My mom would be at all my sporting events.
Let's say I was playing football, ok?
My mother would be on the sidelines
and if the play on the field would start going one way, my mother would start
going like "MIKE, GET EM! GET EM!"
And I'd be like, "Oh, my gosh."
I'd get in a huddle with the other guys,
they'd go, "Mark, is that your mother?"
I'd go, "No, I never saw her before in
my life."
See, the greatest gift
my mother ever gave me?
- she believed in me. I have
overdosed on drugs on 3 occasions where
I should have been dead.
But I believe I was kept here for a reason
You show me your friends, I will show you
your future. How do I know this?
I hung out with losers, and I became the
biggest loser of them all because I gave up everything I dreamt about as a little
boy because of who I chose to surround myself with. My friends would drive me
home at around 2, 3, 4 in the morning.
We'd be drunk and high, laughing in the car. We'd pull up in front of my house
and they'd go, "Mark, Mark. The lights on." I'd go, "Oh man, my
mother's up." See, my mom wouldn't go to bed until she knew her son was still
alive. I'd walk in she'd say, "Hi Mark, how was your night?" I'd go, "It was good
Mom, I'm tired! I'm just gonna go to bed." She goes, "Mark. I haven't seen you all
day and all night. Can I please talk to you." I says, "Man, just leave me
alone. You bug me." I'd slam my bedroom door. On the one person who believed in
me. I was on a world wide tour when we were wrestling overseas in Japan.
After my wrestling match I went upstairs in my hotel room and I fell asleep.
There was a knock at my door at 3 o' clock in the morning. I got out of bed
and looked through the safety window and I could see, it was a Japanese
promoter. So I opened the door and he says, "Mark, you need to call home.
There's been an emergency." I went and got on the hotel phone and I called back
to the United States and I says, "Hey, what's going on?" He said, "Mark, I don't
know how to tell you this." I said, "Just tell me, what happened?" I almost started
crying and they go, "Mark, I can't tell you." I said, "Just say it."
They said, "Mark. Your mother died." I just threw the phone down.
I ran out of my hotel room. I took the
elevator to the lobby and when the doors opened up, I just ran down to the street.
I mean, there was no cars, there was no peoples. 3 o'clock in the morning. And I
walked down to the middle of the street in Hiroshima, Japan and I remember
looking up and just saying, "Mom. I am so sorry." I flew home for her
funeral, and I was so nervous to walk up to her casket so I just stood way
in the back. And I kept looking from a distance, thinking to myself, Mom,
please wake up. Please get up. And then I finally got the nerve to walk
up to her. And as I got closer, I could see my mom for the first time. I mean,
she was so beautiful. She was dressed in white. I mean, she looked like an angel.
And I just stood over her and I said, "Mom. You are my hero. Everything
I am and everything I hope to be was because of you. You loved me so much
you gave me a life. You're the only one that ever believed in me." How'd I repay
her? By getting drunk, by getting high, by getting stupid, by hanging out
with losers. For what? All she ever wanted to do, was talk to me.
I wish I could talk to you now, mom. I wish you could see what I'm doing.
Why couldn't I have been a better son? We are defined by our choices.
but if you surround yourself by people involved with drugs and alcohol
and pills. It's a dead end. I'm not here to preach to ya. I'm here to tell you
I lived that life. It leads to broken hearts, broken relationships, broken
dreams and death. For what? To get high? If you have a mother or a father
when you go home, tell 'em how much you love 'em. See, my whole life was about
being rich and famous. I had to be a millionaire. I had to win the race.
I had to win the race at the expense of my marriage, my family, my friends.
For what? To be all alone in the world? I learned what is truly important.
And that is, how precious this gift
of life is, and our families, and how quickly it can be taken away. See,
I now longer live in time, I live in the moment. See, it's not what's in your
pocket that matters. It's what's in your heart that truly matters.
Love. Love is just a word. Until somebody comes along and gives
it meaning. You. You're the meaning.
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