Don’t Quit Right Before It Starts Working

Have you ever felt discouraged because the thing you're working on feels like it's not working? I know I have. In fact, I remember a time when I was so discouraged that I was literally. This is not. I'm not even exaggerating a little. I was literally sitting on my back patio crying on my wife's shoulder because what I was working on didn't feel like it was working. Well, today, I want to encourage you, the thing you're working on is working. It may not be making you money yet. It may not be getting you thousands of video views. It may not be getting you thousands of followers on your social media. It may not be generating hundreds of leads or thousands of leads. But I promise you it's working. And I know it's working because all work works. I was talking to one of my favorite authors a few weeks ago, or not last week. It was last week. I was talking, talking to one of my favorite authors, talking to him on the phone, and we were talking about.

His journey and his path that he's on. And he asked me a question. He said, I want to ask you a logistical question, practical question. That's the word he used. So I want to ask you a practical question. He said, do you think I would be better off focusing on finding the right who to 10x my life right now, or should I focus more on. On going deeper in the understanding of my craft? And I thought, that's a really, really good question. And I said, well, I would always, I would, I would always lean more in favor of going deeper on my craft.

Because all work works.

And more important.

To me about the work that I do than having it work for me is having it work on me. And the work that the work does on me, to me, is more valuable than the work that the work does for me. In fact, it's the work that the work does on me that makes the work that it does for me so valuable. And one of the things I share with people all the time is all work works. It either works for me or it works on me, but I left one out. Or it works with me or it works against me, but all work works. And so here's what I've got to do. I've got to be willing, and this is something most people are unwilling to do. I've got to be willing to do the work, commence the work, commence on the work, and I got to be willing to continue in the work while the work is not working for me until it works on me long enough for me to become the person for whom it can work. That is the challenge of entrepreneurship. That is the challenge of personal growth. Letting the thing I'm working on work on me until I become the person for whom it can work. So I'm never worried about.

Like, something I'm working on, not making money or not making sales. I don't ever worry about that. And, well, it's easy for you not to worry about it. You make all this money. That's not why I don't worry about it. I don't worry about it because I know it's working on me. See, most people don't realize there are people who get started in entrepreneurship and what they'll do is they'll go into entrepreneurship and they'll try a business, try a business for two weeks or two months or two years, and they're like, that didn't work. No, it worked. You were just so busy trying to make it work for you, you were resisting the work it was doing on you.

But when I got started, I wasn't good at business and I wasn't good at sales, and I wasn't good at leadership. I wasn't good at any of that stuff. In fact, I didn't even know what half of it meant. I had no idea. I thought selling was talking people into buying stuff. I had no idea what selling really was. And I was so bad at selling.

I was so bad at selling that when I got started selling insurance and investments in 1985, in October of 1985, I did not make my first sale until April of 1987. And I did a lot of presentations. People kept saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You know what those no's did for me? They made me better. How could no's make you better if they weren't buying from you? How can you say the no's made you better? The no's made me.

All the things that wouldn't work to make a sale. So you're not willing to work on something long enough to find out what won't work in the thing you're working on. And after I figured out, after I made my first sale, it was literally a couple months. I was the top salesperson in our office month after month after month after month after month. Then I started training other people. Why? People say, well, Marion, what happened? Was it a switch that flipped? Yeah, it was a switch that flipped. I finally. It took me 18 months to run out of all the ways that wouldn't work. The only thing I had left were ways that Would. And see, some of you, it took me 18 months. Some of y', all, it's gonna take you 18 years. You know why? Cause as soon as somebody says no, you gotta go recuperate from your wound. Like you go to the intensive, you check into the psychological intensive care warrant ward because somebody told you no.

It'S gonna take you 18 years to go through as many nos as I went through and ate through in 18 months.

I was an entrepreneur for 14 years before I had my first six figure year. But I didn't care. I wasn't working for the money. One of the most valuable things I've ever learned in my life as an entrepreneur is how to stop working for money. What does that even mean, how to stop working for money? See, when I had a job, I was so addicted to a paycheck that work had to turn into relatively immediate pay or I wasn't doing it anymore.

