Everything in your life happens for a reason. Your responsibility is to look at
these things in your life and ask this question. Why now? You need activation
energy to start the chain. To start to sit down. To start to get out of bed, to
start to walk out the door, that's the key to creating any kind of change. This
activation energy inside of you that causes the initial BOOM and then what do
we hear over time? Once you start there's a chain reaction and that allows you to
keep going. You have to act on your passion, you have
to act on your inner drive. Don't let those feelings stay inside you. You've
got to know what to do with them, you got to know how to make them work, in order
to get what you want. Don't keep it inside. You want to improve, you want to
get better, you want to get on a workout program or a clean diet, you want to
start a business. Where do you start? You start right here and when do you start?
You start right now.
Everybody at one point in time in your life, to be successful, you have to jump.
Jumping is the hardest thing for people to do but you have to jump. If you
never jump you'll never be successful.
When you first jump I guarantee you the parachute ain't gonna open.
I promise you that but guess what eventually it does open and then you
start your glide but it starts with the jump. You have to jump man. No matter how
painful it is, I got to keep going and I got to keep going because what is my
passion, what is my focus? Your focus and your passion will numb you to failure
and to pain of striving to get to where you're trying to go. I don't accept that
I am what I am and that, that is what I'm doomed to be. No. I don't accept that. I'm
fighting. I'm always fighting. I'm struggling and I'm scrapping and kicking
and clawing at those weaknesses to change them, to stop them.
Some days I win.
Some days I don't but each and every day I get back up and I move forward with my
fists clenched toward the battle, toward the struggle and I fight with everything
I've got to overcome those weaknesses and those
shortfalls and those flaws.
So literally without goals you're directionless. You will be used. People
without goals get used by other people who have them. People that don't have
goals work for people who do and so you want to be someone who picks up and gets
clear about what you want. Make a list, 101 goals. I want to go to
Paris, I want to you know skydive, I want to bungee cord jump, I want to play the
guitar, I want to learn to juggle, I want to learn two magic tricks for the kids, I
want to go to the Olympics in Beijing. Whatever it is, make the list. You have to
delete all the negativity in the world and focus on things that make it feel
great. So you could focus on a relationship you have, you could focus on
how much you've already learned in the last six or seven or eight days, you
could focus on the people that love you, you could focus on your ability as a human
being to change your life at any moment in time. You have to be crazy in
believing what your goal and your passion is because when something is
crazy even though it's crazy you still do it, right? Every single person is designed
from infancy with special talents and abilities that if you develop them to
their height can enable you to accomplish anything you want in life.
Everyone is genetically structured to be able to do something superbly, to do
something they enjoy, to do it well and to get great satisfaction from it.
There is no capability difference between you and someone you consider to
be an ultimate role model of success. The only difference is they've learned to use
their mind and body with more power on a consistent basis. They've learned to
manager their state, they've learned to use their body effectively, whether they know
it or not consciously doesn't matter. A lot of people do things without being
aware of how they do it and they learn to control their mental focus. Remember
whatever we concentrate our focus on consistently and strive to learn from and
make new distinctions about we will get great at. I want to reassure you that you
can do it. I want you to reassure you that you can make the decisions. I want to
reassure you that no matter what the night, no matter what the storm, no matter
what the difficulty there isn't anybody here that can't figure it out, find some
things to do, step at a time, yes, minute at a time, yes, day at a time, yes, week at
a time, yes, but there isn't anything you can't walk away from, there isn't any
challenge you can't overcome. I want you to have that kind of belief in your self.
You've got to believe in yourself. You just have to and then you do it. You see
it, you believe it and then you do it.
The hard part is getting over it in the beginning. Three weeks it's a habit, it
would be ingrained in your central nervous system if you do this every day
for three weeks. Studies, studies show this. The first hardest part are the first
five days. Once you do that, once you get over that things become really much
easier for you and then you're on this path towards greatness, the anxiety goes
away, the fear goes away, the stress goes away, the hardest part about getting a
ship moving is the beginning. That's where like the NASA shuttles, the most
fuel is used in that launch. That's where the most energy and effort is required
and we get caught up in the trap thinking that, that's the energy required
and the effort required throughout the entire process and that's not the truth.
