I had a conversation
with an old homeless man once
about success
and I asked this, old homeless man
you know
What do you feel success is? How would you say
what would you have to be, or how would you have to
act to be successful
or whatever you know I never went into all this long drawn out
you know, give me what you feel success is
or how to achieve success
and so this old homeless man looked at me
and had a smirk on his face he said
young blood
he said you're gonna be successful one day
but with success you gotta learn something
you either gonna learn how to get your ass kicked
or you're gonna learn how to kick an ass
and whichever one of those you master
will give you the reality of what I'm living right now
or will give you the reality of what I used to be
you can't do them both
and as fast as he said that, it hit me in my chest
I mean, like a 50 pound wasp, I mean boom, I got it
You gotta understand with long term success
You're either gonna kick the hell out of life
or life is gonna kick the hell out of you
which ever one of those you do most
will be your reality
See you gotta understand baby
you might be confused because you weren't there but I'm trying to explain this to you
that through those sequence of phrases that he gifted me with
who he is now
is not who he's always been
and as I wanted to ask questions
and things were rambling through my head
to talk about this and enquire about that
the shocking thing was I didn't have to
because a single tear rolled down his worn and weathered face
and that tear
told his story
that somewhere along the journey of that tear
you knew this guy was the champion of something
that at one time in his life he was the master of his fate
the ambassador of his ambitions
but
yeah
that tear told a story
somewhere along the line
whether by habit or happen stands
the balance shifted
the tables turned
one day while he was beating the hell out of life
he decided somewhere in there possibly
like many of us
to take a day off
while life is still swinging
and that, taking that day off turns into I'll do it tomorrow
or I'll do it the next day
and then the next day turns into I'll do it, what? Next week
I'll do it next month, next year
and the pain of life punching you and
understanding that the regrets that are sinking in now are just missed opportunities
What did he do? You could smell it coming out of his DNA
he tried to self medicate
You could, you could smell the wine from time to time
the whisky every now and then
coming out of his system
probably snorting on a little bit of this
probably shot up a little bit of that
man, this dude, this dude was warm
but he knew, that somewhere in there
that he had a chance, and he could still be there
he could still be living the rewards of
being great
but he gave up
So what did that teach me?
I mean every day of your life
You've gotta make a decision, I'm gonna get the most out of life
or I'm gonna take the scraps everybody else leaves behind
while they climb the mountain
I'm gonna take what I want or I'm gonna settle for what's left
it is what it is
You know a lot of us have, have made choices man
and we've settled for prison, we've settled for addiction
kids before we are financially established
settling for being in the wrong crowd in the wrong environment
and we're less than adequately educated
or we've settled for criminal wisdom
whatever it is
we've gotta make a decision right now when it comes to being successful
are you going to accept what you currently have
or are you going to make the effort to get what you want out of life
You know, are you going to continue to incarcerate
your successful dreams
in that prison called doubt
or are you going to free your ambitions with a key called belief
You're gonna be successful
in your life
but you gotta make a decision that every day that you move
are you going to get your ass kicked?
or are you gonna kick an ass?
Hardest way I've ever heard it baby and I gotta keep it 100 with you
Are you gonna let life kick the hell out of you?
or are you gonna kick the hell out of life?
Every day!
Every day of your life baby you gotta make that decision
and if you do that every day
and kick the hell out of life every day
and take what you want, no scraps allowed
no left overs allowed
I want this and I'm gonna get it
by any means necessary
legally and morally
Consistency of success
Success 101 is inevitable
It is what it is baby, you know...