, we've got to move out the house. She said, why? I said, well, because of
the fact that I made
a mistake and I signed a contract when I should have had a title search done and I
can't pay the 25,
$1,000 outstanding lean against it. She said, good, I don't like this house anyway.
I said,
but you told me you did. She said, I just said that for you because you like this
so much.
She said, this two story, baby, in the arthritis, I can't climb the steps, but you
told me you could,
mama. Oh, I just did that for you. I walked up the steps and I was in the room,
said, that fool
crazy with his house. I said, oh, mama. So I'll never forget when we had to pack up
and go back
to the old house we had moved out on in Liberty City right down the street from
Miami, North
Western High School and the neighbors were out looking. Isn't that Mandy's boy?
They're coming back?
Yeah. I was so embarrassed. I mean, I was, you know, I turned red, but couldn't
nobody see it. You know what?
Something my sister came over, she didn't make it any better. She was, mmm.
Mixed a big time. Won't get no job going around and running your mouth. Yeah, you
got a dream to
get mama home. Nah, you back where you belong. Yeah, we came in the house of the
rich, the roaches
of the playing bed with. It's a y'all come on in. We miss y'all. And as I was
taking furniture off
the truck, I was so hurt and humiliated. I felt beaten and I began to cry and I
held my head down
and my mama said, oh, you're here. I said, mama, I just, I just can't. She said,
hold your head up
and have nothing to be shame. You did the best you could. Hold your head up. I
said, yes,
mama. So I was carrying the furniture in. And I had to give a lecture that week on
forgiveness.
And I can't talk about anything unless I'm doing it myself. And I had to forgive
and forget,
let it go so that I could grow. It took me time to work through that, but I did and
I was able to
give the lecture. And to this day, I can't even remember the guy's name. But
because I let it go,
and I begin to focus my energy in the now. Later, I got a bigger and better home
for my mama.
Here's what I learned from that. That was not the last home in the world. There
were other homes.
If I had just been willing to just let it go, he who cares less wins. And the guy
called and said,
you got to get out of there. If this is what happened, I could have, I mean,
through worry
and stress, I could have had a heart attack over a house that my mama didn't even
like.
Do you follow what I'm saying? So I, I now realize, hey, it's only things. And it's
okay,
they are replaceable. I lost everything except my spirit and the love of my mother
and her respect
and respect of my children. Sure, people talked about me. Did they laugh? Yes. Did
I feel humiliated
for a while? Yes, I did. Embarrass? Yes. And that's a part of it. But I didn't stay
there. See,
sometimes you just, you can wallow in it. You don't, don't want to get, you get,
somebody pull you out feeling good. No, I want to go back again. No, no, don't
wallow in self-penny.
And there are people who will help you. You call them up and they'll give you a
pity party. All
right? No. I talked the other night about some explorers that were in Africa. And
they saw these
two little boys who were playing with some, what appeared to be, mobbles. And they
went up to these
little guys and say, here, let me give you some candy for that. Little fellas ate
the candy and
like that. They said, can we have some more? I said, yes. But would you give me
what you are playing
with? And they said, yes. And they gave these shiny little rocks, so to speak, to
the explorers.
And the explorers, taking them back and examining them, discovered they were large-
sized uncut
diamonds. They had a fortune. The little boys had a fortune in their hands. But
they didn't know.
They did not know. Repeat after me, please, if we knew better. We would do better.
We would do better. See, there are many of us. We work for people and sometimes put
in 60 and
70 hours a week. Why? Because we have the ability, the talents and the skills to
contribute to the
long-term growth and development and profitability of the company. Do we do that
for ourselves? Oh,
no. Why? Well, we said, well, I've got security. There's no such thing. It's an
illusion in your mind.
We go through life creating these illusions for ourselves. But it doesn't mean that
you can't
strategically work on something else on the side. Develop some hobby of passion and
find ways that
you can begin to create some alternative methods of providing wealth for yourself.
See, you know, money is not important to me. But Rita Davenport said, it's right up
there with
oxygen. But it is important to me that it not be important. I got that from real
steel. That's
important. It is important to me that it not be important. Make it important to you
to live your
dream. See, how many of you fly airplanes? You've been in the airplane. Raise your
hand right.
