Cam Newton, Ray Lewis, Les Brown, Sylvester Stallone, and Eric Thomas splice sports footage with spoken reflections on identity, purpose, and persistence. They argue success demands internal drive and the refusal to quit when depleted, using past struggles as fuel for future wins.
Chapters
Newton asked for the snap, he's got it. Halt Smith coming on a rush, and here's a throw intercepted. Picked off at the 9-yard line. There is the 2013 season. It was a great season, a lot of big steps taken, but it ends in disappointment.
When I didn't have my scholarship no more, I was empty. It was like I did a whole 180. And instead of being that guy that people was like, "Man, be like Cam." It was, "Man, don't be like Cam." Blew away the best opportunity I had in my life. And to lose that and all, I lost my whole identity. Everything that I valued in my life got taken away.
There's something about your life that's gotta change. Something that's deficient. It's no longer suitable for your course of action. You've hit the wall someplace. You've looked in the mirror too many times and haven't smiled. You want to change the situation, move from where you are. The journey is not easy. Before you start that journey mentally, you must fuel yourself with the right reasons, the right fuel to sustain the entire journey. Everyone's hot off the start, but after a month or so into it, or a couple weeks into it, with the wear and tear and the grind starts to hit you, you start losing focus on the horizon, do you not? You get caught away in the daily hiccups, the ups and downs, and the wear and tear, and you focus on the speed bumps, the daily activities, losing sight of the purpose. When you lose sight of the purpose, you give too much value of what the pain is today. We always invest today, sacrifice today for tomorrow's betterment. If we don't know what that betterment is, the want factor, what we're really doing it for, we can't win this war, guys. In order to be successful, it's the want factor. You have a capable body to do whatever you want. You have a sound mental. Once you find out you want, regardless of what it is, and you combine the mind and the body together. That's when life gets exciting, guys. Stories of inspiration where the person overcomes the odds. When you see the good, man, pump the brakes, put your hands together, man. Give credit where it's due. Remember the name of the person that overcame the odds, because that same person you're going to use in your own battle one day when you hit rock bottom and you feel like the wall's the monkeys on your back and Murphy's hitting you down every single step. You're going to use that inspiration to take that one more step forward that makes all the difference.
It's me. I've got to make it happen. It's not over until I win.
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done. Now, if you know what you're worth, now go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him or her or anybody. Cowards do that, and that ain't you. You're better than that.
You've grown stronger here than I ever could have imagined. The only way to know how strong is to keep testing the limits.
Champions keep going when they don't have anything left in their tank. That's the difference between the greats. That's, that's what separates them. When they don't have no more, when it's over, over, when they're tired, when they're frustrated, when they're ready to give up, when they spent their last dime. That's when they get started. It's when you have nothing left. It's when you depleted all your money, when all your energy gone, when you have nothing left. That's when it's showtime.
What if we have that kind of attitude? The car's repossessed, nobody believes in you, you've lost again and again and again, the lights are cut off, but you're still looking at your dream, reviewing it every day, and say to yourself, it's not over until I win.
When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, when you ain't got nothing left in your tank, you got to think about the people in your life that you doing this for. And then if you can think about them, you can go one more mile, you can go one more day at work. The truth is, you got to find something within.
You've got to believe in yourself.
Get something from it.
You're already in pain.
You go after it and you give it all you have. If you lose, at least you tried, man. I failed is 10 times more of a man than someone said what if, because what if never went to the arena.
