but the minute you think you know everything at that moment you know
nothing and so I was in India and I was teaching a course on leadership in India
and I had gone into this university and I spoke there and after I left I got
back to the hotel I realized I didn't have my wallet and so
I called the hotel and I said can you please bring the car back they have my
wallet and they said I'm sorry sir we don't have a car that was a taxi we used and
so they tried calling the taxi company nobody answered the phone they tried
again and nobody answered the phone and I became a little cynical
I went from hopeful to skeptical to cynical I started thinking the worst of
people and of course I said with my my wallet is gone by midnight they called
and said we're still trying he's not answering the phone the taxi cab driver
but at 2:00 in the morning he called and said he answered his phone his phone was
off he's coming back to your hotel with your wallet so I get dressed and I run
downstairs and a man meets me and the bellman translates for me in Indian in
the dialect and I answer and I get my wallet and everything is in my
wallet everything my passport my money my credit cards is all there and I reach
into my wallet and there's $70 U.S. I asked the man through a translator what do you
make a month he says about 2500 rupees which about what that time which is
about $70 U.S. so I reach out and I say let me give this $70 to you this is my
way of saying thank you and the man says no I said no I don't think you
understand I have one month's salary for you I want to say thank you here 70
dollars and the man says to the translator no and I said there must be a
translation problem here I'm talking about paying you I'm talking about
giving you a month's worth of your salary one more time he said and this
time he became a little visibly angry he said I told you no
I didn't bring you your wallet because I wanted a reward
I brought you your wallet because it's your wallet now this may not sound like
an incredible story but think what would have happened if I had lost my wallet in a
taxi in New York City or a big city anywhere in the world think about what
the chances of me getting my wallet back think about it and be honest with
yourself now this is a slum so they call it in India so I said in the man what
can I do to be thankful to you what can I do to say thank you he said well the
next time you're in India come to my house and have tea be my friend
sometimes when you give you get sometimes whatever goes around comes
around and so you gain more by giving you get more by building you learn more
by listening we have a chance and an opportunity to change the world because
nobody changes in good times people only change in bad times no one changes when
they're comfortable they change when they're uncomfortable we have a chance
now to change the world like yesterday I ran I did an hour and it was you know 92
or 93 degrees outside it was hot right like and but I
didn't say like hey do I is this gonna be enjoyable or not I said look this is
what I do and come hell or high water I'm gonna do it you know and
it was enjoyable I got it wasn't enjoyable at first but I
but I pushed through that it's like on the other side of that resistance is
often that thing and so I think that's the problem with people who are like you
know I'll just sort of go with the flow I'll take it as it happens that can work
but you know it's often on the other side of what you're afraid of that you
experience really great things and you have to have the power to push through
that your life would feel better and richer if you
had a goal you chased that goal you accomplished some things and you would
get this boost of confidence you'd get this boost of self-esteem like whatever
it is that you're going to do and maybe you're in a drawing comic books maybe
you're into nah but making pottery or sculptures or but find whatever that is
and pursue that instead of doing nothing like the people that are doing nothing
those are the real people look doing something might be as simple as like
that Alex Honnold guy he just climbs rocks but he's world-class rock climber
it's something turn your wounds into wisdom you will be wounded many times in
your life you'll make mistakes some people will call them failures but I
have learned that failure is really God's way of saying excuse me you're
moving in the wrong direction it's just an experience
just an experience just an experience I remember being taken off the air in
Baltimore being told that I was no longer being fit for television and
that I could not anchor the news because I used to go out on the stories and my
own truth was even though I'm not a weeper I would cry for the people in the
stories and which really wasn't very effective as a news reporter to be
covering a fire and crying because the people lost their house and it wasn't
until they I was demoted as a on-air anchorwoman and thrown into the
talk-show arena to get rid of me that I allowed my own truth to come through and
the first day I was on the air doing my first talk show back in 1978 it felt
like breathing which is what your true passion should feel like it should be so
natural to you and so I took what had been a mistake
what had been perceived as a failure with my career as an anchorwoman in the
news business and turned it into a talk-show career that's done okay for me
don't let your mind become conditioned for mediocrity don't let that change who
you really are sometimes people will try to put us in a box tell us things like
you can't start that business you don't have the resources you'll never afford a
nice place to live never get well never meet the right person because their
thinking is limited they'll try to put their limitations on you you have to put
your foot down and say I refuse to be mediocre because people around me are
mediocre I refuse to be addicted depressed have
low expectations I know I'm a barrier breaker I'm gonna set a new standard it
starts in our thinking nothing will change until you make up your mind you
are not going to accept mediocrity first bit of advice came from Tyler Perry the
famous director kind of movie producer that sort of thing you know about two
years ago I had the good fortune to interview him one on one in three
different cities around the country where he got to speak about his
entrepreneurial story to a bunch of small business owners around the country
you know Tyler Perry is key you know did his thing he was homeless for a while
right now he's like the highest-paid dude in Hollywood right really
fascinating story so I'm interviewing them one on one
start the Q&A one woman raises her hand stands up she says Mr Perry you know we
have to always go through these different trials and tribulations as entrepreneurs
like what keeps you going right how do you get back up but just to
go right he said the most profound thing that I had ever heard he said the minute
he realized that the trials that you go through right and the blessings you
receive are the exact same thing like that freed him as an entrepreneur right
like just think about that for a second like it I kind of stopped the interview
because I had to soak that up for a little bit right like every single kind
of trial tribulation all that stuff that you go through it's just a lesson right
and that lesson is just an inherent blessing right so as entrepreneurs like
this entrepreneur thing is hard right like at times it's amazing at times it's
sucks right and I've been very blessed and fortunate to have really good
opportunities but it's very very hard right and you don't want to stress
yourself out unnecessarily and what that lesson taught me was that I didn't
have to be as stressed out right like I'm gonna go through these issues
they're just lessons let me treat that as a blessing we're gonna move right and
a lot of folks look at me when I start this company like Tristan you're way
more calm than you should be and it's like yeah because I fundamentally
understand this lesson that I learned and I think that the success is
something that is earned and re-earned I think that in life you're climbing up
that mountain and you want to take breaks strategically but people think
that you can climb up a mountain and just kind of stay there not really I
view it like it's like a muddy mountain you climb up and you stay there you
start to slide down and there's a number of reasons why that happens I'll talk
about them today does that mean you should never take a break
no I'm gonna take a little time off when I do my Miami events this year cool you
know of course I believe in taking a break I think you should spend time with
friends and take breaks but I also believe that success is something that
has to be earned and re-earned the world is a dynamic place the world is changing
if you're not changing along with it you're probably being left behind think
about what's the Holy Grail between somebody taking action or not it's one
word certainty when somebody has absolutely certain they you know the
common word it believes right but you know you can believe at a general level
or you can believe what's certain when you're absolutely certain that if I do
this it's gonna get that result and that results gonna change my life you'll do
it when you think it absolutely is not gonna work you're never gonna do it the
middle no-man's land of maybe it'll work maybe it won't that's the piece that
kills people right so if it's a must for you you got to make it work