Well.

But when I started my business, guess what happened? Work didn't turn into immediate pay. You know what work turned into? It turned into an exercise and delayed gratification and made me a better person than I could have ever been had I had success out of the gate. And I understood better how to succeed and how to help people who didn't know how to succeed succeed, because I realized when I was broke as a joke and ready to choke. And I'm listening to all these people who are really, really successful, and back in the 80s, they're making $500,000 a year when that was a boatload of money. And they're saying stuff and they're putting sentences together with words. And I know the definition of the words, and I knew what the sentences sounded like they meant, but I had no earthly idea what they meant. You know why? Because between people who succeed and people who struggle, there's a communication gap.

And they used to say, well, you got to identify your leaders. Well, that's Dr. Ron, and that's Stacy, and that's Tanasia, and that's Francesco. I recognize. I identified that's not what he meant.

What he meant was you have to identify the people who have leadership characteristics, and then you have to work with those people to develop those characteristics even greater. See, I didn't understand that identify your leaders didn't mean just know. You got to know their names. I knew their names.

I just didn't know they were leaders. They were just like me. They were kneaders.

And I'm telling you, all work works some of the greatest times in my life. Hear me, y'. All Some of the greatest times in my life have been some of the most difficult times in my life. They weren't the most fun times. They weren't the most exciting times. They weren't the most enjoyable times. They were some of the greatest times in my life. Because God was getting me ready for what he already had ready for me. He was preparing me for what he already had prepared for me. And see, here's what happens. If you don't go through the valley to get to the vision. You ain't strong enough to stay there when you get there.

And guess what? Then you get there. Not only you're not strong enough to stay there. You can't help anybody else get there. There's so many people who think they know why they're successful. And they think that because they gapped. What? I mean, they had a quantum leap gap in where they were financially or in their business. And they learned something. They read a book or they went to a seminar. They joined some coaching program and they had an experience unlike anything they've ever had. They thought, okay, I'm done now, baby. That's first base. You don't get points when you put your foot on first base.

You gotta run the bases. I get it. You had a little success. No, Marion, you don't understand. I made millions of dollars. I get it. You had a little success.

But I had $100,000 a day. Congratulations. You had a little success and you think you did it. You think you had that success because you were good. And you actually had that success because you stumbled upon a principle that's good and you applied it. But you don't even understand all the foundational principles that made that framework principle work.

All work works. Here's what King Solomon said. He might have knew a thing or two about a thing or 2. Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 23. In all labor there is profit. What does that mean? All work works. Never be deceived again into thinking that the thing you're working on isn't working.

It's either working for you or it's working on you. Here's what most people do. Most people desire to work for them so much that when it works on them too long, they quit. And guess what you have to do. Guess what happens when you quit. You lose all of the momentum that you had gathered when you were working on it. You lose that moment, well, I'm going to quit. I'm going to go do something else. But what about those. What about those months? What about those weeks? What about those Years. What about those decades of momentum that you got and you're three feet from gold and you quit?

I don't know how many of y' all have ever read Acres of Diamonds, right? It's about a guy who.

He had a farm, but he didn't want to be a farmer. He wanted to be a miner. And he sold his farm for a meager pittance. And then he went off to go look for diamonds. And the person he sold his farm to found the biggest diamond mine that country had ever seen in his backyard in one of his fields. And he was saying, we go around the world looking for acres of diamonds. This guy literally had acres of diamonds in his backyard that he sold for almost nothing because he didn't let it work on him until he became the person for whom it could work. Don't let that be your story.

Be more consumed with the growth in the work, the growth that's in you, than you are the gain that comes to you. If you will focus on the growth, the gain will take care of itself. When? Eventually.

Okay.

One of the most dangerous things anybody can ever do, especially successful people, one of the things that causes people to fall flat on their face is they start to believe their own press. They start to believe about themselves what other people who don't know them believe about them.

Did I say that too fast?

Right. People start telling you how awesome you are, and you forget that if you don't use deodorant, you stink.

