Motivational Speech

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. Because it's not failure that holds you back. It's the fear of even trying in the first place. If you keep letting doubt win, you'll wake up one day full of regret. And regret weighs more than failure ever will. Jack Ma was rejected from 30 different jobs after college. Even KFC wouldn't hire him. 24 people applied at KFC. 23 got accepted, and Jack was the only one rejected. He applied to Harvard 10 times and kept getting rejection letters. 24 people came in for the job. 23 got it. I was the only one who didn't. I applied for Harvard. I got rejected 10 times, Jack Ma said. He heard no again and again. He felt humiliated and doubted himself, but he did not quit. In 1999, after all those rejections, Jack Ma started a little e-commerce site from his apartment with his friends. That site was Alibaba. Today, Alibaba is one of the world's largest companies, and Jack Ma is one of the richest entrepreneurs on the planet. He turned every no into motivation. He felt the same crushing doubt that you feel. The difference is he never let it stop him. When I was 19, I faced the hardest decision of my life. My startup was struggling. I was making only $300 a month. At the same time, I had a prestigious 6-figure job offer from a big bank on the table. Everyone around me said, "Take the safe money, Evan." I was terrified of making the wrong choice. If I stayed with my startup, maybe I'd fail and be broke. If I took the job, I'd abandon the dream I'd worked so hard for. I agonized for days, second-guessing myself and hardly sleeping. But in the end, under all that pressure, I turned down the 6-figure job and bet on myself. I decided I'd rather fail following my passion than live with the pain of regret. Now, it wasn't easy. After I said no to that job, I went back to earning $300 a month and eating beans. I was scared every single day that I'd made a huge mistake, but I poured everything into my little business. My partners and I hustled hard, calling, coding, whatever it took. We slowly grew to 300+ customers in 30 countries. None of it would have happened if I'd given in to fear at 19. I almost quit on my dream because it seemed impossible. Imagine if I'd taken the easy path. I wouldn't be here speaking with you now. Now you might be thinking, okay, that's great for Jack Ma, for you, Evan, but I'm not like that. I'm not a genius. I'm not a billionaire. I still feel doubt every day. Well, you know what? So do I. I'm no different from you. Jack Ma was a normal guy who kept getting rejected. I was just a shy kid who felt like an imposter. The only reasons our stories turned out different is that we kept going when others wouldn't. Every successful entrepreneur that you admire has felt like you do right now. They've been scared. They failed, but they didn't stop. In fact, research shows that the most important trait for success isn't genius or luck. It's grit, the ability to persevere and keep going when it's hard. If you hold on to that, you can do this. And if you still have that little voice in your head saying, but what if I fail? Flip it on its head. What if you don't? What if this works? The only real failure is to quit. If you can try and fail, you can learn and grow. But if you never try, you've guaranteed your failure from the start. And I don't want that for you. You don't want that for you. So let's shut that voice up and get to work on your dream. Let's turn that doubt into your determination. So how do you actually conquer that fear and build that inner self-confidence? How do you move from feeling stuck to taking action towards your goals? Let's break it down. If you've been here before, drop a hashtag #believe in the comments below so I can feature you here in a future video. And if you're new, welcome to Believe Nation, the only channel that helps you believe in yourself daily. One video at a time. Believe. Turn fear into yes. Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, "Do one thing every day that scares you." Why? Because courage is like a muscle. You strengthen it by using it, by facing your fears instead of running from them. Fear is not a signal to stop. Fear is often a sign that what you're doing matters to you. When you feel fear about a big opportunity, it means you're pushing your limits, and that's a good thing. Here's the truth. Everyone, even the greatest entrepreneurs and performers, feel fear. The difference is they act anyway. In fact, you can literally turn fear into something useful. Studies from Harvard Business School found that when people reframe their anxiety as excitement, their performance soars. In one experiment, people who said, "I'm excited," before a high-pressure task performed significantly better. They sang more accurately on stage and gave more confident speeches than those who tried to calm down. Physically, fear and excitement are almost identical. You have a racing heart, you have sweaty palms, your adrenaline is pumping. The only difference is the label that you give it in your head. So the next time your heart is pounding before a big pitch or phone call, don't tell yourself to calm down. Instead, take a deep breath and say, "I'm excited for this." It might feel