through education you can also better yourselves in other ways you learn how
to learn how to think critically and find solutions to unexpected challenges
I remember we used to ask our teachers why am I going to need algebra well you
may not have to solve for X to get a good job or to be a good parent but you
will need to think through tough problems you'll need to think on your
feet you'll need to know how to gather facts and evaluate information so math
teachers you can tell your students that the president says they need algebra
education also teaches you the value of discipline that the greatest rewards
come not from instant gratification but from sustained effort and from hard work
there's a lesson that's especially true today in a culture that prizes flash
over substance that tells us that the goal in life is to be entertained that
says you can be famous just for being famous and you get on a
reality show don't know what you've done suddenly you're famous but that's not
gonna lead to lasting sustained achievement and finally with the right
education both at home and at school you can learn how to be a better human being
for when you read a great story
you learn about an important moment in history it helps you imagine what it
would be like to walk in somebody else's shoes to know their struggles the
success of our economy will depend on your skills but the success of our
community will depend on your ability to follow the Golden Rule treat others as
you would like to be treated good life everyone wants the good life
but some people it may be relaxing on a beach for some people it may be
traveling infinite freedom people spend thousands of pounds or dollars to go to
university to study to get a job so all of us so many of us on the planet we are
always striving for something we're striving for the better life what's
helped me on my journey is to see the secret many of us we're so caught up in
the outcome that we forget about the process to live better we have to tune
into the process which is a present moment
many of us we're working day in day out
but in the process we are killing ourselves and by the time we have what
we want it doesn't even matter anymore so on my
journey I say I am already there is fantastic I don't say I want happiness I
remove the "I" which is the ego the want which is the desire I say happiness you
know not just getting to my hip hop form but that's just what it is okay and I'm
just trying to set the bar that you can do what you want to do because the world is
yours disregard the loud
ladies walking past I'm just funnying ladies
you can do whatever you want the world is yours and I'm telling the young cats
our generation don't discriminate against anybody because we're all one
generation and that's some important yo know I mean who would have thought a
ghetto kid would go ... from the hood will be in Vogue
and GQ on the same month in the same month at the same time about the same
who would have ever thought Interview magazine would have did
spread who would've ever thought complex magazine a cover with a game designer
Jeremy Scott which was an idol of mine because I admired his fashion and I
admired his art since late teen who would've thought I would have did that
you know why because I didn't let the negativity hold me back and that's
what's holding y'all back negativity man straight up don't give a what nobody says dude
feels right to you you know who you are you know who you are be you and I'm me
I'm happy being me feel good to be me right now man straight up the universe of
passion is open to everybody but many people don't know they believe passion
should come down from the from the sky no you go to find your passion passion
will not come to you is like luck luck cannot come to you you can buy as many
lot of things you can make bets on Barcelona and Madrid luck will never
come to you but you go to luck that's much more secure you go and go to take
luck if you are a state in luck comes down to you forget you will die and no
luck will have ever come luck is a process where you move to luck and you
take luck and you say come on luck I keep you now and you take another one
tomorrow and so on the forth thing that I personally did to beat procrastination
and to achieve impossible things my most meaningful goals was to create
distraction free environments now I want to share two things with you I read that
recently Andre Agassi's fantastic book open and in open he talks about the fact
that when it comes to his tennis bag no one touches it and when he was asked why
can't anyone touch your tennis bag he said because when there's disorder in my
tennis bag there's distraction in my mind similarly
when there is disorder in your workplace when there's disorder in your home when
there's disorder in your physical environments when there's too much
distractions you will not be focused you will procrastinate and you will not
get big things done I guess what I'm suggestion to you is in your work
environments so whatever those work environments are if there are if there's
distraction if there's Facebook notifications on if there's mess all of
those things will allow you or encourage you to procrastinate you'll check your
Facebook feed you'll check Twitter if you if there's papers around what you'll
do is you'll start picking up the papers what you want to do as much as possible
what I personally did that was really another game changer was these
distraction free work environments even when you read the fantastic Walter
Isaacson books Steve Jobs in here he talks about Next that was the company he
went to after he was thrown out of Apple and one of the first things he did when
he went to next he painted everything white and they asked him like why is
everything white why is everything so perfect why are there no distractions
anywhere there's nothing on the walls even the manufacturing facilities all
white he said because I want to be able to think really clearly I don't want to
be distracted I want to get my most important mission done so the fourth
idea that worked for me I know it worked for you is distraction free environments
clean up the distractions work alone as much as possible get rid of the clutter
because mess creates stress it diminishes your focus and it allows you
or encourages you to procrastinate back in high school I was
diagnosed with ADHD so the classroom was a pretty painful place it was hard work
to spend more than half a minute's attention in any lecture regardless of
how much I enjoyed the subject matter and by the way you know I mentioned it's
not because I'm seeking sympathy but I want to emphasize that we all have
different handicaps and it's how we choose to handle them that's what's
important we can be paralyzed by self-pity we can lower our our
expectations we can give up entirely but those of us who choose to power through
and simply opt for redoubling our efforts improve our chances for success
dramatically but you cannot just get into analysis paralysis either and
that's why you also have to on a daily basis actualize your dreams what I mean
by that well I'm sure you I hope you've read some Abraham Maslow and his
concept of self-actualization becoming our best but you have to actually show
up every day and inch yourself forward toward these dreams and not only show
up every day and once in a while inch yourself I mean every day you have to
actually take an action that moves you forward not just research not just
thinking look the power of an intention is great but without any initiative it's
dead right a dream is great but without any movement it's dead you have to be
moving towards every day you can send an email every day you can make a call
every day you can write something every day you can create something every day
you can contribute something every day but it has to be daily otherwise it will
never become actualized and the highest performers in the world didn't get there
because they were lucky they worked at it longer than everyone else they had a
better work ethic and it's not that they necessarily always worked harder they
work smarter because they were doing the research they were taking the time to
visualize how they would be distinct different how they would survive the
tough times they really kept at it keep every single day momentum
going and if you don't do that there's no chance