You forget, you start thinking, yeah, I'm pretty awesome. I know, because 17 people told me I was. Okay. But see, now you're losing track of the areas of your life in which you're not awesome and you ain't working on them. And if you ain't growing, you're deteriorating. All work works. In all labor, there is profit. But the talk of the lip tendeth only to penury. What does that mean? Don't talk about it. Walk about it.

Are y' all picking up what I'm putting down? Don't speak about it. Be about it. In all labor, there's profit. So here's my question. Since all work works, how does work work? Is that a good question? Well, number one, it works over time. I think this is the number one reason why, like Pete, we forget that God established first and foremost before he ever put us here. God established the platform in Genesis, chapter one versus one. Y' all remember what the platform is, don't you? Time, space and matter. In the beginning, that's time. God created the heavens. That's Space and the earth, that's matter. But God gave us the parameters. The first time he ever talked to Him. Like you would do well, we would all do well to study God's first right. The first thing God tells us about Himself. Not that he's love, not that he is love, but that's not the first thing he tells us. Not that he's holy, not that he's right. The first thing he tells about himself is that he's creative. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Why did he do that? Because he's creative. Therefore, it is his nature to create. God's creativity flows out of His. I mean, his creativeness flows out of his creativity. Now, why is he telling us the first thing is that he's creative? Because the first thing he tells us about us is that he made us in his image and he formed us in his likeness. Which means he created us to create stuff. And he made us to make stuff. Are y' all trapped? These are the parameters. So the first time God ever spoke to man.

He didn't say. The first time God ever spoke to man, he didn't say, be still and know that I am God. Those are great words, but that's not the first thing he said. What's the first thing God said to man? Be fruitful, be multiply. That's a do, do, multiply, do replenish, do subdue, and then have dominion. Be, do, do, do, have.

This is how work works. It takes time. Now, here's what's really fascinating. When you look at the parameters and you look at the platform, each one of those parameters matches a different part of the platform. B, that one matches time. Because the purpose of time is being. The reason time exists is to give us time to become what we are not yet. So time exists for the purpose of becoming.

Now, if that's all we get, y', all.

That'S enough. Because here's what happens. What you do pours out of who you are.

So being is the key. God is most concerned with our being. But because we're not God, we are not most concerned with our being. We are most concerned with our having.

One in green, two in blue. I take a red one. Give me two of those orange ones, too. Like, we want to have more stuff. We just want to have more of everything that we love. More rest, more great relationships, more money, more cars, more food. Yeah, I'll have seconds on the dessert, too. We just want more. We want to have. But God set it up so that we can't have until we do something that gives us the right that we deserve to have it.

But then he set it up that our ability to do is limited.

So now we bump our head on our inability and stub our toe on our insufficiency. And so what do we have to do? We have to yield to the thing that God cares about most. And that is we have to finally yield to becoming more so we can do more. And then finally we can have more. And you ain't going to circumvent it. I don't care if you live to be 972, you are not going to circumvent the very first parameters that God established for man. You ain't going to do it.

So what happens when we yield to it? So when we understand that being takes time, all work works, but it works over time. And see, the problem is we want to rush the washing machine so we can get to the having. I don't care nothing about rinsing these clothes.

They already been washing for three minutes. Let me just go to spin and then throw them in the dryer. No, those clothes are not clean.

You got this process started, but you didn't let it go through all the cycles. And what you don't understand, and what sometimes I don't understand, is we are in the middle of cycles that are going to make us better as we go through them. But if we circumvent them.

We are going to be worse for the wear. And then we got to eventually go back to the beginning and start over.

That's how work works, ain't it?

So work works over time. That's why the scripture tells us in 1st Thessalonians, 2nd Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 13, it says, but brethren, but ye brethren, be not weary in well doing. That's why it tells us in Galatians 6, 9, and let us not be weary in well doing. Why, for in due season.

We shall reap if we faint not. Which, you know what that means. We don't get to reap in due season if we do faint. So go ahead, quit. Go ahead, just like, quit your business, go start a new one. That'll make it better. But the only problem is you're taking the same joke into that business you took into this one.

And he hasn't become more, and she hasn't become more. And so they gonna do. They're only gonna be able to do in that business the same stuff they were able to do in this one.