You will adapt. It will be easier for you but it's a matter of getting over that
fear in the beginning to then get to that point where it's ingrained in your
central nervous system then you're on autopilot like if you ever wrote a paper
for school before and it's really hard in the beginning, you're procrastinating
procrastinating, procrastinating and you just put it off and then it's like the
night before or something that it's due and then you just like sit yourself down
and do it and the first 15 minutes it's like writer's block, it's hard and then
you break through and then it's like you're on autopilot after a while and
it's like where are these thoughts coming it's just unbelievable how the
brain works and you're like, you're writing million miles a minute it's like
thoughts that you never even thought of before are just coming out. I know this has
happened to you and then you have to almost pull yourself away because you
have to go to bed to get some sleep because you're just like on this path
and that's how life is. Once you get involved in something it just goes on
autopilot to where you start thinking of like really elaborate stuff, higher-level
stuff that beginner people who are outside do not experience, do not, so
from the outside they look at these successful people and they're like how
do they do this? I don't understand how they're able to do this and of course
you don't because you never immersed yourself in that process but once you
immerse yourself in that process you could do it too. They are not made of something
different, as different as you think they are. They're flesh and blood like you but
life is more about conditioning and habitual routines and stepping outside this
comfort zone then it is about genetics. You have a genetic anomaly, no question
and you may be endowed with certain gifts and qualities but I guarantee you that many
successful people wish they had qualities that you have because no one's
perfect in this world everyone is imperfect, right but you can't
be on this quest to be perfect. You are imperfect so the quest is not to be
perfect, you will never get there. If that's your goal you will fail in that goal. The
quest is to be the best you and the only way to be the best view is to
break through your fears because that is the brick wall to your comfort zone and
if you break down that brick wall, that comfort zone just expands. Expands
and it knows no bounds so literally everything on this planet could be
within your comfort if you choose to break down those walls. You have your goals in
life, your dreams, all these different pursuits and instead of just starting
you know, just taking step by step taking action, you kind of just sit on the
sidelines, you know, you wait for a contract or a guarantee of success. You
want this game plan or this map of every single step you're going to have to take
when you're going to have to take the,m what kind of step to take, so it's very
predictable and it's very safe, you know, you want to see it all you're like okay I don't just
want to jump in, you know to this uncertainty, into the unknown, I want to know, you know, I'm going to do this and then this is going to
happen and then I'm going to do this and you're stuck in this painful emotional
state, you know, you're in limbo instead of progressing or expanding you're always
doubting yourself. That burns you up inside the fact that you're not progressing
you're killing your purpose in life, let's just say your course and purpose
in life you're just putting it on hold and it just gets worse and worse. You know
because you hear it like hey have a logical game plan for every single step of the
way. Plan, very, you know, careful so you don't
get into these, like pitfalls and the reason it's bad is, as I mentioned before, it's
never going to happen. Okay, we live in a world that is changing so fast that this
long-term precise vision it doesn't exist, okay?
Not a single person I know can look into the future, say a year, two years, three
four, five years ahead and know exactly all the different things that are going to
happen and how he's going to achieve his goal. Everyone of course has a general vision and you
should have that, like hey I want to be in this position here and continuously focus
on that but along the way you're going to encounter many obstacles and a lot of them you
just can't predict. They're just going to blow up in your face and if you're just
waiting to be sure that every single step is there, you're done. Okay on top of that too, guess what
you're going to be psyched out. You're gonna be like oh my God there are all
these steps to take and you're just never going to do it
because it's overwhelming. Just do the first step. Even if you don't really know where
the next one's going to be, just start now and on one hand it's realistic and it's not too
overwhelming you know whatever it is you're trying to pursue there is
something you can do right now even as you're watching this video, you
can probably pause this video and do something that'll kind of kickstart you
in the right direction. You won't get overwhelmed and guess what it's going to
start building momentum okay and this is key every single step of the way it's a
little easier to the next step and the next step and the next step and the next
step and then they just get bigger and bigger and bigger and it becomes easier
and easier and easier. Do you know what makes them more successful? Do you?
