Motivational: What Nick Vujicic Teaches Us About True Value

Every single human being has value, and my value is not determined on how I look or what job I have.

You know, so many people put me down and say, "Nick, you look too weird," and "No one's really your friend," and "You can't do this," and "You can't do that." And for 3 months, he would chase after me and say, "Nick, go speak, go speak, go speak." And I said, "No, no, no, no, no." And finally, he twisted my arm. I said yes.

It only takes 3 seconds for me to tell you something discouraging, but then you may never forget my words.

He's an Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker. He was born with a rare disorder which left him without any arms or legs. He founded Attitude is Altitude, a secular motivational speaking company. He is Nick Vujicic, and here is my take on his top 10 rules for success. Number 2 is my personal favorite, and make sure to stick around all the way to the end for some special bonus clips.

Every single human being has value, and my value is not determined on how I look or what job I have. Or where I'm from, where I was born, how much money, all that stuff is nothing. So many teenagers, you know, tease each other for how we look, and I tell the teenagers, "Do you think that I'm cool enough to be your friend?" They're like, "Yeah, of course." I said, "But I have no arms, no legs." And they said, "Doesn't matter." I said, "Really? So it doesn't matter that I have no arms, no legs?" They said, "No, it doesn't matter." I said, then actually, if it doesn't matter, then why do we kill each other with our words? If it actually doesn't matter, why do we look ourselves in the mirror and see ugly instead of valuable? I want to ask you today, what are you looking for? If I gave you a billion dollars, would you be happy? If you gave me a billion dollars, I'd be very happy. But then if my mom dies tonight, am I happy?

No.

With all the money in the world, I'll never be happy.

Why?

Because money is something that cannot heal the soul.

You know, so many people put me down and say, "Nick, you look too weird and no one's really your friend and you can't do this and you can't do that." And I couldn't change anything. It's not like just fixing my hair one day and everything's fine. It's not like, you know, just whatever. I couldn't change my circumstance. I couldn't just one day wake up and say, "Hey, give me arms and legs. I need arms and legs." You know what I mean? Like, I went to a bodybuilder, you know, and said, "Can you make me some arms and legs?" I'm joking. Bodybuilder, you get it? Right? See, this is the thing. You know, I go up to people, "Can you give me a hand?" You know, I'm just joking. But it was so hard because people put me down and I started believing that I was not good enough. I started believing that I was a failure. I'll never ever be somebody who people would like or people would accept. And it was so hard, man. I thought to myself, you know, I can't go on the soccer field like everybody else, and I can't ride my bike, and I can't skateboard and all these sort of things.

And I started getting depressed.

I thought, what kind of purpose do I have to live? I mean, are you just here to live to die? I mean, is there not a purpose for me? Is there not a purpose in life? And I had questions and no answers, and I asked my mom and dad, "Why did this happen?" I asked doctors, "Why did this happen?" They don't know. There are some things in life that are out of your control that you can't change and you've got to live with. The choice that we have though is either to give up or keep on going. I want to ask you, what are you going to believe? Are you going to believe In yourself, you're going to believe everybody else's judgment on you. Are you going to believe people when they say that you're a failure, no one really likes you, no one really cares about you? And it's not really to say that, hey, you need someone to come up and say, hey, really, I like you, I care about you. No, it's not that, but it's the fact that people put you down.

People don't even look you in the eye.

People ask you how you are and you say fine, but you're not fine, and they'll know— they'll never know that.

Life is life.

Life is, is an interesting journey of ups and downs, but how that journey ends is up to you today. You see, when you fall down, you feel like giving up. When times get tough, it's not the end. The question is, are you going to finish strong? The definition of a disability is something that will hinder you from being able to do something. I think though the greatest disability is not having no arms and no legs. The greatest disability is your mind, the choices that you make. The question is, are you going to make the right choices? Are you going to make the choice to have your life in its right perspective? Are you going to make the choice to get up instead of give up? Are you going to make the choice to dream big? There is no greater disability that we have in our life than to make the decision to give up. Because once you give up, then there is no hope. But until you give up, there is that hope. Do you think I'm gonna love my son even though if he one day wanted to be a CEO and becomes a janitor at a college?