I love the crowd commentary.

Y' all are funny. Okay, so.

We have to understand that work works over time. Give the work that you are doing time to work on. You keep doing iterations before the fruit shows up. The farmer goes and sows the seed in his field. Guess what he doesn't get tomorrow? A harvest. He has to water it, he has to cultivate it, he has to weed it, he has to pray for rain. And he has to do this for months before he sees anything.

We live in such a microwave. Drive through instant, just add hot water. Society that when we don't have success at something right away, we think it's not worth it.

Here's how God designed things. They're supposed to stay hard until you get better.

That's how God designed life. But it's hard. Everything's hard until you learn how to do it. They're supposed to stay hard until you get better. The reason they're hard, the reason thing you're working on is so difficult, is so that you will get better while you figure it out.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Okay.

How does work work? Work works over time, but work works.

One thing you don't want. You don't want to. You do not want to ascend before you're ready.

Before you are ready to stay there when you get there. Can I tell you something else you don't want? You think you want it, but you don't want it. You don't want to sin before he's ready.

Here's what it says. Ecclesiastes 3:11. He hath made everything beautiful in his time. And see, here's the interesting thing about it. God does not show us his calendar.

He's like, well, let me send you this Google invite. No, you ain't getting a Google invite from God. No, you just gotta work and trust that it's on his calendar and it's gonna work when it's supposed to and not before.

See, you spend so much time cursing your curses and lamenting your lamentations and crying over your tears that you don't allow yourself to keep working through it to become the person who can do the thing eventually.

I'm so thankful that the very first book that God had me read that wasn't a comic book or a karate book, was the Bible. I'm so thankful.

That the young man who led me to Christ said, now you need to start reading the Bible. When I was 16 and he was 17.

I was so thankful and I was horrified. I was like, read the Bible. I don't read.

Read like a Bible. You ain't talking about that book that stick as a phone book, are you? Two columns. Little bitty. Little bitty words and no pictures.

Yep. Start reading it. Well, can't play with God. That's what. That's what I'm supposed to do. And it started jumping off the page. Well, if you do this, you can expect this. If you do this, you can expect that if you do this. And I started putting it to the test. And sure enough, it worked, just like he said it would. And I said, what you talking about, Willis?

All work works, but it works in his time. See, here's. Here's a big part of our problem.

Far too many believers serve the God of their imagination.

You've conjured up this idea, this religious idea of God with the help of so many religious leaders that you think he is who you think he is instead of realizing that he is who he says he is.

And they're not the same thing. And.

God is sovereign, but our God, he is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. See, here's the problem. You want to negotiate with God.

Like you're an FBI negotiator. Well, God, if you give me this, I'll. If you give me this, I'll give you that.

What you think this is?

God is not interested in negotiating with you, me or anybody else. God is sovereign, and his will, he will do. And guess what that means. That means you're gonna go through some stuff. You're gonna go through some stuff that's painful. You're gonna do some stuff that's hard. You're gonna go through some stuff that's gonna make you lay on the floor and cry like a baby.

Cry your eyes out, realizing how helpless you are without God.

It's gonna happen. Like how? You know, just keep on living. Just keep on living. It's gonna happen.

And guess what? If you can't say, with Job, though he slay me, yet will I trust him? You don't understand who you're dealing with if you can't say, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You don't understand who you do like. You wanna serve the God who gives you everything you want. Genie and the lamp, God. That ain't who we dealing with. This ain't that all? Work works in his time. That's how it works. How does it work? It works overtime. It works in his time. But guess what else it does. It works.

At the intersection of timing. What does that mean? The intersection of Timing. You know how I said work works on you?

The work works on you to give you proficiencies in areas in which you are imperficient, unproficient, improficient. You are not proficient. Okay.

