The video is a motivational compilation in which host SPEAKER A greets the audience (“Believe Nation”) and introduces the theme “follow your dreams.” The segment features short, impromptu speeches from Chris Tucker, Les Brown, Barack Obama, Dave Grohl, and creator Evan Carmichael. Each speaker shares personal anecdotes or quotable advice about dreaming, confronting fear, and persisting through hardship. The narrative emphasizes that achieving big goals requires stepping outside comfort zones, confronting self‑doubt, and using a compelling dream as fuel. The host repeatedly stresses that discomfort, financial strain, and criticism are inevitable, but the dream provides courage. The video includes a call‑to‑action asking viewers to comment on their biggest obstacles and how their dreams helped them overcome those challenges, plus a shout‑out to a supporter. The tone is energetic, conversational, and uplifting, with moments of humor (e.g., “Uncle Shrimp”) and raw personal storytelling (e.g., Les Brown’s office‑sleeping anecdote). The overall purpose is to inspire entrepreneurs and anyone with aspirations to keep pursuing their dreams despite adversity.
Chapters
Good morning, Believe Nation. Today's message is follow your dreams. Over to you, Chris Tucker. I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going.
I wake up every morning.
All that stuff I was just dreaming about, like this is the possibilities that can happen if I move to California or if, you know, because I was working really hard here and a lot of comedians come down from LA and say, man, you need to go to California because you're pretty good. I was getting a lot of good advice and a lot of people who was really rooting for me. Yeah, just went and did it. But I had a dream and that dream gave me confidence to keep going. The power of believing and dreaming is real because that's all I did was dream and believe and that these things could happen and it made me feel good. And that was my, that's true wealth. If you believe and you're doing something, you have a goal, you have a dream to get somewhere, It makes you feel good.
This is something I think is really, really, really important for especially entrepreneurs to understand. In order for you to go out and accomplish your dreams, you're going to have to do some things that will scare you. You're going to have to push outside your comfort zone. You're going to be put in pressure situations that you've never been in before, and you're going to want to shrink back. You're going to want to go down. You're going to want to retreat inside and say no, to say I'm not ready, I'm not worthy, I can't do that, that's not me, I didn't go to school for that, I don't know how to do that, I've been told all my life that I— I'm not able, I'm not capable, I don't have the education, on and on and on and on. You'll find every logical reason in the world why you can't go out and do that big thing. You're going to come across multiple forks in the road along your journey, multiple milestones, and you're going to want to shrink down. And the thing that gives you the courage to keep going, to push through, to do that scary thing, is your dream. The thing that allows you to push through all that craziness, all that pain, awkwardness, uncomfortableness, is the big picture, is what you want to go out and accomplish. And that's why it's so important that you have a dream that really means something to you. I look at what I've done with my YouTube channel and helping entrepreneurs, and I used to self-sabotage a lot. I used to get speaking opportunities and give myself a reason that I can't go out and do that. And I would say, "Ah, you know, my schedule's really busy." Come up with some excuse where really I was just too afraid to do it. I was too afraid to be on stage and have thousands of people in the audience and have it on national television and have important people in the room. I was too afraid. And I would secretly hope that people would cancel on me constantly. And it's the dream of what I want to do. It's the mission of helping a billion entrepreneurs. It allows me to do the things that I'm scared to do. It gives me the courage to push through the pain and the fear and the uncomfortableness to try. If you want to do something big, if you want to have an impact, if you want to touch a lot of people's lives, you can't do it being the person that you are right now. You're going to have to grow. You're going to have to build muscles that you didn't know existed before. You're going to have to test yourself. It's going to happen. There will be so many times along your journey that you will be tested, and you will need to summon the courage inside of yourself to push through. And it comes from having that big, bold dream that you want to go out and make a big, important difference in the world. And so the next time you're faced with one of those uncomfortable challenges, when you're being called to the task, I hope you'll say yes. I hope you'll follow your dream and not cow down. So the question of the day today is, what was the hardest thing that you've had to do to stay on path with your dream? What's the biggest challenge, the biggest obstacle you've had to face so far, and how have your dreams helped you conquer it? I'm curious to find out, and I think it could also serve as motivation for other people watching. Please leave it down in the comments below. I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also want to give a quick shout out to Tamara Campbell from Tam Cam Photo. Thank you so much for picking up 10 copies of my book. It really, really, really means a lot to me and I appreciate it. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love, and I'll see you again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso. I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going. So as a special bonus for you guys to keep the energy high on following your dreams, we're going to share a couple extra clips that I hope you'll enjoy.