Yeah. You want to know why? Because a janitor changed my life. He was the first guy who said, hey, Nick, 'You're gonna be a speaker.' And I said, 'Mr.

Arnold, you're a crazy old man.' I said, 'What am I gonna speak about?' He said, 'You're gonna share your story.' I said, 'I don't have a story.' He says, 'Yes, you do.' I said, 'No, I don't.' He said, 'Nick, you know what? You're here in high school. You gotta go speak at that spiritual group.' I'm like, 'No way am I doing that. No way. I'm not speaking to those 10 people. I'm not gonna go to the Christian nerd section.' And for 3 months he would chase after me and say, "Nick, go speak, go speak, go speak." And I said, "No, no, no, no, no." And finally he twisted my arm. I said yes. And I went there and I spoke for a couple minutes and I saw a girl crying. I'm like, "Are you okay?" She said, "Ah!" I said, "What's wrong?" She says, "Nothing!" I said, "Why are you crying?" She said, "I was just touched." And I'm thinking, "Who touched her?" I tell you, life is interesting.

Life's a journey. See this phone here? Let's say that I want to go to the phone, right?

And I start from over here. Now to get to the phone, it's not like I'm going to start meditating and going, "Hum," right? And float across the air, right?

That's not going to work. It's not like I'm going to go, "Hum and woo," you know?

It's not going to work. So I have to take one step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time. You can only take one step at a time. I don't care how big your step is, it's only one step at a time. You can't do two steps in one, you understand? So it's like one step at a time, and you take steps in this direction, you take steps in that direction, sort of get lost along the way, and sometimes you fall down. Now to illustrate my point, I'm going to jump off the table, do a back twist, and land on the floor, okay? Is that cool?

Are you ready?

There's a clock there? Okay, can you move the clock for a second please?

Beautiful, beautiful.

All right, you ready? So, are you guys ready? Just let me know when you're ready. Are you ready? Okay, ready? 1, 2—

I'm joking, man.

Are you serious?

Just put the clock back there.

If I did that, I'll break my arm or something, you know what I mean? But honestly, along the way you might fall down like this, ready? [LAUGHTER] Hello! So what do you do when you fall down? Get back up. Everybody knows to get back up because if I start walking, I'm not gonna get anywhere. But I tell you, there are some times in life where you fall down and you feel like you don't have the strength to get back up.

You sort of put a mask on your face when you come to school and pretend that everything's okay when it's not, and you go home and lay in your bed when no one's looking at you, when you don't have to impress anybody, and you're yourself. And fear comes in. You know the fear that you have as soon as you walk into the doors of your house, maybe. A broken home.

Maybe you have doubt in your life. Maybe you don't know for sure what's going to be happening in the future and it scares you. Maybe about— maybe you're worried about what people think of you, what people say about you. Just that fear paralyzes you. And I just want to ask you today, do you think you have hope? Because I tell you, I'm down here. Face down and I have no arms, no legs, it should be impossible for me to get back up. I mean, you go home and tie the legs and arms of your brothers and sisters and like push them down and see how long it's going to take them to get back up. You know what I mean? You know, you can tell them that you'll see them tomorrow.

You know what I mean?

But this is the thing. It should be impossible for me to get back up.

But it's not.

You see, I will try 100 times to get up, and if I fail 100 times, if I fail and I give up, do you think that I'm ever going to get up? No.

But if I fail, I try again and again and again. For as long as I try, there's always that chance of getting up. Does that make sense? And it's not the end until you've given up.

And just the fact that you're here should persuade you that you have another chance to get back up.

There's still hope.

I'm not here today to tell you that I understand your pain.

I don't know how it feels to be abused.

I don't know how it feels to feel, quote, fat, and you've got an eating disorder. I don't know how it feels to have a broken home.

I don't know how it feels But I know how it feels to have a broken heart and I know how it feels to be alone. And I want you to know that I found my strength in Jesus Christ and you're going to find your strength in whatever you find it in. But I just want you to know that it's not the end. It matters how you're going to finish. Are you going to finish strong? And you will find that strength to get back up like this.

