[0:00]What builds strength? What builds character? What builds fortitude? It is the fall. It is pain. It is the process of going through the darkness and reaching the light. It is literally at the darkest moment when it dawns. Life will knock you between the eyes. It will catch you on the blind side, come out of nowhere, stuff you can't anticipate. That will knock the wind out of you. You want to give up. This is what I found in my life. At my lowest moment, the enemy's louder. "You're not gonna make it. This is not gonna happen." That mind will say, "Why bother?" "Why go through all this?" "This is too hard." "No, throw in the towel." "It's not worth it." And the world would tell us if we're under something, like under pressure or undervalued, under different areas in our life that are making us uncomfortable and it feels isolated and dark, that's the place that you should stop. That's the place where you should give up. And you're gonna have some tough times. You're gonna go through some tough times. What is it that keeps you going? If you know the why for living, you can endure almost any how. What's your reasons? What's your why? What is it that drives you? Here's how you can handle that. Here's how you override that. Write down five reasons why you deserve it. What meaning and value will it bring to your life? What's so different about you that you deserve your goal? And when you write down those five reasons, when you have some down moments and you're going to have them, when that conversation starts talking to you and it's going to talk to you, what you will do is you can pull that out and read it and it will build you up. That's why it's important for you to work on yourself, listening to tapes, building yourself up, talking to yourself with power, feeling and conviction, building yourself up day in and day out, because it's coming. Take all your energy for the dream, 'cause you're going to need it. 'Cause you don't know what's going to happen. And so life normally breaks you, because when it hits you, you weren't ready. But if you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready. If you stay ready and you stay plugged up, when you hear bad news, it don't break you, 'cause you already energized. Even in some of your darkest moments, when you make mistakes, You have got to stick around for the two things that the mistake is made for, every failure is made for, every misstep is made for. It is made for a lesson and a blessing. Them two things follow every single one of them, every single time. I love the sun, but things don't grow because of the sun. You have to have some rain. The world don't send down rain without a return.
[3:07]When it start raining, flowers grow. Trees get bigger. You've got to understand what the rain and the dirt is for. You've got to stop looking at rain in your life as something bad. People get so angry when people start throwing dirt on you. Man, quit tripping. Dirt is fertilizer. If you ever want to be something, you're going to have to get some dirt on you. Because that dirt that smothers you, it teaches you how to push through. You ain't finna have no smooth life. You can get that out your mind. Nobody's finna just come up to you and hand you no damn money. It ain't finna be rosy for you. You got to strike out to be successful. And when you strike out, you got to get ready for it to get real funky and real hard, 'cause that's what's going to happen. Everything you're going through is preparing you for what you ask the universe for. You just got to quit tripping while you're in the process, because the process is necessary. You may not see it now, but when you on the other side of it, you're gonna see exactly why it went that way. And you gonna be okay with it. But quit tripping during the process. Pull yourself together and quit tripping, 'cause you in the process. Life is processing you. It ain't through with you. If it was through with you, you would not wake up in the morning. When I was at my darkest moments, when I was at my lowest places, the greatest ideas that have ever come to me came from my greatest defeats. I understand it is in the process that you get better. It's in the process that don't nobody know your name and five years later, you're one of the best in the world. Why? Because iron sharpens iron. And the process is just as important as the actual prize. Because the deeper the process, the greater the reward. I'm not gonna quit in the process. I'm not gonna give up. I'm not gonna give in. You got to be able to see it when it cannot be seen. You gotta see it in your mind's eye. You have to see yourself writing a book before the book is finished. You gotta see it. You have to believe in the unseen. Because if you can't believe in it, you will never manifest it. But when you believe in it, you demand the universe to assist you in what you're doing. You have to take residence with it. Residence. You gonna have to learn to fight with it. You gonna have to put in a little bit more sweat, a little bit more blood, a little bit more tears, but you gotta wrestle with it. You tied knot around yourself, you double tie it if you have to, but you hold on. If it's hard, make it okay that it's hard. Only thing that matters, how you deal with it, that's all that matters. That nothing's gonna stop us. I will do whatever it takes, make whatever adjustments I need to make. I deserve this. I'm gonna do it until. We have been knocked to the ground, but we're not destroyed. Don't you ever give up. Don't you ever give in, because I never told you it would be easy. But with mental toughness, you can get it done.