Here'S what King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 9, 11. By the way, the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes is life under the sun. The message, the moral of the book of Ecclesiastes is, if you live your life for life under heaven or life under the sun, you've wasted your life and tortured yourself. That's the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes. He's telling you how things work on earth, but he's telling you if you only live for this life, you wasted your life and tortured yourself. That's the theme of the book of Ecclesiastes, in case you want to understand it better. Because if you don't, it's like, one minute he's talking about, you know, for a man to enjoy the fruit of his labors and to have riches, blah, blah, blah. It's the gift of God. Next minute it's saying, what profit does it have of man to be wise over being a fool? Well, if you live your life for life under the sun, whether you're wise or a fool, you've wasted your life and tortured yourself. Okay? Anyway, Ecclesiastes, chapter 9, verse 11. I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift. Did you hear what he just said? The race is. It's not always the fastest people who win the race. The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. Goliath was stronger than David, but guess what? It did not matter.

You don't have to be the strongest and you don't have to be the fastest. You don't have to be the best.

Neither. Yet bread to the wise.

Like. Clearly, Warren Buffett is wise when it comes to investing, right? But I've heard him say some downright crazy stuff. I mean, to me, stuff as dumb as a box of rocks because it goes against what the word of God says. But here's what we learned in Scripture. Great men are not always wise anyway. Nor yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding. By the way, that's what I'm. Some people. Some people are really successful in business because they were in the right place at the right time with the right idea and they took action on it. Not because they're so good at business.

Don't ever get to the place. You think you are so good at what you do, that that's the reason. Because when you do that, then you stop learning. And when you stop learning, you start burning. The whole thing will go up in flames before you know it. Can I get a witness? Where are my people? Where are my people?

So I returned and saw in the sun that raced not to the swift, nor battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill. But time and chance happened to them all. Time and chance is not talking about luck. Because if you read the verse before that, it says, whatsoever thy hand findeth, do, do it with thy might.

Right? So what is it talking about when it says time and chance happen to them all? It's talking about the intersection. Everybody say intersection. The intersection between preparedness and opportunity.

So that's the timing that we're working towards. We're working towards the timing. So I want to be good enough. I want to be good enough at being the person who can do the thing when the opportunity presents itself. And it's a fit, it's a match. I don't have to go back and retool. So I don't even know when the opportunity is coming because it's going to come in his time. It's going to come over time, but it's going to come at the right time. And as Abraham Lincoln said.

So eloquently, I will prepare myself and perhaps my time will come. Myron golden says, your time's going to come whether you prepare yourself or not.

If you're prepared, when your time comes, it will reveal you. If you're not prepared, it will expose you. So the question for you is this. Are you going to prepare so your life can be an expose? Are you going to go through life unprepared? I mean, are you going to prepare so your life can be a grand reveal, or are you going to go through life unprepared so your life can be an expose? Because the reality is those are your two options.

So timing happens in his time, happens over time. It happens. All work works at the intersection of timing. So that's how work works. But when work works, this is what you can expect. When work works, you can expect to remember or realize like the work that you've done in the past will assist you. When you come to that intersection of preparedness and opportunity, you will remember something you worked on in the past that will give you an answer for the thing you're working on in the present.

Do you remember when David said.

See, we read the Bible too fast. David said. The men that were around him said. David said, what is the man going to get that kills this giant?

They said, well, you gonna get. The king's gonna enrich you with great riches. So you're gonna become wealthy. Your father's house will be free in Israel, which means you'll have no more taxes. Like, sign me up for that one right now. I don't even need the other two. Just give me that one right, and then you're gonna get to marry the king's daughter.

So David said, turned to the next guy and said, what's the man gonna get to kill this giant? And it says, they answered him after the former matter. And guess what he did again? He turned to somebody else, said, what's going to happen to the man? Why? Because David understood the importance of upfront contracts. He didn't go kill the giant and then negotiate the contract. He negotiated the contract first because at the mouth of two or three witnesses. Let everything be established.

David didn't just kill Goliath just because he was a giant slayer. He killed Goliath because he wanted what was on the other side of that negotiation.

But Saul called him up and said, hey, take my armor. That's not good enough for me.

I'm scared to put it on. But since you're gonna go fight it, you might as well. I got the best armor. Take my armor. David said, I cannot go with these. I have not yet proven them.

Saul said, but you don't understand. You're a boy. He was a man of war. Since he was a boy. He said, but you understand.