How many of you ever lost your luggage? Raise your hand, please. Raise your hand.
All right, very good.
Now, how many of you have you knew your chances of getting to your next destination
where
as good as your luggage? Would you still get an airplane? No, no hands went up. You
know why?
You know why you could get on an airplane where your luggage is supposed to go and
you show up
and your luggage does not show up? Because the airline has made human cargo getting
to the
destination important, more important than the luggage. Aren't you glad?
She said, yeah, I go first no more.
So as you begin to look at life, as you begin to look at the things you want to do,
decide
that you're going to become the active force in your life. Decide that you're not
going to go
through life feeling like a victim. Decide that when things become challenging and
they are,
that you're not going to personalize it, that you're going to look at it and you do
whatever you
must do in order to work things out and learn from it. Learn from it. That's the
key. I like what
Charles Houdhall said. He says, in life you will always be faced with a series of
God-ordained
opportunities, brilliantly disguised as problems and challenges. If you've lost
your job, don't say
that I've been laid off. Just say I've been given an opportunity by the universe to
find my life
work. So as you view all of the things that happened to you as an opportunity, now
you're taking it
from a different perspective. Now you become an active force in your life. Now you
are the one
rather than running from things as they begin to change, you become a change driver
because you
know that you've got the power within you to make the difference. This force, this
power, this energy
that you have that's more powerful than anything that can ever happen to you.
You're more powerful
than your circumstances or anything that you can experience right now. Decide that
you're going to
commit yourself to act on your ideas, to become happy, commit yourself to live your
dream,
commit yourself to become the architect of your future. There's something that I
heard that Gurda
wrote that I love very much and it really as you begin to operate out of this
consciousness,
you begin to experience a different level of living in terms of commitment. He says
until
one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back always
ineffectiveness. See, until
you are willing to jump out there, somebody asked me, how do I do that? I said, no,
no, no,
you don't need any answers now, you need to make the commitment. Once you make a
commitment,
then life will give you some answers. You can't decide just going to sit on the
side of the pool
and just stick your toe in. No, you've got to be willing to make the leap. Most
people don't want
to do that. They want to sit on the side and say, Tim, is it cold out there? Is it
rough out there?
Come on out and see. Say no, you want to decide to commit that commitment because
then that's when
you begin to become involved in the learning process. He said concerning all acts
of initiative
and creation. There's one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless
ideas and
splendid plans that the moment one commits oneself, then providence moves too. All
sorts of things
occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred. He said, whatever you
can do or dream
you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, magic in it, begin it now. I read
a book by Dr.
Johnny Coleman that says it works if you work it. And as you begin to look at your
life,
decide that you're going to start working on that dream, you're going to work and
nurture
that idea. Now, there will be people that will criticize you. There won't be a
people that won't
see it for you. But I say to you, don't let them turn you around. Shake somebody's
hand on your
right and left him and say, don't let nobody turn you around. That's key because
people will try
and turn you around. Hello? People will try and turn you around. But when I heard
Bob Mays out of
Chicago saying that so, don't let nobody turn you around. That's real because
that's why most
people don't act on their dreams and ideas. That's why most people, when I'm
talking with kids that
are in institutions and I said, what happened? Why did you give up working hard and
making good
grades? Well, they started teasing me and they allowed that peer pressure to cause
them to scale
down their dreams and their ambitions. They started following the crowd. That's why
many people don't
do the things they want to do. Friend of mine, he wanted to become an actor all his
life. He
let someone convince him, you can't become an actor. You got to Hollywood. They'll
swallow you up as
two competitive thousands of unemployed people out there. But then another friend
of mine, Sheila Hall,
and she decided at age 42, I'm going to live my dream. A son graduated from high
school. She
decided to make the plunge to go to Hollywood. Quiet person never had any
experience in the area
and because she decided to make the commitment, she is now working on a one woman
show and she's
been getting support from everywhere because she was willing to make the
commitment. This other guy
is far more talented and skillful, but he wasn't willing to make the commitment. So
he goes to work
every day to a job that's making him sick because he doesn't have the guts or the
boldness to stand
up in life and say, I'm going to live my dream. I'm going to commit myself to live
out what's in
me. I heard Dr. Johnny Youngblood say, I must live what's in me. I said, why do you
do this? He said,
I got to do it. I got to do it. I'm saying, find something in your life that you
say, hey, it might
not work out, but I got to do this. Why? Hey, it's the one thing I love. It's my
peace. It's my thing.