funny, but it works. You'll channel that energy into focus and alertness instead of panic. Most importantly, Take action in spite of fear. Action is the antidote to fear. You don't wait for confidence to magically appear. Confidence comes from taking action. As one coach put it, confidence doesn't come before action. It's built through it. One small win, one bold move, one step at a time. Every time you act despite fear, you teach your brain that fear isn't the boss of you. You gain a little more power. So do this today. Do one thing that scares you. Make the call you've been afraid to make. Publish the post you've been sitting on for weeks. Apply for that opportunity you feel unqualified for. Even if your voice shakes, even if your hands are trembling, do it anyway. Each bold step will prove to you that you're stronger than your fear. And over time, those little acts of courage add up. They build a shield of experience around you. What used to scare you will start to feel easy, and new bigger challenges will become your fuel. You'll start to crave that feeling of nerves because 'cause you know it means that you are growing. When fear whispers, "Stop, you might fail," you will smile back and whisper, "Watch me." Embrace failure as your teacher. We need to redefine failure. Failure is not the opposite of success. It's part of success. Every great success story is packed with failures, with setbacks, and with mistakes. The winners are the ones who keep going anyway. Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb, famously said, Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. How tragic is that? Quitting early might mean you were just inches from the finish line without knowing it. I don't want you to be the person that gives up right before your big breakthrough. Instead, I want you to see failure for what it really is. It's feedback, it's data, it's a lesson. When something doesn't work, it's telling you not this way, try something different. The most successful entrepreneurs actually seek out this kind of feedback by experimenting and by failing fast so they can learn faster. Sir James Dyson spent 5 years creating 5,127 versions of a vacuum that failed before he finally built one that worked. Think about that— 5,127 failures. He said, you never learn from success, but you do learn from failure. Each prototype that failed showed him what not to do until he eventually got it right. And that overnight billion-dollar success was paid for with thousands of failed attempts. There's a word for that kind of persistence: grit. Psychologist Angela Duckworth studied everyone from West Point cadets to spelling bee championships to entrepreneurs, and she found one predictor of success that mattered more than IQ, than talent, than any other factor: grit. The ability to persevere and pursue long-term goals despite setbacks. In other words, fall 7 times and stand up 8. The entrepreneurs who succeed are resilient. They take the hits, they take the lessons, and they get back in the game. They understand that failure is a teacher, not a death sentence. So when you inevitably stumble, and you will, it's going to happen because you are human and you are trying to do something new and something hard. Don't you dare think that that means that you're not cut out for this. Don't tell yourself, I failed, so I guess I should quit. Instead, flip it and you ask, what can I learn from this? How can I come back stronger? Maybe a sales strategy fell flat. Okay. Now you know that one approach that your customers, they don't respond to. Awesome. So you adjust and you try something else. Maybe your first business idea didn't catch on. Okay, cool, fine. You know, you gain valuable experience in the process. Your next idea will be better because of it. Failure only hurts if you don't extract that lesson. Develop a mindset where you actually expect challenges and mistakes and then welcome them. It's like, um, scientists running experiments. If an experiment fails, it's not a catastrophe, everything's over. It's useful information for the next experiment. Approach your business the same way. Each setback that you have is an opportunity to learn, to iterate, and improve. You can keep a failure log, you can keep a journal if you want, write down each mistake, what you learned, and then what you're going to change going forward. You'll start to realize that every failure actually made you a little bit smarter. It made you a little bit tougher. It made you a lot more prepared for success. But above all, don't quit. Hear Edison's words: you might be closer than you think. That new product or that new strategy that isn't working yet might just need one more tweak, one more week, or one more call to the right person. Winners never quit, and quitters never win. If you stay in the game, you still have a chance to reach your goal. But if you give up, the game is over and your dream dies. I know it's hard. Failure hurts. There's no question about it. I failed tons. It's painful when your idea flops or you face public embarrassment, but that pain is temporary. Endure the pain of failure now so you can enjoy the pride of success later. In the end, you won't remember the sting of all those rejections. You'll remember that