I was out watching my father's sheep, and a lion came, took one of my daddy's sheep. I said, oh, no, you didn't. And I chased that lion down and I grabbed the lion by his beard and smote him and slew him.

David is a much, much more seasoned warrior than I think I will ever be. I went to that lion and said, you want some salt and pepper, bro? Go some lamb chops, right, David? No, no, no. That's my daddy. You ain't getting that.

I'm gonna go chase a lion for. I'm gonna chase a lion for a lion. But he understood. See, he understood that he was work. Nobody was watching him kill that lion. Nobody was watching him kill that bear. Same thing happened with a bear. He did the same thing. Nobody's watching him kill any of them. He was doing his work when no one was watching and the work was working. On him.

And it reminded him. Here's how work works. It reminded him when he saw the giant, he said, oh, this uncircumcised Philistine is gonna be like the lion. Gonna be like the bear.

See, when you work and let the work work on you, it will let you know and make you realize and remind you of things you can do that you forgot you could do until the time came. Hallelujah.

All work works. How does work work? Well, work works. I feel like I'm saying the same thing. Work works because it can make you remember or realize. But work works because it makes you reliable. What does it say in 1st Thessalonians, chapter 4, verse 11 and 12? It says, and that you study to be quiet and to do your own business. Working with your hands. Working with your hands. Working with your hands. Working, working, working. Working with your hands as we commanded you. Why? That you may walk honestly toward them that are without. With that paying your bills on time.

And that you may have lack of nothing. A part of the reason that you work is so you can be more reliable. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint.

And guess what? There's not a business in the world that will accept an excuse in lieu of a payment. If you don't believe me, send your mortgage company the reasons why you can't pay your mortgage this month. Do that too many times in a row and let me know where you're going to be living.

So work works because when work works, it makes you.

It makes you remember and realize. It makes you reliable. But work, when it works, it can also make you rich. This is how work works. Proverbs 10:4 says, he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. I didn't put that in the Bible. It was in my Bible when I got up this morning.

It can make you rich. Now, here's the question I've asked. God doesn't care whether his people are rich. Okay, first of all, clearly you have not studied the Bible in light of itself because God's design for his people is wealth. That does not. I'm not saying God wants all of his people to be rich. That's not what I said. God's design for his people in general is wealth and abundance.

Okay, let me ask you a question. Does God want us to be drunken, lazy gluttons? Yes or no? No, he doesn't. Does he want us to be Diligent, wise workers. Yes. So if he wants us to be diligent, wise workers and riches are a side effect of wisdom. And riches are a side effect of diligence. And riches are a side effect of work. If he doesn't want us to have the output, why would he tell us to do the input? If God wants all of his people to be broke as a joke and ready to choke, why doesn't he just tell us? Because here's what it says. The drunkard and the glutton shall lie down together and drowsiness will clothe the man with rags. Why doesn't he tell us to just go get drunk, eat as much as we want to and lay around all day long if he wants us to be poor?

It doesn't even make logical, practical sense. But the Bible says, the poor you shall have with you always. That is not a commandment. It's an observation.

It can make you rich. Now, why does work work? Work works because it's godlike. Can I tell you something? Money is a really pathetic reason to do work.

It's pretty pathetic. But poor people, just like poor people, think the primary purpose of money is to buy stuff. Poor people think that the primary purpose of work is to get money.

But that's not the primary purpose of work. I'm going to tell you the primary purpose for work. The primary purpose of work is to exercise your godlikeness.

What does that mean? God worked, so we work. Why? We're made in his image. In fact, this is so important to God that it tells us in Genesis 1:1 that he created the heaven and earth. And then verses 2 through 31, it shows us his process so that we can model his process. What do you mean, model his process? What does that even mean? Well, you see, in Genesis 1:1, God's work, His creative. His creative work began with intention.

Are y' all tracking? What do you mean, it began with intention? In the beginning, God created heaven and the earth. That was his intention. But guess what? Disruption follows intention. And the earth was without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep. So difficulty is the first thing that shows up when you go to do something good. It doesn't matter if you're working out. It doesn't matter if you're gonna eat right. It doesn't matter if you're gonna start a new business. The first thing that shows up when you decide to do something good is something hard. Why? It's the nature of life. God, in his sovereignty, knew and ordained that man would sin.