You don't understand it? It's all right. It's all right.
You don't need anybody to understand it. You don't need anybody to approve you. You
don't need
anybody to say, go ahead on and do it. If you get that, that's fantastic. If you
get that encouragement,
that's great. But I say, stand up within yourself boldly and say, this is my life.
I'm controlling my
destiny. Dude, it is so good to have you. You are an unparalleled motivational
preacher. And I use
that word very intentionally. You have a way of conveying a message with such
chills, inspiring,
goose bump giving power. It's really, really extraordinary to witness and becomes
all that
much more powerful knowing that you didn't start there, that that wasn't naturally
your
beginning. And you've called life a battle for territory. What do you mean by that?
The things that you get in life, you know, Frederick Douglass said, we might not
get everything that
we fight for, but everything we get, it will be a fight. And I love the quote that
life is a fight
for territory. And once you stop fighting for what you want, what you don't want
will automatically
take over. Like getting ready to come here to see you. I want to just first of all
thank you for
the great work that you're doing. I watch you and I study you and you have had some
incredible
guests impacted my life and preparing to come here. I'm being treated by cancer
centers of
America for fourth stage cancer, which I've been kicking cancer's butt for 27
years. And I've been
working on getting a six pack before getting here. I still got one pack. And I've
been working
against the muscles so I can wear my t-shirt, but they were large enough so I wore
a long sleeve.
That's amazing man. Talk to me about cancer. You've had such an upbeat attitude
about it.
It's really pretty extraordinary. Was that your initial reaction? Did you go
through a trough of
despair when you first got diagnosed? Like how have you framed that? Dr. Alfred
Golsen, who since
passed, was a very unusual guy. And he told me that Mr. Brown, you have cancer. I
said,
can you give me a second opinion? He said, you're ugly too. I said, oh my god.
So I didn't have chances to have fear because those three words, you have cancer,
three of the most feared words in seven different languages. I saw it as a fight.
And from that
time to this time, my PSA was 2,400. That's a prostate-specific antigen. And now
it's below zero.
And metastasized the seven areas of my body, which was a good thing because seven
is my lucky number.
I never was fearful that I was going to die from it. And I think that I read
something by
Dr. Norman Cousins. He wrote a book called The Biology of Hope. And he talked about
the fact that
when something happens to you, you don't deny it. You defy it. And I was defiant
that I'm going to
beat this. I'm going to handle this. That there are people who many times when
something happens
to them, that they embrace it from a place of fear. And it takes them out. And
Elsie Robinson
said, thanks may happen to you and thanks may happen around you. But the most
important things
are the things that happen in you. And you have to stand up inside yourself and
deal with it and
handle it. So fortunately, that never bothered me. But I had sought a campaign that
had me speaking
in unknown togs. And I was in a wheelchair for several months speaking from the
wheelchair.
And it was something that I dealt with that frightened me. Will this ever end? It
was 24 hours. I lost
a lot of sleep. It was exhausting going from all types of specialists in and out of
the country.
And just one day it stopped. And I'm glad that I'm past that. I feel like when you
go through
some stuff, you death of some certain things that you don't want ever to see or get
it. That's what
I don't want to ever see or get. But fear has not been the biggest challenge that
I've faced with
the things that I've been dealing with in terms of my health. Well, talk to me
about the process
that you go through mentally. So there have been a few times in your life in
getting to know your
story where they seem like really key inflection points. Being told that you were
teachable, but
mentally retarded, that for sure is something that would define most people. And
they would have a
hard time escaping that. Being told that you have cancer that it's stage four that
they don't know
how to treat it. Like that's something that consumes most people. How do you build
that resilience? So
maybe by the time you get to cancer, you've already done so much work. So I get
maybe how that when
you're protected by the mechanisms you've built. But in the beginning, how did you
crawl out from
under the labels that people were putting on you? The easiest thing I've done was
to get out from
under the labels and to live the life that I live. The most difficult thing I've
ever done was to
believe that I can do it. What's the difference? The difference is that when you
don't know what's
impacting you and it's something that's holding you down and you're not aware of
it. The great
anthropology of Margaret Mead was in a restaurant in London and a guy was serving
her and said
there's several Americans here tonight. And she said, is that right? Yeah. So let
me know when you
serve them, desert. I'll tell you exactly how many are here. He said, oh you
couldn't possibly.