you didn't give up, and that will become part of your identity as a champion. Also, if you want to take real action after this video, I made a free worksheet just for you. It covers the top lessons from today, gives you space to write your biggest takeaways, and helps you build a simple action plan. It's 100% free. Just click the link in the description to go grab it. Let's start building some real momentum in your business and your life. I'll see you there. Build your self-belief. Your belief in yourself is the foundation for everything. If you don't believe in your vision, who else will? The most important voice in your life is the one right here inside your head, the voice that says I can, or the voice that says I can't. Henry Ford said it best, whether you think you can or you think you can't, you are right. If that voice is telling you that you can't do something, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. So we need to reprogram your self-talk and your identity right now. Start by deciding who are you, not who you have been, but who you want to be. Define it clearly. I am an entrepreneur who builds amazing products that change lives, or I am a disciplined creator who shows up every day and puts in the work. It might not be true yet in terms of external results, but this is about crafting your identity in here. Psychologists have found that when you start to identify as the kind of person that you aspire to be, your actions begin to align with that identity. So you essentially become what you believe about yourself. This is why I always stress the believe message. Because if you say, I am capable, I will figure things out, you are far more likely to do so than if you say, I'm not good enough, this is never going to happen. So guard that self-talk. Catch yourself when you think or you say, I'm not blank enough. Replace it with something more empowering. It's not about being arrogant. It's about giving yourself permission. Give yourself permission to succeed by believing that you deserve it. One practical way to build self-belief is through small wins. So don't underestimate the power of Tiny victories. Research shows that repeated small victories significantly strengthen your self-belief, empowering you to persist even when you encounter setbacks. Every time you set a small goal and you achieve it, even something as simple as waking up on time or making one sales call or coding one feature, you are collecting evidence that you are a capable person. Those little wins are like little deposits in your confidence bank account, and over time they compound into bigger confidence. As author James Clear advises, decide the type of person you want to be. Prove it to yourself with small wins. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, then you start now by winning some small battles. Finish a prototype by Friday. Get your first customer. Earn your first dollar of revenue. It doesn't matter that it's $1. That dollar is huge because it's proof that you can create value on your own. Celebrate those small wins. Write them down. You'll start to rewire your brain from, I don't know if I can, to look at all the things that I did. Another key to believing in yourself is to surround yourself with proof and inspiration. So by that, I mean study people who have done what you want to do. Find role models, learn from their stories. It's so much easier to believe that you can do something when you see a person who came from a similar place do it first. Psychological studies confirm that seeing a relatable role model succeed can significantly boost your own confidence. When I felt lost in my business at 19, I started reading about how Bill Gates built Microsoft. He was in software, I was in software. I learned how he partnered with other companies to expand because I figured, hey, if it worked for him, maybe it could work for me too. I then soaked up the stories of other entrepreneurs who struggled and eventually thrived. And that's why now I have this YouTube channel where I'm making content every day. It proved to me that my situation wasn't impossible. If they could win, so could I. So can you. You can do the same. Whatever your field is, read biographies, watch interviews, look at the videos I make tons on the channel. Follow the journeys of those who came before you. Let their successes and their failures Teach you strategies and let their persistence inspire you to keep going. And maybe most importantly, speak to yourself with kindness and conviction. So many of us are nicer to our friends than we are to ourselves. We'd encourage a friend, but we tear ourselves down. So flip that. Become your own greatest coach. Don't, don't tear down your friends. Become your own greatest coach, right? Encourage yourself out loud if you have to. It might feel weird, but it works. Look in the mirror and remind yourself, I've got this. I will figure this out. I'm the kind of person who finds a way. This isn't positive thinking. It's about building identity. When I walk into a room, I remind myself, great things come to me. Over time, your brain starts to accept, hey, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a finisher, I am resilient, and it will align your behaviors to match that