[6:17]There are many people who have lost that fire in their eyes. Who because of the experiences of life have said no, I can't do that. See, you can experience enough pain in life, you can experience enough disappointment in life that it can clobber you to the ground and kick dirt in your face, and you believe you can't do it, you believe this is it for you. No it's not. Life's gonna punch you right in the face. Life's gonna fire you over and over again, you're gonna be told you're not good enough, your faith is going to be tested. Your family's gonna look you in the eye and say, how do we get health insurance next month? I don't know. But I know we're gonna make it. Life is hard, man, that's what it's about. Life is a challenge. If you don't work as hard as you can, if you don't sacrifice everything, if you don't get rejected and keep coming back for more, if you don't get your loyalty tested and your faith tested, you don't love that thing if you bail out. So if you fought through all that, that's love. The problem with society now is too many of us are on the contract. And contract means when things ain't going right, I quit. When things ain't going the way I think they should go, I give up, I give in. Most of you are not under covenant. Covenant means, look, me and you, if the company go down, we go down with it. We do not retreat. We do not give up. We do not surrender. And the reason why most of you are not successful is because every single time stuff not going your way, you give up, you quit, you let go and people feel weakness, they feel it. You can feel when somebody's not committed. When they're not dedicated. And there's another level you get to when you go all in. Phenomenally skilled is cute. But it is a phenomenal will that says, every time I get knocked down, I will get back up and I will succeed. I will not surrender. At some point your faith got to be tested. At some point, you got to be tested by life. Nobody's coming to save you. Nobody's coming to get you. But you can get yourself. You will make it. Through blood, sweat and tears. Now is your moment to prove to yourself that nothing will stop you. When you have fear, fear makes you think in ways you shouldn't be thinking. When you have fear, fear makes you speak in a certain way. When you have fear. But when you have faith, you don't need to count. When you have faith, you don't need to go outside. When you have faith, you don't need to see how many horses. When you have faith, you don't need to see how many armies. When you have faith, you don't need to see how many swords. When you have faith, you don't need to count no shields. When you have faith, you just believe and it will happen. If you can just keep hope alive, you can make it. Because if you keep hoping, it is really faith. You just gotta transpose it into "I hope this happens" to "I believe this can happen." I had no advantages. But I woke up one day and realized all men are created equal, I don't need none, I'm my advantage. You're your advantage. Why are you waiting for somebody to call you? Why are you waiting for somebody to affirm you? Why are you waiting for somebody to tell you you got a dream or a goal? Why are you waiting for somebody to take you by your hand and give you what's rightfully yours? However much money you make, whatever kind of life you have, that's yours. And so when I speak to you, I speak from the pain of taking 12 years to get a 4-year degree. I speak to you as a failure who had to get back up every single doggone time, and say brush it off and keep going. Doesn't matter what has happened, doesn't matter what people think. That has nothing to do with you. Here's what matters, where do you wanna go? What do you wanna do now? This thought, this vision that you have in your mind of where you wanna go and what you wanna do, feel it. Look at your goal, see yourself there. Experience the feeling of achieving the goal, of making the decision, or overcoming the challenge. Experience the glory. How you feel inside. When you can say, I did it. See that happening. If you would just believe that your day coming, that the sacrifices you are making today, they're gonna pay off. But if you do not believe, it ain't gonna happen.
[10:29]At some point, if you live in this life, you're going to face disappointment. You're going to face defeat. You're going to face devastation. Usually the day that I say f**k this, I want to quit. Couple days later, I get a breakthrough. Just do me a huge favor. On your worst day, just hold on. Give it one more day. On your worst day, your worst day in your relationship, your worst day in your business. Your worst conditions. Give it one more day. Give it one more day. I promise you, a day will make a difference. A blade does not become strong until it's been through the fire several times. And there's a lot of hammer work that has to take place. And then you're gonna have to go back in the forge again. And it's hot and it melts you down and you're uncomfortable. And then life is going to pull you out and it's going to put you on the anvil and it's gonna hammer on you some more. And you're going to say, am I done yet? No. You've got a lot more forge time left. You've got a lot more hammer blows left. Embrace the journey and the process of life. All of us will be successful in life if we don't quit. Don't quit. Get off your butt. Get in the arena. Get dirty. Get sweaty. Get bloody. Get knocked down. Get back up. See, you're not a failure until you quit. Failing is not hitting the mark. That doesn't mean you're a failure. You fail, but you don't become a failure. The only time you're a failure is if you quit. You don't