My passion is to encourage people, to inspire people to be all that they can be. I found my purpose. I found my strength, and I want you to find yours. Don't be afraid of failing. Every time you fall down, every time you fail, you learn something new. You're ready for the next one. You've learned how not to do something. Well, then learn from it and move on. Leave what's behind and press forward. You can only win if you don't give up. Go for it! Don't let anything hold you back. If nothing's holding me back, what's holding you back? I want to make sure that every single day that you are alive, that you make it count and you take the sweeter choices of life that God has given you. Because I want to ask you right now, if this was your last 30 seconds to breathe, how would you be remembered? Were you a giver, encourager, or were you a taker? Were you a bitter person? Did you encourage people to— in your actions in your life? Did you help them or did you discourage them? Did you take that time to say, "Hey, how you doing?" And they look to the ground and say, "Oh, you know, I'm okay." No, look at me. How are you doing? We are here for one another. This is the ministry. This is Jesus. This is the light. And I want to tell you, I'm sure that if any one of us was at a road and there was a 3-year-old kid in the middle of the street sitting down playing with rocks on the street and a bus was coming and the bus was about to kill him, you have plenty of time to get up off your seat, go save that kid. Will you save that kid? Of course you will. You don't know his name, you're going to save that kid. You don't know his religion, you're going to save that kid. You don't know his sexual orientation, you're going to save that kid. Because why? We are the light and love and the bridge to Jesus Christ. We need to understand that it's not just doing what we think we need to achieve or have? Some people think that things get easier when you get married.

Uh-uh.

Go talk to some married people. Some single people are like, "Oh, I'm not happy, but I know I'm gonna be happy when I get married." Dude, if you ain't happy single, you ain't gonna be happy married. Can you hear an amen? Yeah, you guys already know it, right? You gotta talk. So what do you want? How do you act? Who are you? Make today count. Dream big and never give up.

The world is a hurting place and the world needs hope and the world needs love. Without hope, we feel like, why are we here? Well, brokenness. Here's mine. Today, I still have no arms, no legs, but everything's changed. Everything. For me, I was looking for hope and happiness, and I couldn't see it for many years. In fact, if this side of the table represents my hope, truth encourages me to become all that I can be. But then we have lies every day coming in our mind, people who discourage us. You know the people that you have in your life who no matter how good of a day you're having, they'll bring you down, or no matter how bad of a day you're having, they'll bring you even lower. You know what I'm talking about? Think of the 3 biggest discouragers in your life. They're not your biggest discouragers. You are. You are. It only takes 3 seconds for me to tell you something discouraging, but then you may never forget my words. I've met so many 50-year-old women and 40-year-old women who still remember what their fathers told them that they wish they never heard. Words are powerful. When you hear those words and then your mind starts growing with these lies, "Nick, you're not good enough. Nick, just give up." Nick, you're never going to get a job. You won't get married. You can't even hold your wife's hand. What kind of a father are you going to be if you can't even pick up your kids when they're crying? You're alone. Sure, your parents hug you, but their hugs can't heal you. Just give up. Just give up. Just give up. Just give up. Just give up. At age 8, I thought that I should commit suicide. Why? Because I didn't have hope. I thought I didn't have hope. Today you can see that I had hope. What's the word believing in something you do not see? Faith. Words can only do so much. Hugs can do much more than words. But when hugs can't do anything, That's where faith kicks in. For me, words and hugs were not enough, but I had no faith.

There are times in life where you don't see the purpose or the good in your situation, but just because you can't see it, it doesn't mean it's not coming. Who goes to the train station, looks down the railway and says, "Ah, the train's not here, I'm leaving"? You will wait for the train.

Why?

Because the schedule says that the train is coming. So just because you can't see the hope in your situation, it doesn't mean that it's not there. You see, many people think that I have only one foot just because you can't see the other one. I've gone from a life without limbs into a life without limits. What about you?

The world is a hurting place, and the world needs hope, and the world needs love. My parents always taught me that even though we don't know why I was born this way that we have a choice, either to be angry for what we don't have or be thankful for what we do have.

I'm here in Slovenia. I am so amazed. The trains here are so, so fast. Did you see that one? See, that's what I'm saying, it's so fast.