And so he came back and said, okay I've done it. And she got up and she walked
around and she came
back and she said, there around 25 here. And he looked at the roster. How did you
know that?
Say in America, we eat differently from you when we eat a dessert. You eat it from
the crust
toward the tip. We eat it from the tip toward the crust. When you eat a slice of
pie, how do you
eat yours? I definitely have from the tip back to the crust for sure. Yeah, okay.
And so there are
things that in my situation, you live in a dominant culture that is designed to
destroy your sense
of self and your belief in yourself and you have to learn ways in which you can
begin to connect with
this power that you have within yourself to handle where you are. The key is to be
constantly in a
perpetual process of discovering the truth of who you are and fighting constantly
to look for ways
in which you can escape the inner conversation. I speak to audiences around the
world and I train
speakers as well and I tell them that when you speak that there's an objective that
you want to
achieve when you speak to an audience because how people live their lives as a
result of the story
they believe about themselves. So you as a speaker, when you speak in this program,
when people see you,
what you do is distract, dispute and inspire. You distract people from their
current story with your
guess and the questions that you ask through the process of the ongoing questioning
in the way in
which they respond and the things they have learned, you dismantle their current
belief system and
inspire them to create a new chapter with their lives and so but that's an ongoing
process of
constantly interrupting that conversation. What psychologists call yourself
explanatory style because
life is going to beat up on you in so many ways and many things they come back, you
know negative
thoughts and and how you feel about yourself. They don't die. They come back once
you stop doing
the maintenance work on your mind, listening to motivational messages, going to
seminars and workshops,
spending time quietly listening to the still small voice within. Who am I really?
Is this really me? Am
I giving my best? Am I just reflecting what's around me? Because all of these
various things affect how
we show up in life and so having a strategy to continuously find ourselves reaching
higher. Robert
Schuller had a book that is not very popular but I loved it. It's called Peek to
Peek, U-P-E-A-K
to P-E-E-K because you're constantly reaching higher to find out and discover your
better self.
One of the things you mentioned as I was listening to you is a person Mr.
Washington that shaped your
life. I have a two-fold question. We know one of the individuals who shaped your
life was Mr.
Washington. Another one was Miss Mamie Brown. But what has shaped your life?
The desire to make my mother proud. I'm talking to because of two women. One gave
me life, the other
one gave me love. God took me out of my biological mother's womb and placed in the
heart of my adopted mother.
And so my mother as a kid she's my hero. Your father's day came around. I gave her
a father's
a say card too because she was not just my mother but she served as a father as
well. For seven
children that she did not give birth to and I always wanted to do something to make
her proud.
I want to talk about greatness just for a moment. What has been your greatest life
lesson?
That there are things that you can do that you don't know that you can do. That's
why the book
of life says I have not seen, here has not heard. I never saw myself speaking in
the stadium before
80,000 people. I never saw myself standing on the stage in Poland to 30,000 people
and over 51
different countries. Those are things that I accomplished that I did not see
coming. What I
realized that there are things that we can do and things that we can achieve that
we cannot see
and because we cannot see does not mean we cannot do it. That's why we're taught to
lean
not onto that own understanding that we can program and indoctrinate it with a
mindset to be
logical, practical and realistic. But when you step out of your history, your
mindset and live
from your heart where your heart is there, your treasures also that that transport
you to begin
to live out of your imagination. Einstein said the imagination is a preview of
what's to come.
So it takes discipline and persistence to do that. That's what's required to get
out of your
head and into your greatness and to live and to do the greater work.