quit. You just get up and get going and don't you dare lay down. The power to hold on in spite of everything, the power to endure, the hunger, the ability to face defeat again and again without giving up. This person doesn't care about the pain because there's no gain without pain. This is the winner's quality. You have that quality within you. What would your life be like as you look toward the future? If you decided, I'm not going to allow my fears to stop me. You got to have dreams and visions so big that it dwarfs all your fears. I don't care how hard the times you done fell on. If you still here, it's because you possess a resilience, a toughness, an inner strength of faith. As you're working times with tears falling down your face. And you'll look back on the times and you will cherish those times. May I suggest to you that even though you're in a dark place, you're in the right place. May I suggest to you that you are perfectly positioned. That everything you've ever prayed for and everything you've ever wanted in your darkest moment that you're about to get ready for your breakthrough. May I suggest to you that what you think is the worst thing that ever happened to you, that this is probably the best thing that ever happened in your life. May I suggest to you that the fact that you lost it all, that sometimes in our darkest moments it's the brightest time in our lives. You will survive. You gonna get through it. You gotta walk in your season. And a part of walking into your season is making a decision that when I get to my darkest moments, a part of the decision is when I can't wake up, everything in the take is gone, when I'm broke emotionally, when I'm broke mentally, when I'm broke physically, when I'm broke and I ain't got no more. You gotta make a decision at that point. One more. Give it one more day. Give it one more chance. Give it one more opportunity. Don't give in. One more. If you've been doing 10 things and it ain't working, do 11. You're not 100% sure what could happen if you keep going. Like you're not 100% sure if you give it one more crack at it. If you give it one more chance. You're not 100% sure what's gonna happen. But there's one thing I can tell you. You will fail if you give up. I can guarantee you that. I can guarantee you will be a failure if you quit. But I don't know what's going to happen if you keep going, but just keep going just to see what's on the other side. And it's usually in those moments where you feel like you can't do it, that you're closer than ever to having everything that you wanted. Sometimes the greatest environment to make a commitment is the darkest environment. Sometimes we don't make a commitment until we lose everything. It's okay. Sometimes the level of commitment that's required to go to the next level doesn't happen when the bank account is full. Sometimes the level of commitment that we need, it doesn't happen when everything is going right. Sometimes you got to hit rock bottom. Sometimes you got to get sick. Sometimes life's got to put you on your back. Sometimes you got to lose it all. Between starting and success, it's gonna be a whole lot of failure in between. And what you gotta do is learn to play through the haters. Play through it. Play through the failures. The mistakes. Play through it as if it doesn't exist. Just push past the pain. Push. Don't quit, don't give up, push. You push your way to success. I want you to see difficult differently. When my man looking at those weights, it's gonna tear his muscles to pieces. But what he understands is that if he tears them down, they gonna rebuild themselves. And when they rebuild themselves, they're that much stronger. Listen to me. The more you go through, the more difficult it is. All you're doing is building muscle. So don't quit, don't give up, push through that stuff. Push through it. You can't get through it. If you can just muster up enough strength to hold on and hold out, if you do not quit, if you do not give up, it's gonna happen. And if you persevere, trouble don't last always. Every storm that's come, it will pass.
[16:10]Everybody's got big plans, but the plans out the window when they get punched in the face. Stuff happens that are completely out of your control. And when we make plans, it is impossible in our finite state to be able to predict the unusual, unprecedented circumstances that will dramatically affect our plans. Plans will change. So how will you take the next step? When everything says quit, what keeps you going? Life is going to test that will. Every time. Life is going to see how bad you want what you say you want. It is the insecurity of the times that defines who you really are. It's very easy to be motivated on those good days of life. It's that cat who can be at the bottom of the f***ing sewer, who can find great motivation alone. There's no coach, there's no trainer, there's no nothing. There's no mom, dad, sister, cousin, brother, wife, husband, it's you and you alone in the worst possible spot of your life. If you can find drive, determination, motivation in those times alone, you've figured it out. And we have it all in our minds. It's how you talk to yourself, it's how you visualize coming out of it, it's how you see yourself in the dungeon of life. Many of us can't find strength there. But there's so much strength in the dungeon. 