Three things, three things will make you successful. A continuous interest in
improving yourself, being self-aware and work and I mean lots of it. Improve
yourself. Improve yourself continuously, never stop developing yourself, develop a
passion for improving yourself, develop a passion for learning, improving yourself
begins right where you are. Yes, improving yourself starts with an
education, improving yourself starts with school. You did not come to school to
slack off, you did not come to fail instead you came to learn, to learn how
to be great, to be the best leader, to be the best academic, to be the best at
whatever you want to do. Don't let your friends deter you, don't let friends
distract you, develop yourself. Show them that there is better, show them that
you're different, improve yourself study hard, study long, give your all give
it everything you got.
Successful people don't get to where they are by following their friends or
pleasing them instead they lead. They lead and committ themselves to
self-development, they exercise their mind, they learn, they study, they pass
their exams.
Nobody will do it for you, only you can do it for yourself, only you can put in
the work. If you're not prepared if you do not work you will lose you will never
win, you will always be behind and you will never be great. To be successful at
anything you have to get to know yourself, you have to know who you are
you have to know what your strengths are you have to know what your weaknesses are
you have to get to know what you like what you don't like, what you're good at
and what you're not good at, what your learning styles are, where you study best
learning about yourself will build your confidence, it will change your
behavior, studying will become easier passing your exams will become easier, it
will get you places where you've never gone before. Getting to those places and
standing there will take determination, it will require that you never give up
never give up on your dreams, never give up on your goals, life will throw things
at you, teachers will throw exams at you. No one
promised that life will be easy, what is promised is that you can do it. You can do
it, you can win, you can pass your exams you can be the best, you can achieve your
goals, you can become whatever you desire to become but you have to be determined
you have to want it bad you have to want it so bad that you will never give up
you have to want it so bad that you're willing to lose sleep for it, you have to
want it so bad that you're willing to lose friends over it, you have to want it so
bad that you're willing to work hard for it and never ever give up. Giving up is
not an option if you can dream it you can do it, if you can think it you can do
it, just believe in yourself, believe in your dreams and fight for it.
Tell yourself that you're in it to win it, tell yourself that you will continue
trying, you will continue trying even if you fail and when you fail you get up
and brush yourself off and try again, you will continue even if you laughed at, you
will continue even if you lose because guess what life is not always about
where you end up it's about the journey it's about the attitude, it's about the
determination, it's about never giving up. You have to schedule your time. Don't
just stuff studying in to cracks in your schedule. Your schedule should be built
around studying what does this mean this means to have an exact set time during the
day when you start to study. For me, I remember it was about 6:00 p.m. I would
always say to myself, okay 6:00 p.m. I get back from school, I rest a little bit and then
at 6:00 p.m. that's my study time. It starts. How long does it go? Well, that
depends on how much assignments and homework I have but it would go for at
least an hour or two and sometimes would go for four or five or six hours and it
would start at 6:00 and it would usually end like around 9:00 or 10:00 or
or after that and it would vary but I think what's really important to have
that starting time 6:00 no matter what 6:00.Sit down and study. Open the books, sit down
study. It doesn't have to be 6:00 for you just come up with your own time and
you're doing this every single day. What's important about this is that it
leads us to the next point which is you have to get comfortable and you have to
slow yourself down in order to study effectively. You can't rush the studying
process and one of the secrets that I use is simply brute force. Right? A lot of
the issues as a student that I dealt with the things that I couldn't
understand I just brute forced them through repetition and this repetition can take
time. Also, you know, you have to be patient with yourself. Sometimes you're
not going to understand the problem right off the bat so you just kind of
repeat it, repeat it, mull it over, mull it over and that means sometimes
you, it takes you longer so instead of finishing a quick little math assignment
in an hour, it might take you three hours but that's worth it if you calm yourself
down. Get comfortable, slow yourself down kind of open yourself to absorbing this
information, alright. This is where the love it comes in. If you don't love it
and what you're doing is you're just kind of rush studying through stuff just
to learn it, like cramming for an exam that's just horrible. That's horrible
because all you're trying to do is you're jumping, you're like a dog jumping
through hoops. That's basically what you are when you're doing that because
you're saying yourself well I gotta pass this exam in order to get into college, to
get grades, so my parents like me. That's just hoops like a dog you're
jumping through. Don't do that. Instead what you think about is like this. Okay this
subject matter is really fascinating. Let me study more. Let me learn more. I want
to know how math interconnects with, with history and I want to know how history
connects with science and I want to know how this and this connect and I
want to know more depth about this thing here. That's how you got to think. I don't
think there's any magic in being successful and I'm not talking about
successful. I'm talking about being successful in what you guys do at work. I
don't think there's any magic. You got to work hard you gotta respect the people around you
and you just gotta go. I've never met a successful person that doesn't work hard.