And he knew that disruption was gonna follow intention and entropy was gonna follow energy. And so.

The Earth was. Here's what's. This is so good. And the earth was. The word was there. Go look it up in the strong words. Don't take my word for it. The word was. There is not the word. Like used to be. The word became. And the Earth became without form and void and darkness upon the face of the deep. So something happened that caused the Earth to become without form and void and darkness. So what was it? It was devoid. I mean, it was deformed. Without form, it was deformed. The disruption shows up by tearing something up, making something deformed. But it was devoid. Empty. It starts stealing stuff and emptying stuff out. And then there was darkness. Isn't it interesting how darkness is the last phase of disruption? The darkest hour is just before the dawn. Things feel the worst right before they get better. It's a principle. Like, I didn't put it. Like, I didn't create the principle. I just observed the principle. Isn't it fascinating, though, that the very first thing that happens after the disruption follows the intention is it says, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. So when we're. When I'm working on something and I've decided to do something new and something difficult shows up, the first thing I need to do is I need to find a source of inspiration to give me breath, to give me energy, to give me life, to keep working on the thing that got disrupted. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light. Oh. So not just starts with intention, then goes to disruption, then it goes to inspiration. Then I need illumination. What's illumination? Illumination is light. And light shows up oftentimes in our lives in the form of knowledge. Because when I know something that I didn't know before, I can see. Are y' all tracking? So illumination follows the disruption or follows the inspiration that follows the disruption, follows our intention. You say, Myron, what are you saying? I'm saying to work is godlike. But if I'm going to do work that's godlike, I have to know how God worked and follow his pattern. And then we have. Then we have distinction. I don't have the passage in front of me. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good. That's recognition. So God recognized the work that he was working on was working. So I've got to. Like, when I do all of these steps. It makes my work more productive. Is what I'm saying making sense.

And so, and the evening and the morning were the first day that segmentation to completion. God didn't save any of day one's work for day two. He got all day one's work done on day one. He prioritized and saved day two for day two's work. But what we do is we stack so much stuff on our plate, we can't get done with day one's work. On day six, we still working on day one. Day six.

We have a clinically obese to do list.

But why work works? It works because it's godlike. Work works because energy is powerful enough to overcome entropy. That should encourage all of us for the rest of our lives. What's energy? Well, energy is.

Life force. Energy is God. The ultimate energy is God. But what is energy? Energy is. Energy is the power and the might to make something happen.

What is entropy? Entropy is anything left to itself tends to move more and more towards disorder. So if we neglect anything long enough, it becomes worth less over time. It'll become worth less over time until eventually it becomes worth less. Worthless, right? Even the government even says about real estate. They'll give you depreciation on real estate. You buy a property, if you don't do anything to it for 27 years, they say it'll depreciate to nothing. So they'll give you seven years of that depreciation in the first year when you buy the property if it's for business. What? Why? Because even the government is ridiculous as they can be. Sometimes they even recognize that entropy is real. Why do we take a bath? Because if we don't, eventually we ain't gonna smell very good. We have to use energy to overcome entropy in every area of our lives. I have to move my body to overcome weakness.

I have to practice sound financial principles to overcome poverty.

Because energy can overcome entropy. And it doesn't matter where you start from. And I know that. Here's what's really interesting to me. I get it. America's not at slogans and it's not fair. And yes, racism has negatively impacted the lives of millions of people. That's real, right? That's real. My parents didn't have the opportunities that I've had. Right? I didn't have the opportunities my children will have. And there are still people who believe in racism. Like racism. It's fascinating that most people don't realize that racism is not a construct of race, but race is a construct of racism.

Racism. Like racism. Racism is why we think race exists. There's only one race, the human race.

To think that people are different races because of the color of their skin or the country they were born in is. It's ludicrous. It's hideous.

