you little characters have no idea who's
sitting in front of you right now you're
about to [ __ ] your [ __ ] pants you got
your perspective don't you want to be
happy what I'm gonna do is kind of give
you guys a little bit about my
background spit a couple things that are
on my mind that I think might be
valuable for your life and then
hopefully maybe maybe even do a little
bit of Q&A with you guys because I think
that matters as well so it's really fun
to be here because when I when I think
back to my childhood and school in
general I have a really interesting
relationship with school because I was
an atrociously bad student right my
whole life I got D's and F's right and
so I'm not so sure how well of an
opening line that is for the mentors and
everybody else but I think it's super
important for you to hear where I'm
going with this it doesn't mean that you
should go and get these and F's and
things of that nature but what I'm gonna
speak to you about is where I come from
what got me to where I am today and
that's not predicated on how successful
I am financially or reputation wise I
sit in front of you today as a 43 year
old mand who's extremely happy and
Happiness to me needs to become the
thing that everybody tries to achieve
whether they're sitting here or they're
sitting back there even though they're
much further along so I I was born in
the former Soviet Union I was born in a
small country called Belarus which was
part of the Soviet Union near Russia and
that part of the world near Poland
I came to America when I was three we
were unbelievably poor I lived in a
studio apartment in Queens from the ages
of three to six years old that was
literally the size of the stage that I'm
on now with five other family members so
I came from a really kind of early
rugged place we didn't speak the
language the economy was
so it's hard to get jobs it was tough
the only thing my parents knew was like
to try to get different jobs one of the
jobs that my dad got was to work at a
liquor store so he worked making 2 bucks
an hour stocking shelves in a liquor
store he didn't go to school in America
he couldn't speak English
he just had to provide for his family
we lived extremely humbly my whole life
my dad worked very hard we saved every
dollar I went on one family vacation my
entire childhood it's just the life that
I lived it's where I came from we
eventually moved to New Jersey after my
dad became the manager of that liquor
store and we made a little bit more
money and we were able to move to New
Jersey in New Jersey at the age of 6 I
started my business man with more cool
if I could wish all 6608 plus of you one
thing besides health I would wish you
self-awareness self-awareness is an
understanding of who you actually are
versus who you wish to be who your
parents wish to be who even your mentors
wish you to be it's you understanding
who you actually are at a very young age
I knew who I was I was a kid that loved
to make money I was a kid who instead of
going outside and playing wanted to sell
lemonade wanted to shovel people's snow
wanted to rake leaves wanted to wash
people's cars I wanted to do stuff to
get money that's just who I was and it
wasn't even about the money I didn't
want to buy stuff it's not like I wanted
to buy Nintendo or or football I just
loved the game of trying to build a
business the same way you might love
playing a video game or playing a sport
or reading or I don't know what you love
but what I loved what I loved was having
a business now right now in America like
being an entrepreneur having a business
is cool
when I was growing up and I was your age
it was not the only way out
of my tough situation was to go to a
great college that would help me get a
job that's what I grew up with that's
what they grew up with
there was one path in America that
everybody was talking about which is get
a great education she way out now that
worked for a lot of people and by the
way it's gonna work for plenty of you as
well I'm sure many of you in this room
wildly understand that you are quite
fortunate to be within this ecosystem
and it's going to give you opportunity
the problem is and I'm sure this I'm not
sure if this is on the agenda sis I hope
I'm not breaking anything here Ted the
problem is how old are you guys great
amazing
so at eleven and twelve at eleven and
twelve I already knew who I was at
eleven and twelve I was already going to
malls and hotels and selling baseball
cards at shows when I was eleven and
twelve I was making $1000 a weekend
selling baseball cards I just was how I
had no money my parents had no money
what did I do when it snowed I went to
people's houses rang the doorbell and
asked them to give me a dollar to five
dollars to shovel their yard and they
said yes and then I worked for 30
minutes shoveled somebody yard got five
bucks or in the summer I got lemonade I
set up I did a lemonade stand like I did
things I didn't have the internet there
was no internet for me how many of you
have a smartphone you guys have
instagrams
you guys have Twitter you have the
Internet thank you like I didn't have
that what I had was my neighborhood in
New Jersey and I could hustle and make
money and I saved and in the same way
for you guys now people care about
things like Yeezys and Supremes and
stuff of that nature when I was in your
age that was baseball cards everybody in