There are two rules that I always adhere to and that is to work hard and be brave
and I think the essence of hard work is one that's pretty straightforward. It's
that you'll never be the best-looking you'll never be the tallest, most
talented, most capable, you'll never have the most money, there will always be
someone who's better at whatever you're doing then what, than you are but you can
always be the hardest-working person in the room and I think the hardest-working
person will always win. Who must you become in order to create
what you want? What has to change about you?
What is it that you're doing right now that would be a liability for you? As you
begin to look toward the future and take inventory of yourself, what is it about
you right now that you've got to leave this behind
because this no longer fits. Looking at where you want to go and the kind of
person that you must become, the kind of standards that you have for you, what is
it that you must do differently? Clear your mind of all distractions. I used to hold
the record for the fastest to memorize a deck of cards in the United States and some
times before I would memorize a deck of cards my brain would be worried about
things in my life or things that were going on so what I would do to clear my
mind of all distractions is I would close my eyes and I would visualize
those scenarios the way that I wish they were or the way that I hope they would
be one day and then I would open my eyes, I would be relieved of that stress and
then I would memorize a deck of cards. Clear your mind of all distractions
maybe close your eyes and visualize the things the way you wish they could be
and then focus on your studying. Depending on how well you want to do, particularly if you're
starting a company you need to work super hard. So, what does super hard mean? Well,
when my brother and I were starting our first company instead of getting an
apartment we just rented a small office and we slept on the couch and we showered
at the YMCA and we were so hard up we had just one computer so the website was up
during the day and I was coding at night. For seven days a week, all the time and I so
briefly had a girlfriend in that period and in order to be with me she had to sleep in
the office. So, work hard like it, I mean, every waking hour. That's, that's
the thing I would, I would say if you particularly if you're starting a company
and I mean if you do simple math, you say like okay if somebody else is working 50
hours and you're working a hundred you'll get twice as done, as much done in
the course of a year as the other company. If you want to learn something
faster you must first and foremost know the connection between what you want to
learn and your dream life. Your real life style that you want to have. I tell people
all the time like don't just come up with things you want to learn because
guess what, we want to learn everything. By human build, we are curious animals.
We're deathly curious. I mean we are literally the curiosity killed the cat
sort of society right now. Everyone wants to learn 50 new things immediately but
no one ever learns anything. Why? Because it's not real for them it's a transient
desire. If you want to become a great learner it has to be attached to a dream
life of yours. A true, a true lifestyle that you
see for yourself.
Studying must be a priority you can make all your dreams become a
reality if you stop studying just when you feel like it and make it a priority. You're
studying after you go out with your friends, you're studying after you watch
TV, you're leaving your studying until you're bored and have nothing to do
you're not serious, you're not eating it you're not dreaming it, it's not haunting your
dreams at night. You pass your exams, you get to the top of the class, it will open
doors I promise you that. You've gotta shut the TV down. You've gotta shut certain
people down, you need to optimize your life that homework you can get it done,
that exam you can get it done that degree you can get it done but
you're doing it in your leisure time. Listen to me,
you're not making your studying a priority, you're not making your
education a priority, there's some stuff you've gotta sit down
whatever your goals are it can get done you can get it done and how will we do it?