And I get it. Opportunities have not always been equal for everybody. And anybody who denies that is either delusional or they're lying. That's just reality. Right? Okay, cool. However, if your life is not working the way that it could work and should work, it's not because of anything going on outside of you. It's not because of oppression.

I had polio as an infant. I got a brace on my leg because I was born in a segregated hospital after the polio vaccine was discovered. So I know the effect. Nobody can look at me and say, you just don't understand. No, no, I understand better than you understand.

Way better than you understand. It affects my life every day. Every day when I get ready to go to bed at night and I get ready to take my shower and stuff, like I take my brace off and then I walk on crutches. I'm not complaining. I don't mind. I could be a person who didn't have any arms and wouldn't be able to walk on crutches. I'm grateful. I'm not complaining. I'm just saying America's not its slogans. But if you try to blame America or the white man or a man, no, I'm a woman in a man's world, I'm a black man in a white man's world, I'm a white man in a man's world. You have some kind. I'm an uneducated man in an educated world. No, here's the reality. You just didn't care enough to get better.

Now.

It'S easy to have shoulds for other people. It's easy for black folks to know what white folks should do. And it's easy for white folks to know what black folks should do.

But stop shoulding other people should yourself. In fact, don't even shoot yourself. Just go do it. Just go do it. Here's the reality. We think we get a pass. Frederick Douglass was born a slave, bought his freedom three times. Now I've had to overcome some stuff, but I didn't have to overcome that. I'm without excuse. But white folk don't go around, tell them, don't go pointing at black folks saying, well, look at him. He don't do that. You have not earned the right.

Black folks let's stop thinking that everybody who's white that doesn't understand our plight is a racist.

Is that too tough? Say, Marin, I thought you were talking about work. I am, but I already know some of the reasons some people don't work. They ain't working on themselves because they think something outside of them is what's stopping them. Not realizing that everything that's stopping you is inside of you. You. Because every. There are two types of factors in the world. There are contributing factors and determining factors. Here's how we can tell the difference. Contributing factors are all outside of us. Determining factors are all inside of us. And determining factors are strong enough to overcome any contributing factor.

Okay.

Energy can overcome entropy. And because intention supersedes neglect.

Here'S what we can all do. We can all intend to read, study and meditate on the Bible. Or we can all intend to neglect it.

Hmm. We can all intend like. And when I say intend, I don't mean just intend. I mean intend so that we do it right. Set an intention to read the books that have the lessons that we've not yet learned. Or we can neglect to do it.

We can all intend like. We can have an intention and enough intensity to improve our people skills, or we can neglect them.

But if you go through life with neglect and you take neglect as a sidekick and a business partner.

Stop blaming other people for the fact your life is not.

You do not get a pass. Nobody gets a pass. You know why? Because we all get the same 24 hours every single solitary day. Now, are we going to waste it away in neglect? Are we going to work it away with intention?

I hope that this encourages you to not quit so close to the finish line. Say, how close is close, Myron? I don't know. When I got started, I was only 14 years away from my first six figure year. After seven years, I was only seven years away.

After 13 years, I was only one year away. Guess what? All of those years felt pretty much the same. Like I was on my way.

And the journey itself was the pay.

The money, the success. That's just the bonus. That's easy for you to say. Well, not as easy as you might think.

But I am here to let you know, like.

But I'm going to quit. And do what?

Maybe your problem is you have too many options.

All work works. Become a willing worker.

It'll change your life. Nobody's good at everything, but everybody's good at something. Read the books, study the lessons. Become the person who can do the thing and let your work work on you until it works for you, no matter how long it takes. Like I said, 14 years before I had my first six figure year, 19 years before I had my first seven figure year. I think it was 19. Let me see. Yeah, 19 years. 19 or 20 years. If I had my first seven figure year. Guess what? The 14 years was going to go by anyway. So was the 19 or the 20.

The time's going to go by anyway. So why not become the person who can do the thing and eventually you will have the stuff. All work works. Let it work on you. Be more excited about the work it's doing on you than you are the work it's doing for you. And that's how you keep from quitting when it feels like it's not working. Hope this blesses you. Stay blessed by the best. We'll see you in the next video.