Sometimes your life won't turn out how you plan it.
It turns out how you work for it.
How you wake up and you chase that dream every single morning.
It's what you give your time and your energy to
that takes you to the next level.
You see...
I witnessed the death of my mother.
The death of my grandfather.
The incarceration of my father.
And still I stood.
Because when I walked in those projects, I realized one thing
I realized this, that my dream never lived down there.
I realized that everything I ever dreamed of
lives in the sky and I must jump every single day.
To go reclaim what's mine.
And that's royalty.
You see many of us believe that just because our father was a drug dealer
and our uncle was a drug dealer
that that is our life and that is our forever.
But I want you to know something
that is only a lesson to show us to be something more
than what they thought we can be.
You see when a family tree is dying.
All you have to do is take care of the roots.
And if the roots is too dead to bring the tree back alive
you plant another one.
Young king and queen
I'm sorry, but we live in a generation today, where you gonna have to grow up
right now.
You're gonna have to be phenomenal in everything you do
because everyone in the world is chasing great.
And what do you do when a man is going a hundred miles per hour
and you haven't even started the engine yet?
The best gifts come from the bottom
They say Will why you wanna be great? I wanna be great for me.
I wanna be great so them project babies can look in the mirror
and say 'I am too'.
I am special.
That flower grew in the same streets that I grew up in
that rose, rose up through that concrete, and so can I.
It's the mentality.
Roses can grow in the projects if you take care of the soil.
It don't matter how big the house is, baby
it's the love inside of it.
Take care of your community.
Take care of your brothers and sisters.
Hold cowards accountable for what they put in your neighborhoods
Put your crown back on your head
Let the world know your name.
King and Queen.
This means you gotta work.
This means you have to grind when they sleep.
You gotta grind when they won't.
You’ve got to grind, even when you don't feel like it.
And this in all areas in life, school, sports
your religion
Consistency
is the tunnel to greatness.
Consistency will turn an ordinary man into something
he never thought he can be.
I want you to look in the mirror young kings and queens today
if you're grown up with nothing and you're growing up with- without
I want you to look in the mirror and I want you to say these words
I want you to say that "I am Royalty"
I am more than my generational curses.
I am more than my drug addict father.
I am more than my incarcerated uncle.
No, I'm not better than them.
But I want to do better for them.
I wanna give our last name a legacy that will be remembered forever.
That when people speak of it, people will smile automatically.
See, this type of greatness I'm talking about, I'm talking about
When I die, they can't even fit another body in the church
because of what I gave the world.
You see, you see all these men standing on top of the world
you think they're special, you think they're everything
but you don't know what they did to get there. Can you quote it
Are you willing to sell your soul for material things?
Because right now we're losing the battle to the evil
and I'm telling you young kings, I need you to come back.
I need you, I need you to come back to
the kings and queens that I know you are as great citizens.
You know young kings that walk in the room with his pants pulled up
and young queens that cover her body and only show her face
because she knows she's beautiful
and she loves the skin she's in.
You see, I'm wanna bring us back to that.
I'm wanna eliminate the N-I-G-G-A mindset and bring the King mindset
because that's what we were born of
Royalty.
You see kings and queens, life is like one man standing on one single street
And the creator says "Stay in your lane."
If you stay in this lane you will continue to ride
but if you pay attention to all the other cars you will crash.
What do I mean?
I mean don't pay attention to the next man.
Pay attention to the best man.
See, the best man is whoever you believe he is because the mind has power.
Your mouth and your words have power.
I became a speaker by walking into a school after having suicidal thoughts
ready to blow my brains out.
I wanted to give some children something that they can take forever.
Something that can last forever.
Something that can push them to the next level
and then I wanted to die.
But God did a funny thing when I walked out that school
in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Five minutes walking down that street I get a phone call and they say
"Mr. Hollis. How much do you charge to speak?"
And that was the day my career started.
Since then, I have done nothing but speak.
Since then, I've paid every bill with nothing
but what I'm make from what I speak.
Since then, I've had a meal every single night.
Since then, I've met beautiful, kind people that helped me go to the next level.
Since then, since then, you get my point.
God is amazing.
See, I thought it was about time
that somebody came into the world and they gave people true words.
You know, not just talk to the people with the big wallets and the big purses
I'm talking about the people that have nothing.
I'm talking about the people who can barely get cough syrup and barely feed their babies.
I'm talking about the mothers left alone.
I'm talking about the fathers just lost that never had a father
and had a baby and still don't know how to be a father
and they're called a deadbeat every single day.
See, the thing about this world, they believe
that you can just vanish somebody into something.
But I want you to know something
when God put his hands on it, you cannot vanish anything.
Because that's the same man that turned dirt
into men.
See, we tend to forget these things
we tend to forget how extraordinary our Father is.
See, you got powers and we like Him, you gotta awaken that power.
You gotta bring it to life and you gotta show the world that this is real.
People always ask me the question
they say "Will, when have you found what you love to do?"
I say "You find what you love to do when it becomes easy to you
and amazing to the world."
See, I hope you listening to me today because I'm giving you my heart.
I'm giving you my soul, I'm giving you what they call "Real Motivation"
See no, I will never come to you kings and queens with lions, tigers and bears
because I'm not a lion, tiger or bear. I was born in the jungle though
And we made it up.
Because you know what they say about real lions
We take over the pack and we lead it.
See, that's the thing. We got a lot of lions out there in those neighborhoods.
Drug dealers, killers. Whatever you want to call yourself
and I want you to know King, you're special.
You're misguided but you're special.
I know you grew up without a father and
your mother left you and nobody ever loved you and
nobody ever told you, you can be anything and
you believed it.
But I wanna tell you this that you are phenomenal.
You are a King, you come from royal blood.
You stand on the tip top of pyramids, you are royalty, King.
You are a light, you are a star.
The question is, do you believe you are?