Thank you so much for watching. I made this video because Max Gtse asked me to. So if there's a famous entrepreneur that you want me to profile next, Leave it in the comments below and I'll see what I can do. I'd also love to know which of Nick's top 10 rules had the biggest impact on you and why. Leave it in the comments and I will join in the discussion. And finally, I want to give a quick shout out to Karen Setia. Karen, thank you so much for buying a copy of my book. It means a lot to me. For those of you watching, if you want your chance at a shout out in a future video, make sure to pick up a copy of the book and email in your receipt so we can keep track. Thank you guys so much for watching. Continue to believe, or whatever your one word is, and I'll see you soon.

Hi everyone, it's Nick Vujicic here. You'll never believe what we're doing today. We're here in Dallas-Fort Worth with American Airlines. We're doing something that I always entertained in my mind to try doing, and that's to dress up in a pilot's uniform and greet the passengers as they get on the plane, courtesy of Captain Captain Glenn Thompson, what are we doing today?

Well, Nick, what we're doing is we're fulfilling Nick's dream about being an airline captain. We're on flight 2407 today from Dallas to LAX, and we're going to have you up there greeting your passengers, and you're going to do inspirational motivating talk to everybody, and you are going to be the man today.

I am subordinate to you today, sir.

Sir, you're the captain of this flight. I heard Nick had a dream to be an airline captain. I saw him speak I was speaking at Lakewood Church with Joel Osteen, and I saw him speaking and it actually brought tears to my eyes. And I said, "I can make that happen, and American Airlines is the company to do it." And we're here today to fill your dream, Nick. Fulfill your dream.

I can't believe it's happening.

That should work, right? Yeah?

I think it's good. Welcome aboard, I'm your captain today, Nick Vujicic.

We're trying out some new technology, but have a great, great flight.

I'll talk to you soon.

All right, Captain Nick. Thank you, Captain Nick. I'm actually going to be flying the plane today.

Yeah, we got some new technology we're trying out, so yeah, welcome aboard.

All right, yeah, you do that. I'm going to be a safe pilot here. Oh, where you from?

New Zealand.

New Zealand? Cool, man.

I'm Aussie. You're Aussie?

Yeah.

What's more freaky about me flying the plane, the fact that I'm Aussie or the fact that I have no arms?

You're an Aussie.

Enjoy! I heard about that new technology. Oh yeah, yeah, we have some new technology to take you to fly the plane today. Good morning. Good morning. Where are you from? Originally from Australia. Really? Yeah, but now I live in Los Angeles. And yeah, it's my first plane that I'm flying, so trying some new technology. Enjoy it! Have fun!

Thank you.

We're depending on you. Alright. Doing really well.

A little nervous.

My palms are sweaty a little bit. I'll be flying the plane today. Excellent. Thank you. Little hippie, isn't he?

Little tall.

Little tall. Little cocky on my hands.

We're trying out some new technology today.

I'll be flying the plane. I'm excited.

How are you?

Good, good.

Me too.

I'm a little, a little nervous. My knees are shaking.

So voice-activated controls?

Uh, brain waves actually. A couple speakers on my head. Hopefully I'm not going to get distracted.

I'm a little nervous. My heart is racing. I'm preparing to play today. Excellent. We just recorded the whole plane. It was really funny. Some people, they're like, uh, okay. Some people are like, uh, really? Like, how are you controlling that? Brain waves? I have no idea. It was so cool. The kids are like, what? Um, some people just find it cool. That guy was cool. When you were telling about the new technology, what did they say? Just total, is this guy really safe to fly an airplane because he doesn't know what he's talking about? They're like, are you sure? You know that— oh my God, This guy's gonna take me into the air and he's telling me this funky stuff. It's funny. I love it. It was great. What an experience. Thank you. All right, let's greet the passengers. Early morning. It was a pleasure to greet you all on board as your captain. We're very, very excited about this new technology that we have. I'll be your first captain without arms and legs flying your plane. We have some great new brainwave technology and just pray that I don't get too distracted Um, but I think you'll be okay. Just do what I do, hold on with both hands, and we'll be fine. Good morning, guys. How are we doing? Good morning. Were you nervous a little bit when I told you the news? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Like, what did you like— what did you want to do?

Like, oh my gosh!

Yeah, I was really scared. You were flying with the technology. Oh, the technology. Yeah, that's cool. The American Whitsun pulled up and they knew that you were on the helicopter.