'Cause so many people just stay there. It's that motherf**ker who's willing to come out of it that becomes glorious at the end of it all. It is the chaos of the time that creates the conqueror in the man. Those exceptional people who are uncomfortable with the times and rise to the challenge because they refuse to allow the chaos around them to determine the conqueror within them. People who resist the tow to go down and stand fiercely in spite of opposition and say I'm going to do it anyway. Sometimes you have to back up and go within and pray and meditate and recharge your batteries. Go away, clear your head and then come back and look at it from a different vantage point. Don't operate while you're under the spell or the effect of what's going on. See, we can't control the thoughts that come in our minds but we can control the thoughts that we dwell on. So your thoughts have magnetism and the most challenging thing is to discipline your thinking to hold the vision of what it is that you want. Don't allow your emotions to control you. We are emotional but you want to begin to discipline your emotion. If you don't discipline and contain your emotions, they will use you. You get up every f***ing day and you look in the mirror and you tell that mirror I'm a bad motherf**ker. And one way or another, I'm gonna make it f***ing happen today. This is a test. This is the day I'm gonna find out if my goals really are my goals. I'm talking about looking yourself in the mirror, looking yourself in the eye and saying, I'm gonna f***ing dominate today, better than any other day. You're gonna get up, you're gonna get dressed, you're gonna get out and you're gonna do what you've been called to do. You're gonna be what you've been told to be. And you're gonna prove to everybody that tried to break you, everybody that tried to stop you, everybody that tried to kill your dream, you're gonna prove all of them wrong. I'm gonna show them all they're wrong. Because I'm the champion. I'm gonna prove I'm the greatest. I'm gonna prove to you I'm the greatest. I'm gonna prove to the world I'm the greatest. There will never be one like me. Our character is defined by the choices we make on a moment to moment basis. It all adds up to the win. You might not win it today, but your efforts done today, even the failure felt today, are all measures to create the moment later. And if you got knocked down, find the intestinal fortitude to get back up, try that same endeavor, then you find yourself victorious in that endeavor, that's the sweetest victory of all. That builds a confidence that's unbreakable. And you've come too far to only come this far. So you fight if you have to. You crawl if you have to. You scrap if you have to. You do whatever it takes. Because on the other side of that pain is your promise. So you get through your get through so you can get your reward.
[20:34]If you've ever had a moment in your life that you have measured yourself and come up short, if you've ever poured yourself into an individual, a company, a place or thing and didn't get the results you expected, then this one is for you. It's hard. It's hard changing your life. There are moments that you're going to doubt yourself. You've gotta know why you're out here. Because you're gonna get your butt kicked. When the storms of life come, and they're going to come, when life pounce on you and that's gonna happen, when it catches you on the blindside and drop you to your knees and that's gonna happen, when your plans don't work out and that's gonna happen, when you start running out of money and that's gonna happen, when you want to give up and that's gonna happen, your reasons will be your rod and staff to comfort you. Your reasons will be your bridge over troubled waters. But you've gotta know why you're there because your reasons, when life drops you to your knees, your reasons will help you get back up. When times I wanted to give up why you here, Les? Because I want to make mama proud of me. Why you here, Les? I promised my kids I'm gonna do for them. I'm gonna give them a better life I wanna leave them a legacy. I'm not gonna give up. Go back fool, go back. No, no. I refuse to give up on my dream. And I'm not gonna let anything stop me. Sometimes you gotta start all over again, sometimes you gotta refresh, and you're so worried about your bills, you're so focused on everything else but you and you don't realize, you, you are what's going to blow you up, you are what's going to change your situation, you. You are what's going to take you to the next level. The only thing that's going to determine is the inside world. The things that you believe and the actions you take every day are what shape your destiny. Through every dark night, there's a bright day after that. So no matter how hard it get, stick your chest out, keep your head up and handle it. We can choose to surrender or we can choose to take a stand and fight. And you've just got to decide that my life is worth this kind of effort. And fight with everything in you night and day with every breath that you have. You must be patient, persistent and positive, no matter what. Because when you are negative, ladies and gentlemen, you're sending out negative energy and you're blocking your good. See, if people ask you how you're doing, even if you're having some difficult times, say, I'm blessed and highly favored. Because anytime you wake up and you don't have a white chalk outline around your body, it's a great day. And so I say to you, it's possible you can live your dream. If it's becoming a diamond, if it's having more, if it's achieving more, it's possible you can live your dream. It's necessary that you have a plan of action, that you're resilient, that you stick to, that you have the vision and never give up, that you become creative and relentless and when life knocks you down, jump back up and say it's not over until I win.
[23:38]Nothing can resist a person that has that kind of commitment.