identity. You'll find that doubting voice getting quieter and the believing voice getting louder. And when that happens, you become unstoppable. Surround yourself with inspiration. You can't do it alone. Environment is everything. If you hang around 5 confident, motivated people, you'll likely become the 6th. If you hang around 5 pessimists who only complain, you'll likely become the 6th, right? There's that popular saying, Jim Rohn, you're the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. So take a look at who you're talking to, who you're texting with, who you're listening to every day, what you're watching. Are they lifting you up or pulling you down? Are they believers or are they doubters? And this might be hard, but sometimes you have to limit the time with those who constantly inject negativity into your life, even if they're old friends or family members. You're on a mission to do something special, and you need to protect your mindset like it's gold, because it is. Be surrounded by the things that make you believe in yourself more. I love that advice. It means curate your entire environment to support your ambition. Find people who encourage you instead of throwing water on your ideas. Join a mastermind group of entrepreneurs who are also pushing themselves. Their energy will energize you. Seek out mentors who've done what you want to do. Their guidance and their belief in you will boost your own belief. You are borrowing somebody else's belief. Fill your mind with inspirational content. Watch motivational videos like we have on this channel. Listen to podcasts that get you fired up. This is exactly why I make these videos for you, to give you that boost daily. Read books about success, perseverance, leadership. When you constantly feed your brain with stories of what's possible. The word impossible disappears from your vocabulary. Now, on the flip side, turn down the volume on the negativity. That might mean cutting back on news or social media that only makes you feel worse. It definitely means distancing yourself from chronic naysayers. You know the type, those who are always predicting your doom and telling you that your idea will never work out. You don't need that poison. It only amplifies the doubts that you already have. Instead, find people who say, hmm, That's an interesting idea. How can we make it work? Or, I believe in you. I'm here to help if I can. Those people are out there. They might be other content creators. They might be community members. They might be local business groups, online forums of like-minded hustlers. Connect with them. Build your own dream team of positive influences. Remember, entrepreneurship is lonely, especially if your immediate circle doesn't understand your drive. So create a new circle. Surround yourself with believers. When you have a rough day, that circle will remind you why you started. When you hit a win, they'll celebrate with you and actually be happy with you and push you for the next one. Together, you normalize success. In a supportive environment, dreaming big and working hard, it's not weird. It's just what we do. And that peer pressure, the good kind, will keep you accountable and motivated. If you're the only one in your group, that's trying to improve, it's easy to slack off. But if everyone in your group is crushing their goals, you're going to push yourself to keep pace. That's the power of environment. So let's be clear. You deserve to be around people who make you feel capable and empowered. Seek them out. And also important, be the person for others. Encourage your friends with startups, celebrate their wins, share your knowledge, create the culture of success around you. When you elevate others up, you elevate yourself too. So together, a group of determined people becomes more than the sum of its parts. It becomes a movement that you're creating. Now take a moment and appreciate that you're already doing that. You're here right now, you're watching this video, you're feeding content into your mind and pushing you forward. That is not an accident. It's a choice that you made today to be in a positive environment for growth, and that alone is something to be proud of because It means that you're not letting yourself stay stuck in a negative loop. So keep making those choices every day. Surround yourself with things that light your fire. Put quotes up on your wall, put reminders on your phone, watch daily videos, whatever keeps your belief high. Build your own Believe Nation around you, and you'll be amazed at how far you can go. Keep moving forward. Every time you push through doubt, and take action, you're rewriting your story, your own narrative in your head. You're proving to yourself who you really are. You're a fighter, you're a doer, you're an entrepreneur. So keep moving forward. I am proud of you today for being here and investing in yourself. And congratulations, you're one video closer to who you're meant to be. Believe. If you want an amazing short motivational poem, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there. Inside of you, there's a fire, a whisper that says Reach higher. A feeling deep within your chest that won't let you settle for less. Your dreams might scare you. That's okay.