In this Believe Nation episode, host Evan Carmichael introduces a motivational message delivered by Tyler Perry, followed by his own commentary. Perry recounts his early career struggles—saving $12,000 to rent a playhouse, repeatedly staging shows from 1992 to 1998 that attracted only a handful of audience members—but emphasizes that he never stopped. He stresses the importance of narrowing focus to a single idea, likening effort to watering one seed rather than many, and describes an inner feeling that drives persistence when external validation is absent. Carmichael expands on this theme, arguing that entrepreneurs must ignore logical, rational objections from themselves and others, invest disproportionate time, energy, and resources into their vision, and become “crazy in love” with their idea. He highlights resourcefulness—taking multiple jobs, leveraging limited assets—to keep moving toward success. The episode concludes with a call‑to‑action: viewers are invited to share moments when they felt like quitting in the comments, fostering community support and accountability. Throughout, both speakers use personal anecdotes, vivid metaphors, and an upbeat, espresso‑fueled tone to inspire perseverance.
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is don't stop. Over to you, Tyler Perry. I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.
My only idea, my only focus was to do my one play, and I knew if I could get that to work, everything else would come to pass. There's so many people who go in so many directions. They— this week they're doing this, and next week they're doing that, and next week they're doing this, and next week they're gonna be in real estate, and the next week they're gonna open a salon. And those, those kind of people are all over the place, and I usually try to get them to focus. Focus on one thing, one area. Put all of your energy into watering one area. If you spread the water across many, many seeds, you don't have as much water for one seed. So focus on one thing, make it your priority, and stick with it no matter what. No matter how many people told me no, no matter how many people lied to me, no matter how many times I put the show up and nobody came. I remember when I did my very first show, I worked my butt off and saved $12,000, tax returns from H&R Block money. I saved it, worked hard, saved it myself, rented the 14th Street Playhouse. Put that show up, thought that, uh, 1,200 people would come over a weekend, and 30 showed up, and I knew every one of them. But I didn't stop. That didn't deter me. That was in 1992. Uh, '93, same thing happened. '94, '95, '96, '97, up until 1998, same devastation. Nobody showing up in the audience. I was doing one show a year, working with different promoters, trying to get the show up, and nobody showed up. But I didn't stop. And my, my, my— what I say to you now, looking at me now here, I am a human being. There's no difference between my humanness and your humanness. The only thing is, if you're trying to get there, you cannot stop believing in any way, no matter what anybody says, no matter what anybody tells you. You have to know it beyond knowing it. And it is a feeling. When something is for you, this is how I knew it was for me. When something is for you, there's a feeling that is deep down inside of you that will not allow you to let it go. You have— it will keep you going when you can't even keep yourself going. That's why the mantra here at the Tyler Perry Studios is a place where even dreams believe. Because there comes a time in your life where you've worked and you've stressed and you tried to get there and you couldn't on your own, but you have a dream, and that dream has to take on the belief for you because you can't do it by yourself. So what I would tell you is this: don't stop. Narrow your focus to one idea, one, and make it work. That will give birth to all the others. All you can do is plant the seed and water it.
A lot of people stop too soon. A lot of people quit too early. They do it because it's the logical thing to do, it's the rational thing to do, it's the smart thing to do because you have this voice inside of your head that says, "You can't do this. Why you keep going?" Right? You have friends around you, the little man, whether you're your own little man or the people around you are, who tell you all the reasons why something's not gonna work out. And then you stop and you quit and you give up and you go do the thing that everybody else does. That's not an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is a person that doesn't stop, that doesn't quit, that doesn't give in. Because this is the thing that you have to wrap your head around. You have to put a disproportionate amount of time, energy, love, resources into your idea before it will ever pay you back. You have to put more energy and time into something that is logical, that is reasonable, that makes sense, because that's the only way you create something from nothing. And it's hard to continue to put time and energy and resources into something that's not having a payoff, because your logical brain and the friends around you tell you, "Why are you doing this? When are you gonna stop? Are you crazy?" And you have to be a little bit crazy. You have to be crazy in love with the idea that you're doing to the point where It defies logic. It defies reason. Because you feel it here. And the real entrepreneurs are the people who will find ways to make it happen. You may be limited in your resources, but you're not limited in your resourcefulness. You find a different way to make it happen. Even if that means taking on part-time jobs, 2 or 3 other jobs to pay the bills, so that you can keep going. Because eventually you know that it's gonna work out. And if you find that thing, that makes you come alive, then you have to hold on to it. You have to keep going because it may never come again. This could be your one shot, and you don't want to live the rest of your life in regret wondering what could have happened if you actually had the courage to not stop. So don't quit and believe. So the question of the day today is, I want to know when you feel like stopping. When you feel like quitting, share it in the comments below, and hopefully by sharing it, you'll release a little bit of it, and you can also get the support and wisdom and ideas from the other fellow Believe Nation community. So leave it in the comments below. I'm gonna join the discussion. Thank you so much for watching. Have an amazing day. Continue to believe, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. I wake up every morning with espresso, keep me going.