[23:55]Life will knock you between the eyes. It will catch you on the blind side, come out of nowhere, stuff you can't anticipate. That will knock the wind out of you, you wanna give up. It's gonna be very challenging, whenever you decide that you wanna grow, whenever you decide that you wanna go to another level, all hell will break loose. It's hard. It's not easy. It's hard changing your life. It's hard changing your life. There are moments when you're going to doubt yourself. You've gotta know why you're out here. Because you're gonna get your butt kicked. When the storms of life come, and they're going to come, when life pounce on you and that's gonna happen, when it catches you on the blindside and drop you to your knees and that's gonna happen, when your plans don't work out and that's gonna happen, when you start running out of money and that's gonna happen, when you want to give up and that's gonna happen, your reasons will be your rod and staff to comfort you. Your reasons will be your bridge over troubled waters. But you've gotta know why you're there because your reasons, when life drops you to your knees, your reasons will help you get back up. When times I wanted to give up why you here, Les? Because I want to make mama proud of me. Why you here, Les? I promised my kids I'm gonna do for them. I'm gonna give them a better life I wanna leave them a legacy. I'm not gonna give up. Go back fool, go back. No, no. I refuse to give up on my dream. And I'm not gonna let anything stop me. Sometimes you gotta start all over again, sometimes you gotta refresh, and you're so worried about your bills, you're so focused on everything else but you and you don't realize, you, you are what's going to blow you up, you are what's going to change your situation, you. You are what's going to take you to the next level. The only thing that's going to determine is the inside world. The things that you believe and the actions you take every day are what shape your destiny. Through every dark night, there's a bright day after that. So no matter how hard it get, stick your chest out, keep your head up and handle it. We can choose to surrender or we can choose to take a stand and fight. And you've just got to decide that my life is worth this kind of effort. And fight with everything in you night and day with every breath that you have. You must be patient, persistent and positive, no matter what. Because when you are negative, ladies and gentlemen, you're sending out negative energy and you're blocking your good. See, if people ask you how you're doing, even if you're having some difficult times, say, I'm blessed and highly favored. Because anytime you wake up and you don't have a white chalk outline around your body, it's a great day. And so I say to you, it's possible you can live your dream. If it's becoming a diamond, if it's having more, if it's achieving more, it's possible you can live your dream. It's necessary that you have a plan of action, that you're resilient, that you stick to, that you have the vision and never give up, that you become creative and relentless and when life knocks you down, jump back up and say it's not over until I win.
[26:47]Nothing can resist a person that has that kind of commitment.
[27:04]Life will knock you between the eyes. It will catch you on the blind side, come out of nowhere, stuff you can't anticipate. That will knock the wind out of you, you wanna give up. It's gonna be very challenging, whenever you decide that you wanna grow, whenever you decide that you wanna go to another level, all hell will break loose. It's hard. It's not easy. It's hard changing your life. It's hard changing your life. There are moments when you're going to doubt yourself. You've gotta know why you're out here. Because you're gonna get your butt kicked. When the storms of life come, and they're going to come, when life pounce on you and that's gonna happen, when it catches you on the blindside and drop you to your knees and that's gonna happen, when your plans don't work out and that's gonna happen, when you start running out of money and that's gonna happen, when you want to give up and that's gonna happen, your reasons will be your rod and staff to comfort you. Your reasons will be your bridge over troubled waters. But you've gotta know why you're there because your reasons, when life drops you to your knees, your reasons will help you get back up. When times I wanted to give up why you here, Les? Because I want to make mama proud of me. Why you here, Les? I promised my kids I'm gonna do for them. I'm gonna give them a better life I wanna leave them a legacy. I'm not gonna give up. Go back fool, go back. No, no. I refuse to give up on my dream. And I'm not gonna let anything stop me. Sometimes you gotta start all over again, sometimes you gotta refresh, and you're so worried about your bills, you're so focused on everything else but you and you don't realize, you, you are what's going to blow you up, you are what's going to change your situation, you. You are what's going to take you to the next level. The only thing that's going to determine is the inside world. The things that you believe and the actions you take every day are what shape your destiny. Through every dark night, there's a bright day after that. So no matter how hard it get, stick your chest out, keep your head up and handle it. We can choose to surrender or we can choose to take a stand and fight. And you've just got to decide that my life is worth this kind of effort. And fight with everything in you night and day with every breath that you have. You must be patient, persistent and positive, no matter what. Because when you are negative, ladies and gentlemen, you're sending out negative energy and you're blocking your good. See, if people ask you how you're doing, even if you're having some difficult times, say, I'm blessed and highly favored. Because anytime you wake up and you don't have a white chalk outline around your body, it's a great day. And so I say to you, it's possible you can live your dream. If it's becoming a diamond, if it's having more, if it's achieving more, it's possible you can live your dream. It's necessary that you have a plan of action, that you're resilient, that you stick to, that you have the vision and never give up, that you become creative and relentless and when life knocks you down, jump back up and say it's not over until I win.
[29:58]Nothing can resist a person that has that kind of commitment.