We will do it by listing our priorities, we will do it by shutting everything else
out, we will do it by saying no to everything that does not apply to our
priorities. We will do it by getting focused, laser-focused, we will do it by waking up every single day and
taking every moment of the day and focusing on whats a priority and then
when we get to the end of the year we will not be disappointed, we will not be
defeated, we will not be destroyed, when we get to
the end of the year, we will not be disappointed. This will not be another
disappointing year, this will not be another year of excuses, this will not be
another year where you avoid work, this will be the year that you stop half
doing stuff, you stop half doing your homework, you stop half doing your exams, you
stop half doing your studying, this will be the year of execution if not now when
if not you, who? Look I never told you it would be easy, but it's do-able. It's not going to be
easy but it will get done.
Let me give you an example. This is how I did it. I turned my paper in four weeks early
and she sent it back to me with a whole bunch of red, I fixed it and gave it back
to her and she gave me some more red, so I fixed it again and gave it back to her
and she told me you don't really write that well. I don't know if you're gonna
be able to get a 4.0. I said look, where I come from it's not all about skill. Let
me tell you something you will miss a lot of shows fooling with me. Your family
will not get a lot of family time, you will check my paper over and over and
over. I'm being real. I will not stop turning in
my paper, you will keep grading my paper and if I were you, I would help me to
make the corrections so you don't got to keep dealing with me. But if you think I'm going
to quit, I promise you I will be at your office hours, every office hour. I will
haunt you in your sleep until I achieve what I want to achieve.
There are people with incredible talent and no motivation and then there are
other people who are winning the workday tails off who don't have a natural
ability but will become successful because they're so determined. You know
every time you lose at something you're one step closer to winning the next time
the difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is simple
unsuccessful people give up. The hardest thing in life to learn is to lose, you
win, you're happy, you get a high five, your friends are happy. That's easy. It's
your ability to take a loss, get up the next day dust yourself off and keep
going that really determines your true character. I just want to encourage
everybody out there, listen to me. Your day is coming but you gotta do me a favor, you
got to sit down and you got to look at your life and you got to look at the
work you're putting in, you got to look at how much you procrastinate, you've got
to pay attention and look at where you're going wrong, look at where you can
improve and you put it all together and before you know it, you've got the grades
that you were aiming for you've got the career you were aiming for
you've got the car and the house you were dreaming of if you're willing to
grind it out, you can get it done. This is kind of hard to understand but sometimes
you can try so hard at something sometimes you can be so, so prepared
and still fail
and when every time you fail it's painful, it causes sadness and especially as
I saw last night it causes disappointment
I've often said a man's character is not judged after he celebrates a victory by
but, but by what he does when his back is against the wall so no matter how great
the setback, how severe the failure, you never give up, you never give up, you pick
yourself up, you brush yourself off, you push forward, you move on, you adapt, you overcome,
that is what i believe!
Everybody here, everybody watching, I won't be stopped, I can't be stopped. You're
either committed or you aren't you're either willing to do everything
it takes, whatever that might be, or you aren't, you either are willing to go
through hell and high water and fire and brimstone to get to your goals or you
aren't. Work on yourself, work on your focus you cannot stop, you've got to work. The
problem with you is you see difficult as something negative. I want you to see
difficult differently, are you hearing me? I need you to push through that stuff
push through it. You can get through it the more you go through, the more
difficult it is, the more challenging it is, listen to me the harder it is, are you
hearing me? The more challenging it is all you're doing baby is building
muscles. In life you're either going to a storm, in a storm, or you coming out. It's
a part of life there's no way around it so just be careful not to allow the
trials and tribulations to consume you. I don't care if you a billionaire, I don't care
if you a CEO of one of the most important companies, I don't care if you're an entertainer, like
I don't care who you are. You will go to the moon. We all have problems what I'm
trying to tell you is this though. Problems are part of life but guess what
they're not like, it's not going to be easy there are moments when you're going to
doubt yourself the rough times are going to come but they have not come to
stay. No matter how bad it is or how bad it gets, you've got to make it your
personal business to make it happen.