my class wanted cards they wanted sports
cards we want you know they wanted Greek
freak rookie cards they wanted Steph
Curry rookie cards they wanted that
right so I took the money that I made
from shoveling snow and lemonade and I
started buying cards
and I buy somebody's car for two bucks
and I felt somebody in class for four
bucks and I worked slowly and surely and
every day and then attack it's crazy to
look at you because you guys look young
as hell to me right now to look at your
faces and realize I was already doing
baseball card shows for real and making
that kind of money what's crazy is you
have a much bigger advantage over me you
do actually have Instagram you do
actually have twitch you do actually
have YouTube you have that I did it and
so I sit look at you I laughed when
people think like that you're so blessed
to sneak into this little group and that
educate that's great and that's right
and a lot of the human principles and
friendship and stuff of that nature
Ted's right I promise you something
right now and this is going off the
script again you actually having a
friendship with the kid to the left and
right of you is gonna matter a hell of a
lot more when you're older
then the greet the reading level you're
at or if you learn calculus eventually
that's just life that's how I see like
now that's for me because I was
self-aware cuz I wasn't a good student
and because that's what I was some of
you may be geniuses in science you may
fall in love with reading cuz you never
did a good that's you you need to be you
but let me tell you this the hardest
thing at this age is to be you and not
let other people's voices into your head
to factor into who you should be the
hardest thing right now is to not do
what you love because it's not cool or
nobody else likes it or grows with it
that's the hardest thing it's hard at
this age to love Heights or to love
surfing or to love reading when it's not
cool it's easy to love Supremes and
LeBron everybody loves Supremes and
LeBron I don't like LeBron that much
either but but let me say this and let
me say very clear to all of you you were
living in the greatest era to be alive
of any human being ever because you have
the power of the world
in your pocket and you don't know that
because you've never known no different
you don't know a world without an
Internet the fact that you can start an
Instagram account tomorrow tomorrow
about any subject about anything and a
year from now people are willing to pay
you 500 bucks to post the picture on
that account blows my mind and if that's
in you and you love that you need to
take that very very seriously it just is
people are gonna you're gonna hear
messages from where you live and in this
class and they're gonna come in both
different places about how fortunate you
are to here and how tough you have it
there and the reality is honestly in my
heart I just genuinely don't think those
things matter as much as everybody else
in this room does I think what matters
the most is that you have the Internet
and regardless of where you're from or
how it's supposed to play out every
teacher in my life told me I was gonna
be a loser straight up it's just a truth
and by the way I'm not mad at them it
was the 80s we didn't have to be that
politically correct back then and when
you get bad grades that's what your
teacher thinks but inside myself I
always knew that wasn't true I knew what
I liked the reason I had a very happy
school career is peer pressure never
penetrated my dome
I always knew who I was gonna be I
didn't care what was cool or not cool at
the time I just knew that I was gonna do
my thing cuz I loved it I didn't care
that selling baseball cards went from
cool in sixth grade to not cool in 10th
Grade I kept doing it cuz I loved it and
I'm gonna give you another really good
piece of advice all those voices that
tell you no can't not as good whether
that's your aunt your neighbor your
older sibling or even your parents
they're wrong life's about yes
just truth it's just unbelievable my man
it's just unbelievable how much
opportunity you guys are gonna have the
rest of your life it's just unbelievable
it makes no sense
boys that look like you in the 80s Lost
Boys let look like you in the 2020s are
gonna win because the generation I grew
up with and they grew up with the system
wasn't as good for us that grew up with
nothing the next generation because of
the Internet
the system is benefiting the people that
know what it's like to struggle or fight
it's hurting the people that are
entitled and are soft and have it easy
you guys have a blessing in your
circumstance and I don't think people
are telling you the truth about how big
the blessing is and how big the
opportunity is that's my truth that's
what I think is happening I think that
you need to start communicating to the
world about the things you're interested
in the reason most of you haven't
started an Instagram account or put out
more content is because you're worried
about what other people think or if you
don't get enough likes or all that other
crap that everybody worries about it's
called insecurity you actually worry
about what the other person sitting next
to you thinks I understand it I respect
it
99% of people live life that way but the
reality is no quicker you figure out how
not to factor that in is the quicker
you're gonna get real happy
real fast
[Music]