It's one of my favorite quotes. I came up with it with my uncle. I had an uncle named Uncle Shrimp.
And—
Shrimp?
Yeah, Uncle Shrimp. He was a short kind of guy, you know, lost his hair at like the age 20, so he's bald-headed. And he was just so charismatic. And he told me this after I injured myself. And I realized that I wasn't going to be a football player. And he told me, you know, to never lose sight of your dreams. But he also told me this as who I was. He knew that now was going to be a turning point. Either I could have turned to the streets and followed in the footsteps of my father, or I could dream the impossible dream.
[Speaker:MICHELLE OBAMA] Right.
[Speaker:EVAN CARMICHAEL] And he also wanted me to know this as an African American man because, you know, that fear of having a dream and that fear of, "Oh, I can't dream that. I'll never be able to do that." It was important to know that, yes, you can have that dream, but you have to know honestly what it's gonna take for you to achieve that dream. And so then I came up with the quote, and it goes for everybody, all genders, all races. Don't be afraid to close your eyes and dream, but then you have to open your eyes and see the reality of what it's going to take for you to achieve that dream. And a lot of people, they kind of see whether it's musicians or athletes or entertainers or even just successful people, but they don't understand the thing that it takes for them to get to the point that they've gotten. And, you know, that's why it's a very important quote to me, and I think it, you know, it has inspired people, and it inspires me every day.
Was playing the guitar your real dream?
I'll tell you a funny dream, kind of, because when I was about 11 years old, I was in, I think, 7th grade. From grade 1 to 6, you're in this one school, and then you go to this new school. And I went to this new school, and there was this girl, this girl named Sandy.
She was fucking so beautiful.
Big blue eyes and this perfect heart-shaped face, and she was so— I was instantly in love with this chick. So the first day, I asked her, like, "Wanna go steady with me?" She's like, "Okay." And so every day, I'd meet her at her locker, and we'd, like, kiss at the locker, and then she'd get on her bus, and I'd get on my bus, and we'd go home and talk on the phone all night. And after 7 days, she said, "You know, I'm new here, and..." I just don't wanna get like tied down. We're 11 years old. I don't wanna get tied into a relationship. It absolutely broke my heart. I was heartbroken. And that night I had a dream that I was in an arena full of people and I was playing guitar and it's like this packed arena and they're all going, "Yeah!" And I'm playing. And I look down and she's staring at me and she's crying like, "Woo!" That's true.
And that—
revenge.
Yeah, my rock and roll revenge.
We all know—
you could have been my girlfriend.
We all have this dream, but we just don't end up in the Foo Fighters.
That's the problem.
Dreams come true.
It's hard changing your life. It was hard when just over 3 years ago in the Penobscot Building in Detroit, Michigan, where I was operating my business and I fell on some hard times and I was sleeping in my office. It was hard coming into the lobby and the security said, "Excuse me, Mr. Brown, can we see you for a moment?" And I said, "Yes," and I walked up to the counter and he gave me an envelope. And he said, "Would you mind reading it here?" And I opened the envelope, and the envelope was from management that said, "This is an office tower. It's not a hotel. Please do not sleep in your office." And I said, "Excuse me, sir." I said, "I just work long hours in creating my business. I'm an entrepreneur, and right now things are bad for me." but they're not gonna be this way always. And I just asked for the opportunity to continue to operate like I'm doing. I'm not trying to make this my home. And it was hard coming through the lobby, and sometimes they would laugh, "There's a guy talking about becoming successful, and look at him, he's bathing in the bathroom upstairs on the 21st floor. He sleeps on the floor." him and two other dreamers up there. Look at them. It was hard, ladies and gentlemen, coming to speak to people, and I was facing financial difficulties in my own life. I was behind on my bills and my dreams, and I'm saying to them, "You can live your dream." It was hard, ladies and gentlemen. It was very difficult to pick myself up each day believing that I could do it. There were times that I doubted myself. I said, "God, why is this happening to me? I'm just trying to take care of my children and my mother. I'm not trying to steal or rob from anybody. Why did this have to happen to me?" It was very hard. And here's what I want to say to you. For those of you that have experienced some hardships, don't give up on your dream. No one could have convinced me by holding on By continuing to push forward, by continuing to run toward my dream that one day I would have my own talk show. It's a long shot, ladies and gentlemen, from Liberty City, an abandoned building on a floor, never knowing my mother or father. It's a long shot being here with you today in this dome in Atlanta. It's a long shot. No college training, labeled educable mentally retarded, but I kept running toward my dream. Don't stop. Don't stop. Don't stop running toward your dream.
